Man gets life for drowning 3-year-old boy to make room in house for unborn child
An East Texas man who said he drowned the 3-year-old nephew of his girlfriend, whom he thought was pregnant, was sentenced to life in prison without parole, prosecutors said Monday.
Bobby Woods, 21, was convicted Friday of capital murder in the 2015 death of Mason Cuttler.
Investigators said Woods told police that his girlfriend Billie Jean Cuttler was pregnant and that he killed the boy because he wanted to make room in his home, which housed three families at the time.
A lawyer said Cuttler wasn’t pregnant.
Woods told police he pushed the toddler into a pond near Lufkin, 110 miles northeast of Houston, turned his back and let him drown.
His body was found Aug. 18, 2015, a day after he was reported missing. Cuttler pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in exchange for a 20-year prison sentence.
Photo Credit: Angelina County Sheriff’s Office
Queens firefighter gives his baby girl a pedicure in adorable viral video
QUEENS — One of New York’s bravest has gone viral after sharing a precious moment with his baby daughter on social media.
Queens FDNY firefighter Jimmy Howell shared the adorable video on Instagram of himself giving his 9-month-old daughter Kensley a pedicure.
The doting dad called the father-daughter moment their “weekly spa talks,” in the Instagram caption, jokingly adding, “I’m charging her next week.”
“Oh man, I can tell you been crawling,” Howell says as his baby girl squeals and smiles back.
Photo Credit: pix11.com
Child with autism left alone by school bus at Bronx Public Library
THE BRONX — Surveillance video obtained by PIX11 shows an 8-year-old autistic child who is non-verbal being dropped off at the wrong bus stop and left alone for nearly an hour.
Jaiden Benjamin was dropped off on July 2, as he was on his way home from a summer program at PS 188 in the Bronx.
The bus matron who was in charge of his care just left him alone and confused at the Mosholu public library in The Bronx. There was no one at the library to pick up Jaiden.
Jaiden had been dropped off there before but since April that had not been Jaiden’s stop.
Surveillance video obtained by PIX11 shows the bus matron dropping off the child. You can see the library’s security guard try to stop her but she just leaves. Jaiden is left playing by himself in the corner of the room with no way to communicate he’s at the wrong stop.
“She went in, dropped him and left. That was it. I couldn’t believe it,” said Fatima El-Amin, Jaiden’s mom. “Anything could’ve happened to him.
“You know it takes five seconds for somebody to walk out with him. He would’ve went. He can’t talk. He can’t say ‘Hey, I’m Jaiden. Who are you?'”
Because her child is autistic and unable to communicate with strangers, Fatima has a GPS monitoring device called “AngelSense” which alerted her that Jaiden was at an unknown location and had been there for too long. She left work and arrived at the library.
“I’m thinking the bus is there. Waiting for me to come. So I get there… no bus”
In all, Jaiden was left alone in the library for nearly an hour.
“51 minutes of it I watched, 51 minutes I see my son in the library”
El-Amin confronted the bus matron who works for Pride Bus Corporation, based out of Brooklyn.
“I asked her and she said it wasn’t her fault”
The bus company, contracted by the city, said they’re investigating the matter.
Ultimately, it was the school that had placed Jaiden in the wrong bus. They told El-Amin they accidentally used an outdated document with the wrong drop off location.
“Students deserve a safe ride to and from school, and this troubling incident was immediately reported and is currently under investigation,” said the city’s Department of Education in a statement. “Drivers and attendants will complete two trial runs of their routes before the first day of school to ensure they are prepared for the school year.”
“If I didn’t have that device, I would’ve been lost,” said El-Amin. “There would’ve been no Jaiden. I would’ve sent out an Amber Alert.”
via: https://pix11.com/2019/08/19/child-with-autism-left-alone-by-school-bus-at-bronx-public-library/
Photo Credit: pix11.com
Couple sues adoption agency claiming they weren’t told boy had sexual abuse history
Denver (KMGH) — An Indiana couple is suing a Centennial adoption agency claiming a teenage boy brought from China had an undisclosed history of sexual abuse that led to the rape of their two younger children.
The civil lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court of Colorado Tuesday against Chinese Children Adoption International (CCAI) on behalf of the couple and their two Chinese boys.
The couple are seeking compensation for damages and an injunction that requires CCAI to put in place protocols to prevent harm to families and their children, according to the lawsuit filed by attorneys from Saeed and Little LLP in Indianapolis.
The couple from Terre Haute, Indiana, began adopting Chinese children after their six children became adults, the lawsuit states, adopting a child identified as N in 2014 through Bethany Christian Services.
A year later, the couple adopted another Chinese boy, this time through CCAI. The Centennial-based agency told the couple the child was 12-years-old, when in fact, the orphan boy was at least 15 to 16 years old, the lawsuit states. The boy was identified as L in the civil lawsuit.
About a month after his adoption, the couple’s first boy began showing troubling signs, including a bloody stool, hair loss and a loss of appetite. The boy was always upset, crying and banging his head, court documents show.
In 2016, the couple adopted a third Chinese boy through CCAI, identified as J in the lawsuit. Shortly after joining the family, J would wake up screaming and crying, and N would run into his parents’ room to get in bed with them, the lawsuit states.
J would complain of pains in the buttocks, but the Indiana couple believed the pain was caused from several cigarette burns he had from being abused in a Chinese orphanage. Eventually, J developed viral warts around his anus, court records show.
The lawsuit states the couple discovered L’s alarm would go off every night at 3 a.m., when he would “rape his adoptive brothers.” The couple confronted the boy, who admitted to the rapes, the documents show.
Two months later after he arrived at his new home, L was then taken to a behavioral center in Indiana where he told his therapist he “still had strong sexual urges that he could not control and would abuse boys again if given the chance.” L was charged with two counts of sexual battery and sent to a Terre Haute, Indiana juvenile detention center, the lawsuit states.
L told his adoptive parents he had been raped and prostituted at the orphanage he was adopted from in China, according to the lawsuit, which further states that CAAI denied knowing L’s sexual history and that the Centennial-based adoption agency “was aware that Minor Child L was at least three to five years older than originally presented.”
“CCAI also knew or should have known that the orphanage Minor Child L was adopted from had a reputation for prostituting the children in its care to adults,” court documents read.
Experts from an Indiana counseling agency noted L had a long history of sexually abusing multiple children. L admitted that he was removed from foster care at the age of 5 or 6 for sexually acting out with another child and also admitted to being sexually active with children and adults while in China since the age of 11.
The child is currently under the custody of the State of Indiana, according to the lawsuit.
Further, it states the abuse of the couple’s children has taken an “extreme and financial toll on the family,” which forced the family to sell their house in Terre Haute, Indiana at a loss and move to Washington State “in order to help the children deal with the abuse they suffered.”
The lawsuit further states that because of this, the couple lost their health care business.
Both N and J were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder as well as attachment disorder, the lawsuit reads, which has left both boys with feelings of rage, irritability, anxiety and sleep disturbances, according the lawsuit.
Court documents further state that CCAI failed to notify the adoptive parents that J had undergone a massive brain surgery at a Hong Kong hospital for a brain tumor that the woman was not told about.
Our partners at the Denver Post report Zhong, the adoption agency’s founder, earned a theological doctorate at the University of Denver in 1983 and formed CCAI in Denver in 1992.
CCAI has been ranked No. 1 by the China for Children’s Welfare and Adoption (CCCWA) program, the country’s highest authority for international adoption affairs, according to CCAI’s website.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Man says bar patrons beat him after mistaking him for suspected child predator
CORONA, Calif. – Kevin Martin says he was just looking to play pool at a local bar in Norco, California, when a man mistook him for a child predator and beat him.
Martin, a 34-year-old private meteorologist from Corona, California, told CNN that the man approached him at the bar on Thursday, Aug. 15 and asked if they could speak outside. The man was visibly intoxicated, Martin said.
As the two headed outside, another man followed, took out a phone, and showed Martin a police sketch. Martin recognized the sketch. It was of a suspect from a May incident in which Corona police said a man with thick glasses, long hair, and a mustache made sexual comments to an 11-year-old girl.
“We don’t allow your kind in here,” the man said, according to Martin, once they were all outside. “I have a daughter and I would kill guys like you.”
Martin — who also has thick glasses, long hair, and a mustache — then argued with the man for 20 minutes, trying to convince him that he wasn’t the suspect, he said.
“I knew it was going to get bad,” Martin said Saturday.
Things got violent. Martin was punched and choked, tried to run away, and was beaten more, he said.
“I probably got 20 to 25 to blows back of the head. Four in the face, two in the jaw, and one in forehead,” Martin told CNN.
A group of about 15 people watched the beating, he said.
That’s when Martin pleaded: “If you keep punching me like this, you’re going to kill me.”
Two people came to his rescue before Riverside County sheriff’s deputies arrived on the scene, Martin said.
Martin made a citizen’s arrest, according to a County of Riverside Sheriff’s Department Order of Arrest. He was issued a notice to appear in court on Nov. 6 to state his case.
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department declined Sunday to provide CNN with details of the incident.
Martin says his followers told him about the suspect
Martin runs Southern California Weather Force, a weather alert system with more than 70,000 followers.
In May, when Corona police first alerted the public about the child annoyance suspect, 20 of Martin’s followers sent him messages saying he resembled the sketch, he said.
“They said, ‘Kevin, that looks exactly like you,'” Martin said. “I was going to brush it off, but the incident took place about a half-mile from my house.”
He called police, saying he was worried people would think he was the suspect. Two detectives came to his house and questioned him, he said.
“Our detectives interviewed him, and ruled him out as a suspect,” said Sgt. Chad Fountain, Corona police spokesman. “It’s unfortunate. We didn’t want anything to happen to Mr. Martin. We never named him as a suspect, so it’s unfortunate that this happened to him.”
The investigation is stagnant, and investigators are waiting for new information, Fountain said.
Martin did say he found it odd he was targeted almost three months later. He said he also hasn’t changed his appearance since getting a haircut in March.
“It was just me being at the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said. “I’m glad it did happen, so it doesn’t happen to anyone else.”
Photo Credit: fox2now.com
Breakfast, lunch is now free to all students in 77 Atlanta public schools
ATLANTA (AP) — Students in 77 Atlanta public schools are getting free breakfast and lunch, no matter their family income.
News outlets report the no-cost meal service is expanding from 60 schools to 77 this year. All school’s using the district’s food service are eligible.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture provides federal reimbursements for meals under a program Congress authorized in 2010. To qualify, schools must show that at least 40% of students receive some type of aid like food stamps. The district says 49% of students meet those requirements.
The program has just started but the district anticipates high participation from students.
Superintendent Meria Carstarphen says student feedback on the quality of the food has been positive.
A Drew Charter School student described the cheese pizza to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as “melt-in-your-mouth.”
Photo Credit: AP
Mom believes baby was slashed with scalpel during C-section
A British mom claims her newborn was slashed in the face with a scalpel during a Caesarean section, leaving her scarred for life.
Amber Woollard, 23, claims baby Valenci needed plastic surgery for a 2-inch cut under her tot’s nose — with the surgeon telling her it could not have happened naturally, according to The Mirror.
Baby Valenci is expected to need at least three more surgeries and may have permanent scarring, according to the paper.
“I see this as a case of serious case of neglect from the NHS,” the young mom said, referring to Britain’s National Health Service.
“My darling daughter has been left with scars for the rest of her life because of this,” Wollard added. “The incident has shattered my faith in the NHS, I don’t trust them anymore. To see your newborn with injuries to her face is really upsetting.”
However, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital said it is “very unlikely” the baby was cut with a scalpel.
“We’d like to repeat our apologies to Ms. Woollard for not meeting her expectations and the distress caused following the birth of her daughter,” the hospital said, according to The Mirror. “We are sorry that her daughter was born with signs of facial trauma and we have explained to Ms. Woollard why we believe the facial marks were very unlikely to have been caused by the scalpel used during the cesarean section.”
via: https://nypost.com/2019/08/19/mom-believes-baby-was-slashed-with-scalpel-during-c-section/
Photo Credit: Amber Woollard / SWNS
Shopper finds dead man in her pickup truck as she loads groceries
An upstate shopper made a horrifying discovery as she loaded up groceries from a supermarket — a dead body in the back of her pickup truck, according to police.
The unidentified woman was at Tops Market in Lockport, near Rochester, Friday morning when she made the disturbing find, the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office said in a release.
“She opened the tailgate of her truck to place groceries and noticed the deceased male inside the bed,” police said.
“She had no idea who it was,” Sheriff James Voutour told the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal.
Authorities had not identified the dead man as of Friday and were still investigating whether his death was an accident or crime, the sheriff told the paper.
Fingerprints and facial recognition will be used to try to identify the man, who was described as possibly Hispanic, in his 40s or 50s, about 5 feet 8, 180 pounds, and wearing jeans and a light-colored shirt.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/08/19/shopper-finds-dead-man-in-her-pickup-truck-as-she-loads-groceries/
Photo Credit: Google Maps
Disgruntled diner shoots waiter to death over sandwich delay
A customer shot a waiter to death at a pizzeria in the Paris suburbs after being made to wait too long for a sandwich, witnesses say.
The 29-year-old waiter was killed in Noisy-le-Grand, around nine miles from the center of Paris, on Friday night, the prosecutor’s office in neighboring Bobigny told CNN.
Witnesses say the man was angry about the length of time taken to prepare his sandwich, the prosecutor’s office confirmed.
Staff called police after the waiter was shot in the shoulder with a handgun, the AFP news agency reports.
The gunman fled the restaurant and the waiter died at the scene. Police have opened a murder investigation and the suspect is still on the run, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Local residents expressed their shock at the incident.
“He was killed for a sandwich?” said one, according to AFP.
“It is sad,” a 29-year-old woman told AFP. “It’s a quiet restaurant, without any problems. It just opened a few months ago.”
However, the surrounding area is known for high levels of crime, including drug dealing and public drunkenness, according to AFP.
Disadvantaged Parisian suburbs, known as “banlieues,” have suffered for years from political neglect and frequent police crackdowns.
In March, social media rumors of child abductions by members of the Roma ethnic minority sparked a wave of violence in France, though authorities dismissed the claims as baseless.
Roma were attacked in Bobigny and Clichy-sous-Bois, another suburb northeast of Paris, as well as Nanterre and Colombes.
via: https://pix11.com/2019/08/19/disgruntled-diner-shoots-waiter-to-death-over-sandwich-delay/
Photo Credit: pix11.com
Woman accused of beating parents with mother’s cane, oxygen tanks
MIDVALE, Utah — A Utah woman was arrested Saturday for abusing and assaulting her parents, police say.
Anne Cockrell, 42, was arrested on two accounts of aggravated abuse of an elder and two accounts of aggravated assault, according to the probable cause statement.
A Salt Lake County Sheriff’s officer responded to a domestic call at a hotel in Midvale. Cockrell was away from the scene when the officer arrived.
According to the statement, Cockrell “went crazy on her mother and started beating and hitting her” inside the hotel where her parents stay. Cockrell hit her mother with her own cane and oxygen tanks.
Cockrell’s father entered the room to break up the fight. She then began hitting him with her hands, cane and oxygen tanks.
Then she poured laundry detergent on both of her parents while telling them she wanted to kill them, the probable cause statement reports.
The report says her father had lacerations and bruising on his arms. It did not mention her mother’s condition. Both victims are over the age of 65.
Cockrell is being held in Salt Lake County Jail.
via: https://pix11.com/2019/08/19/woman-accused-of-beating-parents-with-mothers-cane-oxygen-tanks/
Photo Credit: pix11.com