Jason Keel Sweeney, a construction worker from Fishtown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 16 years at the time of his murder, was murdered by four teenagers for his paycheck on May 30, 2003. The perpetrators, including a girl he was dating and his best friend since childhood. The manner which Sweeney was murdered, the ages of the teens involved, the seeming indifference of the perpetrators, and crime received national media coverage.
Murder
Jason Sweeney left school and was working for his father, a contractor on a building project in Philadelphia. Sweeney met a girl he liked, 15-year-old Justina Morley, with whom he had a date on Friday, May 30, 2003. Unbeknownst to Sweeney, Morley was engaging in sexual relations with two other 16-year-olds, Nicholas Cola and Edward Batzig, Jr. Batzig was Sweeney's best friend since fourth grade. Nicholas Cola and his 17-year-old brother, Domenic Cola, was also friendly with Sweeney, but the two brothers ended their friendship with Sweeney.
With the promise of sex, Morley lured Sweeney to "The Trails," a wooded area of Fishtown near the Delaware River, where Batzig took the first blow, striking Sweeney in the head 4 to 5 times. Batzig and the Cola brothers pummeled Sweeney, primarily in the head and face, with a hatchet, a hammer and a rock until he was dead. Batzig later confessed to how he hit Sweeney with a hatchet 4 to 5 times. According to Batzig, "Sweeney begged for his life, but we just kept hitting him." Batzig also goes on to say that Sweeney looked at him during his beating and said, "Please stop, I'm bleeding," but Batzig continued to hit Sweeney again with a axe. They finished the job by dropping a rock on the side of Sweeney's head. Sweeney's head was crushed and the only bone left undamaged was his left cheekbone. He was identified by a cut on his hand that he sustained at his construction job.
After Sweeney's murder, the four assailants stole the $500 cash Sweeney had earned from work. The four perpetrators, the Colas, Batzig and Morley shared a group hug and split the money, where they bought jewelry and illegal drugs—heroin, marijuana and Xanax—then "partied beyond redemption", according to Domenic.
Domenic Cola confessed in a court hearing that they were all involved in the Sweeney's murder. police said the murder was planned days before after listening to The Beatles' song, "Helter Skelter" nearly forty times, drawing a parallel to the Manson family murders. Joshua Staab, 18, a friend of Domenica Cola, said the group bragged about their plan to kill Sweeney by using Justina Morley as "bait." Staab also said that Batzig knew Sweeney would have his paycheck on him the day of the murder. When the prosecutor asked Staab the teens' demeanor after the killing, Staab said, "They seemed pretty fine. In a way, happy."
Despite the fact the teens were drug addicts, the four teens were not high before they murdered Sweeney. When the detective asked whether they were high during the murder, Domenic Cola answered, "No, I was as sober as I am now. It is sick, isn't it?" according to a detective and a forensic psychologist later suggested that the killers' motivation went beyond robbery stemming from envy and resentment of Sweeney's relative success in life.
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