Murder accused 'told of stabbing'

It may be difficult to see why this case is included until you read the very end of the article (see highlights).

6-22-2009 United Kingdom:

A teenager accused of murdering a father-of-four told family members he had stabbed him, a court has heard.

Raymond Black, 48, was found lying in a pool of blood in his Carluke home in January, while his two-year-old daughter slept in another room.

At the High Court in Aberdeen the uncle of accused Peter Allen, 19, said he had told him he had cut Mr Black's throat.

Mr Allen pled not guilty to a charge of murder, defeating the ends of justice and destroying evidence.

Uncle's evidence

The court heard how the teenager had arrived at his uncle's house at Unitas Crescent in Carluke on 12 January, next door to Mr Black's house, with blood-soaked trainers on the night of the alleged attack.

Giving evidence against his nephew, Barry Allen said he had asked what had happened.

The uncle told the court: "He stared right through me, talking mumbo jumbo. He said he'd murdered Raymond Black.

"I was a wee bit frightened of him. He had a different expression on his face. The lights were on but he wasn't there.

"He did say he cut his throat and said 'he's a beast anyway or something like that'."

Asked why he or his partner did not contact the police, he answered: "He was that out of his face and I didn't want to believe it."

Defending, Donald Findlay QC questioned the relationship between Mr Black and the accused.

The court heard that Peter Allen would go round to Mr Black's house to drink alcohol and smoke cannabis.

Charges denied

Mr Findlay asked Barry Allen: "What is the attraction for a 48-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy to be friends? It isn't usual?

"The accused then said something along the lines of 'he was a beast anyway', what did you take from that?"

Barry Allen replied: "Interfering with children."

Mr Findlay added: "The name of a child molester?"

Mr Allen said: "Yes."

Peter Allen is alleged to have repeatedly punched and kicked Mr Black on the head and body before striking him with a knife or knives and a lamp standard.

He is also charged with trying to defeat the ends of justice by concealing a bloodstained jacket in a refuse bin and destroying evidence.

The trial continues. ..Source.. by BBC

China: Woman is hailed for killing her rapist

6-10-2009 China:

Deng Yujiao, a 21-year-old woman, has received heroine-like status after killing a Chinese official after rejecting his sexual advances. Murder charges have been dropped.

Deng Yujiao, a 21-year-old pedicurist from Badong (Hubei), killed a Deng Guida, a major town official in Badong county on 10 May, wounding another. The young woman said she was asked to perform special (sexual) favours and tried to defend herself against rape after she refused to comply. For many in China she has almost acquired heroine status, the symbol of a population that has grown tired of widespread corruption in government.

Deng Yujiao’s predicament began when she tried to defend herself against an official who wanted sexual favours and who pushed her onto a sofa when she refused. In fighting back she grabbed a fruit knife and fatally stabbed Deng Guida. Her arrest on murder charges sparked a public outcry because many saw her as acting in self-defence against officials who were abusing their privileges.

Last week police in fact dropped murder charges, saying she had acted in self-defence, albeit with “excessive force”. Now she is in a psychiatric hospital but those who have visited her say she is doing well.

A group of women human rights activists went to Badong to determine what happened, but they were followed by police throughout as if there was something sinister about their trip.

The case has generated a wave of sympathy across the country and the web has been swamped by messages of solidarity and sympathy for the “daughter of the people” who fought back against an important official.

Women’s groups, human rights organisations and lawyers have also come out in her favour.

Newspapers initially covered the incident but fell silent once the government decided otherwise out of embarrassment for another scandal involving public officials.

For years Chinese leaders have pledged zero tolerance against corruption. Arrests have been made and trials involving people in high places.

But for experts the war against corruption in China can only be won if citizens’ rights are protected against the frequent abuses by corrupt officials. ..Source.. by Asia News

Two paedophiles murdered in Italy

7-28-1999 Italy:
Two convicted paedophiles have been shot dead near their homes in Naples, shortly after being released from prison pending an appeal.

The first murder took place on Monday, when Ciro Falanga - sentenced to 13 years in jail for his part in running a paedophile ring - was shot dead by gunmen outside his shop. The following day, Pasquale Sansone was shot by two masked gunmen in his motorcycle repair workshop. He had been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The two dead men were among 17 people, including five women, who were found guilty by a Naples court earlier this year of organising the systematic sexual abuse of children from an elementary school in a Naples suburb.

Many of the children are still suffering severe psychological problems.

Parents of the children involved were angry that those held responsible were being released from jail on a legal technicality. The prosecution failed to prove its case that the accused had drugged their victims.

Mafia link

Prosecutors say they fear other acts of revenge, as most of those released from jail are back living in the same streets as their former victims. Police believe that the killings may have been ordered by the local Mafia as a way of currying favour.

In some areas of southern Italy, summary justice is regularly dispensed by organised crime bosses. The lengthy procedures and delays of Italy's criminal law system are legendary.

In criminal cases involving children, people who take the law into their own hands often receive popular support.

A local Roman Catholic priest said that everyone knew that the convicted leaders of the paedophile gang would be killed, and blamed the Italian legal system.

"The state put guns into the killers' hands," Fr Francesco Gallo, a priest in the Naples suburb of Poverelli told reporters.

"This isn't over yet. People don't understand how people who have been convicted of such serious crimes can be free to walk around their neighbourhood. They feel exposed to all sorts of risks," Fr Gallo said. ..more.. by David Willey

FL- Tampa Crime Stoppers seeks four in June 13 homicide

6-19-2009 Florida:

TAMPA — A reward is being offered for anyone with information leading to the arrest of four people sought in a June 13 homicide, according to Crime Stoppers of Tampa Bay.

On that date at about 3:30 a.m., 54-year-old Walter George Patey was found near N Elmore Street and E Adalee Street in Tampa. According to Crime Stoppers, a witness saw Patey get out of a light-colored car occupied by four other people. One of them hit Patey on the head with something while another shot him in the chest.

Patey died. He was a registered sex offender with a GPS monitor, which allowed Tampa police to track his location before his death.

Based on that information, police know that Patey was in Ybor City from about 7:40 p.m. June 12 until about 3 a.m. June 13. The GPS signal was lost near E Palm Avenue and N 10th Street, leading police to believe that was where the assailants picked up Patey.

Those sought are described as a 6-foot-2 black man in his early thirties with long dreadlocks; a 5-foot-9 black man in his early twenties with short hair; a 5-foot-7 black man also in his early twenties with bushy dreadlocks; and possibly a female driver.

Police say the vehicle is a four-door late-'80s, early-'90s cream-colored Oldsmobile or Buick.

Crime Stoppers asks anyone with information about the case to call 1-800-873-8477, report anonymously online at www.crimestopperstb.com or text CSTB plus your tip to C-R-I-M-E-S (274637). Crime Stoppers is offering $1,000 if information leads to an arrest. ..Source.. by CrimeStoppers

ME- Inmate's death ruled a homicide

6-10-2009 Maine:

WARREN (June 10): Maine State Police have ruled that the April 24 death of an inmate at the Maine State Prison was a homicide.

Sheldon Weinstein, 64, from New Hartford, N.Y., died of blunt force trauma, the state Medical Examiner's Office confirmed Wednesday.

Weinstein suffered the injuries while at the prison, according to a news release issued Wednesday by Maine Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland.

Weinstein had been sentenced in October to eight years in prison with all but two years suspended for gross sexual assault against a 7-year-old. Before his incarceration, he had been living in Berwick, where his criminal offense occurred.

He had been transferred to the Warren prison from the Maine Correctional Center in Windham eight days before his death.

Maine State Police detectives have been coordinating the investigation with Department of Corrections investigators and have interviewed a number of inmates and corrections personnel since the death. The autopsy was conducted on April 26 and the State Medical Examiner's Office confirmed Wednesday that the cause of death was blunt force trauma.

Three employees of the Maine State Prison are on paid administrative leave as an investigation continues into the death of the prisoner.

Prison Warden Jeffrey Merrill did not go into details but said it was not uncommon to place employees on leave during an investigation. He said last week that once the investigation was complete, a decision would be made on whether other actions needed to be taken.

The warden could not be reached for comment Wednesday after the state police announced the homicide determination. ..Source.. by Stephen Betts, The Herald Gazette Associate Editor

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Police: Child molester’s death ruled a homicide

6-10-2009 Maine:

WARREN, Maine — Just four days after his April 16 transfer to the Maine State Prison in Warren, Sheldon Weinstein suffered the blunt force injuries that would kill him.

On Wednesday morning, the Maine State Police said Weinstein’s April 24 death was a homicide.

Weinstein, 64, of New Hartford, N.Y., was serving a two-year sentence for gross sexual assault on a child in Berwick. Details of his death were scanty, and police said the investigation is continuing.

“These things unfold, and they don’t always unfold immediately,” Lt. Gary Wright of the Maine State Police said Wednesday.

After an autopsy conducted on April 26, the state medical examiner’s office confirmed Wednesday that the cause of death was blunt force trauma.

Wright said authorities had interviewed corrections officers, staff and other inmates. No one has yet been charged with the crime, and Wright said it isn’t the policy of the state police to discuss suspects, the weapon or the circumstances around the blunt force assault.

“We’re not concerned that it’s anything outside the facility,” he said. “We’re getting a pretty good grip on things.”

Three employees of the Maine State Prison were placed on administrative leave after the April 20 incident, said Denise Lord, associate commissioner of the Department Of Corrections.

“The decision to place employees on administrative leave [is] a result of a personnel investigation, not as a result of the Maine State Police homicide investigation,” Lord said.

Weinstein, who once owned a condominium at Samoset Resort in Rockport, was arrested last summer in New Hartford. He confessed to the sexual assault and was extradited to Maine, according to Berwick police Capt. Jerry Locke.

Locke said Wednesday that Weinstein sexually assaulted the child, a young girl, approximately between Jan. 1, 2000 and Dec. 31, 2004.

Weinstein pleaded guilty last fall to a Class A felony charge of gross sexual assault on a victim under the age of 16, according to the New Hampshire newspaper Foster’s Daily Democrat. He was sentenced on Oct. 24 at York County Superior Court to eight years in prison with all but two years suspended. He also was sentenced to four years probation once he was released from the Maine state prison system. He initially served time at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham but later was transferred to the maximum-security facility in Warren.

According to Lord, the number of prisoner assaults at the Maine State Prison has been declining. She said she is “fairly certain” that Weinstein’s slaying is the first homicide at the Maine State Prison’s new facility in Warren. The old state prison building in Thomaston was the scene of some high-profile crimes, including the slaying of inmate Larry L. Richardson in 1990. Richardson was convicted of child molestation and was “unspeakably tortured” and finally murdered by his cellmate after a three-day “kangaroo court” conducted by inmates, according to a 1993 report from the Maine Attorney General’s Office.

“Overall, it’s a relatively safe facility,” Lord said of the prison in Warren.

In accordance with department policy, officials have reviewed the incident that led to Weinstein’s death in case there were “lapses in practice or protocols,” Lord said.

“We do have a responsibility for prisoners who either believe, or ask, to be placed in what we call protective custody — a housing assignment that assures their safety,” she said. “Our policy is to afford protective custody to all prisoners who need it.”

Efforts to reach a Weinstein family spokesman or locate an obituary were unsuccessful. ..Source.. by Abigail Curtis, BDN Staff

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Inmates attacked, killed sex offender

7-4-2009 Maine:

State police launch an investigation into the death of a man convicted of assaulting a young girl.

The state medical examiner has concluded that a 64-year-old sex offender found dead at the Maine State Prison in April was the victim of a homicide, apparently at the hands of one or more prisoners.

Sheldon Weinstein, who was in a wheelchair, died April 24 of blunt force trauma, according to the medical examiner's report. It does not specify which parts of Weinstein's body were injured.

The Maine State Police have launched a homicide investigation and the Department of Corrections is conducting a personnel investigation into the incident. Some prison workers are on administrative leave pending the outcome of the personnel inquiry.

Police say the attack took place four days before Weinstein's death, on April 20. He had been transferred from the Maine Correctional Center in Windham to the state prison in Warren on April 16 because there is a rehabilitation facility there, and he had been injured in a fall.

"We have interviewed numerous individuals, inmates and staff. We feel like we're starting to get our arms around things," said state police Lt. Gary Wright, head of detectives for central Maine. "There's information being developed. ... Every few days we get a tidbit here and there.

"We're hoping our other resources we're working with, like the crime lab, can provide us with some evidence to tighten up the investigation."

Wright said the facility is equipped with security cameras, but he would not comment further on evidence in the case.

Investigators and Department of Corrections officials would not say what kind of medical attention Weinstein received after the attack.

Weinstein's estranged wife, Janet Weinstein, said she has been unable to learn about the medical attention or whether he had expressed any fear for his safety.

"I don't know if it was a head injury or internal bleeding or what it was," she said by telephone Wednesday. "Over time it got worse and he died. Don't they have doctors there?"

She said Weinstein was keenly aware of the animosity prisoners felt toward someone convicted of gross sexual assault on a child. At Windham, Weinstein wrote that he kept to his room and didn't join other inmates for recreation time to avoid the "punks" who would harass him because of his crime, Janet Weinstein said.

Sheldon Weinstein, who is from New Hartford, N.Y., was arrested in 2007 and was serving a two-year term for sexually assaulting a young girl in Berwick.

Janet Weinstein was notified about her husband's death the night he died, though the prison official who contacted her said it appeared to be of natural causes. But then the official, whose name she did not recall, started asking questions, she said.

"He was asking questions of myself and Shelly's sister that sort of led me to believe that Shelly had asked for protection," she said.

In Windham, sex offenders are segregated, but they are not in Warren, although requests to be segregated can be made, according to Janet Weinstein.

"He would definitely have opted for some kind of segregation," she said.

The prison does not inform inmates of the crimes of other prisoners, but they often find out, officials said.

The prison's medical provider is Correctional Medical Services, which also provides care at other state facilities.

Associate Corrections Commissioner Denise Lord said the state recently renewed its contract with CMS at the prison for two years, and said that in each state facility that has been accredited by a national inspection team, including Maine State Prison, CMS has been part of that review.

Lord would not say whether the workers placed on leave from the prison are guards, medical staff or both. She said prison officials are troubled by the incident.

"I think I speak for the warden when I say everyone there wants a safe facility for everyone, not just some people," Lord said. "I think the testament to that is we have very few incidents of this magnitude."

Department of Public Safety Spokesman Steve McCausland said there is no indication that any guard is responsible for Weinstein's death.

Janet Weinstein said she heard nothing from Sheldon after he was transferred to Warren. He had fallen from a top bunk in Windham, breaking a shoulder and leg in multiple places.

"This could have been avoided. This was wanton disregard for his safety ... wanton disregard for his need for help after he was injured," she said.

She said police told her that one or more people would be charged in Weinstein's death, but she said that's small comfort since whoever did it is already in prison.

"What are they going to do to them, take their dessert away from them?" she said. ..Source.. by DAVID HENCH, Staff Writer

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Police: Child molester’s death ruled a homicide

6-10-2009 Maine:

WARREN, Maine — Just four days after his April 16 transfer to the Maine State Prison in Warren, Sheldon Weinstein suffered the blunt force injuries that would kill him.

On Wednesday morning, the Maine State Police said Weinstein’s April 24 death was a homicide.

Weinstein, 64, of New Hartford, N.Y., was serving a two-year sentence for gross sexual assault on a child in Berwick. Details of his death were scanty, and police said the investigation is continuing.

“These things unfold, and they don’t always unfold immediately,” Lt. Gary Wright of the Maine State Police said Wednesday.

After an autopsy conducted on April 26, the state medical examiner’s office confirmed Wednesday that the cause of death was blunt force trauma.

Wright said authorities had interviewed corrections officers, staff and other inmates. No one has yet been charged with the crime, and Wright said it isn’t the policy of the state police to discuss suspects, the weapon or the circumstances around the blunt force assault.

“We’re not concerned that it’s anything outside the facility,” he said. “We’re getting a pretty good grip on things.”

Three employees of the Maine State Prison were placed on administrative leave after the April 20 incident, said Denise Lord, associate commissioner of the Department Of Corrections.

“The decision to place employees on administrative leave [is] a result of a personnel investigation, not as a result of the Maine State Police homicide investigation,” Lord said.

Weinstein, who once owned a condominium at Samoset Resort in Rockport, was arrested last summer in New Hartford. He confessed to the sexual assault and was extradited to Maine, according to Berwick police Capt. Jerry Locke.

Locke said Wednesday that Weinstein sexually assaulted the child, a young girl, approximately between Jan. 1, 2000 and Dec. 31, 2004.

Weinstein pleaded guilty last fall to a Class A felony charge of gross sexual assault on a victim under the age of 16, according to the New Hampshire newspaper Foster’s Daily Democrat. He was sentenced on Oct. 24 at York County Superior Court to eight years in prison with all but two years suspended. He also was sentenced to four years probation once he was released from the Maine state prison system. He initially served time at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham but later was transferred to the maximum-security facility in Warren.

According to Lord, the number of prisoner assaults at the Maine State Prison has been declining. She said she is “fairly certain” that Weinstein’s slaying is the first homicide at the Maine State Prison’s new facility in Warren. The old state prison building in Thomaston was the scene of some high-profile crimes, including the slaying of inmate Larry L. Richardson in 1990. Richardson was convicted of child molestation and was “unspeakably tortured” and finally murdered by his cellmate after a three-day “kangaroo court” conducted by inmates, according to a 1993 report from the Maine Attorney General’s Office.

“Overall, it’s a relatively safe facility,” Lord said of the prison in Warren.

In accordance with department policy, officials have reviewed the incident that led to Weinstein’s death in case there were “lapses in practice or protocols,” Lord said.

“We do have a responsibility for prisoners who either believe, or ask, to be placed in what we call protective custody — a housing assignment that assures their safety,” she said. “Our policy is to afford protective custody to all prisoners who need it.”

Efforts to reach a Weinstein family spokesman or locate an obituary were unsuccessful. ..Source.. by Abigail Curtis

CO- Charged sex offender shot to death in Colorado Springs

Case solved, the victim killed him. See below.

Extortion - Blackmail

6-3-2009 Colorado:

The body found Monday in Palmer Park has been identified as Jon Hazard, 43, who was to face trial next week. Hazard was charged with ten felonies including sexual assault with a pattern of abuse, sexual assault on a child from a person in a position of trust, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Yesterday, the El Paso county coroner ruled that Hazard died from multiple gunshot wounds. Hazard’s shooter is still at large.

Hazard’s car is still missing, and police are asking for the public's help in locating the 2009 white Hyundai Sonata with license plates 124-RRU. Hazard's body was discovered by a park caretaker on Monday, and Lt. David Whitlock has confirmed the park as the crime scene. ..Source by Glorianne Scott

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Man found dead in Palmer Park faced sex assault charges

6-3-2009 Colorado:

A man who whose body was found Monday in Palmer Park was scheduled to go to trial on Tuesday for sexually assaulting a teenager multiple times.

Jon R. Hazard, 43, was found dead in the northeast part of the park with multiple gunshot wounds. He worked for Halliburton Trucking and lived in Colorado Springs and Grand Junction.

According to the arrest affidavit, the15-year-old girl told police she met Hazard when she was between the sixth and seventh grades. She was friends at the time with his sons when they lived in the same neighborhood in Colorado Springs.

The girl told investigators Hazard blackmailed her into the relationship using a video of her making out with a friend and threatened to show it to her mother if she didn't send him explicit pictures of herself.

In early 2008, the two went to a hotel, according to the affidavit, where she awoke to find Hazard sexually assaulting her. She ran into the bathroom where she stayed the rest of the night.

A similar incident at a hotel happened a few months later, police said, after Hazard gave the girl alcohol. She continued to send him nude pictures by cell phone and Hazard took photos of her in a motel room, police said. Last July, she went with Hazard to Grand Junction, where she was found by her mother and told her story to police.

A phone call in which Hazard admits molesting the girl and asking her if she was trying to get him arrested was tape recorded by police.

Hazard was arrested in December. Police have not said if they believe his death is related to the sexual assault charge.

His death was ruled a homicide by the El Paso County Coroner's Office. It is the 15th homicide in Colorado Springs this year.

Police are still looking for Hazard's car, a white 2009 Hyundai Sonata, bearing Colorado plates 124-RRU. Anyone with information about Hazard's death or the whereabouts of his car is asked to call police at 444-7000, or Pikes Peak Area Crime Stoppers at 635-7867. ..Source.. by MARIA ST.LOUIS-SANCHEZ, THE GAZETTE

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Teen pleads guilty to killing sex assault suspect

4-12-2010:

A 16-year-old Colorado Springs girl pleaded guilty today to manslaughter for shooting to death a man who was accused of sexually assaulting her.

As a result of a plea agreement, the girl will get two years' probation plus mandatory counseling when she is sentenced on May 25 in El Paso County juvenile court by Magistrate D. Denise Peacock.

The girl is currently in a residential treatment center in Denver. She has been in custody since July 13 when Colorado Springs Police arrested her on investigation of murder in the June 1 shooting of Jon R. Hazard whose body was found in a picnic area of Palmer Park. He was free on bond at the time.

Hazard, 43, died nine days before he was scheduled to stand trial. He had been accused of molesting the girl over a period of three years. When police arrested him and searched his home, investigators said they found several hundred sexually-explicit photographs and videos on his computer, including some of the girl.

The Gazette has withheld the girl’s name because the paper does not normally identify sexual assault victims.

The prospect of the girl not serving any time in prison for her guilty plea disappointed Hazard’s ex-wife, who had favored leniency for the youngster.

“I think there should be some sort of punishment there,” said Michelle Hazard Henderson, who divorced Hazard in 2000 and now lives in Texas with their two sons, ages 13 and 11. “I was asking for leniency, not complete and total forgiveness.”

“This has been a very odd situation for everyone,” Henderson added. “What he did to her was horrible.”

“I didn’t want her to get life or 50 years or even 10,” she said. But Henderson said she had hoped the girl would have been incarcerated at least until she turned 21.

Had the girl not met Hazard in the park that night and killed him, “he would have gotten a lot more time for abusing her than she would get for killing him,” Henderson said. She also questioned why the girl’s mother had allowed her to leave the house on the night of the shooting.

Previously, Henderson and her oldest son had sent letters to the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s office asking that the girl receive counseling and be treated like a victim as well.

“We both came to the conclusion that somehow it was self-defense and she did what she needed to do,” she told The Gazette in January. “We forgive her.”

The girl’s mother and grandparents were in the courtroom today as the youngster entered her plea, dressed in civilian clothes instead of the jail uniform she had worn at previous hearings. The girl’s lawyer, Ann P. Kaufman, declined comment after the hearing.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Kim Kitchen said the case was unlike any other that she has prosecuted. Prosecutors held off making a decision on whether to charge the youngster for several months while she underwent a series of psychological evaluations.

“We’ve worked a long time in coming up with this resolution,” Kitchen said. “I think it’s a good disposition.” ..Source.. by JOHN C. ENSSLIN

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Teen Girl Sentenced In Killing Of Her Accused Molester

5-25-2010 Colorado:

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- A 17-year-old Colorado Springs girl who pleaded guilty to shooting her accused molester to death was sentenced Tuesday afternoon.

As a result of a plea agreement, the girl will face two years of probation plus mandatory counseling. She will now reside in a residential treatment facility for two years.

Over the last year, the girl, who was 16 at the time of the assaults, has undergone evaluations and therapy.

Jon Hazard, 43, was found shot to death at a picnic area in Palmer Park on June 1, 2009. That was just a few days before he was set to stand trial for molesting the girl for about three years.

According to the arrest affidavit, the girl said Hazard provided alcohol for her and her friends and videotaped her making out with another boy. Hazard is accused of using that tape as blackmail to force the girl to engage in sexual activity.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Kim Kitchen said it was one of the most unique cases our office has seen in 25 years.

"We worked a long time in coming up with this resolution. We spoke with the police department, the victim's family, doctors, the Department of Human Services and probation. The facts of the case and the opinions of the individual parties were all taken into consideration." ..Source.. by Johnray Strickland

MD- THREE CHARGED WITH MURDER OF FELLOW INMATE

12-8-2008 Maryland:

Hagerstown, MD) – Three state prison inmates have been charged with murder after the assault of a fellow inmate earlier this year at the Hagerstown prison where they were all incarcerated ultimately resulted in the victim’s death.

Those charged are identified as James Proctor, 20, Robert Steingold, 51, and Chad Cirigliano, 29. As a result of indictments handed down by a Washington County grand jury, each inmate has been charged with first degree murder, second degree murder, first and second degree assault, robbery, theft under $500, conspiracy to commit robbery, conspiracy to commit first degree assault, and conspiracy to commit theft.

The victim is identified as Armando V. Fernandez, 48. The victim and each of those accused were fellow inmates at the Roxbury Correctional Institution in Hagerstown, when the assault occurred that led to the victim’s death.

On May 19, 2008, the Maryland State Police Homicide Unit was notified by the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services Internal Investigation Unit that an inmate who had been assaulted earlier in the year had died. An investigation into the death was then begun by Maryland State Police.

The investigation revealed that on the morning of February 22, 2008, Fernandez had been assaulted from behind while walking outside in the prison yard among a group of inmates. The assault caused Fernandez to fall and strike his head on the concrete sidewalk.

According to the State Police investigation, Fernandez was transported to the Washington County Hospital for treatment where he remained until granted a medical parole. He died at Sinai Hospital on April 26, 2008 and was buried in Prince George’s County on May 1, 2008.

Maryland State Police homicide investigators obtained an exhumation order for the victim’s body. The body was exhumed on July 15, 2008 and an autopsy was conducted the same day. The autopsy revealed the victim’s cause of death was blunt force trauma and the manner of death was homicide.

After numerous interviews and follow up investigative efforts, Maryland State Police homicide investigators worked with the Washington County State’s Attorney’s Office and presented evidence to a grand jury. The indictments handed down by the grand jury were served on the inmates on December 3rd, 4th, and 5th. The investigation continued immediately following service of the indictments.

A clear motive for the murder has not been established. The investigation indicated motives of dislike and theft were contributing factors.

All questions related to the involved inmates, including information about the sentences they were serving, should be referred to the Division of Correction. ..Source.. by Maryland State Police

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MD- Prison Inmate Who Killed Sex Offender Strikes Deal

6-8-2009 Maryland:

A second Maryland prison inmate has struck a plea deal in Hagerstown in the slaying of a child sex offender at the Roxbury Correctional Institution.

Twenty-one-year-old James Proctor pleaded guilty Monday to one count of conspiracy to rob 48-year-old Armando Fernandez. Proctor got 15 years added to his 11-year sentence for a Harford County burglary.

In return, prosecutors dropped other charges including first-degree murder.

Inmate Robert Steingold got the same sentence when he pleaded guilty in April to conspiring with Proctor and Chad Cirigliano to rob Fernandez.

Fernandez, of Prince George's County, died in April 2008, about two months after suffering a head injury.

The defendants were charged in November after police exhumed the body to gather evidence. ..Source.. by WBAL

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Second man plans plea deal in inmate's slaying

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) -- Court records indicate that a second Maryland prison inmate will plead guilty in Hagerstown in the slaying of a child sex offender inside the Roxbury Correctional Institution.

Twenty-one-year-old James Proctor's plea hearing was scheduled for Monday morning in Washington County Circuit Court.

Proctor is accused of fatally beating 48-year-old Armando Fernandez, of Prince George's County.

Fifty-one-year-old codefendant Robert Steingold pleaded guilty in April to a reduced charge of conspiring with Proctor and inmate Chad Cirigliano to rob Fernandez.

Fernandez died in April 2008, after nearly two months in a coma. The defendants were charged in December after state police exhumed Fernandez' body to gather evidence in he case. ..Source.. by WBFF Fox 45

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COURTS: Second man plans plea deal in inmate's slaying

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) — Court records indicate that a second Maryland prison inmate will plead guilty in Hagerstown in the slaying of a child sex offender inside the Roxbury Correctional Institution.

Twenty-one-year-old James Proctor's plea hearing was scheduled for Monday morning in Washington County Circuit Court.

Proctor is accused of fatally beating 48-year-old Armando Fernandez, of Prince George's County.

Fifty-one-year-old codefendant Robert Steingold pleaded guilty in April to a reduced charge of conspiring with Proctor and inmate Chad Cirigliano to rob Fernandez.

Fernandez died in April 2008, after nearly two months in a coma. The defendants were charged in December after state police exhumed Fernandez' body to gather evidence in he case. ..Source..

MS- Murder victim was convicted sex offender

UPDATED: 5-13-2011 Killer found and prosecuted!

6-2-2009 Mississippi:

The Sun Herald has confirmed that the murder victim from a weekend shooting in Moss Point was a convicted sex offender.

The state’s Sex Offender Registry shows that Silas Miller had been convicted of three sex crimes in California since 1974. The registry lists his age as 65 and his address as the 3600 block of Barnett Street, where he was shot Saturday night.

His prior convictions were rape, assault to commit rape and child molestation.

Miller and a neighbor were shot by an unidentifiable gunman who stood in the street as he fired first at Floyd Broadnax, then at Miller, who managed to make it just inside the front door of his home before he collapsed.

Broadnax, 40, was shot in an arm. He was treated and released to custody on a charge of failing to pay old fines. Detective Sgt. Joycelyn Craig said Broadnax’ arrest was unrelated to the shooting.

Miller had been shot before in an unsolved crime. Someone shot him twice in a leg as he rode his bicycle on Martin Luther King Boulevard in August.

Craig said police need to hear from anyone with information to help solve the weekend shooting. The shooter wore black clothes, a cap and a bandana over his face.

To give a tip, call police at 475-1711 or the Moss Point Tips Line, 474-TIPS (8477). ..Source.. by ROBIN FITZGERALD

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M.P. slaying victim was California sex offender

6-2-2009 Mississippi:

A Moss Point murder victim was convicted of child molestation in 1989. In 1974, he was convicted of rape and assault to commit rape.

The state’s Sex Offender Registry shows that Silas Miller, 65, of Barnett Street in Moss Point, was convicted of the sex crimes in Los Angeles County, Calif.

Police said they know of no connection between Miller’s criminal background and the shooting that took his life and wounded a neighbor on Saturday night.

“I have no reason at this point to say that,” said Moss Point Police Sgt. Joycelyn Craig. “We are still asking the public to call in with any tips.”

An autopsy on Tuesday showed Miller died of a gunshot wound to the chest.

“He was shot only one time,” said Jackson County Coroner Vicki Broadus.

Investigators believe that Miller’s neighbor, 40-year-old Floyd Broadnax, was shot first just after he noticed Miller returning home on his bicycle. Broadnax received medical attention for an arm wound and was taken into custody on an old-fines charge.

The shooter remains unidentified. Witness accounts put the gunman in the street as he fired and walked away. Police said he wore dark clothes, a cap and a bandana that hid most of his face.

The Sex Offender Registry shows Miller has been registering in Mississippi since 2001.

He had last verified his address on April 7, less than two months before he was killed.

Miller had been shot twice in a leg while riding his bicycle in August. That crime is unsolved. ..Source.. by ROBIN FITZGERALD

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6-14-2009 Mississippi:

MOSS POINT — A convicted felon was in jail Friday, accused in the May 30 shooting death of convicted sex offender Silas Miller, 65, outside his home on Barnett Street.

Moss Point Police Chief Sheila Smallman said Henry Lee Craig, 35, of Moss Point, was arrested late Thursday night through a joint effort between the Police Department and agents with the FBI Safe Streets Task Force. She said Craig was identified as a suspect after an extensive investigation that included the help of area residents.

According to witness accounts, Craig allegedly was in the street when he fired at Miller, killing him in a single shot. Miller was outside his home at the time. Shot and injured just prior to Miller was his neighbor, 40-year-old Floyd Broadnax, who was treated and later arrested for old fines.

Authorities said Craig had a history with Miller, allegedly having shot him in the past in the leg, though authorities said Miller did not sign charges against him at the time that could’ve resulted in his arrest. Craig later denied any involvement in the earlier shooting.

In addition, authorities said Craig had an extensive criminal record, having been arrested in the past on felony charges of aggravated assault, shooting into a dwelling, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and other offenses.

At the time of his arrest Thursday, Craig was out of jail on bond. On Friday, Craig’s bond was revoked, and he was being held in Jackson County’s maximum-security jail in Pascagoula.

“The more we work together, the more criminals we’re able to take off the streets and put behind bars where they belong,” Smallman said Friday. “My immediate concern has been and remains to be the safety of family, children and businesses of the city of Moss Point as well as meeting the needs of (the) …Department.

“The Moss Point Police Department has zero tolerance to the needless crimes and drug activity in our city. We will continue in our efforts to take back our streets and neighborhoods from the criminals, and regain the trust and support of our citizens.”

Authorities, including Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd, said there also was information to suggest that Craig disliked Miller for his past troubles involving sex crimes against minors.

The state’s sex offender registry showed that Miller was convicted of child molestation in 1989.

In 1974, he was convicted of rape and assault to commit rape.

Each of the sex crime convictions occurred in Los Angeles County, Calif. ..Source.. by MARGARET BAKER

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Testimony begins in Jackson County in killing of sex offender

8-24-2010 Mississippi:

PASCAGOULA — Henry Lee Craig never liked Silas Miller, a convicted sex offender nicknamed the “Ice Cream Man,” long before Craig shot Miller to death as he was trying to get in the door of his Moss Point home, according to testimony Tuesday.

Craig is on trial for murder this week in Jackson County before Senior Circuit Judge Kathy King Jackson.

“There is no question that Henry Craig did not like Silas Miller,” Craig’s attorney Calvin Taylor said. “It all started because his (Craig’s) son was molested. He didn’t like that Silas Miller sold ice cream and lived near a school.”

Miller, 65, died of a gunshot wound to the chest May 30, 2009. Long before that — in 1974 and again in 1989 in Los Angeles County, Calif. — Miller was convicted in two separate sex-crime cases.

After serving his time for both offenses, Miller eventually returned to his family home on Barnett Street, his sister Ionia Miller said.

District Attorney Tony Lawrence put numerous witnesses on the stand Tuesday, including Floyd Broadnax, a twice-convicted felon who said Miller shot him in the arm minutes before Craig shot Miller.

Broadnax, a police officer said Tuesday, is the man Miller said had shot him before Miller was taken away in an ambulance. Broadnax has denied any involvement in the killing.

Broadnax, 42, said he first encountered Miller just before dusk while he was talking with his cousin and his cousin’s girlfriend outside his aunt’s Barnett Street home. Miller, he said, rode up on a bicycle and started making “vulgar” comments within earshot of several children.

Miller was told to leave, Broadnax said, but instead smarted off before telling him, “I’ll shoot you.’”

“Then he shoved me in the chest,” Broadnax said. “I stepped back and I gave him one (a punch),” which knocked Miller to the ground. Broadnax said he kicked Miller several times and was preparing to punch him again when Miller shot him.

Broadnax said he took off running until he realized he’d been shot and then walked back to his aunt’s house. About the same time, he said, Miller was down the street and appeared to be unlocking the front door of his home.

“That’s when I saw Mr. Craig come out of nowhere and commence to shoot,” Broadnax said.

Taylor asked Broadnax if he’d killed Miller, but Broadnax denied the allegation.

Several other witnesses said they saw a man dressed in dark pants, a light-colored shirt and a hat standing in front of Miller’s home. Then, they said, they saw the same man turn and start walking away. The witnesses said they believe Craig was that man. ..Source.. by MARGARET BAKER - mbbaker@sunherald.com

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Jury convicts man in sex offender’s killing

5-11-2011 Mississippi:

PASCAGOULA -- A Jackson County jury deliberated for fewer than four hours Wednesday before finding Henry Lee Craig of Moss Point guilty of murder in the May 30, 2009, shooting death of sex offender Silas Miller.

Senior Circuit Judge Kathy King Jackson sentenced Craig to life in prison to run consecutively to the remainder of a 12-year sentence he’s serving for shooting into Miller’s home in 2007. No one was injured in that incident.

The Jackson County District Attorney’s Office said Craig told agents with the FBI Safe Streets Task Force after the killing he was glad Miller was dead because he didn’t consider him a human being.

“Mr. Craig decided to be the judge, jury and executioner in this case,” Assistant District Attorney Bobby Knochel said Wednesday. “No one is above the law and Henry Craig learned that today.”

Craig first went to trial on the murder charge in August 2010, but jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict, resulting in a mistrial.

Several witnesses identified Craig as the man they saw shoot Miller, 67, as he was attempting to go inside his house on Barnett Street in Moss Point.

When authorities arrived, Miller was still alive and told authorities another man, twice-convicted felon Floyd Broadnax, had shot him. Just prior to Miller being shot, he had gotten into an argument with Broadnax, and Miller had shot Broadnax in the arm.

Broadnax has testified he ran away once he was shot but later saw Miller attempting to go into his house. Broadnax fingered Craig as the man who shot Miller. Witnesses said Craig thought Miller was responsible for a recent rape of a then-7-year-old girl. Miller’s son, Maurice Miller, was convicted in that case.

Craig and Miller had several run-ins prior to the fatal shooting, including the 2007 shooting incident at Miller’s home. Craig has been serving his sentence for shooting into Miller’s home since his arrest in the murder.

District Attorney Tony Lawrence described Craig as a “dangerous individual,” with convictions for armed robbery, kidnapping and shooting into an occupied dwelling. ..Source.. by MARGARET BAKER