{"id":30604,"date":"2013-02-07T22:24:38","date_gmt":"2013-02-08T06:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.57.196.122\/~gdatwofo\/theavtimes\/?p=30604"},"modified":"2013-02-12T14:51:41","modified_gmt":"2013-02-12T22:51:41","slug":"1-year-anniversary-vigil-for-james-mcelroy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2013\/02\/07\/1-year-anniversary-vigil-for-james-mcelroy\/","title":{"rendered":"1-year anniversary vigil for James McElroy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Loved<\/a>
Loved ones paid tribute Thursday night to James McElroy to mark the one-year anniversary of his death.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PALMDALE \u2013 Family members and close friends gathered outside the Parkwood Patio apartments Thursday evening to remember James Fitzgerald McElroy<\/strong>, the 21-year-old man killed inside his apartment exactly one year ago.<\/p>\n

\"Sister<\/a>
Sister Meelisa McElroy holds a collage of McElroy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe came out here for a memorial to let him know we still think about him every day,\u201d said mother Clemmie Graves. \u201cThis is something to give us some peace in our hearts.”<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really hard in the beginning, but now I just feel right about where he is,\u201d said sister Meelisa McElroy.<\/p>\n

“Forever in our hearts James F. McElroy. We love and miss you!” read one sign.<\/p>\n

Family members embraced and shed tears, as\u00a0they recalled fond memories of McElroy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard not to just want to pick up the phone and call him and talk to him,\u201d said aunt Sonia Tran. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t here for the holidays, his daughter\u2019s birthday is coming up and he won\u2019t be here. It\u2019s been really tough on the whole family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no healing process, it will never be the same,\u201d Graves added.<\/p>\n

On the night of Feb. 7, 2012, Graves received a frantic call from her son\u2019s girlfriend and rushed to\u00a0the apartment in the 38000 block of 20th street east in Palmdale. She found her son struggling to breathe with a gunshot wound to the mouth, and she pleaded with him to stay alive as he squeezed her hand.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Less than an hour later, McElroy was gone. (Read more here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

That night, authorities detained McElroy\u2019s roommate, Nicholas Harper<\/strong>. Harper told deputies he shot McElroy by accident, saying the gun went off as he was cleaning it. McElroy\u2019s family members vehemently disputed this conclusion.<\/p>\n

\"Clemmie<\/a>
Clemmie Grave says she will continue going to court until she gets justice for her son.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They said Harper had been jealous of McElroy because McElroy appeared to have everything going for him, while Harper\u2019s life was in a downward spiral. A week after the shooting, Harper was charged with murder.<\/p>\n

Harper pleaded not guilty on April 3, 2012. After a preliminary hearing on May 9, Harper was ordered to stand trial for murder.<\/p>\n

Since then, there hasn\u2019t been much movement on the case.<\/p>\n

At Thursday night\u2019s vigil, Graves said she was getting frustrated with the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re just barely taking it to pretrial. The public defender is trying to find any reason to prolong the case,\u201d she said. \u201cThe DA tells us to just let it play out so we can get everything right, so the conviction is there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graves said she was angered to find out\u00a0that her son\u2019s killer had been socializing on the Internet.<\/p>\n

\u201cNicholas has a facebook and he\u2019s socializing from prison. He\u2019s giving his address out for people to write him and there\u2019s nothing they can do about it,\u201d Graves said. \u201cHe\u2019s able to talk to his family and see his kids, but we\u2019ll never see [James] again, and I don\u2019t think that\u2019s fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

She vowed to continue going to court until Harper\u00a0is convicted.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son is\u00a0looking over us and I know that he\u2019d want me to do this for him,” Graves said. \u201cI\u2019m the only one who can speak out for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harper remains jailed on $2 million bail and is due back in court on March 3, 2013.<\/p>\n

Related articles:<\/p>\n

Man pleads not guilty in roommate shooting death<\/a><\/p>\n

Man charged in roommate murder, bail set at $2 million<\/a><\/p>\n

Family seeks justice for man shot dead by roommate<\/a><\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PALMDALE \u2013 Family members and close friends gathered outside the Parkwood Patio apartments Thursday evening to remember James Fitzgerald McElroy, the 21-year-old man killed inside his apartment exactly one year ago. \u201cWe came out here for a memorial to let him know we still think about him every day,\u201d said mother Clemmie Graves. \u201cThis is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":30605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[719],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30604"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}