Tag: Missouri
Couple accused of putting infant son in microwave
A Missouri couple is facing felony child abuse charges after investigators determined their infant son was assaulted and put in a microwave for a “short period of time,” court documents show.
Derick Boyce-Slezak and Mikala Boyce-Slezak, both 22, of Park Hills, were charged Tuesday in St. Francois County with felony abuse or neglect of a child after their son — who was younger than 4 months at the time — was taken to a hospital in April for a rash on his face that was actually a wound, according to court papers obtained by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
While at the hospital, both Derick and Mikala Boyce-Slezak claimed the second-degree burn was caused by a cleaning agent. Tests also revealed, however, that the boy had a fractured skull and a subdural hematoma, a head injury that can cause swelling on the brain, according to the documents.
Mikala Boyce-Slezak then invoked her Fifth Amendment right during a hearing on Monday. Derick Boyce-Slezak, meanwhile, did not testify.
But an employee from the Children’s Division of the Missouri Department of Social Services said during the hearing that Mikala Boyce-Slezak previously stated that she intended to testify that the head wounds were from Derick Boyce-Slezak dropping the boy during an attempt to imitate a television commercial.
The employee also testified that Mikala Boyce-Slezak believes Derick Boyce-Slezak placed the baby boy inside a microwave and turned it on for a “short period of time.”
Additional testimony also revealed that the infant had another fracture that was later found, the Daily Journal reports.
Derick and Mikala Boyce-Slezak, who remain jailed on $500,000 bail, also had a baby girl in January 2016 but waived custody of the girl shortly after she was born, the Post-Dispatch reports.
via: https://nypost.com/2017/11/30/couple-accused-of-putting-infant-son-in-microwave/
St. Louis Gas Station Clerk Allegedly Fatally Shot Customer Over $1 Bag of Candy; Victim Didn’t Steal
A 39-year-old gas station clerk has been charged after he allegedly shot and killed a person he thought had taken a bag of candy from his store in St. Louis.
The shooting occurred Sept. 26 at a gas station in the 2800 block of N. Florissant Avenue, according to court documents obtained by KTLA sister station KTVI in St. Louis.
The victim, Christopher Simmons, was a customer at the gas station when he got into an argument with the store clerk, identified as Taleb Rebhi Ali Jawher.
Jawher accused Simmons of stealing a bag of candy worth approximately $1.10 and pointed a handgun at him, prosecutors say. Simmons then left the store. Jawher followed him outside and allegedly shot Simmons in the back of the head.
Simmons did not steal or leave the store with the candy, police said.
“We’re just trying to find some peace,” Simmons’ mother, Dorothy Simmons, told the St. Louis Post Dispatch. “He was a wonderful young man who was taken from us too soon.”
Jawher has been charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action, according to the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office.
via: http://ktla.com/2017/10/18/clerk-accused-of-shooting-man-to-death-over-1-bag-of-gas-station-candy/
Transgender teen’s eyes gouged, genitals stabbed, authorities say
Some of Ally Lee Steinfeld’s burned remains were found in a bag in a rural southern Missouri chicken coop. Authorities say both of the transgender teen’s eyes had been gouged out and she had been stabbed in the genitals.
As questions swirl about why the quiet 17-year-old was killed in such a ghastly manner, authorities aren’t saying what led to the killing. But they dismiss the possibility the death was a hate crime.
Authorities identified the remains as those of Joseph Matthew Steinfeld Jr. – Ally Lee Steinfeld’s birth name. They were found last week in the town of Cabool, near the mobile home of one of the alleged killers, 24-year-old Briana Calderas, with whom Steinfeld was living.
Calderas and two 18-year-olds, Andrew Vrba and Isis Schauer, are charged with first-degree murder and other counts. A fourth suspect is charged with abandonment of a corpse and tampering with evidence.
Both Sheriff James Sigman and prosecutor Parke Stevens Jr. insist the crime was not motivated by Steinfeld’s gender identity.
“I would say murder in the first-degree is all that matters,” Stevens said. “That is a hate crime in itself.”
Yet the killing has drawn the attention of transgender advocates and others across the U.S. who believe Steinfeld was targeted for her gender identity, despite what the Texas County sheriff and prosecutor say.
“This violence, often motivated by hatred, must come to an end,” said Chris Sgro, spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, who said Steinfeld was the 21st transgender person killed this year in the U.S. “We will continue to mourn Ally and fight back against transphobia and anti-trans violence.”
Steinfeld had been missing for weeks, and initial news reports referred to her as a male, in part because missing-person posters distributed by the family used Steinfeld’s birth name, as did police documents.
Steinfeld’s mother, Amber Steinfeld, still refers to her child as Joey, but said the teen identified as female to family and to friends on social media. She said her child was “loving and kind-hearted.”
Steinfeld was engaged to a woman until they broke up in August, Amber Steinfeld said, and soon after began dating Calderas. She said Steinfeld and the two 18-year-old suspects were all living at Calderas’ mobile home. She said Steinfeld was upbeat before she disappeared, telling relatives that she loved them and was happy.
Steinfeld grew up mostly in House Springs, Missouri, near St. Louis, Amber Steinfeld said. The family moved briefly to Florida, then to Texas County, an area of rugged hills in southern Missouri.
Steinfeld dropped out of high school upon turning 17, Amber Steinfeld said. At about the same time, the rest of the family moved back to House Springs, but Steinfeld stayed in Houston, Missouri, living with different friends.
In May, Steinfeld posted on Instagram that she was coming out and was “mtf,” or male-to-female. In a posting on June 13, Steinfeld referred to herself as “Trans male to female and I am mostly lesbian but pansexual.” In another that same day she wrote, “I am proud to be me I am proud to be trans I am beautiful I don’t care what people think.”
Vrba told investigators he initially tried to poison Steinfeld, then described how he stabbed Steinfeld in the living room of Calderas’ mobile home, Deputy Rowdy Douglas wrote in a probable cause statement. The female suspects said Vrba bragged to them about how he gouged Steinfeld’s eyes and stabbed Steinfeld in the genitals, Douglas wrote. The probable cause statement does not offer any motive.
Authorities say the three suspects burned Steinfeld’s body, placed some of the bones into a garbage bag and put the bag in the chicken coop. Calderas admitted helping burn the body and led authorities to the knife used in the killing, Douglas wrote.
An attorney for the three suspects, Michael Jacobs, said Tuesday that it was too early to comment.
Linda Camara, 61, a friend of Steinfeld’s family, was struck by the gruesome nature of the killing.
“People kill each other, which is bad, but to do it that way, that’s something you see in movies,” Camara said. “And the three people who did this, they were kids, too.”
via: http://abc7.com/officials-transgender-teens-eyes-gouged-genitals-stabbed/2468026/
Trio charged in killing of teen found sexually mutilated, burned
Three people have been charged in the murder of a Missouri teen whose body was found burned and sexually mutilated.
Police charged a man and two women Thursday in the killing of 17-year-old Joseph Steinfeld, the Houston Herald reported. The suspects were identified as Andrew Vrba, 18; Isis Schauer, 18; and Briana Calderas, 24.
All three were charged with first-degree murder and abandonment of a corpse. Vrba and his girlfriend, Isis Schauer, were also slapped with armed criminal action charges.
The break in the case came when police discovered the female suspects had messaged each other on Facebook about the murder.
Vrba confessed to officers that he stabbed the teen to death and burned his body with the help of the women.
The female suspects told police that Vrba had bragged about sexually mutilating the teen and gouging his eyes out, according to the Houston Herald.
“It is a grisly terrible series of heinous acts by the accused,” Texas County Prosecutor Parke Stevens Jr. told the Houston Herald.
All three suspects are being held without bail.
via: http://nypost.com/2017/09/22/trio-charged-in-killing-of-teen-found-sexually-mutilated-burned/
St. Louis Boy, 6, Makes Emotional Plea to End Gun Violence: ‘People Need to Stop Killing Each Other’
He’s eloquent, passionate and powerful. And he’s only 6 years old.
Jeffrey Laney of St. Louis apparently has had it up to here with the violence that he’s seen in the city.
So he’s talking about it — his frustrations and his fears — in a four-minute video that his mom posted to Facebook Live last week. Since then it’s been viewed more than 130,000 times.
“People need to stop killing each other around here because this is just making me feel bad,” Jeffrey says in the video, while standing in what appears to be a kitchen.
“I’m really serious. I’m really scared to die, and I’m really scared for my family to die. I’m scared.”
Jeffrey’s mother, Leanndra Cheatham, tells CNN the conversation that sparked his video speech was an upcoming event by James Clark, a local activist who does community outreach in St. Louis.
The violence has hit close to home for Cheatham’s family, too. She says her 16-year-old cousin was shot to death outside of his school last month.
Cheatham never imagined this video of her son would go viral.
“I post plenty of videos of him,” she said. “I never thought this could’ve happened.”
‘Gotta value life’
Cheatham thinks “it’s a little disturbing” that her son is so aware of what’s going on in St. Louis. She wants him to be able to just be a child.
“I’m a kid, and I don’t supposed to be knowing all of this stuff,” Jeffrey says in the video. “I don’t supposed to be knowing about all of these guns.”
But Cheatham says that Jeffrey sees the news and has been part of local events where gun violence is a topic.
If the video “changes the mind of a few or even if it’s just one person,” she considers that “a job well done.”
“We gotta value life,” she said.
Cheatham also says Jeffrey is excited about the video being so widely seen.
“He said, ‘Mommy, we’re going to get people to stop killing each other.’”
To this, Cheatham replied: “I believe you, son.”
VIDEO HERE:
Couple arrested after toddler dies from ‘wrestling moves’
ST. LOUIS — A 2-year-old Missouri girl died after her mom’s boyfriend injured the toddler using “wrestling moves” that included picking her up and slamming her on the ground, authorities said Tuesday.
Richard Gamache Jr., 24, of House Springs, was charged Tuesday with abuse or neglect of a child resulting in death. His girlfriend, 19-year Cheyenne Cook, is charged with endangering the welfare of a child.
Jefferson County Sheriff David Marshak said detectives found “digital data” exchanged between Gamache and Cook that documented the abuse, including communications related to concealing it.
“This child was essentially tortured,” Marshak said in a news release.
Detectives determined that one of the moves Gamache used involved picking up the girl by her waist, lifting her above his shoulders and throwing her onto the ground.
The alleged abuse was discovered after the girl had a seizure on May 16, Marshak said. The child, identified only by her initials “AC,” was taken to a hospital and died three days later.
Gamache was originally charged last week with abuse and neglect of a child. The charge was upgraded after the girl’s death.
Gamache is jailed on $500,000 cash-only bond and does not yet have a listed attorney who could comment on the allegations.
via: http://nypost.com/2017/05/23/couple-arrested-after-toddler-dies-from-wrestling-moves/
Missouri Man Accused of Shooting Thief Over iPhone Thought “Stand Your Ground” Protected Him
A Missouri man told police he thought the state’s new “stand your ground” gun law would protect him after allegedly shooting another man Monday, according to KTLA sister station KTVI in St. Louis.
Karl O. Henson, 23, admitted he opened fire while running after a man whose back was turned, he later told officers in a probable cause statement.
Henson, who faces charges of armed criminal action and first-degree assault, told police, “the only reason I thought it was OK to shoot at him while he was running away was because of what happened with the new year with the gun law change,” officer Spirit Stevens wrote.
Missouri instituted the “stand your ground” law in January 2017, after the state legislature guaranteed the passage of Senate Bill 650 in September, despite Governor Jay Nixon’s earlier veto. The law allows people to use deadly force instead of running away, as long as they believe deadly force will be used upon them.
On Monday afternoon, Henson met up with a 20-year-old man who wanted to buy an iPhone 7 from him, according to the Columbia Daily Tribune. While examining the phone, the 20-year-old allegedly took off with the device, running behind a duplex in a cul-de-sac on Riva Ridge Court in northern Columbia.
Henson told police he chased the man into a field, firing six shots and dropping one unspent round as he ran, according to the statement.
The shooting victim was wounded in the heel, and a private vehicle took him to University Hospital, police said.
Henson was arrested at the scene and taken to Boone County Jail, where he is being held without bond.
via: http://ktla.com/2017/01/26/missouri-man-accused-in-shooting-thought-new-gun-law-protected-him/
Mo. man accused of having sex with cow
GREENE COUNTY, MO. – Deputies say a Fair Grove woman walked into her barn last month and found a man trying to have sex with her cow.
Darrell Helton, 68, of Nixa, was charged last week with unlawful sex with an animal after he was allegedly caught in the act.
According to a probable cause statement, a woman noticed an unknown car parked near her barn on the evening of June 10, so she went inside the barn to investigate.
As the woman entered, she saw a naked man — identified as Helton — standing behind one of her cows apparently having sex with the animal, according to the statement.
Helton allegedly told deputies with the Greene County Sheriff’s Office that he went to the property in Fair Grove, caught a cow, tied it to the corral and tried to have sex with the animal.
The statement says Helton told authorities that was the second time he had engaged in sexual acts with a cow on that property.
Unlawful sex with an animal is a Class A Misdemeanor punishable by up to one year behind bars.
It does not appear Helton was jailed. Helton does not have an attorney listed for this case. The News-Leader was unable to reach Helton for comment using phone numbers listed for him in online records.
via: http://www.ksdk.com/news/mo-man-accused-of-having-sex-with-cow/280604311