In paperwork filed in California in 2006, Carlton W. Purviance, Phd., stated that Jerice did not, in her view, torture her 7 year old daughter. She did admit she was guilty of “whipping my (7-year-old) daughter too much for stealing.” She goes on to say “I was told she was bleeding from the marks from the extension cord.” “That’s how I was raised by my mother (Mrs. Shirley Johnson) and she did the same thing to me.” Dr. Purviance states that the defendant (Jerice Hunter) wept and it was clear that she understood that she had behaved wrongfully, just as her mother had behaved wrongfully during her childhood and formative years. Ms. Hunter continued to elaborate, “I whipped my daughter like she whipped me, but I do want to say to you that I don’t want my daughter to feel towards me like I feel towards my mother”. “I hate her guts”. “She’s evil”. “She’s one of those people who should have never have had children…she’s a good actress, too.” In regards to the allegations regarding her other children, Ms. Hunter remarked; “There are alot of lies being told by my kids, CPS and my mother.”.
The last line to me tells the story. She was still in denial of beating her other children. I am not going to tell the whole story here, only the story she told about her mother, Shirley Johnson. Here is the link to all the papers. The charges on the first page cannot be read, too blurry, but in other papers it outlines the abuse. That has already been told, but this about Shirley Johnson, hasn’t. I think it is important to see that although, according to Dr. Purviance, that Jerice did what was done to her, this is not to excuse or even try to have anyone understand her behavior. At the end, she knew, California knew and Shirley Johnson knew, she had an rage problem that only involved her children. Why she ever got them back is something I believe needs to be answered by the state of California. As you will be able to see, at the time this report was written, her children were in the states care. I have not seen how they ended up with Shirley Johnson, and how she had the right to send them to Glendale with Jerice. That fact is another one that needs to be explained.
The following is word for word taken from Dr. Perviances’ statement of what is said about Shirley Johnson and how she affected Jerice’s mode of disciplining her children. It talks about Jerice being one of three children born to Shirley and her husband. What the parents did for a living and so on. Here are the statements made about Ms. Johnson;
The mother (Shirley Johnson) was described as having a serious problem with crack cocaine, PCP and various prescribed drugs. Around your clients (Jerice Hunter) 6th year her mother began to physically beat her. The authorities were aware of this violence and abuse, and the defendant’s two younger sisters were removed from the home, sometime later and placed in foster care and group homes. The defendants parents separated when Ms. Hunter was 10 or 11-years-old after the father grew weary of the mother’s violence (“she kept stabbing him”) As the years went by the abuse intensified. One vivid example was recalled when mother took a spike-heeled shoe and beat the defendant about the head with it. Her scalp was lacerated and probably required professional medical care. Instead “she patched it up herself and had me lie about how I got it”. Ms. Hunter is not certain when she was sexually molested by (this will have to be read on the statement, this is a criminal charge that, as far as it is known, has never been filed, so I will leave this out ), however she wasn’t able to summon the courage to tell her volatile and abusive mother until she was 14-years-old. Predictably, she was not believed by the mother. The most recent mother-daughter episode occurred in 2001 when the mother threw an object at the then 27-year-old defendant and hit her in the head with it. Your client left home at 17 after an episode described this way “She came home on drugs. She was high. She started beating me. I was pregnant (with her now 14-year-old son) and the father stopped her from hitting me in the stomach with a broom stick. When he did that, she threw me out of the house.
Around the defendants 18th birthday, she began smoking marijuana, and over the years developed a dependency upon this substance. She states she stopped using “the day after Christmas” because she was about 2 months away from delivering a baby. She has most recently worked at a local grocery store as a clerk and stocker, however in July 2005 she sustained a work-related injury and has been off on a Workmans Compensation disability. Following her arrest on the matter the defendant was in custody at the Fairfield jail for about 2 months before she was bailed out on December 22, 2005. She told me she was shocked to recently learn that her husband (and co-defendant) is a registered sex offender. She told me she has no plans to ever reunite with her husband.
There is a Mental Status Examination which can be read in the papers seen when clicking the link above. It concludes that she has “adjustment disorder with mixed anxiety and depressed mood. The last line and the Summary and Conclusion, are really relevant to this case with Jhessye.
The last line is as follows; “There is a deeply-imbedded rage in this person which is primarily directed at the mother”
The Summary and Conclusion reads in part and again the entire Summary and Conclusion is in the papers which can be read by clicking the link: .”In part, the daughter became the focus of the anger and hatred that resides in the defendant, directed primarily at the mother”.
“At some juncture, Ms. Hunter will need a spectrum of psychological treatment services. She will need psychotherapy to help her come to terms with her intense hated of her mother. She will need to acquire some anger management tools in general. She will need a series of parenting classes to help her acquire more healthy and productive methods for disciplining and for caring for her children”.
There is so much in these statements, it is overwhelming. You want to feel for Jerice, but at the same time, that little 7-year-old knew nothing about why her mother was so violent. This doctor in his last statement speaks of Jerice getting her children back, when he talks about her needing parenting classes. What is wrong with these people. Shirley Johnson said that Jerice had parenting classes, but what about the rest?
Actually it does not matter, whatever she had did not work. She treated her children just like she was treated. If she had not learn to understand that, while she was supposedly receiving all this treatment, it might go like her last trial. They said she understood the physical and emotional damage she inflicted on her children. So she knew, she knew she had not gotten whatever help she needed to deal with the hatred of her mother. She knew that she still had that rage and that she was not able to control it. She knew all of this when she got her children back. I am not sure the date she moved to Glendale, but she was released from prison in 2010. A year later, she kills Jhessye. I believe that if they can get these papers into court, this is going to be one of the strongest pieces of evidence. I am not sure they will allow it, but they should. I probably will be kept out, because we would not want the jury to know this is not her first time for excessive child abuse. It is just her first time to murder a child, that we know of. While this explains her rage, it does not excuse it, nor does it excuse Shirley Johnson’s giving those children to her.
This is a sad family. I still believe that some of Jerice’s memories are only to help herself. I do not know if Shirley Johnson abused her or not, but it would not surprise me to learn it was not the way she explained it. These are papers that are made public and Shirley Johnson has a right to defend herself. I am not sure she has ever tried, but if she would like to, I am sure any media service would be glad to allow her to tell her side. This is what her daughter said.
Jerice Hunter does not need any more classes or therapy or psychobabble, she has proven that this does not work. I believe that she will say or do anything to make herself look better. She will play whoever is trying to help her, play them like a fiddle. She played the public and the media, when she whined about people looking at her past instead of looking for Jhessye, she played us again with her crying and promising Jhessye that she would find her. She played us when she stated that she wanted a lie detector test but they would not give her one because she was pregnant, then she says that is all she has wanted was to take one. She might be a player, but she got outplayed by her own mouth. The police knew she was lying about the test, she said she cooperated, the police knew she lied about that. So when the police saw that she was lying, they knew it was not above her to be lying about Jhessye. They just had to be patient and let the children see that they were safe and that she was not going to be able to get them. The children were so brave to be able to tell the police what happened. The fear they all had to have felt, seeing Jhessye and knowing they could be next if they said or did anything to make Jerice mad.
Watch for Jerice to use the line she used with Dr. Purviance about the allegations of abusing her other children. I look for her to use it because it sounded so good to her. There are alot of lie being told by my children and CPS. I doubt that she will include her mother, because her mother is standing by her. If Shirley Johnson did not do these things and does not know what those papers said, she may not stand by her for long. Even if she is guilty of all that Jerice said, that is not an excuse by a long shot. Jerice has abused her children before, and in the papers it says what I said not too long ago. George Shockley stopped her from beating the little girl anymore. As vile as this man must be, being a registered sex offender, he might have saved Jhessye’s life.
That is another story that does not make sense. While it is true, he held the little girls wrist while Jerice beat her, he is still in prison. Is that one of the other strange details of the case in California? What else did he do that earned him more time than Jerice. It would not be shocking if he was still serving time for his part and she gets out 4 years early.
California let her go, without any restrictions, no probation, unrestricted parole. They at some point gave the children to Shirley Johnson who gave the children back to Jerice. Ms, Johnson said during the search for Jhessye that she believed that Jerice had turned her life around and was taking good care of the children. Well, Jhessye will never have the chance to become a mother, good or bad and those girls who are in the states care will have to undergo help so that they do not carry on the seemingly, family tradition. Whether Jerice will try and blame Jhessye’s death on her mother, is yet to be seen. If they do not let these papers in, I would not be surprised at all, that even though her mother has defended her, she will turn on her in a split second. She will do or use anyone she can to get out of this. It will be very interesting to see who she tries to blame this time.
The paperwork is so jumbled, it is impossible to link to a certain page. It is a pfd, the link is to all of the paperwork.