Man Pleads Guilty to Murder of Mother

[casmith07]

The reason I post this one is because I know this kid. He was one of my Soldiers last year right before I switched from the Platoon that I held and took on a more supervisory role in the maintenance section. Never had a problem with him, and myself and my platoon sergeant understood his issues and worked hard with him to keep him interested in free trips to Six Flags and other things offered by the base - tried to help him balance his life and surround him with good Soldiers and encouraging leadership (his personnel file coming in had some red flags in it).

When he transferred out of our control and into the hands of new leadership, we tried to transfer over all of the face-to-face counseling forms that we had done and tried to speak with the incoming commander about him to ensure he knew what kind of person that he was dealing with, and the progress we had made to getting him on the straight path instead of the unit that he came from, which was riddled with problems (prior drug positives, etc).

He blew us off, saying that in all his years in the Army he just "****ed 'em up if they **** up."

Our guy came up hot for marijuana, cocaine, and meth all on one UA about a month after transfer, and then subsequently started showing up late for work (he was never late before...in fact he was early most of the time) and he also started struggling in his physical fitness.

Lo and behold, next thing we know he's AWOL, and then the story broke in the news and the local news was all up in our face about it at Fort Benning.

Makes me really upset, because he could have been alright. In a weird twist of fate, my now former commander, the person that I think is indirectly responsible, is behind bars. But that's another story.

ANYWAY, enough backstory. Here's the story now.

Man Pleads Guilty to Murder of Mother

An AWOL soldier from Austin who shot and killed his mother made a deal in court Friday to keep him off death row.

It was an emotional day in court as the family of 22-year-old Travis Baczewski watched him admit to killing his mother last year. However, he did not explain why.

It was an unthinkable act and according to his father, Steven Baczewski, the murder has left a hole in his heart.

"I hate what he did, what he did was horrific ... but he's my son," said Baczewski.

Travis Baczewski had joined the Army after struggling with drug addiction and psychological issues. He returned home after going AWOL.

"There are issues beyond our control, that were beyond our control, and some issues that we just didn't see and some that we did, but as I said when he got into the regular Army and through boot camp and his regular job, we thought he was doing fine,” said his father.

Violetta Baczewski was found dead in her Manchcaca home. Investigators say she was shot in the head while she was asleep.

Her son was later caught by US Marshals at a hotel in the town of Alamo. Travis Baczewski had little to say while in court except that he understood his plea deal.

Judge Mike Lynch sentenced him to 50 years in prison on a downgraded first-degree murder charge.
No one knows his reason for the murder, not even his own attorney.

"30 years of practicing law, I've never seen a case like this, I've seen every kind of case there is, the inexplicable, that's it,” said attorney Bill White.

Family members called the 22-year-old a "disgusting coward" in court Friday morning and said his mother loved him, but hated his drug abuse.

"Just watch your kids, watch what they watch, be involved in their lives," said Steven Baczewski. "Don't leave it up to the school system to raise your kids, parents have to be parents. We tried that with Travis -- obviously there were issues beyond our control. Some that we didn't see, some that we did."

Travis Baczewski will have to serve at least half of his 50 year sentence before getting a chance for parole.

http://www.myfoxaustin.com/dpp/top_stories/Man-Pleads-Guilty-to-Murder-of-Mother-20100716-ktbcw

 

[Maikeru-sama]

Question, when you go AWOL, can you go to jail for that or does the Military just kick you out and slap a "dishonorable discharge" on your record?

Also, if it is appropriate for me to ask, you mentioned that the guy had drug problems, did he ever have any issues with his Mother?

 

[casmith07]

Question, when you go AWOL, can you go to jail for that or does the Military just kick you out and slap a "dishonorable discharge" on your record?

Also, if it is appropriate for me to ask, you mentioned that the guy had drug problems, did he ever have any issues with his Mother?

When you go AWOL, your duty status is listed as AWOL for 30 days. If you come back within the 30 days, you can actually stay in and just get punishment, either in the form of an Article 15 (where your commander levies discipline) or you can go to jail, just depends on who's calling the shots.

After 30 days, you become "Dropped From Roll" or DFR. This is when the unit actually stops looking for them and the Army stops their pay (usually guys come back when they realize the check isn't coming on the 1st and 15th anymore, lol)...they used to call them deserters in the old days. However, you end up going on a sort of national registry that says you're AWOL, and if police pick you up or you're caught, you actually get sent back to the unit you went AWOL from...we had a guy get sent back to us that was AWOL for 3 years, and when I got back from Iraq there was a guy that was AWOL for 5 years that just decided to show back up. When this happens you get processed for a discharge, but usually "other than honorable" not "dishonorable." OTH isn't any better than dishonorable though, except some employers consider a dishonorable discharge just as good as a felony, haha.

AS for the other question (sorry that was long) there was nothing to indicate that he had any problems with his mom whatsoever. Completely baffling - he never spoke ill of his family or his parents. They think he's got some serious psychological problems and him getting hopped up on meth just made him flip out.

 

[Tusan_Homichi]

My guess is that sooner or later, he wasn't going to have a support net to keep him from doing something like this. It just ended up happening now. You guys were doing a good job in basically keeping him "distracted", but the moment he didn't have that, he went right off the deep end it sounds like.

I'm no expert though.

 

[casmith07]

My guess is that sooner or later, he wasn't going to have a support net to keep him from doing something like this. It just ended up happening now. You guys were doing a good job in basically keeping him "distracted", but the moment he didn't have that, he went right off the deep end it sounds like.

I'm no expert though.

It's possible. We did all we could and it worked for a while, but who knows.

 

[SaltwaterServr]

It's possible. We did all we could and it worked for a while, but who knows.

The thing is you personally tried while others did not. Says a lot about somebody. Not all souls can be saved, but it doesn't make it any less tragic when they are lost.

 

[TwoCentPlain]

"Travis Baczewski had joined the Army after struggling with drug addiction and psychological issues. He returned home after going AWOL."

The LAST person the Army needs is a nutjob with mental and drug issues BEFORE joining. Why does the military take these people? Who in their right mind would take someone with a red-flagged past of drug and mental issues and teach them how to be a warfighter. Hey, let's throw gas on a fire. I wonder what will happen.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not blaming the military (I'm assuming the military is not looking for any warm body they can get). The military is not for everyone. The military can't help demented individuals and shouldn't even try. And this demented individual could in NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM aid the goals of the military as a warfighter. In fact, he would only most likely poison others around him or do something stupid in the battlefield and get others killed. What kind of commander would arm someone like this and send him to battle? A negligent one imo.

Fortunately, he didn't do any harm to his fellow warfighter or the war effort, in general.

Just a thought in hindsight for you to consider: You may feel good about trying to help this guy. But, in doing so, you may have put other soldiers in harms way. Perhaps, it would have been best to get him out of the Army ASAP and get other people (i.e. civilian doctors) to counsel him.

 

[casmith07]

"Travis Baczewski had joined the Army after struggling with drug addiction and psychological issues. He returned home after going AWOL."

The LAST person the Army needs is a nutjob with mental and drug issues BEFORE joining. Why does the military take these people? Who in their right mind would take someone with a red-flagged past of drug and mental issues and teach them how to be a warfighter. Hey, let's throw gas on a fire. I wonder what will happen.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not blaming the military (I'm assuming the military is not looking for any warm body they can get). The military is not for everyone. The military can't help demented individuals and shouldn't even try. And this demented individual could in NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM aid the goals of the military as a warfighter. In fact, he would only most likely poison others around him or do something stupid in the battlefield and get others killed. What kind of commander would arm someone like this and send him to battle? A negligent one imo.

Fortunately, he didn't do any harm to his fellow warfighter or the war effort, in general.

Just a thought in hindsight for you to consider: You may feel good about trying to help this guy. But, in doing so, you may have put other soldiers in harms way. Perhaps, it would have been best to get him out of the Army ASAP and get other people (i.e. civilian doctors) to counsel him.

The only issues that we knew he had was one prior positive urinalysis for marijuana usage, which is quite common with the younger Soldiers, and he had some negative counseling statements from his previous unit about being late, lazy, the standard stuff that you kind of expect from a 18 or 19 year old Private.

The reason why we were so active with him was that our unit was and still is known for having bad apples - with someone coming in brand new, you already can see a few of those pattern behaviors in his file (lateness, etc) that could cause him to fall right in line with the other knuckleheads that are getting chaptered out. So you either take an active role to try and help or you just let him roll with the rest of the losers.

Trust me, if we would've known that he had serious psyche issues, we would've had him see the behavioral health doctors on base and if necessary got him sent out for inpatient treatment. Hundreds, probably thousands of potential Soldiers each year mask their problems to get through the recruiters too...he probably knew that with his problems he wouldn't have gotten in. Hell, we had a Lieutenant that I worked with that bragged about spending 10 years in college playing in a band getting high on a daily basis, and how he it was so hard for him to "sober up" before going to the recruiting station so he wouldn't come up hot on the UA because he "loved weed like I love my wife."

Pathetic.

 

[Maikeru-sama]

 

[arglebargle]

The thing is you personally tried while others did not. Says a lot about somebody. Not all souls can be saved, but it doesn't make it any less tragic when they are lost.

True words...

You never know when and how you will make a difference for someone.

 

[Bob Sacamano]

except some employers consider a dishonorable discharge just as good as a felony, haha.

Can't a dishonorable discharge even keep you from being able to vote?

 

[casmith07]

Can't a dishonorable discharge even keep you from being able to vote?

I'm not sure, but I think it does. I'd have to look that up.