Pubdate: Sat, 08 Apr 2006 Source: Post-Standard, The (NY) Copyright: 2006, Syracuse Post-Standard Contact: http://www.syracuse.com/poststandard/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/686 Author: Paloma Esquivel, Contributing writer Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) MURDER VICTIM'S MOM SPEAKS TO STUDENTS Darlene Tallman urges Shea pupils to consider choices, help make difference. Almost four years after her son Eric was beaten to death in a drug-trafficking scheme gone bad, Darlene Tallman still makes his favorite food, macaroni and cheese with stewed tomatoes, on his birthday. She still wears his earring and sleeps in a quilt made of his old clothes. She's kept every newspaper article written about her son, about his killers, about his death. Friday, the pictures, quilt and articles were displayed in the auditorium at Shea Middle School in Syracuse as Tallman told some 80 eighth-graders about her son's death. "Please pay attention to my words," said Tallman, an English teacher at Shea. "I'm paying the ultimate price and my husband is paying the ultimate price." She asked pupils to consider that the choices they make can affect others for a long time. Her son, Eric Tallman, 24, was beaten to death Nov. 27, 2002, over a drug deal and was mauled by a pit bull at a mobile home in Dryden. Authorities said his killers thought Tallman had stolen 50 pounds of marijuana from a smuggling scheme to bring the drug from Texas to Central New York. Three people were convicted in Eric Tallman's death. "How did this happen?" Tallman asked the pupils. Tallman told the pupils her son started having problems in middle school. He hung out with a "bad crowd." At 16, he was arrested for stealing a car stereo, she said. "I watch a lot, I listen a lot and I know many of you have the same kind of pain inside of you," said Tallman, who lives in Cayuga County. In a neighborhood plagued with drugs and violence, Tall-man said she wanted to give Shea pupils a different perspective. She asked the pupils to return to their communities during spring break and find a way to make a difference. Several pupils said they were moved by Tallman's story. Demetria Boatwright, 14, said she would remember that the wrong choices can deeply affect the lives of others. "He was making the wrong choices and just not thinking about how it would affect his family," she said. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman