Sisters, 12 and 14, charged with stabbing, shooting their mother to death
(Meredith) — Two sisters, ages 12 and 14, have been arrested on murder charges after their mother was found dead outside their Mississippi home, authorities said.
Erica Hall, 32, died Friday night after the girls allegedly stabbed her multiple times and shot her once in the chest with a small-caliber handgun, Pike County Sheriff Kenny Cotton told the Enterprise-Journal.
Relatives who live nearby found Hall laying on the ground outside her home in Magnolia following the attack, WLBT reported.
“She was stabbed in the back. The knife was still in her back,” Hall’s aunt, Robin Coney, told the station.
Paramedics tried to resuscitate Hall, but she could not be saved. Hall leaves behind two other daughters, ages 16 and one.
Authorities have not released many details about what led to the shooting, but family members said the girls and their mother had been arguing beforehand.
The 14-year-old daughter, Amariyona Hall, has been charged as an adult and is being held in the Pike County jail on a $150,000 bond. The younger daughter, whose name has not been released, is being held in the Adams County Juvenile Detention Center in Natchez.
Mental health evaluations are pending for both. A preliminary court hearing is scheduled for Jan. 29.
Man spent 3 hours licking doorbell at stranger’s home, police
SALINAS, Calif. (KION/CNN) – Police in California are searching for a man who reportedly spent three hours licking a doorbell outside a stranger’s home.
“I thought I’ve seen it all, but this takes the cake,” neighbor Alfred Santos told KION.
Surveillance video caught the suspect – identified as 33-year-old Roberto Daniel Arroyo – in the act early Saturday morning. The homeowners, Dave and Sylvia Dungan, said they were out of town during the bizarre incident but their kids were inside sleeping.
Police said the family’s newly-installed security system helped them identify the suspect.
“We were pleasantly surprised the image was so clear. It didn’t take us long to identify the individual,” said Miguel Cabrera, Salinas Police Department spokesperson.
The security cameras also captured Arroyo moving an extension cord to the front yard and relieving himself, police said
“This just kind of reinforces how important it is to have security within your home,” Dungan said. “You kind of laugh about it afterwards because technically he didn’t harm anybody.”
Arroyo could face two misdemeanor charges for petty theft and prowling upon arrest.
Uber driver admits to murdering six strangers between fares
An Uber driver, who once claimed the devil controlled him through the ride-hailing app, pleaded guilty Monday to killing six people in a murderous rampage on the eve of his trial.
In a surprise move, Jason Dalton admitted to shooting eight people, two of whom survived, between fares in the Kalamazoo, Mich., area in February 2016.
The 48-year-old driver was in court on the final day of jury selection for his upcoming trial, when he unexpectedly confessed.
“I’ve wanted to do this for quite a while,” Dalton told Kalamazoo County Circuit Court Judge Alexander Lipsey. He then pleaded guilty to six counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder, and now faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.
On Feb. 20, 2016, Dalton gunned down unsuspecting victims at three spots around the city — including a restaurant and a car dealership — in between picking up customers for rides.
After the shooting spree, Dalton told cops the Uber app had turned him into Satan’s “puppet” and chosen his victims for him, according to police. He claimed a “devil figure” had made him do it by sending him messages though the app.
A few months later, Dalton went berserk in a Kalamazoo courtroom — ranting inexplicably about “black bags” — and was dragged off by officers as a witness burst into tears.
But a judge ruled that Dalton was fit to stand trial on 16 felony charges. He later dropped an insanity defense, according to MLive.com.
His lawyer, Eusebio Solis, said Monday he advised his client to plead not guilty.
But Dalton nevertheless confessed to the crimes, which also included weapons charges, to protect his family and victims’ families from the emotional trauma of a highly publicized trial, Solis said.
During the massacre, Dalton first shot 25-year-old mother Tiana Carruthers as she shielded a group of children near her home — but she survived.
He went on to kill 17-year-old Tyler Smith and his father Rich Smith, 53, who were shopping for cars at a nearby dealership.
Later, he opened fire in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel, gunning down Mary Lou Nye, 62; Barbara Hawthorne, 68; Mary Jo Nye, 60; and Dorothy Brown, 74.
Abigail Kopf, 14, was shot in the head but survived, surprising doctors who feared she was brain-dead.
A month after the shooting spree, Dalton filed a handwritten lawsuit suing Uber for $10 million over a “hostile workplace environment.”
“I am currently in prison because of Uber,” Dalton whined in the complaint, griping that he never got a Christmas bonus and was not invited to corporate parties.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/01/07/uber-driver-admits-to-murdering-six-strangers-between-fares/
Airline to ‘obese’ cabin crew: Lose weight or you’re fired
Pakistan International Airlines has allegedly instructed “obese” employees of its cabin crew to lose weight in the first six months of 2019 or risk losing their jobs, according to reports.
On Jan. 2, Pakistani outlet ARY News published a memo detailing that management for the airline has decided to “gradually reduce waiver of 30 lbs. excess weight to zero lbs. in upcoming months for the cabin crew.”
“If any crew found above 30 lbs. from the desired weight after 31st Jan, 2019, will be grounded and referred to Air Crew Medical Center for medical evaluation & treatment until weight is reduced up to desired standard/BMI,” the memo reads. “Henceforth, weight check of all the cabin crew will be carried out at their base stations respectively and comprehensive data will be maintained for perusal of management.”
The announcement was sent to 1,800 flight crew members by the general manager of flight service, Aamir Bashi, USA Today reports.
Though representatives for the carrier did not immediately return Fox News’ request for comment on the story, PIA spokesperson Mashhood Tajwar did confirm that the announcement was valid, further describing the mandate as a “regular, routine matter.” According to Tajwar, the news will charge around 100 cabin crew members to shed pounds by July 1.
“No one would like to have shabby crew in the aircraft,” Tajwar said of the “regular, routine matter.”
He added that the carrier has previously received complaints about “obese” flights attendants, further stressing that memo was released to ensure that PIA flight attendants are “slim, smart and fit.”
via: https://nypost.com/2019/01/05/airline-to-obese-cabin-crew-lose-weight-or-youre-fired/
Inmates used makeshift dummies in escape bid
Prison officials in Michigan thwarted an apparent escape attempt by two inmates who used makeshift dummies as part of their effort to throw off the guards, authorities said.
The suspected escape attempt — which happened at about 6 p.m. Saturday at the Macomb Correctional Facility in New Haven — was foiled when a corrections officer stationed in a tower spotted cellmates Chakaris Isiah Loury, 24, and Darious Ellington Culpepper, 27, walking toward a fence after lagging behind their unit as they were headed toward a cafeteria, corrections spokesman Chris Gautz told the Detroit Free Press.
Prison officials later found makeshift dummies inside the inmates’ cell, one in each bunk. Using their coats and other pieces of clothing, Loury and Culpepper fashioned the items into what appeared to be their bodies beneath a blanket and resting comfortably in their beds, Gautz said.
“They claimed they were going to fight, but because they put stuff in their beds, we certainly treat it as an attempted escape attempt,” he told the newspaper. “They never got more than 10 feet from the fence and they never touched the fence. The staff was incredibly alert and responded right away. The public was never in danger.”
Loury and Culpepper did not appear to have any items in their possession to help further their escape attempt, Gautz said. Loury is serving 25 years for assault with intent to commit murder, while Culpepper was sentenced in 2016 to eight years for armed robbery, the Free Press reports.
The method employed by the inmates — using dummies left behind in cells to dupe unwitting guards — echoed that of Richard Matt and David Sweat, two inmates who escaped from New York state’s maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility in 2015.
Matt and Sweat’s ill-fated and highly publicized escape was later immortalized in a 2018 television miniseries produced by Showtime and directed by Ben Stiller.
Sweat, 38, is now serving a life sentence at the Auburn Correctional Facility after being transferred from a prison near Buffalo earlier this month, while Matt was killed during the 21-day manhunt.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/01/07/inmates-used-makeshift-dummies-in-escape-bid-officials/
Photo Credit: Michigan Department of Corrections
Florida Substitute teacher dumps poop on party in revenge against principal
This substitute teacher in Florida really wanted the principal to eat sh-t.
Heather Carpenter, a sub at Phillippi Shores Elementary School, will be arraigned Friday for allegedly sabotaging the principal’s party at a Sarasota park by dumping human feces on the grills and tables, news station WWSB reported.
Police said 42-year-old Carpenter was angry over a complaint she filed at school and wanted revenge on the principal.
The sub allegedly was witnessed in rubber gloves and a face mask around 6:30 a.m. Dec. 1 at Urfer Park putting fecal matter around the pavilion, which was reserved for the birthday party of the principal’s 6-year-old daughter.
Officers spoke to the principal who explained she had an ongoing dispute with a substitute teacher, who taught her daughter’s class. The detectives went to the home of Carpenter, who allegedly confessed to the act of revenge, officials said.
She told officers she flung the poop around the pavilion because she was upset over how a complaint she filed at school was being handled and wanted to disrupt the birthday festivities.
Carpenter was arrested Dec. 7 on suspicion of criminal mischief. She was released the next day on $2,500 bond, according to court records.
Photo Credit: Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office
Weatherman fired for allegedly saying “Martin Luther C–n King Jr.” on-air
A chief meteorologist at an NBC station in Rochester was fired on Monday for allegedly using a racial slur during a live broadcast.
Jeremy Kappell, of WHEC-TV, was describing a photo showing Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park when he allegedly uttered the offensive phrase.
“Martin Luther C–n King Jr.,” he said, according to viewers and local officials.
Video of the Friday evening broadcast went viral over the weekend and amassed more than 100,000 views.
Kappell has been trying his best to do damage control, referring to the incident as a “verbal slip” — much like the one that ESPN’s Mike Greenberg had in 2010, though he was allowed to keep his job.
“Exact same flub,” Kappell tweeted on Monday. “And like Mike, I feel terrible for ANYONE who may have been offended by my unintentional bubbling.”
The Purdue grad claimed to have “never uttered those words” in his life, but NBC didn’t care. It gave him the boot following an internal investigation.
“As a result of that broadcast meteorologist Jeremy Kappell is no longer with News10NBC,” said station vice president and general manager Richard A. Reingold. “These words have no place on News10NBC’s air, and the fact that we broadcast them disheartens and disgusts me; that it was not caught immediately is inexcusable. I regret that we did not immediately interrupt our broadcast and apologize on the spot.”
Local residents and activists had been calling for Kappell’s termination, as was Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren, who is black.
“It is beyond unacceptable that this occurred,” she seethed in a statement Sunday. “There must be real consequences for the news personality involved and also for the management team that failed to immediately apologize and address the slur.”
According to his LinkedIn account, Kappell worked at television stations in Texas, Mississippi, Kansas and Kentucky prior to arriving in New York. The Rochester Association of Black Journalists called his alleged language “completely unacceptable and contrary to all standards of broadcasting.”
“While we are aware that the station has issued an apology, we expect a complete explanation of what happened, who was responsible, and why nothing was said immediately after the Friday broadcast,” wrote group president Richard McCollough in a statement. “We also want to know what measures will be taken to prevent incidents like this from occurring in the future.”
Kappell wound up issuing a video apology on Monday night, along with a formal explanation to “all those offended.”
“What happened on Friday, to me, it’s a simple misunderstanding,” he said. “If you watch me regularly, you know that I tend to contain a lot of information in my weathercast, which forces me to speak fast and unfortunately I spoke a little too fast when I was referencing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — so fast to the point where I jumbled a couple of words. Now in my mind, I knew I had mispronounced. But there was no malice. I had no idea the way it came across to many people. As soon as I had started to mispronounce it, I put an emphasis on King and moved on. Had no idea what some people could have interpreted that as. And I know some people did interpret that the wrong way — that is not a word that I said, I promise you that. And if you did feel that it hurt you in any way, I sincerely apologize. I would never want to tarnish the reputation of such a great man as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., one of the greatest civic leaders of all time. He changed the world forever, and he changed the world for better…Those who know me, you know I don’t even have to say it — I would never intend to harm that way to anyone.”
via: https://nypost.com/2019/01/07/weatherman-fired-for-allegedly-using-racial-slur-on-air/
Body of dead newborn found in cooler along Georgia road
LAGRANGE, Ga. – The body of a dead baby was found in a brightly-colored cooler left along a desolate Georgia road Sunday, according to the Troup County Sheriff’s Office.
Around 3:20 p.m., deputies responded to a location along Boy Scout Road near LaGrange, roughly 65 miles southwest of Atlanta. Someone had noticed the portable cooler – covered in images of watermelon slices – sitting for up to a week near the wood line and called 911, according to authorities.
“Once on scene deputies and investigators discovered what appeared to be a deceased newborn child in a portable cooler bag,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release.
The child has not been identified.
An autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab.
via: https://pix11.com/2019/01/07/body-of-dead-newborn-found-in-cooler-along-georgia-road/
Baby sitter accused of killing infant, returning him to mother without telling her he was dead
WAUSAU – The Wausau baby sitter charged with killing a 2-month-old boy in her care tried to hide the infant’s death from his mother and then went swimming at a Wausau hotel with her boyfriend and son, police say.
She dressed the baby in winter clothes and strapped him in a car seat, pretending he was alive during a trip to McDonald’s and continuing the ruse when she gave the boy back to his mom, court documents said.
Marissa Tietsort, 28, was charged Friday with first-degree intentional homicide in the baby’s death.
Family and friends of the 2-month-old boy filled the benches of a Marathon County courtroom wearing “Justice for Benson” T-shirt featuring a photo of the infant. Judge Jill Falstad issued a $500,000 cash bond and ordered that Tietsort not have any contact with children under 18 or contact with the victim’s immediate family.
Tietsort has been in jail since October on a $250,000 cash bond in a separate child abuse case. If she is ever able to post bond, Tietsort is not allowed to leave Marathon County, the judge ruled.
According to a criminal complaint, Tietsort knew the child had died while in her care but did not tell the baby’s mother when she came to pick up her son. An autopsy shows the baby died of blunt force trauma to his head, the complaint said.
The 2-month-old boy’s mother dropped off the baby and his older brother at Tietsort’s home on North Sixth Street in Wausau in the afternoon of Oct. 18. The infant was awake and Tietsort was the only adult at the home when the victim’s mother left her children there, according to the complaint.
About two hours later, the baby’s mom got a text from Tietsort letting her know that there was a story about herself on a local news outlet’s website saying she had been charged with child abuse. Tietsort told the mother she was not allowed to be in contact with children and not to tell anyone she was watching her two sons. The mother came and picked up her sons about three hours later, according to the complaint.
When the victim’s mother came to pick up her infant and older son, the infant was seated in his car seat, wearing a snow suit with a hat pulled down over his eyes. The mother told police she believed her son was sleeping, as it was past 9 p.m., according to the complaint.
The victim’s mother then brought her children to Northway Coin Laundry on West Third Street in Wausau, where she discovered her infant son was not breathing, cold to the touch and had stiff limbs. The mother immediately started doing CPR on her son while the mom’s sister called 911. When officers from the Wausau Police Department arrived on the scene around 9:45 p.m., officers observed the infant “had an ashen skin tone, his jaw was clenched and his lips were blue,” according to the complaint.
Police found Tietsort at the Plaza Hotel in Wausau at 4:15 a.m. on Oct. 19. She admitted that she had been watching the infant and his brother the day before and that the infant had died while she was watching him, according to the complaint.
Tietsort told police she did not kill the infant, but did not make any efforts to resuscitate him or get him medical help. She said she knew the baby was dead because he was cold to the touch but she did not check for a pulse, according to the complaint.
After realizing the baby had died, she dressed him in his snowsuit and hat, covered him with blankets and put him in his car seat. When Tietsort’s boyfriend returned home around 6:30 p.m., she did not tell him the infant had died. Tietsort, her boyfriend, their son and the victim’s son then went to eat at McDonald’s. Tietsort brought the dead baby with them, the complaint states.
An autopsy determined the 2-month-old boy died of “blunt force head injuries with multiple impacts to the head,” according to the complaint. The infant had at least three separate injuries to his head, which all occurred around the time of his death, forensic pathologist Robert Corliss opined. The boy also had significant injuries to his tailbone, which Corliss said was “fractured, broken off and displaced, indicating a significant amount of force was used.”
After the 2-month-old’s death, Tietsort was arrested on a child abuse charge from an incident that happened in August. According to court documents, the father of an 11-month-old girl told police that he believed Tietsort injured his child while she was baby-sitting her. Tietsort told the girl’s parents that the girl had fallen off the couch while sleeping, which resulted in injuries to the face. However, doctors told the parents that the injuries, though superficial, were not consistent with a fall from that height, court documents said.
In 2017, an infant was taken to the hospital with a bruised face and skull fracture. Tietsort told investigators that the infant’s older sister had tried to take a bottle away from Tietsort while she fed him. She told police the bottle struck the infant, which caused the injury, according to court documents. She was never charged in that incident.
In 2010, Tietsort’s boyfriend filed for temporary restraining orders after he told investigators she was abusing their two sons. Records show social services workers have removed four of Tietsort’s children from her care and were unaware that she had given birth to her fifth child. Tietsort is now in the Marathon County Jail and pregnant with her sixth child .
Tietsort is scheduled to be back in court at 1 p.m. on Jan. 18
(Photo: Courtesy of the Wausau Police Department)
‘Mama, I’m shot’: Girl who wrote essay about gun violence is killed by stray bullet in Milwaukee
(CNN) — Sandra Parks wrote an award-winning essay about the constant shootings in her hometown of Milwaukee and elsewhere, and the emotional toll they have on young people like her.
“Little children are victims of senseless gun violence,” she wrote. ” … I sit back and I have to escape from what I see and hear every day. When I do; I come to the same conclusion … we are in a state of chaos.”
Two years after she won an award for her essay, bullets shattered Sandra’s bedroom window as she watched television Monday night. The stray bullet fired from outside her home hit the 13-year-old, killing her, CNN affiliate WISN reported.
“She took it like a soldier,” her sister, Tatiana Ingram, told the affiliate. “She just walked in the room and said, ‘Mama, I’m shot’ … The bullet wasn’t even for her.”
She was killed in her home
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett described “the insanity” of gun violence in the city and nationwide.
“Sandra Parks … went into her bedroom. She never came out alive,” Barrett said at a news conference. “Tragically, her death was caused by someone who just decided they were going to shoot bullets into her house and she’s dead.”
Prosecutors charged two men in the shooting death Wednesday, including one who was found hiding in a closet after the incident, the affiliate reported. It’s unclear if the home was targeted.
‘My baby was not violent’
Parks, who was in eighth grade at Keefe Avenue School, wrote the essay in 2016, when she was in sixth grade. The essay won third place in the contest.
“Our first truth is that we must start caring about each other,” she wrote. “We need to be empathetic and try to walk in each other’s shoes. … We shall overcome, when we love ourselves and the people around us. Then, we become our brothers keeper.”
Dozens of people gathered for a vigil outside Sandra’s home Tuesday night. They held up a plaque with her essay on it as they reflected on her calls against violence.
Her mother, Bernice Parks, said her daughter constantly spoke out against violence. “My baby was not violent. My baby did not like violence,” she said.
During an appearance on Wisconsin Public Radio last year, Sandra said she picked the topic of violence for her essay because of the constant news on shootings.
“All you hear about is somebody dying or somebody getting shot and people do not just think about whose father or son or granddaughter or grandson who it was that was just killed,” she said.