The Face of America in Year 2015

[kscarbel2]

Pennsylvania father tortures and murders 6-week-old baby to death

WGAL Susquehanna Valley / November 20, 2015

A 6-week-old baby boy has died just weeks after authorities say his father beat him.

Pennsylvania State Police say 22-year-old John Tyler Howard-Bee caused traumatic physical injuries to his son, Connor Howard-Bee.

Howard-Bee is now charged with homicide.

According to police, Howard-Bee originally denied causing harm to his son, but later admitted to police that he hit and shook the baby to "get him to stop crying."

The father is also accused of jamming his thumb into the baby's eye socket to try to quiet him.

The infant was taken to Hershey Medical Center for treatment.

While at the hospital, an examiner found that almost every bone in the baby's body was broken.

After almost two months in intensive care, he died late last week.

Police say Howard-Bee was the baby's sole caretaker at the time of the abuse.

.

[kscarbel2]

Memphis mother murders toddler

Associated Press / November 24, 2015

A teenage mother who allegedly killed her two-year-old son by placing him under a mattress and leaving him there for half an hour as a form of discipline has been indicted on a murder charge.

Raven Campbell, 19, from Memphis, Tennessee, put little Jermyle Campbell under the mattress for “20 to 30 minutes” on numerous occasions to punish him.

But this time, when she removed the heavy mattress from atop her son's body, he was not breathing.

Paramedics arrived at the family home and the toddler was rushed to hospital, where he was declared dead.

An autopsy later showed that he had passed away from dehydration and hyperthermia.

The toddler was also found to have bite marks and scratches on his body. Campbell admitted to police that she was responsible.

Campbell has been charged of first-degree murder in the perpetration of aggravated child abuse and neglect.

She was also indicted on a count of aggravated child endangerment yesterday in relation to her toddler son's death.

In June, Memphis Police revealed they had been called to the family home dozens of times before - for reasons ranging from domestic disturbances to woundings and a possible attempted suicide.

Campbell is currently being held without bond.

.

[kscarbel2]

Boy, 7, and Parents Murdered in Ohio

Associated Press / November 24, 2015

A 7-year-old boy and his parents were shot dead inside their Ohio home by a man who police said lived across the street.

John E. Anderson, 31, his wife Christina Chaffin Anderson, 30, and their son, Landon Anderson, seven, were found dead by police inside their Hilltop home on Monday.

Their daughter, 12-year-old Makyleigh Anderson, was also shot and was rushed to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in critical condition.

All the victims suffered multiple gunshot wounds.

Police were responding to a 911 call made by a woman about 5 p.m. who said that her husband had been shot by an intruder who was still inside their home.

Barry Kirk, 50, was found running from the Anderson home and was shot after being chased by police.

Three officers fired their weapons at him and he was hit multiple times.

Kirk, who police said was “a neighbor who knew his murder victims,” was taken to Mount Carmel West, where he died.

In 911 calls, both the daughter and Christina Anderson are reportedly heard begging a dispatcher for help.

"Somebody's in my house; they're trying to hurt me and my mom and my brother. Please help," a girl's voice says.

A family friend who lived in the house called it a "home invasion" in a second call.

Gunshots can be reportedly heard in both calls.

Kirk was investigated six years ago for threatening a mass shooting, according to police records. He threatened the shooting after becoming upset with an employee at the Ohio governor's office in July 2009 over an unemployment claim.

"I guess I'm going to have to make a big boom or start shooting people," Kirk said. "I don't want to but I will get radical," Kirk said. "I just want you to know this so when it happens and hits the newspapers, you'll know it was me."

When an investigator went to Kirk's house later that day and asked if he planned to shoot anyone, Kirk said he did, "without hesitation."

A year later, in October 2010, Kirk pleaded guilty to a count of telephone harassment. He was fined and sentenced to a year's probation.

Besides the telephone harassment conviction, Kirk served eight months in prison in the 1980s on a vandalism charge out of Cuyahoga County. He also was cited numerous times for traffic violations, and had 2004 charges of assault and domestic violence dismissed.

.

[kscarbel2]

New York woman murders newborn

Associated Press / November 30, 2015

A young woman gave birth in a convenience store where she worked, killed the baby and dumped his body in a garbage bin outside, authorities said Monday.

Tara Tomlin, 20, of Livingston, was charged with second-degree murder on Saturday, a day after state police say her newborn son's body was found in a plastic bag in a trash bin outside an Xtra Mart in her Hudson Valley hometown.

Troopers said they found the body early Friday during a search that was prompted by a 911 call from someone saying he suspected there was a baby outside the store.

An autopsy determined the baby died from asphyxiation, police said.

Tomlin was being held without bail Monday in the Columbia County Jail.

[kscarbel2]

Newborn buried alive under rubble, abandoned

Associated Press / November 29, 2015

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department on Saturday found a newborn baby buried alive near the Los Angeles River in Compton, California.

Police responded to calls on Friday around 4 p.m. after passersby heard the cries of a child along the bike path that runs at the edge of the LA River.

As searched, deputies heard a baby’s muffled cry and located a newborn baby girl buried alive under pieces of asphalt and rubble inside a crevice located along a bike path.

Deputies removed the rubble and pulled the baby out. The baby girl, believed to be 24 to 36 hours old when found, was wrapped in a blanket and cold to the touch.

Deputy Adam Collette says that when he removed asphalt and rubble covering the child and held her, he could see the relief in her face.

The girl was triaged at the scene and taken to the hospital for observation. Doctors say the baby might have died within hours had she not been discovered.

The mother, Porche Laronda Washington, 33, was arrested Thursday and is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail at the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood.

Washington faces charges of attempted murder and child endangerment.

[kscarbel2]

Kansas father murders 7-year-old son, feeds body to pigs

Associated Press / November 29, 2015

Police say a man beat his seven-year-old son to death and fed his remains to pigs.

Michael A. Jones, 44, of Piper, Kansas has been arrested on charges of aggravated assault with a firearm, aggravated battery and child abuse after cops responded to a domestic violence call on Wednesday.

Jones had shot at his 29-year-old wife, Heather Jones.

As the investigation progressed, authorities got a tip to check the property for the remains of Jones' seven-year-old son, who had been missing for several months.

The next day, authorities found human remains near a barn on Jones’ property where he lived with his wife and eight children ranging in ages from one to 11.

Police have upgraded the charges against Jones to 'torturing or cruelly beating' his missing son.

Heather Jones is the boy’s stepmother.

The other eight children reportedly lived in deplorable conditions and were allegedly home schooled.

Michael Williams, the brother of Jones' wife, said his sister and the children endured years of abuse at the hands of Jones.

'There are bullet holes in the walls of that house. So I'm sure you can understand what terror may have been going through that household daily.'

A former babysitter said “Heather Jones didn’t like any of Jones’ kids. She always treated the 7-year-old differently and was mean to him. He would stand in the corner for hours at a time. He would tell me he’s hungry… and I’d sneak him food.”

Jones, the owner of a bail bonding business, is being held at the Wyandotte County Jail on a bond of $10million.

Video - http://us.cnn.com/videos/us/2015/11/29/kansas-city-man-accused-of-feeding-sons-to-pigs-pkg.kctv

.

[kscarbel2]

Amish children kidnapped, drugged and raped

Associated Press / May 8, 2015

Nicole Vaisey admitted in May that she and her boyfriend Stephen Howells sexually exploited two Amish girls, aged 6 and 11, as well as four other children, who were drugged and recorded during sex acts.

Vaisey, 26, and Howells, 39, were caught in August 2014 after they used a puppy to lure the two young Amish girls away from their family's roadside farm stand, where they were selling vegetables.

They then kept them captive for the next 24 hours, handcuffing them so they couldn't run away from Howell's home in upstate New York.

Howells sexually assaulted the children as Vaisey watched and filmed them.

The couple were arrested after the girls were released the next day and left on the side of the road.

When questioned, Vaisey told police she and Howells had been out on a 'shopping trip' for slaves when they kidnapped the sisters that summer night.

Howells also admitted the offences against the girls and pleaded guilty to kidnapping and sexually exploiting four other children, ranging in ages from five to 11.

Between December 2012 and August 2013, the father-of-three sedated his victims with drugs and then sexually abused them while filming the abuse.

Howells used his position as a registered nurse at Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center in Ogdensburg to obtain sedatives and pain-killers that he used to drug his six victims "thereby aiding in the commission of the sexual exploitation offenses," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Fletcher.

FBI agents took hair samples from each of the six victims and performed toxicology tests on them, Fletcher said. The tests showed the girls had been given drugs such as Ambien, Oxycontin, Nordaz, Restoril and Xanax, Fletcher said.

Howells claimed he conspired with Vaisey to abduct the children and make child pornography, alleging that they sometimes switched roles while doing so.

Prosecutors last week asked for a 580-year sentence for Howells and a 300-year sentence for Vaisey. The pair will be sentenced on December 17 in federal court in Syracuse.

.

[kscarbel2]

Mother beats 15-month-old infant on airplane

Associated Press / December 3, 2015

A mother is on trial for assaulting her 15-month-old toddler daughter during a flight from Alaska to Hawaii.

Passengers and flight attendants all reported that the May 3 flight, Samantha Leialoha Watanabe was abusive to a generally well-behaved toddler, Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Wallenstein told the jury in federal court in Honolulu.

The trial is for the girl, whose name is Clementine, he said, "a 15-month-old child who was pushed in the face with an open hand with enough force to cause her head to jerk all the back to its full range of motion."

Clementine was also cursed at, smacked in the head, hit in the face with a stuffed doll and had her hair pulled out, he said.

"All by this woman, Samantha Watanabe," he said. "The defendant, her own mother."

Alaska State Trooper Brian Miller, who was headed to a Kauai vacation with about a dozen family members, testified that Watanabe was abusive with her daughter. "She was telling her to shut the F up and ... what's your problem and so on," he said.

Miller said Watanabe yanked out Clementine's hair and blew it to the ground. Watanabe then held the hair out as if showing it to the child and threw it on the floor while the child cried.

He also told the FBI she hit the girl in the face and smacked her on the back of the head so hard that the child's head snapped forward.

Watanabe stuck a wad of cash in the girl's diaper, according to a criminal complaint filed by the FBI.

Whenever the girl tried to touch her mother's face, the complaint said, Watanabe slapped the child's hands and arms.

.

[kscarbel2]

New Jersey man murders mother and 3-month-old baby

Associated Press / December 3, 2015

Prosecutors say a southern New Jersey man strangled his ex-girlfriend and suffocated her 3-month-old daughter before dumping their bodies in a wooded area.

Ricardo Santiago, 34, was arraigned on two counts of homicide in the death of 34-year-old Vineland woman Neidy Ramirez and her daughter Genesis on Thursday at the Cumberland County Courthouse in Bridgeton.

Santiago, of Millville, pleaded not guilty Thursday after he was arrested Tuesday night and charged with homicide.

Neidy Ramirez was killed by blunt force trauma to the neck after she was strangled with a cord. She was found buried under a pile of leaves in Fairfield Township.

The baby's chest was crushed by a knee and she was then suffocated when Santiago allegedly put his hands over her mouth and nose.

Santiago allegedly killed them in Vineland before taking the remains to a wooded area off Back Neck Road in Fairfield Township.

Santiago is being held at the Cumberland County Courthouse on $2 million bail.

.

[kscarbel2]

In America, a baby is born addicted to drugs every 19 minutes. But doctors aren’t alerting social services to thousands of these infants, many of whom come to harm in narcotics-addicted families.

Brayden Cummings turned 6 weeks old the morning his mother suffocated him.

High on methamphetamine, Xanax and the methadone prescribed to help her kick a heroin habit, 20-year-old Tory Schlier told police that she was “fuzzy” about what happened to her baby boy.

Police weren’t. In an affidavit, the officer who went to Schlier’s house on October 17, 2014, said the mother had fallen asleep on Brayden, “causing him to asphyxiate.”

Like more than 130,000 other children born in the United States in the last decade, Brayden entered the world hooked on drugs – a dependency inherited from a drug-addicted mother.

A 12-year-old federal law calls on states to take steps to safeguard babies like Brayden after they leave the hospital. However, that effort is failing across the nation, endangering a generation of children born into America’s growing addiction to heroin and opioids.

In his first three weeks of life, Brayden suffered through a form of newborn drug dependency called Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome. He trembled and wailed inconsolably, clenching his muscles and sometimes gasping for breath as he went through withdrawal.

When Brayden improved, Lehigh Valley Hospital released him to Schlier and the boy’s father, a 48-year-old with a criminal record. But doctors neglected to alert child protection workers to the baby or his drug-addicted mother. Three weeks later, Brayden was dead.

“I’d say he didn’t have a chance in life,” said David Cummings, Brayden’s grandfather. “He was doomed, that kid, he really was.”

Reuters identified 110 cases since 2010 that are similar to Brayden’s: babies and toddlers whose mothers used opioids during pregnancy and who later died preventable deaths.

Being born drug-dependent didn’t kill these children. Each recovered enough to be discharged from the hospital. What sealed their fates was being sent home to dysfunctional families unable to care for them.

Like Brayden, more than 40 of the children suffocated. Thirteen died after swallowing toxic doses of methadone, heroin, oxycodone or other opioids.

In one case, a baby in Oklahoma died after her mother, high on methamphetamine and opioids, put the 10-day-old girl in a washing machine with a load of dirty laundry.

The cases illustrate fatal flaws in the attempts to address what President Barack Obama has called America’s “epidemic” of opioid addiction, a crisis fed by the ready availability of prescription painkillers and cheap heroin.

In 2003, when Congress passed the Keeping Children and Families Safe Act, about 5,000 drug-dependent babies were born in the United States. That number has grown dramatically in the years since.

Using hospital discharge records, there were over 27,000 “diagnosed” cases of drug-dependent newborns in 2013, the latest year for which data are available. On average, one baby was born dependent on opioids every 19 minutes.

Federal law requires states to protect each of these babies, regardless of whether the drugs their mothers took were illicit or prescribed, by alerting child protection authorities so that social workers can ensure the newborn’s safety after the hospital sends the child home.

However, most states are ignoring the federal law. 36 states have laws or policies that don’t require doctors to report each case. Only 9 states and the District of Columbia conform with the federal law.

In three-quarters of the 110 fatalities, the mother was implicated in her child’s death; in others, her boyfriend, husband or another relative was.

In 75 of the cases, child protection workers were notified but didn’t take protective measures specified in the federal law.

In Brayden’s case and a dozen more, hospitals didn’t report a drug-dependent baby’s condition to social services and the child died after being sent home.

“Those kids could and should be alive today and thriving,” said former U.S. Representative Jim Greenwood, a Republican from Pennsylvania who authored the provisions in the 2003 federal law. “I would’ve hoped that the whole system – starting at the federal and state levels, the obstetricians and pediatricians – would’ve gotten it straight by now. That they haven’t is a national disgrace.”

[kscarbel2]

Indiana man murders 6-year-old boy

Associated Press / December 7, 2015

A 6-year-old northern Kentucky child was fatally stabbed in his bedroom Monday during an early morning robbery.

Ronald Exantus, 32, broke into the Kentucky home, took a large knife from the kitchen, and went upstairs to 6-year-old Logan Tipton’s bedroom where he fatally stabbed the sleeping child multiple times.

Four young children had been sleeping in the bedroom during the 4 a.m. break-in.

Tipton’s father rushed into the room and managed to detain Exantus until police arrived and took him into custody about 3:50 a.m.

Investigators are trying to figure out why Exantus, whose Woodford County inmate record lists as living 175 miles northwest of Versailles in Indianapolis, was in the area.

Exantus faces charges of murder and first-degree burglary. His bond was set at $1 million.

He was also charged with three counts of assault for cutting Logan’s two sisters and fighting Logan’s father. He was removed to Woodford County Detention Center.

Police say Exantus has confessed to the killing.

.

[kscarbel2]

Oklahoma man sexually abuses, murders 1-year-old girl

Reuters / December 7, 2015

An Oklahoma man has been arrested on a murder charge for beating and sexually abused the 1-year-old daughter of his girlfriend.

Cody Johnson, 30, and his girlfriend brought an unresponsive Sawyer Paige Jefferson to a Tulsa hospital on Saturday, claiming that the girl had tripped over her pajamas and fallen on a toy.

The little girl was in cardiac arrest and unresponsive.

Doctors found the girl had "numerous visible facial contusions and bruising and bleeding coming from both the child's vagina and rectum."

The baby was placed on life support, but she never regained consciousness.

She was pronounced dead a short time later.

Johnson was arrested on Sunday on charges of first-degree murder of a minor, child abuse and sexual abuse of a minor.

As of Monday morning, Johnson was in the Tulsa County Jail. Bond has been set at $100,000 for the two abuse complaints with no bond given for the murder complaint.

.

[kscarbel2]

Murder an innocent toddler and you only get charged with child endangerment...........go figure. Until confirmed murderers (indisputable situations) are summarily executed, we will continue see our crime rate soar, and the health of American society plummet.

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

Chicago mother beats 2-year-old toddler to death

Associated Press / December 2, 2015

An 18-year-old pregnant woman whose toddler was temporarily taken away last year by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services was (only) charged with child endangerment after she beat the girl so badly for not eating her lunch that she died over Thanksgiving weekend.

Jazmine Jones punched 2-year-old Elliana Claiborne multiple times in the stomach and buttocks on November 28.

Jones later admitted to authorities that she hit the child.

Jones then left the child at the home of her boyfriend where she was residing, to go buy marijuana.

The boyfriend is not the biological father of the child.

Often, depending how frustrated she was, Jones would punch the girl, prosecutors said.

Jones has had many prior contacts with DCFS, according to prosecutors. Last year Elliana was taken into DCFS custody after Jones threw her off a balcony, causing her to land on snow-covered cement below, said Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Przekota.

Last weekend, when Jones returned to her boyfriend’s home after buying pot, she gave the toddler laxatives and juice because the child appeared sick, couldn’t use the bathroom, had a swollen stomach and complained about stomach pain, Przekota said.

Later that evening, the boyfriend’s mother heard the child fall down the stairs and suggested the child be taken to the hospital. The mother ignored the advice.

In the middle of the night, Elliana moaned about her stomach and threw up a greenish liquid.

The boyfriend’s sister put Elliana back to bed but noticed that the child was lying with her eyes opened.

The next morning, a family member went to wake the child and found that she had soiled herself and was “cold and stiff.”

The boyfriend allegedly tried to perform CPR on the child and a yellowish liquid came out of the girl’s mouth.

Jones and the boyfriend took the child’s body to St. Bernard Hospital where she was pronounced deceased.

According to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office, Elliana died of multiple blunt force trauma, specifically injuries caused by a direct blow to the abdomen, not by a fall down the stairs or an accident.

Elliana also suffered bruises on her head, abdomen, face, back and arms. She had healing burns on a foot, healed scars and two rib fractures.

Judge Laura Sullivan ordered Jones held on $1 million bail.

.

[kscarbel2]

Death sentence upheld for 'torture' murder of 2-year-old boy

December 3, 2015

The Pennsylvania State Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the death sentence for a York County man convicted of murdering a 2-year-old boy he was baby-sitting.

A county jury found Aric Shayne Woodard, now 42, guilty of first-degree murder in 2013 for the slaying of Jaques Twinn.

Woodard beat the child to death in November 2011 in a home in York.

Woodard said he hit the boy after finding him smearing himself with feces, then ordered him upstairs to clean up.

Police responded to a 911 call and found the toddler in cardiac arrest.

Woodard was holding the child, who was wet, naked and smelled of feces.

Investigators concluded Woodard had hit the boy so hard in the abdomen that the child's liver was lacerated.

The multiple injuries Jaques suffered showed the child was tortured.

"There is sufficient evidence...to conclude that (Woodard) intentionally inflicted a considerable amount of pain and suffering upon Jaques that was unnecessarily heinous, atrocious or cruel, manifesting exceptional depravity beyond a mere intent to kill," Justice Max Baer wrote.

.

[kscarbel2]

Bronx man rapes 6-year-old girl

NBC New York / December 8, 2015

A 35-year-old man has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for raping his girlfriend's 6-year-old daughter in the Bronx.

The crime was discovered when the victim's mother went through his cellphone and saw he had videotaped the attack, according to prosecutors.

Virgilio Ocampo was found guilty Tuesday of predatory sexual assault against a child and use of a child in a sexual performance following a three-week trial.

Prosecutors said Ocampo and the child's mother had been dating for two years at the time of the attack and he had been staying in the mother's apartment several days a week. In January 2014, the mother looked through Ocampo's phone while he was sleeping and saw a video date-stamped from the month before showing Ocampo having sex with her daughter.

That day, she reported the attack to police, but by that time Ocampo had already left the apartment. Ocampo fled to Louisiana, where police took him into custody 10 days later.

Ocampo admitted to police that he sexually assaulted the victim on the day he created the video, as well as on other occasions.

The victim, who is now 8, has been in and out of psychiatric facilities since the attack and is suicidal, Justice Margaret Clancy said before the sentencing.

The child has been diagnosed with PTSD and other psychiatric conditions as a result of the rape.

“Your Honor, this man does not deserve to ever walk these streets after all the pain he has caused my daughter, my little angel. He is a sick man and is a danger to women and children he would ever come in contact with," the mother's statement said. "This monster took a 6-year-old and raped her continuously. He videotaped it so he can watch it over and over again. He is disgusting. Hell is not even worthy of him."

Judge Margaret Clancy sentenced Ocampo to the maximum extent of the law. In doing so, she said it was horrifying to witness the man rape the child on videotape and said he has shown no remorse.

.

[kscarbel2]

California mother tortures, murders daughter, abuses 4 other children

Associated Press / December 9, 2015

Authorities have charged 42-year-old Amy Chavoya of Madera Ranchos with torturing and killing her daughter, and with abusing four other children in her home.

Sheriff's deputies arrested her last month after a yearlong investigation. The documents describe horrific acts against the little girl who died and other children who were in the suspect's care.

Prosecutors say the abuse went on for several years.

The allegations in the complaint against Chavoya are chilling. Prosecutors say she began abusing Mariah Flores back in 2011 by beating the little girl, depriving her of food, forcing her to take scalding hot showers and using a stun gun.

Then on October 10, 2014, Chavoya murdered her daughter in a way that involved torture. The girl was about 12 when she died.

Chavoya abused four other children over the past four years, including a boy who was stabbed and forced to eat dishwasher soap pods.

According to the suspect's Instagram page, she adopted at least three of the children after being their foster parent.

Chavoya's husband is allegedly a deputy sheriff.

Chavoya is being held without bail and is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on Friday.

.

[kscarbel2]

An indisputable murderer, and the government decision will be for the taxpayer to pay a million dollars to incarcerate him for decades until death.

And for the victims, particularly the family of the murdered medical student, where is the justice and closure?

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

New Orleans murderer kidnapped, raped couple day after shooting Tulane medical student

The New Orleans Times-Picayune / December 9, 2015

Euric Cain, the man indicted in the shooting of Tulane medical student Peter Gold, was accused Wednesday (Dec. 9) of kidnapping and raping a couple that police said he carjacked less than 24 hours after shooting Gold.

Cain, 21, already is jailed on a $6 million bond after his Dec. 3 indictment for the shooting.

Now New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) investigators say video and DNA evidence links Cain to the couple's kidnapping and rape less the day after the shooting.

Cain was booked Wednesday with two counts of first-degree rape, two counts of second-degree kidnapping, two counts of armed robbery and two counts of carjacking in connection with the couple's attack, reported Nov. 21 at 3 a.m.

The victims in the two incidents are not connected other than by Cain being accused in the crimes.

In Gold's shooting, prosecutors said Cain was the man captured on video surveillance robbing and attempting to kidnap a woman around 4 a.m. Nov. 20 in the Lower Garden District. New Orleans police said Gold, 25, attempted to intervene in the crime and was shot in the stomach by Cain.

Cain has pleaded not guilty to the shooting. NOPD investigators said Cain is the man seen on a chilling video sequence shooting Gold in the midsection and then attempting three times to shoot Gold in the head, only to have his gun jam.

The second attack occurred when a male-female couple was entering a car parked near St. Philip and Henriette Delille streets in Treme early Nov. 21.

Cain hopped into the back seat of their car and demanded the couple's cash and credit cards at gunpoint. Cain ordered the woman to drive the car about four miles away to the parking lot of an abandoned school near Abundance and Press streets in the Desire neighborhood.

There, Cain ordered the couple into the back seat of the car. Cain raped the woman, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. Cain then also forced the man to perform oral sex on him at gunpoint.

When the assaults finished, Cain ordered the victims out of the car and threatened to kill them if they notified police. Cain drove away in their car and the victims called police from a nearby store.

Cain was arrested two days later in connection to Gold's shooting, when authorities learned he had been driving and was in possession of the black Ford Focus stolen from the raped couple.

NOPD Sex Crimes Detective Keisha Ferdinand wrote in her request for an arrest warrant that police obtained video evidence showing Cain using one of the couple's stolen credit cards at a store. On Dec. 3, Ferdinand wrote, the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab returned a DNA match from ejaculate fluid left on the raped woman to an existing sample from Cain in the CODIS database.

On Tuesday, police confirmed with the victim that she did not know nor engage in consensual sexual acts with Cain, and the warrant was approved early Wednesday morning.

Nictoria Washington, described as Cain's 17-year-old girlfriend, was indicted last week on the allegation of being an accessory after the fact to attempted first-degree murder in Gold's shooting. Police said Washington harbored Cain at a home in the 2200 block of Delachaise Street, where he was arrested Nov. 23.

Washington is not mentioned in court documents as a party to the carjacking and rape allegations.

Cain's bond was increased by $1 million, to $7 million total, based on the new allegations.

Cain faces a mandatory life sentences if convicted of his charges. Washington faces a prison term of up to five years if found guilty.

.

[kscarbel2]

Oklahoma mother and boyfriend arrested for rape and murder of 4-year-old

Associated Press / December 10, 2015

An Oklahoma couple has been arrested for the rape and murder of their woman's four-year-old daughter.

Deputies had been alerted just after midnight on Nov. 15 by a hospital in Owasso saying a 4-year-old child had been presented to the hospital unresponsive. She was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

Washington County Sheriff's deputies arrested 26-year-old Courtney Le'ann Hansche and her boyfriend, 27-year-old Michael Nordbye Tuesday on charges stemming from the death of her 4-year-old daughter, Jaydenn Hansche.

Courtney Hansche was arrested on charges of murder in the first degree, rape by instrumentation, child abuse and child neglect.

Michael Nordbye was arrested on charges of murder in the first degree, rape by instrumentation and child abuse.

The arrests come following 'an intensive investigation' conducted by the Washington County Sheriff's Office investigators, Washington County District Attorney's Office and the OSBI.

The manner of death is listed as homicide by the Oklahoma State Medical Examiner's office.

Their bond has not been set and they are being held in Washington County Jail.

.

[kscarbel2]

South Carolina seeks to execute man who murdered 5 children

Reuters / December 9, 2015

Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty against a South Carolina man who murdered his five children last year before driving their bodies across several states and dumping them in Alabama.

Timothy Ray Jones Jr. faces murder charges in the September 2014 killings of his children, ages 1 though 8.

On Wednesday, Eleventh Circuit Solicitor Donald Myers in Lexington County, South Carolina, told a judge he planned to seek the death sentence again Jones, 33.

Jones was arrested in Mississippi on Sept. 6, 2014, after being stopped at a driver's license checkpoint.

He confessed to killing his five children, ages 1 though 8, and led police to the bodies, which he had wrapped individually in trash bags and dumped in rural Alabama.

Jones, who worked for Intel Corp in Columbia, had joint legal custody of the children.

The children's mother, his ex-wife Amber Jones, reported them missing on Sept. 3.

Detectives believe Jones killed his children about a week earlier after picking them up from school and day care.

One of the children was beaten to death, and the other four strangled.

.

[grayhair]

I am stunned reading these items. The above articles show the absolute scum of the earth.

If you live in a U.S. state that doesn't allow capital punishment, I recommend you consider electing politicians and judges who will change the law.

[kscarbel2]

2 children murdered, found dead in a California storage unit

KCRA / December 15, 2015

The bodies of a 3-year-old girl and 6-year-old boy have been found by police in a storage unit in Redding, California, shoved inside plastic tote containers.

A third child, a severely abused 9-year-old girl and sibling to the murdered children, is in a critical condition in a Sacramento hospital following emergency surgery.

Sheriff Greg Hagwood said she weighed just 40 pounds, had broken bones in her shoulder, broken fingers, a dislocated jaw, teeth that were missing or loose, open sores and was infested with lice.

Hagwood said, 'This has shaken my staff to the core. That little girl had been subjected to the most unspeakable measure of torture for an extended period of time. This is child abuse, the likes of which we haven't experienced here.”

Plumas County authorities on Monday arrested Tami Joy Huntsman, 39, and her boyfriend Gonzalo Curiel, 17, on charges of felony child abuse, torture and mayhem (the intentional disfiguration of another person).

Both are from Quincy, California.

Huntsman is a relative of the two homicide victims but not their mother.

Huntsman was caring for the murdered children because their mother had been struck by a car and died, and the father gave up custody. Huntsman's 12-year-old twins were taken by Child Protective Services agents when she was arrested.

Bail has been set at $1 million for both Huntsman and Curiel. Curiel is being charges as an adult.

Curiel told police they would find the missing children's bodies in the storage locker.

Neither of the murdered children or the nine-year-old girl had been enrolled in school.

Elliott Robinson, director of social services for Monterey County, said Huntsman and her family had been investigated for the last year, suspected of abusing their children.

Tami Huntsman’s brother, Wayne Huntsman, is currently in prison for intentionally igniting the massive King Fire which scorched 120 square miles and 12 homes before firefighters contained it last fall. The King Fire cost $5 million a day to fight.

.

[kscarbel2]

Murder a child via starvation, literally torture, and the prosecution doesn’t seek the death penalty. What has become of justice in these United States?

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

Pennsylvania couple starves son to death

Reuters / October 26, 2015

The trial of a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania couple who starved their 9-year-old disabled son to death, and of nearly did the same to a disabled daughter, is due to start on Monday.

Jarrod Tutko, Sr., 39, and Kimberly Tutko, 40, face criminal homicide and other charges over the death of their son, Jarrod, Jr., 9, last year and the abusive treatment of his sister, Arianna, 10.

The parents could face up to life imprisonment on the murder charge. The prosecution is NOT seeking the death penalty.

The Tutkos, lived with their six children, all but one of whom had some sort of medical or developmental problem, in Harrisburg.

Courts had previously taken away four other children from Kimberly Tutko.

Those children were fathered by another man.

On Friday, Aug. 1, 2014, Harrisburg police went to the house and found the decomposing body of Jarrod Tutko, Jr., who had died about four days earlier.

The nine-year-old suffered from Fragile-X Syndrome, a genetic disorder.

He was three-and-a-half feet tall and weighed less than 17 lbs because of starvation, an autopsy found.

His parents kept him locked in a third-floor room with no bed or lights, where he was prone to smearing himself and the walls with feces, authorities said.

The daughter, Arianna Tutko, was found in a second-floor bedroom in a coma and just hours from death, police said.

She recovered and was also taken away from their parents by the state.

.

Update:

Reuters / December 16, 2015

A Pennsylvania man and his wife were each sentenced to up to four decades in state prison on Wednesday after pleading guilty to murdering their disabled 9-year-old son, who was found starved to death in a dark, feces-smeared room last year.

Judge John Cherry of Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas said Jarrod Tutko Sr., 39, and Kimberly Tutko, 40, were equally culpable in the death of Jarrod Tutko Jr. and the near-death of his sister Arianna, now 12.

He sentenced the father to 21 to 42 years in prison, and gave his wife a sentence of 20 to 40 years. Both had pleaded guilty to charges of third-degree murder and related offenses.

Cherry castigated both parents, who were sentenced separately, but he reserved particular scorn for Kimberly Tutko.

“We don’t even keep animals like that,” he said. “It’s inconceivable that you allowed this to happen," the judge said.

Prosecutor Sean McCormack had urged they receive the maximum possible sentence, but Cherry knocked off a few years as credit for their guilty pleas.

The couple lived with their six children, all but one of whom was disabled, in a rented home less than three blocks from the Pennsylvania governor’s official residence. Jarrod Jr suffered from Fragile-X Syndrome, a genetic condition that causes intellectual and behavioral disabilities.

His parents kept the boy locked in a third-floor room with no bed or lights. A social worker, Carrie Shanahan, testified that the feces had been smeared by little fingers.

Police were summoned to the home on Aug. 1, 2014. They found Jarrod Tutko Jr., shrunken and dead, rolled in a blanket. His sister was clinging to life in her own bedroom but has since recovered.

[kscarbel2]

Arizona man murders brother and nephew

Associated Press / December 16, 2015

An Arizona man was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday in the killing of his 6-year-old nephew after the child witnessed him murder his father.

24-year-old Christopher Rey Licon fatally shot his brother, Angel Jaquez, in a 2010 drug dispute.

Licon then killed his nephew, Xavier Jaquez, because he was witness to the murder.

Licon was convicted of murder in both killings.

A jury had previously spared him the death penalty and instead sentenced him to life in prison.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens ordered Licon to spend the rest of his life in prison. She also sentenced him to an additional 36 years in prison in his brother's killing, the kidnapping of his nephew and for other convictions in the case.

Licon killed his brother at their Phoenix home, kidnapped the child and shot him 20 miles away in an alley.

Licon mounted an unsuccessful insanity defense.

A prosecutor had argued that Licon was well-aware of his actions when he carried out the killings and took steps to protect himself, such as breaking into an apartment to stash the handgun used in the crimes.

.

[kscarbel2]

US teen rapes and kills high school math teacher

CNN / December 16, 2015

A Massachusetts teenager has been convicted of raping and killing his high school math teacher.

Philip Chism, 16, followed teacher Collean Ritzer into a school toilet where he strangled her, stabbed her 16 times and raped her two years ago.

He was acquitted of a second rape, in which he used a tree branch against her in woodland where he dumped her body, after defense lawyers argued that the teacher was already dead.

Chism's defence team has claims he is mentally ill and cannot be held responsible for his actions.

A psychiatrist testified on behalf of the defence during the trial and said the teenager was hearing voices and in the midst of a psychotic event when he committed the crimes.

The teenager did not have any visible reaction as the verdicts were read in a court in the city of Salem, and his family has refused to speak to reporters.

The victim's family, however, spoke of their enduring pain in light of the verdict.

"This guilty verdict, while the beginning of justice for Colleen, is certainly no cause for celebrations as there can never be true justice for the crime committed," the victim's father, Thomas Ritzer, said.

On surveillance footage presented in the trial, Chism is seen following the teacher to the bathroom, putting on gloves and leaving holding the trousers that Ritzer was wearing.

Chism was tried as an adult, and could face life in prison for the first-degree murder conviction. However, because he is a juvenile he could be eligible for parole. Judge David Lowy says he will discuss sentencing at a hearing next week.

Separately, Chism is facing charges of assault on a youth services worker. He choked and beat the worker while in a youth detention centre in Boston.

.

[kscarbel2]

On 8/1/2015 at 9:23 PM, kscarbel2 said:

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.

ABC Tulsa  /  September 7, 2016

Robert Bever, the older of two brothers charged with murdering their parents and three siblings last year, pleaded guilty Wednesday to all charges.

The 19-year-old and his 17-year-old brother, Michael Bever, were charged with five counts of first-degree murder and one count of assault and battery with intent to kill following the July 2015 attack at the family's Broken Arrow home.

Autopsies showed the brothers' parents, David and April Bever, were stabbed dozens of times, and the teens' siblings -- 12, 7 and 5 -- each had multiple stab wounds and blunt force trauma across their bodies.

The Bevers' 13-year-old sister survived the attack, and their 2-year-old sister was unharmed.

The brothers had previously both pleaded not guilty to all charges.

In June, an attorney for Robert Bever asked the court to instruct surviving family members and other spectators during the trial to refrain from showing emotion and prohibit the jury's exposure to the victims' family and friends.

After pleading guilty, Robert Bever was sentenced to five life terms in prison without the possibility of parole on the first five counts and another life sentence on the sixth count. He was also ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and a $1,000 victim's compensation act assessment on each of the six counts.

According to the Tulsa County District Attorney's Office, the older brother entered the plea in exchange for District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler's agreement not to seek the death penalty against him.

According to a statement from the DA's office, Robert Bever confessed in court to "acting in concert with his brother" in the murders of their parents and siblings Daniel, Christopher and Victoria Bever as well as the stabbing of their 13-year-old sister.

Kunzweiler said the decision to negotiate a plea deal with Robert Bever was difficult.

“Ultimately the single most important factor in my decision to resolve this case centered upon the needs of the surviving two children who lost everything in their lives," said Kunzweiler. "Those children deserve to be able to move on with their lives as best as they can without the continued torment of a trial and decades of appeals that a death penalty case would most likely bring. While I believe that Robert Bever deserves the death penalty for his savage actions, I feared that a death penalty prosecution would result in his teenage sister being forced to recount and relive the brutal details of the carnage that her brothers wrought again and again. The toddler sister, who mercifully was asleep and did not witness the horror, would grow up learning details of the carnage in repeated court hearings that could easily stretch into her teen years or beyond."

Kunzweiler said he will never forget the day Broken Arrow police called him to the Bever home July 22, 2015.

"It is seared into my memory," he said. "I will not presume to know how or why people choose to do the things they do, which bring harm to innocent lives."

The district attorney says the Bevers' sister who survived the attack asked that he make sure Robert Bever never gets out of prison.

"His plea and sentence guarantees that he will spend the rest of his days left to his demons behind the walls of a penitentiary where he will never draw a breath of free air again," said Kunzweiler.

An attorney for Michael Bever moved to dismiss all charges against his client Wednesday, but Judge Sharon Holmes denied the motion.

The younger Bever brother then stood mute and the court entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. His next hearing is scheduled for April 11 and the jury trial is set for June 5.

.