The Face of America in Year 2015

[other dog]

http://www.livetrucking.com/robber-brutally-attacks-female-truck-driver-in-pilot-travel-center-parking-lot/

[Super Duty John]

Bloody hell how much worse does things have to get before government officials stop farnarkeling around and bring punishments up to fit the crime outrageous the whole show

those poor kids

Paul

Till we have a real Attorney General and President that cares about America, it's been almost 7 years of hell here....

Edited October 4, 2015 by Super Duty John

[kscarbel2]

Woman kicks 17-month-old toddler to death

Associated Press / October 3, 2015

A Washington woman has been arrested after kicking her boyfriend's 17-month-old son to death.

Alicia Joni Goemaat, 20, of Seattle admitted to police that she became so angry following an incident on Sunday that she kicked the young boy, Drue Lehto, in the stomach, knocking him down.

She told police that she then kicked him again apparently causing fatal abdominal injuries.

Goemaat was arrested on Thursday for second-degree murder.

A week prior to his death, Drue was treated at Seattle Children's Hospital for 'bruises and scratches that did not appear to be normal for a toddler'.

On Sunday when Goemaat was caring for her own toddler son and her live-in boyfriend's son, the boys argued over a toy.

She later admitted to authorities that she so got angry she kicked Drue in the stomach, and the victim was dead when his father, Derek Lehto, returned home from the store.

A police report stated Goemaat, who is currently booked at the King County Correctional Facility on a $1million bond, would frequently scream at the child.

Friends of Goemaat and Lehto also told investigators that she would become 'extremely agitated' when Drue cried and would 'physically punish him' by spanking or flicking him on his body when he cried.

According to the police report, Goemaat, also struggles with drug addiction and attempted to commit suicide on Wednesday.

.

[kscarbel2]

Bronx mother tosses newborn baby out 7th floor window

Associated Press / September 30, 2015

A Bronx newborn didn’t live long enough to get a name — or a chance.

The helpless baby girl, minutes after drawing her first breath and still alive, was tossed to her death from a seventh-floor Bronx apartment window by her mother, police and prosecutors said.

The dead infant’s umbilical cord was still attached.

Jennifer Berry, age 33, was charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter after an autopsy determined the death was a homicide caused by multiple blunt-force trauma.

Berry told police the baby was delivered inside the apartment shower.

The baby’s father was in the apartment when the killing occurred. Giovanni Johnson, 28, said “I didn’t know (about the pregnancy).” He told police Berry had been pregnant months ago, but she told him she had had an abortion.

[kscarbel2]

Third Cleveland child killed in recent weeks

Associated Press / October 2, 2015

A 5-month-old girl who was shot in the chest on Thursday has died, according to police in Cleveland, Ohio.

The death of Aavielle Wakefield marks the third fatal shooting incident involving children on Cleveland's east side in the last month.

Wakefield was in a car with her mother and two males when someone opened fire into the car.

On September 4, 5-year-old Ramon Burnett was killed in a drive-by shooting outside his home.

On September 15, 3-year-old Major Howard was gunned down inside a car.

In addition, on September 19, 10-year-old Dante Padgett Jr. was shot and wounded in a car while his father was killed.

In a call to 911, a woman told the dispatcher that "someone was shooting at our car and they shot the baby.".

Wakefield was brought to Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Cleveland police said they do not have a suspect or even a description of the shooter or shooters at this point.

This should not be happening in our city," said an emotional Cleveland police chief Calvin Williams. “Another innocent child in our city has been taken from us, basically by thugs in the street who want to carry out this vendetta against each other,” Williams added on Thursday. “Our innocent babies get caught in the crossfire. It’s enough. Enough is enough. When are we going to stop counting babies killed out there.”

Cleveland police detective Rhonda Gray said Friday that the citizens of Cleveland must step up to help find those responsible. "It's time for Cleveland to speak up," she told reporters after recounting her previous evening comforting Aavielle's distraught mother. "There are people who know what happened. There are people who saw what happened. There are people who heard what happened. And it's time for them to speak up. They can call me personally in the homicide unit."

The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office has offered a $25,000 reward for information that will lead to the arrest of those responsible for Wakefield and Padgett's shootings.

Accidental shootings took the lives of at least 100 children across the US in the year following the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in December 2012, a report found in June 2014.

A study published in January 2014 found that about 7,000 children ages 19 and younger were hospitalized or killed due to gun violence each year, while 3,000 per year die from a gunshot before making it to a hospital.

Ohio's infant mortality rate, meanwhile, is one of the highest in the United States. For African-Americans, Ohio ranks the worst for infant deaths among all US states, according to a report released last year by the Ohio Department of Health. The state's overall infant mortality rate ‒ 7.4 deaths per 1,000 live births ‒ is 23 percent higher than the national rate.

Cleveland was the site of a police shooting that killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice in November 2014. Rice was at a recreation center park, playing with a toy handgun designed to look like a real firearm. The toy gun lacked the orange safety feature visualization to show that it was, in fact, a fake. When two police officers responded to the scene, one fired almost immediately at Rice, who was black, fatally wounding him.

[kscarbel2]

Woman sentenced to 8 years for murdering 3-week-old newborn

Associated Press / September 10, 2015

A 23-year-old New Britain, Connecticut woman who was charged with manslaughter in connection with the death of a friend's infant daughter was sentenced to eight years in prison Thursday.

Janell Campbell previously entered no-contest pleas to charges of second-degree manslaughter and risk of injury to a child.

Campbell and her young son were at the baby's house and stayed into the early hours of Dec. 5. Campbell and the baby's mother were friends, and the warrant says they had been drinking alcohol at the house with another friend that night.

At some point, Quintero's mother left Campbell with the children while she and the other friend went to the store, the warrant says. The child's mother told police that she left her daughter with Campbell for 15 minutes, and that when she returned, Campbell came out of the bedroom holding her unresponsive child.

The child's mother told police that when she questioned Campbell about what had happened, Campbell would not respond and only said, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry."

Campbell told police that she was "very drunk" and that the child "slipped out of her hands onto the floor." She told police she then picked up the child and laid down with her on the bed, but did not check her for injuries.

"Campbell stated that she didn't know why she didn't check the victim after she hit the floor and that was stupid."

Police who went to the infant's home found an empty 24 pack of beer, two empty bottles of tequila and part of a marijuana cigarette in the kitchen.

A doctor at Connecticut Children's Medical Center told police that the child's skull had been shattered by blunt force trauma with compression. An examination by the medical examiner's office showed that the child's injuries were consistent with being dropped and then fallen on, the warrant says.

The baby, identified by family members at a previous court hearing as Jaleah Jayde Quintero, was 3 weeks old.

[kscarbel2]

Mother murders 10-month-old son

Associated Press / October 6, 2015

A Fort Worth woman who first said that her 10-month-old son died last year after falling off a bed is now accused in his death after confessing to investigators.

Shakira Bickerstaff, 23, was arrested Tuesday afternoon in Arlington on a capital murder warrant after admitting she shook her infant son, Lamont, hit his head on a table and then covered his mouth to get him to stop crying, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

Bail was set at $1 million.

Emergency crews were called to Bickerstaff’s residence in the 2200 block of Amanda Avenue about 11:30 p.m. Aug. 19, 2014, after Bickerstaff’s boyfriend discovered the baby unresponsive on the couch.

Lamont, who had what appeared to be numerous abrasions, scars and bruising on his body, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Bickerstaff initially told police that she had put Lamont on the couch about 8 p.m. after bottle feeding him. She said she didn’t know how her son died but mentioned that he was always falling off the bed, Detective W.S. Adams wrote in the affidavit.

In an interview two days later, Bickerstaff told Adams that Lamont had fallen off the bed and hit his head earlier in the evening after she went to throw away some diapers. She said she returned to find him whining with his left arm behind his back. She said he had also been hit in the mouth with a toy.

“Shakira said she didn’t do anything to him, and that she didn’t see the obvious bruising, scratches, and scars on Lamont’s face,” wrote Adams, who works in the Crimes Against Children Unit.

Bickerstaff’s boyfriend told police that he didn’t want to blame Bickerstaff for hurting Lamont but that he had seen her be angry and rough with the boy. The boyfriend told police that Shakira would complain about Lamont’s crying and how she didn’t want a son and had planned to give him up for adoption when he was born, the affidavit states.

Bickerstaff’s confession

In May, after extensive tests, the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office ruled Lamont’s death a homicide caused by “battered infant syndrome.”

Bickerstaff agreed to be interviewed by Adams again on Oct. 1 to go over Lamont’s injuries, including a fractured skull, bleeding on the brain and bruised face.

Bickerstaff gave varying accounts of what she thought might have happened to her son before she finally confessed, telling the detective that she had shaken her daughter, 2 at the time, who walked away dizzy.

Bickerstaff said she stopped when Lamont began crying but then began to shake him again.

“Shakira said that she shook him harder, and struck the back of his head on the table located in front of the couch,” Adams wrote.

Asked to demonstrate how hard she hit Lamont’s head on the table, Bickerstaff tried to duplicate the hit using the doll.

“She hit the doll’s head numerous times on the table, and said that she couldn’t hit the table as hard as she did with Lamont’s head, because the doll was plastic,” Adams wrote.

Confronted with the fact that bruising on the boy’s face would not be caused by light tapping, Bickerstaff acknowledged holding her hand over Lamont’s mouth.

Bickerstaff said that after Lamont began to “drift away,” she laid him on the couch with a pillow on top of his head because he liked it dark.

Asked if she believed she ultimately caused his death, Bickerstaff told the detective she thought that her shaking had killed him.

Since Lamont’s death, Bickerstaff has given birth to another child, which CPS placed in foster care. A court then placed that child in the care of a relative.

[kscarbel2]

Parents charged after infant found dead in out-of-gas car

Associated Press / September 30, 2015

Police have charged a couple with endangering their three young children, including a 5-month-old girl found dead when they ran out of gas driving her to a hospital.

Ambridge, Pennsylvania police said the home where 27-year-old Tariq Taylor and 21-year-old Katreona Mathews were staying was not fit for their kids.

"There was just nothing there to care for the children," said Lt. Brian Jameson with Ambridge Police. "No food, no bottles, no formula, no diapers, no wipes. And there was drug paraphernalia around everywhere."

That paraphernalia includes hypodermic needles, drug stamp bags, and a cooking spoon, police said.

Taylor and Mathews have not been charged for the death of their baby, Kourteny Taylor.

Autopsy results are pending, and police say more charges could be filed depending on how the child died.

Police say the couple told investigators the child wasn't breathing so they tried to get to the hospital. But Ambridge police believe the child had been dead for about eight hours before that happened.

Taylor was already jailed on an unrelated warrant before being charged for endangering the children. Mathews was captured Wednesday afternoon.

Authorities said the car the couple first tried to drive to the hospital had been reported stolen from Pittsburgh, and there was a sawed-off shotgun in the trunk.

Mathews and Taylor are scheduled for preliminary hearings in front of a judge on October 9th.

[kscarbel2]

Georgia mother arrested after meth found in body of her dead 4-month-old

Associated Press / September 29, 2015

A Newnan woman was arrested Saturday after toxicology reports revealed a high amount of methamphetamine in the body of her dead 4-month-old child.

Jasmen Nicole Hazelrigs’ two surviving children — ages 2 and 4 — tested positive for the drug as well.

Coweta County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Col. James Yarbrough said deputies initially responded to a 911 call at Hazelrigs’ Crawford Circle home in Newnan on the morning of Sept. 7.

Hazelrig’s 4-month old daughter, Harmony Breeze Hazelrigs, was found unresponsive.

Roommates had made repeated attempts to wake Hazelrigs by banging on her bedroom door before entering the room to find the dead infant, Yarbrough said.

An exact cause of death has not yet been determined, but Yarbrough said the fact that the deceased child and both of its siblings tested positive for meth was enough to arrest Hazelrigs on three counts of child cruelty.

The 22-year-old woman was also charged with possession of meth after the drug was found in the bedroom she and her children shared, Yarbrough said.

Authorities were waiting on blood and hair analyses to come back before charging Hazelrigs, authorities said. She is being held at the Coweta County jail without bond.

The two surviving children are in state custody. Yarbrough said the Division of Family and Children Services had previously “looked at” Hazelrigs “for the living conditions of the children.”

[kscarbel2]

Yet another toddler left in car to die

Fox8 / September 24, 2015

8-month-old Jayce Markell Benjamin, of Garfield Heights, Ohio died after being left in an SUV for nearly ten hours.

Jayce's mother, Katrell Johnson, instructed her 10-year-old brother to put Jayce in his car seat around 7:50 a.m. Wednesday.

Then the grandmother's boyfriend drove seven children, including Jayce, to school and to a day care center.

The boyfriend forgot to take the 8-month-old toddler into the day care with other kids.

He drove back to the shared family residence, and the grandmother then drove the SUV to work at 10:15am, later driving the SUV to get lunch at a nearby McDonald's.

The mother contacted the grandmother around 5 p.m. after Heavenly Kids called to inquire about why Jayce didn't show up in the morning.

The grandmother then went out to the SUV in the Macedonia Walmart parking lot around 5:30 p.m. and found the infant unresponsive in a third row car seat.

Investigators said the surface temperature of the car seat the infant was in was 120 degrees 50 minutes after Jayce was removed. His body temperature was 100.3 degrees.

[kscarbel2]

Father murders 5-week-old daughter

October 3, 2015

A Pittsburgh man charged with fracturing his 5-week-old daughter’s skull and killing her told one witness that the infant was a “psycho baby” who cried all the time and said to another that he might have “put her down too hard,” according to a police affidavit.

Joseph Swidorsky also told various versions of how Braelyn Swidorsky received her head injuries.

The accounts he gave included one that placed blame on the first responders who were helping her, suggesting that “maybe the medics did something to her when they arrived as she was fine before they arrived,” police said.

Swidorsky, 30, of Richardson Avenue in the city’s Brighton Heights section, is charged with criminal homicide and endangering the welfare of children in connection with the June 15 death.

Allegheny County police arrested him Thursday.

Swidorsky was bathing Braelyn in the morning on June 15 while the girl’s mother, Ashley Cain, and her other daughter were in a different room in a home in the 200 block of Martsolf Avenue in West View.

Ms. Cain walked into the bathroom and found Braelyn blue and unresponsive. She told Swidorsky to call 911.

Police and EMS arrived at 11:18 a.m. and took Braelyn to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, where she was pronounced dead that night.

An autopsy showed she died from a head injury, and a Children's Hospital doctor determined that the damage was inflicted by someone else.

Swidorsky told detectives that Braelyn became “jiggly” and “limp” during her bath, took a deep breath after crying and then became unresponsive, the affidavit said.

But witnesses told investigators that Swidorsky could not keep his stories straight while at the hospital, telling one variously that the baby might have been hurt in a fall, that perhaps he injured her while performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation, that the older sibling did not like the infant and might have hurt her, and that the injuries might be a week old.

Police also noted that Braelyn was wearing a diaper when officers arrived. When asked why, Swidorsky said he put the diaper on before starting CPR, the affidavit said.

Swidorsky is being held in jail on no bail awaiting a preliminary hearing.

Court records show that Swidorsky pleaded guilty to DUI in 2010 and 2008, and in 2005 to felony criminal mischief.

[kscarbel2]

Murdered children found in Detroit freezer

Associated Press / October 9, 2015

Autopsies have determined that the two children discovered dead in a Detroit freezer earlier this week were beaten to death, and that the youngest child also suffered 'thermal injuries'.

Mitchelle Blair, 35, has currently only been charged with child abuse, but that may change now that the deaths of her children Stoni Blair, 13, and Stephen Berry, 9, have been ruled a homicide.

The autopsy comes just a day after child welfare officials said Blair's two surviving children had been terribly abused in a house of horrors.

The Michigan Department of Human Services is taking steps to end Blair's rights to her two other children, a 17-year-old daughter and an 8-year-old son, who are currently with a relative.

In a court filing, the state said her daughter described a home where she and her surviving brother were beaten with an extension cord and piece of wood and hit and burned with a hot curling iron.

Medical exams revealed evidence of abuse, including numerous scars, on the surviving children.

Twenty-five scars were found on the boy's back that were consistent with being hit by an extension cord, according to a petition obtained by the Detroit News.

Blair's teenage daughter also described how her siblings were killed.

'Blair tortured Stephen for approximately two weeks prior to his death by tying a belt around his neck, throwing hot water on him while in the shower and putting a plastic bag over his head,' the state said, quoting the 17-year-old.

Stephen was 'unresponsive' on Aug 30, 2012, and Blair wrapped his body in bed linen and put him in the freezer.

Nine months later, Blair became 'enraged' when Stoni said she didn't like her surviving siblings and strangled the girl with a T-shirt and suffocated her with a plastic bag.

Blair then made the teen put Stoni in the deep freezer following her death.

The bodies of the children were discovered on Tuesday while court officers were serving an eviction notice.

The apartment was reportedly filled with food and trash and rendered almost 'unlivable'.

Blair's 8-year-old boy also was aware that his sister and brother were killed and subsequently placed in the freezer.

While being questioned, Blair told investigators she placed Stephen 'in a boiling hot tub of water until his feet blistered' because she found out Stephen was allegedly sexually assaulting a relative, according to the Detroit News.

Blair's teenage daughter said neither she nor her siblings have attended school for two years. There is no record of the children attending classes, according to a Detroit Public Schools official.

Earlier Thursday, Blair appeared in court on child abuse charges via a video feed from a police lockup. Magistrate Renee McDuffee entered a not-guilty plea on her behalf.

The state said it investigated allegations of abuse in 2002 and 2005. Blair was referred to counseling and allowed to keep custody of her children.

The two fathers of Blair's surviving children are unfit to care for them, according to the state. Together they owe $50,000 in child support and haven't seen the kids in two to three years.

[kscarbel2]

North Texas mom charged with neglecting 5 kids; 1 near death

Associated Press / September 30, 2015

A Texas mother is accused of abandoning her five children after police found them starving, filthy and, in the case of a baby, near death while her 8-year-old son was left in charge of his siblings.

Police went to the home Friday after teachers in Bowie reported the boy had missed several days of class. Officers found the 8-year-old, girls ages 4 and 2, a 17-month-old boy and a 3-month-old boy, Bowie police Lt. Rick Beckham said.

The two smallest children wore soiled diapers that they appeared to have been wearing for days, causing a diaper rash so severe one child was bleeding, he said. The infant weighed just 7 pounds, he said.

Three children were being treated for malnutrition. "The ER doctor said the baby was malnourished to the point it may not have survived a few more days without food," Beckham said.

"The house was completely filthy and in total disarray. There was garbage and human waste all over the house. You could literally smell the house from the street," Beckham said.

The children's mother, Jessica Petroni, arrived while police were still at the house, telling officers she had been at a doctor's appointment.

The mother was booked into Montague County Jail and was being held Wednesday on five counts of abandoning/endangering a child-criminal negligence. Each count is punishable, upon conviction, by up to two years in jail. Records do not list an attorney for Petroni to comment on her behalf. Her bond is set at $50,000.

Beckham said the children's father has been gone about two weeks for a job in Collin County, where they were supposed to be moving. He said the children indicated to police that their mother "leaving them alone is a normal thing."

The family had been the subject of child-welfare investigations previously while living in Wylie in Collin County, 35 miles northeast of Dallas, Beckham said.

"The oldest boy said he was embarrassed by how the house looked. No child says that. The 2-year-old girl held out her hands to me and called me 'Papa,'" Beckham said.

[kscarbel2]

Baltimore man smothers 5-month-old daughter to death

Associated Press / October 5, 2015

A 23-year-old Baltimore man has been charged in the death of his 5-month-old daughter.

Police said officers responded at 5 p.m. Saturday to a home in the 6400 block of Sefton Avenue for a report of an unresponsive infant. The 5-month-old child was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital for treatment.

Police said medical staff discovered that the infant had passed the stage of rigor mortis, and 5-month-old Noran Lee Torbet was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the hospital.

Family members of the child were questioned and detectives centered on the child's father, identified as Jeffery McKinney, as a person of interest.

Police said McKinney confessed that he became frustrated when the infant would not stop crying. He placed a pillow on top of the baby to muffle the sound of her cries, police said.

"This was no accident. This was absolutely no accident. The suspect confessed to us there were several pillows placed over top of the baby's body to get it from crying," Baltimore police Director T.J. Smith said.

After realizing that his daughter was unresponsive, police said, McKinney put the baby on the edge of the mattress against the bedroom wall and piled pillows on top of her.

Police said McKinney went downstairs and asked family members if they had seen the infant. Once they found the child, the infant’s grandmother immediately began CPR while waiting for the ambulance to arrive.

McKinney was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, assault and child abuse.

[kscarbel2]

Tennessee father beats 4-month-old daughter to death

Associated Press / September 30, 2015

Police say a 4-month-old girl was beaten to death by her father because she would not stop crying.

Nathan Scarborough faces charges including first degree murder in perpetration of aggravated child abuse and neglect.

Police said officers went to a home in the Memphis suburb of Cordova on Sept. 22 and found the baby unresponsive. She died at a hospital.

Police interviewed Scarborough, the girl's biological father, and he acknowledged he beat her when she would not stop crying. Scarborough acknowledged that he did not administer aid to the baby and placed her in bed.

When the baby did not wake up, police said Scarborough began calling for help.

The baby arrived at Baptist Children's Hospital in full cardiac arrest and later died.

Scarborough initially told police he was painting in the same room with the baby at his home on Creek Way Cove when he noticed the baby was lifeless and called 911. But the Medical Examiner's Office later found the baby had internal injuries to its head, and the case was ruled a homicide.

Police later determined Scarborough was responsible.

[kscarbel2]

This woman murdered these three children on March 20. Her act is undisputed. Why hasn't she been executed?

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

Florida mother murders her 3 children

Associated Press / October 11, 2015

The victims of a Florida woman who killed her own children told their mother how much they loved her before they died.

Jessica McCarty, 33, told police officers that she didn't deserve to live after the alleged deed, for which she faces the death penalty and three first-degree murder charges in Brevard County.

Police say that Lacey McCarty, 7, was drowned in a bathtub, and that her brothers Phillip McCarty, 6, and Christopher Swist, five months, were strangled with cords around their necks.

The children told their mother how much they loved her so much during the killings.

McCarty recalled her daughter Lacey saying during the murder: 'She kept telling me, 'I love you mommy'.

She also texted photos of the bloody house to her boyfriend Christopher Swist, 30, before he rushed home and called 911 while holding the youngest child in his arms.

The baby was on life support for two days before being declared dead at a local hospital.

McCarty had her first two children with husband Phillip McCarty.

A report from the Department of Children and Families said that in 2009 McCarty was investigated for possible child neglect and labeled an 'intermediate' risk to her children because of her suicidal tendencies.

McCarty, who also previously pleaded guilty to stealing prescription pads to acquire painkillers, was ordered to go to counseling.

Other court notes in the case say the McCarty had previously told family members '"I will snap my babies' necks and take them with me when I kill myself'.

She also left a goodbye note to her family saying that she 'had no other choice'. The note said that she was 'told how I suck at everything I do. Well you were right, I am worthless'.

McCarty is being held without bond.

.

[kscarbel2]

Father murders 22-month-old son, intentionally leaves him in hot car

Reuters / October 12, 2015

A Georgia man charged with killing his 22-month-old son sent an online message saying: "I love my son and all but we both need escapes," just hours before his child was found dead in the back seat of a hot car, according to court testimony on Monday.

Prosecutors said the message to a woman and other online chats established motive in the murder case of Ross Harris, 34, who was charged after authorities said he left his son, Cooper, in a car for seven hours in June 2014.

"It can’t be more apparent than in his own words,” Assistant District Attorney Chuck Boring told a Cobb County judge. “He loved his son and all but they both needed escapes.”

Harris was a self-described “sex addict,” the prosecutor said, adding the death of his son would have helped further his ability to have extramarital affairs.

Harris' attorneys argued his online affairs had nothing to do with the toddler's death and sought to have "sexting" charges against Harris separated from the murder case.

Cobb County Superior Court Judge Mary Staley rejected that motion on Monday, finding that Harris’ texts and emails with women other than his wife could help prosecutors establish motive and his state of mind before the death.

Cobb County police detective Phil Stoddard testified that Harris was having breakfast with his son on the day of the toddler's death when Harris sent the "escapes" message to a woman who had posted online that she hated having children.

Harris also said he missed “having time to myself and going out with my friends,” the detective said.

Harris told police he forgot to drop his son off at daycare on his way to work and discovered the child after he left the office that afternoon. Harris' attorney, Maddox Kilgore, has called Cooper's death a "horrible and gut-wrenching accident."

Prosecutors have said Harris killed the toddler so he could live a "child-free" life.

On Monday, Staley also refused to dismiss an indictment against Harris on a charge of attempting to sexually exploit a minor by trying to convince her to send him pictures of her genitals.

The judge set a trial date for Feb. 22.

.

[kscarbel2]

New York man beats 17-month-old boy to death

Newsday / October 13, 2015

A Uniondale man, described by the Nassau police commissioner as a "monster," was ordered held on a $20 million bond Tuesday after being charged with fatally beating his girlfriend's toddler son.

Lord Pardo, 26, a factory worker, was charged in First District Court with second-degree murder in the death of Mason Robinson, 18 months old. The New Cassel boy had been left in his care by the boy's mother, officials said.

Polcie said Pardo texted Erestine saying that her baby had stopped breathing after he fell off the bed.

Mason was rushed to North Shore LIJ Syosset Hospital, where he pronounced dead at about 3 p.m. Sunday.

On Tuesday, officials said the baby was "severely beaten" and that is what caused his death. The autopsy revealed that Mason had fractured ribs, a fractured skull, a lacerated liver and diaphragm, as well as massive internal bleeding. The medical examiner ruled his death a homicide.

"It is clear that the defendant has no soul," Thomas Krumpter, acting Nassau County police commissioner said at a news conference. "He is truly a monster."

"This child was murdered," the prosecutor said.

Acting District Attorney Madeline Singas said, "This was no accident. This baby was severely beaten and those injuries caused his death."

Nassau District Court Judge Darlene Harris ordered Pardo held on a $20 million bond or $10 million cash bail.

"Nothing is more despicable than the murder of a child, a helpless and defenseless child, at the hands of someone who is entrusted to take care for that child," Singas said. "My heart goes out to this baby's mother."

[kscarbel2]

No death penalty??? Where is the justice for making a child begin its innocent life this way?

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Colorado man gets life for kidnapping, raping toddler for porn

Reuters / October 13, 2015

A Colorado man has been sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping and raping an 11-month-old toddler.

He took the child from a couple he was staying with in California and sexually abused the child to produce pornography that he shared online was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday, prosecutors said.

A federal jury found Shawn McCormack, 31, of Colorado Springs guilty on four counts of sexual exploitation of a child and two counts of kidnapping during a four-day trial in Fresno, California, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.

Senior U.S. District Court Judge Anthony W. Ishii presided over those proceedings in April, and on Tuesday he imposed the sentence on McCormack, the statement said.

The trial heard how McCormack, under the pretense of befriending the child's parents, stayed as an overnight guest on multiple occasions at their home in Bakersfield, California.

Several times, the statement said, he snuck their toddler out of the home in the middle of the night and recorded himself sexually abusing the child at locations including his truck and a nearby motel.

He then returned to the house before the couple awakened in the morning, it said.

Leslie Caldwell, Assistant U.S. Attorney General for the Justice Department's criminal division, said "McCormack’s depraved actions in this case are the stuff of nightmares. While posing as a trusted friend and house guest, McCormack kidnapped his hosts’ toddler child and sexually abused the child in local motels and parked cars. Through tireless efforts, law enforcement was able to rescue the victim from further abuse and ensure that McCormack never again will victimize another child.”

"While posing as a trusted friend and house guest, McCormack kidnapped his hosts' toddler child and sexually abused the child in local motels and parked cars," Caldwell said.

McCormack shared the pornographic images online, where they were seen by an undercover investigator with the Toronto Police Services, prosecutors said. McCormack also recorded and distributed his sexual abuse of a second child, they said.

He was identified after Homeland Security Investigations agents in Boston, while carrying out a forensic analysis of a computer belonging to another person, viewed copies it held of the recordings and images distributed by McCormack.

"After the agents identified the date, time and motel room in which one of the videos had been produced, they learned that McCormack had rented that motel room on the night when the recording was created," prosecutors said.

U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner of the Eastern District of California said McCormack's "vile and heart-breaking" acts might have continued undetected for years, if not for the "imaginative, dogged, and painstaking work" of investigators.

Shawn McCormack, 28, was previously charged in September of 2011 with one count of producing child pornography during 2009. The new indictment adds three more counts, one involving the same victim and two involving a second victim.

[Dirtymilkman]

If that were my son he did that to there damn sure would be the death penalty. I'd sit 20 years to avenge my sons raping

[Maddog13407]

heres the face of America...I get to watch a screwed up CAMBELLS SOUP commercial displaying TWO DADS with the IM your father bullshit from star wars. WTF?!!!

[kscarbel2]

Religious cult members beat child to death in New York

New York Daily News / October 14, 2015

Determined to get two brothers to “confess their sins,” members of a secretive upstate New York church beat one of the teenagers to death and badly brutalized the other, police said Wednesday.

Among those now charged with killing Lucas Leonard, 19, and injuring his 17-year-old brother Christopher during a “counseling session” at the Word of Life Church, are his parents and a sister, officials said.

“During the counseling session, the session turned physical,” said Chief Michael Inserra of the police in New Hartford, outside Utica.

Over the course of several hours, the brothers were ordered to “confess to prior sins and ask for forgiveness,” the chief said. “We have not determined what this punishment was for.”

But, said Inserra, “We know there were fists and feet involved” in the punishment.

Inserra spoke a day after the victim’s parents, Bruce and Deborah Leonard, were charged with first-degree manslaughter, and police revealed their sons had been brutally beaten on their genitals, abdomens, backs and thighs. Christopher Leonard remains hospitalized and in serious condition, the chief said.

Also arrested was the victims’ 33-year-old sister, Sarah Ferguson, who along with three other church members was charged with second-degree assault.

Inserra said more members of the church, described by neighbors as a cult, are under investigation.

Meanwhile, seven children — four of them Ferguson’s — have been removed from the church by state child welfare workers, Inserra said.

The investigation was launched after Leonard’s parents showed up at a local hospital Monday with their badly beaten son, Inserra said.

Lucas died at the hospital and an autopsy revealed he had died of blunt-force trauma, the chief said. Within hours, a police SWAT team descended on the Leonards’ home in Clayville and the church, where they found his brother on the second floor after several hours of searching.

“He wasn’t in hiding,” said Inserra. “But family members weren’t making him available.”

Bruce Leonard, 65, and his 59-year-old wife, Deborah, both pleaded not guilty during their arraignment Monday and were dispatched to the Oneida County jail after they were unable to raise $100,000 bail.

The four other suspects — Ferguson, Joseph Irwin, 26, of Chadwicks, David Morey, 26, of Utica and Linda Morey, 54, also of Utica — were each ordered held on $50,000 bail.

The Leonards’ neighbors said the couple homeschooled their kids and made them read the Bible for two hours every day. They said the children weren’t allowed to have sleepovers and were barred from Halloween trick-or-treating.

Inserra declined to comment on reports that the church is a cult. But residents who live nearby told the Syracuse Post-Standard that members would rarely venture out in the daylight hours and those who did often were men wearing what they described as “long, black trench coats.”

They said they would hear strange chanting coming from the building as late as 3 a.m.

A Post-Standard reporter who ventured inside the building Tuesday found police tape across two bathrooms, one labeled “Adam” and the other “Eve.”

The reporter also said there was a framed message hanging on one wall that read, in part, “We have been commissioned through the written word of God to reach out to those who have not experienced the love of Jesus Christ in their lives. Through the systematic training up of saints.”

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

Update:

(Reuters / November 24, 2015) Seven people who prosecutors say were involved in the beating death of a teenager during a counseling session at an upstate New York church were indicted on second-degree murder charges on Tuesday by a grand jury.

Lucas Leonard, 19, was beaten to death in October over 10 hours during a counseling session at the Word of Life Church in Chadwicks, New York, about 50 miles (80 km) east of Syracuse.

His brother, Christopher, 17, received blunt force injuries when he was repeatedly struck during the same session, which was initiated because Lucas Leonard wanted to leave the congregation [aka. Jim Jones-like cult].

The grand jury's indictment charged the brothers' father, Bruce Leonard, 65, with 13 criminal counts including second-degree murder, kidnapping and gang assault.

Charges of second-degree murder, kidnapping and gang assault were also brought against church pastor Tiffanie Irwin, 29; Traci Irwin, David Morey, 26, Linda Morey, 54, and Joseph Irwin, 26, who were all congregants at the church; and Sarah Ferguson, 33, the half-sister of Lucas and Christopher.

An eighth person, church deacon Daniel Irwin, 24, was indicted on charges of second-degree manslaughter, kidnapping and gang assault.

The brothers' mother, Deborah Leonard, 59, was not named in the grand jury indictment but will appear in Oneida County Court on Dec. 2 to face separate charges of first-degree assault against Lucas and second-degree assault in Christopher’s beating, according to her lawyer Devin Garramone.

Deborah Leonard was initially charged with manslaughter, but Garramone said that charge was dropped.

Christopher Leonard, during a preliminary hearing last month, testified that he and his brother were beaten with an electric extension cord fashioned into a whip.

Tiffanie Irwin organized the counseling [torture] session.

Christopher said he attempted to resuscitate his brother before the boys were loaded into two separate vans. Lucas was transported to St. Luke’s hospital in Utica, New York, where he was pronounced dead.

Most of those indicted in the case remain in jail on bail of tens of thousands of dollars each, while David and Linda Morey have been released on bail of $50,000 each.

.

[kscarbel2]

Murder a newborn child, get off with just 6 years in prison........what a deal.

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

Parents allow newborn to die – God’s will

Associated Press / October 14, 2015

An Oregon couple who prayed and rubbed olive on their dying son following a home birth rather than call 911 and seek help will continue to serve six years in prison each after a judge upheld their manslaughter conviction.

Dale and Shannon Hickman, both 30, were both convicted in 2011 of second-degree manslaughter for the death of their son, David, who died nine hours after his home birth in 2009.

David was born two months early at his grandmother's home with undeveloped lungs, and died after having trouble breathing and turning blue.

The Hickman's - members of a controversial faith-healing church in Oregon - had appealed their conviction, on the grounds that the prosecution had the burden to prove the couple knew their religious beliefs would cause the death of their child, The New York Daily News reported.

But the plea was rejected by the Oregon Supreme Court last week.

During the 2011 trial, a doctor had testified that David would have had a 99 percent chance' of surviving had the couple called 911.

The baby officially died of staphylococcus pneumonia, which could have been treated.

'As the evidence unfolded and the witnesses testified, it became evident to me and certainly to the jury … that this death just simply did not need to occur,' Judge Robert Herndon said.

Prosecutors explained during the trial that David was born with a bacterial infection and underdeveloped lungs.

Mr. Hickman said he didn't call 911 because he was praying. The couple never considered taking the baby to the hospital.

Shannon Hickman said that she must defer to her husband because of church rules.

'I think it's God's will whatever happens,' she testified.

The Followers of Christ Church has a history of rejecting medical care for children and relying on as prayer and anointing the sick with oils.

Five other church members have been convicted in Clackamas County for crimes related to the rejection of medical care for their children.

The Hickmans' conviction on second-degree manslaughter charges typically requires a mandatory minimum sentence of six years in prison. But many feared that, because of a religious exemption in state law at time of the crime, they might have received just 18 months in prison and a $250,000 fine.

In response to deaths among Followers of Christ members, state lawmakers removed the religious defenses from criminal laws this year. Those exemptions had made it tougher to convict parents shunning a child's medical care for religious reasons instead of neglect.

[kscarbel2]

Florida parents murder, bury 9-week-old baby

Associated Press / October 15, 2015

Florida authorities have found the body of missing nine-week-old Chance Walsh buried in a wooded area in North Port, Florida after receiving a tip.

His drug-addict parents are already in jail on child abuse charges.

The infant has been missing since September 9.

Authorities became involved when the baby’s grandmother called them October 4, concerned about the baby's well-being.

The grandmother had tried and failed to locate the baby. The child’s parents told relatives contradicting stories that the boy was dead, and that they had given him away.

His parents, Kristen Bury ,32, and Joseph Walsh, 36, were arrested on Florida child abuse charges in South Carolina and are awaiting extradition.

A search of the couple's home revealed blood spatter and evidence of a body. Police found 'droplets of blood and evidence of blood spatter on the walls and ceiling and cadaver dogs indicated the presence of human remains'.

A probable cause affidavit shows the couple had another son, Duane, who died a year ago.

Bury had spoken to her stepmother about how she 'despised' Chance because he wasn't Duane, and admitted to having thoughts about hurting him.

That stepmother told police she had last seen baby Chance on September 9, almost a month after he was born.

She said she became concerned for the boy's welfare after such a long absence, and decided to try and locate him after hearing that Walsh and Bury had been in a car accident in South Carolina.

The couple, described as long-time drug users, gave various stories to relatives after the crash, including that Chance 'was unharmed, that he died in the crash and that they gave him to a woman at a hotel in Georgia.'

Police said she and the baby's other grandmother, from the paternal side, had gone to the couple's house to try and find the boy. Finding the house empty, they decided to call police.

Investigators confirmed that there was no baby with them when they crashed their car, and also no sign of the child at the hotel where they stayed.

Another guest at the hotel said Bury tried to sell her baby clothes, saying her child 'had died three weeks earlier'.

They are each being held in South Carolina on $150,000 bond.

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

Update - October 20, 2015

The Florida couple accused of murdering their nine-week-old baby boy let the infant waste away in his crib, and then the closet, for more than a week after his father beat him to death, officials said.

Joseph Walsh, 36, was charged Tuesday with first-degree felony murder in the death of his newborn son, Chance, who had been missing for more than a month when his body was found in a shallow grave in the woods less than 13 miles from their home, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Walsh and 32-year-old Kristen Bury, Chance’s mother, told investigators that the baby had died early September 16 in their North Port home.

Bury, who was also charged with first-degree felony murder in her son’s death, went on to allegedly tell detectives that Joseph repeatedly struck Chance. At one point she claims she told Joseph, “you are going to break his f****** neck,” the affidavit said.

“Joseph said to Kristen that he was going to bash his (Chance’s) head into the ground at one point during the argument. Kristen never called 911 or took any measures to prevent Joseph from abusing Chance,” the court document said.

The couple, both long-time drug users with a criminal history, made the conscious determination not to contact EMS or any other medical assistance.

“Joseph said during his interview that Kristen told him she did not want them to call 911 because she did not want to lose both people she loves in the same day.”

After he died, Chance was placed in his crib, where he was left to decompose until Bury complained about the smell, the affidavit said.

“Joseph wrapped Chance in numerous garbage bags, and then placed the decomposing remains of Chance in the closet of the bedroom,” the court document said.

On September 24— eight days after Chance was killed— Bury and Walsh made two trips to Elliot Court where they dug a shallow grave and then buried their son.

Bury directed detectives to the gravesite, where a fragment of blue surgical gloves was found.

“Kristen disclosed that Joseph was wearing blue ‘hospital [surgical] gloves’ when he was digging the hole, but the gloves were damaged by the shovels and fragments were likely left behind,” the affidavit said.

The couple left Florida on September 27 to “start a new life somewhere else,” Walsh allegedly told police. They were subsequently involved in a car crash in South Carolina and told relatives three different accounts of what happened to their son, authorities said.

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

Update - September 12, 2016

The mother who beat her nine-week old son to death and buried him in remote woods has killed herself in prison.

Kristen Bury, 33, committed suicide behind bars at the Sarasota County Jail in Florida, less than a year into a 25-year-sentence for killing Chance Walsh.

She pleaded no contest to aggravated manslaughter in January after the youngster's remains were found in a shallow grave in October, a month after he was reported missing.  He had been buried just wearing his diaper. 

Her husband, Joseph Walsh, is yet to face trial in Chance's death [Why ???]. Bury was expected to testify as part of a deal with prosecutors. 

The sheriff's office says deputies found Bury unresponsive in her cell on Saturday morning. 

.

[kscarbel2]

3rd baby in 3 months dies after being tossed from NY window

Associated Press / October 15, 2015

A baby girl was thrown from a sixth-floor window of an apartment building to her death on Thursday, witnesses and police said, making her the third child killed that way in the city in three months.

Six-month-old Janillah Lawrence was in a Bronx apartment with her mother, Tenisha Fearon, 27, and three other children at the time, police said. The other children — a 10-year-old boy, an 8-year-old girl and a 3-year-old girl — weren't injured but were taken to a hospital, police said.

Fearon was taken from the home, in the Fordham Heights neighborhood, to a hospital for an evaluation and couldn't be reached for comment. Police later arrested her on a murder charge.

Police received a 911 call saying the mother was dangling the baby outside the apartment window. Subsequent callers said they watched as the baby was thrown.

Neighbor Lizette Rodriguez said the woman had been shouting, "I'm going to throw her. We're all gonna die!" Other neighbors shouted to the woman, "Don't do it," Rodrgiuez said.

Rodriguez called 911 and said she heard the baby hit the ground while she was on the phone.

Gregorio Lopez, who lives next door to Fearon, said he heard a commotion in the hallway and a man yelling, "Please, God. Please help us!"

Lopez said he didn't want to leave his apartment because he didn't know what was happening but went to the roof after the man left. When he arrived there, he looked into his neighbor's window.

"I saw her naked and the three kids naked and I thought they were all dead," Lopez said. "And then she jumps up and starts hitting the window."

He shouted down to some women on the street to call 911.

"I was yelling, 'Hurry up!'" he said. "I thought she was going to throw the rest."

Officers had to take down the apartment door because Fearon wouldn't open it, police said.

Pauline Bryan, who knows Fearon from the neighborhood, said she had just seen her on Tuesday outside the building.

Last month, a newborn girl with her umbilical cord attached was found dead outside an apartment building in the University Heights section of the borough. Authorities arrested her mother on murder and manslaughter charges, saying she hid her pregnancy and threw the child to her death from a seventh-story window shortly after giving birth.

In August, police arrested a Queens woman in connection with the death of her 1-month-old son. She told authorities an evil spirit had possessed the boy and she was "stopping the pain" when she threw him from a fourth-floor window.

Both women have pleaded not guilty.