News

Actions

Court papers reveal details of 9-year-old’s stabbing death

Posted at 4:39 PM, Aug 08, 2014
and last updated 2014-08-08 17:25:31-04

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — On Friday afternoon, FOX 17 NEWS obtained court documents related to the fatal stabbing of 9-year-old Michael Connor Verkerke at a playground near Kentwood’s Pinebrook Village mobile home park at about 6 p.m. last Monday.

The police reports, witness interviews and autopsy contained the following details:

  • The child’s body contained 4 stab wounds plus a laceration to his arm.
  • 12-year-old suspect Jamarion Lawhorn told AMR ambulance crews that he had been planning something like this for a year.
  • Lawhorn told police he did this because he wanted to and thought if he was arrested he would be put in the electric chair or given a lethal injection because he saw this on TV.
  • Lawhorn showed no remorse for the stabbing.
  • Lawhorn said he was mocked and made fun of at school by people who called him “dumb” and “black.”
  • When Lawhorn’s mother came to speak with her son, officers said he once again showed no remorse when he found out that the 9-year-old boy had died.
  • Lawhorn shed a tear when his mother told him that he would be going away for a long time, then returned to being stone-faced.
  • Family members told police that Lawhorn had a history of lighting things on fire, that he actually lit his mother’s bed on fire at one point.