DailyMail.co.uk:  The trial of a suspected 14-year-old American citizen hitman started in Mexico today under tight security.  Edgar Jimenez, known as El Ponchis - The Cloaked One - is suspected of the gruesome murders and beheadings of at least seven people.  He is believed to have worked as a hitman for Morelos drugs gang, based just outside of Mexico City.  The boy was caught late last year as he attempted to flee to the US, having boarded a plane in the city of Cuernavaca.  The army said he was with his two sisters, one of whom was reportedly the lover of a cartel boss.  They were apparently trying to get to Tijuana on the US border, to then travel to San Diego where their mother lives.  One of his sisters, aged 16, was also allegedly involved in the criminal gang.  She apparently disposed of her brother's victims by dumping the bodies on streets and freeways, officials said.  Another teen sister accompanying them is not suspected of being involved with the cartels.  If found guilty, Jimenez faces a sentence of three years - the maximum allowed under Mexican law because of his age.  The trial is expected to last about three weeks.  A video shot by CNN in December showed the boy being interrogated by Mexican military authorities after his capture.  In the video, an interrogator asks, How many have you killed, as Jimenez responds, 'four.'  The soldier then asks, How did you execute them?  The boy calmly adds, 'I slit their throats.'  'I participated in four executions, but I did it drugged and under threat that if I didn't, they would kill me.'  Jimenez and his siblings were living in a poor neighborhood of Jiutepec, a working-class suburb of Cuernavaca, known as a weekend get away for Mexico City residents.  The area has an industrial area with Nissan, Unilever and other factories and has rustic single-level concrete homes and some farms.  Many youths have been used by drug cartels in their bloody battles against the government and each other, but the story of El Ponchis may be the most shocking.  A You Tube video that emerged last year sparked talk of a child hitman by some to be as young as 12.  After he was captured, Jimenez said he was kidnapped at the age of 11 and forced to work for the Cartel of the South Pacific, a branch of the splintered Beltran Leyva gang, and that he had participated in at least four decapitations.  Mexican newspaper La Razon reported last month that El Ponchis was paid $3,000 for each murder he committed.  

Commentary:  As I look into the eyes of this child (his crimes are those of an adult, but he is still a 14-year-old child), I see a 'void' in his eyes - no life.  I see misery - no hope.  How do children go this way?  Since when have we ever heard of such goings on?  We are truly living in the last days and it is evident, if you just look around yourself.  The indicators are spoken of in the news daily.  This tragic story reminds me of this scripture, "Know this, that in the last days perilous times will come.  Men will be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, covenant breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those who are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God" 2 Timothy 3:1-4.