They say things tend to come in threes. In the case of Western New York's criminal justice system, that certainly appears to be true.

First came the case of Mo Hassan, convicted of battering and beheading the mother of his children and ultimately turning a courtroom into his own personal circus as he represented himself in the case.

If the public thought nothing could top the horror of a beheading trial, along came the case of Riccardo McCray, who was tried and convicted of murdering four people outside City Grill last year.

It would have seemed like easy money to bet that nothing would top a mother beheaded and four innocent people gunned down in the street.

Enter Luke Wright.

The 32-year-old North Collins man was convicted April 20 by a jury of committing unspeakable acts against his 23-year-old half-sister, Laura Cummings. Among the sadistic acts he inflicted: burning Cummings with scalding-hot water; tying her to a chair and physically abusing her for extended periods of time; withholding food; and repeatedly raping and sodomizing her.

Wright's lawyer tried to sell the jury on his client's lack of mental stability, loosely painting him as a victim in the case and one who couldn't reasonably be held accountable for his actions - no matter how horrific they were. Fortunately, the jury wasn't buying it and returned a guilty verdict, making it three consecutive cases where some of the most vicious individuals I've seen in my lifetime were convicted of unimaginable crimes.

While much of the Wright case focused on the nature of the crimes and the "house of horrors" that he, his half-sister and mother, Eva Cummings, lived in, there is another issue that has been at times overlooked: Why didn't anyone step forward to save the life of a mentally disabled young woman who was unable to fight for herself?

If you've ever been to North Collins, it is the epitome of small-town, rural America. People know their neighbors. The community is small and close knit, and an atrocity of this magnitude should not have gone unnoticed. The problem is, it didn't.

People knew, lots of them - neighbors, townspeople, relatives, friends of the family. The escalating abuse over the years was at times reported to authorities, but for the most part, it appears people simply looked the other way while a disabled girl was slowly and methodically used, abused, tortured and eventually murdered. What does this say about our society? Have we fallen this far as to act with utter indifference toward another human being just because they may not be related to us?  

As this horrific story broke and eventually gained traction in the media, the townspeople of North Collins spoke out in frustration, saying that good people were being mislabeled as uncaring monsters who let this happen. While I wouldn't go that far, it is certain that people could have done more. How often do we see cases of people acting with indifference because they "don't want to get involved."

How many people knew about the abuse that took place in the Hassan home? Yet it continued until Aasiya's death. How many people know when a friend, neighbor or co-worker is being abused or a child is being victimized? But we look the other way. We don't want to make accusations, we don't want to get involved in other people's business, and we don't want to appear to be nosey. So we ignore the signs. We turn a blind eye and people suffer and, too often, die while those who could have stepped in and made a difference stay on the sidelines.

If you want to see a graphic example of this indifference to life, visit You Tube where you will find a disturbing number of news reports about people being hit by cars, suffering heart attacks in public and, in one case, being stabbed in broad daylight. In each case, others walk by the dying person without breaking stride. They continue their cellphone conversations, finish their hot dog and carry on, breezing past a fellow human being in need.

With that as a backdrop, I guess what happened in North Collins shouldn't come as any great surprise. The bottom line is, there is plenty of blame to go around in the death of Laura Cummings. Her mother will die behind bars. Now, hopefully, her half-brother will, as well. As for the police, social workers, neighbors and others who didn't step in and stop the abuse and help save a young girl's life, their inaction says a lot about what is so wrong in our society today. And it is a sad commentary on the value (or better yet, lack of value) we put on another person's life.

Matt Chandler: mchandler@bizjournals.com