Jessica Gonzalez, Rhode Island Murderer, Paroled This Month

Ground Report August 19, 2008

Jessica Gonzalez, the youngest person ever convicted of murder as an adult in the state of Rhode Island will be paroled this month after serving 10 years of her 45-year term. This month's release comes after news surfaced that she is pregnant after having a relationship with her work-release supervisor.

Jessica Gonzalez was convicted of murdering 23 year-old Maria Rivera when Gonzalez was just 13. Gonzalez thought Rivera was trying to steal her boyfriend and took matters into her own, childish hands, shooting Rivera to death.

Jessica Gonzalez will not be disciplined for having a sexual relationship with a supervisor at the elderly care center where worked on work-release. “It is standard practice, not only in our department but in correctional agencies across the nation, that when an inmate is involved in staff sexual misconduct, the inmate is not disciplined,” said Corrections Director A.T. Wall. Gonzalez was removed from work at the center when her relationship surfaced and the corrections department will no longer send inmates to work at the center.

The parole board thought Gonzalez had served enough time for a crime she committed when she was a child. Parole Board Member Kenneth Walker explains: "We looked at her as a child being sentenced to such a long time, so the board thought it was time for her to go.”

Rhode Island recently saw another youthful murder, this time by a young man accused of killing both parents with a garden hoe and dumping their bodies in a cesspool.

Source: The Providence Journal