And not just for your unwieldy given name, apparently Ebonics run amok.
Meechaiel Kahlil Criner, apparently from Texarkana on the Texas-Arkansas state lines, was quoted in a newspaper feature in 2014 when he was a sophomore in high school saying: “Every day I feel people think I’m not capable of much. What I want to leave behind is my name—I want them to know who Meechaiel Criner is.”
According to the Austin police he is a murderer, the killer of 18-year-old University of Texas freshman Haruka Weiser of Portland Oregon, in the first homicide on the Austin campus in recent memory since 1966.
And we may be hearing his name for many years to come. The Supremes, our robed rulers, apparently decided long ago that perps under 18 cannot be executed or given automatic life-in-prison-without-parole. Criner, according to the police, is 17.
UPDATE: His grandmother tells KXAN Criner has a quick, hot temper, such that she always figured he would kill or be killed someday. Guess that’s why she let the state have him, though she is his legal guardian. They had him in Killeen, northwest of Austin, until he ran away. So a likely theory (mine) is that he sought to rob Weiser, she fought back, maybe kicking him in the shins with those heavy Doc Martin boots she was wearing, and he blew up and killed her.
MORE: Instead, the daily’s net site reported on the evening of April 12 that detectives believe Weiser was raped and strangled. They are sending off samples of DNA (presumably sperm) to see if they match any previous sexual assaults around the state. Interestingly, they still think Criner chose Weiser at random, though we may learn later that there was some relationship between them.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 