Sarah Kruzan was 11 years old, a middle school student from Riverside, Calif., when she met a man he called himself GG who was almost three times her age. GG took her under his wing; he would buy her gifts, take her and her friends rollerskating. "He was like a father figure," she recalls.
Despite suffering severe bouts of depression as a child, until then, Kruzan was a good student, an "overachiever" in her words. But her mother was abusive and addicted to drugs; as for her father, she had only met him a couple of times. So, more and more, GG filled in.
"GG was there sometimes," she said. "He would talk to me and take me out and give me all these lavish gifts and do all these things for me …" Before long, he started talking to her about sex, giving her his expert advice on what men were really like and telling her that she didn't "need to give it up for free."
Unbeknownst to her, GG was grooming Kruzan to be a prostitute. When she was 13, he raped her. "He uses his manhood to hurt," Kruzan recalls, "Like, break you in. I guess."
Kruzan worked for GG as a prostitute for three years. The hours were 6 p.m. until 5:30 or 6 in the morning. She and "the other girls" would come back and hand over their earnings to him. "He was, like, married to all of us I guess," she says. " … Everything was his."
After years of prostitution and sexual abuse, when she was 16, Kruzan snapped: She killed GG, was arrested and convicted of first-degree murder. Despite attempts by her lawyer to have her sentenced as a juvenile, the judge described her crime as "well thought-out" and sentenced her to life without parole.
"My judge told me that I lacked moral scruples," she recalls, a term she did not know the meaning of.
But the meaning of her sentence was all too clear. Life without parole, she says, "means I'm gonna die here."
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3 comments:
very interesting topic. it seems kind of sad that sarah had to go through such hardships in her life and yet still be at fault for what she did. it isn't right that she killed him, but the judge should have taken into consideration the psychological damage that this man caused on her by raping her and then forcing her to become a prostitute. it doesn't seem right that she be sentenced so harshly when he was the one at fault here and not her, and yet when she tried to get out things only turned out worse for herself.
I found this to be a very interesting post. The way Sarah was treated had a great impact on her emotional state. GG abused her and nothing was done about it. She had no say in her life and it was being taken from her. I bleieve the only logical thing Sarah could have done was to try to escape. If this ment killing GG I do not disagree with her actions. I do not agree with the judges interpretations of Sarah's actions. What did he expect her to do, continue a life of prostitution . I liked your article and it brings up a lot of good moral and personal issues. Good job.
Me and a few friends watched this video, it was really sad. It was basically self denfense because he was hurting her. She did prove to be a good person, by educating herself and maturing while in jail. It is impossible for her to show her talents or help young girls with the same problem, if she is in jail. I think that she should be monitored outside of the jail and be assessed mentally and physically, so she can prove she has changed.
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