Kriti Mehrotra
It was actually way back in December 2016 that Turn-About Ranch first came into the spotlight owing to the brutal murder of James “Jimmy” Woosley, way before the expose of the troubled teen industry began. However, as explored in HBO Max’s ‘Teen Torture, Inc.,’ even this is an example of how such institutions are not nearly as equipped as people believe them to be to protect not just their staff but also the youth.
Jimmy Woolsey Was Bludgeoned to Death
As a 61-year-old native of Garfield County, Utah, Jimmy honestly led a happy, stable life as a husband, father, and ranch hand when everything turned upside down. According to his loved ones, he believed it to be his life’s purpose to help others, so when he got a chance to work at the Turn-About Ranch uth facility near his home, he gladly took it up. But alas, little did he know that on the morning of December 6, 2016, he’d be beaten to death with a metal bar just as he checked on a group of teens sitting around a fire to soothe themselves on that cold day.
According to official records, Jimmy’s assistant didn’t hesitate before attacking the elderly staffer, hitting him over and over again before stopping and just standing over his body. However, the ordeal wasn’t over – when another staffer, Alicia Keller, rushed in in the hopes of helping, the teen hit her hand and head, too, before grabbing the former’s wallet and keys and running away. When Jimmy’s truck didn’t start, Alicia handed him her own keys so as to ensure he would leave, unaware he’d lead the police in a high-speed chase through the rural residential area until they were able to stop him.
Jimmy Woosley’s Was Killed By 17-year-old Clay Brewer
It was only when Clay was arrested from the vehicle that his identity became public knowledge, especially as he never once denied his actions in any way, shape, or form. However, he did concede that he’d arrived at the ranch a mere five days prior as a suicidal prescription pill addict and was going through such serious withdrawals he cared for nothing and no one. In fact, he admitted that he’d drank bleach the day prior, and when he woke up, he felt heartless. That’s also why he had shown a finger gun to officials following the car chasing, hoping they’d believe it to be a real weapon and shoot him to death.
In other words, Clay was suicidal – but since it didn’t make his actions okay, he was charged as an adult with aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, aggravated robbery, and failure to stop at police command, along with misdemeanor counts of tampering with evidence, reckless endangerment, theft, and reckless driving. It turns out there was a time this teen was an “all-American boy,” who loved his family, was funny, and had a deep passion for basketball, only for it all to vanish following his parents’ divorce when he was 14/15.
As per records, Clay took the divorce so hard that it changed him completely – he fell into the wrong sort of crowd and began drinking and smoking marijuana before ultimately becoming addicted to pills. That’s when his parents decided to send him to Turn-Around Ranch in the hopes it would save him from himself, only for his suicidal ideations to become worse there because of withdrawal and other environmental conditions. As per his mother, the teens enrolled at this ranch were not allowed to wear shoes despite the terribly cold month and were given very little food for sustenance despite working all day in the fields.
Clay Brewer is Currently Incarcerated in State Prison
Despite Clay’s past and actions, when it came time for him to face court roughly two years later, in 2018, he took full responsibility for his actions by pleading guilty to the lesser counts of murder and aggravated assault. Then, during his sentencing hearing, he sincerely apologized to Jimmy as well as his loved ones, expressed genuine regret, and went as far as to say that he’ll now live his life in the way his victim did to keep his memories alive. “I really pray that one day I can meet you and say this to your face and apologize from the bottom of my soul,” he said. “And you may accept my apology not because of my words but how I lived my life after I have taken yours.”
Since Clay had gotten clean in the span of these two years, and it was evident that his actions were driven by his addiction and mental health issues, despite their heinousness, he was sentenced to five years to life in prison. Therefore, today, at the age of nearly 25, the Arizona native is incarcerated at the mixed-maximum security Central Utah Correctional Facility in Gunnison, Utah. He did seemingly become eligible for parole a while ago, but neither his release date nor his release type is currently specified in his Utah Department of Corrections Records.
Read More: Hannah Archuleta: Where is the Turn-About Ranch Survivor Now?
