Live from Washington, D.C. Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Deborah Elkins to the microphone to discuss the horrific story about how an illegal alien murdered her son.
Leahy: And now we are delighted to welcome to our microphones another person who has quite a story here to tell us. Her name is Deborah Elkins. And Deborah, welcome to The Tennessee Star Report.
Elkins: Thank you so much for having me.
Leahy: Where are you from Deborah?
Elkins: Springfield, Missouri.
Leahy: Springfield, Missouri. Home of Missouri State.
Elkins: Yes, sir.
Leahy: Been in the news a little bit lately, hasn’t it?
Elkins: Yes, sir.
Leahy: It’s been in the news about a couple of things. There was a COVID-19 study there that was done. I looked at the study and I thought it was kind of questionable, but that’s not what we’re here to talk about.
Elkins: That’s true. Thank you.
Leahy: But we are here to talk about your story. Tell us your story.
Elkins: (Sighs) On Halloween night in 2018, my son was 22 years old. He had been involved in the drug scene and was in the process of getting clean. He actually had been cleaned up for a little bit. And we had spent some time with him.
Come to find out later, his drug dealer was angry that he had gotten clean and that he was leaving the lifestyle. So she essentially hired a hitman to kill my son. And the hitman turned out to be an illegal immigrant.
Leahy: What happened then?
Elkins: The immigrant was in Middlesex County, New Jersey. He was in jail already for three felonies. Middlesex County is a sanctuary city. They opened the door and let him out. He left New Jersey in March and in October he was in Springfield.
He came in as a tattoo artist and that was how he presented himself. He ended up killing three people in our town. One was my son and one was an individual by the name of Steven Marler who tried to hold the door shut so he could not get in to shoot my son.
He shot Stephen through the head and Stephen hit the ground and was dead instantly. And our son was sitting on the sofa. He came in and shot him three times and then left.
And then he came back and he opened the door and he just unloaded on my son. Twenty-six bullets he shot at our son. We were not even able to get a body back. There was nothing that they could do. I didn’t even get to ID my son. All I got to do was get a bag of ashes.
Leahy: So what became of this killer? The illegal alien killer who killed your son brutally.
Elkins: He is sitting in Green County prison. He is up for five murder charges. He has made a deal with me. Our trial starts on March 28th of next year. It’ll be three and a half years after the murder that we’ve waited.
He is facing those charges and I have agreed to take the death penalty off the table if he would accept a bench trial. So I don’t have to sit through a jury trial. And he has agreed to that. And he should have five back-to-back life sentences.
Leahy: He should have. Is there any doubt that he will be convicted?
Elkins: No, not at all. Missouri in general, but Springfield has no tolerance for this. Our jails are overcrowded anyway, but they will not stand in.
I tell you, the local police department, there was amazing. Within hours, they knew that and he was in custody within just a few days.
Leahy: And yet your son is still dead, and will always be dead.
Elkins: Yes.
Leahy: And it’s just crushing.
Elkins: Yes. Well, people talk about the separated families, I think what we need to look at is, to be honest with ourselves. My son is separated from our family and the ripple effect. His son will never know him. His son was two when he died.
Leahy: Two years old.
Elkins: His niece and nephew will never know him. His only biological brother has no one now he feels. It’s a ripple effect. And yet all our public and all these administration screams are separated families at the border.
Those people choose to separate. They choose to hand their children off to people. They choose to cross that border carrying infants that die. They choose all that. I do not choose to have my son put up and shot 26 times because some girl said something.
The only justification in her case is that he turned around and murdered her the next day because she was grieving my son too much. Six bullets to the head.
Leahy: To the one who…
Elkins: Got him to do it in the first place.
Leahy: This is a very sad situation.
Elkins: Well, you know, she asked for it in my world. I’m sorry, but she asked for it. She hired this guy. She had him put a tattoo on her neck that said, kill or be killed two days before she had my son killed.
Leahy: Now, let me ask you this. You say you have reached an agreement with the killer of your son?
Elkins: Through the prosecutor.
Leahy: Through the prosecutor?
Elkins: Yes. The prosecutors there in Springfield have been amazing. They have worked with me. They’ve kept me informed. They’ve approached me. They approached me when they put life on the table because we are in the Bible belt.
And they said we don’t want this to come to the end. And then somebody to say, no, you can’t kill them. So they gave me that option.
And I talked to all the family involved beforehand, and every one of them said no. If that’s the choice of the court, that’s what needs to be done.
Leahy: Did you have any trepidation as you thought about this taking the death sentence off the table?
Elkins: It’s not something that happened overnight. It was several months. And what people don’t understand, too is my son’s been gone almost three years next month. Every month, I’m in court.
Leahy: Every month?
Elkins: Every month I’m in court. There are three different people that are charged that are involved. But this individual, I will not let him be in court if I’m not there because he’s going to see my face every time he’s in that courtroom.
Leahy: Are you able to do anything else in your life except deal with this issue?
Elkins: Oh, yeah. By the Grace of God, I get up and go to work every day. My husband goes to work every day. And our employers are gracious. Let me off for all the court hearings. They’re compassionate. They give me a room to go and cry in if I need to.
Leahy: And I imagine that happens fairly frequently.
Elkins: It does. But you know what? I have a purpose in life and that is to be my son’s voice.
Leahy: Deborah Elkin thanks so much for joining us. Your story is very powerful, very moving. We wish you God’s speed.
Elkins: Thank you.
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
