Tag: murders
Suspect may have killed Tessa Majors because she bit his finger
The 14-year-old mugger suspected of killing Barnard College freshman Tessa Majors likely snapped and stabbed her to death because she bit his finger, law enforcement sources told The Post on Friday.
Majors, 18, was fighting for her life when she was set upon by the middle-school criminal and his two young buddies — and in a desperate bid to survive, she clamped down hard on the finger of the knife-wielding young mugger, who then flew into a rage, stabbing her multiple times, sources said.
“She bit him, and that is why he stabbed her,” a source said, citing the current theory detectives are working on.
One of the 14-year-old suspect’s alleged accomplices told cops right after the murder that Majors bit the teen’s finger, court papers show.
And in doing so, Majors also may have provided cops with the forensics to solve her murder. Investigators believe that her bite on the boy’s finger drew blood — and that blood may have been left behind on Major’s body.
The suspected stabber submitted Thursday to a Manhattan court-ordered DNA test, police officials said. Early next week, tests will reveal the boy’s DNA profile, authorities said, which will be compared with samples taken from swabs of Majors’ mouth.
Sources say the teen’s DNA will also be compared against any stray cells that rubbed off on Majors’ clothing during the struggle, which happened in Morningside Park on the evening of Dec. 11.
Meanwhile, the suspected stabber remains free without charges, pending the results of the DNA testing.
He was on the lam for more than two weeks before cops nabbed him in the Bronx on Thursday. He was brought in for questioning but didn’t say anything on the advice of his lawyers. Investigators believe he may have stayed underground until his finger healed, according to a source.
“He must not have had a bite mark” on his finger when he was taken in, a source familiar with the case said. “If he did, that would have been enough corroborating evidence to hold him.”
“He’s funny — he could tell a good joke to lighten up the mood,” a 12-year-old neighbor of the 14-year-old said Friday.
“I know he hangs around with not the right people at times,” she added. Still, “Nobody would ever think he would do anything like this,” she said.
“We don’t think he did it.”
So far, only Zyairr Davis, 13, is in custody and charged with the Dec. 11 murder, in which police believe three young muggers took part.
Photo Credit: Instagram; DCPI
Brothers accused of saving meth equipment, letting grandma die in fire
Two upstate New York brothers allegedly left their 82-year-old grandmother to die in a house fire — but salvaged their meth-making equipment, according to reports
Justin Gause, 21, and his 33-year-old brother, Jarrett, were indicted last week on second-degree murder charges for the May 14 death of Gladys Ann Willow at her Riverside home, according to The Star Gazette.
The brothers allegedly saved the drug paraphernalia from the blaze but left Willow inside the home, the Steuben County district attorney told WETM.
The duo then went to buy cigarettes without reporting the blaze, the prosecutor added.
Jarrett Gause was arrested last week after the grand jury indictments were unsealed. He remains in police custody.
Justin, who was initially the only sibling to be charged after the blaze, is out on bail.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/10/21/brothers-accused-of-saving-meth-equipment-letting-grandma-die-in-fire/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
9-year-old boy arraigned on 5 murder charges in deadly mobile home blaze
A 9-year-old boy was arraigned Monday on charges of murdering five relatives in an Illinois mobile home fire, a report said.
Kyle Alwood appeared confused at times during the half-hour hearing and quietly cried at its conclusion, before being escorted out by his grandparents, who are caring for him, according to The Journal Star.
The child is facing five counts of first-degree murder for allegedly setting the April 6 blaze in Goodfield, Ill. that killed three kids and two adults – ranging in age from 1 to 69-years-old.
After the blaze broke out, the boy ran next door to the home of his maternal grandparents and shrieked “The house is on fire! Help!” the report said.
The boy’s 28-year-old mother Katrina Alwood, who survived the blaze, has backed her son.
“Everyone is looking at him like he’s some kind of monster, but that’s not who he is,” she told CBS News earlier this month. TOP ARTICLES2/5READ MORETMZ’s Van Lathan fired after newsroom spat withMichael Babcock
“People make mistakes, and that’s what this is. Yes, it was a horrible tragedy, but it’s still not something to throw his life away over.”
Kyle is due back in court on Nov. 22. Because of his age, he cannot be held in custody between hearings.
He will also avoid incarceration if convicted. He could, however, face probation, therapy and counseling, the report said.
Photo Credit: AP
FL High school football star shot dead by friend over video game dispute
A Florida football player was shot dead by a longtime friend this week during a spat over a video game, according to a new report.
Joshua Ancrum, 17, was killed inside his pal’s Miami Gardens home Tuesday afternoon when the gaming dispute between the teens got heated, WPLG Local 10 reported. He was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, where he was pronounced dead.
“What mother wants to bury their son?” the boy’s distraught mom, Lisa Alvarez, told the station. “It’s supposed to be the other way around.”
Jatwan Phillips, 16, was arrested in connection with the slaying, according to the report. He appeared in court Wednesday and has been charged with aggravated manslaughter, though it’s unclear if he will be charged as an adult.
It was not immediately known which game sparked the fatal squabble.
A judge ordered Phillips to remain in jail on Wednesday, according to the report.
Ancrum’s teammates in the South Florida Express 7on7 Football Team considered him a brother.
“He might have grown up in a bad neighborhood and he had a lot of bad influences and stuff like that, but when he came with us, it was, kind of, you try to lead him in the right direction,” teammate Derek Wingo told the station.
The young athlete had received a football scholarship to Florida International University.
“We are saddened at the news of Joshua’s passing,” the school’s head coach, Butch Davis, said in a statement obtained by the station. “We at FIU will be praying for his family, friends and teammates in these trying times.”
Ancrum had always dreamed of going even further with his football career, but his dreams have been shattered, his mother told the outlet.
“Stop the violence,” she insisted.
The teen’s teammates launched a GoFundMe page to help raise money for his funeral expenses. It had reached $4,372 of its $10,000 goal by late Thursday morning.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/05/23/high-school-football-star-shot-dead-by-friend-over-video-game-dispute/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Man fatally shot wife in chest over fight about cigarettes
A Michigan man was charged with murder on Monday for fatally shooting his wife in the chest after the two had an argument over cigarette smoking.
Vashon Flowers, 46, allegedly shot Jamie Thomas-Flowers inside their Muskegon Heights home at about 6:30 a.m. on Sunday following an argument that took place when the husband came home with cigarettes, according to Muskegon Heights Police.
The couple had recently quit smoking, but Vashon arrived at the residence and said he wanted to smoke while drinking, cops said.
Vashon stormed out of the home and returned several hours later.
When the man came back, he kicked in the door and shot his wife four times in the chest before running away, according to police. He later surrendered to cops.
In addition to the murder charge, Flowers was also charged as a habitual offender due to prior felony convictions.
Muskegon County District Judge Raymond Kostrzewa denied bail during Flowers’ arraignment.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/05/20/man-fatally-shot-wife-in-chest-over-fight-about-cigarettes-cops/
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Teen allegedly kills man wrongfully accused of sexually assaulting his sister
A teenage boy fatally attacked a man after the teen’s younger sister told her brother that she was sexually assaulted by the man on a public bus in Utah — an incident that investigators say never happened, according to reports.
Police say the 16-year-old girl told her 17-year-old brother that she was sexually assaulted aboard a Cache Valley Transit District bus around 3 p.m. April 23, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
The brother immediately sprang into action and tracked down 62-year-old Michael Fife — the man his sister accused — as the man was exiting the bus in the city of Logan, according to the news outlet.
The teen then attacked Fife, who suffered head injuries and was beaten unconscious.
Fife fell to the ground and was left lying on the sidewalk as the teenage boy fled, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
Later that night, the boy’s sister reported the sexual assault to police, who discovered that surveillance footage from the bus showed that the assault never happened.
“Logan Police detectives reviewed the video footage of the alleged assault,” authorities said, according to the news outlet. “The video showed Mr. Fife walking past the girl, but no sexual assault occurred.”
Fife died from his injuries four days after the attack.
The identities of the teen brother and his sister were not released because of their ages.
The Cache County Attorney’s Office is also investigating the case.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Teen beheaded classmate in jealous rage over girlfriend
A crazed teen beheaded a schoolmate who he thought had slept with his girlfriend, prosecutors said in court this week.
Mathew Borges was just 15 in November 2016 when he is accused of cutting off the head and hands of Lee Manuel Viloria-Paulino, 16, in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
Borges killed the Lawrence High School sophomore in a jealous rage after accusing him with sleeping with his girlfriend, causing them to split, prosecutors said in Essex County Superior Court on Monday, according to the Boston Herald.
“I think of killing someone and I smirk … It’s all I think about every day,” he texted the girl, according to Assistant DA Jay Gubitose.
“The next time you see me, look at my eyes because that’s the last time they’ll be like that. They’ll be dead,” he texted her before the brutal murder, according to the report.
The following day, Viloria-Paulino went missing and his decapitated body was later found by a man walking his dog.
A state trooper later found the victim’s head in a bag nearby.
Surveillance video showed the two teens walking toward the river, but Borges initially told police they had gone to smoke pot.
But after Borges was arrested, police found a journal at his home with a last entry to call a few friends, wear bags on their shoes and “kill him,” the prosecutor said.
“The defendant told them he stabbed him to death and cut his head and hands off so he couldn’t be identified,” Gubitose told the court, according to the Herald.
Defense attorney Edward Hayden insisted the most Borges can be accused of doing is burglarizing the dead boy’s home — not butchering him.
“Witnesses who are going to say he committed murder are not reliable,” he said.
Borges is now 17 and being tried as an adult on the first-degree murder charge.
His trial continues and is expected to take three weeks.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/04/30/teen-beheaded-classmate-in-jealous-rage-over-girlfriend-prosecutors/
Yonkers 8th-grader wanted for shooting death of innocent teen
An 8th-grade boy with gang ties and a violent criminal past fired the stray round that killed a Yonkers teen Thursday as she protected her little sister, cops said Monday, pleading with the shooter to surrender and face justice.
Jamir Thompson, 15, intended the fateful bullet for a rival from whom he’d stolen a gold chain earlier Thursday — but he instead struck 18-year-old Marilyn Cotto Montanez as she pushed her 9-year-old sister to safety, police said.
“This incident has deeply affected our community because an innocent life was lost,” said Yonkers Police Commissioner Charles Gardner in a press briefing. “We will not rest until Jamir Thompson answers for his reckless and despicable conduct.”
Hours after allegedly stealing the chain from another teen, Thompson had another run-in with that victim near Montanez’s Morningside Avenue home, Gardner said.
Amid the dispute, Thompson — a Yonkers resident who attends the Linden Hill School in Hawthorne, New York — opened fire with a 9 mm handgun, Gardner said.
Montanez, a high school senior, shoved her younger sister out of the the way at the cost of her own life — a round struck her in the head.
Cops identified Thompson as the alleged shooter through a painstaking review of surveillance footage and a series of witness interviews.
The top cop, his voice strained with emotion at points, appealed directly to the teen triggerman to make it easy on himself and come forward.
“If Jamir Thompson is watching, I have a message for you,” Gardner said. “We are considering you armed and dangerous. We are out looking for you as we speak. And for the safety of everyone, I urge you to turn yourself in.”
Thompson lives in Yonkers with his mom, who has refused to give cops any info on her son’s whereabouts, Gardner said.
His department has had “multiple” contacts with Thompson over his “violent” criminal history, but Gardner said he couldn’t divulge specifics due to Thompson’s age.
Cops released a wanted poster showing the fresh-faced shooter, and announcing a $5,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.
Gardner also issued a stern directive to anyone thinking of giving Thompson quarter.
“I am also sending a warning to anyone who is harboring Mr. Thompson,” he said. “You will also be arrested and held accountable for your actions.”
via: https://nypost.com/2019/04/29/yonkers-8th-grader-wanted-for-shooting-death-of-innocent-teen-cops/
Man allegedly killed girlfriend for staying out overnight
The Bronx man who walked into a local police precinct station house and confessed to killing his girlfriend was angry because she had stayed out overnight, police sources told The Post Thursday.
Angel Esteban Felix Rodriguez, 24, strolled into the 48th Precinct station house with an interpreter around 6 p.m. Wednesday and admitted to officers that he killed Indira Ramirez-Rivera, 21, two days prior, police and sources said.
Rodriguez gave his apartment keys to cops, who went to the couple’s Nelson Avenue basement apartment and found her lifeless body in a bedroom, sources said.
Rivera was discovered strangled to death face-up on a bed, the sources said.
Rodriquez was later charged with murder and manslaughter for the slaying. Police have not released a motive.
Shocked neighbors told The Post on Thursday the couple had a hot-and-cold relationship, and that Rivera had moved out of the apartment in the past before moving back in.
“They seemed lovable but then they argued and it was heated,” neighbor Smily Rodriguez, who has no relation to the suspect, told the Post.
Rodriguez, 35, was home when police flooded the scene Wednesday night, and said she knew things were bad when she saw police head downstairs with their rubber gloves on.
“I heard one EMT say: ‘It looked like the devil was in there,’” she said.
Neighbors said Rivera had just returned from the Dominican Republic, where she had plastic surgery.
“She wasn’t able to move around that well,” said 18-year-old Andy Ramirez.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/04/11/man-allegedly-killed-girlfriend-for-staying-out-overnight/
Murdered teacher’s kids rode in car with her body as their dad and his new girlfriend allegedly drove to hide the remains
The children of murdered Staten Island teacher Jeanine Cammarata rode in a car with their mom’s charred body as their dad and his new girlfriend allegedly drove to hide the remains, according to a report on Wednesday.
The kids, a 3-year-old boy and 7-year-old girl, were packed into the car by their father, Michael Cammarata and his live-in girlfriend, Ayisha Egea when the couple went to a storage facility last month to conceal their alleged crime, law enforcement sources told the Staten Island Advance.
Three other children, belonging to Egea, were also in the car, according to the report.
Surveillance footage shows the couple accompanied by the five children, who were “oblivious” to what was inside a plastic bin in the car, the sources said.
Days later, investigators would find Cammarata’s burned remains in a storage unit in Arden Heights, along with air fresheners in an attempt to mask the smell of her decaying flesh.
Michael, 42, and Ayisha, 41, who is six-months pregnant, were charged last week with second-degree murder, tampering with evidence and concealing a human corpse in Jeanine’s death.
Following their mother’s death and the incarceration of their dad, the two children are staying with Michael’s sister, the report said.
Jeanine, 37, also had an 11-year-old son who lives with his father on Long Island.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/04/10/murdered-teachers-kids-rode-in-car-with-her-remains-report/