The Face of America in Year 2015

[kscarbel2]

2 convicted in shooting death of toddler in his stroller

Associated Press / July 16, 2015

Two men charged in the shooting death of a toddler being pushed along a street in a stroller were convicted on Thursday.

The convictions of Daquan Breland and Daquan Wright in the death of 16-month-old Antiq Hennis in September 2013 were announced by Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson.

"The tragic death of this innocent baby is an example of the devastation gun violence can wreak on our communities," Thompson said. "These defendants showed utter disregard for human life, and we will be asking that each of them receives the maximum sentence."

Breland and Wright had pleaded not guilty. Following a jury trial, Breland was convicted of murder and criminal possession of a weapon, and Wright was convicted of criminal possession of a weapon.

Breland, 25, faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison and Wright, 21, faces a maximum of 15 years in prison when they are sentenced next month.

Antiq was shot as his father, Anthony Hennis, was pushing him in his stroller in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. Prosecutors said Wright handed a gun to Breland, who fired several shots. Authorities said Anthony Hennis was the target and the shooting may have been gang-related.

Breland and Wright were arrested in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, the day Antiq was buried. Breland offered his condolences to Antiq's family and said the killing was an "evil act" he has to live with. He told the Daily News from jail that "remorseful doesn't even describe what I feel."

He said he never intended to hurt the toddler.

"I could never do that to an innocent little baby," he said. "It's not in my heart."

So the baby, a human life, died. But the shooter (Breland) who snuffed out the child’s life before it even reached two-years-old will only face a maximum sentence of 25 years, rather than immediate execution (an eye for an eye), settlement for the murder he committed. Just unbelievable.

"It's all a big misunderstanding.........I never intended to kill the baby, rather I was trying to kill the father"

[other dog]

The Maine shooting... just my opinion, I try not to get into religion or politics too much here- I try to keep it light, with "Pictures of the Week" and Winfall Wimmens"- but we, as a nation- again,just my own opinion- are on the fast track to hell. No religion in schools, no religion at the court house, abortion, gay marriage, and on and on...if you do believe in the Bible, like I do, as it says in the old testament, God no longer blessed those nations who turned away from him. And that's where I feel we are now. My opinion, it's time to make your peace with the Lord, because God will turn his back on this nation, and it won't be long coming.

[kscarbel2]

Arizona woman sentenced for murdering her 5-year-old daughter

Associated Press / July 17, 2015

An Arizona mother was sentenced to life in prison without parole Friday for the death of her 5-year-old daughter whose body was never found.

Jerice Hunter was convicted in April of first-degree murder and child abuse in the death of Jhessye Shockley.

Prosecutors said Hunter had a friend give her a ride to a neighboring city so she could dump a suitcase containing the body in a trash bin before telling authorities the child was missing in 2011.

Prosecutors said the girl was beaten, neglected, deprived of food and water, and confined to a closet before her body was dumped. She was never found, even though officers picked through 9,500 tons of garbage at landfills.

Hunter, 41, showed no reaction when a Maricopa County Superior Court judge read the sentence of natural life in prison for the murder count and a consecutive 20-year prison term for child abuse.

Before she was sentenced, Hunter asked the judge for leniency.

"I know I've been made out to be a horrible person and a monster of a mother," Hunter said. "I've been convicted of a horrible crime, which I most definitely did not commit."

Hunter has maintained her innocence since Glendale police identified her as a suspect about a month after her daughter disappeared. Her lawyers said there was no proof the girl was dead.

Defense attorney Candice Shoemaker said Jhessye's teacher and a Child Protective Services agent who investigated the family did not notice any signs of abuse. The lawyer also said none of Hunter's other children had shown signs of abuse at the time.

Hunter was arrested in 2005 with her then-husband on child abuse charges in California. She pleaded no contest to corporal punishment and served about four years in prison before she was released on parole in 2010.

[kscarbel2]

Father, 20, charged with abuse after 'viciously assaulting' his 3-month-old son who is not expected to survive

KTLA5 / July 19, 2015

• Jordan Mendez, 20, was arrested and charged with assault on a child causing great bodily injury/death
• His son was found not breathing when police arrived at a Santa Ana residence on Friday night, authorities said
• Hospital staff observed signs of physical trauma on the baby boy, according to police
• He was taken to Children's Hospital of Orange County in critical condition and is currently on life support

The father of a three-month-old baby boy has been arrested for assaulting his son who was found unresponsive and with signs of physical trauma at a California home.

Responding officers reported to the Santa Ana residence on Friday night where they found the baby not breathing, Santa Ana police said.

The infant was transported to Children's Hospital of Orange County in critical condition where he is currently on life support.

Police said the baby is not expected to survive.

The baby boy's father, 20-year-old Jordan Mendez, was arrested and charged with assault on a child causing great bodily injury/death.

Hospital staff observed signs of physical trauma on the infant and the father was arrested following an interview with detectives, according to police.

Authorities said they arrived at the home at 8.42pm after receiving a report of a baby not breathing.

Officers and Orange County Fire Authority fire personnel performed CPR on the infant before he was transported to hospital.

Mendez is being held at the Santa Ana jail on a $1million bail.

[kscarbel2]

Arizona mother sentenced to life in prison for killing 5-year-old daughter

Reuters / July 17, 2015

An Arizona mother was sentenced on Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for abusing and then murdering her five-year-old daughter, whose body was never found despite a massive search.

Jerice Hunter stared straight ahead as her fate was read by Judge Rosa Mroz at the Maricopa County Superior Court. Her daughter, Jhessye Shockley, disappeared in October 2011 and is presumed dead.

The 41-year-old was convicted in April of child abuse and first-degree murder after a three-week trial in which a county jury heard how she starved and beat the child.

An older sister told the trial how the girl could hardly walk at one point, and how their mother kept the girl locked in a closet. A large blood stain was found in the closet which probably came from the girl, jurors heard.

After the child was killed, prosecutors said, Hunter stuffed her body in a suitcase and tossed it in a dumpster.

Mroz, who took into consideration Hunter's four prior felony convictions for child abuse in California, said she agreed with the jury there was "substantial" evidence that she killed the girl and then "dumped her like yesterday's trash."

Hunter herself initially reported the child missing, and a search organized by authorities drew national attention.

Hunter said at the time her daughter disappeared after she left the girl with her three older siblings while she ran an errand.

The woman was arrested a month later, but was then released without charge as investigators searched a landfill south of Phoenix. Their fruitless efforts there ended after 96 days, having sifted through about 9,500 tons of garbage.

Hunter was arrested again in September 2012 and charged with murdering her daughter.

.

[kscarbel2]

Man kills his 2 step-children and wife in murder-suicide

Associated Press / July 22, 2015

A Georgia man has killed his two stepsons, his wife and himself.

The two children were shot to death in their beds.

Matthew Fields, 32, arrived at his home Wednesday morning and shot his wife, Rebecca Manning, and her 8- and 9-year-old boys, Jared and Jacob Smith.

He also critically wounded Manning's father, Jerry Manning, who lived with the family at the home in suburban Atlanta.

Before Fields killed himself, he called his mother acknowledging what he had done and said he was going to take his own life.

.

[kscarbel2]

South Carolina mother who murdered her kids in 1994 says she's not a monster

Reuters / July 22, 2015

A South Carolina woman serving life in prison for drowning her two young sons in 1994 had planned to kill herself before the public discovered that she had fabricated her story that her boys had been kidnapped.

Susan Smith denies that a relationship with a man who did not want children led her to strap 14-month-old Alex and 3-year-old Michael into the backseat of her car and drive it into a lake.

On October 25, 1994, Susan Smith drowned her sons Alex and Michael in her car, which she eased off a lake boat access ramp

On November 3, 1994, Smith confessed to drowning Alex and Michael. That same day, divers recover the boys' bodies beneath 18 feet of water.

"The only reason I lied is because I didn't know how to tell the people who loved Michael and Alex that they would never see them again," says Smith.

"I had planned to kill myself first and leave a note behind telling what had happened," she said. "I didn't believe I could face my family when the truth was revealed."

.

[kscarbel2]

Father arrested after unconscious son, 7, is placed in a coma after he is found starved and covered in bleach burns

Daily Mail / July 22, 2015

A father has been arrested after his seven-year-old son was discovered unconscious in his family home, suffering from severe dehydration and starvation.

Randall Lints, 26, from East Brookfield, Massachusetts, is now facing a string of child abuse charges after the youngster was taken to hospital and placed in a coma - weighing just 38 pounds.

Paramedics arrived at the house last week after Lints called 911 because the child was unresponsive.

Police say the child had bleach burns on his hands and knees, because he was made to get on his hands and knees to scrub the floor.

They also discovered bruises on his jaw and forehead.

Lints say the injuries were caused by him falling out of bed, but doctors said his explanation wasn't possible.

Lints was arraigned Wednesday on charges of assault and battery on a child with substantial injury, permitting substantial injury to a child, reckless endangerment of a child and permitting injury to a child.

A not guilty plea was entered for him.

He is due back in court Friday where a judge will determine whether it is safe for him to be released.

The child is still in a coma and is 'unresponsive'.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Update: School officials say they warned authorities about 7-year-old's dramatic weight-loss in the months before boy was 'beaten into a coma by his father'

The Massachusetts Department of Children and Families knew 7-year-old Jack Loiselle was being starved by his father, but did nothing, school officials claim.

Administrators at Hardwick Elementary School, where Jack is a student, say they made several reports to child protective services last year, when they noticed the boy was withering away to a mere 38 pounds.

Some of those reports were made just a few months before Jack was hospitalized, following a beating by his father, 26-year-old Randall Lints.

'The school department had on a number of occasions requested the help of the Department of Children and Families,' says Quabbin Regional School District superintendent Maureen M Marshall.

School administrators weren't the only ones concerned about Jack's wellbeing.

According to records, a therapist voiced concern about Lints' insistence on limiting his son's food and water intake as recently as May.

Seven-year-old Jack Loiselle was rushed to the hospital on July 14 after his father called 911 saying he found the boy unconscious at home. Paramedics found the boy starving, dehydrated and suffering bruises to his head and burns on his feet.

While Lints claimed the numerous injuries on the boys' body were caused by a fall from his bed, police investigators didn't buy the story and last month the father was charged with assault and endangerment.

According to court documents, Jack was kept on a tight leash at home where he lived with his father, his father's girlfriend, and her three other children.

Lints installed an alarm on Jack's bedroom door and rarely let him leave.

He also watched the boy's movements inside the room, using a security camera he could access through his cellphone.

Lints monitored his son's activities in 15-minute increments and among the many items that investigators seized home the home were several notebooks labeled 'Jack's Daily Report'.

State Trooper Douglas P Grout wrote in a report that 'Jack was required to stay in his room much of the time with very few toys to play with' and was not allowed in play video games in the living room with the other children.

Lints forced his son to squat against the wall as punishment, and clean the floors with bleach - causing chemical burns.

Additionally he was kept from attending school and doing homework and fed a strict no-sugar diet.

Police say the father limited the amount of liquids the boy could ingest so as to control his 'accidents' in the bathroom.

When he was brought to the hospital earlier this month, the boy weighed just 38 pounds.

Alexandrea Chadwick, mother to Lints' two youngest children, ages two and six months, told police that Jack's strict life was to address behavioral issues.

She claims that Jack started strangling and hitting one of his siblings and badly injured a kitten who later had to be euthanized.

She says Jack would sometimes hurt himself by throwing himself against walls, 'biting his fingers and toes and stabbing himself with a pencil'.

However, Jack's biological mother Amber Loiselle has painted a different story in the press, saying she noticed her son withering away as soon as he started living with his father.

Loiselle told the Boston Globe that her son stopped acting like himself, and lost interest in the treats and games he once found joy in.

Concerned about her son's well being, Loiselle says she filed complaints with the police but they did nothing.

Lints was arraigned July 22 on charges of assault and battery on a child with substantial injury, permitting substantial injury to a child, reckless endangerment of a child and permitting injury to a child.

He has pleaded not guilty and is due back in court on Wednesday for a bail hearing.

.

[kscarbel2]

Louisiana theater gunman kills two and injures seven before turning gun on himself

Daily Mail / July 23, 2015

A gunman opened fire Thursday evening at a movie theater in Lafayette, Louisiana killing two people and finally himself.

The 58-years-old white male was in the audience at the Grand Theatre prior to opening fire.

Seven additional victims were shot and taken to three hospitals.

Layfayette Police Chief Jim Craft said the killer stood up 20 minutes into the show and shot two people sitting in the row in front of him.

As soon as people started fleeing the auditorium, the killer tried to lose himself in the crowd when he saw two police officers.

Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal said one teacher managed to clear the cinema of patrons, while shielding her friend from the gunman.

He said the teacher 'jumped in front of a bullet to save her friend's life', before pulling the fire alarm to clear the theatre.

The two teachers have been named as Jena Meaux and Ali Martin of New Iberia in Louisiana.

According to eyewitnesses Ms Meaux threw herself between the gunman and her friend Ms Martin taking a bullet. Despite being wounded, Ms Meaux dragged herself to the fire alarm to evacuate the building.

Officers have identified the criminal, who had a 'pretty old' criminal history, but have not released his name.

The injuries of these victims range from critical to non-life threatening, and their ages from late teens to 60s.

President Obama meanwhile had just given an interview on gun control to the BBC hours earlier expressing how 'frustrated' he was that the country does not have 'common-sense gun safety laws, even in the face of repeated mass killings.'

(American society is “regressing”, moving away from the signature morals and values that for decades defined America. This massively negative change is able to occur and gain momentum because our government refuses to acknowledge and confront it.

I feel that our government, inherently, bears a significant responsibility in guiding the positive forward development of American society. Our government, by design, is the steward of our great country.

We all know that gun safety laws do not keep guns out of the hands of most people intent on committing harm unto others. Such talk avoids the actual problem, dare I say crisis, we now face in America)

The shooting has drawn comparisons to the 2012 Aurora shooting in Colorado in which James Holmes walked into a theater and killed 12 and injured 70 after opening fire.

He was recently convicted on 24 counts of first-degree murder in that rampage, which occurred shortly after midnight on July 20 - almost three years ago to the day of Thursday's shooting.

Holmes is currently in the sentencing phase of his trial.

(Why was James Holmes not executed for this horrendous crime within 48 hours?

In cases where there is indisputable evidence (over 100 witnesses in the Holmes case) where a human being deliberately took the life of another human being(s), the only rational response is for the murderer to promptly pay the ultimate penalty for his action of abruptly bringing the life(lives) of others to a premature end and causing irreparable damage to their families including spouses and children.

Why would U.S. taxpayers foot the bill for over three years of court processing and prisoner confinement when the individual in question is indisputably guilty of murdering 12 Americans in cold blood?

Only when the government sends out a firm message that such behavior is unacceptable in the United States of America, and will be immediately responded to in kind, can society get back on a healthy course that allows American citizens to live their lives in peace)

[kscarbel2]

Irrational exuberance – US Dentist Pays $50,000 to Slay African Lion

July 28, 2015

Cecil the lion, a famous black-maned resident of Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park, has died at the hands of a U.S. dentist.

American Walter Palmer paid $50,000 to hunt and kill the endangered lion with a bow and arrow.

The incident occurred around July 6, with a professional hunting outfit reportedly luring Cecil outside the boundaries of the protected reserve using a dead animal as bait.

“Mr. Palmer shot Cecil with a bow and arrow but this shot didn't kill him,” Johnny Rodrigues, chairman of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, said in a statement.

“They tracked him down and found him 40 hours later when they shot him with a gun.

Cecil, who was known all over the world, would have earned millions of dollars just from sightseeing."

It wasn’t the first kill for Palmer, who has multiple photos posted on the website Trophy Hunt America showing the Minnesota resident posing with dead lions, rhinos, water buffalo, warthogs, and other animals.

Palmer was the hunter listed on the permit documents, and a spokesperson for Palmer says that Palmer believes he is the one responsible for the lion’s death.

“Walter believes that he might have shot that lion that has been referred to as Cecil,” the spokesperson said. “What he’ll tell you is that he had the proper legal permits and he had hired several professional guides, so he’s not denying that he may be the person who shot this lion. He is a big-game hunter; he hunts the world over.”

Park rangers and regular visitors knew the 13-year-old lion as a tourist attraction, easily approached by safari guide jeeps for photo opportunities. Cecil had a propensity for lounging in the middle of roads, said Bryan Orford, a former park guide and a longtime visitor to Hwange. Hunting such an easy target only made the killing of Cecil even more wrong, he said.

“I used to drive down the railway line road following Cecil and had to wait for him to get off the road,” says Orford. “This walking in front of the vehicle would go on for ages. Other times he would lie in the road, and you had to drive off the road to go around him.”

The death of Cecil not only means one less endangered African lion in the world but also could mean the demise of a whole line of cubs sired by the leader of the Hwange pride.

“The saddest part of all is that now that Cecil is dead, the next lion in the hierarchy Jericho will most likely kill all Cecil's cubs so that he can insert his own bloodline into the females,” Rodriques said. “This is standard procedure for lions.”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ushome/index.html

.

[kscarbel2]

California teen murders 8-year-old girl

Associated Press / July 28, 2015

A 15-year-old boy lured an 8-year-old girl into his apartment and killed her before hiding her body in a recycling bin at the housing complex for artists where they lived, authorities said Tuesday.

Police say on Sunday, Adrian Jerry Gonzalez lured Madyson Middleton into his family's apartment from a courtyard at an artists' complex where they both lived. Once inside, he tied her up, sexually assaulted and killed her.

Police say Gonzalez then hid the girl's body in a recycling bin.

Gonzalez, who police say knew the girl as a neighborhood acquaintance, was arrested on suspicion of murder.

Gonzalez was nearby when the body was discovered, and officers found evidence in the apartment that links him to the slaying, the police chief said.

Prosecutors are considering bringing charges against the boy as an adult, Santa Cruz District Attorney Jeffrey Rosell said.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Update: California girl, eight, died of asphyxiation, stab wounds

Reuters / August 13, 2015

An 8-year-old girl whose body was discovered last month in a recycling bin at a residential complex in the seaside California city of Santa Cruz died of asphyxiation and stab wounds to the neck, officials said on Thursday.

Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office spokesman Lieutenant Kelly Kent said the coroner ruled Madyson Middleton's death a homicide.

Prior to the discovery of her body, she was last seen on the evening of July 26 riding a scooter at the Tannery Arts Center housing complex.

Adrian Jerry Gonzalez, 15, was charged as an adult with lying in wait before kidnapping, raping and killing Middleton.

Gonzalez appeared in court last month but entered no plea, and a subsequent arraignment was scheduled for Sept. 21.

Police said Middleton knew Gonzalez, who lured her to his family's apartment at the center, which offers affordable housing to artists, and killed her.

Gonzalez, who acted alone, concealed her body inside a recycling bin downstairs, according to police.

He was arrested while watching detectives near the bin where Middleton's body was found, police said. Police said the girl was likely killed before she was even reported missing.

Local, state and FBI agents helped by law enforcement dogs searched for Middleton in Santa Cruz, a socially liberal community about 60 miles (97 km) south of San Francisco, and local residents also canvassed the area where she was last seen.

.

[kscarbel2]

Dallas father leaves 2-year-old strapped in car, dies from heat

Boston News / July 27, 2015

A Dallas man has been charged with child abandonment in the death of his two-year-old daughter who was left in a hot car.

Dallas police on Monday arrested 40-year-old Hamuda Raufu in the July 17 death of his daughter, Sekinat.

The girl's parents told police the family spent the day at Fair Park, drove home and went inside and took a nap. They thought all five of their children had got out of the vehicle.

The father awoke and went outside to work on the car, then noticed the girl still strapped in her child safety seat in the back seat of the vehicle.

Raufu estimated the girl was unattended in the car for about an hour, though the exact time is unknown, according to the affidavit.

Police said the temperature was 98 degrees between 4 and 6 p.m., the time-frame police believe Sekinat was left in the car.

Raufu said he took the toddler inside and his wife performed CPR for 30 minutes before they drove to Children's Medical City Hospital in Dallas. (Never called 911)

They arrived shortly before 7 p.m. and the child was declared dead about 30 minutes later. Child Protective Services was then notified.

In a news release, Dallas police said during their investigation into the child's death, 'additional information was developed regarding the circumstances of the child's death, the actions of both parents, and other child witnesses.'

From that, a warrant was issued for Raufu's arrest and he was taken into custody Monday by officers with the U.S. Marshals Office.

A judge set bond at $5,000 for Raufu. (The dead two-year-old’s life is only valued at $5,000 ?)

No other charges have been made at this time.

.

[kscarbel2]

Arkansas judge leaves 18-month-old baby in car, dies from heat

The son of Circuit Judge Wade Naramore, who handles juvenile cases in Garland County.

18-month-old Thomas Naramore was found dead Friday afternoon after being left in a car on a day when the temperatures in that area were recorded as high as 101 degrees.

Police say the child was in the car an "undetermined" amount of time, possibly up to four hours.

Reports have indicated the child was with his father.

The Hot Springs police for days refused to provide a copy of the incident report on the call. When they finally did so, it only contained the time of the call to a possible deceased person report.

Naramore was released after questioning.

Garland County prosecutor Terri Harris requested that a special prosecutor be appointed to investigate the case and that she be recused.

Harris hired Naramore, who she called a friend, as a deputy prosecutor in the county before he was elected last year to succeed a retiring judge.

Circuit judges in the county have also recused from hearing the case.

Scott Ellington, who serves in another jurisdiction, has been appointed special prosecutor for the case.

.

[kscarbel2]

21-month-old toddler found decomposed in crib, father arrested

Associated Press / July 30, 2015

A man who told police he put bags of garbage in his young daughter's room to mask the smell of her decomposing body was granted sole custody of the toddler during a divorce last year.

Eric Warfel, 34, of Medina, a suburb south of Cleveland, was ordered held on a $1 million bond on Thursday after being charged with abuse of a corpse.

He was arrested Wednesday after a cable television technician was allowed inside his apartment to upgrade the service and found the body of 21-month-old Ember Warfel in her crib.

Warfel told police Ember died June 18 and he hadn't informed family members or anyone else about her death.

Warfel put garbage in the dead girl's room to mask the smell and had moved into a motel with a 7-year-old daughter.

Police found Warfel and the girl Wednesday at a shopping center in the Cleveland suburb of Westlake.

An autopsy will be conducted to determine how Ember died. Additional charges are expected, police said.

Medina police said Thursday that a substance suspected to be cocaine was found during a search of Warfel's hotel room.

Warfel and his ex-wife, Malinali Galdamez, had another child who died. Five-month-old Erin Warfel died March 31, 2013, after being taken by paramedics to a hospital while in full cardiac arrest, according to an autopsy report. Her death was ruled as "sudden unexplained infant death."

Warfel and Galdamez married Feb. 14, 2012. A divorce decree indicates the 7-year-old has the same last name as her mother. The girl was removed from Warfel and Galdamez's home before their divorce by the Cuyahoga County Department of Job and Family Services and moved in with Warfel's parents.

Galdamez did not seek any parenting rights beyond limited visitations. There are numerous references in the divorce decree to her substance abuse problems. It was Galdamez's fifth marriage and Warfel's first. Medina Police Chief Patrick Berarducci said Galdamez lives somewhere in New York.

Prosecutors asked for a high bond because they consider Warfel a flight risk. The magistrate said Warfel had previously discussed moving out of state. He told the magistrate Thursday that he last worked for an insurance company in 2012.

The discovery of a young girl's decomposed body in a crib at an Ohio apartment is prompting authorities to take another look at her sister's death two years ago, the Medina County police chief said Friday.

.

[kscarbel2]

Teen suffocates newborn child, then going shopping

Associated Press / July 30, 2015

A teenage girl suffocated her just-born baby boy before putting his body in a shopping bag, then going on a trip to a Victoria's Secret store the next day, prosecutors said as she was charged with murder Thursday.

Tiona Rodriguez, now 18, pleaded not guilty, with her lawyer saying it was a stillbirth, not a killing.

The indictment came nearly two years after Rodriguez was arrested on a $45 shoplifting charge at the lingerie store, where a security guard found the body in a bag Rodriguez was carrying.

Prosecutors said their lengthy investigation revealed a girl who became a mother at 14 and was callously determined not to let anyone know she was having another baby.

"She knew she would be in big trouble if her family found out, so she made a plan — to kill this baby," Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Rachel Ferrari said. "She had derailed her life once. She was not going to do it again."

To carry out that plan, the then 17-year-old Rodriguez went to a friend's house Oct. 16, 2013, delivered in a bathroom, tore the 8-pound boy's umbilical cord with her hands and asphyxiated him, Ferrari said.

In a text message at some point, Rodriguez used a vulgarity to describe the baby and added she'd "dig a hole" and "put it somewhere" adding an "LOL" — online jargon for "laughing out loud" — and "then we go eat iHop," the prosecutor said.

After having her now 4-year-old son — a pregnancy unknown to her family until she went into labor — Rodriguez delivered again in 2012 in her bathtub, Ferrari said. That child didn't survive. Ferrari said that the circumstances of the death are unclear, but that Rodriguez had texted her then-boyfriend about smashing or burning the body to disguise what it was. Ward said that was a miscarriage.

Prosecutors said the latest baby lived at least a few minutes after being born in 2013.

[kscarbel2]

15-year-old mother smothers newborn baby to death

Associated Press / July 24, 2015

A teenage girl has been charged with murder after police said she admitted to killing the baby after giving birth Wednesday.

Police say the teen killed her newborn baby on Abraham Flexner Way at Jewish Hospital, while visiting her grandmother at the hospital.

Police received a 911 call that a teenager had given birth and killed the baby.

The teenager admitted to smothering the newborn to death, putting the baby in her purse, and getting rid of evidence.

The teenager is charged with murder, tampering with evidence, and abuse of a corpse.

The murder took place in a hospital and it went undetected for hours -- until a friend of the teen got a text message from her about noon Wednesday.

"I'm crying so much, please don't tell anyone," the girl read from her received messages.

"I was in the hospital, my granny had another stroke," the teen continued. "So I walked outside and I overheated and now I'm in the hospital and around 4 this morning I pushed out the baby in the toilet. It was crying and opening its eyes and everything. I had to kill it."

The girl said she told her friend to call the police, but the teen replied, "No, what the F. It's been dead since 4 in the morning, I told you I had to kill it."

The 15-year-old mother also sent pictures of the baby to her friend. She told her friend she put her child in the dresser of the hospital room and planned to take her home, find her clothes and bury her.

When she asked her friend to help, the friend called 911.

[kscarbel2]

California grants parole to kidnapper who kept 26 schoolkids hostage buried underground

Daily Mail / July 31, 2015

A convicted kidnapper who kept 26 children and a school bus driver in a buried trailer has been granted his freedom - after the governor of California didn't object to parole.

James Schoenfeld, 63, kidnapped the bus carrying the group then buried them alive in a chilling heist inspired by the film Dirty Harry.

Schoenfeld confessed to carrying out the 1976 crime with his brother Richard and his friend Fred Woods.

He was originally given a life sentence, which was commuted to allow the possibility of parole. This will now be granted to him after almost 40 years in prison.

Governor Jeremy Brown could have denied the recommendation of Schoenfeld's parole board, but took no action.

The passage of the deadline at midnight on Thursday means that the parole process will continue.

The victims of the kidnapping had described the suffering they felt 39 years later in a heartfelt letter to the parole board. They expressed the desire for their captors to remain in jail.

In 1976, the Schoenfeld brothers and Woods took the children, who were aged from five to 14, and bus driver Ed Ray from Chowchilla in the Central Valley to a quarry near Livermore.

There they were held captive inside a buried, ventilated trailer stocked with mattresses, food and water. The victims eventually managed to dig their way out and escaped unhurt.

Richard Schoenfeld was paroled in 2012. Woods was denied parole the same year but may have another parole hearing this fall.

The kidnappers were influenced by the 1971 Clint Eastwood film Dirty Harry, in which the antagonist kidnaps a school bus of children in exchange for a ransom.

The Schoenfeld brothers and Woods lured the bus driver by pretending their white van had broken down on the side of a road.

The bus driver stopped to see if the occupants of the van needed help.

But three masked men, later identified as brothers Richard and James Schoenfeld and Frederick Woods, stormed onto the vehicle, brandishing guns and forced Ray to the back of the bus.

The children and Ray were loaded onto two vans and driven around for 11 hours, during which time the hungry, petrified youngsters soiled themselves and held each other in fear.

The vans were driven to a quarry near Livermore, where the captives were forced into a buried trailer stocked with mattresses, food and water - and equipped with fans and ventilation.

The kidnappers, all from wealthy Bay Area families, planned to ask for a $5million ransom for their hostages.

Their plot, which they had worked on for 18 months, unraveled when they took a nap.

The driver and older boys were able to stack mattresses to a hole in the top of the van. They pushed open a weighted-down metal lid and freed the children who had spent 16 hours underground.

'He was a courageous man,' victim Jodi Heffington-Medrano said of Ed Ray, the driver. 'He kept 26 scared children in line and made us feel safe.'

But even when the hostages started to escape, they feared the men were waiting outside for them, she said.

All three men received life sentences after pleaded guilty to kidnapping charges.

Jennifer Brown Hyde, 48, who was nine years old when she was kidnapped along with her ten-year-old brother described the chilling memory and life long trauma she has endured.

She asked the parole board not to grant James Schoenfeld his freedom. 'I was honestly brutal,' she said. 'I wrote that they buried me alive, they stole my childhood and caused me immense emotional pain over the years. It affected my life, my parents’ lives and my children’s lives.

'For me, it’s having to deal with hatred and anger toward other human beings, and that’s a struggle that almost 40 years later I still have to deal with.

'Until recently I slept with a night light. I have anxiety attacks when I’m in a confined space, and it’s a problem living in the South when we have tornado warnings and we have to take cover in storm shelters... They took away my ability to be free.'

The kidnapping affected Hyde's ability to be a mother to two children since she did not have what she considers a normal childhood.

'You don’t go from being buried alive and thinking you’re going to die to having a normal childhood,' she said.

'I’m fortunate I’m not incarcerated or hooked on drugs, which is how some of the kids dealt with it. I’m as OK as a broken person can be.'

They letting this nut go free and re-enter society??? Seriously???

.

[kscarbel2]

Broken-down motorist murders couple and wounds their daughter after they stopped to help

Daily Mail / July 31, 2015

An 18-year-old Wyoming man who robbed and shot three members of a family after asking for roadside help told investigators he opened fire after one of the victims laughed at him, an FBI agent said in a court filing Thursday.

Jason Shane, 51, and Tana Shane, 47, died in the Wednesday shooting in the small town of Pryor, Montana, FBI spokesman Todd Palmer said.

Their daughter, 26-year-old Jorah Shane, was shot in the back when she tried to run away, and she is recovering in a Billings hospital, the woman's aunt, Ada Shane, said.

The family are reportedly part of the Whistling Water tribe, the Crow Nation's largest clan.

The statement by Special Agent Larry McGrail II was filed in U.S. District Court seeking a murder warrant for Jesus Deniz, also known as Jesus Deniz Mendoza, of Worland, Wyoming.

Two FBI agents interviewed Deniz on Wednesday, and Deniz acknowledged shooting three people with a .22 caliber rifle and then driving away in their car, McGrail's statement said.

'Deniz told the interviewing agents that he shot the victims because he was getting tired of waiting around, and because the daughter had laughed at him,' the statement said.

Deniz is being held in Park County, Wyoming, after police arrested him near Meeteetse, about 120 miles away from Pryor.

A judge's signed warrant would begin the process of returning Deniz to Montana to face charges in the killing.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Carolyn Ostby scheduled an initial court appearance for Deniz on Friday.

Jorah Shane recounted to her relatives the events leading to the shooting. Her mother, Tana Shane, drove by a young man parked on the side of the road who told her he had run out of fuel, Ada Shane said.

'He's only 18, and he looked like an innocent boy,' Ada Shane said. 'Both my brother and sister-in-law have big hearts.'

Tana Shane went by her house, picked up her husband and daughter, and they drove back to the stranded car, Ada Shane said. The man pulled a gun and held it to the temple of 51-year-old Jason Shane.

He ordered the father to stop the car and told everybody to get out, Ada Shane said. He told the family to give him their money, but the family said they had only change because they recently returned from a religious revival in Window Rock, Arizona.

The man told the family to start walking. Tana Shane told her daughter in their Native American language to run.

Jorah Shane told her aunt that she heard a shot, started running then heard bullets whizzing by her head. She fell, heard another shot, and started running again toward a church just as a car was pulling out.

She ran to the car, and the frightened driver leaped out, Ada Shane said.

Jorah Shane jumped in the driver's seat and drove to her house with the shooter still firing at her, the aunt said.

Jorah Shane was later hospitalized. A bullet had grazed her head and she had a gunshot wound to the back. She didn't know as of Thursday that her parents had been killed in the shooting, Ada Shane said.

Related reading - http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/41155-the-us-is-bordering-a-war-zone/

[kscarbel2]

Parents charged with child neglect after their toddler daughters are found wandering around motel naked and hungry, and test positive for COCAINE

Daily Mail / July 31, 2015

Two parents have been charged with child neglect after their lice-infested toddler daughters were found wandering around a motel in South Carolina naked, hungry and with drugs in their systems.

The two girls, aged one and two, were discovered by an unnamed woman walking nude down a set of stairs at a Motel 6 in Chesnee on May 31. They reportedly told the passerby they were hungry.

The woman then alerted staff members at the motel, who provided diapers, wipes and clothing for the toddlers. Workers subsequently spent 45 minutes searching, door-to-door, for their parents.

The girls' mother, Cheryl Leeanne Lynn, 24, was reportedly discovered hiding in the bathroom of the family's motel room, while their father, Andrew Donovan Buff, 28, was also found in the room.

The only available food was a jar of peanut butter, along with two bottles of water.

The girls were taken into emergency state custody and given medical exams. While one of the sisters had pink eye, they both had lice.

Shockingly, the two toddlers also both tested positive for cocaine.

On Wednesday - nearly two months after the incident at the Motel 6 on Jones Road - Lynn and Buff were arrested by sheriff's deputies and each charged with two counts of child neglect.

Lynn has been released from Spartanburg County Detention Center pending a court hearing.

Buff, however, is being held at the facility on a $10,000 cash or surety bond, officials said.

The father of two has a lengthy criminal history, including convictions for shoplifting.

.

[kscarbel2]

Out of control, Baltimore killings soar to a level unseen in 43 years

Associated Press / July 31, 2015

Baltimore reached a grim milestone on Friday, three months after riots erupted in response to the death of Freddie Gray in police custody:

With 45 homicides in July, the city has seen more bloodshed in a single month than it has in 43 years.

Police reported three deaths — two men shot Thursday and one on Friday. The men died at local hospitals.

With their deaths, this year's homicides reached 189, far outpacing the 119 killings by July's end in 2014.

Nonfatal shootings have soared to 366, compared to 200 by the same date last year.

July's total was the worst since the city recorded 45 killings in August 1972, according to The Baltimore Sun.

Crime experts and residents of Baltimore's most dangerous neighborhoods cite a confluence of factors: mistrust of the police; generalized anger and hopelessness over a lack of opportunities for young black men; and competition among dealers of illegal drugs, bolstered by the looting of prescription pills from pharmacies during the riot.

Federal drug enforcement agents said gangs targeted 32 pharmacies in the city, taking roughly 300,000 doses of opiates, as the riots caused $9 million in property damage in the city.

Perched on a friend's stoop, Sherry Moore, 55, said she knew "mostly all" of the young men killed recently in West Baltimore, including an 18-year-old fatally shot a half-block away. Moore said many more pills are on the street since the riot, making people wilder than usual.

"The ones doing the violence, the shootings, they're eating Percocet like candy and they're not thinking about consequences. They have no discipline, they have no respect — they think this is a game. How many can I put down on the East side? How many can I put down on the West side?"

"You can't attribute every murder to narcotics, but I would think a good number" of them are, says Shawn Ellerman, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Baltimore division of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Here’s a thought: Why not have our government establish an effectively “border” around our country’s perimeter, so as to turn off the flow of illegal and crime-stimulating drugs from Mexico and Latin America.

[kscarbel2]

Man shoots neighbor and runs over her with lawn mower

Yahoo News / July 30, 2015

A $1 million bond has been issued for a man accused of shooting his neighbor to death and then running her over with a lawn mower.

According to the Huron County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were called at just after 11 p.m. and told that shots were fired at a home in the 4300 block of Kirkwood Drive Tuesday.

When deputies arrived at the scene, Linda Ciotto, 62, was found with a gunshot wound to the head. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

It was determined that Ciotto was using her lawn mower at the time of the incident.

James Blair, 50, is accused of shooting Ciotto and then running over her left arm with the mower.

Blair reportedly barricaded himself in his home after authorities arrived.

The Mansfield ASORT team and the Richland County Hostage Negotiator’s Team were called to assist Willard police and fire departments.

Blair stayed in his home for nearly five hours as negotiators tried to get him to surrender. Tear gas was then used in an effort to push him out of the home.

He was arrested shortly after.

Blair faces a charge of murder and is in Huron County Jail on $1 million bond.

The case is being investigated by the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, and two search warrants were executed — one for Blair’s home and one for Ciotto’s home.

[kscarbel2]

2 men arrested for shooting and killing 4-year-old boy as he played with stuffed toys on lawn

KTLA News / July 31, 2015

Two men were arrested in the killing of a four-year-old California boy who was shot while playing with a stuffed animal in his family's front yard.

Darron Daniels, 20, and Maurice Kelley, 25, were taken into custody for investigation of murder and attempted murder after Daniel Munoz was killed, San Bernardino County sheriff's authorities said.

Daniel was outside his family's house Wednesday in the inland city of Highland when shots were fired. The boy was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Investigators have not discussed a motive for the shooting. They said Friday they were looking for a four-door, 1990s white Toyota Camry with black bumpers.

Sheriff's deputies declined to provide any additional information. Daniels and Kelley are expected to appear in court on Monday.

Highland, a city of 54,000 people in the foothills 60 miles east of Los Angeles, has been grappling with a rise in violent crime.

Last year, authorities arrested more than 100 people in a crackdown on gangs in the city, the Los Angeles Times reported.

On Wednesday, Daniel was playing with a stuffed bear he called Superman while family members picked fruit and watered plants in the front yard.

His mother, Yuliana Morales, had taken an elder sibling and cousins to an amusement park and promised the boy he could go next time. 'It's my fault for leaving him here,' she said.

.

[kscarbel2]

17-year throws newborn child away into dumpster

Associated Press / July 31, 2015

A newborn baby girl who was found alive in a dumpster in western Kentucky remained in a hospital Friday, and a teenager was charged with attempted murder.

The McCracken County sheriff's office said the baby was in stable condition after being found by a man Thursday afternoon.

"What alerted him was he heard a loud noise outside," Sgt. Darrin Frommeyer of the sheriff's office said Friday. The man said he went outside, saw a young man walking away from the dumpster, walked over to it and heard a baby crying, Frommeyer said. When he opened the dumpster, he found the baby and called authorities.

A 17-year-old boy was detained later and charged with attempted murder, first-degree criminal abuse and tampering with physical evidence, Frommeyer said.

The teen is the boyfriend of the baby's 15-year-old mother, who was taken to a hospital with bleeding hours after the baby was found, Frommeyer said.

The boyfriend confessed to police what happened.

Officials don't know whether the 17-year-old is the baby's father.

The mother lives with her mother and sister in an apartment near the business where the baby was found, and the boyfriend lives with his aunt, Frommeyer said.

The girl's family told authorities they didn't know she was pregnant.

[kscarbel2]

Two brothers murder parents and 3 siblings with hatchet

Associated Press / July 31, 2015

First-degree murder charges were formally filed Friday against two Oklahoma brothers accused in the stabbing deaths of their parents and three siblings.

Robert Davis Bever, 18, and Michael John Bever, 16, were each charged with five counts of first degree murder in the July 22 deaths of parents David Bever, 52, and April Bever, 44, and siblings Daniel Bever, 12; Christopher Bever, 7; and Victoria Bever, 5.

The 18-year-old was 'very forthcoming' during his confession but showed 'no remorse' for the bloodthirsty massacre.

Instead, he told police that the murders were 'just the beginning' of a string of killings planned outside of the family.

The brothers were also charged with one count of assault and battery with intent to kill involving multiple stabbings inflicted on a 13-year-old sister who survived the attack.

First-degree murder is punishable by life in prison or death, but Kunzweiler has said the maximum sentence facing the younger brother if he is convicted of first-degree murder is life in prison or life in prison without the possibility of parole. While the death penalty is legal in Oklahoma, the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005 banned the execution of anyone under the age of 18 at the time a crime was committed.

Officers responding to a 911 call placed from inside an upscale home in the Tulsa suburb of Broken Arrow found blood on the front porch and heard a voice inside crying out for help, authorities said. Officers entered the residence and found the 13-year-old girl lying on the floor with multiple stab wounds.

The assault charge alleges that the brothers used a knife to stab the girl "multiple times with such force that was likely to produce death."

The girl, according to Robert Bever's arrest report, named Robert and Michael Bever as the people who attacked her and the rest of her family.

A 2-year-old girl was found unharmed in an upstairs bedroom and has since been placed with relatives after initially being taken into state custody.

A police dog tracked the two teens into a wooded area behind the family's home shortly after officers arrived on the scene, and two knives and a hatchet were discovered inside the home.

[kscarbel2]

Four relatives beat pregnant Texas girl, 14, into delivering stillborn baby, dispose of remains on charcoal grill

New York Daily News / June 3, 2015

Four relatives have been charged after a 14-year-old girl raped by a family member was beaten and kicked into delivering a stillborn baby which was disposed of on a charcoal grill.

The un-named victim was repeatedly assaulted between January and March 2013 when she eventually gave birth to a stillborn baby at the house in Pleasant Grove in Dallas, Texas.

Lonnell McDonald, 27, Sharon Lee Jones, 45, Cedric Jones, 27 and Cecila McDonald, 25, have all been charged with engaging in organized crime.

According to Dallas News, the 'underlying crime' is aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

The grand jury indictments in this case allege that the deadly weapon was the four defendants' hands and feet.

At the time of their arrest, they were accused of trying to cover up the incident by burning the dead infant's body on a charcoal grill before disposing of it in an unknown location.

According to court documents, the young girl told Dallas Police that she was sexually assaulted by a member of her family in August 2012, but did not report the abuse because she was 'embarrassed'.

The suspects discovered the girl was pregnant in January 2013 and began attempts of forcing the victim to abort her baby.

The victim came forward to police in May 22 when she made a full statement to officers.

According to an affidavit the teen was allegedly given 'multiple doses' of birth control pills as well as emergency contraception pills and cinnamon tablets.

When the pills failed to abort the baby, they are accused of pinning the girl down while Lonnell McDonald 'repeatedly bounced up and down' on the girl as well as kicking her.

The final assault, according to one witness who accompanied the girl to police, lasted six hours, it is said.

It is alleged that the suspects wanted to dispose of the body in case Dallas Child Protective Services came and took away other children from the house because of the initial sexual assault on the victim.

The affidavit claims that Cecllia McDonald told the girl: 'You ain’t about to get my kids taken away from me.'

The attack continued until the girl started bleeding heavily and delivered a stillborn baby about two hours later.

The affidavit claims the infant's body was then burned on a charcoal grill.

According to Dallas News, rape suspect Robert Joseph Cayald, 22 has not been indicted.

He was arrested on charge of aggravated sexual assault and, along with the other four defendants, remains in jail on $150,000 bond.