RSSMichael Devlin Will Plead Guilty to Kidnapping, Sexual Abuse Charges in Hornbeck and Ownby Cases
According to reports, Michael Devlin will plead guilty next week in the 
kidnapping, attempted murder and and sexual assault. The case of Michael Devlin, the unassuming former Pizza manager, is an amazing story of hiding in plain sight. The blessing to this plea deal is that neither boy, William “Ben” Ownby nor Shawn Hornbeck will have to relive in a court room what happened to them and Michael Devlin will be taken out of society and away from our children for most likely life. This is probably the best outcome when we consider what is best for Shawn and Ben and their futures.
Washington County prosecutor John Rupp said Michael Devlin will plead guilty to all charges there in the 2002 kidnapping of Shawn Hornbeck and will be sentenced Tuesday.
Devlin was arrested in January after police found Shawn and Ben Ownby at Devlin’s apartment in the St. Louis County town of Kirkwood.
Loyd Bailie, Ben’s uncle, told The Associated Press on Friday that the family had been briefed by prosecutors that Devlin will plead guilty next week in all four jurisdictions where he is charged: three Missouri counties and federal court. He said he did not know whether Devlin would plead guilty to all of the more than 80 felony charges against him, several of which carry life sentences. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
The bizarre case of Michel Devlin started in the case of the kidnapping of Ben Ownby only to later learn that Devlin was also responsible for the earlier kidnapping of Shawn Hornbeck. William Ownsby was kidnapped and an AMBER ALERT was issued for the missing 13 year old boy after a witness saw the boy pushed into a white pickup truck. When the miraculous news occurred that William “Ben” Ownby was found safe and alive, no one could have imagined at the time that Shawn Hornbeck, who had been missing since 2002, would be found as well. Michael Devlin had in fact kidnapped both boys and had been charged by police with kidnapping and numerous other sexual molestation charges. The multiple sodomy charges were too numerous to list. The guilty plea will take this heinous individual off the streets and away from our children for life.
Michael Devlin Will Plead Guilty To All Charges Monday
UPDATE I: Michael Devlin Gets Life in Prison for Kidnapping Boy
Posted October 6, 2007 by Scared Monkeys Bizarre, Child Welfare, Crime, Judicial, Missing Persons, Sex Offender | 3 comments |
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3 Responses to “Michael Devlin Will Plead Guilty to Kidnapping, Sexual Abuse Charges in Hornbeck and Ownby Cases”
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Death and do justice! Off the streets, out of society and stay away from our children!
Remember that one of the boys was held for some years, and apparently helped guard the other boy.
Remember, too, that the first kid grabbed was seen in public with Devlin … I believe that he even rode in a police car at one point … and failed to do what he “should” have done, according to outside observers.
And remember Elizabeth Smart, who when she was first apprehended by police and was in safety tried … what, to return to her parents? No; she pretended that she wasn’t who she was.
Please keep this in mind when reading about Amy Bradley, Natalee Holloway (perhaps), or others. Before we have walked in their moccasins, to invoke the standard cliche, let’s not judge them or say “this is how they will/would/should have acted.”
I don’t believe we have laws on the books that cover the crimes of this vicious maniac. He has harmed the child he took in 2002 in ways we can not fathom…..how do parents and professionals begin to “fix” this broken “child”?? A boy, whose parents have suffered a parent’s worst nightmare for years, and now their joy of finding their child, holding him, having him back in their home, is darkened by the grief of not only knowing the horrors that he, their baby, has suffered in the years that he has been missing, but he is in some ways, I imagine, a stranger to them, as they are to him……what has he been told about them all these years by the devil who took him????
These parents have awakened from one nightmare, only to find themselves living in another.. God help these poor people…I pray that someone provides them with really good, long term counseling and that they find the patience to deal with the problems their poor is bound to face in the coming years.