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“ | I'm sorry for what happened, sir - I really am. | „ |
~ Jake's insincere apology for killing Henry Morton, and his last words. |
Jacob "Jake" O'Hara is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Conscience". He is a 13-year-old sociopath who murders his five-year-old neighbor Henry Morton for fun.
He was portrayed by Jordan Garrett.
Biography[]
Jake O'Hara first appeared when the NYPD's Special Victims Unit start investigating the disappearance of a five-year-old boy named Henry Morton. He tells Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler that he saw Henry the morning of his disappearance. Henry's body is later discovered, the killer having asphyxiated him to death by shoving pebbles down his throat. At first, a convicted child molester named Billy Turner is suspected of murdering him, but he is eventually proven innocent.
When forensic testing reveals Jake's fingerprints on the pebbles that were found inside of Henry's throat, he and his mother Leslie are brought in for questioning. Jake tearfully confesses to killing Henry because the boy witnessed him "accidentally" killing a cat and he was afraid that his mother would send him back to Rhinebeck Survival, a behavior modification camp for problem children that Henry's father, Dr. Brett Morton, recommended he attend because he had started acting out following his father's death. Jake claims that he was burned, cut, and sexually abused by the other boys there. Morton takes pity on Jake despite what he did, and he asks that the boy be tried as a juvenile in family court so he can get help.
However, when Assistant District Attorney Casey Novak and forensic psychiatrist George Huang speak with the camp's director, Dr. Burt Gleason, and the other boys, they learn that Jake had engaged in self-harm, and he was actually the one who cut, burned, and sodomized the other boys, as well as making them watch while he tortured animals. Gleason also reveals that Jake had been expelled from two private schools for arson and violent behavior. Gleason says that Jake is a sociopath and should be institutionalized.
During Jake's family court hearing, Novak interrupts and tells the judge that Jake lied about what happened to him at the camp. Novak asks for Jake to be tried as an adult instead of a juvenile, but the judge declines. When Morton learns the truth about Jake, he flies into a rage and has to be taken out of the courtroom by Stabler and the court officers, while Jake smiles cruelly at him.
Outside of the courtroom, Morton tells Stabler that Jake will kill again once he is released from juvenile detention when he turns 18. As Jake is leaving the courtroom with his mother and attorney, he taunts Morton by "apologizing" in a menacing tone. Jake then begins to walk away, only to turn and give Morton another malevolent smile when the latter calls him a monster. Morton suddenly grabs a court officer's gun and shoots Jake in the chest. Morton is quickly apprehended as Jake collapses to the ground.
Jake is taken to a hospital, where he dies in surgery. Morton is charged with Jake's murder, but he is acquitted after claiming in court that he had been in a delusional state after learning that Jake killed Henry on purpose, and that he did not know what he was doing when he shot Jake. When Stabler and Novak confront him afterwards, Morton, who is protected by double jeopardy from being charged again with the murder, admits that he was completely in control when he killed Jake, having waited for the right moment to take the gun and shoot him. Morton then justifies his actions by claiming that Jake would have killed again, whereas he will not.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Jake is inspired by real-life teenage child killer Josh Phillips.
External Links[]
- Jake O'Hara on the Law & Order Wiki