Pasadena Man Sentenced to 77 Years to Life in Prison for Killing Sister After She Texted His Girlfriend
A Pasadena man was sentenced to 77 years to life in prison for killing his sister after she texted his girlfriend explaining that her brother was not abused as a child and he shouldn’t be assaulting women, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced Thursday.
In February, Johnny Goins was found guilty of first-degree murder, willful, premeditated and deliberate attempted murder and shooting at an inhabited dwelling.
The jury also found true that Goins discharged a firearm causing a death.
Goins spat at the judge and began shouting obscenities after the sentence was handed down, according to the Los Angeles Times.
According to evidence presented during the trial, Goins’ girlfriend told his sister, Tanaya Goins, that the defendant had tried to suffocate her.
The girlfriend told Tanaya Goins in a series of texts that Johnny Goins told her that he suffered from post traumatic stress disorder because he was abused as a child.
Tanaya Goins then told the girlfriend that her brother was not abused and that he shouldn’t be assaulting women, officials said.
On March 5, 2015, Johnny Goins went to his sister’s San Gabriel apartment and shot her multiple times through a window and the door.
The victim was hit in the head and the torso and died at the scene, officials said. Her teen son was also struck, but his injuries were not life-threatening.
A witness testified during the trial that she saw Johnny Goins run from the apartment after the shooting. He was later arrested in Moreno Valley, officials said.
Goins was ordered to pay $14,200 in restitution to the California Victim Compensation Board and $1,300 to the victim’s mother for funeral expenses, officials said.
Florida Woman Smoked Crack Moments Before Giving Birth, Hiding Baby in Backyard
A Clearwater, Florida, woman was arrested Wednesday after police say she gave birth to a child moments after smoking crack-cocaine.
Arrest records show 24-year-old Katrina gave birth to the child Monday on a back patio and hid the baby in the backyard, WFTS reported.
“I couldn’t imagine doing that with my baby,” said Carrie Meeks, who lives in the home where Kegelman left the baby.
Meeks says she noticed Kegelman walking near her home and let her inside to give her clean clothes and a place to shower.
Records show Kegelman is a transient, with no permanent address.
Meeks noticed Kegelman was in labor and offered to take her to a hospital, but by the time she went in to call for help and stepped back outside, Kegelman had already given birth.
Meeks noticed blood on her pants, the baby tucked inside.
She says Kegelman pleaded with her not to call 911, so she told her instead she was calling a friend and stepped away to call for an ambulance.
That’s when she says Kegelman hid the baby under a plant in her backyard.
According to the affidavit, she later admitted to police that she was afraid she’d be arrested for the baby’s death and had smoked crack just moments before giving birth.
“There’s not a drug in this world that could have made me stash my baby in the bushes and then lie to people and tell them it’s not there,” said Meeks.
Fire rescue arrived at the home where Kegelman at first wouldn’t say where the baby was, but eventually pointed towards the backyard.
Officials say the baby boy survived and is now at a hospital.
Kegelman was also taken to a hospital after giving birth and was arrested Wednesday after admitting to the incident.
She now faces a child neglect charge.
Records show she bonded out of jail early Thursday morning.
Police say it’s now up to staff at The Florida Dept. of Children and Families to determine a home for the baby.
Woman Allegedly Choked Girl Who Blocked View at Disney Magic Kingdom Fireworks Display
A 41-year-old woman was arrested after allegedly choking a teen girl because she was blocking her view during the fireworks display at Disney’s Magic Kingdom theme park in Orlando, Florida, on Wednesday night, according to a report.
Tabbatha Kaye Mature was behind the high school student and her friends, who were sitting before the fireworks started. When the display began, they stood up, blocking the view of Mature and her family, the Orlando Sentinel reported, citing an Orange County Sheriff’s Office arrest report.
Mature’s family told the teens to sit, and then the suspect “became aggravated,” according to the arrest report.
The teens decided to leave, and the girl told Mature she could take their spot, the Sentinel reported.
At that point, the victim told a deputy, Mature “wrapped both hands around my neck and began squeezing,” according to the newspaper.
Mature allegedly released the teen after she started screaming, telling her,” You don’t want to mess with me,” the victim told the deputy.
She didn’t have any visible injuries, but the girl phoned her mother and they decided to initiate legal proceedings, according to the arrest report.
Mature, a Michigan resident, was booked Thursday on suspicion of felony child abuse, inmate records showed.
She was released from jail on $2,000 bond, the Sentinel reported.
Cop accused of paying teen for sex, taking back money at gun point
GLEN BURNIE, Md. — A Washington police officer is facing a string of charges in Maryland after authorities say he paid a 15-year-old girl for sex and then took back the money at gunpoint.
Anne Arundel County police said 27-year-old Chukwuemeka Ekwonna of Glenn Dale was arrested Thursday and charged with armed robbery, assault, third-degree sex offense, reckless endangerment, prostitution and a weapon offense.
Court documents show the teen recently told officials that she was robbed by a man she met through social media and offered her $80 for sex. They met in January and after they had sex, she says the man, later identified as Ekwonna, pointed a gun at her and demanded his money back.
Police in Washington say Ekwonna was fired Friday. No attorney is listed in online court records.
via: http://nypost.com/2017/04/07/cop-accused-of-paying-teen-for-sex-taking-back-money-at-gun-point/
Oklahoma football player accused of pimping out cheerleader
Former Oklahoma Sooners defensive back Lawrence “L.J.” Moore was arrested last week after being accused of pimping for ex-Sooners cheerleader Micah Madison Parker.
Parker, 23, was busted after soliciting an undercover officer for sex, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in Oklahoma City, per Fox affiliate KOKH. The officer arranged a meeting with Parker at a local hotel after connecting on Backpage.com. Parker allegedly offered sex in exchange for $200.
After vice detectives arrived on the premises to take Parker into custody, the affidavit claims, Parker attempted to toss several cellphones into the toilet. Marijuana and a green substance, which contained a strong odor believed to be codeine, also were discovered in the room.
Through social media exchanges and calls from jail, authorities deduced that Moore, 22, allegedly was involved in the prostitution of Parker. He later was arrested after attempting to pick up her car from the hotel.
Parker was taken to the Oklahoma City Jail on complaints of destruction of evidence, offering to engage in acts of prostitution, in addition to two counts of possession of a controlled dangerous substance. Moore was booked on pandering, aiding and abetting prostitution, possession of marijuana and possession of a dangerous substance.
Parker, the daughter of Oklahoma’s cheerleading coach, has had several run-ins with the law in recent years. She is currently on probation stemming from a 2015 guilty plea to DUI and driving under suspension, per The Lostogle.com. Parker was also wanted following probation violations, according to JohnTV.
Moore played in 13 games for OU during the 2013 season.
via: http://nypost.com/2017/04/04/oklahoma-football-player-accused-of-pimping-out-cheerleader/
Student in pancake-eating contest died of asphyxia
The New Jersey college student who fatally choked during a pancake-eating contest died of asphyxia, the New York City chief medical examiner’s office ruled.
Caitlin Nelson, the 20-year-old daughter of a Port Authority cop who lost his life on 9/11, was participating in the charity contest at her school, Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn., on March 30 when she choked after eating several pancakes and collapsed.
She was rushed to a local hospital in critical condition, and was transferred to Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, where she died Sunday. The medical examiner’s office said the official cause of death was “asyphyxia due to obstruction of airway by bolus of food.”
Nelson was a junior at Sacred Heart, where she majored in social work and served as the vice president of community service at the school’s Kappa Delta sorority.
Her dad, James Nelson, died while evacuating people from one of the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001.
“Like her father, right up until the end she was giving of herself, and proof of that is her organs are all being donated,” Robert Egbert, a spokesman for the Port Authority Police Benevolent Association, told The Post earlier this week.
via: http://nypost.com/2017/04/06/student-in-pancake-eating-contest-died-of-asphyxia/
11-Year-Old Boy Kills Himself After Alleged Social Media Prank – and Another Child Is Charged
Police say criminal charges have been brought against a juvenile in Michigan after an 11-year-old boy killed himself following what the boy’s mother claims was a social media prank.
Authorities in Marquette, Michigan, confirm that charges of malicious use of a telecommunication services and using a computer to commit a crime have been brought against an unidentified juvenile after the boy was found unresponsive from a suicide attempt on March 14.
Marquette police declined to identify either juvenile involved and said only that the boy who died was “engaged in communication with another juvenile via social media prior to the incident.”
However, Katrina Goss tells PEOPLE it was her son Tysen Benz who tried to kill himself that March day – though he did not die until this week.
Goss claims that the charges have been brought against a girl that Tysen knew, who faked her own suicide on social media as a prank and thus triggered her own son’s successful attempt.
Goss says the accused juvenile was Tysen’s girlfriend.
(PEOPLE attempted Thursday to reach the girl that Goss claims has been charged but was not immediately successful.)
Tysen’s mom says the accused juvenile allegedly faked her own suicide using various social media sites and also allegedly used social media accounts of her friends to circulate the rumor of her suicide.
An hour into her prank, Tysen hung himself, his mom claims. Goss says she found him on March 14 and that emergency response teams managed to resuscitate him. Machines kept Tysen alive for weeks after his suicide attempt, but he died in a hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on Tuesday.
“We had to let him pass on,” Goss says. “He was severely brain-damaged and the doctors told us he would never recuperate, that it wasn’t even really him anymore. I was at his bedside for three weeks. We are utterly devastated and we will never get over it.
“He was amazing – an amazing athlete who was super fun and had a great sense of humor. He was extremely social; the whole community is upset.”
Goss alleges that her son contacted the girl’s friends, expressing his thoughts of suicide – but she allegedly kept up the ruse.
“She did nothing to contact me or the authorities,” Goss tells PEOPLE. “I truly don’t know what the point of this prank was. I don’t even know how that’s supposed to be funny, especially if she cared about him at all. I am not sure how that could be a joke. She must have severe psychological issues to go forward with something like that and to keep the joke going even after he told her he was going to kill himself.”
Goss says Tysen will be buried next week following services scheduled for Tuesday. She says she is trying to keep things together for her other sons, ages 10 and 14.
Of the girl whom she claims is responsible, Goss says “she’s intelligent enough to know right from wrong.”
Goss says for months, she tried reaching out to the girl’s father and aunt several times, asking that she cease all communication with her son. But “they blew it off,” she claims.
“He was 11 – little kids don’t need to worry about that stuff,” Goss says. “These kids don’t even think what they’re doing online is real. They don’t comprehend the magnitude of their words and how their actions can impact other people. Parents need to monitor their children’s online activities so things like this don’t happen.”
via: https://www.yahoo.com/news/11-old-boy-kills-himself-210449928.html
Man Trying to Buy Candy at Santa Ana 7-Eleven Goes on Violent Rampage in Store After Credit Card Is Declined $.75 M&M’s
Santa Ana police Wednesday released surveillance video showing a man who assaulted a 7-Eleven employee after his credit card was declined as they sought the public’s help in locating him, authorities said.
The incident occurred inside the 7-Eleven located at 902 W. First St. on Feb. 11, according to a Santa Ana Police Department news release.
The man was trying to purchase a pack of M&M candy when his credit card was declined, causing him to get angry, police told KTLA.
Video showed the customer reaching over the counter and hitting the employee on his head. He then violently pushes a cash register and printer off the counter, and shoves a basket of bananas to the floor.
After, customer walked over to the end of the counter where he threw bananas at another employee and pushed a second register off the counter, police said.
His actions caused an estimated $700 of damage to the store, police said.
“Based on his actions over a 75 cent-bag of M&M’s, I’m not sure what his reaction would be to something that’s really serious,” Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said about the man.
The man is described as white, 30 to 35 years old, about 5-foot-10 or 5-foot-11, between 180 and 200 pounds, with short black hair and a light complexion, police said. He also had black prescription glasses.
Anyone who recognizes the suspect or has information about the case is encouraged to call Investigator Laura Delisle at 714- 245-8647 or email [email protected].
17-Year-Old Boy Killed While Walking Home From School in South L.A. Is ID’d by Family
A 17-year-old boy killed during a triple shooting in the Vermont-Slauson neighborhood of South Los Angeles Tuesday afternoon was identified as Kevin Cleveland Jr. by his mother on Wednesday morning.
The mother, speaking to reporters outside the family’s home, said her son was walking home from school when he was shot.The gunfire — some 10 shots — was reported near the intersection of Vermont Avenue and 60th Street about 3:50 p.m., according to LAPD.
Two other teens who were with Cleveland were also shot by a gunman wearing a hoodie.
One victim was in critical condition after the shooting and the other had suffered non-life threatening injuries, Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Phillip Tingirides said. The surviving victims were described as a boy and a girl between the ages of 15 and 17.
Cleveland’s mother, who gave only her first name, Ladrena, told KTLA she heard the barrage of gunfire and got in her car to go try to find her son.
“I jumped straight up, like, ‘Where is Kevin at?'” Ladrena said. “That’s what we go through around here when there’s a shooting.”
She found her son, wounded in the stomach and leg but still able to talk, and thought he would be OK. He got up and got on the gurney, Ladrena said.
He later died at the hospital, leaving the family with questions about why it took so long for him to get medical attention, Kevin’s cousin said.
Kevin, who had recently celebrated his 17th birthday, had never been involved in gangs and loved to play video games at home, Ladrena said. She described him as an “Xbox Live kid.”
“He was trying to get home, and he just was caught up,” Ladrena said. “He didn’t know nobody was going to come shooting. None of the kids knew. They wouldn’t have been out there if they knew somebody was going to come shooting.”
The victim has two older brothers and two older sisters, Ladrena said.
“He was an innocent bystander, period,” said Kevin’s cousin, standing alongside Ladrena. “Somebody had the audacity to come up to a school, come up to … some kids and let some fire out on some kids? … What did you gain from that?”
The gunman remains at large. He was described as a black man in his 20s who was wearing jeans and a hooded sweatshirt.
It was unclear if the shooting was gang related, but police confirmed there was no indication the victims had any gang ties.
The shooting occurred near John Muir Middle School and Augustus Hawkins High School.
via: http://ktla.com/2017/04/05/teen-killed-near-school-in-south-l-a-triple-shooting-idd-by-family/
Washington Mother Abandoned Baby Boy in Yard Overnight After Drugs ‘Made Her Paranoid,’ Police Say
A mother was arrested after admitting she abandoned her 3-month-old in the yard of a Washington state home in Lakewood Sunday night during a drug-induced bout of paranoia, police said.
Lakewood Police Lt. Chris Lawler said authorities found the child after a woman walking home around 1:30 a.m. Monday thought she heard a distressed animal. Instead, she found an infant boy lying in the grass of a residence, Lawler told KTLA sister station KCPQ in Seattle.
The baby was cold, but otherwise in good health, investigators said. He was taken to a local hospital and placed in protective state custody.
A female patient at St. Clare Hospital later told officials there she was the child’s mother, Lawler said.
“The mother told detectives that she was at a Lakewood residence last night and did some drugs, which made her paranoid,” a Lakewood police news release said. “She said she grabbed her baby and ran from the residence because she thought she was being chased. She admitted to leaving the baby in a front yard and hoping someone would find him. She was later found running around the area of 74th and Tyler at 7:07AM and transported to St. Clare for medical treatment.”
While detectives were interviewing the mom, the father of the child showed up at the hospital. He said he last saw his child with his wife Sunday night when he left because he was arguing with her. He said he didn’t know the child had been abandoned.
The child’s mother was booked into Pierce County Jail for second-degree abandonment of a dependent person. The father was booked into jail for an outstanding misdemeanor arrest warrant, police said.
Officials haven’t identified either of the parents pending official charges.