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I just found out that we may not be eligable for the Crime Victims Compensation Funds because he was acquitted and Randy fought back! I'm waiting to find out for sure, Pray for me! I think this will finally be my limit, not getting the money for his funeral bills paid.
Donna
Donna, I know what you are going through.I have been fighting victims compensation for 11 months now.The person that killed my son has not been caught yet but, they (the so called useless witnesses )say that my son was down in the park selling drugs 45 minutes before he was killed.Yet, he had no drugs and little cash on him.He was not robbed so I don't know where any of that would have gone but I have to "prove " that he wasn't doing anything wrong.OK how am I supposed to do that? I don't know what these people are thinking, was your son not supposed to fight back? You have the right to appeal their ruling that's what I am doing.Maybe the witnesses in you case can help your case, if you even know who they are.I don't in my sons case.I think they try all they can to get out of paying.
Good luck.My prayers are with you keep us posted,
Vickie /Andre's mom
Donna,
I hope that is not the case as you are still victims just because the jury decided not to charge him with anything doesn't negate what happened. But it would not surprise me. They made an award in our case and now are in the process of "re-calculating". There were so many expenses that we were entitled to claim but didn't for many reasons--numbness, shock, didn't save the receipts, etc. A fundraiser was held to help our family and they read the thank you note to all those who attended that was in our local paper--in an letter to editor not even front page. When I went for my weekly counseling meeting one of the first questions out of their mouth was how much money did you receive for the fundraiser. Because you know that you can't make money on the death of a family member. We have lost so much money as we had an online business they we are just now able to get going again on a part time basis not to mention all the costs and lost work time, etc. In other ways they are invaluable and I am so grateful they are there but when it comes to the money they are awful. If I had all the money I am "supposedly making" on our daughters death I would throw it in their face and tell them keep your lousy money I have more important things to worry about--like just getting up everyday! Sorry but I share your concern and wish you the best. Take Care. Laura
That is crazy you were the victim of a violent crime bottom line. I have been told my paper work got messed up but that I am getting the money I paid for Jim's funeral. I had vacation time from work so I took all that time for the trial. I can't believe you would be denied because the system let the guy go free.
My prayers are with you
Jim's Mom
We had to go back in yesterday to sign paperwork again because ours was lost too. I do have a question about the court advocate. Are you supposed to notify them of when you go to court or do they notify you? I am wondering if we will ever get there at all. The investigation is taking so long. I knew it would from what they said but it is so hard to wait.
Kim
Your avocet should be right there in court with you every step of the way, she/he should explain after every court date what took place if you don’t quite understand. The lady who is my avocet makes sure she writes down every court date, time and courtroom on one of her cards and gives them to me and all my sisters.
Hope this helps
Jimmy's mom
We are still waiting for the investigation to be completed. She said that if it gets to court she would be our advocate and for us to call her when we go to court. I thought she was supposed to tell us. I am just worried that we may never even get to that point. I knew it would take a long time from what they said, but I guess I just thought that wold be the court part not the investigation part. I just worry that they will not do anything to this boy. I don't think I can take it i they don't.
Donna, I know how you feel also..I got tired of trying to fight and finally gave up..Thank God Chris had Life Insurance or my In-Laws would have wound up with the bill..Isn't it a shame that the people that are suppose to help us in our time of grief seem to end up giving us more...My thoughts and prayers are with you, Robin Chris' Mom Always
We were notified in the immediate days following by the crime advocates. We were told of all the things they would be able to help us with--even meet us at the apartment so we would not have to go to their office when we came down to clean out her apartment. We told them when we would be coming and that we would call when we were arriving. Well that was the beginning of the circus. We spent 20 minutes on the phone with "Mary NoHelp" who has a "sister" Alice who would later say misleading things to us. We were told they were short staffed and just didn't have the people to meet us that day but we could make an appointment for another day and that if we had told them ahead of time (which we had) they would have made arrangements. I went through the roof--If only 6 days after this brutal tragedy we are no longer important how does that work when the trial eventually starts? Well anyway they not only find one but two people to show up at the apartment. They were very helpful and provided us with much need info. Since then it has been a roller coaster with them as far as info and mis-info. We found it best to create what my local advocate calls a "team"--the detectives, the DA and the advocates--both our city and the city it happened in. We put all the info together in hopes that some of it will be accurate. If we don't agree with the answer one gives us or have reason to doubt it we call someone else. We called our D.A. and then the Medical Examiner to get certain facts that we no longer wish to have "sugar coated". The DA was extremely helpful and spent 2 hours on the phone with us and the detectives are always willing to help but they are limited. The advocates should notify you of every hearing and when their is movement of the scum but sometimes there are no details or questions they don't have the answers so we call until we find out. Even our advocate in our city has told us things that their advocates haven't pertaining to general court proceedings so we call back and ask them why the difference in what we are being told. We even called Harrisburg (PA Crime Advocate Base) and talked directly to the person working on our case with our questions. I sometimes ask 3 or 4 different people the same question. The program is being done with my tax dollars and they don't hestitate to use that money to take care of that bas**** and that is what I told them--If I am entitled to something I WANT IT! Even if it is just an answer---I AM ENTITLED TO IT! And so are the rest of us--Keep Calling and if they can't answer you ask them to find someone who will. Kim--I tried to email you but it was returned--I love the butterfly pins you talked about and wanted to tell you to definitely count us in! Take Care and everybody stay strong and be vigilante as if we don't fight for our loved ones who will? We are not just a statistic!
Laura
One more note--when we found out the attorney that was representing this scum--she shares our daughters first name which is so repulsive--we researched her. Her "forte" is representing death penalty cases--her record is they are always found guilty but she seems to be able to keep them off of death row. She even kept one off death row who killed a police officer. Anyway when we asked the advocate office about her--the first thing they asked us--Are they pursuing the Death Penalty? We didn't say this but thought--Your the advocate shouldn't we be asking you that? Well it was then we decided to use them extensively but be careful about believing everything they told us and asking more people for answers. I just wanted to add that. Love to All.
Laura
I worry because our advocate is new to the job and we already had to go re sign paperwork that was lost. I call the detective once a week and told him I would because I needed to know something. He told me if he had anything he would call me. I told him that was great, but that I would still call him once a week in case he got busy. I know she is not his only case, but she is my child. The detective we have is very nice and I like him. He cannot tell me much but he is patient with my questions and tells me to call him anytime I have one.
The advocate Dawn was so very good to us! I had to shush her in court more then once cause she was upset by what was going on! She cried with me and did her best. You know, I didn't even ask to be compensated for the time off from work to go down there for the trial! They are only giving us milage and part of the funeral bills. They only pay $6,000 toward funeral bills. I got $12,000 because it was out of state and he had to be handled by 2 funeral places. But hey, I'll take what I can get at this point.
Did I tell you, I got a raise! Thought I was going to get fired for all the things I thought I messed up, but got this instead. Well, finally something good. Randy's baby will be 2 yrs old Sunday. They are having a party at her other Gramma's house. It's so hard. Some girl there says her 3 yr old is his too! Yeah, ok. Can we say DNA?
Randy's mom.
We were told that there is a $7500.00 maximum in California. We just resent the paperwork so I am keeping my fingers crossed. I want to use part of the money to buy her headstone. It is killing me that I have to save for it. I am determined she will have it soon and if we got the money that would by it and make a huge payment on her funeral expenses that we had to borrow for.
Thanks everyone. If we don't get the money, I'm going to go ahead and make monthly payments on a stone for Randy. They said they can't set them for at least a year because of the ground being too soft, I'm buying it in WV cause I can get a nicer one there for $1600 and the same one in IL will cost $8000! Unreal! My sons will pick it up and bring it to Randy's site and we will have to pay the cemetary a few hundred to install it, but it still saves alot. We are having his face lasered into it, nice black marble and a scene with 5 wolves - 1 for each of the kids, they were always so close they called themselves a wolf pack. All for the same price. But if you don't have it all at once, you can make arrangements with the monument company and make payments, they are actually very nice about it.
Oh, I have to tell you, I got the " we just want you to get on with it" talk from my own daughter this morning on the phone! I told her to pretty much leave me the he// alone, I'll get on with it when I'm good and ready! All this right after she told me she needed to move back home with her 2 kids and dog. Can I pound my head on the desk now? LOL!
Luv ya's
Donna, Randy's mother
7500.00 is the limit that victims of crime pays in california and if it was not for my mom who is 85 yrs old buying 4 plots when i was 5yrs old and i am 46 now i dont know what i would have done i used every bit of it i was able to get ernest a headstone with what i wanted on it i hope you make out in this time of need because this is truly a headache having to worry about how are you going to bury your child and stay above water. my blessings go out to you have faith it will be okay, cheryl mom to ernest
We were fortunate that my in laws gave us their credit card and said to use it for her funeral expenses and that we could pay them back. I had one of those Globe Life policies on both my kids but during the writer's strike my husband's job was affected so we cut them out, never thinking we would actually need t use it.Her bio dad told me he wouldn't help. Thank goodness my mother in law sent him a bill for half the expenses and told him he should pay half. We have Kay's stone picked out too but I have been saving for it. I will check to see if we can do the monthly payments since you mentioned it. I chose the legacy for her. It has what you are talking about, with the picture lasered into the stone and will allow for a total of four pictures. I do have a vase there for her. She is buried in Texas and I am having a hard time with not being able to go to her grave everyday. I know we will not stay in Cali when we retire and I didn't want to leave her here by herself when we left. She is buried close to my mom and my dad goes out there everyday. I send flowers once a month for him to put on her grave. I want to be the one to take them though. I have thought about going back now, but we have decided to stay here to fight for justice for her and then maybe go ahead and move back to Texas. I guess I got off topic. It is sad that these monsters who kill our children get everything provided for them and we have to jump through hoops to get help just so we can bury a child who should never have died.
