A father is dead and a daughter is in jail
By JASON NARK
(Originally published in the Courier Post)
A bucket of blood-stained water sat on the floor of Margie Smiling's kitchen Thursday afternoon.
It was a stark reminder of the stabbing death of her common-law husband Tuesday night and the arrest of their daughter in the crime.
Authorities said Smiling's daughter, 18-year-old Jasmine Karo, stabbed 44-year-old Alan Karo in the back Tuesday night, shortly after he punched her and threw her to the floor in a headlock.
While her mother, sister and friends scramble to collect themselves, the Gloucester High School senior is in Camden County Jail charged with first-degree murder. She is being held on $200,000 bail.
"I spoke with her this morning,' said Smiling, standing in the family's bungalow. "She's doing OK. She's separated from the other inmates and has talked to counselors.'
Smiling didn't tell her daughter about an ironic problem: as Karo's legal next-of-kin, Jasmine will have to sign paperwork to authorize his cremation. Arrangements have been tentatively scheduled with Etherington Funeral Home in Gloucester City, but a spokeswoman said no date has been set.
Smiling said she met Karo 20 years ago in Deerfield Beach, Fla., where they worked at a windshield wiper factory.
"It was OK, but I guess it was always going to be OK in the beginning,' she said.
In 1999, Smiling said she filed a restraining order against Karo, but said she "unfortunately' dropped it two weeks later.
Karo had recently lost a job at the Ferry Fence Co. in Gloucester City, which propelled him back into a cycle of heavy drinking, Smiling said. The couple were living off Smiling's unemployment checks and recently arrived income-tax refunds. She said a job is waiting for her at Kmart in Brooklawn, but she doesn't plan on taking it for quite a while.
Smiling said the police visited their home on many occasions, from drug calls to domestic violence calls. Gloucester City Deputy Chief William James said Karo had been arrested several times, but said all information regarding his record had been forwarded to the prosecutor's office.
In statements to prosecutors, Jasmine and her mother said Tuesday night's fight had been broken up before Jasmine stabbed her father. The prosecutor's office said the stabbing occurred around 9:30 p.m., but city police didn't receive a call until 10:53 -- and arrived at the Lane Avenue home three minutes later.
Once there, police tried to help Karo but he was pronounced dead at 1:05 a.m.
The prosecutor's office wouldn't comment on the nearly 90 minutes between the stabbing and the call to police, but said no one else had been charged.
"This is an ongoing investigation,' said Bill Shralow, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office.
In all, there were three people who witnessed the altercation, including Jasmine's 12-year-old sister Priscilla and 40-year-old Diana St. Clair, who has lived in the house with her fiance for two weeks.
On Thursday, Smiling and St. Clair said they never actually saw Karo get stabbed.
"The knife was on the floor and I kicked it away when I broke them up,' St. Clair said. "He might even have fell on it.'
Both St. Clair and Smiling insist Karo didn't want them to call police after he was stabbed.
"He didn't want to get his daughter in trouble,' St. Clair said.
St. Clair said she sat Karo in a chair, put a Band-Aid on his wound and checked on him every two minutes.
"After a while he fell on the floor and there was blood pouring out of his back,' she said.
St. Clair attempted CPR and woke her fiance to call the police.
Authorities said Karo and Smiling had been drinking. Karo and his daughter later fought when the girl took the telephone to bed to wait for a call from her boyfriend. After he found out about this, authorities said, Karo threw the telephone at his daughter. He then argued with Smiling.
Jasmine Karo spent her life in fear of her father, said Patricia Howard of Gloucester City.
"Two weeks ago, she took home a wrong order for her dad at KFC -- she was hysterical,' said Howard, whose 23-year-old son Mallory has dated Jasmine for five or six months. "The kid never had a chance. She is a sweet child. She doesn't deserve to be in jail for first-degree murder.'
Jasmine Karo has been 18 since October. Police chief James said she had never been arrested.
Smiling said both she and Jasmine have spoken with attorneys, many of whom said they would take the case for free.
No hearing has been scheduled.
Local residents are trying to help raise the $200,000 needed for Jasmine Karo's bail.
Smiling said she taught her daughters to be strong.
"She was trying to stand up to him,' she said as the family's Rottweiler -- Jersey -- looked on.
Smiling said Jersey would have protected her daughter if she'd been in the house when the fight began. Neighbors said Karo used to punch the dog as well.
Both St. Clair and neighbor Flo Brophy said Smiling can't be blamed for not standing up to her husband. "You don't understand -- you're made to feel this big,' said St. Clair, squeezing her fingers.
Brophy said Smiling has an alcohol problem and has "failed herself' on many occasions. She also saw this as an opportunity for Smiling to turn it all around.
"She's free,' said Brophy, standing on the step of her Koehler Avenue home.
Smiling has family in the Fayetteville, N.C., area, but said Karo was adopted and she didn't know if he had family. The couple moved to Gloucester shortly after meeting, simply because he knew people in the area.
"He wanted to see snow. He never really saw snow before,' she said.
Standing in her dark, cozy home, Smiling looked around at her daughter's softball trophies and snapshots of the family.
One showed Jasmine as a little girl, smiling next to her father, who sat on a motorcycle.
For a moment, a small smile crept onto Margie's face and then disappeared.
"We used to go on picnics and go fishing,' she said, trembling ever so slightly.
"We've been happy.'
0 comments:
Post a Comment