WV- Murder Trial Set for WV Man Accused of Killing Fellow Inmate

10-31-2009 West Virginia:

A man accused of killing a fellow inmate at the Preston County Jail in 2005 will stand trial next year.

Leonard Wotring III has pleaded not guilty in the first-degree murder of Timothy Daft, of Independence, who had been in the Kingwood jail on charges of sexually abusing a toddler.

Wotring was indicted last week, and his trial is set for January 12.

He is now an inmate at the Mount Olive Correctional Center, serving 3 to 15 years for the attempted murder of his grandfather.

Daft's family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit, claiming Daft was attacked by Wotring and other inmates. It claims then-Sheriff Ron Crites knew about the attack and did nothing, then concealed information from Daft's family.

The death was initially labeled a suicide. ..Source.. by WSHV.com

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Inmate indicted in jail hanging: Wotring charged with murder for '05 Preston crime

The last of three 2005 hangings that occurred in the Preston County Jail was not a suicide.

Timothy Daft, of Independence, was found hanging in a cell at the jail Aug. 3, 2005, and died at Ruby Memorial Hospital the next day. At the time, his death was ruled a suicide.

But Tuesday, a Preston County grand jury indicted Leonard Earl Wotring III, 25, for first degree murder in Daft's death.

"Mr. Wotring was charged with the murder of another inmate while both were incarcerated in the Preston County Jail," Preston County Prosecuting Attorney Mel Snyder said. "Timothy Daft's death at the time appeared to be a suicide, but evidence discovered later has now shown it to be a murder."

Wotring is serving time for attempted murder in the first degree. A resident of Terra Alta at the time, he entered his grandfather's bedroom, pointed a rifle at him and fired twice, according to the criminal complaint from November 2004.

In October 2005, he was sentenced to serve not less than three nor more than 15 years in prison. He was eligible for parole in August. That parole was denied, according to Snyder.

A correctional officer making rounds at the jail found Daft, who had been hanged with a pillowcase. He had been incarcerated in lieu of $50,000 bond, accused of sexually abusing a toddler.

An attorney representing Daft's brother, Russell Stuyvesant, filed a wrongful death suit against the Preston County Commission in October 2007. But Preston Circuit Court Judge Lawrance Miller ruled that a two-year statute of limitations had passed when the suit was filed. Stuyvesant's attorney appealed that decision to the West Virginia Supreme Court. The court upheld Miller's ruling. Daft's was the last of three hangings that occurred in the course of three weeks at the Preston County Jail. The jail was closed Aug. 5, 2005, when the Tygart Valley Regional Jail opened. ..Source.. by Michelle Wolford

CO- Was inmate death suicide or murder?

7-31-2009 Colorado:

In 2005, after being charged with sexual assault on a child and awaiting trial at the Jefferson County Detention Facility, Anthony Sims was so worried about his safety in prison that he asked, and was granted, to be housed in protective custody.

What Sims did not know, according to a lawsuit filed this week in the United States District Court of Colorado, was that nearby, just beyond a shared shower with faulty locks, a violent white supremacist Shawn Shields was being held. Shields had been transferred from the “Supermax” prison and was awaiting charges for assault on a cellmate.

Kathie Sims, Anthony’s mother, claims in the civil suit that because of the access provided by the broken shower locks, Shields was able to enter Sims’ cell and strangle him with a tube sock.

Sims’ death had been ruled a suicide by the Jefferson County Coroner and indeed Kathie was told there was nothing to suggest his death was a homicide. Yet as the Complaint points out, Sims had been badly beaten and his head was in a pool of blood.

Nearly 3 years after her son’s death, Kathie was contacted by an FBI agent whose “ investigation had determined that Anthony had not committed suicide, but had been murdered by a fellow inmate.”

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the Estate of Anthony Sims, is directed against the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners and sheriffs for failing to protect Sims while he was in their protective custody. The attorney for the plaintiff, David Lane, has also been in the news lately as the defense attorney for controversial professor Ward Churchill. ..Source.. by Glorianne Scott

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Jeffco DA probing inmate's '05 death

7-31-2009 Colorado:

The Jefferson County district attorney is investigating the death four years ago of a child-sexual-assault suspect in the county jail — a death initially ruled a suicide.

The investigation was prompted by a statement made by a prison inmate, who told the FBI that he killed Anthony Sims after manipulating a shared door between their cells that was supposed to be locked.

On Nov. 1, 2005, 20-year-old Sims was found with a tube sock tied around his neck, his body slumped face down over his cell bed with his legs on the floor.

The right side of his face was bruised and swollen.

After an investigation by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, the county coroner ruled Sims' death a suicide.

Then, in 2008, inmate Shawn Shields, 36, who is serving time in state prison on a variety of felony offenses until October 2028, told an FBI agent that he had killed Sims, after figuring out how to open a locked door between their cells.

Shields has yet to serve a pending 10-year federal sentence for beating another inmate on May 23, 2005, while in a holding cell at the U.S. District Court in Denver. The victim was beaten because he was a witness testifying against another inmate in a federal court case, records show.

An FBI agent notified Sims' mother, Kathie, of Shields' statement. On Wednesday, she filed suit against the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners, Sheriff Ted Mink and an unnamed deputy.

The lawsuit says Jefferson County failed to protect Sims from Shields, an inmate with a record of violence on other prisoners, described as a high-level member of a white supremacist prison gang.

Jefferson County sheriff's spokeswoman Jacki Kelley and County Attorney Writer Mott said Thursday that Shields' claims were investigated.

"We don't believe the story and don't believe the inmate was killed at the hands of another inmate at our facility," Kelley said. "The doors were tested, and we could not replicate or duplicate what this inmate said occurred."

Shields is not charged with homicide. Sims' death remains classified as a suicide in Jefferson County.

But while the Sheriff's Office has discounted Shields' claims, there is an open investigation into Sims' death by the district attorney.

Pam Russell, spokeswoman for the district attorney, acknowledged the probe but said she could not elaborate.

David Lane, attorney for Kathie Sims, said more investigation is clearly needed.

"He beat himself to a pulp before he tied a sock around his neck and strangled himself to death? It's ridiculous," Lane said.

The lawsuit says Shields and other inmates knew how to manipulate the doors in the shared shower between the administrative segregation unit, where Shields was housed, and the protective-custody unit, where Sims was held. ..Source.. by Felisa Cardona

CA- Petaluma suspect shot 27 times

10-9-2005 California:

5 officers fired total of 42 rounds in 2 volleys at child molest suspect who pointed loaded gun at police
2005 California

A suspected child molester killed by Petaluma police last weekend was shot 27 times after he pointed a loaded handgun at officers, authorities said Friday.

Five officers fired 42 rounds, striking 72-year-old James Anthony Decosta over much of his body, including his head, neck and chest.

Petaluma Police Chief Steve Hood said the officers risked their own lives while standing down an armed fugitive.

He said the 42 shots were necessary to stop Decosta, who had led officers on a brief car chase last Saturday before pulling over in an industrial park.

Hood said officers began firing on Decosta when the ex-Marine got out of a car and pointed a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun at them.

When Decosta lowered the gun, Hood said, the officers stopped firing and shouted for him not to raise it again. Decosta ignored the order, raising the weapon a second time, prompting more gunfire from the officers, Hood said.

Hood said he doesn't know if Decosta was struck by the initial volley. Decosta's gun, which contained three rounds, apparently jammed, but police said it's not known if he tried to fire or if it was misloaded or damaged when he fell.

"Clearly, it took that many shots to end the threat," Hood said. "The restraint officers showed after the first series of shots put them at risk. Had it not been for the malfunction, we could have easily had an officer shot, which I believe was his (Decosta's) intent."

The shooting is being investigated by Santa Rosa police and the Sonoma County district attorney per a protocol governing officer-involved shootings.

"From all the information I've received from investigating agencies . .. it appears that our officers acted in an appropriate manner and consistent with their training," Hood said.

Petaluma police went into greater detail about the shooting Friday in response to information released by the Sonoma County coroner revealing that Decosta was shot 27 times.

An autopsy Monday showed Decosta was shot in the head, neck, chest, abdomen, groin, left arm, left leg and right foot. Five of the shots could have proved fatal on their own, authorities said.

Six shots grazed Decosta, Sheriff's Lt. Dave Edmonds said.

Most of the entry wounds were on the left side of Decosta's body, suggesting he was hit as he was turning on officers who had pulled up behind his car. Hood called that "speculation."

He said officers were attempting a high-risk traffic stop, which involves an overwhelming show of force so that the suspect gives up.

The five officers, riding in four cars, fanned out behind Decosta's car in such a way as to prevent them from accidentally firing at one another and minimizing risk to civilians, Hood said.

"The ultimate success depends on compliance from the suspect, which in this case, the suspect immediately exited his car and was confrontational," he said.

Petaluma police, along with a Sacramento police detective and a special agent with the state Department of Justice, had been searching for Decosta since the day before the shooting.

Sacramento authorities had recently learned that Decosta might be cashing Social Security checks in Petaluma. He had been sought since 1998 on a $100,000 arrest warrant accusing him of child molestation.

Sacramento Police Sgt. Justin Risley said Friday that the case involved allegations Decosta had raped and sodomized his 10- and 11-year-old stepdaughters.

"He packed everything and left before she (Decosta's wife) realized it," Risley said. "We investigated it and were never able to locate him."

After spotting Decosta at a gym on Old Corona Road, two Petaluma detectives radioed for two uniformed officers to stop Decosta's car. They were joined in the pursuit by another officer when Decosta didn't stop.

During the two-minute, seven-second chase, officers noted Decosta seemed to be reaching for something in his car, Hood said. They also learned from a dispatcher moments before Decosta pulled over that he had a weapon registered in his name.

Bob McMenomey, the use-of-force commander for the Sheriff's Department, said deputies are trained to use deadly force to protect themselves or others from an immediate threat of death or serious injury.

In situations where deputies resort to firing their gun, McMenomey said, "you shoot until you perceive the threat has been stopped, until it is no longer a threat."

All the officers involved in Saturday's shooting were carrying semiautomatic .40-caliber Glock handguns, which usually have 10 to 15 rounds.

Most U.S. law enforcement agencies switched to semiautomatics from revolvers after shootouts in the 1970s and 1980s in which officers were outgunned.
Lt. Danny Fish, who oversees special operations for Petaluma police, said officers don't carry semiautomatics because they are easier to fire but because they are more technologically advanced.

"We try to provide our people with the best item out there," he said. "Right now, that's semiautomatic weapons." ..more.. by DEREK J. MOORE, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

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5 police officers on paid leave after shooting molestation suspect

10-5-2005 California:

The Petaluma Police Department will be operating indefinitely without the services of five officers due to the fatal shooting of a suspected child molester on Saturday. The officers -- Rick Cox, 33; Garrett Glaviano, 26; John Lipanovich, 30; Dan Miller, 33; and Mike Pierre, 35 -- were placed on indefinite, paid administrative leave, as is typical when officers are involved in shootings that are being investigated. "This is standard practice, but the length of leave is left up to individual departments," said Sgt. Dave Negri of the Santa Rosa Police Department. Petaluma Police Capt. Dave Sears says that the officers' absence will not affect services.

"We have enough staff (68 officers) to take care of our needs," he said. James Anthony Decosta, 72, wanted since 1998 on a $100,000 felony warrant for forced child molestation, was shot and killed by Petaluma police officers at around 5 p.m. after allegedly exiting his Ford coupe with a handgun, said police department sources. An agent from the California Department of Justice in Sacramento and a Sacramento Police Department detective tracked Decosta to Petaluma, and asked Petaluma police for help. DeCosta has a brother who lives in Petaluma. Petaluma police detectives found him leaving the Peta-luma Valley Athletic Club at 85 Corona Road after working out, and requested help from uniformed police officers.

They attempted to stop his vehicle, and he initially cooperated, but then led them on a brief chase, stopping in the area of North McDowell and Dynamic streets. The officers eventually were able to make a "high-risk" traffic stop, which typically includes officers drawing their guns before a suspect exits a vehicle. Decosta, a former resident of Sacra-mento, stepped out of the Ford coupe with a semiautomatic pistol and pointed it at officers, police said. Nine officers were at the scene, and Cox, Glaviano, Lipanovich, Miller and Pierre fired shots at him.

Paramedics and police officers administered CPR on Decosta, who later was transported by ambulance to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. An autopsy was being performed on Tuesday. The California Department of Justice agent and the Sacramento police detective who had been attempting to find Decosta -- who was charged with committing forced, lewd and lascivious acts on a juvenile under the age of 14 -- arrived at the scene after the shooting. ..Source.. by DAN JOHNSON, ARGUS-COURIER STAFF

WA- Killings of 2 Bellingham sex offenders may have been by vigilante, police say

This documents one (Hank Eisses) of the two deaths that night. The story of the other sex offender murdered (Victor Vasquez) is HERE

8-30-2005 Washington:

BELLINGHAM — Last Friday night, a man claiming to be an FBI agent dropped in on three Level 3 sex offenders living together, supposedly to warn them of an Internet "hit list" targeting sex offenders.

The man was not an FBI agent, but he may have been enforcing a hit list of his own creation.

Two of the roommates were found dead early Saturday of gunshot wounds, and Bellingham police are investigating a crime that authorities say may be one of the nation's most serious cases of vigilantism aimed at sex offenders.

The killings also highlight a potential problem about Washington's 1990 law requiring sex offenders to register their addresses so the public can keep track of them.

Bellingham Police Chief Randall Carroll said it is too early to conclude that Hank Eisses, 49, and Victor Vasquez, 68, were killed because they were sex offenders. Police released a sketch of the suspect, who is still at large.

Note: See what Vasquez's daughter has to say about her father's murder.

But Carroll noted that their address — and descriptions of their crimes — were posted on the city's Web site, and if someone used that information to target Eisses and Vasquez, it could have a broad impact.

"Certainly if sex offenders were targeted and attacked because of their offense, the Legislature could decide they could repeal our sex-offender notification law," Carroll said.

Eisses owned the house where the killings took place, and had rented rooms for the past three years to Vasquez and James Russell, 42.

Russell was there the night the suspect showed up, but he soon left to go to work. When he returned about 3 a.m., he told police, he found his roommates dead. Based on their estimated time of death, and the fact that Russell was at work, he is not considered a suspect, according to police. Results of an autopsy are expected later this week, Carroll said.

Vasquez was convicted in 1991 of molesting several relatives. According to court documents, his victims endured regular abuse, sexual and otherwise. He was on Department of Corrections supervision at the time of the murder.

Russell was convicted in 1994 of molesting a 3-year-old girl, and released from DOC supervision about three weeks ago after serving 5 ½ years in prison.

While the public is understandably concerned about sex crimes, Kit Bail, a DOC official, said the three men have been quiet, law-abiding offenders while living together. None of the three had violated supervision conditions, she said, and none had reoffended.

"In a sense, they are a success story," said Bail, the DOC's field supervisor for Whatcom County. "These guys were doing fine. They were employed. They were living according to the conditions."

The killings, she said, should "not be the basis on which we change the laws on registration, but if it is a vigilante act, it gives one pause. It gives me concern about other Level 3 sex offenders living responsibly — or even irresponsibly — in the community. Murder is not the response anywhere."

A fake FBI agent

Eisses was sentenced to 5 ½ years in prison in 1997 for raping a 13-year-old boy at his home in Sumas, near the Canadian border. He was released from DOC supervision about two years ago, Bail said.

He bought a blue house with a white picket fence in Bellingham's Columbia neighborhood — about a half-mile from a middle school — with the help of Theodore Kingma. In a brief interview, Kingma said he met Eisses at church. "He confessed his sins, and he lived right with God and the neighbors," said Kingma. "That's all I know."

It is unclear how Eisses met Russell and Vasquez. One of Russell's relatives said Russell's sex-offender status made it difficult to find a place to live until he moved in with Eisses.

According to police, Russell said a man wearing a blue jumpsuit and a hat with an FBI logo dropped by at about 9 p.m. on Friday to warn the trio of the alleged "hit list."

There were no FBI agents in the neighborhood that day, prompting the bureau to open an investigation of impersonation, said FBI spokeswoman Robbie Burroughs. The case does not qualify for federal hate-crime prosecution because the law does not appear to cover sex offenders, she said.

Too much information?

In response to a series of vicious sex crimes against children, Washington became the first state to require sex offenders to register their address upon release from prison. Level 3 offenders like Eisses, Vasquez and Russell, considered the most likely to commit a new crime, must register for life.

Since then, most states and the federal government have passed similar mandatory-notification laws.

A searchable, statewide database maintained by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs provides block-specific addresses for Level 2 and 3 offenders. Other municipalities — including Bellingham — go further by giving exact addresses.

That information has led some to take the law into their own hands. In 1993, Joseph Gallardo planned to move into his family's home in Lynnwood after serving about three years for the statutory rape of a 10-year-old girl.

The home was burned after neighbors heard of Gallardo's plan. He then planned to move to New Mexico but encountered fierce protests there. He returned to Lynnwood, where he still lives. He has not been convicted of another crime.

John La Fond, a lawyer who fought the notification law on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union, said posting sex offenders' addresses "almost becomes a confession by the state that they cannot keep the society safe from harm, and invites society to take matters into its own hands."

In researching a 2005 book on notification laws, he found dozens of assaults and harassment against sex offenders. Eisses and Vasquez, he said, may be the first deaths.

Don Pierce, head of the police-chiefs association, said the case will renew the debate on publishing sex offenders' addresses.

"I think there are risks and this may prove to be an example of one of those risks," said Pierce. "I also think the public and Legislature have said there's a risk to the general public if they don't know with specificity where a sex offender lives." ..more.. by Mike Carter and staff researcher Miyoko Wolf contributed to this report.

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Police Say Idaho Case Inspired Sex Offenders' Killer

9-7-2005 National

SEATTLE -- The man who confessed to slaying two registered sex offenders in Bellingham told police that he was outraged by the recent case of Joseph Edward Duncan III, a convicted sexual predator being held in Idaho.

Michael Anthony Mullen, 36, made a brief court appearance Tuesday in Whatcom County Superior Court, about 80 miles north of here, after turning himself in to Bellingham police Monday afternoon.

A longtime resident of Whatcom County with a history of petty crimes, Mullen faces charges in the Aug. 26 shooting deaths of Hank Eisses, 49, and Victor Vasquez, 68. Both victims were Level III sex offenders, considered the most likely to commit similar crimes again. Mullen's arrest all but ended fears that a vigilante was on the loose targeting other registered sex offenders in the Bellingham area.

"It's a relief that he's not running around anymore with who-knows-what on his mind, probably more of the same," said Bellingham Mayor Mark Asmundson, who was informed of Mullen's arrest just minutes after it happened.

According to police, Mullen called 911 from a Bellingham restaurant and confessed to the murders. He was arrested and questioned for "hours and hours," said Bellingham police Lt. Craige Ambrose.

Investigators said Mullen provided details of the crime that only the killer would know, such as the caliber of the weapon and the way in which each victim was shot: once in the head. Ambrose said that during the interview Mullen repeatedly "came back around to the Idaho incident," referring to the Duncan case.

"Let's just say he was influenced by what happened there," Ambrose said. Duncan, a 42-year-old convicted sex predator from Tacoma, Wash., is in Kootenai County, Idaho, awaiting trial for the murders of four people and the kidnapping of two children in May near Coeur D'Alene. Duncan is being investigated in the deaths of other children across four states.

Less than two weeks after Duncan's case made national headlines, police said Mullen got on a Whatcom County Website that listed the names and addresses of all Level III sex offenders in the county.

Eisses and Vasquez lived with a third sex offender in a little green house on Northwest Avenue. According to earlier reports, the suspect had entered the victims' home, just north of downtown Bellingham, impersonating an FBI agent. The suspect told the men there was a "hit list" targeting sex offenders and that he was there to warn them.

The third man left for work with the suspect still in the house. When he returned home from work, the man found his housemates dead. Eisses had been convicted of child rape, Vaquez, of child rape and molestation. Both men had committed their crimes in Whatcom County.

On Aug. 31, five days after the murders, the Bellingham Herald received a letter from someone claiming responsibility for the killings and threatening to kill all other Whatcom County sex offenders designated as Level III. The county has 31 registered Level III offenders, including four in Bellingham, which has a population of 71,000.

Police said Mullen has confessed to sending the letter, and told investigators that more letters would soon be arriving at other media outlets. Ambrose said he did not know the content of those letters.

Ambrose said Mullen, a big man standing at 6-foot-5-inches and weighing nearly 250 pounds, had no known history of violence but had an extensive history of theft and other property crimes. Mullen had no permanent address, police said.

The slayings stirred debate over the 1990 state law requiring sex offenders to register their addresses. Washington was the first state to pass such a law, which is intended to help the public keep track of dangerous sexual predators. Congress mandated that states create registers of sex offenders. Now all 50 states have their own version of Washington's Community Protection Act.

Supporters say the public has a right to know about such offenders, but opponents argue that publicizing exact addresses invites vigilantism and prevents sexual offenders from leading normal lives. ..more.. by AP

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Sketchy details released on inmate death

9-15-2007 Washington

Michael Mullen, a Stafford Creek Corrections Center inmate who died in April, was determined to have died of pneumonia, but the manner of death is undetermined because “acute mild drug toxicity” is a contributing factor, according to Grays Harbor County Coroner Ed Fleming. Initially, the Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Department indicated they believed Mullen had committed suicide.

Mullen, from Bellingham, had an extensive law enforcement history, mostly involving minor crimes. But he was at Stafford Creek for the high-profile murder of two Level Three sex offenders, whom he found on a local sex offender registry Web site. He killed the two men after showing up at their home posing as an FBI agent, a ruse he said he used to confirm that the men were indeed sex offenders and to determine if they were sincerely repentant.

Fleming said Mullen had ingested prescription drugs, but the coroner would not say which drugs. “It’s a medical privacy issue,” he said. And he would not say whether the doses were therapeutic or not.

“There was enough medication, but not enough to cause the death directly,” Fleming said.

Instead, Fleming said, the immediate cause of death was lobar pneumonia, an illness in which an infection of the lungs causes them to fill with fluid, interfering with the body’s ability to absorb oxygen.

An official at the State Patrol, which handles the toxicology tests, said they were unable to discuss test results.

The Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office preliminarily believed Mullen, 37, had taken his own life, basing that on a lack of blunt force trauma and because of writings recovered from the dead man’s cell. Mullen was in the intensive management unit, where he did not have contact with other inmates.

Chad Lewis, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections, said the department was still putting the pieces together to figure out what led to Mullen’s death. An investigation is still under way, and the corrections department does not comment on open investigations, Lewis said.

Mullen died on the night of April 15, two hours after being found unresponsive in his cell. The prison’s Health Care Unit gave him first aid until emergency crews arrived. ..more.. by Callie White - Daily World Writer

CA- Prosecutor: Accused Killers Of Convicted Molester 'Proud Of What They Did'

9-24-2008 California:

Defense: Accused Were Looking To Intimidate, Not Maim Inmate

INDIO, Calif. -- Lawyers representing four of five men charged in the killing of a fellow inmate told an Indio jury Wednesday that their clients did not intend to kill the convicted child molester, but wanted to intimidate him into seeking protective custody to get him moved.

But prosecutor Anthony Orlando disputed the defense version of what happened at Chuckawalla State Prison near Blythe on June 21, 2005, saying two of the defendants beat Michael Green so savagely that he never regained consciousness, and all five were in on the plan and "proud of what they did."

Security was tight as the trial got under way at the Larson Justice Center for Robert James Deffenbaugh, 27, Frank George Barbosa, 55, Jack Stewart Woller, 23, Reggie Allan Bullock, Jr., 25, and Johnnie Dalerae Johnson, 29.

Nine sheriff's deputies positioned throughout the courtroom of Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan.

Green suffered severe head trauma when beaten in a bathroom in the C Yard, 7 building, according to court documents. He was transported to Palo Verde Hospital in Blythe and then moved to the critical care unit at a UC San Diego hospital, where he remained unresponsive.

The 45-year-old Los Angeles man's family made the decision to take him off life support systems several days later.

The prosecutor told jurors that many offenses are accepted by the general prison population, but convicted child molesters are "in trouble."

Orlando said it's routine for prisoners to ask a new inmate for "paperwork" when they arrive in the yard, which he said Deffenbaugh and Woller did to the victim.

Green told them he did not have his papers, but information that he was in custody on a child molestation conviction was passed on to Barbosa, the "shot- caller," who then ordered Bullock and Johnson to "take him out," the prosecutor alleged.

That night after "last count," Bullock and Johnson followed Green into the bathroom and savagely beat him, Orlando alleged.

Bullock's attorney, Melanie Roe, said the case is not "black and white" and has two parts -- the assault, and what she contended was delayed -- and lacking -- medical care to Green.

"There are no eyewitnesses to this incident, and stories vary," Roe said in her opening statement.

She told jurors that "evidence will show no person charged intended to kill him (Green)." Instead, the intention was to get him moved to another facility to finish out his sentence, she said.

John Patrick Dolan, who is defending Woller, said his client was on hand when Green was approached and asked for "paperwork." Woller was silent or "maybe said a few words as he stood around," the attorney said.

Dolan said his client, who is doing time for a car theft conviction and had been due to be paroled in a few months, did nothing wrong. He was following an "honor among thieves or a code of honor," where inmates ask for paperwork to determine the bottom order -- child molesters and rapists, the lawyer said.

"The intention of asking (is) to get them ... to ask for protective custody," which would remove them from interacting with prisoners who consider child molesters the lowest type of criminal, Dolan said.

James Silva, who is representing Barbosa, denied his client was the "shot caller," as alleged by the prosecution.

"Barbosa is not guilty of conspiracy with any of these individuals," Silva told jurors. "He did not give the order to assault Green."

Johnson's attorney, Cameron Quinn, said his client was a "short- timer" who, at the time of the attack, was soon to be released.

"It did not make sense for his to subject himself to this," Quinn said.

The attorney told jurors that placing a child molester in the general prison population tends to "stir things up."

Quinn said the term used by inmates is to "roll up" someone they want moved -- but that means to "rough up ... beat someone up to get him out, and not to kill them."

Deffenbaugh's attorney did not make an opening statement.

The trial, which is expected to last five or six weeks, is in recess until Monday, when testimony is scheduled to begin. ..News Source.. by KNBC.com

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Testimony concludes for inmates suspected of killing prisoner

10-8-2008 California:

Testimony concluded today in the trial of five prisoners whose attorneys maintain their clients had wanted to intimidate a convicted child molester into seeking protective custody to get him moved out of their cellblock, but had not intended to kill him.

Prosecutor Anthony Orlando disputes the defense version of what happened at Chuckawalla State Prison near Blythe on June 21, 2005. He told jurors earlier in the trial that two of the defendants beat Michael Green so savagely that he never regained consciousness, and all five were in on the plan and ``proud of what they did.''

All of the defendants -- Robert James Deffenbaugh, 27, Frank George Barbosa, 55, Jack Stewart Woller, 23, Reggie Allan Bullock Jr., 25, and Johnnie Dalerae Johnson, 29, are charged with murder.

Closing arguments are scheduled for a week from today at the Larson Justice Center, in the courtroom of Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan.

Over the past two weeks, inmates, prison officials and medical experts have been called to the witness stand to be questioned by attorneys in the case.

James Silva, who represents Barbosa, said outside the courtroom this afternoon that the prosecution ``has elected to proceed on the theory ... that the natural probable consequence of the assault was the crime of murder in the second-degree.''

``We will argue that all the defendants are not guilty as to second-degree murder, and ... that the prosecutor has (not) proved his case beyond a reasonable doubt,'' Silva said.

Green suffered severe head trauma when beaten in a bathroom in the C Yard, 7 building. He was transported to Palo Verde Hospital in Blythe and then moved to the critical care unit at a UC San Diego hospital, where he remained unresponsive.

The 45-year-old Los Angeles man's family made the decision to take him off life support systems several days later.

Orlando told jurors at the outset that many offenses are accepted by the general prison population, but convicted child molesters are ``in trouble.''

Orlando said it's routine for prisoners to ask a new inmate for ``paperwork'' when they arrive in the yard, which he said Deffenbaugh and Woller did to the victim.

Green told them he did not have his papers, but information that he was behind bars for child molestation was passed on to Barbosa, the ``shot-caller,'' who then ordered Bullock and Johnson to ``take him out,'' the prosecutor alleged.

That night after ``last count,'' Bullock and Johnson followed Green into the bathroom and savagely beat him, Orlando told the panel.

Bullock's attorney, Melanie Roe, has said the case is not ``black and white'' and contended that medical care to Green was delayed.

``There are no eyewitnesses to this incident, and stories vary,'' Roe said in her opening statement.

She told jurors that ``no person charged intended to kill him (Green).'' Instead, the intention was to get him moved to another facility to finish out his sentence, she said.

Attorney John Patrick Dolan, who represents Woller, said previously said his client was on hand when Green was approached and asked for ``paperwork.''

Woller was silent or ``maybe said a few words as he stood around,'' the lawyer said.

Dolan maintains that his client, who is doing time for a car theft conviction and had been due to be paroled in a few months, did nothing wrong.

He was following an ``honor among thieves or a code of honor,'' where inmates ask for paperwork to determine the bottom order -- child molesters and rapists, the lawyer said.

``The intention of asking (is) to get them ... to ask for protective custody,'' which would remove them from interacting with prisoners who consider child molesters the lowest type of criminal, Dolan told jurors earlier.

Silva has denied that his client, Barbosa, was the ``shot caller,'' as alleged by the prosecution.

``Barbosa is not guilty of conspiracy with any of these individuals,'' Silva told jurors earlier. ``He did not give the order to assault Green.''

Johnson's attorney, Cameron Quinn, previously said his client was a ``short-timer'' who, at the time of the attack, was soon to be released.

``It did not make sense for his to subject himself to this,'' Quinn said.

The attorney told jurors that placing a child molester in the general prison population tends to ``stir things up.''

Quinn previously said the term used by inmates is to ``roll up'' someone they want moved -- but that means to ``rough up ... beat someone up to get him out, and not to kill them.''

..News Source.. by Desert Sun Wire Service

GA- Suspect in carjacking a molester (killed by passerby)

Posted in Related Deaths

9-17-2005 Georgia:

The carjacker-kidnapper shot dead Monday by a passer-by in Cobb County had a conviction for sex crimes and has been tentatively connected to a rape last week in Acworth, police said Tuesday.

Despite his conviction for child molestation and statutory rape, Brian O'Neil Clark, 25, does not appear in the state's database for sexual offenders, and state officials were at a lost to explain why.

As details came out about her abductor Tuesday, so too did a picture of the victim. Kimberly Boyd, 30, was kidnapped at gunpoint shortly after leaving her office Monday morning, police said. She died when Clark turned into the path of a cement truck, causing a collision.

Friends say she was considering a shift from working mother to stay-at-home mom.

Investigators also revealed that Boyd had been shot as she struggled with her abductor. The coroner did not detail the extent of her wound, but police believe she was alive when the cement truck hit her Toyota Sequoia broadside.

As Clark was fleeing that accident, he was shot dead by motorist Shawn Roberts, who had seen Boyd and Clark struggling and followed as the car careened down U.S. 41 in Acworth. Cobb police Lt. Kevin Flynn, said Tuesday that Roberts, 31, was cooperating and appeared to have acted lawfully.

Roberts said he believes that killing Clark probably saved more lives.

Clark had a history of criminal offenses in Cherokee and Cobb counties, according to police and court records.

In April 2002, he was arrested in Illinois and returned to Georgia to face child molestation, statutory rape and burglary charges in Cobb, where he received an 18-month sentence, jail records show.

In Cherokee, Clark was convicted in 2004 of first-degree forgery and was released June 13 after a year in state prison.

Family, friends mourn

Clark had been placed on the sexual offenders database operated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigations after his conviction in Cobb, GBI spokesman John Bankhead said. He was removed from the list while serving time for the forgery conviction, but should have been added after his release three months ago, Bankhead said.

"It's very peculiar that he isn't" on the list, Bankhead said Tuesday. "We're investigating to find out why."

As the police probe continues, the stunned community is reaching out to Boyd's grieving family and friends, who remember her as a dedicated family woman.

"She wanted to stay home with her kids and just be a mom," recalled Kathy Key-Reynolds, who runs a Budget rental office in Kennesaw. Boyd had asked her about six months ago to take over her truck rental business.

"I keep going through what happened and wondering if I had taken her store, would she have been home [Monday] morning and this somehow could have been avoided? It's a real tragedy."

A steady stream of family and friends dropped by the five-bedroom brick home where Boyd lived with husband Michael, stepson Nathan, 13, and their children: Connor, 5, and Chloe, 2. Guests sobbed as they embraced family members in the driveway.

"Kim was a wonderful mother. She loved life, her children, her husband," longtime family friend Tom Boggess said, breaking down. "I don't know of an enemy she ever had."

About 9:30 a.m. Monday, 911 calls began coming in from motorists who saw Boyd fighting with a man inside her Toyota SUV and also along Cobb Parkway near Lake Allatoona, police said.

"She fought for her life in those final moments, I'm sure of it," Boggess said.

Roberts lives about a mile from the Boyd home. He stopped by Monday night, and Boyd's husband thanked him, Boggess said.

That same night, Michael Boyd sobbed as he told his children their mother wasn't coming home, Boggess said.

"They're torn to pieces," Boggess said. Connor "keeps saying his misses his Emmy," the nickname he gave to his mother, he said.

Through family members, Michael Boyd declined to be interviewed but thanked the community for its support.

"We must have received 300 calls so far," Boggess said.

"We're all still in shock," said Scott Ryder, Boyd's brother-in-law. "All I'm going to say is this is obviously something that girl did not deserve."

A 1992 Wheeler High School graduate, Kimberly Diane McCollum married Michael Boyd about eight years ago, Boggess said. Two years ago, they moved into a new home in Bentwater, a sprawling golf community that straddles Paulding and Cobb counties.

Suspect linked to rape

Tuesday afternoon, the Budget truck rental store on Cherokee Street in Acworth was closed. Key-Reynolds, Boyd's friend and business associate, placed a dozen roses on the sidewalk outside. The card read: "Kim, we remember you kindly."

Meanwhile, Acworth police said Clark meets the description of a man who raped and carjacked an Acworth woman last week.

"Further evidence has been confirmed linking Clark to the rape," said Acworth police Officer Wayne Dennard. "However, DNA results from the GBI Crime Lab confirming he is last week's attacker will not be available for some time."

In the Sept. 6 attack, a man confronted the victim as she walked out onto her front porch. He forced her back into the house, raped her and then made her drive to withdraw money from a bank ATM, Dennard said.

Instead, the woman ran inside the bank, and the man, who the victim said had a gun and a knife, drove off in her Honda Accord, Dennard said. A gun recovered at Monday's crime scene may have been taken in last week's attack, Dennard said. ..more.. by CHANDLER BROWN, DON PLUMMER

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Reluctant hero recalls fateful day

As he raced on foot across busy Cobb Parkway last year, armed with a .380 semiautomatic pistol, Shawn Roberts thought briefly that his actions might not be viewed as politically correct.

On that September morning, Roberts was chasing a carjacker, hoping to rescue a woman who had been abducted along with her sport utility vehicle a short time before.


Unknown to him, Kimberly Boyd, the 30-year-old owner of the hijacked SUV, was already dead, killed in a traffic collision moments earlier.

From about 15 feet away, Roberts recalled, the carjacker climbed from the wreckage and headed toward a gas station. As Roberts closed in, he said, the man turned and pointed a .40 caliber handgun at him. Roberts fired, hitting Brian O'Neil Clark with three shots, killing him.

Clark, 25, had been convicted of child molestation, statutory rape and burglary. He'd been released from prison three months earlier.

Roberts said he realized, even at the time, that what he did was controversial.

"It's not [politically correct] to run around in public wielding a handgun, but it's sometimes necessary," he said. "And [it's] our moral responsibility — not just [that of] the police — [to] defend other lives when we can."

Roberts, who owns a company installing media rooms for metro businesses, said he didn't expect to be hailed a hero by people who called from all over the country.

He insists he simply did what he had to do.

"[Clark] was running toward a gas station wearing a bandana around his face and [with] a gun in his hand. He would have carjacked another person, and it could have been worse," Roberts said in a recent interview.

In April, a Cobb County grand jury cleared Roberts of possible criminal charges. A jury spokeswoman cited a section of Georgia law that justifies the use of deadly force by a person "who reasonably believes" it is necessary to prevent death or serious injury to themselves, another person, "or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony."

Kimberly Boyd, who owned a truck rental company in Acworth, had dropped her young son off at school that morning and driven to her office in a strip mall, where police believe she was carjacked in the parking lot.

Five miles from her office, Boyd used her ATM card to withdraw money from a machine outside a bank. Police say she was under duress at the time. On Cobb Parkway, the carjacker pulled over to the roadside, where he and Boyd struggled.

Roberts said he was passing in traffic when he saw Clark hit the woman with his fist and a gun. Roberts told police that when he saw Clark shove her into the back of the Toyota SUV, take the wheel and speed away, he chased them.

A half-mile into the chase, Clark tried to make a sharp left turn. A cement truck northbound on the parkway crashed into the SUV, killing Boyd.

The spot where she died is near a bridge over the Allatoona Reservoir — since renamed the Kimberly Boyd Memorial Bridge by the Legislature.

Clark scrambled from the wreckage after the accident and ran, Roberts said.

When Roberts saw Clark raise his pistol, he said, "I thought I was about to die in about five seconds ... I knew I had to shoot."

When Clark fell, Roberts said he dropped his pistol and waited for authorities.

The Glock pistol found near Clark's body linked him to another violent crime six days earlier, when he used similar methods, according to Acworth police Sgt. Wayne Dennard.

The weapon had been stolen from a woman who was confronted on her porch, raped at her home and then forced to drive to her bank's ATM to withdraw money. In that case, the victim escaped into the bank a block from Kimberly Boyd's business, and the rapist fled in her car.

Dennard said evidence showed that Clark was the offender. "He matched the description given by the rape victim, and by another witness in the neighborhood," he said.

Mike Boyd, Kimberly's husband, lobbied after her death for panic codes that could alert authorities when anyone used an ATM machine under duress. That effort has been unsuccessful, but Boyd did persuade state legislators to strengthen laws on sex offenders by mandating longer sentences and stricter monitoring once they got out of prison. Although state law at the time required all sex offenders to register after their releases, Clark never had.

The law passed in April imposes a mandatory minimum 25-year sentence for violent sex offenders and requires certain designated "sexual predators" to wear electronic monitors for the rest of their lives.

"This should significantly reduce the chances of any more Brian Clarks falling through holes in the system," Boyd said. "If we'd had it last year, proper registration and tracking of Brian Clark would have saved Kimberly's life." ..Source.. by ajc.com (Archive)

WA- Killings of 2 Bellingham sex offenders may have been by vigilante, police say

This documents one (Victor Vasquez) of the two deaths that night.

8-30-2005 Washington:

BELLINGHAM — Last Friday night, a man claiming to be an FBI agent dropped in on three Level 3 sex offenders living together, supposedly to warn them of an Internet "hit list" targeting sex offenders.

The man was not an FBI agent, but he may have been enforcing a hit list of his own creation.

Two of the roommates were found dead early Saturday of gunshot wounds, and Bellingham police are investigating a crime that authorities say may be one of the nation's most serious cases of vigilantism aimed at sex offenders.

The killings also highlight a potential problem about Washington's 1990 law requiring sex offenders to register their addresses so the public can keep track of them.

Bellingham Police Chief Randall Carroll said it is too early to conclude that Hank Eisses, 49, and Victor Vasquez, 68, were killed because they were sex offenders. Police released a sketch of the suspect, who is still at large.

Note: See what Vasquez's daughter has to say about her father's murder.

But Carroll noted that their address — and descriptions of their crimes — were posted on the city's Web site, and if someone used that information to target Eisses and Vasquez, it could have a broad impact.

"Certainly if sex offenders were targeted and attacked because of their offense, the Legislature could decide they could repeal our sex-offender notification law," Carroll said.

Eisses owned the house where the killings took place, and had rented rooms for the past three years to Vasquez and James Russell, 42.

Russell was there the night the suspect showed up, but he soon left to go to work. When he returned about 3 a.m., he told police, he found his roommates dead. Based on their estimated time of death, and the fact that Russell was at work, he is not considered a suspect, according to police. Results of an autopsy are expected later this week, Carroll said.

Vasquez was convicted in 1991 of molesting several relatives. According to court documents, his victims endured regular abuse, sexual and otherwise. He was on Department of Corrections supervision at the time of the murder.

Russell was convicted in 1994 of molesting a 3-year-old girl, and released from DOC supervision about three weeks ago after serving 5 ½ years in prison.

While the public is understandably concerned about sex crimes, Kit Bail, a DOC official, said the three men have been quiet, law-abiding offenders while living together. None of the three had violated supervision conditions, she said, and none had reoffended.

"In a sense, they are a success story," said Bail, the DOC's field supervisor for Whatcom County. "These guys were doing fine. They were employed. They were living according to the conditions."

The killings, she said, should "not be the basis on which we change the laws on registration, but if it is a vigilante act, it gives one pause. It gives me concern about other Level 3 sex offenders living responsibly — or even irresponsibly — in the community. Murder is not the response anywhere."

A fake FBI agent

Eisses was sentenced to 5 ½ years in prison in 1997 for raping a 13-year-old boy at his home in Sumas, near the Canadian border. He was released from DOC supervision about two years ago, Bail said.

He bought a blue house with a white picket fence in Bellingham's Columbia neighborhood — about a half-mile from a middle school — with the help of Theodore Kingma. In a brief interview, Kingma said he met Eisses at church. "He confessed his sins, and he lived right with God and the neighbors," said Kingma. "That's all I know."

It is unclear how Eisses met Russell and Vasquez. One of Russell's relatives said Russell's sex-offender status made it difficult to find a place to live until he moved in with Eisses.

According to police, Russell said a man wearing a blue jumpsuit and a hat with an FBI logo dropped by at about 9 p.m. on Friday to warn the trio of the alleged "hit list."

There were no FBI agents in the neighborhood that day, prompting the bureau to open an investigation of impersonation, said FBI spokeswoman Robbie Burroughs. The case does not qualify for federal hate-crime prosecution because the law does not appear to cover sex offenders, she said.

Too much information?

In response to a series of vicious sex crimes against children, Washington became the first state to require sex offenders to register their address upon release from prison. Level 3 offenders like Eisses, Vasquez and Russell, considered the most likely to commit a new crime, must register for life.

Since then, most states and the federal government have passed similar mandatory-notification laws.

A searchable, statewide database maintained by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs provides block-specific addresses for Level 2 and 3 offenders. Other municipalities — including Bellingham — go further by giving exact addresses.

That information has led some to take the law into their own hands. In 1993, Joseph Gallardo planned to move into his family's home in Lynnwood after serving about three years for the statutory rape of a 10-year-old girl.

The home was burned after neighbors heard of Gallardo's plan. He then planned to move to New Mexico but encountered fierce protests there. He returned to Lynnwood, where he still lives. He has not been convicted of another crime.

John La Fond, a lawyer who fought the notification law on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union, said posting sex offenders' addresses "almost becomes a confession by the state that they cannot keep the society safe from harm, and invites society to take matters into its own hands."

In researching a 2005 book on notification laws, he found dozens of assaults and harassment against sex offenders. Eisses and Vasquez, he said, may be the first deaths.

Don Pierce, head of the police-chiefs association, said the case will renew the debate on publishing sex offenders' addresses.

"I think there are risks and this may prove to be an example of one of those risks," said Pierce. "I also think the public and Legislature have said there's a risk to the general public if they don't know with specificity where a sex offender lives." ..more.. by Mike Carter and staff researcher Miyoko Wolf contributed to this report.

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Police Say Idaho Case Inspired Sex Offenders' Killer

9-7-2005 National

SEATTLE -- The man who confessed to slaying two registered sex offenders in Bellingham told police that he was outraged by the recent case of Joseph Edward Duncan III, a convicted sexual predator being held in Idaho.

Michael Anthony Mullen, 36, made a brief court appearance Tuesday in Whatcom County Superior Court, about 80 miles north of here, after turning himself in to Bellingham police Monday afternoon.

A longtime resident of Whatcom County with a history of petty crimes, Mullen faces charges in the Aug. 26 shooting deaths of Hank Eisses, 49, and Victor Vasquez, 68. Both victims were Level III sex offenders, considered the most likely to commit similar crimes again. Mullen's arrest all but ended fears that a vigilante was on the loose targeting other registered sex offenders in the Bellingham area.

"It's a relief that he's not running around anymore with who-knows-what on his mind, probably more of the same," said Bellingham Mayor Mark Asmundson, who was informed of Mullen's arrest just minutes after it happened.

According to police, Mullen called 911 from a Bellingham restaurant and confessed to the murders. He was arrested and questioned for "hours and hours," said Bellingham police Lt. Craige Ambrose.

Investigators said Mullen provided details of the crime that only the killer would know, such as the caliber of the weapon and the way in which each victim was shot: once in the head. Ambrose said that during the interview Mullen repeatedly "came back around to the Idaho incident," referring to the Duncan case.

"Let's just say he was influenced by what happened there," Ambrose said. Duncan, a 42-year-old convicted sex predator from Tacoma, Wash., is in Kootenai County, Idaho, awaiting trial for the murders of four people and the kidnapping of two children in May near Coeur D'Alene. Duncan is being investigated in the deaths of other children across four states.

Less than two weeks after Duncan's case made national headlines, police said Mullen got on a Whatcom County Website that listed the names and addresses of all Level III sex offenders in the county.

Eisses and Vasquez lived with a third sex offender in a little green house on Northwest Avenue. According to earlier reports, the suspect had entered the victims' home, just north of downtown Bellingham, impersonating an FBI agent. The suspect told the men there was a "hit list" targeting sex offenders and that he was there to warn them.

The third man left for work with the suspect still in the house. When he returned home from work, the man found his housemates dead. Eisses had been convicted of child rape, Vaquez, of child rape and molestation. Both men had committed their crimes in Whatcom County.

On Aug. 31, five days after the murders, the Bellingham Herald received a letter from someone claiming responsibility for the killings and threatening to kill all other Whatcom County sex offenders designated as Level III. The county has 31 registered Level III offenders, including four in Bellingham, which has a population of 71,000.

Police said Mullen has confessed to sending the letter, and told investigators that more letters would soon be arriving at other media outlets. Ambrose said he did not know the content of those letters.

Ambrose said Mullen, a big man standing at 6-foot-5-inches and weighing nearly 250 pounds, had no known history of violence but had an extensive history of theft and other property crimes. Mullen had no permanent address, police said.

The slayings stirred debate over the 1990 state law requiring sex offenders to register their addresses. Washington was the first state to pass such a law, which is intended to help the public keep track of dangerous sexual predators. Congress mandated that states create registers of sex offenders. Now all 50 states have their own version of Washington's Community Protection Act.

Supporters say the public has a right to know about such offenders, but opponents argue that publicizing exact addresses invites vigilantism and prevents sexual offenders from leading normal lives. ..more.. by AP

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Sketchy details released on inmate death

9-15-2007 Washington

Michael Mullen, a Stafford Creek Corrections Center inmate who died in April, was determined to have died of pneumonia, but the manner of death is undetermined because “acute mild drug toxicity” is a contributing factor, according to Grays Harbor County Coroner Ed Fleming. Initially, the Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Department indicated they believed Mullen had committed suicide.

Mullen, from Bellingham, had an extensive law enforcement history, mostly involving minor crimes. But he was at Stafford Creek for the high-profile murder of two Level Three sex offenders, whom he found on a local sex offender registry Web site. He killed the two men after showing up at their home posing as an FBI agent, a ruse he said he used to confirm that the men were indeed sex offenders and to determine if they were sincerely repentant.

Fleming said Mullen had ingested prescription drugs, but the coroner would not say which drugs. “It’s a medical privacy issue,” he said. And he would not say whether the doses were therapeutic or not.

“There was enough medication, but not enough to cause the death directly,” Fleming said.

Instead, Fleming said, the immediate cause of death was lobar pneumonia, an illness in which an infection of the lungs causes them to fill with fluid, interfering with the body’s ability to absorb oxygen.

An official at the State Patrol, which handles the toxicology tests, said they were unable to discuss test results.

The Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office preliminarily believed Mullen, 37, had taken his own life, basing that on a lack of blunt force trauma and because of writings recovered from the dead man’s cell. Mullen was in the intensive management unit, where he did not have contact with other inmates.

Chad Lewis, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections, said the department was still putting the pieces together to figure out what led to Mullen’s death. An investigation is still under way, and the corrections department does not comment on open investigations, Lewis said.

Mullen died on the night of April 15, two hours after being found unresponsive in his cell. The prison’s Health Care Unit gave him first aid until emergency crews arrived. ..more.. by Callie White - Daily World Writer

Utah man charged with death of Kingman inmate

11-14-2005 Arizona

KINGMAN - A Utah man has been charged with the death of a Kingman man at the Mohave County Jail.

Jereme Allen Cosby, 33, of West Valley City, Utah, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Peter Brian Deakin who was found dead the night of Oct. 14 in his D-pod cell.

Cosby is being held without bond.

Inmates in D-Pod cell were locked down for about 12 hours after Deakin's body was discovered, Mohave County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Trish Carter said.

An autopsy ruled that Deakin, 37, was killed by a blunt force trauma to the head and asphyxiation, Carter said.

Deakin had been in jail since Sept. 29 for felony probation violation, felony failure to register as a sex offender, misdemeanor charge of assault/domestic violence; and a misdemeanor warrant for interfering with judicial proceedings from Kingman Justice Court.

Cosby, who has a lightning-bolt “SS” tattooed on his neck, is admittedly a member of the Nazi Lowriders, a white supremacist group in California.

Cosby was extradited from Salt Lake City on Oct. 7 on a felony warrant out of Lake Havasu City for burglary, theft and trafficking in stolen property.

According to Mohave County Sheriff Tom Sheahan, the investigation is ongoing and there is a possibility of other inmates being charged, Carter said. ..more.. by Daily News Staff

Texan executed for killing child molester

This is about the death of Rudy Delgado in prison.

1-4-2005 Texas

Beat fellow prisoner to death with rock in pillowcase

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- A condemned killer was executed Tuesday night for beating a convicted child molester to death in prison.

James Porter, who dropped his appeals and ordered nothing be done to stop the first execution of the year in the nation's most active capital punishment state, apologized to relatives of his victims and expressed love for his family.

"I am sorry for the pain I have caused you," he said in a brief final statement. "I know it is a great loss and I want to apologize. I am sorry. And to my family I love you and I will see you all in heaven."

His mother sobbed while watching the lethal injection through a window nearby.

Porter, 33, was sentenced to die for using a smuggled rock wrapped in a pillowcase to fatally beat prisoner Rudy Delgado, 40.

Porter already was serving a 45-year term for the 1995 shooting death of a transient when he attacked Delgado in May 2000 at a prison near Texarkana. Delgado was serving a 15-year term for sexually assaulting a child.

"I believe he was taken out too easy," Anna Acevedo said after watching her brother's killer die. "He didn't feel the same pain my brother did."

Porter said Delgado made a pass at him.

"What I done is what I done," Porter told The Associated Press in a recent interview. "I'd taken a 2-pound rock to somebody's head and spread them all over the place. I guess at that time, I just lost all my cool and didn't care anymore."

He wrote letters to the prosecutor handling his capital murder trial, referring to his victim in epithets and said he should be applauded for ridding society of a child molester. The prosecutor used the letters at Porter's trial, telling jurors the convicted murderer was boasting and proud of killing Delgado.

"In a way, I was," Porter said from death row. "That dude never touched any little boys again."

He said he eventually realized he was wrong to punish Delgado "for something he was already punished for."

Defense lawyer Robin Norris said Porter long suffered depression resulting from an abusive childhood that included being raped by one of his stepfathers. He eventually ran away from home and dropped out of school in the eighth grade.

Porter was one of at least nine men in Texas with execution dates already this year, including four in January. The state carried out 23 executions last year. ..more.. by CNN

Sex Offender Found Dead Outside Richmond School

9-8-2005 California:
RICHMOND—A convicted sex offender was murdered today outside John F. Kennedy High School, less than a day after he was released from prison. The 28-year-old African American man was still in his scrubs.

A school custodian discovered the body of George Colbert on the concrete entrance as he was preparing to open the school at 6:09 a.m. Ltn. Mark Gagan said police believed Colbert was murdered at the school because parts of his brain were scattered around the body. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said they are concerned because the department did not receive a call at the time of the shooting, and no eyewitnesses have come forward. The school is in the middle of a residential neighborhood, and Colbert's grandmother lives across the street. He appeared to have been visiting her around the time of his death. His own address is also registered in Richmond.

There are no suspects currently under investigation, police said, and it is not clear if the killer's motive was connected to Colbert's time in prison.

Detectives worked quickly to collect evidence and were able to lift the crime scene tape before school started. The institution functioned as usual, although class began a few minutes late. "We didn't know how to deal with it," said Gagan. "We wanted to provide a sense of normalcy, so we had the students go to class."

Many students had no idea a homicide had occurred outside their campus. Others arrived early to discover officials cleaning up Colbert's blood at the school entrance. "I was scared, but I still feel safe because there's a lot of security around," said freshman Victor Logo, who goes to school early every morning to help his teacher prepare for class. "This isn't the first time I've seen something like this."

Colbert's murder was the 25th in Richmond this year. Last year a man was shot and killed on JFK's football field.

Logo, along with the other early arrivals, was sent to the gym, where they were informed that the incident was unrelated to the school, and grief counselors were available to provide services for those with special needs.

The school principal declined to comment on the killing, as did the school's police officers, who were adamant that the crime was not tied to the school in any way. "It didn't happen at the school," said Randy Joseph, a volunteer hall monitor. "It was like normal." ..more.. by Rudabeh Shahbazi

Convicted Rapist Killed Saturday In Bayview

11-14-2005 California:

The San Francisco medical examiner has identified the victim of a Saturday night homicide as Mert Combs, 36, of San Francisco.

Combs died from a gunshot wound at about 10:10 p.m. in the 700 block of Jerrold Avenue, near Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in the city's Bayview District, according to San Francisco police Sgt. Neville Gittens.

Gittens said the exact circumstances of the shooting are still unclear.

Combs was listed as a registered sex offender in California's sex offender database. Gittens could not say if police suspect any connection between Combs' criminal history and his killing.

According to the state's registry, Combs had been convicted....

It lists the spelling of his last name as "Comes," but indicated that one of his aliases was "Mert Combs."

According to the registry, Combs' last known address was 1711 Oakdale Ave., less than two miles from where he was killed. ..more.. by ABC News

Daughter pleads guilty to shooting child-molesting father, mother

Both William and his wife were being accused of sex offenses (Hence, Multiple SOs TAG).

11-15-2005 California:

The man had a history of raping his own children, and his wife cooperated in the crimes, so when their daughter learned he had touched his young granddaughter inappropriately, she took a gun and killed them both. She will pay for those acts with 22 years of her life. In accordance with a plea agreement, 36-year-old Alma Frakes pleaded guilty Monday morning in Fontana Superior Court to two counts of voluntary manslaughter with enhancements for using a gun.

The killings of William and 71-year-old Alba Frakes, with whom their daughter sometimes lived, occurred in their Randall Avenue home on Sept. 12, 2004. Alma Frakes' sister, Develyn Sperling, was in the courtroom to hear the plea. She said Alma seemed frightened as she stood in an orange jail jumpsuit before Superior Court Judge Keith Davis.

After the shootings, it was Develyn who came forward and told of the years of sexual abuse that she and her siblings had suffered at the hands of their parents. The 80-year-old William Frakes had a long criminal history that included robbery, drug dealing and time in prison. But none of the child rape and sex abuse made it into the public record. Knowledge of it had been contained within the family, including two children he fathered with Sperling.

When the children pleaded with their mother for protection from their father, she told them to do what they were told and then watched the sex acts. Alma Frakes returns to court on Dec. 14 for sentencing. ..more.. : by Mike Cruz, Staff Writer

Suspects argued with murder victim in bar, park

8-28-2005 Colorado:
.MONTROSE — The murder of Kevin Eugene Hale, 36, of Montrose, in Buckley Park on July 30 followed an argument in a local bar between Hale and one of the two men accused of second-degree homicide in his death. Adam Paul Hernandez, 21, of Montrose, twice accused Hale of past attempts to molest him prior to the morning Hale’s body was found in Buckley Park, according to the affidavit for his arrest.

The other suspect, Jason Todd Fiske, 24, of Montrose, told a Montrose Police Detective Justin Perry on Aug. 1 that he and Hernandez encountered Hale at the Portal Pub the evening of July 29, according to the affidavit.

The first encounter between Hernandez and Hale, according to Fiske’s statement, occurred at the bar when Hernandez accused Hale of being a pedophile. Hernandez repeated the accusation to Hale in Buckley Park during the early morning hours of July 30, Fiske told police, and this time they came to blows.

“As Hale was walking away, Fiske said he heard Adam say, ‘You like to molest people. You tried to molest me,’” Perry wrote in the affidavit. “He then heard some scuffling, and when Fiske looked, he saw that Adam and Hale were in a physical altercation.”

Fiske told Perry that he intervened in the fight to protect Hernandez, the smallest of the three. “He went over to the two of them and grabbed Hale in a choke hold to pull him away from Adam,” Perry wrote. “Fiske said while he had Hale in the hold, they both fell to the ground. Fiske said as they fell forward, he squeezed Hale harder. When Hale lost his strength, he released him.”

Fiske initially told police he was the only person involved in the altercation with Hale. “He came to the police department to not get anyone else involved or in trouble,” Perry wrote. ..more.. : by RON BAIN, The Daily Sentinel

Registered Sex Offender Killed In Fort Washington

Police Take Nearby Neighbors In For Questioning
8-26-2005 Maryland:

FORT WASHINGTON, Md. -- A 40-year-old man who is listed on the Maryland Sex Offender Registry was shot and killed Thursday afternoon.

Prince George's County police said Willie Williams Jr. was shot inside his Fort Washington home in the 7500 block of Greer Drive about 3:30 p.m.

Sources told News4 that police are investigating the possibility that Williams may have been killed in retaliation for a sexual assault that allegedly occurred earlier in the day.


A woman who lives in the same neighborhood said her 13-year-old daughter was sexually assaulted by Williams in their home Thursday afternoon. The woman said her daughter told her that Williams went to the home and asked for a soda and to use the bathroom and then sexually assaulted the girl.

Not long after the alleged sexual assault, Williams was found dead in his home and the 13-year-old girl's older sister and her friends were spotted near the scene, police said.

Williams' sister spoke with News4 and said her two children were inside the house when the shooting took place.

"My brother was shot twice in the chest and my kids ran out the house and one of the neighbors got them," Lori Giles said.

Williams was pronounced dead at the scene.

Moments after Williams' death, police surrounded the house of a teenage girl a few blocks away, refusing to let anyone go in or out.

Investigators eventually took some occupants of the house in for questioning.

"They brought a lot of people over to headquarters and they're speaking to them now, but that will unravel throughout the rest of the evening," said police spokesperson Cpl. Debbie Carlson.

Relatives described Williams as a person who worked on cars in the neighborhood.

Police said it may take some time to sort the case out. So far, police have made no arrests and identified no suspects. ..more.. by NBC4.com

Turlock murder case goes to jury

Couple on trial in slaying of neighbor they believed had molested their 3-year-old girl
6-18-2005 California:
Jurors on Tuesday began deliberating the fate of a Turlock couple accused of killing their neighbor because they suspected he had molested their 3-year-old daughter.

Edward Gutierrez, 39, and Charlotte Gutierrez, 41, face premeditated first-degree murder charges, but could be convicted of manslaughter if jurors believe they were provoked or acted in the heat of passion.

An early-morning telephone call to police, over abuse allegations that never were substantiated, started a chain of events that led to Eduardo Negrete's death.

The main question before the Stanislaus County Superior Court jury is whether the Gutierrezes planned the attack on Negrete or acted on the spur of the moment.

A prosecutor pointed to a baseball bat, knife and knife sharpener Edward Gutierrez purchased at Big Five Sporting Goods less than an hour before Negrete's death, saying they are proof of a plan.

"Ladies and gentlemen, apparently the price tag for the murder of a neighbor is $110.53," Deputy District Attorney Sharon Lizardo said. "Find them guilty as charged."

During a three-week trial, witnesses said Edward Gutierrez stabbed Negrete repeat-edly, while his wife urged him on.

Edward Gutierrez confronted Negrete about noon on June 15, 2006, witnesses said, pulling him out of his truck as Negrete and his wife tried to leave their apartment complex on Twentieth Century Boulevard.

Elizabeth Negrete, who testified through a Spanish translator, said Edward Gutierrez stabbed her husband behind the ear as he fled, then chased him through his sister's nearby apartment into an enclosed patio.

The widow said Charlotte Gutierrez blocked the path of Negrete's family members who tried to intervene, yelling: "Let him kill him! Let him kill him! He deserves it!"

She said her husband died in her arms, after Edward Gutierrez stabbed him repeatedly in the chest and stomach.

A pathologist said Eduardo Negrete had 42 stab wounds ranging from two to six inches deep, including 14 lethal stab wounds.

According to authorities, Edward Gutierrez, who had military training, told police that he purchased the knife because he thought a kitchen knife would break.

Defense attorneys said the Gutierrezes called police and took their daughter to Emanuel Medical Center because they believed she had been molested by Eduardo Negrete.

They said the Gutierrezes were upset when authorities did not find conclusive signs of molestation, leaving them with minds clouded by rage.

They also said testimony by members of the Negrete family was full of inconsistencies and outright fabrications.

Prosecutor Lizardo referred to the Gutierrezes as "Rambo" and "Rambo's helper."

She said the couple could have taken their child to a follow-up appointment with specialists at Children's Hospital near Madera, as advised, but took the law into their own hands instead.

"These two people decided to be gravediggers for Mr. Negrete," Lizardo said. ..more.. by SUSAN HERENDEEN

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TURLOCK — Police say they have a videotape that shows Edward Lorenzo Gutierrez buying a military knife and a baseball bat at a local store Wednesday morning.
An hour later, he allegedly used the items to club and stab to death his neighbor, Eduardo Negrete, 36, police said.

Gutierrez believed that Negrete had molested his young daughter, but there is no evidence to back up the claim, said Lt. Fin Johnson.

"He decided he wasn't going to wait for us to do an investigation, and decided to do it himself," said Johnson.

The autopsy performed Thursday morning showed that several of the wounds could have killed Negrete.

"The coroner said he suffered multiple wounds that individually would have been fatal," Johnson said. "He had massive damage to his internal organs from the knife trauma, including one knife wound to the skull that penetrated and caused substantial brain damage."

After Gutierrez was arrested, officers found a bloody weapon in his car.

"It was a seven-inch, fixed blade, Marine Corps fighting knife," Johnson said. "It was a World War II K-bar. It was meant for only one thing and that was to kill."

Gutierrez, 37, and his wife, Charlote, 39, are in jail on murder charges, Johnson said. Edward Gutierrez also faces a charge of assault with a deadly weapon.

According to police, Gutierrez came out of his apartment on Twentieth Century Boulevard armed with the bat and the knife, with his wife following him around 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Witnesses said he smashed the window of the truck where Negrete was sitting with his wife, Elizabeth.

The couple chased Negrete across the street and then back to the complex, where Negrete fled into his brother-in-law's apartment, police said. The couple followed Negrete inside and attacked the brother-in-law when he tried to intervene. Negrete died in the tiny back yard of the apartment.

"We're trying to firm up the actual sequence of events," Johnson said. "At some point (Gutierrez) abandoned the bat and his wife picked it up and joined in."

The Gutierrezes moved from San Jose about six months ago. Police haven't found any arrest record for him, but Johnson said Charlote Gutierrez has an extensive criminal history.

"It goes back to the mid-1980s, mostly violent crime and drugs, including a residential burglary," Johnson said. "There also were some child abuse allegations."

The Gutierrezes had called Turlock police Wednesday morning to report the alleged incident with their daughter. Charlote Gutierrez took her daughter to a local physician, who could not find any signs of abuse or trauma, Johnson said.

Police plan to have the girl examined by a forensic nurse who specializes in abuse cases to determine if there is any basis for the allegation.

Negrete's family members said there was bad blood between the two men after Negrete accused Gutierrez of breaking into several vehicles and stealing property from them.

Negrete is survived by his wife and two daughters, Leslie, 4, and Natalie, 2. Family members said he worked two jobs to support his family here and his elderly parents in Mexico.

Negrete was a popular employee at La Racherita Restaurant on West Main Street.

"He was well-known and well-liked here," said Hugo Sanchez, Negrete's boss. "He was always making everybody laugh."

After word of his death spread, a somber atmosphere hung over the restaurant.

"Two of the other cooks came in crying when they heard what had happened," Sanchez said. "He was one of the main guys here.…He was a really good guy and a hard worker."

The homicide was the first of 2005 in the city. The last homicide took place June 18, when a woman allegedly torched a house and killed a woman inside because of an alleged love triangle.


" This guy took matters into his own hands...but it doesn't look like he has a case to support it...nothing was found by the doctor who examined the girl........I plead the 5th on what I would do if someone touched my son or my g/f kids.... ..Source..

Calif. sex offender shot, killed by alleged victim in Idaho

9-23-2005 Idaho:
CLARK FORK, Idaho Authorities say registered California sex offender was shot and killed this week by a woman he was attacking in Clark Fork, Idaho.

A 34-year-old Clark Fork woman shot Christopher Michael Schmidt, 42, Tuesday night during a struggle after she gave him a ride home.

Authorities say Schmidt stopped at her home Tuesday to ask her about some job prospects. Later in the evening, she and her roommate heard a noise outside their house and found Schmidt hiding in the bushes.

He told her his pickup truck had broken down and he needed a ride home.

Valdez said the woman reluctantly agreed to give Schmidt a lift, but took a handgun with her. Later, she had to use it when he began attacking her in the driveway of his home.

Schmidt was listing on Idaho's sex offender registry for a 1989 conviction in Sonoma County of assault to commit rape and sodomy. ..more.. by KESQ TV

Dismembered Body Near Utah-Wyoming Line Was Sex Offender

5-9-2005 Utah:

The Summit County Sheriff's Office on Monday identified severed human remains found last month near the Wyoming state line as those of a 50-year-old convicted sex offender.

Chief Deputy Dave Booth said investigators believe John Mayo, of Salt Lake City, had been missing since mid-May or the first part of June.

The department launched a search after a Union Pacific railroad employee found the first body part April 18 on a frontage road while checking track near Interstate 80. Deputies scouring the area over the next five days produced a human torso, two hands, a foot and several bones–but still no head.

Booth said the body was identified after the state crime lab rehydrated Mayo's hands so they could take fingerprints, and verified by medical records checked against a skeleton reassembled from the parts deputies could recover.

Booth said investigators are following up on several leads, but still don't have a motive in the death.

Mayo was convicted of second-degree felony forcible sex abuse in 1991 and listed in the state sex offender registry. ..more.. by KUTV

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Man Tells Police Why Sex Offender's Body Was Cut Up

Mark Carlson Gives Utah Authorities Info On Grisly Crime

8-18-2005 Utah:

SALT LAKE CITY -- Mark Allen Carlson, arrested this week for questioning in the slaying and dismemberment of a convicted sex offender, said John Mayo was killed by another man because Mayo sexually abused children.

"He (Carlson) was very cooperative," said Dave Booth, Summit County chief deputy sheriff. "He offered a lot of insight, as we knew he would be able to."

Carlson told a sheriff's detective on Tuesday that Mayo, 49, was killed and dismembered in early June 2004 in Salt Lake City, Booth said. Carlson claims he witnessed the crimes but did not participate.

A Union Pacific railroad employee found the first body part April 18 on a frontage road while checking track near Interstate 80 and the Wyoming border. A search of the area resulted in other body parts being found along a seven-mile stretch of the Interstate. Mayo's head was never found.

Booth said Carlson claimed the perpetrator was a man currently in federal custody in Utah. Booth declined to name the suspect or say whether charges were imminent.

Booth said Carlson claimed the other man killed Mayo because he sexually abused children. Mayo pleaded guilty in November 1991 to forcible sexual abuse. The victim was a child.

Booth said the murderer wasn't driven by vigilantism.

"It was more, 'I just don't like your lifestyle. I don't like what you've done in the past,'" Booth said.

Carlson told the detective that he and the other man were under the influence of methamphetamine at the time of Mayo's death, Booth said.

Booth declined to say how Mayo died, but said he believes Mayo was dead before he was sawed up.

While Carlson said he didn't participate in the killing or dismemberment, he has admitted to disposing of the body parts, Booth said.

He also has told investigators where he and others disposed of Mayo's head, which searchers have not yet found and Booth said "I doubt we ever will." He said the head was discarded in a different location than the other body parts.

Investigators believed Carlson, who also goes by the name "Neptune," had information about the case. The Utah Division of Adult Probation and Parole issued a warrant for him on March 21 for walking away from a halfway house in Salt Lake City. He had been on parole after serving prison time for receiving and transporting a stolen vehicle. Officers with the U.S. Marshals Service apprehended him Tuesday at a West Valley City convenience store.

Carlson has been returned to the prison. ..more.. by The Denver Channel

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Details Emerge in Murder, Dismemberment Case

8-17-2005 Utah:

Chief Deputy Dave Booth, Summit County Sheriff's Office: "He's claiming he's not the killer, he did give us the name of the killer."

The Public Enemy Number One busted yesterday shares his story with detectives. When a fugitive team snatched up Mark Allen Carlson 24 hours ago, they turned the key to a year-old murder mystery.

Summit County believed Carlson knew about the murder of John Mayo, whose dismembered body was found along I-80 in Summit County. Until last night investigators did not have a lot to go on in the murder of John Mayo, but Carlson told police where it happened, how it happened and how they disposed of the body.

When agents caught up with Mark Allen Carlson, Summit County was eager to talk to the man who goes by the name "Neptune." Detectives say he gave them what they needed in the murder of John Mayo.

Chief Deputy Dave Booth: "They gleaned just a tremendous amount of information from him; he was very cooperative."

Mayo's dismembered body was found along a frontage road for I-80 not far from the Wyoming border. Carlson's story provided new information and confirmed detectives' theories.

Chief Deputy Dave Booth: "He saw what happened and saw what occurred, and to some extent participated, but he's claiming he's not the killer."

Carlson told investigators the killer and his friends used to hang out with Mayo at his house on Lake Street here in Salt Lake City. Carlson also told investigators that's where the murder happened in May 2004. But Carlson says he did not kill Mayo, even though he did help dispose of the body.

Carlson also told investigators why the man killed Mayo, who was a convicted child molester.

Chief Deputy Dave Booth, Summit County Sheriff's Office: "It was just a simple matter of he didn't didn't appreciate his criminal history, the things he had done, the lifestyle he was living, and decided to put an end to mister mayo."

Police say Carlson is a white supremacist gang member, but they do not think the accused killer has gang ties. Investigators will not name the accused killer but say he was a suspect early in the investigation. Carlson confirmed it.

Chief Deputy Dave Booth: "The information he gave us, matched up with what we found."

The accused killer is in prison on a federal parole violation and is not going anywhere. Summit County Detective will work with Salt Lake City detectives to put together the case. ..Source.. by Jed Boal Reporting