I am here before you today already a convicted murderer in your eyes. ‘A man that chose violence instead of forgiveness,’ I heard someone say earlier this morning. But really I am nothing more than a father.

Why did I take justice into my own hands? Because he slipped through the cracks and got away with taking my daughter’s innocence. He didn’t even serve a single day in jail. He stole from her. And in doing so, he killed the person she was before.

Ellie was my little Sunshine. Most teenagers are moody, and they don’t want anything to do with you while they figure themselves out, but Ellie was never like that. She was always smiling, happy, and just made the world brighter around her. She wanted to be a veterinarian after college. She had dreams.

He took my little girl’s childhood, freedom, and sense of safety when she was only fifteen years old. And when she killed herself two weeks later, he was the one that took her life. She couldn’t live with the horrors that monster unleashed upon her.

So from your point of view, I am the murderer. But from where I’m standing, I had to be the justice for my little girl, and my only regret is not being able to get to him before she killed herself. Maybe she would have chosen to live if he wasn’t around to haunt her anymore.

Spending every moment of my life in prison would have been worth a moment more of her time alive. I know I’m going to prison now anyway, but at least I know he won’t be haunting anyone else. At least I know there is one less monster is out there. Because in my eyes, he was the murderer.