Happy Birthday, Sarah

Today, Sarah Gilmore (Ferguson) is 38 years old. She is my [step]sister. This is her 5th birthday behind bars, where she is serving 25 years for manslaughter in the first degree, assault, and gang assault. She killed our brother, Lucas Leonard. She also mercilessly, brutally beat our brother, Christopher Leonard. Chris survived because Luke died. Sarah will be in prison for 17 more years, at least. 

For some reason, our justice system wants victims to believe that after a seemingly abstract amount of time served by the offender everything will be better. I don't buy it. Not at all. The Department of Corrections and Community Service. What the hell can take 25 years to correct?? No, prison is punitive. Prison only causes greater pain, suffering, and destruction. That is not justice, and Sarah is black. 

Sarah's trial in July 2016 accurately painted her as a mother and sister who became a terrifying machine of destruction. Her rage was fueled by cult leaders and members who decided to vilify two young men. Sarah was an absolute puppet under the control of Tiffanie Irwin. I was present for each day of the trial. Reports and videos abound on the subject. I need not rehash the details here. My own observations would be that Sarah was unstable, unhinged, and angry during her trial. Yes, she delivered the fatal blows, causing Luke to bleed to death. However, she did not act alone, and the other 8 members of the "gang" did not restrain her fury. 

Sarah was 10 and I was 13 when my father married her mother. She had been attending Word of Life Christian Church since she was quite young. As a young woman, a yen for excitement drew her away from the home she had known. She became pregnant, got married, and had a second child with her husband. She was never content though--her jobs, her relationships never steady. A couple times she returned home, and even returned to church, where she was welcomed warmly by the Irwins. My father helped her endlessly--co-signing car loans which she defaulted on, providing food and shelter, caring for her multiplying number of babies. I felt relieved when she would return, always wanting to maintain a friendship with her and offer her my support as her "big sister." Her final return to Word of Life happened on my birthday, March 24, 2013. I received her return as a precious birthday gift. Before long I began to feel something was weird about her return. She was becoming more like Linda Morey--more of an Irwin insider, an Irwin minion. 

Sarah and her 4 children, from 3 fathers, were living in the attic of my father's house. It was supposed to be a temporary arrangement, since she had just been evicted from her apartment (also in Clayville) so the landlord's son could have the place (according to Sarah). She was supposed to find another place soon. That didn't happen. Instead, Tiffanie and Traci Irwin molded Sarah into a live-in snitch and filled her mind with their interpretations of typical teenage boy behavior. Luke's rough-housing with Chris became perversion. Sarah wasn't to allow her son to be with his Uncle Luke. Accidental, inadvertent actions became dark, dirty, malevolent sins. Now Grace wasn't safe. She had to move in with Sarah into the attic of the family home. The doors at the bottom of the stairways to the attic had to be locked from the inside and outside with several locks. They had to have a buddy-system to venture into the rest of the house--where the evil boys lurked, just waiting to do evil to them. Sarah was primed. Sarah was a loaded gun. Sarah's nerves were ready to snap. 

On October 11, 2015, Tiffanie was finally nearing the end of her worship service. It was about 9 o'clock at night. She asked her inner circle members if they thought she should have the Leonards stay after service for a meeting. She told them that Luke had something he wanted to say--that he wasn't coming back. So, the Leonards stayed. Also present in the room were Linda and David Morey and Joseph and Daniel Irwin. The details are unclear, but witness accounts agree that the topic was less about Luke having attended church with me a few months prior and himself wanting to stop attending WLCC. The diatribes of accusations focused on Tiffanie's fetishes. Luke and Chris were accused of committing heinous, perverted acts. Denying the accusations and arguing with Tiffanie was vain effort, so the boys embellished what was said of them. DA Scott McNamara said they fought back the only way they could--with their words, but their words only served to further fuel the red hot ire of the group. Fists were thrown, blood flowed, a cord was folded into a whip. Sarah took the cord. She swung the prongs. She aimed for the groin. More blood flowed. Sarah was blind with rage. Eventually, her wrath was exhausted, and she fell into a fitful sleep in the next room. The night wore on; the boys languished. Luke was moved to a tarp to protect the sanctuary carpet from further blood stains. And then he was unresponsive. 

Sarah needs help. She needs support. She needs mental health care. The State of New York says as the sister of the victims, I too am a victim of a violent crime. As a victim, I have a voice. Justice is not served by punishment and continued pain for all involved. Justice is correction, remediation, redemption. I am finding myself becoming an abolitionist. Prison reform is not enough. Sarah is the mother of 4 young children. They need their mother well. Sarah is the daughter of aging, grieving parents. They need their daughter well. Sarah is the sister of grieving siblings. We need her well. That is justice.