The Face of America in Year 2015

[kscarbel2]

On 11/10/2015 at 8:04 AM, kscarbel2 said:

Louisiana police murder 6-year-old child

Associated Press / November 9, 2015

A Louisiana man had his hands up and posed no threat to the police who shot him and killed his six-year-old son last week, according to a judge’s description of body camera footage.

Two Louisiana police officers are charged with second-degree murder of the boy, Jeremy Mardis, and second-degree attempted murder of the father, Chris Few.

Louisiana state police head Colonel Mike Edmonson described the body camera footage as “the most disturbing thing I’ve seen”.

The officers, 32-year-old Derrick Stafford and 23-year-old Norris Greenhouse Jr, remained jailed on Monday with a $1 million bond.

State police say Stafford is a full-time lieutenant with the Marksville police department; Greenhouse is a full-time city marshal. Both were working part-time as deputy marshals in Marksville’s Ward 2 when Tuesday’s shooting broke out, state police said.

Chris Few remains hospitalized with bullet fragments lodged in his brain and lung. He has not yet been told his son is dead.

Greenhouse is the son of Norris Greenhouse Sr, an assistant district attorney in Avoyelles Parish. The district attorney, Charles Riddle, says the state attorney general will take over prosecution of the case.

The possibility that the officers could post bond and be released Monday, despite the murder charges, and the same day the boy is being buried, has shocked the country.

Jeremy Mardis, who was autistic, was buried Monday in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He had recently moved from Mississippi to Louisiana.

The boy’s death came in the midst of local infighting among various Marksville authorities with overlapping jurisdictions. Stafford, for instance, was a Marksville police officer who was moonlighting for the city marshal’s office, an agency that serves court papers in the area.

Marksville mayor John Lemoine said Stafford “apparently worked a full shift for us that day, and then that night went to work for the marshal’s office”.

Lemoine questioned the legality of the marshal and his officers enforcing laws – and firing their weapons – in Marksville city limits.

Marysville city attorney Derrick Whittington says Stafford had faced multiple lawsuits in his role as a Marksville police officer, and that in neighboring Rapides Parish he had been indicted on rape charges that were later dropped.

Update:

Police investigating the fatal shooting of a six-year-old autistic boy by two Louisiana state marshals are looking into whether one of the police officers had a grudge with the child's father.

Jeremy Mardis was shot five times in the head and chest as he sat in the passenger seat of his father Chris Few's car last week by police officers Derrick Stafford, 32, and Norris Greenhouse.

Investigators are exploring the possibility that Greenhouse had a personal issue with Few, after Few's fiancée Megan Dixon said Greenhouse had been messaging her on Facebook and coming to their home.

Ms Dixon has previously said she 'was the reason this all started', adding that she knew what happened in the moments leading up to the shooting.

Update:

A Louisiana grand jury indicted two deputy marshals on charges of second-degree murder on Thursday after a 6-year-old boy was killed last month during a volley of gunfire as the officers chased his father's car.

The officers, Derrick Stafford, 32, and Norris Greenhouse Jr., 23, also face charges of second-degree attempted murder in the wounding of the boy's father under the indictment returned by a grand jury in central Louisiana's Avoyelles Parish.

The two deputy marshals fired at least 18 times at the car during the Nov. 3 incident, wounding 25-year-old Chris Few and killing his son, Jeremy Mardis, who was buckled into the front passenger seat.

While local authorities initially said the deputy marshals were trying to arrest Few on a warrant when he fled by car, state police later said there was no record of a warrant. State police found no evidence that Few was armed.

Footage of the shooting was captured on a body camera by a third officer at the scene. The video was described by the superintendent of the Louisiana State Police, Colonel Mike Edmonson, as "the most disturbing thing I've seen."

Greenhouse was released from jail after posting $1 million bail. Stafford remains in jail because he cannot afford the $1 million bail. He has asked a judge to lower the amount.

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Police Deputy Derrick Stafford: “I never saw a kid, bro”

Associated Press  /  September 28, 2016

Police have released a graphic video that captured the moment two officers fired on a car and killed a six-year-old boy in Louisiana last year.

Prosecutors showed the tape in court on Wednesday to support their claim that one of the deputies, Derrick Stafford, had a pattern of using excessive force — including last November's fatal shooting of Jeremy Mardis in Marksville. 

The head of the Louisiana State Police said the video was the most disturbing thing he's ever seen. 

Nearly a year later, the public is getting its first look at the graphic footage.  

The state judge presiding over the murder cases against the two deputies allowed reporters to make copies of the tape on Wednesday after a hearing where it was formally introduced as evidence. 

Prosecutors and defense attorneys previously described in writing how the footage depicts the shooting, which stops less than a minute into the video. 

The rest of the nearly 14 minutes of footage shows the aftermath, as the officer with the body camera checks on the lifeless body of Mardis while his critically wounded father, Christopher Few, lies bleeding on the pavement. 

Matthew Derbes, a prosecutor from Attorney General Jeff Landry's office, said Stafford's pattern of hurting people he's arresting also provides a motive for shooting at Few while his hands are raised.

'Motive is something the jury wants to hear,' Derbes said. 'Why would they do this?'

But defense attorneys for Stafford and Norris Greenhouse Jr. argue the deputies acted in self-defense.

They claim Few drove recklessly while leading officers on a two-mile chase and then rammed into Greenhouse's vehicle as he was exiting it, before he and Stafford opened fire.

While the video doesn't capture the entire pursuit, state District Court Judge William Bennett noted that the footage doesn't show Few's car posing a threat to the officers as they fired.

'That car was not being used as a deadly weapon at that time,' Bennett said.

'I daresay it was not even close to being used as a deadly weapon at that time.'

Prosecutors say the video shows the deputies firing from a safe distance from Few's car. 

The video from the body camera worn by Marksville Police Sgt. Kenneth Parnell III lacks audio for the first 27 seconds. The deputies began shooting before the audio begins.

After the shooting and sirens stop, somebody yells at Few to show his hands. 

Few was slumped over the blood-stained door on the driver's side of his car when officers approach him.

'Is he hit at all?' Stafford later asked Parnell.

'Who?' Parnell replied.

'The driver,' Stafford said

'Yeah,' Parnell responded.

'I never saw a kid in the car, man,' Stafford said. 'I never saw a kid, bro.'

About seven minutes after the shooting, Parnell opened the passenger door to Few's car, shone a flashlight onto Mardis, nudged his right shoulder and checked for a pulse. 

Then he walked over to another officer and said he found a faint pulse on the boy.

Donning surgical gloves, Parnell walked back to the boy's side of the car and shone a light on the boy again.

'Oh, my God,' he muttered.

Several minutes later, a paramedic told Parnell that first-grader Jeremy Mardis was dead. He was hit by five bullets in the head and chest.

Defense attorneys have suggested investigators rushed to judgment. 

George Higgins, one of Greenhouse's attorneys, said investigators have no evidence that any of the bullets fired by Greenhouse struck Few or his son.

Higgins asked State Police detective Rodney Owens during Wednesday's hearing why the deputies were arrested before obtaining results of ballistics tests.

'You didn't know that Mr. Greenhouse did not shoot anybody when you arrested him?' Higgins said.

Owens acknowledged that he didn't. 

But investigators later traced 14 shell casings to Stafford's semi-automatic handgun and determined four other shell casings recovered at the scene came from Greenhouse's gun.

Of the four bullet fragments recovered from the boy's body, three matched Stafford's weapon and another couldn't be matched to either deputy.

Owens also testified that there isn't any physical evidence that Few's car collided with Greenhouse's vehicle, but he couldn't rule that out as a possibility.

Stafford and Greenhouse await separate trials on second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder charges.

Stafford, a Marksville police lieutenant, and Greenhouse, a former Marksville police officer, were moonlighting as deputy marshals on the night of the November 3, 2015, shooting.

Stafford's trial is scheduled to start November 28; Greenhouse has a March 13, 2017, trial date. 

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[kscarbel2]

On 12/1/2015 at 1:56 PM, kscarbel2 said:

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

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Torture and starve to death a child and feed him to pigs, and you only get 25 years. What a justice system we have. Prompt execution by guillotine immediately following the trial would have sent a clearer message.

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Kansas man jailed for killing and torturing son he fed to pigs

BBC  /  May 9, 2017

A judge in Kansas has sentenced a man to life after he was convicted of murdering his seven-year-old son, torturing him and recording the abuse.

Michael Jones, 46, must serve 25 years for killing his son Adrian. The boy's step-mother, Heather Jones, 31, has already been jailed for the same crime.

Officials say Adrian endured horrific torture in his last year of life, and was fed to pigs after his death.

A Kansas politician has introduced a law requiring people to report abuse.

Representative Louis Ruiz introduced Adrian's Act, which would require family members or residents of the household to report abuse to authorities.

Under current Kansas law, only "mandated reporters", such as healthcare workers, teachers, social workers, and law enforcement officers are obligated to report abuse.

"If you witness child abuse, I don't care if you're a mandated reporter or not, we should report these things," said Adrian's grandmother, Judy Conway, who praised the bill.

The little boy's remains were found in a barn on a property rented by the Jones family in November 2015.

He is believed to have died from starvation months earlier.

Investigators had gone to the home after receiving reports of domestic abuse.

While the couple was awaiting trial, their landlord discovered photos and videos on their computer meticulously documenting the horrific abuse Adrian had endured.

During sentencing, Detective Stuart Littlefield choked back tears as he described the final year of Adrian's life, which he said was the worst crime he had seen in his 23-year career.

"Imagine the screams of a 7-year old boy", Mr Littlefield said describing the abuse.

"And when his killers could no longer stand the stench of his body he was fed to pigs," he said.

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