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.
11-year-old boy dies after being pinned by 400-pound man
MOUNT ORAB, Ohio — A Brown County man faces charges of reckless homicide after prosecutors say he pinned down his 11-year-old step-grandson.
Donald Martin, Jr., 58, was arrested Friday after the boy’s grandmother called 911 to report the boy wasn’t breathing, the Brown County Sheriff’s Office said
“He came home and he threw a fit,” the grandmother of Dylan Davis told a 911 dispatcher. “Police came here all the time for him and he threw a fit. My husband was holding him down, he got sick and then he just passed out. I don’t know.”
Detectives say Martin stepped in after his wife and the boy got into an altercation. Investigators say Martin weighs between 360 and 400 pounds.
“It appears the 11-year-old was deceased as a result of positional asphyxiation or compression,” Sheriff Gordon Ellis told WLWT.
The victim’s father, Sam Davis, told WLWT that his son was showing stronger anger as he got older.
Davis said his son got along with his step-grandfather and no one expected this.
“Everything was good across the board, this has come as a compete surprise. It’s mind-blowing,” Davis said.
Prosecutors say the Martin kept the boy pinned down for several minutes.
via: http://pix11.com/2017/11/21/ohio-boy-dies-after-being-pinned-by-400-pound-man-police-say/
New model Phaedra Parks isn’t afraid to get naked on camera
As a staple on the “Real Housewives of Atlanta” for seven seasons, Wilhelmina Models’ new client Phaedra Parks has no problem stripping down for the cameras.
“I don’t mind baring it all — I have been wearing g-strings and baring it all really every season for seven years,” the former Bravo star told Us Weekly. “I had two children on national TV. I love nudity!”
Noting that she loves her body and curves, Parks said, “I’m a mother of two children, so I’m not perfect, but I have no problem getting naked.”
Adding model to her already lengthy resume — which includes lawyer and mortician — the 44-year-old is ready to channel her inner Naomi Campbell.
“I think I’m the face of ‘yes you can,’” Parks said. “I’m a small town girl who has followed her dreams. Yes you can be a mom, yes you can be a lawyer and yes you can be a model. When the opportunity presented itself some people asked me ‘Why?’ and I said ‘Why not?’”
Amid personal turmoil — particularly her highly publicized divorce from husband Apollo Nida, who is serving an eight-year sentence after pleading guilty to federal fraud charges in 2014 — Parks is rewriting her own story, with a revenge body to boot.
by Robert Ector
“I feel like I turned into Benjamin Button and started aging backwards, I started being happy,” she said.
With the holidays fast approaching, Parks is also preparing for an influx of business in funeral arrangements.
“Being a mortician is a passion of mine and everything I’m passionate about I just dive right in. This is our peak season actually, the peak season from deaths is from Halloween to around Valentine’s Day, so we’re very busy — people are going to glory pretty regularly. I’m directing a few funerals this weekend,” Parks said. “I know it’s morbid, but I love being the final party planner.”
Two 12-year-old boys planned to blow up Queens school with rocket launchers, grenades and land mines
ELMHURST, Queens — Two 12-year-old boys planned to use rocket launchers, grenades and land mines to blow up their Queens school, prompting their arrest, police said Friday.
The children attend Intermediate School 102, located in Elmhurst, according to police. The campus educates students in kindergarten through eighth grade.
A notebook detailing the boys’ plans to blow up the school was located in its gym, police said.
The notes allegedly claimed they intended to use rocket launchers, grenades and land mines.
Officials made no mention of the boys ability to access such weapons.
An unnamed person recognized the children’s handwriting, and police arrested them Thursday, police said.
Both are expected to appear in court Monday.
Mother sentenced to prison for failing to take dying son to doctor for strep throat in 2013
A Canadian mother has been sentenced to three years in prison after failing to take her 7-year-old son to the doctor for a treatable strep throat infection, officials say.
Tamara Lovett, 48, of Calgary, was found guilty in January of criminal negligence causing the death of her son, Ryan, who died in 2013.
“Our children are vulnerable,” said Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Kristine Eidsvik, during Friday’s sentencing. “Lovett’s actions resulted in the senseless death of an innocent child who needed her protection.”
According to CBC News, Eidsvik noted the sentence was designed to deter other parents from failing their children in the same way.
“If your child is not getting better, you are legally and morally bound to take your child to an actual doctor for actual medical care.”
Lovett’s son, Ryan, died in March 2013, just 10 days after he came down with strep throat. Lovett testified that she believed the he had a cold or the flu but never took him to the doctor. Instead, Lovett said she treated him with holistic remedies such as dandelion tea and oil of oregano.
During the trial, evidence was presented that Ryan also had meningitis and pneumonia on top of strep. Doctors testified his infection would have been treatable had he been prescribed antibiotics.
CBC News reported that Eidsvik found Ryan “was completely dependent on his mother for using common sense in treatment choices” and died “an excruciating, unnecessary death.”
During the trial, Lovett spoke through tears about her agony, said she no longer holds the same beliefs and would take her son to a doctor if she could turn back time.
“I can’t begin to forgive myself,” said Lovett. “I hope others learn from my ignorance.”
Man accidentally shoots himself in church while advocating for right to have guns in church
A man accidentally shot himself and his wife inside a Tennessee church Thursday while advocating the right to bring guns to church.
The individual was displaying a Ruger handgun to other churchgoers in the sanctuary about 50 miles south of Knoxville when he apparently forgot it was loaded, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.
“I carry my handgun everywhere,” he said while removing the ammunition magazine and showing the firearm to other members of the church.
The man began to re-holster his weapon — but first put the magazine back into the firearm and loaded a round into the chamber, the local police chief told the paper.
Someone then asked to see the weapon. The man pulled the gun out of his holster and claimed it wasn’t loaded before pulling the trigger.
“Evidently he just forgot that he re-chambered the weapon,” the police chief said.
The gun fired and the bullet sliced the man’s hand before piercing his wife’s abdomen.
Both he and his wife, who are in their 80s, were taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center, where they were expected to survive.
Woman confesses to drowning four newborns in concrete
TOKYO — A Japanese woman was arrested Tuesday after police say she confessed to putting four newborns in concrete-filled buckets two decades ago and having been filled with guilt over not caring for her babies.
Human remains were identified in four buckets found in her condominium, an Osaka police official said, requesting anonymity due to department policy.
Mayumi Saito, 53, was arrested Tuesday on charges of abandoning bodies, a day after she turned herself in at the police station.
Saito was quoted by police as saying she put the bodies into concrete from 1992 through 1997 because she had been too poor to raise them, but she had been filled with guilt over the years.
Saito had a part-time job, but details of her work, family and comments were not available.
The causes of the babies’ deaths were unclear. It is fairly standard in Japan for criminal charges to be added later as an investigation progresses.
Although Japan is the world’s third-largest economy and has a reputation as being economically advanced, poverty remains a problem, especially among women.
Social support such as affordable daycare is lacking for women to work while child-rearing, as well as to get counseling and other help to cope with parenting duties and mental stress.
Japanese media reports quoted the woman as saying she had no one to talk to or turn to.
via: https://nypost.com/2017/11/21/woman-confesses-to-drowning-four-newborns-in-concrete/
‘Worst nightmare’: Parents sue hotel after 5-year-old boy’s skull gets crushed in rotating restaurant
The family of a 5-year-old boy whose skull was crushed in the rotating wall of a hotel restaurant has sued the Atlanta hotel, accusing it of negligence in his death.
Attorney Joseph Fried filed suit Wednesday for Rebecca and Michael Holt of Charlotte, North Carolina, whose son Charlie died April 14.
“What started out as the best family trip, turned into the worst nightmare,” Rebecca Holt said in a statement emailed by Fried.
They had chosen the Sun Dial restaurant “because it was recommended as a fun place for families with kids to see the Atlanta skyline and enjoy a meal,” Charlie’s father, Michael Holt, said in the statement.
Marriott International, the hotel’s owner, didn’t immediately respond to an email and phone call requesting comment.
Police had said the boy wandered away from his family’s window table at the restaurant atop the Westin Peachtree Plaza hotel and got his head stuck between tables. They also said the rotating floor shut off automatically when he was struck.
The lawsuit disagrees with police statements.
It said the family left along a path that various members had used without problems to go to and from the bathroom. But this time, it said, a booth rotating near a stationary wall blocked their path.
Charlie, a few steps ahead of his parents, “was too short to see past the booth and did not appreciate the danger until it was too late,” and was trapped in the “pinch point” between booth and wall, according to the lawsuit.
“To Michael’s and Rebecca’s horror, the rotation did not automatically stop when Charlie got trapped,” the lawsuit states, and there was no emergency button to stop it.
Rebecca Holt tried to pull her son free and Michael Holt “threw his body against the booth,” but both actions were futile, it said.
It said Michael Holt heard his son’s skull crack before someone finally stopped the rotation.
“The family has filed this law suit to set the record straight about what happened and to make sure, to the best of their abilities, that no other family ever has to suffer the same fate,” Fried’s statement said.
Defendants include Marriott, as well as the chain that previously owned the Peachtree before Marriott bought the chain. Also named are other former owners and operators, and the architects, interior designer and contractor in charge of renovations to the restaurant in 2012 and 2013.
The hotel reopened the restaurant in June.
“After Charlie’s death, Marriott has said that it won’t allow the restaurant to revolve again until it has addressed the dangerous pinch points,” Fried’s statement said. “Marriott should not have waited for this tragedy before acting to correct this hazard, especially while it held itself out as a safe place for kids.”