UK- Man stabbed former policeman to death boasting 'I'm going to get that paedo'.

1-29-2009 United Kingdom:

A man stabbed a former policeman facing child pornography charges to death in a vigilante-style attack after boasting he was "going to get that paedo", a court heard.

Daniel Williams, 30, dressed in a black hooded top and armed himself with a combat knife before travelling to the home of Geoffrey Harries where he launched the attack.

The court heard how Mr Williams slashed the tyres of Mr Harries car before the former officer came outside. It was then he attacked him.

Paul Thomas QC, prosecuting, said Mr Harries, 49, resigned from Dyfed Powys Police, west Wales, after being charged with downloading indecent images of children from the internet.

As he awaited trial he and his wife Elizabeth left their home in Pembrey, west Wales, to live with his mother in Trimsaran 12 miles away.

Other residents including Mr Williams, who lived seven doors away with his brother Chad, were unhappy at Mr Harries' arrival, the court heard.

On the night of the attack, police stopped the brothers as they left a pub and Chad was arrested for drinking and driving, the court heard.

Mr Williams became agitated, and he alluded to Mr Harries' address, before shouting: "That paedo is going to get it," said Mr Thomas. "I tell you I am going to get him."

Police were sufficiently concerned to put a patrol car near Mr Harries' mother's home. It left after 30 minutes because it seemed "quiet and calm."

The court heard Mr Williams changed into a black hooded top, and armed himself with a combat knife. Mrs Harries looked out of the bedroom window to see Mr Williams slashing the tyres of her husband's car.

Mr Harries, wearing slippers and glasses and suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure, went outside. "Within a few minutes he was bleeding to death," said Mr Thomas.

After his arrest Williams denied, in 12 interviews, being involved.

But when tests showed Mr Harries' blood on his clothing he "changed his defence" and claimed he had been defending himself and had forgotten he had had a knife in his hand.

Mr Thomas said Mr Harries' arrest was "irrelevant" to the case. "It is understandably repulsive in the minds of right thinking people.

"What images he may have had, however flawed an individual he was, Geoffrey Harries was still human and no-one had the right to kill him.

"Society rightly condemns anyone who has such images on his computer. Had he lived he would have received the appropriate punishment from a court of law.

"That is the only way a civilised society can operate. The other is the way to lawlessness," added Mr Thomas.

Mr Williams denies murder

The trial continues. ..News Source.. by Richard Savill

Accused paedophile mobbed and killed

12-15-2008 Jamaica:

A man accused of being a paedophile and robber, was mobbed and killed in Westmoreland early Wednesday morning.

RJR News understands that Kemar Russell, 21, an ex-convict of Toro, in Burnt Savannah was being sought by the Frome Police in connection with several sex crimes and burglaries in that division.

But just after 5o'clock, residents took matters into their own hands.

He was reportedly caught breaking into a business place in Toro when he was set upon and beaten to death.

Mr. Russell had been released from prison earlier this year after serving a two year sentence for sexually assaulting a 9-year-old boy in Toro.

RJR News also understands that DNA samples will be taken from him to ascertain whether he had been involved in the carnal abuse and murder of two Westmoreland girls three years ago in the nearby community of Townhead.

The bodies of 9-year-old Shanika Shakes and 8-year-old Shana-Kaye Ledgister were found in a cane field on June 29, 2004.

Since the death of the little girls, 14 persons have been detained but later released for lack of evidence.

Residents remember the young friends every year in candle light vigils and remain confident that there will be a breakthrough in the case.

Recently a wave of panic swept through sections of Westmoreland due to an increase in reports of abductions and attempted abductions.

Parents have reportedly increased their visits to schools in order to monitor their children. ..News Source.. by Radio Jamaica.com

TX- Police Release Names of Officers Involved in Fatal Shooting (of registered sex offender)

8-11-2008 Texas:

Beaumont Police have released the names of two officers involved in the fatal shooting of a man who, according to witnesses, lunged at the officers after cutting several vehicles with a large grilling fork.

Officer Jared Smith shot and killed Daniel Hough, 39, at about 7 p.m. Friday, according to Ofc. Crystal Holmes with the Beaumont Police Department. Holmes says Hough was behaving irrationally, slashing at vehicles and people near the parking lot of the Dollar General Store at Calder and 1st.

Sgt. Stephen Perricone was on the scene and used a taser in an attempt to stop Hough. Ofc. Holmes says the taser had no impact on Hough.

Smith, 30, has been with the Beaumont Police Department since January 4, 2007.

Perricone, 49, became an officer in the Beaumont Police Department on January 27, 1997.

Both officers have been placed on administrative leave with pay, which is standard procedure in a fatal shooting involving police.

Ofc. Holmes says several witnesses provided statements corroborating the officers' version of events and indicating they did everything possible to get Hough to stop before using force against him.

Watch KFDM News for more on the story.

(News Release from Beaumont Police)

This evening around 7:00 p.m. BPD dispatch received several calls in reference to a Hispanic male slashing at people and vehicles with a knife. According to several people in the parking lot of the Dollar General Store on Calder near First street, after the suspect had slashed and stabbed at them, he left walking on Calder. No one was injured. Several callers advised that he had struck their vehicles with his weapon causing damage. One of the victims, a Beaumont woman, called 911 and stayed on her cell phone, giving locations of the suspect to dispatchers.

Officers located the suspect on Laurel at 2nd street. Officers verbally attempted to calm the man down to no avail. The suspect turned toward one of the Officers and lunged at him with the weapon. The Officer fired one round from a short distance, striking the suspect in the chest. He was deceased on scene. Judge Vi McGinnis pronounced him deceased and ordered an autopsy.

The man had no identification on him but Crime Scene Investigators took his fingerprints at the scene and cross referenced a match. The suspect is a 39 year old Beaumont man. His name will not be released pending notification of next of kin.

The weapon used turned out to be a large grilling fork used to pierce meat on a grill. It was seized as evidence and turned into the property division.

Several witnesses were taken to the Beaumont Police Department for statements. As per Departmental Procedure, the officer will be placed on Administrative Leave with pay pending the outcome of the investigation. The investigation continues.

(previous story)

Beaumont Police have released the name of a Beaumont man who was shot and killed last night by one of their officers.

Police say 39 year Daniel Hough of Beaumont was behaving erratically and lunged at the officer in a threatening manner.

That officers name is not being released at this time.

KFDM News has also learned Hough was a registered sex offender in Beaumont.

Police say the shooting happened after they got a call of a man acting strangely near Calder and First and was lunging at cars with a knife.

He'd struck a truck and damaged it.

The driver followed Hough who was on foot and kept dispatchers informed of his location.

Authorities caught up with Hough near Laurel and Second Street, and when officers approached he lunged at one of them in a threatening manner.

Police say the officer was forced to shot Hough once in the chest.

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TX- Man shot by cop might have been sex offender

8-10-2008 Texas:

BEAUMONT - A man shot by police Friday night might have been a registered sex offender.

Police identified the slain man as 39-year-old Daniel Hough of Beaumont.

According to a Department of Public Safety database, a 39-year-old man named Daniel Hough was listed as a sex offender in Beaumont.

The database lists the man as being deceased.

Hough was shot Friday after lunging at a police officer with a barbecue fork, according to a previous Enterprise story.

A witness had reported that Hough was behaving erratically; slashing at cars with what she thought was a knife along a stretch of Calder Avenue.

Officers caught up with Hough near Laurel and Second Street and commanded him to cooperate.

"He was extremely irrational and then lunged after one of the officers," Beaumont Police Department spokeswoman Officer Crystal Holmes said Friday.

Hough was shot in the chest after lunging at one of the officers, who has not been identified.

Police weren't saying Saturday whether the man was mentally ill or on drugs at the time of the incident.

The officer who shot the man has been placed on administrative leave. ..News Source.. by SARAH MOORE

MO- Woman from Nemo loses appeal for killing ex-boyfriend

1-13-2009 Missouri:

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri Supreme Court upheld the conviction of a woman from Hickory County who killed an ex-boyfriend at her home eight years ago. This is the second time that the state's highest court considered Jamie Avery's conviction.

Avery shot Bruce Paris at her home at Nemo, near Pomme de Terre Lake, in December 2000. Investigators said she gave more than one version of what happened but ultimately claimed she shot Paris in self-defense after he threatened to beat her. She said she didn't mean to kill him.

Avery argued she was afraid Paris might sexually assault her. She said Paris had made several harassing telephone calls to her before she finally agreed to meet with him. Several hours later, she ended up shooting him after she said he tried to come in her home after she tried to keep him out.

A jury convicted Avery in 2001 for second-degree murder and armed criminal action. She received two consecutive 30-year prison sentences in December 2000. Avery appealed.

In November 2003, the Supreme Court ordered a new trial. It said the jury should have been able to consider alternate verdicts of self-defense and voluntary manslaughter. The trial judge declined to read jury instructions that would have allowed either verdict.

At a second trial in Webster County, a jury convicted Avery of voluntary manslaughter and armed criminal action. A judge sentenced her to concurrent prison terms of 15 and 35 years. Avery appealed again.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court upheld the second set of convictions. In a unanimous opinion, it said there was a great deal of evidence that Avery drank alcohol the day of the shooting. That evidence, the court said, supports the trial judge's decision to submit a voluntary intoxication instruction to the jury. That instruction was read to make sure the jury knew intoxication is not a reason to acquit someone of a criminal act.

"Avery argues that Instruction No. 6 was likely to confuse or mislead the jury into believing that she had admitted some wrongdoing and was attempting to escape liability based on voluntary intoxication. If an instruction is an accurate statement of law and supported by the evidence, however, there is no prejudice," the Supreme Court decision says.

"In this case, there was abundant evidence of Avery's alcohol consumption to support the trial court's determination that without being instructed as to the legal effect of that evidence, the jury might well have been left to guess as to what legal effect to give that evidence."

Also, the Supreme Court judges ruled, the trial judge didn't abuse his discretion by not letting the jury hear testimony that Paris was a registered sex offender.

"Avery argues such evidence was admissible to demonstrate whether the victim was the initial aggressor. There was no evidence offered at trial that Avery knew anything about the conviction," the opinion says.

The court said having that information wouldn't have helped the jury decide what happened that day in 2000. ..News Source.. by Gene Hartley, KY3 News


====================================

SC89390
State of Missouri v. Jamie Avery
Hickory and Webster counties
Instructions and evidence
Listen to the oral argument:

Avery was represented during argument by Craig Johnston of the public defender's office in Columbia; and the state was represented by Shawn J. Mackelprang of the attorney general's office in Jefferson City.

Jamie Avery moved in with her boyfriend John Hamilton in September 2000 in Hickory County. Soon after moving in with Hamilton, Avery and Bruce Paris had a sexual encounter. Avery, Paris and a mutual friend subsequently made plans to go to Chicago, but Paris cancelled the plans after rekindling his relationship with an ex-girlfriend. In December 2000 – while Hamilton was out of town – Paris met up with Avery and their mutual friend, driving around in an automobile while consuming alcohol and marijuana. Eventually Paris and Avery went into Avery and Hamilton's home. Paris left the house at some point but returned after making a call on a pay telephone. Avery then shot Paris, called the sheriff's department and reported that she "shot an intruder." When the police arrived, Paris was dead in Avery's house. In June 2005, Avery was charged with first-degree murder. At trial, Avery wanted to admit evidence Paris was a registered sex offender to demonstrate that he was an initial aggressor. The trial court ruled the evidence was not admissible under State v. Gonzales, 153 S.W.3d 311 (Mo. banc 2005). She was convicted of the lesser-included offense of voluntary manslaughter and armed criminal action and was sentenced to concurrent prison sentences of 15 years and 35 years, respectively. Avery appeals.

Avery argues the trial court violated her rights to due process and a properly instructed jury because it gave the state's voluntary intoxication instruction over her objection. She contends that the instruction lacked evidentiary support she was intoxicated, that giving the instruction prejudiced her because it likely misled the jury to believe she admitted to some wrongdoing and was attempting to escape liability based on intoxication, and that the instruction negatively would affect her credibility – the key issue at trial. Avery asserts the trial court denied her rights to due process, to a fair trial and to present a defense. She argues the trial court abused its discretion in excluding evidence Paris was a registered sex offender because her theory of defense, presented through instructions for self-defense and defense of premises, was that she was defending herself from an attack by Paris. The fact that Paris was a registered sex offender, she contends, was relevant evidence to establish whether Paris was the aggressor and whether he was attempting to assault Avery sexually when he attacked her. Avery asserts the state "opened the door" to such evidence when one of its witnesses testified that Paris was a "good guy."

The state responds the trial court did not err in submitting the voluntary intoxication instruction because there was substantial evidence to support an inference that Avery was voluntarily intoxicated. It argues the trial court did not plainly err in refusing to admit evidence Paris was a registered sex offender because Avery’s offer of proof was insufficient and she made no argument to rebut the state's good character evidence about Paris at trial and, therefore, did not preserve the error for appeal. ..Source..

AR- Action News 5 Investigates: Sex Offender Street

3-5-2009 Arkansas:

CRITTENDEN COUNTY, AR (WMC-TV) - Each afternoon the school bus drops kids off at the Lakeshore Trailer Park in Crittenden County.

"I do have six children," neighbor Elgie Sanders said. "They want to come out and play, but I don't let them come outside."

"They just want to lock their doors and forget about sex offenders," neighbor Pamela Hollingsworth said.

Sex offenders have clustered in the trailer park because of the success of law enforcement in West Memphis and Marion in making sure they don't live in areas they are not allowed in.

"There is a law that says you cannot reside within 2,000 feet of a property public or private or elementary school," said Mike Allen, assistant chief of the West Memphis Police Department.

That Arkansas law also includes day care centers, both public and licensed in-home day cares.

"It's pretty much ran anyone from being in the corporate city limits of West Memphis," Allen said.

It is much the same for the city of Marion.

"They've done a wonderful job of ridding their cities of sex offenders," said Tommy Martin of the Crittenden County Sheriff's Department. "Unfortunately, most of them have moved out in the county."

Which takes us back to Lakeshore Trailer Park, where Martin says many sex offenders have clustered. An Action News 5 investigation discovered several registered sex offenders sharing homes at several different locations - 15 in all.

Elgie Sanders and her six children moved into Lakeshore a few months ago. She says nobody told her about the sex offenders.

"They don't need to be here either, because there's a lot of kids stay up around here, and I see a bunch of them playing, but not mine," she said. "I don't let them outside."

It's the only place for sex offenders to go if they want to stay in Crittenden County, and law enforcement tells me the sex offenders are checking in like they are supposed to.

One of those sex offenders, Charles Yarbrough - a convicted rapist - was murdered in his Lakeshore trailer last month. The sheriff's department says the murder does not appear to have anything to do with the fact that Yarbrough was a sex offender. ..Source.. by Janice Broach

NC- Authorities say woman fatally shot boyfriend at home

3-2-2009 North Carolina:

A New Hanover County woman was charged with second-degree murder Tuesday in connection with the shooting death of her boyfriend, a sheriff's office spokesman said.

Betty Louise Malpass, 47, was taken into custody Tuesday after deputies responded to a shooting at her home at 210 Flemington Road, off U.S. 421 North. She is being held in the New Hanover County jail under a $500,000 secured bond and was scheduled to appear in district court this morning, deputies said.

The victim, Shane Allen Holloway, 31, was pronounced dead after he was taken to New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington with a single gunshot wound, said 1st Sgt. T.L. Fuss of the sheriff's office. Holloway was shot with a .22-caliber rifle about 11 a.m., Fuss said.

Holloway's father, Jasper, arrived at the scene shortly after Tuesday's shooting, following a telephone call from his 34-year-old son, also named Jasper, who lives next door to the home where Shane Holloway was killed. The father said he immediately jumped into his truck at the news and traveled from Castle Hayne, leaving his oxygen tank behind. Frustrated by the lack of information from deputies, Holloway left to be with his son at the hospital.

"My heart is going a million miles per hour," he said, as he was leaving for the hospital. "I need to be with him."

Holloway's employer Mike Akers said he also was called by the victim's brother about noon, informing him that Holloway had been shot in the chest with a rifle. Akers, who said he regularly drove Holloway home after work, said he was told a dispute had erupted between Holloway and Malpass that ended in gunfire.

"All I can say is he was a hard worker," Akers said.

Sheriff's deputies blocked Flemington Road as crime scene units were brought in to investigate. Meanwhile, about half a dozen neighbors mulled around the nearby Pine View Church yard, where they were left waiting, unable to return to their homes.

Holloway's criminal history includes convictions for drug possession, attempted child abuse, breaking and entering , as well as numerous larcenies that date back to 1995, according to the North Carolina Department of Correction.

Neighbor Sue Floyd said she had been concerned about Holloway living in the neighborhood after learning he was a registered sex offender. Holloway's name and photograph appear on the sheriff's office's sex offender Web site, which lists his address as 210 Flemington Road.

Deputies responded to a domestic disturbance call at the Flemington Road address in February, said Brenda Hewlett , acting director of the county 911 center. ..Source.. by Arelis Hernandez, Star-News Intern

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New Hanover Co. Woman pleads guilty to killing boyfriend in 2007

3-2-2009 North Carolina:

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WECT) - A two-year-old murder case ended in a New Hanover County courtroom Monday after a woman charged with murdering her boyfriend put in a guilty plea.

48-year-old Betty Louise Malpass pleaded guilty to charges of voluntary manslaughter in the death of her boyfriend, 31-year-old Shane Allen Holloway.

A plea agreement called for Malpass to serve up to 9 years in prison.

Neighbors say the couple had gotten into an argument and the victim handed her a gun and told her to shoot him - so she did. They say she was in the heat of the moment and her emotions got the best of her.

Holloway died later that day at the hospital on August 7, 2007.

The couple lived on Flemington Drive and neighbors said they could constantly hear yelling and screaming from inside the home.

According to the North Carolina Department of Corrections, Holloway was a registered sex offender and had been convicted of several charges, including child abuse and drug possession.

Neighbors say it's rare when a domestic abuse case turns deadly and women would turn a gun, rather than turn to a friend for help.

As part of the plea agreement, Malpass will have a mental health assessment in order to pursue treatment for depression. ..Source.. by Lynda Figueredo