Cops: Slain teen was to testify against man found dead with her

Posted in Related Deaths

10-29-2010 Michigan:

He had been charged with sexual assault against her

Taylor Manley was found in a minivan with Raymond Bush, 38. The teen was supposed to testify against him Wednesday morning in trial for allegedly sexually assaulting her, but she disappeared before that happened, police and prosecutors say.

Bush died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office said.

Taylor's father told the Free Press earlier he believes his daughter wouldn’t have committed suicide. She was afraid of Bush, he said.

Robert Manley said Bush had threatened her against testifying.

The bodies of the two were found in Bush’s minivan parked in St. Charles Cemetery, on North Dixie Highway in Newport, according to State Police.

Autopsies are scheduled for today by the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office.

The 15-year-old moved in with her father two weeks ago because of the ongoing sexual assault case, Robert Manley said. He said it was time for her to be a kid again and added he was “trying to take her away, trying to hide her, so this kind of thing wouldn’t happen.”

He said he doesn’t think his daughter left willingly with the 38-year-old and said she didn’t seem to have a problem with testifying against Bush, who police said had a tattoo on the back of his neck with Taylor’s name.

Robert Manley came home Wednesday around 7:30 a.m. after working an overnight shift and said he knew something was wrong because his daughter wasn’t there. She was scheduled to testify at 10:30 a.m and wasn’t supposed to go to school for that reason, he said.

Clare County Prosecutor Michelle Ambrozaitis said Bush never showed in 80th District Court in Harrison on Wednesday to face a charge of third-degree criminal sexual conduct charge from Aug. 22 for an alleged sexual relationship with Taylor.

Because of fears he might stop her from attending that hearing, an Amber Alert was issued Wednesday when she went missing, Michigan State Police Sgt. Joe Cairnduff said

Autopsy: Man who killed former girlfriend at Duke clinic committed suicide

Posted in Related Deaths

5-10-2010 North Carolina:

The Durham man who exchanged gunfire with police in May after fatally shooting his former girlfriend at a Duke clinic died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

Burnett Taylor, 51, died of a contact gunshot wound to the right side of his head, the autopsy report states.

Taylor was confronted by police about two blocks from the clinic at 3116 N. Duke St. where 40 minutes earlier he had fatally shot 49-year-old Charlene King six times.

When police confronted Taylor, the autopsy states, he was holding a gun to his head.

Shots were also fired by police, the autopsy report states. The autopsy describes a second gunshot wound to the left hip. ..Source.. by Staff Reports

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Man shoots, kills girlfriend at Duke health clinic

5-6-2010 North Carolina:

DURHAM (WTVD) -- A Duke Medicine employee was shot and killed by a gunman who came to her workplace in Durham Tuesday afternoon.

The shooting at the Duke Health Center at North Duke Street happened just before 3 p.m. at the corner of N. Duke Street and Frasier Street. That's north of I-85 near the Durham Regional Hospital.

Panicked 911 calls immediately began flooding into emergency operators.

"We're all hiding in a room here," a doctor told a 911 operator.

Click here to listen to the calls

"The guy with the gun came in and somebody fell through the door," said another caller. "A man came in behind her and shot."

Witnesses reported hearing four shots. They said medical staff were attempting to give the woman CPR, but she was unconscious.

Durham police identified the victim as 49-year-old Charlene Bullock King. Relatives told ABC11 that she worked at the center for 27 years as a phlebotomist. They said the gunman was her ex-boyfriend.

Police identified him as 52-year-old Burnette Taylor of Durham.

"Charlene was very sweet, very sweet," King's stepson Steven Shealey said. "She didn't deserve this at all. Even at one point when I was going through some things with my fiancé, she took me in."

He said she had recently had a fight with Taylor and decided to leave the relationship.

"I guess he realized he had lost something that was a jewel, something that was precious as she was, and that's why he couldn't let go," Shealey said.

After the shooting, Durham police quickly swarmed the area trying to find Taylor who took off on foot.

"We happened to have officers training not too far from here at that point in time, so they were able to respond at a very quick rate," Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez said.

Witnesses reported the gunman ran into a wooded area behind a house on Carver Street. They reported hearing multiple gunshots before Taylor was seen lying on the ground.

As police tracked Taylor, Lopez said he "engaged police officers in a gun battle" at Carver and Broad streets.

Taylor was shot by officers and Lopez said he was taken to Duke Hospital where he later died.

Lopez said the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation would be assisting in the case - as is standard in any officer involved shooting.

Taylor had a long criminal record. According to the North Carolina Department of Corrections, he was a registered sex offender after convictions for second-degree rape and kidnapping in 1993. He also has convictions for car theft, larceny of firearms, resisting arrest, and drunk driving.

After serving time for those crimes, he was released and apparently began dating another woman, who late-last year accused him of assault. The woman even requested a temporary restraining order, describing a violent episode in which Taylor beat her unconscious. In court documents she wrote, "He continued to slap, kick, punch me with his fists. Blackening both my eyes, fracturing my ribs, my liver was cut due to a kick."

Probation officers put out warrants for Taylor's arrest beginning in November of last year.

State correction officials say Taylor's probation officer made every attempt to locate him, but officers never managed to track Taylor down, until six months later when Durham police officers shot him Tuesday.

Officials with the North Carolina Department of Correction also say their revue shows the probation officer made numerous attempts to find Taylor over the last six months, at his last known address and his family members, but Taylor was willfully fleeing supervision.

Meanwhile, Duke Medicine reopened on Thursday after it cancelled all appointments for all services at the Duke Health Center at North Duke Street for Wednesday. ..Source.. by WTVD.com

Shootout kills three

Posted in Related Deaths

8-28-2010 Georgia:

DALTON, Ga. — What started as a 4-year-old girl’s birthday celebration Thursday ended with little children cowering in an attic for safety as family members died below in a hail of gunfire.

The girl’s mother, Mindy Bullard, 35, was shot twice while begging for mercy and fleeing across the family’s roof. On the ground, her ankles broken, she dragged herself toward a neighbor’s yard.

She survived, and her injuries are not life-threatening, authorities said, but three men died in the exchange of gunfire, including the alleged perpetrator, David Hartline, a 41-year-old convicted child molester from Summerville, Ga., who deputies believe was drunk and full of jealousy.

Bullard’s father, Edward H. Manz III, 61, of Chattanooga, and her ex-husband, Kenneth Simonson, 41, of Cleveland, Tenn., also were killed but not before Manz fired at least two deadly rounds at Hartline.

Bullard had been trying to end a tumultuous six-month relationship with Hartline when she told him not to attend the family birthday party Thursday afternoon.

He showed up anyway. Shunned a second time, he grabbed a gun, and started on a deadly attack, Whitfield County Sheriff Scott Chitwood said.

Bullard, a mother of seven children ranging in age from 4 to 16, begged for Hartline’s mercy moments after hoisting her children to safety in the home’s attic, 911 calls indicate.

“His name is David Hartline. He’s in my house, and he’s got a gun,” Bullard said, after telling a child to get into the attic. Hartline yells an explicative-filled rant with allegations that Bullard had been seeing another man. She denies everything and begs, “Please don’t hurt me, David.”

A voice that is apparently Hartline yells across the line “I’ll ... put this gun to your ... head and pull the trigger right now!”

Seconds later, gunfire echoes across the phone line and the call ends. Bullard was later wounded in the legs as she ran across her home’s roof, the sheriff said.

In other calls, witnesses plead for faster response. Deputies took a little more than 10 minutes to get to the scene, according to an incident report.

“People shot out here on Rainbow Circle, get the ambulances out here quick,” a male voice pleads. “Man is killing people out here, killing people!”

The line goes silent after the caller says, “Oh, here he comes.” And then there are four gunshots.

When Whitfield County sheriff’s deputies arrived at 1751 Rainbow Circle, they found Bullard on the ground behind the house, according to the sheriff’s department incident report.

SHELL-SHOCKED CHILDREN

Six children were in the home for the birthday party Thursday. A family member said it was rare for Bullard and Simonson to have all their children together at one time, but everyone had united for the birthday party.

Four children live in the rural north Whitfield County home and three live with Simonson. A 16-year-old girl did not attend the party. Bullard has children by both Simonson and another man, family and friends said.

Some of the children hid in the attic, but Margaret Manz, Bullard’s aunt and the sister-in-law of Edward Manz, said at least one of Simonson’s sons was found hiding in the woods two hours after the shooting.

“It’s just tragic,” Margaret Manz said. “Mindy feels awful. She’s in terrible pain, and she blames herself.”

Deputies ushered the children to Azalea Thompson’s home two doors down on Rainbow Circle as they sorted out the scene. She’s known the children for years, and had had them over to play her Nintendo Wii on several occasions.

“The kids were quite not themselves,” Thompson said Friday while standing on her porch in the heavily wooded neighborhood with big yards and large homes. “We hugged them, and my daughter made them popcorn and tea and they played the Wii.”

She said the children, who were later taken to stay with a relative, acted as though they were numb. Some knew family members had been shot. One or two of the children may have realized someone died, Thompson said.

FATHER’S COURAGE

Bullard has been complaining to family members for some time that Hartline was causing her trouble.

Her father “had told me that within the last couple months, she had gotten involved with someone who turned out to be a psycho and was making her life miserable,” Margaret Manz said.

Hartline served a seven-year prison sentence for child molestation and was released in 2007, state prison records show.

From her Summerville home, an aunt of David Hartline said the family was still absorbing the shock from the previous night. She said the Hartlines didn’t know Bullard’s family very well.

“It’s just a loss for everybody involved,” Judy Hartline said. “We’re feeling for our loss as well as the other family’s. It’s a tragic event. That’s our family’s comment at this time.”

Deputies theorize that despite being wounded himself in the exchange of gunfire, Manz managed to unload two shots into Hartline before dying himself.

Though Edward Manz, whom friends knew as “Buster,” had a sometimes strained relationship with his daughter, he was always there for her. The large home on four acres of land was owned by Manz, neighbors said, and he often performed odd jobs there.

“They had their ups and downs, Mindy and Buster, but when it comes down to it, blood is thicker than water, and he wasn’t going to let that guy kill his grandchildren,” Margaret Manz said. ..Source.. by Adam Crisp

Murder suspect tells how, why he killed sister, another woman and a deputy

Kalisz had been convicted of a sex offense in October of 2009, and this incident in January of 2010! And he was a very angry man. see story

2-10-2011 Florida:

CROSS CITY — John Kalisz, his gun loaded and mind set, walked into his sister's home and didn't waver.

"I shot everybody till the bullets ran out," he told investigators 13 days later.

How many times was each person shot? "Until they shut up," he replied.

Prosecutors say Kalisz killed two people and injured two more at the Brooksville home of his sister, Kathryn "Kitty" Donovan, where the Jan. 14, 2010, rampage began.

In an interview with authorities from his hospital bed, Kalisz detailed how he prepared and what motivated the alleged killing rampage, which ended at a Cross City gas station two hours later.

Kalisz's trial for the alleged murder of Dixie County sheriff's Capt. Chad Reed starts in mid March, and he is scheduled for a pretrial hearing today. He faces numerous counts in Hernando County, including two first-degree murder charges.

Much of what occurred that bloody afternoon is known from official reports. For the first time, however, Kalisz matter-of-factly described the carnage in his own words.

Although the 56-year-old roofer rambled and sometimes contradicted himself during the interview with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and a Hernando County detective at Shands Hospital in Gainesville, Kalisz said he knew what he was doing and that he had planned what he called "the operation."

He expressed no remorse for killing his sister and only some for Reed's death, saying he shot at deputies because they were preventing him from killing other people. "Not one shell … came out to defy a cop," he said.

Hatred toward his family and the judicial system, Kalisz told investigators, compelled him to kill.

"One of the things that upsets the hell out of me is for years I've helped people, helped people and helped people," he said, "and every time I help somebody I get screwed over."

Kalisz was accused of fondling Donovan's daughter, Manessa Donovan, and threatening her boyfriend. In October 2009, he pleaded no contest to charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and a count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He received six years of sex offender probation.

He hated his family for forcing him to spend his inheritance on legal costs, he said. He was frustrated because his probation meant he couldn't leave the state to retrieve his "tools" in Colorado.

Calling Donovan that "pig sister of mine," he told investigators he had intended to "waste the hell out of Kitty and her blood line."

Just an hour before the rampage began, officials said, he had practiced his aim in the woods. Investigators asked him to explain his plan, and Kalisz replied simply: "Bullets. As many as it took."

When he arrived at Donovan's home on Wilhelm Road, Kalisz said, he went to the back of her house and saw her. He shot Donovan three times, reports indicate, before he shot the manager of Donovan's home-based business, 59-year-old Deborah Buckley Tilloston, four times. Both women died on the scene.

He then shot Manessa Donovan, who was pregnant. Although she survived four bullet wounds, she lost the early-stage fetus during surgery at Tampa General Hospital. He also shot Amy Wilson, then 33, who also lived.

"It didn't matter, whoever was alive there did not need to be alive there," Kalisz said. "So I kept going until I felt there was nobody else alive there and then I got in my car and left."

From Brooksville, authorities say, Kalisz drove north on U.S. 19 and said he planned to leave the state. Kalisz said he thought he called another sister, Linda Pleva, whom he told "it was over."

Kalisz remembered little of his conversation with close friend Jessica Denny of Connecticut, whom he phoned after leaving his sister's home. He told her about the killings and said he would shoot any cops who tried to stop him.

He said he didn't know deputies had followed him into Cross City before he turned into a BP gas station. Not until deputies with drawn guns approached his van as he parked next to a gas pump, Kalisz said, did he realize they were there.

"It was no longer about how or what I was carrying, who I was going after," he said, "it was about how many I can take out."

Kalisz heard a deputy yelling for him to drop his weapon and get out of the van, but he refused. "I figured it'd be over by then and if it wasn't over by then," he said, "there was a possibility of making it out of that situation."

Though he couldn't remember how many shots he fired, Kalisz said he might have shot "just to keep the odds even. … I didn't do it out of any guilt, shame or remorse or bitterness towards the cops."

Kalisz fired one round, reports said, and it struck Reed in the mouth. He died that evening.

"Too many rounds went off," he said. "I know there's probably one officer that didn't make it through that ordeal."

Kalisz told investigators he didn't know how to "act, think or feel," at one point even asking them to kill him.

"Just put a freakin' bullet in me, go ahead, I don't give a s---," he said. "Nothing's worth anything anymore." ..Source.. John Woodrow Cox

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Man sentenced to life in prison in deputy's death

2-10-2011 Florida:

CROSS CITY, Fla. -- A 56-year-old man pleaded guilty to killing Dixie County Sheriff's Capt. Chad Reed during a shootout last year.

A judge sentenced John Kalisz to life in prison Thursday afternoon. Prosecutors had planned to seek the death penalty had the case gone to trial.

Authorities say Kalisz shot 33-year-old Reed on Jan. 14, 2010. ..Source.. by Florida Wires

Liberty killings prove puzzling

2-26-2010 Ohio:

WARREN — One of the five Youngstown residents charged in the aggravated murder of Liberty residents Wilneice L. Green, 28, and her 13-year-old daughter, Ja-Brajasia, told his girlfriend that Melvin L. Turner, 36, of Maryland shot and killed Green — but he didn’t know why.

Marquese J. Floyd, 25, of Atkinson Avenue, told his girlfriend he was part of a group of five that went to Green’s house on Northgate Drive in Liberty on Nov. 15, 2009, but “it wasn’t supposed to go down that way and that he didn’t know why [Turner] had killed Wilneice and Ja-Brajasia,” according to an affidavit submitted Thursday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

James M. Christian, 20, another of the five, told police they went to the Green residence, just north of Northside Medical Center, to kill a male acquaintance of Wilneice Green. That acquaintance had been accused earlier Nov. 15 at the Liberty Police Department of having sexual contact with a child, the affidavit said.

Liberty Police Chief Richard Tisone has said Ja-Brajasia and her mother were “in the wrong place at the wrong time” and were not the intended targets of the crime.

Man found dead with former Harrison girl faced sex charge in Clare County

Posted in Related Deaths

10-28-2010 Michigan:

A 15-year-old Clare County girl was remembered Thursday as a kind, caring girl who was in Mid Michigan Community College’s Students of Promise program before moving to Osceola County a few weeks ago.

Meanwhile, the 38-year-old Newport man accused of killing Taylor E. Manley before killing himself Wednesday was out of jail on bond after being charged with having sex with the girl in July.

Christy McKinney of Clare said Manley was a friend of her son’s and often spent time at their home.

“She was a great kid,” McKinney said. “She was a very sweet girl.”

Tammy Alvaro, MMCC’s Students of Promise coordinator, said Manley was well known among students and that she was a sweet girl.

Alvaro saw Manley at MMCC’s Fall Festival and Barbecue recently and spoke to her about her plans for college in a few years, offering to help her in any way she could.

Police Believe Child Was Killed With Welding Torch

Horrific, beyond anything ever recorded before!

12-31-2010 Texas:

HOUSTON -- Homicide investigators said a welding torch is the likely weapon used in 12-year-old Jonathan Foster's death, Local 2 Investigates reported Friday.

"We're talking crematorium-type of hot," said one Houston Police Department Homicide Squad officer assigned to the investigation.

Police said they confiscated a badly burned section of carpet from the home of Mona Yvette Nelson, 44, who stands charged with capital murder.

She had a welding background and police found welding equipment in her home on Allwood Street in the Fifth Ward area of Northeast Houston. Police said a section of carpet was badly burned and the smell of a human body filled the area around that carpet.

DNA tests are being ordered to analyze any bodily fluids.

One investigator assigned to the case said it now appears Foster was killed at that spot in Nelson's home within hours of being kidnapped from his family's home near Shepherd Drive and 43rd Street in Northwest Houston.

Police say she was acquainted with some members of the boy's family.

One officer said on Friday that the autopsy has ruled out any trauma on the child's body. There were no broken bones or any signs of strangulation or head wounds, so officers said it now appears the child was killed with a welding torch that could be capable of 6,000-degree flames.

"I've never seen burns like this," said one officer who viewed the boy's body after it was found in a ditch off the Hardy Toll Road on Tuesday.

He said that killers often try to cover their tracks by burning the victim's corpse, but in this boy's case, the burning was so intense and thorough that many veteran homicide investigators are struggling with the notion of such a grisly and painful way to die.

Nelson told a community activist from behind bars that she had nothing to do with killing the boy, and she mentioned her own grandchildren as proof that she would never harm a child in such a manner.

As for a motive, one HPD investigator said officers believe sexual abuse was behind the crime.

The officer said there is no evidence to confirm the theory at this point, but police say there was no ransom demand after the boy was kidnapped, so one officer said, "That's the only other motive (that makes any sense)."

Neighbors near the home where police believe the child was killed with a torch are struggling with the new details of the crime.

"That's sick. That's really sick, and I think the person who did it needs to pay for it. Pay dearly," said one business owner on the same block.

Connie Morris also works nearby, saying, "That's just cruel and mean if anybody would do that to a 12-year-old innocent boy."

Nelson is jailed without bond with a court appearance set for Monday.

Police spent Friday interviewing the child's family once again, shoring up the timeline of events and filling in routine gaps in the statements that were given immediately after the crime.

They also spent several hours organizing the carpet and other evidence confiscated from Nelson's home. One officer said, "We got all we need (from there)." ..Source.. by Stephen Dean

Man Killed In Retaliation After Sex Assault Alleged

11-22-2010 Texas:

Shawn Phillips Is Accused Of Killing Mark Gabler

SAN ANTONIO -- San Antonio police said a man accused of killing another man in retaliation for an alleged sexual assault of one of his family members while they were all living together was arrested over the weekend.

Police said 32-year-old Shawn Phillips is charged with murder in connection with the killing of 33-year-old Mark Gabler.

According to the arrest affidavit, Phillips was upset over an alleged sexual assault and told a woman that was "going to take care of it his way."

"Obviously, we don't want people to take matters into their own hands," said Linda Tomasini, a spokesperson with the Bexar County Sheriffs Office. "That's why we have law enforcement here."

Gabler's badly decomposed body was found on May 20 in a hayfield off of the 13400 block of Donop Road in Southeast Bexar County, the affidavit states.

Ex-locals charged in slayings of Augusta pair

Posted in Related Deaths

12-16-2010 California:

Two former central Maine men jailed on drug charges in California now are facing charges of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of an Augusta couple who reportedly moved there to help with a marijuana operation.

Robby Alan Beasley, 30, formerly of Augusta, and Elijah Bae McKay, 28, a former state champion wrestler from Gardiner Area High School, are charged with murdering Frank Maddox, 32, and his wife, Yvette Colon Maddox, 40, according to information from Capt. James Bauman of California's Lake County Sheriff's Department.

A conviction on first-degree murder in California carries a sentence of 25 years to life.

The partially decomposed bodies of the Maddoxes were found March 4 at the bottom of an embankment in a rural area of northern California. The medical examiner ruled the deaths homicides, saying that the two suffered gunshots wounds before dying.

The couple had been staying in Clearlake, Calif., for several months.

One of Yvette Maddox's Maine relatives reported her missing on Jan. 28, and Frank Maddox was reported missing on Feb. 11.

Early in the investigation, Bauman said detectives learned that Beasley had hired the two and brought them to Lake County to work in a marijuana operation.

Beasley, who had moved to Clearlake, Calif., and lists his occupation as a painter, was arraigned on the murder charges Wednesday morning in Lake County; and McKay is to be arraigned today.

Beasley is scheduled to appear in court again Dec. 20.

Bauman indicated additional arrests are anticipated and that police are continuing the nine-month investigation.

Beasley was arrested March 6 in California on a Maine warrant charging him with violating probation by leaving the state without permission. He had been convicted of criminal threatening and felony assault in Kennebec County in June 2007 and remained on probation for those offenses.

He was questioned in connection with the Maddoxes' deaths, according to Bauman, and later charged with marijuana cultivation.

Kennebec County District Attorney Evert Fowle later said that a second warrant was issued from Kennebec County, charging Beasley with violating probation by committing new criminal conduct.

A statement from Bauman on Wednesday says McKay became a person of interest about a week into the Maddox murder investigation.

McKay was arrested March 11 in Lake County, Calif., on marijuana cultivation, possession for sales and weapons charges and released the same day on $10,000 bail. He allegedly fled to Georgia and was brought back to the Lake County, Calif., jail where his bail was increased to $2 million.

The Lake County jail records show McKay was born in Santa Rosa, Calif., but he graduated from Gardiner Area High School in 2001.

In his senior year there, his 116 wins were the most ever by a Gardiner Area High School wrestler, and he was named wrestler of the year by Kennebec Journal sports writers.

In Bauman's statement about the murder charges, he gave no indication whether authorities had located Frank Maddox's 1982 pickup truck. They said earlier the vehicle was important to the investigation and had published two photographs of the truck taken by a local code enforcement officer on Feb. 2, when it was reported as an abandoned vehicle. The rusted, beige truck was to be towed, but it disappeared before the wrecker arrived.

The Maddoxes and Beasley have criminal records in central Maine dating back several years.

Published records show members of the Maine State Police tactical team arrested Beasley at his Pittston home in December 2002 after he allegedly fired several shots out of his home and at a guest's vehicle. A 17-year-old girl was injured in the incident.

He also was arrested in October 2005 after a standoff with police in Augusta.

Beasley was indicted in January 2007 on charges of threatening a woman with an AK-47 assault rifle in Vassalboro. He pleaded guilty to criminal threatening and assault and was sentenced to five years in prison with all but 10 months suspended and two years' probation.

Beasley also was accused of trafficking in marijuana in 1999 in Gardiner.

Frank Maddox has convictions for unlawful sexual contact in 2001, possession of scheduled drugs and failing to comply with notification requirements of the Maine Sex Offender Registry, according to Kennebec County District Attorney Evert Fowle. Maddox and Beasley were both sent to the Maine Correctional Center in Windham in 2007, and Kennebec County Sheriff Randall Liberty indicated the men were in the prison at the same time.

Yvette Maddox served time in Kennebec County jail after pleading guilty to unlawful drug possession, Fowle said. She was sentenced in September 2005 to three years in jail, with all but 90 days suspended and two years' probation.

Published records show only one criminal conviction for McKay, for operating under the influence May 21, 2004, in Gardiner. McKay was fined $400 for the offense. ..Source.. by Betty Adams

Cop-shooter's status as registered sex offender may have triggered his rage

Posted in Related Deaths!

It is important to note that, the situation that sparked the deaths occurred WEEKS BEFORE the actual shooting. Nettles' girlfriend's parents did not want him dating their daughter, and Nettles threatened them, that resulted in a criminal charge which he was about to go to court for. The heart of the matter was his status as a registered sex offender.

As the court date drew near he snapped, went to his girlfriend's place, and some assault took place which caused her to summon police. Apparently Nettles was intent on killing his girlfriend and her daughter, and the policewoman stepped in-between him and the young girl and nettles shot her then his girlfriend and her new boyfriend.

12-30-2010 Texas:

Arlington, Texas — Weeks before Barnes Samuel Nettles killed his ex-girlfriend, Kimberley Carter, Arlington Police Officer Jillian Michelle Smith, and took his own life, police were called to his girlfriend's apartment.

Nettles is a registered sex offender. His ex-girlfriend's parents did not want him dating her. Court recorders show Nettles was so angry about her parents disapproval that in September he ran up stairs to her third-floor apartment to confront her family. Court records show he attempted to choke her mother, "throw her over the railing of the stairs", and "threatened to kill and her husband."

A court date for that incident was drawing closer when on Tuesday night he picked up a gun and killed his ex-girlfriend and the officer.

About 7:30 Tuesday night Officer Jillian Smith went alone to take a domestic violence report. When she got to the third-floor apartment, she found Nettles' girlfriend and her 11 year old daughter. Moments later Police say Nettles came back waving his gun and took aim at the 11-year-old.

"And in doing so the officer moved toward the 11-year-old to protect her," Arlington Police spokesperson Tiara Ellis Richard said. Officer Smith died at the scene. The 11-year-old ran outside, and then police say Nettles killed his girlfriend and shot himself in the head.

To review court records related to this case, click on the photo gallery on the left hand side of your screen. ..Source.. by KDAF-TV

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Officer killed while trying to protect child, police say

12-29-2010 Texas:

ARLINGTON, Texas A rookie police officer was fatally shot as she apparently tried to protect an 11-year-old from an armed man who burst into an apartment as the officer was taking a domestic assault report, police officials said Wednesday.

Jillian Michelle Smith, 24, was killed Tuesday night within 20 minutes of responding to a lower priority call from a woman who wanted to report the assault, officials said.

The assault suspect had left the apartment but returned while Smith was inside taking the report, Arlington police spokeswoman Tiara Ellis Richard said at a news conference Wednesday.

Also killed were Kimberly Deshay Carter, 29, and her ex-boyfriend, Barnes Samuel Nettles, 38.

After shooting Smith, Nettles apparently went into a back bedroom and shot Carter, Richard said.

He then returned to the living room and shot himself, Richard said. In the meantime, the child, identified as Carter's daughter, fled.

Richard said the description of what likely happened inside the apartment was based on a preliminary investigation and that the order of events would be pinned down more specifically after reports by the medical examiner, ballistics and other information.

In Mobile, Ala., Nettles' relatives called the shooting a selfish act and said they didn't realize that Nettles and Carter were still in contact.

"We are at a loss right now. We're just sorry for the relatives of both victims. It was selfish," said Nettles' cousin Andrew Johnson.

In September, Nettles was arrested in Arlington and charged with assaulting Carter's mother and sister, Richard said. Court documents show that he was free on $5,000 bond.

He was a registered sex offender in Arlington for an offense that occurred in Washington state, Richard said.

"Last we heard, they weren't together anymore," Johnson said. "We didn't know they had problems."

Smith joined the department in February and graduated from the Arlington Police Academy in August. She completed her field training Dec. 13, said Richard, the police spokeswoman.

Officials said it is not unusual for a lone officer to respond to a Priority 3 call.


The incident began when Smith responded to a call about a domestic assault at the Arbrook Park apartment complex, Richard said.

Within 20 minutes, police received a 911 call about a shooting.

"When they responded, they discovered there were three deceased inside the apartment," Richard said. "One of these was the officer who had responded earlier."

Officers could be seen searching people and cars as they left the complex in the pouring rain late Tuesday.

Nettles recently moved from Washington state to Arlington for work, his cousin Kim Nettles said. His four sons from a previous marriage were staying with their grandmother in Washington during the school holiday, Kim Nettles said.

"It is so shocking to us. Everything seemed OK. You never know what is going on inside, though," she said.

On Wednesday morning, two neighbors at the apartment complex said that they were stunned not only by the violence, but by the fact that they never heard gunshots.

Jacob Peters, who lives on the second floor of the unit, said he was listening to music Tuesday night when he heard voices arguing.

"It sounded like a man and a woman's voice," Peters said. "Then I heard footsteps like kids playing and running up and down the stairs. I almost opened my door and told them to cool it."

About an hour later, police knocked on his door and asked if he heard any gunshots, he said.

"They said an officer was shot and killed," he said. "I couldn't believe it."

According to court documents, local defense attorney Abe Factor was appointed to represent Nettles in September after he indicated he could not afford a lawyer.

Nettles stated in court documents that he was an unemployed sheet metal worker, who was supporting himself and three sons, ages 18, 14 and 11.

He listed his gross monthly income as $1,340 from "odd jobs" and stated that he also received food stamps and Medicaid and had filed for (child) support. ..Source.. by SUSAN SCHROCK - McClatchy Newspapers

Reduced sentence ordered for Chicago killer

Posted in Related Deaths

9-25-2010 Illinois:

Court rules for Chicago woman who took part in the 2004 murder of a man she believed raped her infant daughter

A Chicago woman convicted of killing a man who allegedly raped her infant daughter should get a sharply reduced sentence, an appeals court has found, ruling that the judge who sentenced her to 67 years in prison failed to properly consider the "undeniably egregious nature of the provocation" that led to the 2004 slaying.

Laquita Calhoun, now 29, was bathing her 1-year-old daughter when she noticed signs of sexual abuse and went to confront a neighbor. Alonzo Jones, 29, confessed to abusing the girl, Calhoun told police. Another neighbor revealed Jones had molested one of her children too, witnesses said.

Jones was then beaten by several people in the apartment, then tossed screaming into the trunk of a car. "Take me to the hospital," one witness said Jones pleaded from the trunk, according to records cited by the Illinois Appellate Court. "Take me to the police station. Sorry (La)quita."

"You going to die tonight," Calhoun allegedly responded. Another woman in the car turned up the radio. The women stopped at a liquor store, where Calhoun slashed Jones with a broken bottle, and several men standing nearby began kicking him after being told Jones had raped an infant.

Later, mechanics failed to hear Jones' pleas for help at a shop where Calhoun went to repair a flat tire. Jones was eventually taken to an alley near Michigan Avenue and 56th Street, beaten with a stick by Calhoun until he collapsed, and run over with the car several times.

The medical examiner's office ruled Jones died of sharp- and blunt-force trauma.

After a jury found Calhoun guilty of murder, Cook County Judge Stanley Sacks said he had never seen a more "horrendous, vicious crime" and said her vigilantism had cost Calhoun the right to "live among a free society." He sentenced her to 67 years in prison, including the maximum 60 years for murder.

But the appeals court in Chicago wrote that Sacks failed in his sentencing to recognize that Calhoun had undergone a provocation "as extreme as any mother … could sustain" and, being unlikely to reoffend, deserved a sentence closer to 20 years. The court also noted that all the other defendants in the case got more lenient sentences from Sacks. ..Source.. by Steve Schmadeke, Tribune reporter

Three men indicted in beating death

Posted in Related Deaths. This news article speaks about a person WHO IS NOT A SEX OFFENDER and was killed. (See blog title "Related to a sex offender or a sex offense" which means their life crossed paths (here by being accused of a sex offense) with a situation involving a sex offense or a sex offender. Related does not mean they are, please reread the title.

6-8-2010 Rochester, New York:

Two men charged in the fatal burning and beating of a Rochester man told police that the victim was attacked because he molested a child.

A grand jury has indicted Jeffrey L. Newton with the felonies of second-degree murder and first-degree gang assault and Peter J. Barkley and Darrel Hoffman for first-degree gang assault in a June 8 attack on Martin Quinn in Quinn's apartment on Grand Avenue.

According to court documents, Newton and Hoffman claimed that five people attacked Quinn because of allegations that Quinn had sexually abused a child they knew.

Police said Quinn, 46, was burned with a clothes iron and beaten with pipes, sticks, bottles and a television set. He was dumped in a bathtub and died 16 hours later.

Before Quinn died, Hoffman said Quinn cried out, "Help! I can't breathe! I'm not going to make it!" according to court documents.

Newton, 28, Barkley, 31, and Hoffman, 25, are scheduled to be arraigned Friday before state Supreme Court Justice Daniel J. Doyle. Newton and Barkley are being held without bail in Monroe County Jail; Hoffman is being held in lieu of $15,000 bail.

If convicted of murder, Newton faces a mandatory prison term ranging from 15 years to life to 25 years to life. A conviction for first-degree gang assault brings a mandatory prison term of up to 25 years.

Although police said five men participated in the assault, Newton, Barkley and Hoffman are the only ones to be charged so far. ..Source.. by Michael Zeigler • Staff writer

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3 men indicted in beating death in NE Rochester

6-30-2010 New York:

A grand jury has indicted three men in a beating death in Rochester earlier this month.

Jeffrey L. Newton is charged with second-degree murder and first-degree gang assault and Peter J. Barkley and Darrel Hoffman are charged with first-degree gang assault in the June 8 beating of Martin Quinn in his apartment on Grand Avenue.

Police said Quinn, 46, was burned with an iron and beaten with pipes, sticks, bottles and a television set. He died in his apartment of his injuries 16 hours later.

Newton, 28, Barkley, 31, and Hoffman, 25, are being held in Monroe County Jail. They’re scheduled to be arraigned Friday before state Supreme Court Justice Daniel J. Doyle. ..Source.. Michael Zeigler

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Three Men Indicted in Beating Death

A grand jury has indicted one man on murder charges and two others with assault in connection with a beating death earlier this month.

On June 8th, 46-year-old Martin Quinn was found dead in his first floor apartment on Grand Avenue. Neighbors said they heard a commotion in the home. Police said Quinn was tortured with sticks, bottles, hit with a TV, and burned with an iron, before he was killed.

28-year-old Jeffrey Newton (pictured) is charged with gang assault and murder. 31-year-old Peter Barkley and 25-year-old Darrel Hoffman are charged with gang assault. ..Source..

Accused killer says Roseville mom molested him

12-2-2010 Michigan:

Family members call claims ‘absurd,’ say he used her money for drugs

The brothers of a Roseville woman allegedly murdered by her adult son scoffed at claims by the son that he killed her because she molested and picked on him.

Art and John Bush, brothers of murder victim Mattie Foresi, countered Charles “Chuck” Foresi’s statement to police that she “needled him” about his “fatherhood” and molested him since age 12.

“It’s ridiculous, it’s absurd,” Art Foresi said. “He actually broke her of all the money she had, for drugs and getting him out of jail. It wasn’t because she molested him.”

Roseville police Detective Sgt. Steve Kostenko testified Wednesday about what Foresi told him during an interview at the Macomb County Jail.

“His explanation was that she had picked at him and was needling him about his fatherhood,” he said. “And he said from the time he was 12 years old, his mother had sexually molested him.”

The comment prompted a gasp in the courtroom from about 10 family members and relatives of the victim.

Living in the house in addition to the defendant and his mother were Charles Foresi’s girlfriend, Dawn Nixon, and their young son.

The Bushes said their nephew killed his mother because she wouldn’t give him money to buy crack cocaine. They said Foresi, 38, has had a drug problem since his early teens and has often stolen from people and for years has drained his mother’s finances to support his habit.

“He would guilt-trip her,” he said, referring to the fact that Foresi often used his late brother as a tool to gain sympathy from his mother. His brother was killed in a car crash in the 1980s, he said.

Foresi was ordered Wednesday to face a charge of first-degree, premeditated murder in Macomb County Circuit Court in Mount Clemens. Judge Marco Santia made the ruling in 39th District Court in Roseville following a preliminary examination. The ruling, however, was approved conditionally pending the outcome of a forensic psychiatric exam that has been completed, but which had not yet been received by the attorneys or judge. Dec. 15 was set for a potential final approval of the bind over.

A friend found Mattie Foresi, 62, dead in a pool of blood on the living room floor of her Loreto Street home the morning of Aug. 11, the victim of more than 43 stab wounds — 34 to the chest, nine to the head and more to her hands. Paul Shrum is a friend of the family who was asked to stop by the house due to suspicions. Police believe Charles Foresi killed his mother about 10:30 or 11:30 p.m. Aug. 10 and fled in car kept at the home to get drugs.

Santia dismissed a second charge, auto theft, which prosecutors attempted to secure based on Foresi driving away a Saturn car that was at the home.

Santia rejected the argument by Foresi’s court-named attorney, R. Timothy Kohler, to reduce the charge to second-degree murder, claiming that if Foresi did commit the murder, he didn’t plan it but acted out of emotion.

But assistant Macomb prosecutor William Cataldo noted that premeditation can occur in “seconds,” and Santia noted Mattie Foresi’s defensive wounds.

“The defendant would’ve had a chance at some point to say, ‘I’m not going to do this,’” Santia said from the bench. “He made a conscious decision to say, ‘I’m going to stab her until she is dead.’”

The night of Aug. 10, Foresi first went next door to Corinne Schutz’s house to ask her to give him a ride to the area of Gratiot Avenue and Six Mile Road in Detroit — an area known for drug proliferation — and to borrow her vehicle to drive there. But she said no.

Schutz described Foresi as “kind of anxious … like something was wrong.”

He immediately went to his next-door neighbor on the other side, Sherman Mace, and asked for a ride. Mace said yes, but Foresi quickly jumped off Mace’s porch and returned to his home. Mace was discussing the matter with his wife, who along with his daughter over the telephone begged him to change his mind, when Mace saw through his front window the burgundy Saturn speed away.

Police believe Foresi killed his mother during the approximately 10 minutes from when he left the Mace house to driving away in the car.

Mace said after he saw the car drive away, he went to the Foresi house to tell Charles he couldn’t drive him, but there was no answer.

Police also found a palm print on one of two knives found in the living room near Mattie Foresi’s body, Cataldo said, reading from a police report. ..Source.. by Jameson Cook, Daily Tribune Staff Writer

Suspect's Suicide Note and New Victim Emerge in Bonne Terre Killings

Posted in Related Deaths:
UPDATED 12-22-2010

12-2-2010 Missouri:

Bonne Terre, MO (KTVI - FOX2now.com) — There were stunning developments Wednesday in the shooting rampage in Bonne Terre that happened on day earlier: another possible victim, a suicide note, and an apology from the suspected shooter's family.

It appears 25 year old Nathan Fortner was distraught over a breakup with the mother of his son, Danielle Bement. His suicide note reads in part, "I pray to God, God forgives me"... "I can't take it"... "We're not going to get back together". Fortner obviously felt helpless, and now his mother does.

"I'm so deeply sorry," said his mother Mary Anne, "words can't express the sorrow in our hearts."

Police found another body believed to be linked to Fortner's crime spree late Tuesday night. 19 year old Ericka Wade was discovered in a vacant home on Doc Wallen Road in Washington County. Wade was a freshman cheerleader at Mineral Area College.

"Everyone loved this girl," said Nick Basinger, a friend of Ericka's. "A girl like Ericka, what do you do? What do you do?

Tuesday morning, police say Fortner shot and killed Bement, her mother Christine Snider and Snider's boyfriend Derek Nash. Then he killed himself. Police were led to the home on Doc Wallen Road by their investigation. Before her death, Bement had reported to police Fortner had raped her at that location.

Police are not yet saying for sure Fortner was Ericka Wade's killer.

"She was just a blast to be around," said her prom date, 19 year old Justin Clemons. "No matter where she was she was having a good time. And she had a wonderful smile. We pretty much danced the entire time."

Fortner was supposed to go on trial in April for a rape charge. Police say the victim in that case was not involved in Tuesday's crime. Fortner's parents say he was bipolar and had stopped taking his medication.

Clemons and Basinger say their entire community is in mourning.

"She'll always be remembered," said Clemons. "Especially by me, from the experiences we had together. Those are milestones that she shared with me. I'll never forget her." ..Source.. by KTVI-TV

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Missouri gunman blamed in fourth shooting death

12-22-2010 Missouri:

Missouri investigators said Tuesday they have linked a man who killed himself after shooting three people to death in eastern Missouri to the shooting death of another victim, whose body was found after the rampage.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol said in a statement that unspecified DNA evidence and telephone records link gunman Nathan Fortner, 25, to the shooting death of 20-year-old Ericka Wade. Sgt. Al Nothum, a spokesman for the patrol, later declined to elaborate on the release, which said no one other than Fortner appears involved in the deaths.

“It was DNA evidence. That's about as specific as we can get,” Nothum told The Associated Press. “We normally don't get into that. (But) it pretty much puts him at the crime scene.”

Police said Fortner broke into a duplex apartment Nov. 30 in the 7,000-resident former mining town of Bonne Terre about 55 miles southwest of St. Louis and opened fire, killing his former girlfriend, 19-year-old Danielle Bement, along with Bement's mother, Christine Snider, 37, and Snider's live-in boyfriend, Derek Nash, 32. Snider and Nash lived in the duplex on a quiet, secluded cul de sac, and Bement had been staying there. Two boys at the home were unharmed.

Fortner turned a handgun on himself as police closed in.

The body of Wade, a Fortner acquaintance, was found later that day in an abandoned house near Bismarck in neighboring Washington County. Wade had been reported missing the previous night.

Fortner's sister, Angie Fortner, has said her brother was unemployed, bipolar and overcome with despair over the breakup with Danielle Bement. After the shootings, the couple's 18-month-old son was found unharmed in the same sport utility vehicle as his fatally injured mother, who police say died trying to protect the boy.

Angie Fortner said her brother left three Post-it notes at her house.

“We will never get back together and it hurts so bad I just can't take that,” read one. “I know you all are going to be very mad at me but I just can't take it anymore,” read another.

In the third note, Fortner expressed his innocence in a pending rape case against him. Fortner was free on bond on that 2008 rape charge and was scheduled to go on trial in April.

Fortner's criminal background included probation for 2003 charges of burglary, property damage and tampering with a motor vehicle. In 2006, he again got probation after pleading guilty to third-degree assault and disturbing the peace. ..Source.. by KansasCity.com

Elderly Bithlo man beaten to death after being mistaken for sex offender

5-13-2010 Florida:

Deputies arrested Michael Garay, 32, in connection to the beating death of Hugh Edwards, an elderly Bithlo man.

An elderly Bithlo resident was beaten to death with a black Louisville Slugger baseball bat because the killer mistakenly thought the man was a sex offender, the Orange County Sheriff's Office said.

Deputies arrested 20-year-old Robert Pascale on Thursday on a charge of first-degree murder with a weapon after deputies with dogs tracked him to a muddy pond near Sixth Street in Bithlo, where he was hiding. Pascale was submerged in the water, only his face exposed.

The dead man, Hugh Edwards, 78, had no criminal history. It's unclear why anyone thought he was a sexual offender.

Details about Edwards' killing became public in the arrest report for Pascale's friend, 32-year-old Michael Garay, charged with accessory to murder.

Deputies were alerted to a possible homicide when Christa Limerick called 911 early Wednesday and said she thought her acquaintances had killed a man inside a trailer, reports show.

Officers were dispatched to Fifth Avenue in Bithlo around 4:24 a.m. and found Edwards dead in a pool of blood. Officers noted signs of a struggle.

Limerick told deputies she was drinking with a group of friends when Pascale asked her what she would do if she had kids and lived next door to a sex offender, the report shows. Limerick said she would kill the person, according to the report.

Shortly after that conversation, Limerick said, she watched Pascale and Garay walk into the elderly man's fenced yard and return a short while later.

Garay later told deputies they returned to the home to get a baseball bat. Then they walked back over to the man's trailer, and Pascale "jimmied" the lock open, the report says. Garay told deputies he waited outside while Pascale went inside.

Garay told deputies that he heard several "thumping" sounds come from the trailer.

After the beating, Garay, Pascale, Limerick and another woman, Amber Baker, got into Limerick's car. The group drove to a nearby retention pond where Pascale dumped the baseball bat, according to the report.

Next, the group drove to Pascale's mother's house so Pascale could change clothes. Once back in the car, they drove over to an area known as "Dead Man's Trail" where the two men got out of the car, reports show.

Garay told deputies he and Pascale walked along a dirt path and Pascale walked into the woods to ditch the bloody clothing. Garay's jacket, which also had blood on it, was discarded, according to the affidavit.

The men then met up with the women at a nearby Circle K convenience store about 20 minutes later.

Deputies have recovered the bat and the clothing, the report says.

Records show Garay's criminal history includes arrests on charges of battery of a law-enforcement officer.

Pascale has a violent criminal past and spent two years in a state prison for stealing a car, burglary, robbery with a deadly weapon and battery on a detention-facility staff member, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.

He was released from prison in March, records show. Three weeks later, he was arrested on a charge of possession of marijuana and held overnight at the Orange County Jail. ..Source.. by Sarah Lundy and Susan Jacobson

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Suspect caught in Bithlo murder over mistaken identity

5-13-2010 Florida:

Orange County Deputies got a tip that murder suspect, Robert Pascale, 20, was hiding out near 8th St. and Belvedere Rd. in Bithlo.

They arrived at the scene around 4:00 pm Thursday, and the suspect fled into the wood. Deputies chased after using bloodhounds to track his scent.

"We went down about 200 yards, found him laying on his back in the mud," said master deputy Gary Dolton. "Just a little bit of his face was showing and that was all."

Deputies say Pascal beat Hugh Edwards, 79, to death with a baseball bat in his Bithlo mobile home. Investigators say the killing was likely a case of mistaken identity. Rumors swirled through the community that Edwards was a sex offender who molested children. Records show he had no history of sexual crimes.

Michael Garay, 32, was arrested as an accessory to the murder. He told detectives that he waited outside while Pascal went in the trailer with the bat. ..Source.. by Drew Petrimoulx

Stepmother of 38-year-old man accused of shooting teen girl in murder-suicide says he snapped, 'was just a lost soul looking for someone to love him'

Posted in Related Deaths

11-4-2010 Michigan:

MONROE -- Family of 38-year-old Raymond Bush, who police say abducted and fatally shot a 15-year-old Evart girl before taking his own life, defended him today as a good person who simply snapped.

Bush and the girl, Taylor Manley, had been in a relationship for about a year, said Bush's stepmother, Maryann Bush.

"I think he was just a lost soul looking for someone to love him," she said.

Bush was the father of a 17-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son from previous relationships. He bought and fixed-up a van for his daughter, who recently gave birth.

Maryann Bush said her stepson was afraid of going to jail after he was charged with sexually assaulting Taylor.

She is upset that others are portraying Bush as a pedophile.

"We all know that two families are suffering, but people are portraying him like he's a real bad person. But that's not like it was," Maryann Bush said.

She claimed Bush, who was not working, did not have a criminal record.

Oseceola County prosecutors say Taylor planned to testify against Bush at a probable cause hearing Wednesday, but Bush believed she would not.

Bush and Taylor got to know each other because she once lived next door to the grandparents of his son, in the Monroe area.

On Wednesday, Bush talked to his ex-girlfriend on the phone and later stopped at her home. Bush allegedly told the ex-girlfriend he killed Taylor and planned to kill himself because "that was the only way they could be together."

Maryann Bush believes the stress of the criminal charges and being under order not to contact Taylor made him snap. ..Source.. by John Tunison | The Grand Rapids Press

NY Sex Trafficking Couple Charged in Baby Death

This is the murder of a 2 month old baby (See second news article).

10-19-2010 New York:

A New York couple accused of sex trafficking is adding more charges to their rap sheet: murder of a three month old baby, Carlos Santillana.

Domingo Salazar and his wife, Norma Mendez, have been charged with the murder of a baby in a death that involved beating him and then placing the child's remains in a tub full of wet concrete for eleven months. The remains were found following the couple's sex trafficking arrest.

The child is believed to be the son of the girl the couple was trafficking. After Salazar empregnated the girl in Mexico, he brought her to the United States forced her into prostitution as a source of income for the couple.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the couple pled guilty to forcing the then 17 year-old mother to work as a prostitute in New York and outlying states.

The additional charges against the couple reads like a laundry list of bad crimes: manslaughter in the second degree, criminally negligent homicide, improper disposal of a body, reckless endangerment in the first degree, and five counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

Both Salazar and Mendez are both "criminal aliens" -- a term used to describe aliens that commit a non-immigration crime. When more crimes are charged against individuals than the initial charge, the sentencing is typically delayed until the prosecution can build enough evidence for every crime. In the unique case of Domingo Salazar and Norma Mendez, their case is relatively clear cut and the District Attorney's office hopes that prosecution of the NY sex trafficking couple will remain on schedule. ..Source.. by Laura Strachan

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Enslaved hooker's dead baby found during bust of sex trafficking ring

11-26-2009 New York:

A bust of a sex trafficking ring in Brooklyn led to a ghastly find - an enslaved hooker's baby entombed in concrete.

Feds and cops raided a Sunset Park flophouse late Tuesday and arrested the brothel's ringleaders and found a 10-gallon Rubbermaid container filled with cement.

X-rays revealed the body of a two-month-old boy sealed inside, officials said.

Domingo Salazar, 33, and Norma Mendez, 32, appeared in Brooklyn Federal Court last night on sex trafficking charges and could face additional counts, law enforcement sources said.

The couple, illegal immigrants from Mexico, forced a young woman into prostitution, viciously abused her and barred her from getting medical care for the infant when he fell ill last January, investigators said.

When the baby died, Salazar and Mendez allegedly forced the mom to dispose of the body in the container, which sat in the 40th St. apartment until yesterday.

"It's horrific," said Carmen Burgos, 45. who works nearby. "I can't have kids and I can't believe they did this to a baby. They couldn't be in their right minds."

The duo launched the prostitution ring out of their 40th St. apartment in April 2007, according to a federal affidavit.

Two months earlier, Salazar met the young woman in Mexico, got her pregnant, and smuggled her into the United States - telling her galpal Mendez was his sister, sources said.

She gave birth to Salazar's son soon after arriving in New York in November 2007, officials said. He still insisted she repay the $2,500 smuggling fee.

"She was working in a candy store but then she was forced to sell sex," said Special Agent in Charge James Hayes Jr. of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "She was in bad shape."

The woman was driven to customers across the city, made to service up to 25 clients a night and forced to turn over all her earnings, officials said.

Salazar and Mendez frequently abused the woman, punching her in the stomach, slashing her in the arm, hitting her in the head with a brick and bashing her in the face with a wooden board, officials said.

After investigators received a tip about the brothel, the woman, whose name was not released, was rescued from the 40th St. home and is now recovering.

"The girl was always in a short skirt and covered in bruises," said a neighbor. "You'd see different men coming in and out."

Investigators believe Salazar and Mendez also forced other immigrant women into prostitution but they have not been located. The accused pimps face 15 years to life in prison if convicted.

"The trafficking of human beings and sex slavery are unconscionable in this day and age and will not be tolerated," said Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell. ..Source.. by
John Marzulli, Kerry Burke and Jonathan Lemire
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Stevensville Teen arraigned on murder charge

10-21-2010 Michigan:

Motive said to be alleged molestation

Today brought new information as to why a Stevensville teen allegedly killed his mother’s boyfriend last September.

15 year old Josh Wayne Smith was arraigned in a Berrien County courtroom on Wednesday.

Smith is charged with the September 23rd beating death of 44 year old David Loveland.

Smith and Loveland lived in the same home at the time.

According to today’s testimony Smith had been told that Loveland may have molested a niece of Smith’s.

Smith then confronted Loveland inside the home, according to Lincoln Township Police Officer Todd Hopke. “He told me he confronted David Loveland as he was sitting on the couch, over an allegation that David Loveland may have molested a niece of his. “He told me he walked up to him and he called him a sick mother ------ and at that time David got up off the couch and shoved him, and then sat back down. “From there, Josh said that he just started punching David.”

According to Hopke, Smith also said he had Loveland in a headlock when Smith used his knee to strike Loveland in the head.

Loveland died from a blunt force trauma head injury.

Hopke described the physical confrontation as being one sided: that Loveland raised his arms to cover his head and curled his body up into a fetal position.

During cross examination Smith’s defense attorney emphasized that there was no evidence that any weapon had been used in the beating.

Officer Hopke was the first officer called to the scene on the night in question.

Hopke said the initial complaint had to do with a group of teens walking down the street.

When Hopke arrived on scene, he saw Smith run away.

Officer Hopke pursued the suspect and found Smith hiding in the back seat of a friend’s parked car at the Pizza Hut.

According to Hopke, Smith explained that he ran away because he “just beat the ---- out of David Loveland and didn’t want to get in trouble.”

That led Officer Hopke back to Smith’s home, where the body of Loveland was first discovered.

Judge John Donahue today determined that there was sufficient evidence to support the charge that Smith was behind the beating death of Loveland.

While Smith today came to court to face a serious legal situation—he didn’t have to face it alone. About a dozen Smith supporters sat in the gallery, six of them had customized t-shirts with Smith’s photograph on the front, while the back of the shirt carried the phrase “Support Josh Wayne.”

For his part, Smith today spent much of the 22 minute hearing staring straight down into his lap. At one point Smith appeared to be crying as he was handed a tissue by a court worker.

The judge set November 17th as the date for Smith’s next hearing. That’s when prosecutors will ask to have the case moved to adult court. In the meantime, Smith will undergo a psychiatric evaluation. ..Source.. by Mark Peterson

North Attleboro motel scene of apparent murder-suicide

Posted in Related Deaths

1-17-2010 Massachusetts:

NORTH ATTLEBORO - A man and a woman are dead after an apparent murder-suicide at a Route 1 motel this morning.

Police say they went to the Pineapple Motor Inn about 9:30 a.m. to execute an arrest warrant at Room 27 and, after knocking on the door, heard gunshots.

The Bristol County District Attorney's office says the 23-year-old man inside apparently shot the 20-year-old woman and then himself. Police had gone to the motel to arrest the man on a rape charge.

Authorities are not identifying the victims pending notification of family. They did, however, say one of the victims was a Seekonk resident. ..Source.. by STU SKERKER/FOR THE SUN CHRONICLE AND MICHAEL GELBWASSER/SUN CHRONICLE STAFF

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Police release names of victims in apparent North Attleboro murder-suicide

NORTH ATTLEBORO - Police this morning released the names of the victims in what police say was an apparent murder-suicide in a room at the Pineapple Inn on Route 1 Sunday.

Investigators believe Jose Vidal Jr., 23, of Seekonk, shot his girlfriend, Ashley Purdy, 20, of Attleboro, before turning the gun on himself around 9:30 a.m. Sunday as police responded to the motel to serve an arrest warrant for Vidal, North Attleboro Police Chief Michael P. Gould Sr. said.

Gould said police heard two gun shots in quick succession from inside the room after officers knocked on the door and announced themselves.

The couple had checked into the room on Friday and both left notes to family and loved ones indicating they were despondent, according to police.

State police and a state police SWAT team arrived to assist local police. Once police were able to enter the room they found the couple in bed. Both were shot in the head, according to police. Purdy was pronounced dead at the scene and Vidal was later pronounced dead at Rhode Island Hospital.

Gould said police have no motive for the incident.

Vidal was wanted on a superior court warrant for a 2007 rape in Seekonk. Police responded to the motel after learning Vidal was staying there.

Vidal was classified as a Level 2 sex offender and on probation for indecent assault and battery when Seekonk police arrested him Aug. 10 for allegedly raping a 17-year-old girl in Seekonk, The Sun Chronicle reported at the time.

Vidal had pleaded innocent to the charges. ..Source..

Indicted in killing of 2, man says 1 abused son

3-19-2010 Arizona:

A Tucson man who shot two men to death earlier this month was indicted Monday on two counts of manslaughter after prosecutors provided grand jurors parts of his confession, in which he says one of the men sexually abused his son.

Daniel Renteria, 27, turned himself in to Tucson police the day after Richard Rue Jr., 40, and James "Red" Marschinke, 49, were shot to death in the 5300 block of East 25th Street.

Renteria pulled up in front of a house and shot the men multiple times before getting out of the car and shooting them again, witnesses told police.

On Monday, prosecutors asked Pima County grand jurors to return two first-degree murder charges against Renteria, but they opted for the less serious manslaughter charges.

Defense attorney Natasha Wrae said she asked prosecutors to give the jurors Renteria's statement to police, plus the results of their investigation into allegations he made against Marschinke.

"When Daniel discovered what happened, both these guys verbally threatened him, and Daniel felt as though he had no choice," Wrae said.

She said Renteria did not report Marschinke to the police because he feared what would happen if there wasn't enough evidence to bring molestation charges.

Rick Unklesbay, chief trial counsel for the Pima County Attorney's Office, confirmed that jurors were told of Renteria's allegations and the police investigation into those allegations. The prosecutor declined to comment further.

Grand jury proceedings are sealed, so it's unknown what role the allegations played in the jurors' decision.

Online court records indicate Renteria, Rue and Marschinke had all been convicted of petty crimes in Tucson Municipal Court.

Marschinke's brother, Michael, declined to comment when reached Wednesday afternoon. Renteria also declined an interview request.

Last week, Renteria's wife, Ashley Clark, 24, said she and her husband met Marschinke last June. Her husband hired Marschinke for odd jobs around their home, Clark said.

In August, she said her 3-year-old son was walking funny. She said that when she checked him out, she saw what she thought were some abnormalities but was unsure of what she was seeing. She did not take her son to his pediatrician or a hospital. "I didn't know what to think. I certainly didn't think he's been molested," Clark said.

Clark and Renteria separated after Christmas.

Two days before the March 1 shooting, Clark said, she picked her son up from Renteria's house, and he told her Marschinke tried to break into his bedroom and Renteria had chased him away, and then described a sex act he said Marschinke performed on him.

Not wanting to alarm the boy, Clark said she didn't call the police but rather spent that day and the next pretending everything was fine. The next day, Clark said, she called Renteria to tell him what their son had said, and Renteria acknowledged that the boy told him the same thing.

Renteria told her that Marschinke and Rue had threatened him, but she didn't get any details because they argued about the fact that he hadn't told her what happened, and she hung up on him, Clark said. Neither called the police.

The shooting occurred the next day.

She describes Renteria, with whom she has reconciled, as a "kind and loving soul" who provides for his family as a journeyman electrician and had never been in trouble.

"I think justice would be for my husband to be able to come home and raise his son," Clark said. "He's not a coldblooded murderer." ..Source.. by Kim Smith

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Lower bond for Tucson man who says he killed son's suspected molester

5-11-2010 Arizona:

A Tucson dad who says he shot and killed a man in self defense who he suspected was molesting his 3-year-old son had his bail reduced from $1 million to $500,000 Tuesday morning.

Daniel Renteria, 28, was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder March 1, one day after he shot Richard Rue Jr., 40, and James "Red" Marschinke, 49, to death in the 5300 block of East 25th Street.

His bond was set at $1 million, but on Tuesday Assistant Pima County Public Defender Paul Skitzki asked Judge Charles Sabalos to either release Renteria to a county monitoring agency until his trial or to reduce his bond.

Skitzki pointed out a grand jury opted to indict Renteria on the less serious charge of manslaughter upon learning Renteria believed Marschinke had been molesting Renteria's son.

"The facts of this specific case clearly indicate my client doesn't pose a risk to the community at large," Skitzki said. ..Source.. by Kim Smith Arizona Daily Star