Colorado mom who tossed her newborn over a fence and left her to die convicted of murder “I just had to get rid of it.”
(CNN) — A Colorado mother who smothered her unnamed newborn daughter and then flung her over a fence into a neighbor’s backyard was convicted of murder on Tuesday.
The disturbing case dates to the early morning of January 2, 2018, when Camille Wasinger-Konrad, 25, gave birth in her bedroom to a baby girl, according to the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors said she covered the baby’s mouth and nose to stop her from crying and keep her from waking anyone. She then carried the baby to the back deck and threw her into a neighbor’s backyard, the office said. The neighbor found the dead newborn at 9:48 p.m. that night and called police.
When police came to investigate, Wasinger-Konrad said that she woke up that morning with bad stomach cramps, and “the baby just came out,” according to CNN affiliate KDVR.
“I just got rid of it,” she said in an interview recorded on a deputy’s body camera, KDVR reported.
A jury found Wasinger-Konrad guilty of first-degree murder of a child by a person in a position of trust, first-degree murder after deliberation, and tampering with physical evidence, the district attorney’s office said.
“This tiny baby was smothered by her mother, flung over a neighbor’s fence and left to die by the only human she had ever known,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Gallo said in closing arguments. “This defendant hurled her newborn 11 feet over an 8-foot fence, knowingly consigning her to her death. This little girl died in the cold without the dignity of even a name.”
Deputy District Attorney Valerie Brewster told the jury that the newborn was left there for a total of 948 minutes.
Sentencing is set for November
“This defendant went about her day, knowing her unnamed daughter was there, helpless. She thought and made that choice,” Brewster said, according to the district attorney’s office.
District Attorney George Brauchler said in a statement that the case was “disgusting.”
“Of all the many emotions of the magical first moments of a baby’s life, of all the many tender moments a mother shared in that first embrace with a completely helpless and fragile life, smothering a newborn and pitching its body over a fence in the cold of January is impossible to understand,” Brauchler said.
Wasinger-Konrad was represented in court by two attorneys from the Colorado State Public Defender’s Office. The office did not respond to an email and a call requesting comment.
She faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole, and the sentencing is set for November 15.
Photo Credit: Douglas County Sheriff
Man allegedly beat mom to death, tells neighbor he had to ‘put down’ mother
KANSAS CITY, MO (KSHB) — An Independence man faces a first-degree murder charge after he allegedly told a neighbor he had to “put down” his mom.
Independence police responded Monday the 9500 block of East 14th Street, where they found a woman — later identified as Tamera Rainey — dead inside a house.
Jackson County prosecutors charged Lucas Mauritzen, 38, with first-degree murder and armed criminal action.
In an interview with detectives, Maurizen admitted to beating Rainey, who has been identified as his mother, for several hours.
Police described the scene inside the house as covered in blood in every room from floor to ceiling.
Mauritzen is a registered sex offender dating back to statutory rape offense in 2006.
Prosecutors have requested a $350,000 bond.
Photo Credit: pix11.com
Man accused of putting fatal dose of heroin in his wife’s cereal
A Michigan man has been arrested and charged with trying to hire someone to kill his wife and then fatally poisoning her cereal with heroin in 2014, authorities said.
Jason T. Harris, 44, was arrested Tuesday and is being charged with three felonies, Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton announced at a news conference filmed by CNN affiliate WJRT. Leyton said the charges include premeditated first-degree murder and solicitation of murder, both of which can result in a life sentence, and delivery of a controlled substance causing death.
“We believe Jason Harris murdered his wife,” Leyton said. “We believe he put heroin into her cereal and milk the night she died after getting it from someone. …”
Jason Harris’s attorney, Nicholas Robinson, told CNN that his client has pleaded not guilty to all charges and is in custody at the Genesee County Jail.
Robinson said Jason Harris has been cooperating with state police and has been mourning his wife since she died.
“We were very surprised and frankly saddened to learn the original determination of accidental overdose has been overturned and that has led to these charges,” Robinson said. He declined to respond further to the prosecutor’s allegations.
Authorities originally ruled the death of Christina Ann-Thompson Harris was an accidental homicide, Leyton said, but the medical examiner amended the ruling to homicide after a deeper investigation.
At the news conference, Leyton said police were dispatched to a home in Davison, Michigan, on September 29, 2014, where Christina Harris was found dead.
According to Leyton, a neighbor told police that Jason Harris said Christina had been “fighting a cold” and had been treated for asthma, according to Leyton. He said police learned he had fed Christina cereal and milk the night before her death.
Leyton said Jason Harris’s brother and sister went to police a few days later and told them Jason had “made comments in the past about, quote, getting rid of Christina Harris.” He said they also felt Jason Harris was seeing other women prior to his wife’s death.
During the investigation, according to Leyton, some former coworkers of Jason’s told police that Jason Harris asked them what kinds of pills are tasteless and odorless, and that he offered one of them $5,000 to kill his wife. The co-workers said Jason Harris told them he did pay a man $5,000 to kill his wife, but the man was arrested for a parole violation before he could do it, Leyton said.
Leyton said Jason Harris was fired from his job for a “pattern of positive drug testing” and collected a total of $120,000 in life insurance money for his wife’s death.
Christina Harris, Leyton said, had recently been promoted to manager of Genesee County’s busiest Subway restaurant, where said she was a mentor and friend to her coworkers. She had given birth in May to her second child with her husband and was an “incredibly loving mother,” according to Leyton.
He said Christina never tested positive for any drugs at doctors’ visits during her pregnancy. Leyton said investigators were able to obtain samples of breast milk that Christina had frozen prior to her death, and found no controlled substances.
Jason’s next court appearance is scheduled for September 5.
John Potbury, deputy chief assistant prosecutor, said the Harris children went into the care of Child Protective Services within the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
via: https://pix11.com/2019/08/28/man-accused-of-putting-fatal-dose-of-heroin-in-his-wifes-cereal/
Photo Credit: pix11.com
Teacher fights to get job back after being videotaped mowing yard naked
PORT ORANGE, Fla. – A Florida teacher who was caught on camera mowing his lawn while nude is fighting to get his job back, according toWESH.
The teacher was demoted to a non-teaching position after he was recorded, but the teachers’ union says the punishment does not fit the crime, Volusia United Educators President Elizabeth Albert said.
Albert said that when longtime teacher Brian Wheeler mowed the yard naked at his Port Orange home in 2017, he made a very poor decision.
A neighbor recorded Wheeler and filed a police complaint.
According to documents obtained by WESH, Wheeler believes the neighbor has issues with him.
Wheeler was charged with exposure of sexual organs and disorderly conduct. The exposure charge was dropped and the disorderly conduct dismissed in a deferred prosecution agreement. Wheeler was not convicted of a crime.
“This is a man who has over two decades of history teaching children in our community and successfully teaching them,” Albert said.
Wheeler was working at Cypress Elementary in Port Orange when he was removed. He was a tenured teacher with an unblemished record.
According to documents WESH obtained, many parents and colleagues supported him, however, a handful of families of young children did not.
School district officials, who gave Wheeler a written reprimand along with a demotion out of the classroom, refused to reconsider.
In addition to Volusia County, the Florida Department of Education investigated and just this past May found probable cause in Brian Wheeler’s case to pursue disciplinary action. The complaint will be heard in October.
However, Albert said a settlement has been reached in Wheeler’s case and the October hearing is just a rubber stamp.
According to Albert and the paperwork she showed us, Wheeler will be fined but will retain his teaching credential.
Allowing Wheeler to keep his credential would “infer that officials feel that he is still of the caliber that is able to work with our kids and teach,” Albert said.
Albert said that since the school district has so far refused that, the union will arbitrate on his behalf.
Wheeler never lost his teaching certificate, so he’s had the option to teach elsewhere in Florida, but union representatives say he’s committed to Volusia County.
Photo Credit: pix11.com
13-year-old boy gets 78 stitches after being slashed by 11-year-old boy in Brooklyn
BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, Brooklyn — A 13-year-old boy was slashed in the face by an 11-year-old boy in Brooklyn on Wednesday morning, an NYPD spokesman said.
They had a dispute of some kind on MacDonough Street near Marcy Avenue around 7:30 a.m., officials said. The victim was slashed in the left side of the face.
He ran into MS 258 around the corner for help, police said.
The teen got 78 stitches at Maimonides Medical Center. He’s since been released.
Police took the 11-year-old boy into custody. Charges have not yet been filed. His name will not be released because he’s a juvenile.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
NYC middle school teacher used Venmo to pay for child porn
A Queens middle school teacher was busted with kiddie porn on his phone Tuesday — which prosecutors said he bought using payment app Venmo.
Eric Paulino, 30, a Department of Education employee who a source says works as a special ed teacher at IS 93 in Ridgewood, pleaded not guilty in Brooklyn federal court to possessing child porn and was released after posting a $250,000 bond.
According to the criminal complaint against Paulino, the FBI allegedly found videos and images of children engaging in sex acts on the teacher’s smartphone Tuesday morning after federal agents executed a search warrant at his residence, which is also in Ridgewood.
Agents obtained the warrant after learning that Paulino allegedly used an online alias and made purchases from a “known purveyor of child pornography” via Venmo, court documents say.
Paulino allegedly admitted to agents that he has used his phone to download and trade kiddie porn, the complaint states.
Paulino’s attorney, Jeffery Greco, noted to The Post that his client is not being accused of accessing child porn on school grounds or having any sexual contact with students.
“He wasn’t searching on any school property and at no time did he violate any barrier between a teacher and a student,” Greco said.
The DOE said the are “reassigning this teacher away from the classroom because of this deeply disturbing allegation.”
via: https://nypost.com/2019/08/27/nyc-middle-school-teacher-used-venmo-to-pay-for-child-porn-feds/
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School resource officer fired after sending nude selfies while on duty
A school resource officer in Florida was fired after she was caught taking nude selfies in the school bathroom to send to her husband, a report said.
The unidentified officer with the Kissimmee Police Department took the nude video during a school day in December at the Imagine Kissimmee Charter Academy, according to Fox News.
The video shows the woman touching herself in an inappropriate manner and urinating while speaking to a person she refers to as her husband, the report said.
The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office discovered the illicit video earlier this year while investigating a domestic issue between the woman and her husband.
The restroom was locked at the time. But investigators said the incident could have delayed “any immediate response” in the event of an emergency.
The officer told investigators that she had been coerced by her husband to take the video.
“Sending the material did not affect the ability to perform my job; and it is imperative to note that no one was hurt because of my actions,” she wrote in a memorandum to the department’s deputy chief.
Photo Credit: heraldpublicist.com
Touch-screen voting machines appear to be changing votes in Mississippi
There have been widespread reports of voting machine problems in Mississippi — with residents from more than a half-dozen counties claiming to have had their ballots automatically changed Tuesday while trying to vote in the state’s GOP governor primary runoff.
“It is not letting me vote for who I want to vote for,” said one Mississippian in a Facebook video, which showed one of the voting machines malfunctioning.
Every time the man tried to select his pick for governor — Bill Waller Jr. — the device would automatically choose his opponent, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves.
“How can that happen?” a woman can be heard asking on video.
“I don’t know, it’s in the machine,” a man replies.
A Facebook user named Sally Kate Walker posted the footage of the malfunction on her page Tuesday, with the caption: “Ummmm…. seems legit, Mississippi.”
“As if you needed another reason to VOTE!” she added.
According to the Clarion-Ledger, Waller’s campaign received reports of similar issues with touch-screen voting machines in at least seven counties. The Walker footage was captured at a voting precinct in Oxford.
The machines that were being affected were reportedly TSX models purchased from Election Systems and Software. Those that experienced the “jumping” error, as officials put it, were taken out of service. They were believed to have been mishandled during transport — causing them to lose calibration, officials said.
Waller, a former Supreme Court Chief justice, is currently in a runoff with Reeves for the Republican primary race to see who will face Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood in the general election.
Reeves was in the lead — with 49 percent of the vote to Waller’s 33 percent — when the ballots were originally tallied on Aug. 6.
Photo Credit: nypost.com
TV anchor makes tearful apology after comparing black colleague to gorilla
A white Oklahoma City TV station anchor has tearfully apologized to her black colleague for comparing him to a gorilla during a broadcast last week.
KOCO-TV morning anchor Alex Housden finished a segment Thursday about a gorilla at the Oklahoma City Zoo by comparing the animal to co-anchor Jason Hackett.
“Kind of looks like you,” she said to Hackett, who paused and responded: “He kind of does, actually, yeah.”
While seated next to Hackett the following day, a distraught-looking Housdon said she was sorry — while reaching out to touch his arm.
“I said something yesterday that was inconsiderate, it was inappropriate, and I hurt people,” Housden said. “I want you to know I understand how much I hurt you out there and how much I hurt (Hackett).”
She said she would “never do anything on purpose to hurt” him.
“I want you all to know from the bottom of my heart I apologize for what I said,” Housden said. “I know it was wrong, and I am so sorry.”
Hackett accepted Housden’s apology, saying she’s one of his best friends, but made it clear that her comment hurt his feelings.
“What she said yesterday was wrong,” Hackett said, adding that the apology was a “teachable moment” and that “words matter.”
“It cut deep for me, and it cut deep for a lot of you in the community,” he said.
“We’re becoming a more diverse country, and there’s no excuse. We have to understand the stereotypes. We have to understand each other’s backgrounds and the words that hurt, the words that cut deep,” Hackett said.
“We have to find a way to replace those words with love and words of affirmation as well.”
The clip of Housden’s crass comment was shared on social media, where users lambasted her through her Facebook page.
“You should be fired! Your voice doesn’t belong on the news anymore. If you’re comfortable saying those kind of things on air, who knows what you say behind closed doors,” user Sonny Holloway wrote.
“The petition to have you fired is coming and your days as an anchor are numbered. #YoureNotForgiven#YoureFired.”
User Julie Wexler also called for Housden to be canned.
“Nope. You need to go. It’s 2019 and you’re comparing black men to simians? You. Need. To. Go. No tearful apology makes up for that. GO!” she wrote.
Photo Credit: cnn.com
Student practicing extreme yoga pose falls 80 feet from balcony
A Mexican college student is alive after falling 80 feet from her balcony while practicing a yoga pose.
Alexa Terrazas, 23, was known to do yoga on her sixth-floor apartment’s balcony, often using the guardrail as a prop for extreme poses. But a risky move nearly cost the yogi her life on Saturday afternoon, as she slipped and landed on the pavement outside her building in the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León, according to reports in El Imparcial.
The health and nutrition student at Tecnológico de Monterrey was treated by paramedics with the Red Cross and Nuevo León Civil Protection, then brought to the hospital, where she underwent 11 hours of surgery. She was considered to be in critical condition as of Monday, having suffered fractures to both legs and arms, hips and head.
El Imparcial reported that doctors had to “reconstruct” her legs, and that it may be three years before she walks again. People on social media asked their followers to consider giving blood to help her. As of Sunday, a relative of Terrazas tweeted that there was no need.
Neighbors claim they saw Terrazas perform the upside-down pose over the edge of her terrace. The Nuevo León Attorney General’s Office also confirmed that the rail was structurally sound, and that the woman’s slip was an accident.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/08/27/student-practicing-extreme-yoga-pose-falls-80-feet-from-balcony/
Photo Credit: nypost.com/Example of the pose reportedly performed by Alexa Terrazas before she fell.