LeBron James, Kim Kardashian West, Rihanna and other Celebrities rally to free Cyntoia Brown, a former sex slave jailed for killing the man who bought her
Celebrities and people around the world are campaigning for the release of a Nashville woman who was convicted to life in prison for fatally shooting a man she was sold to for sex as a teenager.
Cyntoia Brown, 29, was sentenced to life in prison for killing a man who hired her for sex back in 2004, when she was 16 years old.
Brown claims that 43-year-old real estate agent Johnny Allen took her to his home for sex, but she felt threatened when she got there and fatally shot him, something she later admitted to.
Prosecutors claimed Brown shot Allen to steal from him. She was tried as an adult and found guilty of murder and prostitution with eligibility for parole after she turns 69.
While in prison, Brown earned her G.E.D, associates degree, and is said to be aiming for a bachelor’s degree.
Celebrities like LeBron James, Kim Kardashian West and Rihanna have taken to social media using the hashtag #FreeCyntoiaBrown hoping to raise awareness about her conviction.
“Did we somehow change the definition of #JUSTICE along the way?? Cause…..something is horribly wrong when the system enables these rapists and the victim is thrown away for life! To each of you responsible for this child’s sentence I hope to God you don’t have children, because this could be your daughter being punished for punishing already!” Rihanna wrote on Instagram.
Texas woman accused of mailing bombs to Obama and governor
The evidence against a Texas woman accused of sending homemade bombs to then President Barack Obama and the governor of Texas includes a cell phone, a cigarette package, a salad dressing cap and, authorities say, some very distinctive cat hair.
Julia Poff faces six charges after she was indicted earlier this month. Federal authorities said in court filings that she sent very dangerous explosive devices to President Obama, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and the Social Security Administration in October 2016.
Abbott opened his package, but the device didn’t explode because “he did not open it as designed,” a court filing from her detention hearing says. The bomb could have caused severe burns or death, the court document says.
Poff entered a plea of not guilty at the detention hearing. She was arraigned in the Southern District of Texas on Tuesday.
CNN called the public defender representing Poff on Thursday but didn’t get an immediate response.
The package sent to the White House was detected during screening. It contained a cell phone that belonged to a different person whose last name is also Poff, according to the detention order.
Authorities linked Julia Poff to the case through a damaged shipping label found on a box that Poff allegedly reused to send Abbott’s package, the court documents say.
The package opened by Abbott also contained a cap from a Ken’s salad dressing bottle. The filings say witnesses said Poff bought the same kind of dressing for an anniversary dinner.
The cigarette box had a Texas tobacco stamp on it that indicated the seller was a store where Poff had purchased cigarettes and soft drinks. In Texas, sellers put the stamps on the bottom of each pack to show state cigarette tax has been paid.
The two incendiary powders in the box matched materials found in Poff’s home.
Investigators also found cat hair under the shipping label for the Obama package. Tests show the hair was consistent with the hair of one of her cats, authorities allege.
CNN called numbers listed for Julia Poff but didn’t get an answer nor any replies.
Poff allegedly told a federal investigator she didn’t like Obama. She also said, according to the court documents, that she was upset with Abbott.
A judge ruled earlier this month that Poff was a flight risk. She is in federal custody.
A representative for the Obamas had no comment.
CNN called the governor’s office but didn’t get a reply.
via: http://pix11.com/2017/11/23/texas-woman-accused-of-mailing-bombs-to-obama-governor/
Decapitated MS-13 victim stabbed 100 times, heart ripped out of chest
A man murdered earlier this year by the MS-13 street gang was stabbed more than 100 times, decapitated and had his heart torn out of his chest and buried with him, Maryland authorities said Wednesday.
Montgomery County Police said one of the alleged killers, 19-year-old Miguel Angel Lopez-Abrego, was arrested Nov. 11 in North Carolina. Lopez-Abrego, known as “Timido,” has been charged with first-degree murder and was ordered held without bond after his first court appearance.
According to court documents, which cited interviews with a gang informant, up to ten MS-13 members planned to lure the victim to the Silver Spring park where he was killed sometime this past spring.
The documents allege that Lopez-Abrego helped dig the grave where the victim was found, and also used a walkie-talkie to alert the other gang members to the victim’s arrival. The informant also claimed Lopez-Abrego was the first to attack the victim, stabbing him with a 15-inch knife.
The informant led police to the grave on Sept. 5 and “detailed the choking, stabbing, decapitating and dismembering [of] the Victim’s body,” according to a police affidavit.
The documents do not give a motive for the killing.
The victim has yet to be conclusively identified. Police describe him as a Hispanic male standing approximately 5 feet, 2 inches high and weighing approximately 126 pounds. He had short, dark brown hair and a missing lower tooth that may have been noticeable when he was speaking or smiling.
After the victim’s body was found in September, police released photos of the clothes and rosary he was wearing when he was killed. They included a sweatshirt with the words “First United Methodist Church Laurel, Maryland” written on the left chest.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Montgomery County Police Department’s Major Crimes Division at (240) 773-5070.
via: https://nypost.com/2017/11/22/decapitated-ms-13-victim-stabbed-100-times-heart-ripped-out-of-chest/
Couple charged after Indiana boy allegedly shot with airsoft gun, forced to eat feces
LOGANSPORT, Ind. – An Indiana couple faces numerous battery and neglect charges for incidents involving a 13-year-old boy, the Pharos-Tribune reports.
Carl Alvin Knipe Sr., 32, is accused of injuring the boy when he shot him with an airsoft gun on Nov. 20. He also put feces on the teen and forced him to eat it, according to court documents.
Knipe’s wife Casey, 33, is accused of knowingly putting the boy in a dangerous situation and not intervening or notifying police.
Knipe’s charges include battery resulting in bodily injury to a person less than 14 years of age; battery by means of a deadly weapon; neglect of a dependent resulting in bodily injury; and battery by bodily waste.
Casey is charged with neglect of a dependent resulting in bodily injury.
According to the Pharos-Tribune, the couple is currently in the Cass County Jail on a $2,000 bond. Their initial hearings are scheduled for today in Cass Superior Court 2.
Fight over birthday cake leads to deadly stabbing
New Britain, CT (WFSB) — A man was found dead in an apartment Monday night following a fight over birthday cake.
Officers were called to a report of a stabbing on North Street in New Britain just before 9 p.m. When officers arrived, they found the victim seriously injured.
He was rushed to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Police identified the suspect as the victim’s roommate, 41-year-old Carlos Gonzalez-Oliver of New Britain. Following the stabbing, police found him a motel on the Berlin Turnpike where he was taken into custody.
He faced a judge on Tuesday, where his extensive criminal record was discussed. Gonzalez-Oliver has more than 22 convictions dating back to 1996.
The suspect told police he bought a birthday cake for one of his roommates and that’s when another roommate, the victim, started yelling at him. He said the victim “continued to harass him, banging on his bedroom door with an ax.”
He also said he “destroyed the cake he purchased and threw some of it against his door.”
Gonzalez-Oliver then went out to the kitchen and that’s when he said his roommate attacked him with an ax so he grabbed a knife and stabbed him in the back of his head.
That’s when Gonzalez-Oliver took off.
According to an arrest warrant, police said the did not find an ax at the home.
A total of five men rent rooms at the home, and Gonzalez-Oliver is one of them.
Gonzalez-Oliver was held on a $1 million bond. He’s due back in court next month.
The New Britain Police Department is working with the New Britain State’s Attorneys Office and the Wethersfield Police Department on the deadly stabbing investigation.
via: http://pix11.com/2017/11/22/fight-over-birthday-cake-leads-to-deadly-stabbing/
Indiana Teacher Arrested After Alleged Drug Use in Classroom Caught on Video, Reported by Students
A high school teacher in St. John, Indiana, was arrested Wednesday after students allegedly observed her doing drugs in an empty classroom and reported the incident to campus administrators, police said.
One student recorded the alleged act with a cellphone camera from a window looking into the locked classroom at Lake Central High School around 10:30 a.m., according to KTLA sister station WGN in Chicago.
“She’s in the corner, hiding with a chair and a book and what appears to be cocaine, putting it into lines,” junior Will Rogers told the station.
At first, he wasn’t sure what he had seen.
“I actually watched the footage, again and again, and I just realized that my English teacher just did cocaine,” Rogers said.
The video quickly circulated among the approximately 3,400 students at the school, according to WGN.
Students reported the incident to school administrators, who notified police about 11:30 a.m., according to a St. John Police Department news release.
As a result of the investigation, 24-year-old Samantha Cox was arrested on suspicion of possessing a controlled substance, a felony, and possessing drug paraphernalia, which is a misdemeanor, the release stated.
Cox was described as a popular English teacher who was in her second year at Lake Central High, students said.
She was led out of the school in handcuffs, WGN reported.
Police praised the students for “very quickly” bringing the information to school administrators.
“Their actions showed a tremendous amount of fortitude and integrity and enabled staff to address this situation promptly,” the release stated.
Authorities are still investigating.
Teachers resign at Pennsylvania school where they claim to be attacked by first-grade students
Teachers say they’re being terrorized by unruly students as young as six in a Pennsylvania school district where more than 40 teachers have resigned since the start of the school year.
Amanda Sheaffer, a first-grade teacher who attended a Harrisburg school board meeting on Monday, said, “I have been kicked, punched, hit, scratched. I’ve had a student physically restraining me in front of my other students,” according to PennLive.com.
Sheaffer, who has worked in the district for four years, said the incidents interrupt her day, as she’s required to clear the room, call security, and write a report.
Teachers are now asking for support after a series of violent altercations with students led to at least 45 resignations between July and October, according to the Harrisburg Education Association.
Association President Jody Barksdale, who says more teachers have resigned since then, wants the association to establish a task force to address the children displaying violent behavior.
“Teachers and students are being hit, kicked, slapped, scratched, cussed at … and observing other students flip over tables, desks and chairs. Teachers have had to take the rest of their class into the hallway to protect them during these outbursts,” Barksdale said.
Several teachers and parents from Melrose and Downey elementary schools appeared at the meeting on Monday, calling for the school board to take action after Barksdale first relayed complaints in January. The district claims not all of the teacher resignations were due to student violence. Still, Superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney says the district understands that there is a “different type of support that is needed.”
via: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/penn-teachers-terrorized-unruly-students-article-1.3649759
Woman jailed after inmate boyfriend dies from meth-laden kiss
PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon woman whose inmate boyfriend died from a meth-laden kiss after a prison visit was sentenced to two years behind bars Tuesday on a drug conspiracy charge.
Melissa Ann Blair and Anthony Powell shared a long kiss at the end of a visit last year at the Oregon State Penitentiary and she passed seven tiny balloons filled with methamphetamine into his mouth. Two of the balloons ruptured in Powell’s stomach a short time later and he died of methamphetamine toxicity, prosecutors have said.
U.S. District Judge Marco Hernandez said Blair’s actions were part of a scheme devised by Powell and others to get drugs inside the prison. There was a dispute as to whether Blair participated of her own free will, but Powell shared responsibility for his own death, Hernandez said.
“It was tragic and sad but he shares responsibility for what happened,” the judge said.
The 41-year-old was serving a life sentence for aggravated murder in the stabbing death of his mother-in-law, according to court records.
Besides two years in federal prison, the judge also ordered Blair, 46, to complete three years of post-release supervision and participate in drug treatment and mental health programs.
She did not make a statement in court. Her sister, who attended the hearing, declined to comment. Blair felt coerced by Powell even though he was behind bars, her attorney, John Ransom, said outside court. She used methamphetamine but was not addicted, he said.
“It was a very Svengali-type situation where he had total control over her life,” Ransom said. “She had to do whatever he said.”
Powell’s close friend, Brandy Pokovich, attended the hearing and said she became pen pals with him after he wrote to her husband — a former inmate — and she replied to him instead. Over a dozen years, Pokovich said, they formed a deep bond through letters, phone calls and visits.
She called herself Powell’s “sister by choice” and believed he felt remorse for his crime, she told the judge.
“Now, because of the choices that were made, I no longer can pick up the phone and hear his voice, I can’t go on a visit and see his big cheesy smile and get the best hug in the world,” she said in a victim impact statement.
“He was not just an inmate. He was a very loved and cared-for person who had a family that would always be there no matter what,” she said.
Outside court, Pokovich said she helped Powell find girlfriends by using her social media accounts and introduced him to Blair.
Four other defendants in the case, like Blair, have pleaded guilty to a drug conspiracy charge and will be sentenced in the coming weeks.
Naked man found with 41 stab wounds on kitchen floor, granddaughter arrested
PHILADELPHIA — A 21-year-old woman has been arrested in the death of her 80-year-old grandfather after police say she stabbed him 41 times in the home they shared last week because she says he was abusive to her.
Patricia Diocson is charged with murder and possession of an instrument of crime in the death of Robert Girard. No attorney is listed in online court documents.
Police say she initially told investigators she came home Wednesday at 9 p.m. and found her grandfather naked in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor in the city’s Port Richmond neighborhood.
Police say there was a trail of blood leading from Girard’s second-floor bedroom to the kitchen, and there were no signs of forced entry.
Police say she later confessed to stabbing him 41 times.
Man repeatedly ejaculated into co-worker’s water bottles, put semen in her honey jar and smearing semen on her computer
SANTA ANA, Calif. – A California man has been charged with battery and attempted vandalism after allegedly ejaculating into his female co-worker’s water bottles, putting semen in her honey jar and smearing semen on her computer mouse and keyboard, prosecutors announced Tuesday.
Stevens Millancastro, 27, allegedly masturbated at his La Palma place of work and put his semen in the victim’s honey jar. The two have worked together since 2014, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
The victim apparently consumed the contaminated honey every other day between Nov. 24, 2016, and Jan. 13, 2017. The defendant also allegedly ejaculated into her water bottle on two separate occasions during the same time frame.
“The victim noticed the water looked cloudy and threw the bottles away each time,” the DA’s office said in a news release.
On Jan. 9, the woman, identified only as “Jane Doe” noticed a third bottle on her desk that appeared to be contaminated with semen and she reported the incident to her supervisor. The supervisor set up a surveillance camera in the victim’s office that day.
The victim sat at her desk on Jan. 23 and touched her mouse, which was smeared with semen, officials said. The defendant was allegedly seen on surveillance video going into the victim’s office before that incident.
Jane Doe reported the incidents to the La Palma Police Department, which investigated. Millan was arrested on Tuesday in connection with the incidents.
Millan was charged on Nov. 17 with five misdemeanor counts. He also faces a special enhancement of committing the crimes for the purpose of sexual gratification. Neither police nor prosecutors have suggested any other motive for the crimes.
He faces two years and six months in jail along with lifetime sex offender registration if he is convicted.
Editor’s note: The DA’s office gave the defendant’s full name as Stevens Millancastro (Millan); Orange County jail records show an inmate with the name Stevens Millancastro but no one named Stevens Millan.