Upstate New York Couple Accused of Killing Adopted Special Needs Son, Setting Fire to Home
Foul play was suspected from the first moments the disabled boy’s body was discovered in the ashes of an upstate New York home.
Jeffrey Franklin, a 16-year-old adopted child with special needs, did not perish in an early-morning blaze that appeared to have started in the wood stove that heated the house in the town of Guilford, about an hour and half southeast of Syracuse, investigators said.
“Early on, almost immediately at the scene that night, some red flags went up,” Chenango County Sheriff Ernest Cutting Jr. said Saturday. “We chose to kind of keep it close to the vest.”
Jeffrey’s adopted parents were indicted on second-degree murder and arson charges Friday — weeks after the March 1 fire that authorities allege they started to cover up the killing.
Ernest Franklin II, 35, and wife Heather, 33, are also accused of tampering with physical evidence but could face additional charges, according to Cutting.
Attorneys for Franklin and his wife did not return calls seeking comment.
Authorities have not said how or when Jeffrey was killed in a case that has stunned the rural south central New York town of about 2,900 residents.
‘Totally reliant on his parents’
“It’s shocking,” Cutting said. “Jeffrey was a handicapped person who was totally reliant on his parents. You would hope in your mind that they would be there for the right reasons and try to take care of this boy. Unfortunately, his life ended brutally.”
The couple adopted Jeffrey six or seven years ago, according to Cutting. Franklin had served in the military; his wife stayed home to care for their adopted son.
“Jeffrey was developmentally challenged,” Cutting said. “He was also physically handicapped — pretty much in a wheelchair.”
Heather Franklin is 28 weeks pregnant, the sheriff said.
Investigators were looking into the possibility that Jeffrey may have been physically abused in the past. The Franklins, who were arrested earlier this week, are being held without bail.
Shortly after the fire, a GoFundMe page created to help the Franklins raised more than $11,000, Cutting said. The page has been taken down and a GoFundMe statement said donors will be refunded their money.
‘Feeling lost without JR’
Sunday morning — days before her arrest — Heather Franklin wrote of her late son on Facebook: “I am still feeling lost without JR to take care of.”
The post said the couple was staying with friends, had found a new home and had set up a gift registry to replace items lost in the fire.
“Many people have asked us what kind of things we need,” she wrote. “We have came up with a list of needs, and, or wants.”
Cutting said the probe of the fire — reported at 1:15 a.m. — became a homicide investigation shortly after Jeffrey’s body was found. He would not elaborate. One of the parents was home at the time.
The Franklins were mostly cooperative until they were recently called in for an interview with investigators, Cutting said.
“They would talk to us initially and it got to the point that he asked for an attorney and the questioning stopped,” the sheriff said. “She talked for a while and … it then became obvious that she wasn’t to cooperate either.”
Power Rangers Movie Review
If there’s any movie that can bring 90’s kids back to their childhood, the new Power Rangers is definitely one of them.
I saw an early screening of Power Rangers this past Thursday and I’m glad to say that I was not disappointed. The movie is the basic super hero origin story of misfits coming together to fight evil but it’s still done well.
One thing I can point out is that it is definitely not as cheesy as the original Power Rangers tv show. The teenagers in this movie are legit teenagers with attitude and not “perfect” kids.
The characters are very likable but I do have to say that the blue ranger was my absolute favorite throughout the whole entire movie. The characters are fleshed out and you really enjoy the bonding moments they have throughout the movie. Elizabeth Banks was great as Rita Repulsa and though Goldar didn’t speak it was fun seeing him fighting with the Megazord in the climactic battle.
This movie series has great potential and I look forward to seeing the sequels for this. I’m sure fans of this movie will be looking forward to seeing Tommy Oliver ( The Green/White Ranger) the most.
On a scale of 1-10 I give this movie a 9. I know I’ll be seeing it in the near future and I’m loving this new reboot of the Power Ranger franchise! If you haven’t see. Power Rangers go out and see it now!
Dangerous “eraser challenge” (erasing your skin off with pencil eraser) goes viral again
It’s spreading via social media: A “dare” where kids use erasers to rub away the skin on their arms, often while reciting the alphabet or other phrases.
Players compare the resulting injuries, and the most injured player is the “winner.”
The so-called “eraser challenge” has been circulating for about a year — but it’s no joke, doctors warn.
“The eraser challenge may cause pain, burns to the skin, scarring, local infections,” said Dr. Michael Cooper, who directs the Burn Center at Staten Island University Hospital, in New York City.
With such injuries, “in severe though rare cases, life-threatening sepsis, gangrene and loss of limb may occur,” he noted.
East Iredell Middle School in Statesville, N.C., recently posted a warning on Facebook about the eraser challenge.
“Kids are rubbing an eraser across their skin while having to do or say something,” the school said in its post. “It’s causing serious burns and we’ve seen several cases of this.”
Cooper concurred.
“The eraser challenge may appear harmless and an innocent show of bravado,” Cooper said. “However, the consequences may be lifelong disfigurement and even death, and like other ‘challenges,’ should be avoided.”
Dr. Robert Glatter is an emergency physician at Lenox Hill Hospital, also in New York City. He stressed that the risk of severe infections from the eraser challenge is a concern.
“Bacteria and dead skin cells can colonize erasers which have been rubbed on skin,” he explained. “Erasers, which can be made of synthetic materials such as vinyl, plastics and synthetic rubber, have crevices that provide a warm and moist environment for bacteria to thrive. People also put erasers in their mouths, making them a set-up for polymicrobial infections that may be challenging to treat.”
What to do? Glatter says parental monitoring and intervention is key.
“Parents need to have a frank discussion with their children about the dangers associated with the eraser challenge,” he said. “If you find unexplained abrasions or wounds on your child’s arms or legs, it’s vital to ask them if they have been engaged in this challenge.”
Cooper noted that the eraser challenge isn’t the only harmful social media trend out there.
“The advent of social media, and the endless search for recognition and attention has made posting videos while performing dangerous and senseless acts both commonplace and widespread,” Glatter said.
“The ‘fire challenge’ causes self-inflicted, life-threatening flame burns from igniting lighter fluid or alcohol poured on the skin,” Cooper explained. “And, recently, a teenager was severely injured when he jumped into a lake he knew contained alligators.”
As for the eraser challenge, Glatter said, “it’s simple: erasers belong on paper —- not on your skin.”
via: http://www.10tv.com/article/dangerous-eraser-challenge-goes-viral-again
St. Louis County jury finds mother guilty of poisoning 9-year-old son for attention
CLAYTON • A jury agreed Thursday with prosecutors that a woman kept her 9-year-old son gravely ill for nearly a year by secretly poisoning him with a cocktail of prescription medications until doctors uncovered her scheme.
A St. Louis County jury found Rachel Kinsella, 36, of Meadville, Mo., about 100 miles northeast of Kansas City, guilty Thursday in St. Louis County Court of charges of first-degree assault and child endangerment. She was accused of keeping her son’s doctors in St. Louis and Kansas City in the dark about medications she was poisoning her son with for much of 2014.
The jury deliberated for 90 minutes. After the verdict was read, relatives and prosecutors hugged in the courtroom, proclaiming, “He’s safe! He’s safe!”
Kinsella brought Patrick to the hospital weekly for treatments, and while he was there she visited pharmacies in the area to stockpile prescription drugs he was already getting at the hospital, authorities said. Kinsella also sought drugs and treatment from a hospital in Kansas City but didn’t inform doctors in St. Louis and didn’t tell Kansas City doctors about her son’s care in St. Louis.
“She manufactured illnesses,” Assistant Prosecutor Sheila Whirley told jurors Thursday. “People don’t want to believe that a mother would do this because mothers are supposed to plant the seeds of love that grow for a lifetime.”
While under his mother’s care, Patrick suffered seizures, hallucinations and problems walking and breathing. Doctors struggled to diagnose his condition and gave him more than a dozen blood treatments and surgeries. Whirley credited doctors at Children’s Hospital with saving Patrick’s life. Patrick, now 11, is living with his paternal grandparents and has no major health problems, prosecutors and relatives say.
Authorities said Kinsella had rented a home in the 7400 block of Grant Village Drive in Marlborough while Patrick was undergoing care here. She told police she “accidentally” gave her son the wrong medication “on occasion,” but doctors told police the types and amount of drugs found in the boy’s system revealed intentional poisoning.
The medications were meant to treat mental health and seizures, but police have said Kinsella tried to attract attention through her child’s illness in what is known as a caregiver-fabricated illness or Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
Her attorneys said the presence of various drugs in Patrick’s system did not prove she was poisoning him.
Patrick was born premature in 2005 and was diagnosed with epilepsy, hydrocephalus and, later, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. One of Kinsella’s attorneys, Gregory Smith, said hospitals near Meadville where Kinsella lived were ill-equipped to handle Patrick’s long-term medical problems. Smith argued that the claim that Kinsella was poisoning her son was false because the hospital had prescribed Patrick nearly two dozen different medications at different times. Smith also said toxicology results did not reveal the amount of each drug in his system.
Smith was disappointed in the verdict. “I have no doubt that she loves her son as much as any parent,” he said.
Patrick’s father died in 2012 without a will, which resulted in the court’s appointing a relative to manage a $275,000 inheritance for the boy. By keeping Patrick sick, a prosecutor suggested at trial, Kinsella could receive payments from that inheritance to care for her son. Kinsella also has a teenage daughter from an earlier marriage.
Patrick’s aunt, Carmen Mallery, provided a statement after the verdict saying, “We are pleased that justice has been served.”
Sheriff’s deputies led Kinsella away in handcuffs Thursday. Sentencing is set for May 26. She faces a potential sentence of up to 30 years in prison.
Mother brutally assaulted daughter for reciting Bible verses incorrectly (slam head in wall, bites, strangles)
A Middletown woman was arrested after police said she severely assaulted her daughter and kicked her out of her house because the girl incorrectly recited Bible verses to her last week.
Police filed child endangerment charges against Rhonda Kemp Shoffner, 41, of the first block of Genesis Court, following the incident on March 14.
The victim, who is under the age of 13, told police the assault occurred just after she awoke from a nap in her mother’s home about 3 p.m.
Shoffner, who the victim said had been drunk for three days straight, told her daughter to call multiple family members, police said. When they didn’t answer the calls, police said, Shoffner ordered her daughter to get on her knees in the bathroom.
Her daughter knew that meant Shoffner was going to beat her, police said. The victim was scared and pleaded with her mother, according to police in the charging documents.
Police said the victim told her mother, “please don’t hit me. I don’t want to get on my knees.”
Shoffner became enraged and yelled at the victim, telling her “to get on her (expletive) knees,” police said.
The girl complied, and Shoffner began quoting Bible verses, expecting the victim to repeat the lines verbatim, according to police.
Shoffner asked her daughter, “What did God tell the man to do with his son?”
When the girl said she did not know, her mother said, “God told the man to kill his son.”
Instead, the victim said, “God said to forgive his son,” and Shoffner grabbed her by the hair and slammed her head into the wall, police said.
Each time the girl incorrectly recited a verse or gave her mother a wrong answer, Shoffner slammed her head into the wall, police said. Shoffner slammed her daughter’s head into the bathroom drywall at least five times, according to police.
The victim tried to use her hands to defend herself, but Shoffner’s kicks connected at least two times, police said. The girl repeatedly begged her mother to stop, but after her mother told her to lie on her back, she complied, police said.
That’s when Shoffner said, “I’m gonna kill you (expletive deleted),” police said, and she started to strangle her daughter and cut off her airway.
The girl feared for her life and tried to fight Shoffner off, according to police. Shoffner bit the girl’s left forearm and then dug her teeth into her left shoulder, police said.
The victim continued to fight her mother off until Shoffner said, “just leave and don’t ever come back.”
The girl grabbed a phone, a coat, sneakers and fled down the street. She called her father, who drove her to the police station.
Police filed charges of aggravated assault against a child, strangulation and terroristic threats.
via: http://www.pennlive.com/news/2017/03/mother_brutally_assaulted_daug.html
FL Nursing home worker posted residents sex videos online
A nursing home employee in Florida was caught secretly recording a pair of seniors having sex — and posting the footage to Snapchat, cops said.
Alexis Williams, 20, is accused of filming an 81-year-old woman and a 59-year-old man doing the deed inside a private room at the Bristol Court Assisted Living Facility in St. Petersburg last August, according to Bay News 9.
The Pinellas County woman was arrested Wednesday after being done in by a tipster, who spotted the video and alerted staff.
The couple apparently had no idea they were being filmed by Williams, who denies everything.
“I asked them, ‘Where’s their proof?’ and I won’t say nothing else until they give me proof,” she told Bay News after being released from custody Wednesday.
But investigators insisted that they had more than enough evidence to charge Williams with video voyeurism — including a confession, surveillance video of her in the act and records provided by Snapchat, itself.
“I think it’s deplorable,” said Helen King with the Area Agency on Aging, a private non-profit agency serving seniors and their caregivers in the area.
“I wouldn’t want it to be someone from my own family at that assisted-living when that happened,” she told CBS Miami. “I hate the fact that she’s already out of jail that quick.”
Bristol Court has since fired Williams and the sheriff’s office has also been reportedly probing whether to shut down the facility, as well.
State records obtained by the outlet show that the nursing home has shelled out more than $6,000 in fines improperly trained staff, workers forgetting to give residents medications and lying on their medical charts.
“You just have to be very, very careful because it’s the life of an older person that you’re placing into here,” King explained. “You want to trust that the people that hire them knew what they were doing and did all the things they should be doing.”
via: http://nypost.com/2017/03/23/nursing-home-worker-posted-senior-sex-videos-to-snapchat/
Teacher smoked weed, drank with student to set mood before sex
A tatted-up teacher in Florida slept with one of her students nearly a half-dozen times — boozing up and smoking pot with him to set the mood, cops said.
Valerie Michelle Valvo, 34, was arrested Wednesday in Hernando County and charged with unlawful sexual activity with a minor and contributing to the delinquency of a minor after she admitted to having sex with the 17-year-old inside her home, according to police.
The Central High School art teacher confessed to doing the deed at least five times, authorities said.
Both she and the teen, who was not identified, claimed that the romps were consensual.
The Hernando County Sheriff’s Office told WFLA they began investigating Valvo after receiving a tip about a high school teacher sleeping with a male student.
When deputies interviewed the boy, he admitted to having sex with her at her home in Spring Hill on at least three occasions, WFLA reports.
Valvo later agreed to talk to police — saying they actually had intercourse at least five or six times.
“He’s not old enough to consent to a relationship like that,” said Denise Moloney, of the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office.
Both Valvo and the teen confessed to smoking marijuana together and drinking alcohol while inside her home, cops said.
According to a spokesperson for the local school system, the art teacher has been employed for the past three years. She has since been suspended — with pay — pending the outcome of the investigation.
Valvo’s mugshot, which was posted to Facebook by police, shows her sporting a colorful chest tattoo, as well as some ink on her left arm.
“The sad part is that this Woman [sic] is well liked by many students,” wrote one user.
“I have to wonder what goes through the mind of an individual like this,” another said. “There have been so many cases such as this all over the country. Each time the teacher is caught and loses their job, their family, their dignity, and their freedom. Why does each one that comes after the countless before them makes them think they will end up any different?”
Valvo is one of several educators to be busted in the past few months for sleeping with their students.
Most recently, a high school teacher was caught engaging in “sexual contact” with a 17-year-old male student in Texas. Her mugshot wound up going viral after she chose to smile from ear-to-ear for the photo.
via: http://nypost.com/2017/03/23/teacher-smoked-weed-drank-with-student-to-set-mood-before-sex-cops/
Texas Teen Arrested After Confessing to Lying About Being Kidnapped, Raped by 3 Black Men
An 18-year-old woman in Texas who claimed she was kidnapped and raped by three black man has been arrested after she confessed to lying about the incident, police said Wednesday.
Breana Harmon Talbott ignited a sense of fear and outrage in the community of Denison, a small city about 70 miles north of Dallas, after she said three black men in ski masks were responsible for kidnapping her, taking her into the woods, and raping her, KTLA sister station KDAF in Dallas reported.
But police say her story did not add up and quickly unraveled.
The incident began about 5:30 p.m. March 8, when a man describing himself as Talbott’s fiance told police she was missing. He gave a location where her vehicle had been found, according to a statement on the Denison Police Department’s Facebook page.
Investigators began searching for the woman.
Later that evening, clad in only a shirt, bra and underwear, Talbott walked into a church where she told witnesses that she had been kidnapped and then sexually assaulted in the nearby woods, the statement said.
Police responded and Talbott told them she had been kidnapped near her vehicle by “three black males” who were wearing ski masks. She claimed that they drove her to the woods, where two of the men raped her while the third held her down, according to the statement.
As the case began attracting regional news attention, however, “Talbott’s story and allegations began to unravel. Within only a day or two, detectives had doubts as to most of Talbott’s allegations,” the statement read.
She later confessed that she staged the entire incident, according to police. Talbott also admitted the injuries found on her body were self-inflicted.
“According to Talbott’s confession, we believe the crime scene – from the initial ‘kidnapping’ scene at the apartment complex to the point of Talbott’s condition when she walked into the church – were staged,” police said.
Additionally, medical personnel who had examined Talbott found no evidence that she was sexually assaulted, authorities said.
“The Denison Police Department has determined that the alleged abduction and sexual assault case reported on March 8, 2017 was a hoax,” Police Chief Jay Burch said in the statement.
Talbott was arrested and faces a misdemeanor charge of making a false report to a peace officer. Denison police will also seek financial restitution for costs of the investigation.
“Breana Harmon Talbott’s hoax was also insulting to our community and especially offensive to the African-American community due to her description of the so-called suspects in her hoax. The anger and hurts caused from such a hoax are difficult and all so unnecessary,” Burch said.
He also apologized to those whose investigations in the department were “delayed” so personnel could focus on Talbott’s case.
Pregnant woman killed in SWAT raid; man used her as a human shield, police say
The family of 21-year-old Alteria Woods, an innocent woman who was shot and killed during a S.W.A.T. Team raid in Gifford, Florida, Sunday morning, said they are getting few answers from police.
Woods’ aunt, Arlene Cooper, said it is hard coming to grips with her niece’s death. “I’ve never heard of this before. We don’t know what to do, no closure,” Cooper said.
Woods was caught in the crossfire of the shootout. She was killed by Indian River County Sheriff’s deputies during the raid at the home, along 45th Street and 35th Avenue in Gifford.
“I was in shock,” said Cooper. “Four months pregnant.”
Cooper said the father of her niece’s baby was 23-year-old Andrew Coffee IV.
He and his father, Andrew Coffee III, were the targets of the raid.
Indian River County Sheriff Deryl Loar said the youngest Coffee used his girlfriend as a shield.
“Andrew Coffee IV cowardly was using her as protection,” Loar said.
But the sheriff also expressed remorse, calling Woods an innocent person, caught in the crossfire, as his deputies fired back the at Coffee IV who was shooting at deputies from a bedroom window.
“Today, we mourn the loss of Alteria Woods. My thoughts and prayers go to her family,” Loar continued.
The raid was ordered in response to the recent shootings that included the death of Deputy Garry Chambliss.
Sunday, dozens of demonstrators turned out along the scene on 45th Street and 35th Avenue calling for justice and peace between the black community and law enforcement.
“I feel justice haven’t been done in this community, and something needs to be done,” said Cooper.
Police shoot, kill man on Facebook Live, family responds. “He Was Asking For Help”
Rodney Hess, 36, went live on Facebook twice Thursday. The first stream is of him mostly quietly driving his white SUV for several minutes. He is unintelligible at some points talking to himself, and he periodically stops the car on a two-lane highway in Crockett County, blocking traffic before he finally parks his car perpendicular to traffic in the middle of an exit ramp. That video stops shortly after police arrive and park near Hess’ vehicle.
The situation turns deadly in the second broadcast, which only lasts for about a minute, as police approach Hess’ vehicle. He twice asks for “higher commands to come out.” The situation escalates quickly as Hess’ vehicle, still perpendicular to the road, is put into reverse and then drives forward off the road. A gunshot is heard and Hess screams in pain. The car continues rolling until it crashes, and Hess’ phone falls to the floor of the car where broken shards of window glass lay scattered. On Thursday, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) released a statement, confirming Hess was shot by at least one Crockett County deputy, who “fired his service weapon through the front windshield of the vehicle driven by Hess, striking him.”
The report states that Hess was airlifted to a hospital in Memphis, where he was later pronounced dead. No law enforcement officers were harmed during the incident.
In a press conference, Josh DeVine, Public Information Officer for TBI, said the deputy who responded to the scene requested backup when “drivers were obviously not able to get where they wanted to go.”
The statement from the TBI also says that Hess was “refusing officer commands and making erratic statements,” and the situation escalated after Hess “attempted to use his vehicle to strike the officers at least twice.”
TBI has not released the name of the deputy who shot Hess. Mark Donahoe, the deputy’s attorney, told WBBJ, “The video that I have seen, the part that I have seen appears consistent with all of the statements that I have taken in the case so far.”
“I’m confident at this point that there wasn’t anything done that was not following proper procedure,” he said.
A man who identified himself as Hess’ grandfather said that he was “praying that justice will be served.”
“If there’s anything that’s covered up, that it be brought to light. That it wouldn’t be just another black man shot by police officers,” Lee said. “All we are asking for is justice.”
Hess’ fiancee, Johnisha Provost, told WWL that he suffered from bipolar disorder and “couldn’t get his mind together.”
“He was not on a suicide mission,” Johnisha Provost said Friday from her Texas home, where she lived with Hess. “He was not trying to harm anybody. He was asking them for help and they shot him down.”
“That’s why he asked for a higher command,” she said. “I always told him, ‘Babe, if you are ever in a situation where you need help, ask the person in charge for the higher command to help you,’ and that’s what he kept saying.”
The Crockett County Sheriff’s Department released their own statement, asking for prayers for “the family of the deceased as well as all officers/dispatchers/first responders/EMS involved in the shooting today.”
“As you can imagine, this is a very difficult time for all involved,” the statement said.
via: https://www.rt.com/usa/381208-hess-facebook-live-killed/