Sad State of Affairs
For the second spring in a row, the Iowa City-Cedar Rapids community has found itself as the setting for a particularly heinous, despicable murder that was perpetrated by someone who, in all truthfulness, should have had their liberty stripped from them far earlier. In 2005 Roger Bentley brought to an end the life of 10-year old Jetseta Gage in an unspeakable fashion that was only aggravated by the despicable situation that brought the hateful predator into the young child’s life. Now today, in 2006, we’ve learned that Kyle Marin brutally and barbarically murdered two young women in a Cedar Rapids apartment and left them to be found by one of the slain’s fathers.
Both men had marked criminal histories, Bentley as a child molester and Marin as a violent batterer. In 1994 Bentley was convicted of lascivious acts with a child and Marin as recently as November 2004 was convicted of willful injury after having been convicted of assault with a dangerous weapon just the year prior. Despite having their monstrous criminal tendencies certified in fact by juries of their peers, these men were restored of their liberties and allowed to walk the streets without restriction.
The more recent of these two cases is the one, however, that lays bare the more perilous flaws in our criminal justice system. Twice in less than two years Kyle Marin was arrested for and convicted of felonious assault and was twice given the creative alternatives of probation, suspended jail sentences, and residential treatment. Had Marin been ordered to serve the five-year prison term he earned himself following his 2004 conviction, he would to this day still be in prison and Katrina Hill and Molly Edmondson would not have found their end at the tip of a knife and hammer.
These two horrendous cases show how far our society has swung away from protecting public safety and towards coddling dangerous criminals. Criminal codes were not created to nor, I hope, ever become intended to reform the criminals who break them but to safeguard society. And as we have seen lately, the alternatives we have created to that most often result in tragedy.
This entry was posted on Saturday, April 29th, 2006 at 3:25 PM and filed under General. Follow comments here with the RSS 2.0 feed. Post a comment or leave a trackback.
I was searching Kyle Marin on Google today to see when his trial is set for. and I believe it is October 22nd. But I ran across your writing. Its very hard to believe that Molly and Kat are gone. Its hard to believe that I hung out with all 3 of them, and Kyle for the majority. It’s hard to believe that Kyle is still here, when really he should be gone and the girls should be with us. Our system will not allow Kyle to be hurt in anyway. They will not put him in the chair to hurt him the way he hurt the girls; the families of the victims don’t get their hits on this ugly man. Something in Iowa needs to be done about this. About the fact that in 15 years we might see Kyle Marin on the streets again because the prisons are over flowing and are willing to let people walk cuz they don’t have the room. I hope somebody someday sees the problem with this and changes it.
May we never forget
Posted on 19-Sep-07 at 11:40 am | PermalinkMolly Edmondson and Katrina *Kat* Hill
I was just searching and came across your writing. Molly was in my 4-h club and grew up together, she was younger than I but she was a sweet girl.
Posted on 12-Oct-07 at 1:58 pm | PermalinkI read that today was Kyle’s pre-trial conference, its a sad thing that he even can have a trial.
May the prayers from all over the US reach the girls families during this time!!!
[…] In April 2006 I wrote briefly about a Cedar Rapids murder in which Kyle Marin brutally slaughtered Katrina Hill and Molly Edmondson. […]
Posted on 20-Nov-07 at 2:02 pm | PermalinkWell, he was convicted and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. It still seems like too little too late, though.
Kyle Marin, in all likelihood, is a psychopath. He was given a slap on the wrist for what actually amounted to attempted murder. Even the assault charge, which was all he was convicted of in that case, should have netted five years but resulted (as you point out) in probation. But if the system had dealt honestly with him what he did was much more serious than assault. He beat a man with a brick, saying “this is the last thing you’ll ever see.” That was attempted murder and his punishment was basically nothing. The criminal justice system and all of the people who made an effort to keep Kyle from paying for his crimes are also to blame for Molly and Katrina’s murders. May their Karma find them.
Posted on 29-Jan-08 at 12:53 pm | Permalink