Abandoned Infant Found on Side of Oklahoma Interstate With $5,500 Cash, Birth Certificate
A 1-month-old baby boy found along an Oklahoma City area interstate over the weekend was found with $5,500 cash stuffed in the car seat and a birth certificate, according to police.
A church group found the baby abandoned in a car seat along I-40 in Oklahoma on Saturday, according to KTLA sister station KFOR in Oklahoma City.
The driver of the church group’s van noticed a car seat on the side of the Interstate 40. He initially thought there was a doll inside the car seat, but he noticed two feet kicking inside the car seat and immediately pulled over.
According to Sgt. Gary Knigh, officers also found a Social Security card, cash, and a birth certificate with the baby.
According to KFOR, it was 91 degrees when the baby was found. Police said it’s unlikely the baby was on the side of the road for more than 30 minutes.
The baby was in good health and taken to a local hospital for an evaluation.
The baby’s mother was located through family members and was also being evaluated at a local hospital.
No names were released in the incident.
Authorities say it is too early in the investigation to determine if charges will be filed. According to the police report, the baby has been placed in protective custody.
California boy, 8, killed with hammer trying to protect younger sister from mother’s abusive ex-boyfriend molestation
An 8-year-old boy in California was killed trying to protect his younger sister from their mother’s ex-boyfriend.
Dante Daniels, who had just started the third grade at South Sacramento’s Oakridge Elementary, was brutally beaten with a hammer during the early morning of Sept. 1. He died from his injuries six days later.
A criminal complaint states that 23-year-old Deandre Chaney Jr. was performing a criminal lewd act on Dante’s 7-year-old sister when the little boy stepped in to help, Fox 40 reports.
Chaney, who pleaded no contest last year to a charge of failing to register as a sex offender, was the ex-boyfriend of Dante’s mother, 28-year-old Elizabeth Salone.
“The guy beat my grandson with a hammer,” Monique Brown, the children’s grandmother told Fox 40. “Down to his spine. They couldn’t save his brain.”
The criminal complaint states that Chaney used lighter fluid during the attack, and at point turned the hammer and a knife on Dante’s sister.
“Trying to save his sister from this child molester and that’s why he was beat the worst.” Brown said.
According to an arrest warrant, the children were home alone with Chaney when the attack happened. Salone had asked him to watch her children while she took her brother to work, the Sacramento Bee reports.
When she returned home, she heard one of her children crying. Salone told detectives that she was “struck at least three times” with a hammer from behind as she went to check on her child. Chaney then tied her up and poured lighter fluid on her.
Police said he grabbed her car keys and some other items and left in Salone’s vehicle. Chaney was captured a day after the attack in Nevada hiding in someone’s backyard.
Both Salone and her daughter survived, but Salone’s left eye was damaged during the attack.
“She will probably never see out of her left eye,” Brown said. “My granddaughter will need a lot of help.”
Brown said even after Dante’s death, he’s continuing to help people. A 4-year-old boy in California received Dante’s heart.
Chaney was arraigned on murder, attempted murder and charged with lewd acts with a child under 14.
The family started a GoFundMe as Salone and her daughter recover.
Inmates broke out of jail to burglarize a Dollar General, then snuck back in to sell what they stole
A group of Mississippi inmates busted out of jail this week, burglarized a bargain store — and then broke back in and returned to their cells, according to a report.
The jailbirds, identified as Levontaye Ellington, Travis Baker, Maurice Robertson and Jacquiez Williams broke out of the Holmes-Humphreys County Correctional Facility in Lexington Tuesdayby hopping a fence, Mississippi News Now reported.
Once in the clear, the men walked less than a mile to a Dollar General chain store after closing and swiped anything they could grab.
“They stole cigarettes, cigarette lighters, phones and just items they felt they could sell in jail,” Lexington Police Chief Robert Kirklin said according to the report.
But rather than extend their newfound freedom, the foursome inexplicably snuck back into the jail, undetected, baffling police.
“You’re already in jail, but you want to break out and break back in?” the chief said. “That is just something. I heard it all.”
The inmates denied their involvement in the scheme, even though they were caught on store surveillance footage, according to the report.
“Just looking at the type of clothing they had on and just one of the bags they had put some of the merchandise in,” police were able to pin the inmates to the crime, Kirklin said.
The inmates were charged with commercial burglary.
via: http://nypost.com/2017/09/21/inmates-sneak-back-into-jail-after-breaking-out/
Sicko convicted of raping, murdering young nursing student and bragging about it
SAVANNAH, Tenn. — A Tennessee man was convicted Friday of kidnapping, raping and murdering a 20-year-old nursing student who disappeared from her home six years ago.
Zachary Adams was found guilty after an 11-day trial in Savannah, Tennessee. He had pleaded not guilty to the charges. Holly Bobo was 20 when she was reported missing from her home in rural Parsons on April 13, 2011.
Bobo’s disappearance led to a massive search and her case received national attention. Her remains were found in September 2014 in woods not far from her home in Decatur County, about 100 miles southwest of Nashville.
After the jury was let out of the courtroom, Bobo’s mother Karen hugged prosecutor Jennifer Nichols and Bobo’s father Dana hugged Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director Mark Gwyn.
A sentencing hearing involving the same jury that decided the verdict will begin Saturday. The murder charge can carry the death penalty.
Rickey Alexander, a Bobo family friend, said the verdict was “6 1/2 years in the making.” Alexander noted that Bobo used to sing at church. “She finally has the peace in the valley that she sang about.”
Thompson, the defense attorney, said she was extremely disappointed in the verdict, and she said Adams was very upset. “He was really shaking his head. He was white as a ghost.”
Judge C. Creed McGinley moved the trial from Decatur County to neighboring Hardin County in search of an unbiased jury. The jury deliberated 3½ hours Thursday and about seven hours Friday before reaching a verdict.
“I’m not sure you can get an unbiased jury” in a case that has received so much attention in the area, Thompson said.
Prosecutor Paul Hagerman declined comment.
Two other men, Jason Autry and Adams’ brother John Dylan Adams, also face charges of kidnapping, raping and killing Bobo.
Autry testified against Adams, telling jurors that Adams told him that he, his brother and their friend Shayne Austin had raped Bobo. Autry also said that he served as a lookout as Adams shot Bobo near a river in the day she was reported missing.
Autry was on a list of witnesses who were offered immunity in the case. He said he testified because he wanted leniency.
Autry’s lawyer has told the judge that a trial does not need to be set for Autry, indicating he has reached a deal with prosecutors. A trial date has not been set for John Dylan Adams.
The TBI has said that the Bobo investigation is the most exhaustive and expensive in the agency’s history.
But investigators found no DNA evidence connecting Bobo to any of the men. Instead, they relied on Autry’s story and other testimony from friends and jail inmates who said Adams spoke of harming Bobo.
Thompson had accused Autry of selling his “tall tale” to prosecutors in return for the death penalty.
“A lot of people believed that if you say something, it must be true,” Thompson said.
via: http://nypost.com/2017/09/22/sicko-convicted-of-raping-murdering-young-nursing-student/
Trio charged in killing of teen found sexually mutilated, burned
Three people have been charged in the murder of a Missouri teen whose body was found burned and sexually mutilated.
Police charged a man and two women Thursday in the killing of 17-year-old Joseph Steinfeld, the Houston Herald reported. The suspects were identified as Andrew Vrba, 18; Isis Schauer, 18; and Briana Calderas, 24.
All three were charged with first-degree murder and abandonment of a corpse. Vrba and his girlfriend, Isis Schauer, were also slapped with armed criminal action charges.
The break in the case came when police discovered the female suspects had messaged each other on Facebook about the murder.
Vrba confessed to officers that he stabbed the teen to death and burned his body with the help of the women.
The female suspects told police that Vrba had bragged about sexually mutilating the teen and gouging his eyes out, according to the Houston Herald.
“It is a grisly terrible series of heinous acts by the accused,” Texas County Prosecutor Parke Stevens Jr. told the Houston Herald.
All three suspects are being held without bail.
via: http://nypost.com/2017/09/22/trio-charged-in-killing-of-teen-found-sexually-mutilated-burned/
Homeless Man Sentenced to Life in Prison for Using Butcher Knife to Kill South L.A. Woman Who Took Him in
A homeless man who used a butcher knife to fatally stab a woman who had taken him into her South Los Angeles home was sentenced to life in prison, officials announced Friday.
Laevin Weatherspoon, 31, was convicted of first degree last month in connection with the December 2013 slaying of Wanda Threadgill, a 45-year-old grandmother of four.
The victim’s decomposing body was found wrapped in a blanket after her daughter broke into her home on Dec. 17, 2013. Threadgill’s family had not heard from her for about two weeks after her Dec. 4 birthday, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors believe that Threadgill was stabbed to death on or around Dec. 5, 2013.
Weatherspoon stabbed Threadgill 27 times before fleeing to Chicago, according to the evidence presented at trial.
The victim apparently had allowed Weatherspoon to live in her home. He admitted to stabbing Threadgill on the stand, but the motive behind the crime was not made clear Friday.
St. Louis protesters hold ‘White Allies Only’ rally
Protesters chanting “white silence is violence” marched through downtown St. Louis Thursday night for a “White Allies Only” rally in the wake of the acquittal of a white police officer for fatally shooting a black man.
Organizers of the march said that people of many races were angry about the acquittal of officer Jason Stockley, in addition to being upset about the treatment of African Americans in the city.
Protesters marched near Busch Stadium as 50,000 fans filed into the venue where “Piano Man” Billy Joel performed his popular ballads.
Demonstrators outside complained about segregation in the city.
“When you look at the history of St. Louis, the racial divide is very intentional,” Jennifer Sherer said while holding a “black lives matter” sign.
The protest is the latest of several since last Friday, when a judge acquitted former police officer Stockley, who is white, in the 2011 shooting death of 24-year-old Anthony Lamar Smith.
via: http://nypost.com/2017/09/21/st-louis-protesters-hold-white-allies-only-rally/
Florida Girl, 4, Fatally Shoots Herself While Reaching for Candy in Grandmother’s Purse
A 4-year-old Florida girl fatally shot herself after she accidentally pulled the trigger of a gun inside her grandmother’s purse while reaching for candy, according to the Tampa Bay Times. The incident happened on Sept. 14 while Yanelly “Nelly” Zoller was at her grandparents’ Tampa home.
The girl accidentally pulled the trigger and was shot in the chest, according to police.
“She just wanted some damn candy,” father Shane Zoller told the newspaper
Zoller says his daughter was “extremely close” with her grandparents and loved to visit.
“She was extremely close to them and would get so excited when she got to stay at her nana’s house,” he told the paper. “She was attached to her nana’s hip.”
Tampa police are investigating the girl’s death but said there is no reason for police to doubt the family’s story.
Family members are asking for donations on GoFundMe.com and YouCaring.com to help pay for funeral costs.
Snapchat Video Shows Florida Childcare Workers Bullying 8-Year-Old Autistic Boy as He Cries Under Table
Police in Florida are looking for two childcare workers accused of “berating, taunting and throwing a backpack” at an 8-year-old child with autism.
A Snapchat video captured 26-year-old Kaderrica Smith and 19-year-old Alexus Henderson terrorizing a boy at Our Children’s Academy in Winter Haven, according to police.
Smith is being charged with battery and child abuse and Henderson with child neglect.
The three-minute video shows the boy underneath a table crying as Henderson and Smith tease and yell at him, police say. At one point, one of the workers throws shoes and a backpack at the boy, according to police.
The video shows the child crawl out from under the table and start running around the room. When he runs at one of the workers, the woman allegedly grabs his arm and does a “leg sweep,” causing the boy to fall flat on his back.
Police say the video shows the boy reacting in “both a verbal and physical manner” as he is harassed.
According to an internal review, both Henderson and Smith said they felt they had acted appropriately and did nothing wrong.
Our Children’s Academy fired both workers, whose certifications are now on hold during the investigation, preventing them from getting another job working with children.
Police put out a warrant for their arrest after interviewing the boy last Friday, and are asking the public for help finding them.
Anyone with information is asked to call the anonymous tip line Crime Stoppers at (800) 226-TIPS (8477). Tipsters may be eligible for a cash reward.
Chicago Woman Found Dead in Gym Bathroom Stall 2 Days After Entering
A 78-year-old woman was found dead inside a health club near Chicago two days after she was last seen arriving at the facility back in July, police said on Wednesday.
Patricia Austin’s body was found in a restroom at the Life Time Fitness facility in Burr Ridge, a suburb of Chicago, according to KTLA sister station WGN.
Austin was last seen entering the club on July 12 and was never seen leaving. Her car was still in the parking lot two days later, when her body was found.
Another woman who used the bathroom while at the gym on July 14 noticed feet under one of the stalls, police told the Chicago Tribune.
The feet were still there after the woman returned from her workout and she alerted workers. An employee then crawled under the stall after knocking and discovered the body, according to the newspaper. Police and paramedics arrived and Austin was declared dead at the scene.
An autopsy showed she died from cardiovascular disease, according to WGN.
A spokesman for Life Time Fitness, Jason Thunstrom, released a statement on Wednesday:
“We are terribly saddened by this tragedy and continue to have our heartfelt thoughts and prayers with the family. As a large facility with several thousand members visiting daily, it is not uncommon for bathroom stalls to be occupied as staff conducts their cleaning protocol. Out of respect for members, cleaning staff do not disturb individuals in occupied stalls. Moreover, cleaning staff rotates throughout the course of the day with responsibility for cleaning varying as shift changes occur. Finally, during the club’s brief closure period each day, it is not uncommon for members to be completing their workouts and using bathroom facilities before departing, or for our staff members to be using the same bathroom facilities.”
The family’s attorney, Mark Novak, told ABC Chicago the final autopsy report has not been issued and questions remain about whether Austin could have been saved if she was found earlier.
Novak also wants to know why no one noticed the woman in the bathroom. The health club closes between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. and that is when bathrooms are cleaned, according to Novak.
“Two straight days with that woman remaining in that stall is inconceivable to me,” said Novak. “When you lock up the front door and you see a member’s car sitting right by the entrance, I would think that it would occur to me that hey, we missed somebody, let’s go back in, somebody is still in the club.”