JULIE MCELHINEY - 13 yo (1974) - Convicted: Curtis Tucker - Oakland, CA

Justice? Julie McElhiney was 13 when she was killed by Curtin Tucker in 1974. Jailed on Friday, he was given a maximum sentence of five years

The family of a 13-year-old girl received an unusual apology from a judge who was sentencing their daughter's killer.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Larry Goodman apologized to family members of Julie McElhiney for the lenient sentence he imposed 66-year-old Curtis Tucker for killing her 40 years ago.

Tucker was sentenced on Friday but the rules under which he was jailed are those which were in effect in 1974, when Julie was murdered.

'I wish there was more that I could do but there's a reason they changed the law so crimes like this would get punished more severely,' Judge Goodman said.

Goodman, who appeared to be on the verge of tears, told McElhiney's family members, 'Sometimes there's nothing I can say. I can't imagine the pain you've gone through.'

The ex-felon was sentenced for five years to life for his second-degree murder conviction.

Tucker looked straight ahead and didn't show any emotion when McElhiney's family spoke in court and didn't make any comments before he was sentenced for killing Julie McElhiney at at her family's home in East Oakland 40 years ago..

Tucker, who had prior convictions for sexual assault and burglary, pleaded no contest to second-degree murder on July 8, just before a trial was to begin on allegations that he sexually assaulted and murdered McElhiney.

According to Oakland police, McElhiney, a sixth-grader at Sequoia Elementary School, was found  face down on the second floor of her family's apartment.

She was taken to hospital in Oakland but was pronounced dead. An autopsy said her cause of death was blunt force trauma to her head.

The coroner also found that she had been sexually assaulted.
 
The case was only solved in 2012 when Tucker's DNA was found on the clothing that McElhiney was wearing at the time of her death. 

Disappointment: Sentencing Curtis Tucker to five years in jail in the Oakland courtroom, Judge Larry Goodman could only apologize to the family that the term wasn't longer saying he was bound by 1970s law

Jenny McElhiney, one of Julie's older sisters, said, 'I pray that we never repeat an era like the 1970s when the life of little girls meant so little and murderers walked free after five to seven years,' she said to KTVU News.
 
McElhiney said if her sister were able to speak to Tucker, she would ask him, 'Why did you hit me hard in the head with a wine bottle, force me into a dressing room, throw me against the wall, wrap an electrical cord around my neck, force yourself into my body, the body of a child, fill a bathtub with water and throw my naked body into it?'
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Another sister, Kathy McElhiney, read a letter signed by all the family members.
They said that the death of their sister left them 'greatly traumatized' for the past 40 years and caused 'immeasurable anxiety and suffering.'

The letter also reveals a number of flaws in the investigation with the Oakland Police Department at one point accusing one of Julie's brothers for her death.

The letter said McElhiney's younger sister, who was only 10 at the time and slept in the same room with McElhiney has experienced 'grief and suffering that have never abated' and never married or led a normal life.

The letter said, 'We have grave doubts about justice and not protecting children from predators. We waited 38 years for this crime to be solved and what kind of justice is that?'




 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2872311/Judge-apologizes-teenager-s-family-40-year-old-law-limits-giving-five-years-daughter-s-killer.html#ixzz3Lr12iaSj