Neal and Jesse Eldridge essays

Neal and Jesse Eldridge essays Neal and Jesse Eldridge are two young men on trial. For over ten years, they suffered severe physical, emotional, and psychological abuse at the hands of their father. It ended the day they shot and killed him. Now Neal and Jesse are charged, as adults, with first degree murder; they face the possibility of life in prison. All this because Arkansas Department of Health Services, DHS, did nothing to step in and save these young lives. On January 24th, 1998, Rick Eldridge was supposed to take his sons, Neal and Jesse, to Buckarama, a deer hunting show at the Little Rock Expo Center. Before they left that morning, Rick caught the two teens smoking cigarettes. He told them they could not go to Buckarama(Neal Abuse Tragedy 1), then tried to suffocate them. Neal said his father picked him up and threw him head first into a wall (Haddigan 1). As he left, Rick told Neal and Jesse that when he returned he would beat them to death. He also gave them an impossible list of household chores to do before he returned, and said that he would kill them if they didnt. Fearing for their lives, the boys, ages 14 and 15 at the time, decided they had to protect their mother and sisters, as well as themselves, from the monster they called Dad. So the brothers loaded their .22-caliber, semi-automatic, Marlin rifles. Jesse stood behind the corner of the familys house, and Neal stood atop a shed next to the house. When Rick got out of his truck, the boys began to fire. Jesse shot once, but he lost his nerve and lowered his aim to his fathers legs(Neal 1). Neal shot four more times aiming for Ricks head and neck. They then retreated into the wooded area near the house and unloaded their rifles(Shull 1). ...