Virginia Couple Faked Wife’s Death, Fraudulently Bought at Least 20 Luxury Vehicles
Alexandra Hatcher pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal conspiracy and fraud charges in connection with an elaborate bank fraud scheme, according to KTLA sister station WTKR in Norfolk, Virginia.
According to court documents, the 49-year-old Portsmouth, Virginia, woman conspired with her husband, Albert Hatcher Jr., to collect on life insurance policies the two had obtained to insure her life.
In 2015, the couple submitted false death claims on at least two of them and then went on to buy at least 20 luxury vehicles by using counterfeit checks and forged documents.
Prosecutors say they even created fake death certificates and published a death notice in a newspaper to support the claims.
Hatcher traveled to Washington state and changed her legal name in August 2015, according to the court documents. Hatcher and her husband also re-titled the cars and used them as collateral for loans and other vehicles.
Documents show that the Portsmouth woman used the legal name she adopted just prior to faking her death to purchase, title, and resell vehicles.
Alexandra Hatcher and her husband both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, possessing and uttering a counterfeit security of an organization, and conspiracy to commit mail fraud.
They each face a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, with sentencing for both set for early next year.
via: http://ktla.com/2017/11/02/woman-faked-own-death-to-go-on-shopping-spree-with-her-husband/
Woman killed autistic teen to cross murder off her ‘bucket list’
A British woman was “euphoric” to have ticked off an item from her “bucket list” – murder, prosecutors said.
Jemma Lilley was convicted Wednesday of killing autistic 18-year-old Aaron Pajich in Western Australia in June of last year, fulfilling her sick obsession to kill someone before her 25th birthday, the Independent reported.
Pajich was strangled, stabbed to death and then buried in a shallow grave covered with concrete and tiles.
Lilley, 26, who was found guilty along with her 43-year-old pal Trudi Lenon, was so “full of herself and euphoric” afterward, she bragged to a work colleague about the killing, prosecutors said.
The disturbed woman, who moved to Australia from Stamford in Lincolnshire, England, six years ago, also had a fascination with serial killers.
She penned a book called “SOS” — and assumed the identity of the main character, a killer in the storyline, prosecutors said.
“The book was a big problem with me. At the beginning I was, ‘Fair enough you want to write a horror story’, but I didn’t like the contents of it,” her stepmother Nina Lilley told The Times in the UK.
“She had always had an obsession with serial killers but she said it was a way of venting her frustration of what happened when she was a child.”
Jemma Lilley and Lenon lured Pajich to their home in Perth and murdered him in a tarp-covered room with blacked-out windows. The two women blamed each other during the five-week trial.
Lilley sent Lenon a text in the hours after the murder, saying, “I am seeing things I haven’t seen before, and feeling things I haven’t felt before. It is incredibly empowering, these images — thank you.”
Lenon answered, “You are welcome SOS.”
The jury deliberated for less than three hours before returning a guilty verdict. The pair is awaiting sentencing.
“They’re just disgusting animals,” Pajich’s mother, Sharon, said.
via: http://nypost.com/2017/11/02/woman-killed-autistic-teen-to-cross-murder-off-her-bucket-list/
Roommate from hell’s sick sabotage involved bloody tampons, licked utensils, smearing bodily fluids on backpack
A onetime student at the University of Hartford admitted licking her roommate’s dining utensils and secretly smearing bodily fluids on her backpack — a “deeply disturbing” case of alleged bullying that exploded on social media, prompted two messages from the Connecticut school’s president and police requesting that hate crime charges be filed on Wednesday.
Freshman Chennel Rowe posted a 103-minute Facebook Live video Monday about her roommate nightmare. Rowe said she had felt “unwanted in [her] own room” since being randomly assigned to bunk with Brianna Rae Brochu in late August. After moving in, Rowe said, she started getting sick, including throat pain that ultimately led her to see a doctor.
Rowe said she had requested a room change and had begun moving her belongings to another location on Oct. 17, when she was approached by one of her student neighbors who spotted “very concerning posts” on Brochu’s Instagram account, according to police reports obtained by the Hartford Courant.
One of the posts — which has since been deleted but was captured via screenshot by Rowe — appeared to confirm Rowe’s suspicions: Brochu had been covertly harassing her and tampering with her personal items for more than a month.
“Finally did it ya girl got rid of her roommate!” Rowe said, recalling Brochu’s post. “After 1½ months of spitting in her coconut oil, putting moldy clam dip in her lotions, rubbing used tampons [on] her backpack, putting her toothbrush where the sun doesn’t shine and so much more I can finally say goodbye to Jamaican Barbie.”
Brochu, who was arrested Saturday on charges of third-degree criminal mischief and second-degree breach of peace, has admitted licking Rowe’s plate, fork and spoon, as well as smearing her own bodily fluid on Rowe’s backpack, but denied the other actions she referenced on Instagram. She told West Hartford police that those statements were lies and a way to “appear funny” online.
Brochu, of Harwinton, claimed she had been reacting to a “hostile environment” created by Rowe, who allegedly posted Snapchat videos of Brochu snoring. Brochu also requested a room change last month but was unsuccessful, according to the Courant.
Rowe’s video prompted a nationwide response on social media, with many users posting in support of Rowe and calling for #JusticeforJazzy. (Rowe’s Facebook account identifies her as Jazzy Rowe, but a University of Hartford email directory lists her as Chennel Rowe.)
“I can’t believe someone would do this,” one Twitter post read. “Such a despicable human being. Sorry you had to go through that girl.”
Others on social media characterized the allegations as “absolutely disgusting and atrocious,” while some said Brochu could’ve killed Rowe by contaminating her lotion with mold.
The incident and its subsequent explosion on social media also prompted the university’s president to address students Wednesday, saying that the “deeply upsetting” incident doesn’t reflect the values of the school. President Greg Woodward also addressed the “accusations of racism” raised by Rowe and others in connection with the incident.
“Acts of racism, bias, bullying, or other abusive behaviors will not be tolerated on this campus,” Woodward said in a statement. “I pledge to do everything in my power to work with our community to address related concerns together.”
Woodward has also met with Rowe and has been in talks with her family.
“We will continue to offer support and assistance to her, as well as any other student that feels threatened, victimized, or uncomfortable on our campus,” his statement continued. “Let me repeat: racism and hatred will not be tolerated on this campus. Period.”
A judge ordered Brochu to stay off the University of Hartford’s campus and not to contact her former roommate during a brief court appearance on Wednesday, the Hartford Courant reports. Police in West Hartford also requested that Brochu face felony hate crime charges of intimidation based on bigotry or bias in addition to the breach of peace and criminal mischief counts she faces.
Brochu did not comment during the hearing and her case was transferred to Hartford Superior Court, where she’s expected to return on Nov. 15, the Courant reports.
Woodward also released a second statement Wednesday on the “deeply disturbing situation,” saying Brochu is no longer welcome at the 6,700-student university.
“She will not be returning to the institution,” Woodward said in a statement. “There has been an outpouring of concern for the victim of these acts from across the University and the country. In my meeting with her yesterday, I reiterated my personal commitment to ensuring she has all available personal and academic resources the University can provide.”
Rowe, who did not return a message from The Post seeking comment Wednesday, said she believes the incident would’ve been handled much differently if she had victimized Brochu.
“The fact that I’m black and my old roommate was white … If the roles was switched, I want to know if it would be handled the same way, right?” Rowe said during her Facebook Live video. “Because I damn well know it wouldn’t.”
Arkansas Man Charged With Murder After Toddler’s Decomposing Body Found in Tupperware; Child’s Mom Also Arrested
An Arkansas man is accused of killing an infant and hiding the child’s body in a closet in his Fayetteville home for about two weeks, according to police.
Tyler Hobbs, 21, was arrested in connection with first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse. Maria Giron-Molina, 21, is the boy’s mother, and she too faces an abuse of a corpse charge, according to KTLA sister station KFSM in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
Hobbs said he choked and shook the 1-year-old boy on Oct. 15th because the toddler wouldn’t calm down, according to a preliminary arrest report. Hobbs said the boy hit and scratched him and then he blacked out.
When Hobbs came to, the boy was dead and didn’t respond to CPR, the station reported.
Hobbs stated he was high on marijuana, “freaked out,” and put the boy inside a Tupperware container. He then wrapped the container in blankets and put it in a closet inside his bedroom, according to the Fayetteville Police Department.
The body was in an “advanced state of decomposition” by the time the remains were found, police said, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Giron-Molina told investigators that she saw blood on the sheets, changed them and put the bloody ones on the closet floor, after Hobbs told her the boy fell at the park.
She also told investigators she was afraid of calling police after her son’s death because she didn’t want her other children taken away, according to the report.
Police said the couple planned to give her other two children to relatives before contacting authorities.
Hobbs turned himself in Monday and police found the boy’s body later that day at the couple’s home on North Leverett Avenue, according to police.
Police said the boy’s body showed signs of bruising near his jaw, eyebrow and eye.
Hobbs and Giron-Molina were being held Tuesday at the Washington County Detention Center on bonds of $750,000 and $500,000. The pair have hearings set for Dec. 4 in Washington County Circuit Court.
Mother claims 10-year-old son killed himself after she whipped, choked him, police say
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis police have launched an investigation into the death of a 10-year-old after his mother reportedly disciplined him.
Authorities were called to the family’s apartment on Saturday and discovered Jaheim McKinzie unresponsive in an ambulance. The child was reportedly bleeding from his chest, according to WREG.
He died an hour later at a hospital.
His mother, Robin McKinzie, told first responders she was whipping her son with an extension cord and choking him as a form of punishment when he ran into the kitchen and stabbed himself.
McKinzie’s neighbors are left in disbelief after hearing about the death of the young boy. A close friend of McKinzie’s, who does not want to be identified, says that McKinzie became distant this past year, and she didn’t know why.
“All I can say is that she was a good mother, and her son was her life,” said the woman. “Her son was her life.”
McKinzie is being held on an aggravated child abuse charge and a $100,000 bond.
Woman killed when 12-year-old boy jumps off highway overpass
A 12-year-old boy who police said jumped off a highway overpass in an attempted suicide took the life of a young woman instead.
Marisa Harris, 22, was headed eastbound on Interstate 66 near the Cedar Lane overpass at around 4:15 p.m. when the boy came crashing down onto her 2005 Ford Explorer, Virginia State Police said in a statement. Harris was killed but her 23-year-old passenger and the 12-year-old boy both survived. The incident is being investigated as an attempted suicide, according to police.
“Based on the investigation and witness accounts, a 12-year-old male jumped from the Cedar Lane overpass,” Virginia State Police said in a statement. “The impact incapacitated the vehicle’s driver.”
Police said the car’s passenger then “steered the vehicle off the interstate … [and] came to a stop on the left shoulder against the jersey wall.”
The 12-year-old boy, who hasn’t been identified, was rushed to Fairfax Inova Hospital to be treated for “life-threatening injuries,” according to police.
“He’s still alive,” Virginia State Police Spokeswoman Corinne Geller confirmed to ABC News.
Harris’s uncle said Harris’s boyfriend was in the passenger seat at the time of the crash. He described her death as a “a freak accident.”
“She was driving, her boyfriend was in the passenger seat, when all of a sudden comes this body into the windshield,” Everett Bruce told ABC News. Bruce said he learned about the crash when his younger brother, Harris’s father, called him two hours later.
The state police confirmed in a statement that the “front-seat passenger” was “was not injured” as a result of the collision.
“He’s a little bit in shock,” Bruce added of Harris’s boyfriend.
The news of Harris’s death shook Bruce, but he said her father is especially devastated.
“His heart is crushed, I could tell by the conversation,” Bruce said. “Marisa was his only child and she was daddy’s girl.”
But as for why she died, Bruce said his emotions are a mix of fury and confusion.
“This boy is 12 years old, why would he commit suicide?” Bruce said. “I don’t get it.”
Bruce said that Harris grew up in Olney, Maryland and had traveled the world.
She was a graduate student studying clinical psychology.
As an undergraduate, Harris attended Towson University.
Bruce said his niece was just getting started to live an altruistic life helping children.
“She didn’t even get an opportunity to begin her life,” Bruce said. “She was just snatched too young, too early. She was just starting to blossom in her life and this freak accident happened. That’s what kills me.”
“Out of all the cars on the highway this had to happen to her,” Bruce added. “It’s like playing Russian roulette, somehow it was chosen that it would be her car at that time.”
Neither Harris’s mother nor father had responded to ABC News’ request for comment at the time of publication.
via: http://abc7.com/news/woman-killed-when-12-year-old-boy-jumps-off-highway-overpass/2584562/
Texan offered Marine $25G to kill ex-girlfriend after she started dating black man
A Texas man offered $10,000 to a Marine pal to kill his ex-girlfriend for dating a black man, and another $15,000 to watch him “put a bullet in her head,” according to police and reports.
Keith Cote slapped the cash advance on the table and offered him the racially-charged hit job he described as “dirty work, done dirt cheap” during an Oct. 8 meetup at his Austin home.
The 62-year-old had approached the combat veteran at a University of Texas tailgate the day before about “something very serious.” He believed he had killed before — and could do it again, the Austin Statesman reported, citing court papers.
The retired service member only pretended to indulge Cote’s slay plot after going to Travis County Sheriff’s Office with his plans. He wore a microphone at times to help law enforcement build their case, according to those documents.
Authorities, meanwhile, spoke to the woman Cote wanted dead.
“When asked why she believed Mr. Cote would want her killed, she confirmed that Mr. Cote is a racist, and that she is now dating a black man,” the court documents read, according to the Statesman.
“She stated that the only thing Mr. Cotes hates more than a black man was a white woman who is with a black man.”
The woman, also unidentified, ditched him as late as 2015 due to his abusive treatment.
She believed Cote would have killed her himself if he could, citing a fall at a strip club near Houston that left him paralyzed and unable to carry out his sinister scheme, the report read.
Her suspicions were not unfounded.
Cote revealed to the Marine that he would have stabbed her in the heart with an ice pick after learning she was dating someone new.
Authorities swooped in to apprehend Cote early Monday. He was charged with soliciting to commit capital murder and was booked into the Travis County Jail, where he remains on a $1 million bond, records show.
Long Island man busted for sexually abusing two horses
A Long Island man has been arrested for having sexual contact with two horses, cops said Thursday.
Steven Errante was busted Wednesday after cops determined he allegedly had inappropriate contact with the horses on Aug. 25 and Sept. 4 at a stable in his home town of Dix Hills.
In 2013, Errante, 30, was arrested for beating his Labrador mix named Chantel Girl with a bat.
The dog suffered skull and facial fractures and broken front legs. She had to be euthanized.
In addition to beating the dog, Errante also broke his own father’s ribs with a baton in 2013, according to authorities.
He was ordered to add his name to Suffolk County’s Animal Abuse Offender Registry.
He failed to do so and cops opened an investigation. During the probe, they uncovered the alleged sexual abuse of the horses.
Errante is charged with two counts of sexual misconduct with animals and failure to register as an animal abuse offender.
Brooklyn man stabs, rapes ex-girlfriend in act of vengeance after slitting her friend’s throat
Minutes after his girlfriend broke up with him, a maniacal Brooklyn man busted into her apartment and slit her friend’s throat before stabbing and raping his ex-gal pal, sources said.
The savage attack in Sea Gate spanned five hours — all while the girlfriend’s 11-year-old daughter hid in a bedroom — and left the friend clinging to life on a ventilator, cop sources said Tuesday.
While holding the pair hostage, the jilted suspect, Ruslan Baimov, 40, alternated between kissing his wounded girlfriend, raping her and threatening to kill her.
“After kissing me, he said, ‘Oh, son of a bitch, I’ll kill you. I love you. No, I’ll kill you,’” the girlfriend told the Daily News.
“I said, ‘Please, I have a child… You already have one woman dying. Now you will have two, maybe three.’”
The brutal assault was set in motion after the friend went to visit Baimov’s girlfriend at her apartment near Neptune Ave. and Beach 45th St. shortly before midnight Saturday.
The two went to see Baimov, who lives in the top floor of the two-family home, to tell him the girlfriend was ending their two-year romance, sources said.The women returned to the girlfriend’s place. While she was taking a shower, Baimov pushed in an air conditioner and climbed through the open window, sources said.
“Oh my God! Oh my God!” the friend shouted as the blade-wielding Baimov walked toward her.
“She tried to call 911 but she couldn’t,” the girlfriend told The News.
“Then he took her phone, smashed it, grabbed her neck and said ‘Bitch!’ and then took the knife and stabbed her in the neck.”
As the friend crumbled to the floor, gasping for air, the girlfriend ran into a bedroom and told her daughter to lock the door and not leave the room.
There was blood everywhere,” the girlfriend said.
Baimov grabbed the woman by the throat and threw her onto the couch. He moved to stab her in the neck but stopped short and broke out in sobs, she said.
“He was crying,” the girlfriend said. “He was saying, ‘I don’t want to kill you because I love you.’”
Baimov ripped open her shirt and tried to have sex with her, but the girlfriend shoved him off of her.
The girlfriend’s 38-year-old friend was still lying on the floor, barely breathing and surrounded by blood.
The girlfriend pleaded with Baimov to let her give some water to the critically-injured woman.
“He said, ‘Okay, I’ll give you 30 seconds,’” the girlfriend recalled. “So I gave her some water. She was making these gasping noises but I could hear her drink.”
Baimov’s brief display of compassion switched back to rage.
He grabbed his girlfriend and for a second time attempted to rape her.
He ultimately forced her to perform oral sex in the bathroom.
But the sex act gave way to more violence as Baimov suddenly slashed his girlfriend’s shin with his knife.
Seeing the blood, Baimov stopped the attack and started kissing the wound.
“Then, maybe because he loved me, because he’s crazy, he freaked out and started kissing it,” the girlfriend said. “It was bleeding everywhere.”
The attack stretched on, with Baimov again pouncing on his girlfriend.
Finally, about 4:50 a.m. Sunday, the girlfriend managed to convince Baimov to leave the apartment and return to his place to go to sleep.
The girlfriend’s friend was rushed to Coney Island Hospital, where she remains in critical condition.
Baimov was arraigned Tuesday on attempted murder and rape charges and ordered held without bail.
Assistant District Attorney Ari Rottenberg said the girlfriend’s pal is “brain dead” and “likely to die in a few days.”
Fight over Bible verse on forgiveness leaves student dead
A Georgia college student was fatally shot in a fight with a pal over a Bible verse on forgiveness, police said.
Jacquell Smith, 20, was gunned down Sunday after reportedly feuding with his friend Raekwon Pauldo over scripture at a Dublin home, news station WMAZ reported.
Police said that the argument started with the verse but “then that turned to something else.”
“Apparently two friends got into an argument,” Dublin police Chief Tim Chatman told WMAZ. “These are friends. They’ve been knowing each other for a long time. They were arguing over stuff that didn’t make any sense.”
The argument escalated when Pauldo allegedly shot his friend twice in the head, police said.
Smith was rushed to Fairview Park Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Pauldo, 21, was later arrested on murder charges.
Friends created a GoFundMe page to raise money for Smith’s funeral service.
via: http://nypost.com/2017/10/31/fight-over-bible-verse-on-forgiveness-leaves-student-dead/