Teen Killers: A Second Chance?; Interview with the sister of Daniel Rabago in Eugene, Oregon

Well I mean we're going to have some street noise here anyway. So. Listen. Yeah. All right. Let's come back. OK. Right. Right. Because. I. Think. That. You. Keep looking to make sure I didn't call. OH NO. OK. All right take me back to that night when Dan had all of his long hair cut off. I want to get some sense for. What it what it felt like when that was done. Talk right to me. And. When I come in and I was getting ready to have a haircut and because he was. My mom I thought that it would be better for him and make him look better also. And after the haircut. He was very angry took off and went into the bathroom and I went

down with him. And sat and talked to him for. About an hour and a half in the bathroom. Trying to calm him down make him realize why mom wanted his hair cut. And. He was still very angry and I gave him a hug and a kiss and I told him that you know I said you do look better with short hair but I do understand why you're angry. Because this car you know with me I would prefer to be left alone. And. Be the way I want to be also. And he he seemed to calm down after that and he didn't go out and talked to mom after about an hour and a half and. Said that he was sorry for getting so angry and I understood why my mom did it. That he didn't like make it known that he was angry. So in retrospect how traumatic event do you think that way. I figured it was very traumatic on him despite the anger and he cried for him pretty much the whole time in the bathroom which is something I never seen him do. You know he's a normal man they just don't cry. He cried and he was hitting the walls.

And. You. Know i took me actually holding him down to read to. Listen to me so he'd listen. When he finally did. And it took me a good long time to calm down. Watch. What's your sense of where he was with this whole. Death Metal shape. What was going on with him. Have you got some other. I'm. Going back to when they first moved here and he started into school. I didn't notice much of a difference. But then again I was just newly married and had my own kids and things and so I didn't get as close as I used to be with him. And I noticed that when he come to visit me and. You know. He didn't come very often to see me but when he did he was very distant very quiet. And I'd. Him What. Was wrong. He didn't really say much other than I'm fine. After he started in junior high is when I noticed you know him playing the loud music like my older brother used to do. And. He.

You're. A long time but you're doing. OK. I guess we're all trying to. Understand. Where this kid was at this time. What's going on in his head. Chapnick. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that when he after he moved here you know it was hard because in California that's where his friends where his family was and they moved him here and it was like a whole new ballgame because he was born and pretty much raised in California. And when they moved in here. He. Thought he'd do OK because the fact that you know the rest of us were here too. And. He seemed happy until he went to school and that's where we noticed that he started getting into a group of kids that were a little bit different you know but to me when I was in high school my parents thought everyone was different too. So.

And then once he got into high schools when I noticed that I'd go and visit my mom and he was constantly in his room with the door shut. Listening to the loud music and playing his guitar very unsociable because he usually would come out and talk to me. He became just living with me. Well I'd like to get your take on what you think happened. That night. What what what do you think made Dan. For kids you. Kill one person and try. I. Really I. Couldn't tell you. I don't know I. Asked him. Personally. Why and he said even he doesn't really know. I think just a lot of anger build up from. His childhood. And the anger that he felt during school time when he was having problems with people there and relating sociably to other people. And then it just all came out. And. You know over a period of

time it just came up and. I don't think he really realized even when he was doing. When he went in there that night. Do you know much about the history of Daniel and his father here. And you talk about that a little bit of their relationship and whether there was any feeling of what happened. There was ill feelings. Due to the fact that Matthew was the youngest and. Daniel was kind of. Soft with them because they're not going to hear my question. So you have to. I was like OK. Just mention. Just. The brother of the shooter might just sort of by talking about the relationship between dad and this is real. OK. OK. Your dad and his father he. Felt outnumbered and you know he didn't have. A lot of attention from him. You know he didn't. Do a whole lot with him. And. There was a lot of. Abuse when my

mom was at work and I was there I would do the babysitting when he'd come in. You know Daniel couldn't walk across the street with me and when he did you know I came in especially when I came in and he grabbed him and took him by the hair down to his room and locked the door so I couldn't get in and I ended up running into the dishwasher on my way to get him you know to try and help. Get him away from the father. And. I explained to my mom what had happened when she got home. And there was times like at breakfast time he'd make a large amount of. Food for him and would take tablespoons. So down his throat till he was choking. You know those kinds of things. It. Got really bad at times. And there was there was a time where I lived with my mom and then that was that I was about it here. That's when I noticed how a lot of that kind of thing going on. And then in with. TTG. Jane with my father and. I was only up there. On visitations in the summertime. So during those years. You know. I talked to him and.

Kind of get an idea of what was happening. So if you're thumbing through. Family albums some time and you look at the pictures of dad of six seven or eight years old. And you thumb through real fast two pictures of Dan in prison. What. What happen. When Daniel was a young kid he was a sweetheart. I mean we did things go into the park together. I mean. When when you look at him then he didn't look like a person that would never hurt anybody. At all. All the way up even into junior high even when he was having problems he never looked like the type of person that would hurt anybody. You know when I visit him in jail I don't see that that angry person I see a smart intelligent. Loving person. Still. I've never seen. The angry person that maybe somebody else might have seen I always see the brother from when

he was little all the way up till now. I still see the same person. But he's in prison for 12 years. That's. True. Now as a sister how. How do you see the relationship between Dennis are. So strong. I think it's a very. Unique relationship. And I hope to see that it hangs in there through this time I know it's very hard on both of them. With Daniel not being able to see her and you know Sarah being on the outside and not being able to see him I think you know it is hard on both of them. And. It's neat though because when when he you know when we talk about her he smiles and I think to see him smile considering you know. Being in jail itself it's got to be depressed. And. In an unhappy place for him. You know I'm going to ask you to say that again. But don't mention her name. Oh

sure. So just use that. Yeah just give me can give us some sense of how you feel about the relationship which each other just so profound. And. I feel that the relationship between Daniel and his girlfriend is very unique. In the way. It's nice to see that smile at least when we see him in jail. It's you know he's smiling. Where he doesn't usually when we just talk about you know ordinary things. And I hope to see that. They'll make it through these 12 years. It hard on him and it's hard on her. One final question. The last. One. What are you. What do you wish for Dan. When it is all over and he walks out a door somewhere. What what's your best. Hope.

I hope that Daniel will be able to. Get out of prison and. Come out to be a good citizen and. Be able to get a life that he. Didn't even realize that he lost in those 12 years. I hope to see him be able to get an education and get a job and have a good relationship with his girlfriend and hopefully see him get married and just see him or him. Change his life from what he was two to who he is now and use the intelligence that he does have. To make it make a better life for him. Oh I know when you hear it or enough. No I didn't think so. I wasn't here. I just heard about it. And you were here in a nightmare.

I mean know I should like to. The. Point you want to make. Is. Basically the only thing. Is. What your list of what he's done I guess. Let's talk about that. I mean but let's face it he's she's got to label the rest of his life. It's called. A. Dress. That. Granted when he comes out. Of prison that he sees them and be labeled as is a killer. I would only hope that that people. And other citizens would open their eyes and maybe realize that there might have been. A different part of that story that they really haven't seen or a person that they haven't given a chance to. Come back and be a good citizen you know they need to give them a chance to change his life too. Granted what he did was wrong we know that. But then again he also knows that too. And he's he's changing his life. Being in jail he's he's completed high

school he's he's going on to further education. And I think that when he gets out he'll he'll be a good citizen. Spoken for my sister. I think I'm done. Than. Once. Boy that's. A hard one Lansberry you know. That's the 64 million dollar question. I guess. That. You. Have about the whole the whole area. Forgive me if it's possible or. Probable or. It was something that needed to happen. Because. When it comes to Daniel

deserving forgiveness I think everybody in this world no matter what they've done wrong. He deserves forgiveness for. For. No matter what it is. You know. Give him the opportunity to prove himself is who he is now and not who he was then he was 16 years old. And a lot of 16 year olds are naive and they don't think about what they're doing. That. In the future it dawns on him later that they were wrong. So I'm hoping that people will forgive him for what happened and what he did. And some sense for the severity of. The sentence should be the punishment for. The crime. Which. I feel that. The. Sentence that he got. Is. Is adequate. For. His mental state. You know this I can say it heard and start over again and again. OK. I just. Keep forgetting one thing and. You know we wanted just some sense for how you feel. Was the sentence.

Truly lenient. Wrong. Right. That. I feel that the sentence that he got was adequate. For. What he did for the party he took place in. During the crime itself. And. I feel that that will give him also the opportunity to get his life straightened out and maybe get the help that he needs to. Get his mind where he could focus on on real life instead of. A nightmare. Even answer. If we're done. Then we said we get out the door. Don't I guess I want to come back one more time to. The haircut. I just happen to think that's a big deal.

Rushlight. That. Still hasn't cut his hair. No. She still. And. That's why he should use hairspray. Yeah stuck in my head. My. Hard to wash them. Anyway. No I just want to hear from you. Why you have long hair. Why are you still here. And I'm really. Talking about it. That's. Really. What. We've got over so that's. Why. I'm here. Why why why did we have one here then. What is your show. OK. Why. Because. You can. Everybody else goes there very often. They take it all the way down throws out the cut short and long cut it off and let it grow. That was the same. Thing.

With Daniel. I think that the long hair was it was a symbol of the group that he was in is kind of how I looked at it it was just they all had long hair. And. I. Remembering back to then right after I was getting out of high school and that was a lot of the guys were starting to grow their hair out. And I think it was just a symbol of the time that for him to continue to have long hair I think is his way of saying this is who I am and this is who I want to be. This is what I look like. And this is how I feel better myself. I think because why he's never cut his hair. It's just his way of saying this is me. And. My. Haircut. And the haircut you know with it being his symbol or his way of being who he is. When they cut his hair it just took away his personality. It took away his. Self-confidence. Is what I noticed especially when I was talking to him in the bathroom it took a lot out of who he really was.

And like I told him it will grow back. And he said that was his intention was to come back. So. It just took his spirit away. Do you think it made him hate his mother. Hating my mom when he. I don't think my mom really could do anything. That he never had. I know that he knows. And after I got done talking to him. He realized that that haircut was. My mom was looking out for his best interest. And it took a lot of talking for me to realize that yes he was angry. And I don't think he ever hated me. Because it wasn't something that was permanent. He knew. The. Foster stuff and probably never used that word on camera. What. I thought is interesting. The night of the crime he came. When.

I was. Sure. I got real close to her. Talk. To me. When I am actually the night that that then flashed on the news. I was talking to my mom. On the phone because I was. In Washington at the time. And she says you know. She says Oh my goodness you know she says you never believe this. What's matter. She says they just have they have a newscast on TV and she says I hope your brother hurries up and gets home again sort of looks kind of like him and the guys that they were with. And. She is but the way they were saying the kids were she says I know it's not your brother and I know we never do anything like that. And and. Then again I talked to her a year later and she says she called me crying saying I guess I was wrong. What. Is wrong there. Yeah. We're done. OK.