Teen Sentenced After Forcing 85-Yr.-Old Grandmother To Appear In 'Gangsta Rap' Video Wednesday October 29, 2008
CityNews.ca Staff
An 18-year-old is doing time in West Palm Beach, Florida for a ridiculous crime that involves not only gunplay but elder abuse.
It started last April, when cops pulled over Michael Alfinez for a routine traffic stop. They seized a video found playing in his car and what they discovered on that tape was appalling. The teen had somehow lured his 85-year-old grandmother, an Alzheimer's patient, into appearing in the makeshift "gangster rap" video.
The elderly woman is seen holding a handgun and wearing a black mask, while her grandson coaches her on what to say, makes her swear repeatedly and gets her to utter dialogue threatening to shoot "all the pigs."
At one point, she flashes a roll of cash to the camera, all the while clearly unaware of what she's really doing. "I'll shoot you," he tells her to say and she dutifully repeats the phrase.
That evidence was enough to get him charged with elder abuse but it wasn't the only ammunition authorities used to get a conviction. The video also shows Alfinez going on a vandalism spree, smashing lights on houses and firing a .22 calibre pistol from a car window and hitting a building.
The teen claims he made the mini-movie to impress a prominent video producer but never meant to hurt his grandmother. And he insists he loves her very much.
He'll have plenty of time to think about his stupidity. On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to the charges and will spend the next 18 months in a juvenile facility.
A Florida TV station has posted part of the video on its website. Viewer discretion is advised, but if you want to see it,
click here.
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Is it just me, ...or this absolutely crazy?!
I don't have a problem locking the kid up for being an idiot, ...and especially for making a crappy video, ...but elder abuse!
