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John
KATEHIS
Classification: Homicide
Characteristics:
Juvenile (16) -
The two men met via Craigslist, where Katehis advertised sexual
services and Weber had posted that he was looking for someone to
smother him
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder: March 20, 2009
Date of arrest:
5 days after
Date of birth: 1992
Victim profile:
George Webber, 47 (a popular radio reporter)
Method of murder:
Stabbing with knife (50
times)
Location: New York City, New York, USA
Status:
Sentenced to
25 years to life in prison on December 12, 2011
John Katehis is an American student who was
convicted in 2011 of murdering George Weber, a popular radio reporter,
in March 2009. Because Katehis met Weber through Craigslist, a popular
classified advertising website, the media dubbed him a Craigslist
killer, a generic term for murderers who find victims by placing or
responding to ads in Craigslist.
Arrest for murder
On March 25, 2009, police arrested 16-year-old John
Katehis of Queens, New York for the murder of the former radio
reporter George Weber. Weber, 47 years old, was a well-known radio
voice; during an extended career, he had worked as an on-air reporter
for WABC in New York City, KGO in San Francisco, and KTLK and KMPC in
Los Angeles.
Confession
Katehis confessed to the crime when apprehended. He
said that he was a Satanist allied with the teachings on Anton Lavey
and the Church of Satan and also claimed to be a sadomasochist. He
told police that he had responded to his victim's advertisement on
Craigslist for "rough sex," but stabbed Weber in self-defense after
Weber tried to stab him. Weber's body was found bound and he had been
stabbed 50 times. In March, 2009, Katehis was dubbed a "Craigslist
Killer" by the media.
Mistrial, retrial, and conviction
On March 26, 2009, and despite his original
confession a day earlier, Katehis pleaded not guilty to charges of
second-degree murder and weapons possession. He was held without bail.
His lawyer has told reporters that although the pair originally met
through Craigslist, they had an ongoing relationship.
Following a mistrial, Katehis was retried and
convicted in November 2011.
Further reading
Author David McConnell in his book American Honor
Killings: Desire and Rage Among Men explored the Katehis case as a
main example of lethal hate crimes on homosexual men where the
perpetrators exhibited some degree of homosexuality themselves.
Wikipedia.org
Brooklyn teen John Katehis gets 25 years to life
in prison for murder of ABC reporter George Weber
Family of victim say they forgive killer
By Oren Yaniv / New York Daily News
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
The Brooklyn teen who brutally murdered radio
journalist George Weber during a kinky online hookup was sentenced to
25 years to life in prison Tuesday.
Showing no mercy, the Brooklyn judge handed down
the maximum sentence to John Katehis, 18, for stabbing the ABC radio
reporter 50 times in March 2009.
But compassion came from the victim’s family.
"I forgive you," Weber’s brother-in-law Jason
Hannas told the convicted killer in Brooklyn Supreme Court. "I have no
hatred."
Hannas asked Katehis why he committed the slaying -
which the Weber's young nephews continue to have questions about.
"John, you are the only one who has the answer they
seek," he told the defendant. "[Maybe\] you killed for fun, or because
you could … that's a very hard answer to give a 5-year-old."
Katehis, who winked and smirked in his videotaped
confession and many times during his court hearings, asked for
forgiveness when he spoke.
"For the death of George Weber, I am sorry," he
said. "I regret it."
Katehis’ first trial ended in a hung jury last
year, but a second panel found him guilty last month, rejecting his
claim of self-defense during an S&M encounter.
The two men met via Craigslist, where Katehis, then
16, advertised sexual services and Weber, 47, was looking for someone
to smother him.
Prosecutor Anna-Siggac Nicolazzi noted "the
viciousness" of this "thrill kill" and warned that if the defendant is
ever released, he might kill again.
"This is exactly the kind of person society should
be protected from," she said.
Teen pleads self-defense in murder trial
By Sanya Khetani - The Brooklyn Ink
October 21, 2010
The trial of a teenager accused of murdering a WABC
newsman after a sexual encounter gone wrong was replete with
contradictory testimonies on day three.
The defendant John Katehis, 18, claimed that he had
only “jabbed” victim George Webber, 47, once in the neck with a knife,
and that it had happened “accidentally” in self-defense. This
statement was recorded by the King’s County District Attorney’s
Homicide Bureau after Katehis’s arrest by the 76th precinct on March
25, 2009.
However, according to the testimony of Dr. Floriana
Persechino, the Medical Examiner assigned to the case, Weber was
stabbed at least 40 times in the head, neck, chest and arms. Dr.
Persechino declared the cause of death to be “exsanguination”, or
bleeding to death.
Throughout Dr. Persechino’s testimony, Katehis,
wearing a crisp pink shirt and tie that made him look more like a high
school senior than a criminal, remained unmoved, even glancing back
and smiling at the press a few times. His demeanor seemed to carry
over from his taped statement, where he was seen joking and laughing
with the interrogator while eating donuts.
Defense Attorney Jeffrey Schwartz claimed that the
detectives who arrested his client and took his statement had tried to
“make him comfortable” so that he would give them a statement that
could essentially amount to a confession. He also asked the
representative of the DA’s Homicide Bureau why no follow-up questions
to the statement had been asked of his client while in custody.
However, Judge Firetog said that a representative of the DA’s office
was not the “proper witness” for questions on “police policy and
technique.”
In an effort to prove that his client had
unintentionally stabbed the victim only once, Schwartz also said that
since Dr. Persechino had only examined the stab wounds on Weber’s body
without examining possible murder weapons, there was no way to
conclusively prove which or whose knife had caused the victim’s
multiple injuries. “Without the actual blade, you cannot determine
which injury [was caused by it],” Schwartz said.
While Katehis claimed in his statement that he
“[likes] his knives and swords” – some of which have names like “The
Claw” and “Fury” – he said he was not carrying a knife that night, as
he went to Weber’s apartment straight from school.
Katehis said he often responded to advertisements
on Craigslist to make “quick cash.” On March 18, 2009, he responded to
Weber’s advertisement for an erotic encounter, which would involve
binding Weber’s feet with duct tape and “smothering” him for $60. An
appointment was set for March 20, 2009.
Katehis claimed that Weber offered him cocaine when
he went to his Cobble Hill apartment. “It was the first time I was
doing coke… I became really jumpy after that,” he said. But according
to testimony from a criminologist from the NYC Police Laboratory, no
evidence of any drugs was found in the victim’s apartment.
Katehis said all was well until he had bound
Weber’s ankles, which is when Weber pulled a knife from his pocket. “I
grabbed it [the knife] and we were pulling it back and forth and I cut
my hand,” said Katehis, who claims the cocaine had made him
“paranoid.” Not only did he injure himself, he also cut part of
Weber’s jugular vein. “Everything flew by so quick,” Katehis said.
As today’s hearing went over time by more than half
an hour and a few jurors were seen nodding off, Judge Firetog said
that he hoped the testimonies would be concluded by Thursday, so that
the case could go to jury deliberation on Monday.
Teen charged in stab slay of WABC radio host
George Weber says he stole from victim, let him die
By William Sherman - NYDailyNews.com
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
The teen on trial for the 50-stab slaying of WABC
radio newsman George Weber admitted fishing through his victim's
pockets as prosecutors said he bled to death.
"We were both struggling over the knife, we're
pulling toward each other and the knife just goes and jabs him in the
neck," the then 16-year-old John Katehis says coldly in a videotaped
confession played yesterday for jurors.
The young male hustler met Weber online via a
twisted Craigslist sex advertising rough sex, he told Brooklyn
prosecutors during the 40 minute confession taped in the early morning
hours of March 25, 2009, five days after Weber was slain.
Katehis said he was promised $60 for rough sex:
"Smothering, he wanted someone to smother him," Katehis, now 18, said
while slowly picking at a donut.
Weber, 47, supposedly pulled out a knife and the
two fought - even though Katehis admitted the victim was on his
stomach and his legs bound with duct tape, he said.
The teen, who at times laughed between bites of the
donut, said he only remembered stabbing Weber once. "He (Weber) was
still moving around, mumbling and cursing and I went into his left
pocket and took the sixty bucks that was for the smothering garbage,"
said Katehis.
Medical examiner Floriana Persechino told the jury
that Weber was stabbed some 50 times in the chest, neck, shoulders and
hands.
Prosecutor Anna Sigga Nicolazzi has said the murder
was no accident or result of a struggle - and that Weber posed no
danger to the teen. Kathis' lawyer has called the newsman a sexual
predator.
Even though the crime happened when Katehis was 16,
he was charged as an adult with second-degree murder and criminal
possession of a weapon. He faces 25 years to life in prison if
convicted.
16-Year-Old Arrested in Killing of Radio
Journalist in Brooklyn
By Christine Hauser and Colin Moynihan -
The New York Times
March 25, 2009
The 16-year-old boy arrested in the fatal
stabbing of the radio journalist George Weber was ordered held without
bail late Wednesday on charges of second-degree murder and criminal
possession of a weapon.
The teenager, John Katehis, of East Elmhurst,
Queens, did not enter a plea or make any statement during the
arraignment before Judge John H. Wilson of Brooklyn Criminal Court.
Mr. Katehis was arrested on Tuesday night outside a
bus depot in Middletown, N.Y., in Orange County. “He subsequently made
statements implicating himself in the stabbing death,” said Paul J.
Browne, the chief spokesman for the New York Police Department.
Mr. Weber, 47, who recently had been working as a
freelance anchor for ABC News Radio, the national network, was found
in his apartment in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, on Sunday. He had been
stabbed about 50 times, the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly,
said.
Herb Moses, the public defender representing Mr.
Katehis, told Judge Wilson that it was a “very tragic situation.” He
added that he thought his client had been “used by an older gentleman”
and that he expected more details to emerge about Mr. Katehis’s
encounter with Mr. Weber.
Officials said the teenager apparently answered a
Craigslist ad in which Mr. Weber, 47, sought a sexual partner. The
police believed Mr. Weber planned to pay Mr. Katehis for sex. The
police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, said that the two had arranged
to meet on Wednesday, March 18, but rescheduled the meeting for Friday
evening.
A neighbor saw someone, believed by the police to
be Mr. Katehis, speaking on a cellphone outside Mr. Weber’s building
on Henry Street. Mr. Weber may have allowed him to enter the apartment
about 6 p.m., and while he was inside, the suspect stabbed him about
50 times, Mr. Kelly said. No weapon has been found, the police said.
The police would not say why they believed the
teenager stabbed Mr. Weber. He had no criminal record. No one at his
home Wednesday would comment on the case.
At 9:13 p.m. Friday, a conductor on a northbound G
train saw a passenger bleeding profusely from his left hand, Mr. Kelly
said. The passenger, who Mr. Kelly said was Mr. Katehis, was met by
Emergency Medical Services workers at station and taken to Elmhurst
Hospital Center, where he was treated and released, Mr. Kelly said. He
told the police that he had cut his hand on a bottle. Judge Wilson
ordered Wednesday that Mr. Katehis continue to receive medical
attention for the cut.
An autopsy on Mr. Weber was performed on Monday,
and the police said he had been stabbed in the head and neck, the
front and rear of his torso, and the arms and hands. Mr. Katehis had
changed his bloody clothes after the attack and put on some of Mr.
Weber’s, Mr. Kelly said.
The teenager then fled to Middletown to a friend’s
house on Tuesday morning, Mr. Kelly said. Detectives tracked him down
through a search of Mr. Weber’s computer communications and from
information they received from family members of Mr. Katehis’s, he
said.
In Middletown on Tuesday, law enforcement officials
said, Mr. Katehis’s father helped arrange for his son to go to the bus
depot. As the boy approached a vehicle expecting to see his father,
detectives got out and the boy fled across the street, where more
detectives were waiting in an unmarked van. They tackled Mr. Katehis
and handcuffed him.
Late Wednesday afternoon, several friends gathered
at Angry Wade’s, a tavern where Mr. Weber had been a regular, to
recall a man who often greeted them with a smile and who had a
contagious laugh. He was somebody who loved to talk and debate, they
said. They lighted candles, and had drinks sitting at the bar in front
of an empty chair at his customary place.
There were handwritten messages on napkins on the
bar surrounding a glass poured for him. “We’ll all miss you,” one
said.
Outside the bar, John Peterman, 35, a coordinating
producer for a television production company who lives across the
street from Mr. Weber, said: “Friendships run deep in our
neighborhood. And George was friends with many people.”
Mr. Katehis’s MySpace page, which was taken down
Wednesday, said he enjoyed “drinking, bike riding, hanging out, roof
hopping, hanging off trains,” and “extreme violence (chaos, anarchy,
etc ...) video games, violent movies and listening to my iPod.”
“II am an extremist, an anarchist and a
sadomasochist. As long as you show respect for me, I will show respect
for you.”
But it warned that if he were not shown respect, he
would “break your neck.”
Kareem Fahim and Mick Meenan contributed reporting.
