Man sentenced to life for killing 5 family members

Prosecutors say he was angry they wouldn’t convert to Islam

Chicago Tribune:

 James A. Larry was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to killing his mother, pregnant wife, infant son and two nieces last year on the South Side. (May 4, 2011)

7:38 p.m. CDT, May 4, 2011


A man who was angry that his family would not go along with his conversion to Islam was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday in the slayings of his mother, pregnant wife, infant son and two nieces in a rampage last year on the South Side.

James A. Larry, 33, of Madison, Wis., pleaded guilty last month to multiple counts of murder, attempted murder and the intentional homicide of an unborn child.

The bald, bearded defendant issued a quiet apology in Judge James Linn’s courtroom, as several surviving members of the family stood at a podium and clutched one another.

“I’m sorry for what I did to my family,” Larry said, standing in a tan jail jumpsuit, his hands clasped behind his back. “I regret it every day, and I pray for them.”

Family members chose not to submit victim-impact statements for the judge to consider and declined to speak after the hearing, telling a court liaison they were simply relieved the case was over.

Prosecutors said Larry came to Chicago in April 2010 bent on slaughtering his relatives at the home in the Marquette Park neighborhood. He had converted to Islam while serving a prison sentence in Wisconsin for a weapons conviction.

“He was upset at his wife and their family — he felt disrespected that they would not join his religion,” Assistant State’s Attorney Jim McKay said. “It didn’t matter if they were young or old, pregnant or not. He wanted them dead.”

The massacre began in the early morning hours April 14, at the family home in the 7400 block of South Mozart Street. Larry first shot his mother, Leona Larry, 57, as she slept on a sofa in the living room. He then went systematically through three first-floor bedrooms, fatally shooting his wife, Twanda Thompson, 19; his 7-month-old son, Jihad; his 3-year-old niece, Keleasha Larry; and his 16-year-old niece, Keyshai Fields, who was pregnant.

Larry also shot his 13-year-old nephew, Demond Larry, in the face, but the boy survived. The defendant then kicked in the bedroom door of a man who lived in the basement of the home and tried to shoot him, but no bullets fired, prosecutors said.

After Larry’s 12-year-old niece awoke to the gunfire and saw her bloodied relatives, she ran out of the house. Larry chased her down the street and fired but missed, prosecutors said. The girl made it to a gas station and called her mom.

When Larry was arrested a short time later, he said to police that Allah told him to kill his family, according to court records. A police report quoted him as saying: “I wish I had more bullets. I wish I had more bullets.”

Linn remarked in court that, based on the accounts of the defendant’s erratic behavior, he expected to see some evidence of underlying psychiatric issues. But in the end, he said, “there were none.”

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for Larry before the state’s recent ban on capital punishment. McKay said the fact the slayings were premeditated made Larry’s case “call out for the death penalty.”

“It is anybody’s guess how long he had planned and prepared for that day,” McKay said.

jm******@tr*****.com

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

10 Replies to “Man sentenced to life for killing 5 family members”

  1. It boggles the mind. When reading about the atrocities of islam in the hadith one is removed from them to such a degree that one takes them on board and continues reading. This is way mild compared to the what is available in the islamic records and it shocks to a degree,that ,well ,I have said it once already, it just boggles the mind. Behold the insanity of islam.

  2. It has been said that converts to Islam are usually the most fanatical, often referred to by the liberal MSM as ‘devoutly religious’ or ‘pious’. This dirtbag should have gotten the ‘chair’. In prison he will be a hero and revered by the ‘followers of the teachings of the prophet’.

  3. The converts to any religion are the most fanatical, and I don’t think Illinois has the death penalty, if my memory is serving me right he will probably be released in 7 years, or earlier if some left wing Judge thinks the prison is over crowded.

  4. He is a poster boy of the kind of people who convert to islam. A lot of blacks convert in prison. The other group is white women who marry a brown muzzie. The odd white guy also converts but they are usually few and far between and tend to drift in and then out of islam for the most [part.

  5. The people in prison are already alienated from society, they are easy to convert to a religion that tells them they will end up lording it over the ones who put them in the pen.

  6. Not to mention that they are told that the most base instincts that put them in prison will in fact not be an evil that needs to be controlled and channelled, but will be divinely ordained to indulge in every possible twisted way, so long as it is not against the people, men, or property, women, of the inside group. (Muslims) so yes prison is the perfect place to make more Muslims. The Ulema knows this and the Al Queda manual deals with prison conversions quite specifically.

  7. The dregs of society will always be attracted to islam plus the loney and the drifters. Islam is a nation of inbreeds with low intelligence, hence the recruiting angle fishes for the prison population rather than the phd programmes of universities. The whole thing about recruitment is that you have to present the best look and the best look for the prison population is the whole angle on crime being made holy if the ingroup is not targeted. This is what criminals do in any case and so you have got your convert. So easy. Now once out if the newbie goes crazy and kills a seven month old baby called Jihad we need to bring in the damage limitation programme with the old line about Islam being the religion of peace. Now what if he goes into prison the second time and this time he continues with his beliefs and becomes a moderate moslem. Out he comes and he is a poster boy for moderate islam. He gets a new son and calls him Peace. The story continues and it is so predictable. The bad cop becomes the good cop and lets some other nutase do the kuffar killing (koran style).

  8. First I apologize, Illinois does have the death penalty, so yes he should have received it.

    Second Mo the pervert developed a cult that would appeal to the criminals so he could get a cut from their crimes, and then told them it wasn’t a crime as long as the victims weren’t fellow Moslems.