Tag: texas
Escaped Texas Inmate Arrested After Running Back to Jail With Bag of Alcohol, Home-Cooked Food
An escaped inmate in Texas is back behind bars, after authorities caught him running back to the prison with a duffel bag of alcohol, home-cooked food and tobacco.
Jefferson County Sheriff’s officers and US Marshals were tipped off that inmates were escaping the federal prison in Beaumont, Texas, and crossing onto a rancher’s land that backs up to the federal complex. The inmates would then pick up contraband that was dropped off for them and bring it back to the prison.
After authorities set up surveillance on Wednesday, they spotted a truck pulling onto the private property and dropping off a large bag. Shortly after, Joshua Hansen, an inmate serving time for narcotics charges, was seen running from prison grounds, grabbing the bag and making his way back when police arrested him.
Inside the duffel bag, police found three bottles of Brandy, one bottle of Whiskey, multiple bags of Buglar tobacco, prepackaged snacks and a large amount of home-cooked food, including BBQ sausage and fried chicken.
Hansen, 25, is charged with escape and possession of marijuana, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. He is currently on a federal hold.
Man admits to beheading wife as kids watched, storing head in freezer
A Texas man was sentenced to 52 years in prison on Friday after he admitted to decapitating his wife in front of her children.
David Dauzat, 24, pleaded guilty to the 2016 death of his wife, Natasha Dauzat, 21, who was found with dozens of stab wounds. Dauzat agreed to the plea deal after Natasha’s family requested it to prevent the children from reliving the horrifying incident if the case went to trial, KWTX reported.
“They didn’t want to put the children through a trial and have them relive those memories,” McLennan County Assistant District Attorney Michael Jarrett said.
Police went to the couple’s mobile home in Bellmead, a town just northwest of Waco, in August 2016 after a concerned relative requested a welfare check. Police officers spoke to David and Natasha Dauzat outside their trailer, who appeared “calm and expressed their curiosity why the police were there.”
But two hours later, the relative called police again, saying he received a call from David Dauzat who told him he “killed his girlfriend,” according to KWTX.
Police found Dauzat with blood on his clothing at the trailer. Dauzat had beheaded his wife while the two children, ages 1 and 2, were in the trailer. He then placed her head in the freezer.
The children were not injured in the incident.
Police said the woman died from “sharp-force injuries, including decapitation.”
Dauzat must serve at least 26 years of his sentence before he is eligible for parole.
via: https://nypost.com/2017/12/17/man-admits-to-beheading-wife-as-kids-watched-storing-head-in-freezer/
Texas woman accused of mailing bombs to Obama and governor
The evidence against a Texas woman accused of sending homemade bombs to then President Barack Obama and the governor of Texas includes a cell phone, a cigarette package, a salad dressing cap and, authorities say, some very distinctive cat hair.
Julia Poff faces six charges after she was indicted earlier this month. Federal authorities said in court filings that she sent very dangerous explosive devices to President Obama, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and the Social Security Administration in October 2016.
Abbott opened his package, but the device didn’t explode because “he did not open it as designed,” a court filing from her detention hearing says. The bomb could have caused severe burns or death, the court document says.
Poff entered a plea of not guilty at the detention hearing. She was arraigned in the Southern District of Texas on Tuesday.
CNN called the public defender representing Poff on Thursday but didn’t get an immediate response.
The package sent to the White House was detected during screening. It contained a cell phone that belonged to a different person whose last name is also Poff, according to the detention order.
Authorities linked Julia Poff to the case through a damaged shipping label found on a box that Poff allegedly reused to send Abbott’s package, the court documents say.
The package opened by Abbott also contained a cap from a Ken’s salad dressing bottle. The filings say witnesses said Poff bought the same kind of dressing for an anniversary dinner.
The cigarette box had a Texas tobacco stamp on it that indicated the seller was a store where Poff had purchased cigarettes and soft drinks. In Texas, sellers put the stamps on the bottom of each pack to show state cigarette tax has been paid.
The two incendiary powders in the box matched materials found in Poff’s home.
Investigators also found cat hair under the shipping label for the Obama package. Tests show the hair was consistent with the hair of one of her cats, authorities allege.
CNN called numbers listed for Julia Poff but didn’t get an answer nor any replies.
Poff allegedly told a federal investigator she didn’t like Obama. She also said, according to the court documents, that she was upset with Abbott.
A judge ruled earlier this month that Poff was a flight risk. She is in federal custody.
A representative for the Obamas had no comment.
CNN called the governor’s office but didn’t get a reply.
via: http://pix11.com/2017/11/23/texas-woman-accused-of-mailing-bombs-to-obama-governor/
At least 20 people killed in shooting at Texas church
At least 20 people have been killed in a church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas, according to Wilson County Sheriff Joe Tackitt.
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.
Father of Toddler Found Dead on Texas Road Admits to Disposing Body After Girl Choked on Milk
The adoptive father of a Texas 3-year-old who had been missing for two and a half weeks admitted to police that he disposed of the child’s body after she choked on her milk, according to a probable cause affidavit released Tuesday.
Previously, Wesley Mathews had told authorities he made Sherin Mathews stand outside because she wouldn’t drink her milk, and she disappeared.
Authorities confirmed Tuesday that the body of a child found Sunday in a culvert beneath a road was that of Sherin Mathews. The cause of death was still pending, the Richardson Police Department posted on its verified Facebook page, citing the Dallas County Medical Examiners Office.
Wesley Mathews has been charged with injury to a child, a felony punishable with a maximum 99 years in prison, Richardson police said. He was being held on $1 million bond.
The affidavit states Wesley Mathews and his attorney visited the Richardson Police Department on Monday afternoon and requested an interview.
The father told a detective that he had been trying to get Sherin to drink her milk in the garage, and she wouldn’t listen to him, the affidavit states. She then began drinking the milk.
“Wesley Mathews then physically assisted the 3-year-old in drinking the milk,” the affidavit states. “The 3-year-old began to choke. She was coughing and her breathing slowed. Eventually Wesley Mathews no longer felt a pulse on the child and believed she had died.”
The events happened on October 7, the affidavit states.
Father’s original story
Mathews reported Sherin missing after 8 a.m. that same day. He initially claimed he had left her outside around 3 a.m. as punishment “because she wouldn’t drink her milk,” according to a probable cause document relating to an earlier charge leveled against the father.
Sherin was ordered to stand near a tree, approximately 100 feet away from the home and across an alleyway, the father told police. He went back outside at about 3:15 a.m. and she was gone, the document says.
Mathews told police he knew coyotes had been seen in the alley where he told her to stay, the affidavit said.
Roughly five hours passed before Mathews contacted authorities, police said, and one of Mathews’ vehicles left the residence between the time Mathews said Sherin disappeared and the time he called police.
That evening, Mathews was arrested and charged with abandoning or endangering a child, “as a result of his decision to place her outside a place of safety,” Richardson police posted to Facebook. He was released on bond, according to police.
Investigators combed Sherin’s neighborhood and the surrounding area with canine teams and helicopters and executed a search warrant at Mathews’ home on October 10, police said.
Texas Mother Finds Video of Man Raping 7-Year-Old Daughter in ‘Deleted Photos’ Folder on iPad
A Texas man faces multiple charges after a mother discovered a video appearing to show him sexually assaulting her 7-year-old daughter in the “deleted photos” folder on his iPad, according to San Antonio Express-News.
Jose Trinidad Gonzalez, 35, faces sexual assault and child pornography charges, according to a police arrest report obtained by the paper.
According to the report, the suspect allowed the victim and the victim’s siblings to play games on his iPad.
On Sunday, the mother was using the iPad when she opened the “deleted photos” folder and found a photo of her 7-year-old daughter’s genitals and video of the suspect raping the child, according to the report.
The mother called police and Gonzalez was arrested on Sunday. He is being held in the Bexar County Jail on a $150,000 bond.
Houston student kicked out of her high school for sitting during Pledge of Allegiance
A 17-year-old Houston student was booted from her high school after refusing to stand for the daily Pledge of Allegiance, a federal lawsuit charges.
India Landry had sat for the Pledge hundreds of times at Windfern High School without incident, she said. However, she was immediately shown the door by school Principal Martha Strother on Monday while in her office after declining to stand for the Pledge.
Administrators at the school had “recently been whipped into a frenzy” by the controversy caused by NFL players kneeling for the national anthem, according to the lawsuit. NFL players had recently taken action to protest some of President Trump’s statements.
The lawsuit also charges that India was told after she was expelled that “if your mom does not get here in five minutes the police are coming.”
“I was actually terrified, I see what’s going on with the country,” India’s mother Kizzy told the Daily News on Saturday. “That scared the hell out of me. I thought let me hurry up and get to my baby before something happens to her.”
India, a senior, was allowed to return to the school on Friday, but feels uncomfortable about what happened. She missed the Pledge on Friday, but said she plans to continue sitting for it next week. The lawsuit against the Cypress Fairbanks ISD school district states that students cannot be forced to stand for the Pledge, and that the school had no right to kick out India.
“Students cannot be instantly expelled except for being a danger,” lawyer Randall Kallinen said. “The only danger appeared to be that her sitting whipped Principal Strother into a political frenzy.”
India tells The News that she started sitting for the pledge in ninth grade. She said that “police brutality” and “Donald Trump being President” motivates her to do it, and she was surprised when she got in trouble for it.
“I said I wouldn’t, and they said you are kicked out of here,” India told the Daily News. “The other woman said this isn’t the NFL, you won’t do this here.”
“I never told her to do this,” her mom said. “I’m proud of her for standing up to what she believes in. She said she hopes it just brings awareness of what is going on.”
Nicole Ray, a spokeswoman for the school district said she was not aware of the lawsuit and noted a “student will not be removed from campus for refusing to stand for the Pledge.
“We will address this situation internally,” said Ray.
2 Texas Toddlers Die in Hot Car; Mom Says They Took Her Keys, Phone and Locked Themselves in
Two young children were found dead Friday in Parker County, Texas, in what appeared to be a hot car incident.
According to a news release from the sheriff’s office, the mother of the children — a 2-year-old girl and a 16-month-old boy — found them in a locked vehicle.
The Tarrant County medical examiner’s website identified the children as Juliet and Cavanaugh Ramirez.
Parker County Sheriff’s Capt. Mark Arnett told CNN that according to the mother, the children were playing in a back room of their home when they disappeared. After searching the home, the mother began looking outside, where she eventually found them locked inside the car.
She told investigators that when she found them, one of the children had her cellphone and car keys, Arnett said.
She reportedly broke a window to reach the children, but both were unresponsive, according to the news release. She added that the children had gotten into the car and locked themselves inside.
“The question is, can a 2-year-old open a car door and a 2-year-old and a 1-year-old climb inside and lock it,” Arnett said. “In the course of the investigation, if charges are warranted, I’m sure the district attorney’s office will bring them.”
Authorities were alerted to the incident just after 4 p.m., the news release said, when the temperature outside had reached 96 degrees. The children were pronounced dead.
The ongoing investigation is a joint effort between the Parker County Sheriff’s Office and the Texas Rangers, Arnett told CNN.
“This case is in the early stages of the investigation,” Sheriff Larry Fowler said in the release. “Any comment regarding this case at this time would be an assumption until all of the facts are gathered.”
Parker County is west of Fort Worth.
Teachers under fire for naming student ‘most likely to become a terrorist’
Disciplinary action was taken against several Texas middle school teachers after they named a student “most likely to become a terrorist.”
The superlative was given to seventh grader Lizeth Villanueva in a mock ceremony this week at Anthony Aguirre Junior High in Channelview, Texas, according to news station KHOU.
“She said that some people might get offended, but she doesn’t really care about our feelings,” she said. “She was laughing about it.”
Her mom Ena Hernandez said she was horrified to find the certificate.
“I read it twice. I’m like, ‘What is this?!’” Hernandez told KHOU.
She said that the award set a bad example for the students.
“It doesn’t look good at all, especially coming from a teacher, a grown-up woman,” Hernandez said. “It doesn’t look good because everything that’s going on right now.”
The principal personally apologized to the family and the school announced Thursday that the teachers involved had been disciplined.
“The Channelview Independent School District Administration would like to apologize for the insensitive and offensive fake mock awards that were given to students in a classroom,” the district said in a statement. “Channelview ISD would like to assure all students, parents and community members that these award statements and ideals are not representative of the district’s vision, mission and educational goals for our students.