Category: Trials

The infamous triple murder of the Skeen and Vellos family in 2012, concluded in court today after twelve years. In November of that year, Robert Vellos Senior, his wife Karen Skeen, and her daughter, Teena Skeen, were callously murdered inside their Ladyville home, having all been shot in the head and, in the case of Karen Skeen, her throat was cut. The suspect in the grisly homicide was Karen Skeen’s son, Jared Ranguy. The trial was a long-drawn-out affair, having taken over twelve years to arrive at a conclusion. Today, the Vellos and Skeen families breathed a sigh of relief after Ranguy was handed three life sentences. Here’s News Five’s Britney Gordon with the full report.

 

Britney Gordon, Reporting

It’s been twelve long years since a family said goodbye to a mother, a father and a daughter after they were brutally murdered inside their home in the early hours of November twenty-fifth, 2012. Robert Vellos Senior, his wife Karen Skeen, and her daughter Teena Skeen, are the victims of this heinous crime and since that day, their surviving family members have fought for justice to be handed down to the suspected murderer. That man is Jared Ranguy, the son of Karen Skeen, who was today sentenced to three life sentences in prison for the execution of his stepfather, sister, and mother. Krystal Holder, niece of the late Karen Skeen, expressed the family’s relief after the final trial today.

 

Krystal Holder, Neice of Deceased

“I would say that we’re feeling emotional relieved and grateful that this  long journey is finally over  And that justice has to be served. The loss of our loved ones, it was immense. It was profound because we’re such a poor state. And, so it was shocking, and it was truly a tragedy. And we have been coming here to these court sessions for twelve years. Some of the family behind me have been, they’ve been at every court session. So we are relieved. However, the sentence, it does not take away the.  The deep pain that we feel  and that we will continue to feel probably for the rest of our lives  because the absence of Aunt Karen, Teena, and mister Robert, it’s felt every single day and  they are dearly missed, but we are grateful for this closure.”

 

 

In 2012, the news of this murder sent shockwaves across the nation and the grim details of the act further rattled the public. Thirty-two-year-old Teena Skeen, and her stepfather, Robert Vellos Senior, had been shot in the head. However, her mother, Karen Skeen, a cancer survivor, had been shot in the head, as well as slashed in the throat. Since that day, the Skeen and Vellos family have awaited the day when the killer would be placed behind bars. Much to their disappointment and frustration, the matter was drawn out in court for over ten years.

 

 

 

File: July 19^th, 2023, Rene Skeen, Sibling of Deceased

“Justice for, like I said, my sister Karen, my niece Teena and my brother-in-law Robert.  Justice for them, that’s the most important thing at this point.  However, what I want to see, or what we want to see, we want to see him found guilty and spend the rest of his life in jail, that’s what we want to see. At this point, the way the family feels is that “justice delayed, justice denied”.  It’s not about just us, the family, the surviving family but the three victims.  It becomes a point where we feel like Jared, who allegedly committed these murders, is manipulating the system and it’s working on his behalf.”

 

 

 

Over the past twelve years, Ranguy has changed lawyers over seven times. At the conclusion of the trial, he was represented by Senior Counsel Godfrey Smith, who says that he is dissatisfied with today’s outcome. Ranguy will be serving three life sentences in prison concurrently and will not be eligible for parole until he’s served thirty-seven years. The twelve years spent behind bars will be deducted from this sentence, so he is likely to spend twenty-five years behind bars minimum. Smith, says that the decision was due, in part, to the fact that Ranguy was not able to undergo an extensive psychiatric evaluation.

 

 

 

 

Godfrey Smith, Attorney of Ranguy

“We would have preferred a fixed sentence, which means it’s fixed. And once you’ve done a certain amount of time, then you would be free. The main, or one of the main things we were relying on was the forensic psychiatric report of the United Kingdom Forensic Psychiatrist and a sleep specialist. Unfortunately, those reports could not be conclusive without having hooked up mister Ranguy to sleep machines, sleep study machines in the prison. The cost was too prohibitive. We couldn’t go that far and as a result, the experts could only go so far as to say non-REM parasomnia, in common parlance sleepwalking, could not be ruled out.”

 

 

Ranguy pleaded guilty to the charges and expressed remorse within his affidavit, however, he failed to apologize to the family during the trial. Holder says that while the pain of losing her family members will never fully dissipate, the gesture of an apology may have added to the feelings of closure the family is seeking.

 

 

 

 

 

Krystal Holder

“I think it would have been better if he had spoken to us  and apologized.  I think that would have meant much more. We are grateful that he pled guilty and that today is the last day that we have to be here and this is over. I think that now, individually, all of us have our own journeys that we want to get to forgiveness. We want to be at peace, and we hope that today, our family members are able to finally sleep in peace.”

 

Britney Gordon for News Five.

It’s been a year since twenty-year-old Kijahe Molina was charged with wounding an off-duty police officer.  The call center agent, then nineteen, is accused of stabbing Police Constable Zani Zavala at Good Will Supermarket.  When he appeared in the magistrate’s court today, in the company of attorney Hurl Hamilton, Molina threw himself at the mercy of the court, asking for probation instead of a custodial sentence.  After pleading guilty to wounding, Molina was fined nine hundred dollars and bound over to keep the peace for a period of one year in the sum of one thousand dollars.  The prosecutor did not object to the fine, despite Molina’s attorney expecting that he would have been given probation.  Molina is a first-time offender with no previous convictions.