S.J. inmate charged in cellmate's killing (Dup to record death of Phillip Kunkle)

This article is to document the death of "Phillip Kunkle." However the article also mentions the death of Jonathan Guy Alexandere, which is documented HERE (A dup posting of this article)

9-17-2010 California:

STOCKTON - A prisoner at Tracy's Deuel Vocational Institution found dead in June was killed by his cellmate, according to a criminal complaint filed by San Joaquin County prosecutors.

John Joseph Lydon, 37, was convicted previously of murdering a cellmate (also a sex offender) at another California state prison, so this new charge carries a special circumstance, making him eligible for a death sentence.

If prosecutors prove their case against Lydon, this will make the second time in three years that a prisoner at Deuel has murdered a fellow inmate in the same cell.

Lt. Gilbert Valenzuela, a Deuel spokesman, said Lydon and his alleged victim, 49-year-old Jonathan Guy Alexander, were housed together in the sensitive-needs unit designed to protect vulnerable inmates.

While prosecutors say Alexander had been convicted twice of sex crimes, including child molestation in 1993 from Siskiyou County, Valenzuela did not know why Lydon was considered a special-needs inmate.

Deuel officials take Alexander's death seriously, Valenzuela said.

"Anytime we have a murder occur ... of course it's a concern," he said. "We're trying to ensure that all procedures are followed to ensure that doesn't ever happen again."

Lydon, a career criminal once convicted of trying to kill a Hollywood movie executive, now stands charged with first-degree murder and the special circumstance of committing a prior murder. The charges for Alexander's death were filed Sept. 2.

Lydon's criminal history dates back at least 17 years. In the mid-1990s, Lydon accrued multiple convictions for theft, burglary and robbery on the East Coast.

As a fugitive from Boston, Lydon and another man traveled to Los Angeles where in 2000 they met film executive Jeffrey Harstedt, credited with having worked on the Tom Cruise film "Risky Business."

The fugitives hogtied, robbed and stabbed Harstedt, who survived the attack in his home.

Lydon and his accomplice were later arrested in San Francisco and returned to Los Angeles, where a jury convicted them of attempted murder. Lydon received a sentence of 54 years to life in prison.

Lydon in 2004 was housed at Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga with Phillip Kunkle, a 60-year-old convicted child molester.

Lydon admitted to strangling Kunkle to death and received another sentence of 15 years to life.

It is unclear if Lydon is housed with another inmate now, but a corrections spokesman said prisoners under investigation are often housed alone in administrative segregation.

San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Robert Himelblau has filed an order to have the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation transport Lydon back to San Joaquin County from California State Prison, Sacramento, for prosecution.

Himelblau said it appears that Lydon strangled Alexander but declined to give more details. Himelblau said he has yet to receive all of the autopsy reports.

Lydon's case is strikingly similar to another murder at Deuel.

In 2007, Rick Henry Kase murdered his cellmate, 28-year-old convicted child molester Randy James Rabelos. Tired of Rabelos' shouting, Kase suffocated him, saying, "Goodbye, Randy."

At Kase's sentencing last year, San Joaquin County Deputy Public Defender Keith Arthur said the crime never should have happened. A judge sentenced Kase to 90 years to life in prison.

"I cannot imagine what was going through the minds of the people at DVI when they housed a convicted child molester with my client," Arthur said at Kase's sentencing.

Lydon is scheduled for an Oct. 5 arraignment in the San Joaquin County Superior Court on the new charges. ..Source.. by Scott Smith, Record Staff Writer

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Inmate: Prison knew of my past

2-10-2011 California:

Man suspected in cellmate slayings says he was abused

An inmate charged with murdering his cellmate at Tracy's Deuel Vocational Institution last year blames prison officials for putting him in the situation that turned deadly.

John Lydon, 37, also claims his recent troubles stem from childhood abuse by notorious Roman Catholic priest John Geoghan, who molested him as a schoolboy in Boston. That personal trauma has created a deep aversion to pedophiles, which he says he carries with him today.

These statements come in a two-page letter Lydon sent in response to one from The Record seeking comment on circumstances of the cellmate's death.

Lydon also says he informed Deuel officials that, in 2004, he killed a child molester who was a cellmate at another California prison. Lydon told them he didn't mind being housed at Deuel with other races. "Just no child molesters."

Lydon then quotes a jailer's reply: "I'll do what I want. This is my prison." He accuses jailers of setting him up.

Deuel spokesman Lt. Gilbert Valenzuela declined to comment on Lydon's letter, citing the ongoing criminal case.

Officials accuse Lydon of strangling 49-year-old Jonathan Guy Alexander to death in June. Lydon was housed with the Siskiyou County man, who was serving time for a 1993 conviction, including child molestation.

In his letter, Lydon all but admits to the killing. The new charge and his previous cellmate's murder now make Lydon eligible for a death sentence.

"I don't deserve the death penalty," Lydon writes. "Child molesters do."

Despite his letter, Lydon has pleaded not guilty to killing his cellmate.

He awaits a May preliminary hearing before San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Terrence Van Oss, who will decide if Lydon should face a jury trial. After that prosecutors will decide the penalty they seek - death or life in prison.

Lydon's letter engenders no sympathy from San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Robert Himelblau.

Himelblau said the letter demonstrates Lydon's self-absorption, a trait that is all too common for criminals who blame everyone else.

"He's a victim in every single scenario," said Himelblau, citing Lydon's attempt to hold the priest in Boston and the jailers at Deuel responsible for his actions.

Lydon has a long criminal history from Massachusetts to California.

He's been convicted throughout his adult life of theft, burglary and robbery. In 2000, he and another man hogtied, robbed and stabbed a Hollywood movie executive, who survived the attack.

Lydon explained in his letter that the executive had asked him and his accomplice to find young boys to make gay porn.

"I'm guilty. I stabbed him," Lydon writes. "But he was no saint."

There's no doubt that Lydon's criminal bent stems from being molested, said Lydon's sister, Mary Gallipeau, who was reached at home in Massachusetts. They were students together at St. Brendan, a Catholic school in Dorchester.

Lydon's claim of child abuse by the priest could not be independently verified. His sister and an uncle, Kevin Mulligan, both said they believed it were true and that it left an indelible mark on his life.

Gallipeau said that as a child she was jealous the priest took her 9-year-old brother to the carnival and not her. She didn't learn until years later that the priest molested her brother at least twice, she said.

The priest, Geoghan, was among the first American clerics discovered to have molested children, and the church paid his victims millions. They were reportedly each paid $80,000 to $300,000.

Geoghan, who was sent to prison for molesting a boy, died at age 68 in 2002 when another inmate strangled him.

Gallipeau said her brother, who also goes by John Mulligan, received a settlement from the Archdiocese of Boston, but not until after he was sent to prison.

In prison, she said her brother hasn't been able to take advantage of counseling, which also is part of his settlement. The abuse causes her brother to harbor enmity for the church and for homosexuals, she said.

"It's been tough on him," Gallipeau said. "His way of thinking is off. He never got the help." ..Source.. Scott Smith

NJ- Horrors of killing revealed

7-10-2005 New Jersey:

A mentally ill inmate begged for mercy, was sexually assaulted and stomped for more than 30 minutes before guards at the Camden County Jail discovered the January 2004 killing, according to a prisoner's eyewitness account, revealed for the first time in court papers filed Friday.

Joel Seidel, 65, a frail retired stockbroker, was placed in the same cell with Marvin Lister, then 35, early on the morning of Jan. 27, 2004. Lister had a violent history and was in jail on charges he had raped another psychiatric patient. Seidel had violated a restraining order to stay away from his family and was known in his Cherry Hill neighborhood as a nuisance who sang along with Broadway show tunes played on a boom box.

Investigators questioned inmate Wylie Evans about three hours after Seidel's death. He told investigators he had a clear view into Seidel's cell. He also said he had been taking medication and was in the same mental health unit with Seidel and Lister.

"Marvin ripped his clothes off . . . I was looking at Joel's face, and he was screaming, hollering, please don't do this, and it sounded like he said don't rape me," Evans told investigators. "Marvin must have raped him for about, for about 15 minutes."

Lister stomped Seidel with his feet for more than 30 minutes, Evans told investigators. A videotape shows at least 25 minutes passed before guards discovered the body, according to attorneys for Seidel's family.

The transcript of the interview with Evans was included in a 102-page motion filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Camden by attorneys representing Seidel's estate. The Courier-Post obtained the filing through PACER, an online service that provides access to federal court records.

The motion requested the release of personnel files of the guards on duty that morning.

Lister has been charged in Seidel's killing. He is not charged with sexual assault. A spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office said he could not discuss Evans' credibility.

"I'm not going to comment on whether it's accurate or not," said Mike Cantner, a deputy chief at the prosecutor's office. "That case is still pending grand jury. Additional charges could always be lodged at grand jury."

Evans was sentenced to five years for two counts of attempted burglary, state records show. He is now at the South Woods state prison in Bridgeton.

Other inmates told the prosecutor's office that Lister had previously threatened Seidel, according to a prosecutor's report by investigator Randall C. MacNair included in the motion filed Friday.

Camden County spokesman Ken Shuttleworth declined to comment on Evans' statement or why the information was not previously released.

"We're not going to comment on anything related to those court papers," Shuttleworth said Saturday. "The truth will come out in the legal process, and that's as far as we're going to go."

But Ed Martone, a prisoners' rights advocate, said the county should have revealed what it knew about Seidel's death earlier.

"It was all part of a crime committed in a public institution. All that information should have been divulged as they had it. It's one of the reasons why people live in such jeopardy in these institutions. So much that is destructive and dangerous is kept from public view," said Martone, of the N.J. Association on Correction.

Tom Kline, attorney for Seidel's family, said Evans' statement sheds fresh insight into what Seidel suffered while in jail.

"Evans graphically depicts the horror and terror that Joel Seidel experienced in the last minutes of his life. It demonstrates the results of deliberate indifference by the authorities to his safety and the disregard of him as a human being," said Kline.

"The brutality and the obscene nature of what Evans observed clearly has a ring of authenticity, which to our understanding is corroborated by video surveillance," he said.

Kline said an attorney in his firm had viewed a videotape that showed that at least 25 minutes passed before the body was discovered.

At one point, the tape shows a guard entering the mental health unit briefly but the guard did not look into any of the cells, Kline said.

His law firm has a history of trying to work to improve conditions as part of any settlement, Kline said. In 1999, he won a $50 million settlement from SEPTA after a young boy's foot was mangled in an escalator.

"Camden County should look internally . . . (toward) shaping a jail which will truly act in the best interest of the community, to protect the most vulnerable people who came through the gates of the jail," said Kline.

In previous interviews, county officials have said they have taken steps to prevent future violence at the jail, which remains one of the most crowded in the state.

Inmates with varying criminal histories are now housed in different-colored uniforms so that guards won't place mismatched inmates in the same cells. Steps have been taken, Warden Eric Taylor has said, to improve security.

Records show that more than 1,800 prisoners are housed at the facility. It is designed to hold about 1,250.

In many cases, four prisoners sleep in cells originally designed to hold one. In those cases, two prisoners sleep in bunks and two on the floor - one near the toilet.

There were three prisoners in Seidel's cell in the mental health unit.

The court papers filed Friday also revealed details about other incidents previously reported in the Courier-Post.

The court papers included:

· A copy of a letter from a mental health worker, Ellen Green, who said the jail received a phone call that Seidel had been beaten and appeared in court with black eyes two weeks before he was killed.

· Mental health workers' intake sheets that evaluated both Seidel and Lister. Seidel had low scores for violence and instability. Lister had high scores for potential violence.

· A sworn deposition in which Deputy Warden Marilyn Berry told Seidel's attorneys that corrections officers could not routinely check the histories of inmates.

"Most of them are not cleared to get that information," she said. "Just certain people are."

· In another sworn deposition, James McIntyre, a shift supervisor in the jail, told attorneys that Lister "had a history of violent behavior towards other inmates and staff." ..more.. by Alan Guenther

Inmate Killed!

4-24-2004 West Virginia:

A convicted sex offender is dead after a violent altercation inside Mount Olive Correctional Facility Wednesday night. Thirty-eight year old Kevin Deuley was struck with a blunt object and stabbed in the recreation yard Wednesday night. ..more.. WOAY-TV

------------------------------------------------------------------

Two State Inmates Face Murder Charges

9-27-2004:

FAYETTEVILLE - Two Mount Olive inmates have been indicted on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the death of a fellow inmate, an assistant Fayette County prosecutor said Friday.

Jeremy Brisendine, 25, of Charleston and Marcus Cockerham, 44, of Mercer County are accused of killing Kevin Deuley during a softball game in the maximum-security prison's recreation yard in April. ...continued.. by Charleston Gazette

Strangled inmate was registered sex offender

3-17-2004 Pennsylvania:


SOMERSET, Pa. — The inmate who was fatally assaulted Saturday by his cellmate at SCI-Somerset had been designated a sexual predator under Megan’s Law.

Jose L. Collazo, 51, of York, was found dead in his cell at about 3:40 a.m. after a correctional officer heard noise in his cell and then discovered cellmate Steven Ramidial, 27, Philadelphia, choking him.

Ramidial was removed from the cell and officers attempted CPR on Collazo who was unresponsive.

Somerset County Coroner Wallace Miller has ruled Collazo was strangled to death.

Ramidial, who is serving a four- to 10-year sentence for arson in Philadelphia, has been charged with criminal homicide and assault. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Friday before District Justice Arthur Cook of Somerset.

While being searched, Ramidial reportedly struck an officer in the eye and kicked a second officer.

Collazo was convicted of sexually molesting a preteen girl three times between August 1996 and January 1997.

He was the state’s first Megan’s Law violator to be subject to community notification by police fliers. In 1997, York officials distributed fliers with Collazo’s picture to about 50 homes and businesses within 250 feet of his home.

“The issue is that sex offenders traditionally have been at risk (in prison),” said Scott Phornsley, a criminal justice professor at Mansfield University in Tioga County, and a former director of legislative affairs for state Department of Corrections. “A lot of inmates have children. They don’t like sex offenders.”

Saturday’s homicide was the third at SCI-Somerset since it opened in 1993. Two of the murders occurred within seven months of each other in 1995.

In March of that year, inmate Ernest Evans, then 55, fatally beat his cellmate, James Bennett, in a dispute regarding Bennett’s hygiene, according to a published report.

That October, three prisoners attacked another inmate in a vestibule. Inmate Gerald Bogan, 43, struck his head on a concrete floor and died five days later at a Pittsburgh hospital.

By comparison, no murders have occurred at SCI-Laurel Highlands, a state prison in Somerset that opened in 1996 for older and infirm inmates. ..more.. Staff

Inmate shot dead after taking hostage

7-14-2004 Delaware:

.A convicted serial rapist serving life in prison who took a female counselor hostage this morning was fatally shot inside the Smyrna prison, officials said. State Department of Correction spokeswoman Beth Welch said inmate Scott A. Miller, 45, of Wilmington, was shot to death at 4:55 p.m. by a corrections emergency response team member after he observed the hostage “in imminent danger.”

Welch said the woman who was taken hostage is being attended to by medical personnel. Welch said she did not know if the woman had suffered any injuries during her nearly 6-hour ordeal. ..more.. TERRI SANGINITI and PATRICK JACKSON

Ronald Herrera: Strange case of infamous criminal ends with his even stranger death

2-13-2004 California:

The strange case of Ronald Herrera, a former resident of Santa Paula who became infamous for not only his violent crime spree but for also being the first person returned to prison under the state’s sexual predator law, became even stranger with his death in Corcoran State Prison.

Herrera, 60, died in his cell. He bled to death in either an act of suicide or criminal negligence by the prison guards who did not respond to Herrera’s screams as they watched the Super Bowl game on television.

Herrera had been returned to prison under the three-strikes law after he was arrested about three years ago in Carpinteria for shoplifting lip balm, breath freshener and wine from a grocery store.

Herrera was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison; he already had 19 serious felonies under his belt

That Herrera was a dangerous criminal there is no doubt: his violent resume included a notorious 1971 home-invasion robbery and rape of a woman and her 15-year-old daughter in Ventura’s Pierpont area where Herrera and accomplices kept the vacationing family members hostage.

Later, Herrera shot a Virginia police officer in the face, a state where he committed six armed robberies after he escaped from jail in California.

Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Frank Ochoa called Herrera, then 57 and living in Oxnard, one of the worst criminals to pass through his courtroom.

“He’s what the three-strikes law is all about. He’s a career criminal,” Deputy District Attorney Darryl Perlin said at the time of Herrera’s conviction.

Herrera has 30 prior convictions - more than half for serious or violent felonies – with his first serious felony, an attempted robbery, in 1965.

In December 1971 he was convicted of four counts of robbery, three of which involved the use of a gun, two counts of forcible rape, and three counts of forcible oral copulation resulting from the Pierpont rapes.

Although Herrera had also received a sentence of 50 years in prison in Virginia, a 1986 mix-up led to his release. He returned to California and was arrested and committed to state prison to serve time on his 1971 convictions.

In 1996, Herrera became eligible for parole, but was classified as a Sexually Violent Predator. After a jury trial, he remained in custody for two more years and again received a two-year sentence thereafter. He was finally released from Atascadero State Hospital in November 2001. He moved to his mother’s home in Carpinteria and in less than 90 days he was in custody for the offenses for which the Santa Barbara County jury convicted him.

Herrera had deliberately or accidently removed his diabetes shunt and covered his Corcoran State Prison cell window with blood-saturated toilet paper while the guards watched the Super Bowl. He reportedly was screaming for hours before his death.

Herrera was found Monday morning slumped over on the floor, lifeless and within days Kings County and state investigators began a probe to determine if his death resulted from criminal negligence. ..more.. by Peggy Kelly, Santa Paula News

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

California Prisoner's Gruesome Death Probed

2-5-2004:

Officials want to know if Corcoran guards, who were watching the Super Bowl, were negligent.

FRESNO — All through the night, the howls kept coming from the cell of inmate Ronald Herrera.

More than one guard at Corcoran State Prison thought something was terribly amiss. Herrera wouldn't stop screaming late Sunday, and he had covered his cell window in a curtain of toilet paper soaked in blood.

One guard had seen Herrera, a dialysis patient suffering from hepatitis, pull out the medical shunt from his arm, corrections officials said. But when the guard later tried to check on the inmate, his sergeant told him not to bother, they said. "He's not dead," the sergeant was quoted by officials as saying. "Just keep an eye on him."

The next morning, the howls had given way to silence. As a new shift made its checks, a guard saw what he said looked to be "raspberry Kool-Aid" streaming out from the cell. Inside, he found Herrera slumped over on the floor, lifeless.

Much of the blood had drained from his body, corrections officials said. Blood filled the toilet bowl and washed over the concrete floor of the 8-by-10-foot cell.

On Wednesday, Kings County and state investigators began a probe to determine if Herrera's death resulted from criminal negligence by prison staff too busy watching the Super Bowl.

The probe comes on the heels of state Senate hearings and other revelations that have shone an unflattering light on the state's vast prison system, challenging the new administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. On Monday, he promised to make reforms and to "clean the place up."

A coroner's autopsy of Herrera had not been completed by early Wednesday, but corrections officials said there were signs that Herrera, a 60-year-old mentally ill burglar and rapist, had been trying to staunch the bleeding with a wad of toilet paper.

It was unclear if Herrera was trying to commit suicide and then changed his mind or if something more sinister happened, corrections officials said. His desperation, they said, played out for nearly 10 hours without any intervention from staff.

Of all the horrors that have taken place at Corcoran State Prison over the last decade, one official said, the death of Herrera was particularly ghastly -- and preventable.

Fearing retaliation for breaking the prison system's pervasive code of silence, the officials requested anonymity. "Corcoran has seen a lot," one said, "but for an inmate to literally bleed out his body, it was one of the goriest crime scenes."

A media spokesman for the prison said he could not comment on the case because of an ongoing investigation.

Steve Fama of the watchdog Prison Law Office said he doubted whether the Kings County district attorney's office would hold staff accountable. He noted that Dist. Atty. Ron Calhoun had been elected in 1998 partly on the strength of financial support from the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., the union representing state prison guards.

When it's this serious, you want an aggressive, independent investigation," Fama said. "I'm not sure if the district attorney in Kings County is capable of that given the significant role that the CCPOA played in his election."

Patrick Hart, Kings County's chief deputy prosecutor, acknowledged that his office had a "fairly good working relationship" with the guards union, but he said it would not hinder the independence of the probe.

"We're not satisfied with the written reports we've gotten so far from staff," he said. "One of the things we're looking at is whether staff knew he was in trouble and failed to take the proper steps."

Herrera's case is only the latest in a series of inmate deaths at Corcoran that have raised questions about the correctional system's care of mentally ill patients and its response to suicide attempts.

In December 1998, a Corcoran inmate who had been taken off suicide watch was seen hanging in a dark corner of his cell. But rather than pop open the cell door and determine if he was alive, guards remained outside for 18 minutes while 32-year-old Michael van Straaten dangled from a noose made of bedsheets and shoelaces. When officers finally did enter and cut him loose, he was dead but his body was still warm, according to prison reports.

Two years later, on Christmas Day, an inmate with three suicide attempts succeeded in killing himself in the prison's Security Housing Unit. A lawsuit filed by the family of 26-year-old Thomas Mansfield alleged that staff negligence had allowed the suicide and that guards tried to cover up the incident by doctoring the record of cell checks. Last year, the state settled the case out of court.

And just a week before Herrera's death, corrections officials said, three inmates in the Security Housing Unit entered into a suicide pact to protest what they called brutality by Corcoran guards. One inmate, "Tiny" Walton, went through with the pact and hanged himself.

"What I've found is the so-called suicide watch is a joke," said Bob Navarro, a Fresno attorney who represented Mansfield's family and has filed suit in a recent suicide at the women's prison in Chowchilla. "The cells are not being checked according to written procedure."

A detailed account of Herrera's medical condition and death was provided by two corrections officials. Herrera was taking mood-altering medication at the time, but had not been seen by a psychiatric case manager since December. They said that violates prison policy, which dictates a one-on-one clinical evaluation every 30 days. ..Source.. by Mark Arax | Times Staff Writer

Elderly inmate starved to death

3-15-2004 California:

03-15) 04:00 PDT Fresno -- For two months, guards and medical staff at a California state prison failed to provide meals or emergency care to an elderly inmate dying of malnutrition, according to inmate accounts given to a state senator.

In the days before 72-year-old Khem Singh starved to death at the Substance Abuse Treatment Facility in Corcoran last month, fellow inmates said, they alerted guards to his grave condition and filed official complaints about his mistreatment.

But no medical help was provided, even as it became clear to inmates that Singh, a Sikh priest from India who spoke no English and was crippled, had become emaciated and intent on killing himself.

One inmate wrote a letter to state Sen. Gloria Romero, a Los Angeles Democrat, pleading that she intervene, but it arrived a few days after Singh's death on Feb. 16. The inmate alleged that a guard had brutalized Singh in early December, and that Singh was so afraid of a second assault that he hadn't left his cell for meals or medical appointments for nearly 60 days.

The letter obtained by the Los Angeles Times describes a frail and wheelchair-bound Singh -- whose 2001 conviction for sexual molestation in Stanislaus County brought him great shame in the Sikh community -- committing slow suicide. His weight had dropped from 110 pounds to 80.

Prison officials said Friday that they would talk to the inmates and review their letters and complaints as part of a growing investigation into Singh's death. The case coincides with increased scrutiny of California's vast prison system, which is riddled with accusations of brutality, coverups, fraud and poor medical care.

At Corcoran, Singh's condition took a turn for the worse early this year. Some guards went to the prison's medical staff to express their own concerns, according to Romero, but logbooks show that no medical technician, nurse or doctor followed up and treated him in his cell.

"Mr. Singh has not left his cell to go to eat -- not once," the inmate wrote to Romero in a Feb. 11 letter. "They do not bring him any food. None. I smuggle bread back. -- Mr. Singh is gentle, polite. I am ashamed it took me so long to speak out."

The guard who supervised the cellblock -- the same one suspected of having assaulted Singh -- is alleged to have told another inmate not to bother speaking out on behalf of the starving inmate. "Forget it; he's going to die," the inmate quoted the guard as telling him, according to Romero. ..more.. by Mark Arax, Los Angeles Times

Son accused of killing father with hammer in Green Bay: Allegedly father confessed molestation!

5-7-2004 Wisconsin:

A man accused of beating his father to death with a hammer faces a charge of first-degree intentional homicide. A criminal complaint was filed in Brown County Circuit Court Thursday against Matthew Bradley, 23, in the death of his 57-year-old father, Terrance Bradley.

Police were sent to the father's apartment early Wednesday after a neighbor reported hearing a dispute and someone pleading for his life. When no one answered the door, officers forced their way inside and found the victim fatally wounded. The son was huddled in the shower, covered with blood, police said. A bloody claw hammer was found on the bathroom floor. No one else was in the apartment.

The complaint quotes Matthew Bradley, who has a young son, as saying he "freaked out" when his father told him of molesting the boy. "All I know is that he molested my son, that's all I'm going to say," he told an officer on the way to the police station, according to the complaint. Police Lt. Bill Galvin said his department was not aware of any molestation allegations against Terrance Bradley. ..more.. by Associated Press

Family member confesses to killing man who sexually abused him

4-21-2004 Wisconsin:

A family member has confessed to shooting and killing a man who allegedly sexually abused him as a child, the Kenosha County Sheriff's department said Tuesday. Raymond F. DeBack, 52, a convicted sex offender, was found floating in the Fox River Saturday morning in the town of Wheatland. A pickup truck was found partially submerged nearby.

Court records show Raymond DeBack pleaded guilty in 1996 to second-degree sexual assault of a child. He was sentenced to seven years in state prison and was released in July. Beth said the suspect accused Raymond DeBack of abusing him as a child. ..more.. by Associated Press

Two bodies found are identified

3-17-2004 Texas:

Atascosa County authorities have identified the burned body of a man who was found this weekend along a local highway as 31-year-old Ronald Henry Enriquez of San Antonio.

A motorist spotted Enriquez's body on fire Saturday night in a ditch near the intersection of FM 1784 and FM 536 in northeastern Atascosa County.

David Soward, chief deputy for the Atascosa County Sheriff's Department, said Enriquez, a known Mexican Mafia member and registered sex offender, was shot in the head before being doused with a flammable liquid. Soward said investigators believe Enriquez's body was set on fire at the site where he was found.

No arrests have been made and authorities continue to investigate the shooting death.

Enriquez's body was one of two dumped along highways in the San Antonio area since Saturday.

Another man found dead in a brushy field off Cassin Road on Monday was identified today as 30-year-old Robert Gleason, of the 100 block of North San Horacio Avenue.

Gleason died of gunshot wounds to the head and chest, according to a Bexar County medical examiner's investigator. Gleason's death was ruled a homicide.

No arrests have been made in connection with his death.

Authorities have not linked the two deaths. ..more.. by Jeorge Zarazua, San Antonio Express News

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

See Court Decision: Frank Trinidad -v- State of Texas

Testimony Presented
The State called several witnesses to testify at trial regarding the murder allegations against Trinidad, several of which were present during or shortly after the incident in question. Christopher Anthony Vasquez (“Tony”),1 a dealer for Trinidad, was outside the residence when Enriquez arrived. Tony explained that he “waited for [Enriquez] to show up and when I was giving [the cocaine] to him he was already mad and said he didn’t want to talk to me because I was a nobody and he punched me in the face and I fell to the ground.” Tony continued that Enriquez then threw Christopher Vasquez (“Chris”), Tony’s twin brother, off the porch steps and headed inside the residence. According to Tony, Jorge Zapata came from beside the refrigerator and shot Enriquez, who was unarmed, in the back of the head and, while Enriquez “was lying face down on the ground . . . Frank shot him in the back of the head.” Tony further told the jury that Zapata, Trinidad and Chris wrapped Enriquez’s head in plastic, put him in the back of the car and before driving off, instructed Tony to clean up the mess at the house.

Man's body recovered from Mississippi River!

2-28-2004 Minnesota:

Almost four months after a legally blind 73-year-old man (a registered sex offender) disappeared from his St. Paul home, his body was recovered from the Mississippi River, police reported Friday..

Kimberly Jackson, a daughter-in-law, said the family is suspicious about the death because he did not have his house keys and was found without shoes or a jacket.

Police checked the man's house after the disappearance and found nothing missing or suspicious, Schnell said. Jackson was sentenced in Hennepin County in 1981 for attempted incest with a minor and incest with a minor. He was in and out of prison for more than a decade, last getting out in the mid-1990s. (Star Tribune)

WA- Slain sex offender held job at women's shelter

Posted in Related Deaths

3-25-2004 Washington:

He was a convicted rapist, a level three sex offender, and last week, he killed a single mother before he was fatally shot by police.

But despite his history of abusing women, Lawrence Owens, 43, had spent the past three months working through a temporary employment agency at the YWCA's Opportunity Place, a Belltown facility that includes among its services a 25-bed shelter for homeless women, some of them victims of domestic violence.

Because Owens was working through the Labor Ready employment agency, YWCA authorities did not know about his criminal background.

"As you can imagine, we were pretty angry when we learned of this," said Sherry Dawley, YWCA's director of community affairs. "Labor Ready got quite an earful when we contacted them."

The YWCA immediately ended its relationship with the agency, she said.

Stacey Burke, spokeswoman for the Tacoma-based company, said Labor Ready didn't know about Owens' background, either.

The agency conducts background checks of its employees only at clients' request, she said.

"It wasn't requested by the customer," she said, adding the company might have reconsidered where it placed Owens.

Owens' violent actions, Burke said, should not reflect upon the thousands of people Labor Ready employs.

"This situation is so unusual and so sad," she said.

Seattle police Capt. Neil Low, who supervises the sex offender unit, said employers aren't among the groups the department notifies when a sex offender registers in the area.

"We're not going to get these people fired from their jobs," he said. "We're not trying to punish them. We're trying to keep them from hurting more people."

Still, he said, he understands why the YWCA would be reluctant to have a level three sex offender working at a women's shelter.

"That's a bad mix," he said.

In 1997, Owens pleaded guilty to assault and unlawful possession of a firearm after his arrest for beating up a girlfriend in his Seattle apartment. He also held a gun to her head and threatened to kill her.

As part of the same case, Owens was convicted of assault with sexual motivation for beating and raping another woman.

He was sentenced to nine years in prison, but was released this past September. Upon release, he was required to register as a level three sex offender, the type considered most likely to reoffend.

On March 17, Seattle police shot Owens to death at the Miller Community Center on Capitol Hill.

Just moments earlier, Owens had killed 31-year-old Dori Cordova, shooting her three times with a shotgun he was not legally entitled to possess because he was a convicted felon.

Owens and Cordova were tenants at the Jensonia Hotel near downtown Seattle and were displaced by fire a week before the shooting. They were staying at the community center, where the Red Cross had set up a temporary shelter for the displaced tenants.

Investigators have said Owens apparently had found someplace else to stay and wanted Cordova to join him. When she would not, he killed her.

By coincidence, Cordova and her 10-year-old son were about to move into another YWCA facility, said Nicole Wagner, a family-support worker with Gatzert Elementary School who was helping mother and son. (Note: The facility where Cordova and her son were moving was misidentified in the original version of this article.)

"Lawrence knew she was going there," Wagner said. "She only went to the community center to gather personal belongings."

Owens had worked at the YWCA shelter since December, Dawley said.

Because the facility had only opened in November, the YWCA had not filled all the positions with permanent workers. They relied upon temporary employment agencies to fill the gaps.

Labor Ready supplied Owens as a custodian.

By most accounts, he was doing a good job, Dawley said.

"There are a number of staff members who were upset about his death," she said. "He had been a very good worker, had been a very pleasant worker. He went out of his way to be very helpful to people."

Still, she said, had the YWCA known about his status, he would not have worked there.

The agency requires criminal background checks on all employees and believed Labor Ready was following the same policy, Dawley said.

"We go to such great lengths to try to create a safe environment for everyone," she said.

Since learning about Owens' background, the YWCA has decided to require any temporary employment agency it uses to conduct background checks and to let the YWCA know what they find before they send workers to any YWCA facility.

Cordova's son is living with relatives in Kent. But his mother's sudden death has been hard on him.

Mother and son had struggled financially for some time and had received help through Seattle Public Schools' Family Support Worker Program.

The program provides vouchers, clothing and housing assistance.

Cordova's son still needs help with many of these things, Wagner said.

"This is a pivotal time for him," she said. "He's a super, super kid."

His mother's funeral is set for Sunday. ..more.. by HECTOR CASTRO

Stabbing victim (Sex Offender) had prior conviction!

6-13-2004 Indiana:

A man convicted of exposing himself to children was stabbed by a longtime acquaintance who told investigators he believed the man was a child molester, police said.

James Patrick Seldomridge, 54, was brain dead late Tuesday and being kept alive on life support at Ball Memorial Hospital so his organs could be donated, investigators said. Officers said they found Seldomridge about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday in his apartment, unconscious and covered in blood, along with a bloody kitchen knife. "It was a very violent scene," police Sgt. Al Williams said. "There was definitely a struggle between the victim and a suspect."

Police later arrested Jeremiah Brown, 21, at a nearby apartment and charged him with attempted murder and burglary. Brown admitted to detectives that he broke through Seldomridge's front window and stabbed him several times in the shoulder and back, according to arrest records.

Brown called Seldomridge a "child molester" and a "pervert" while talking with investigators, Williams said. ..more.. by Associated Press

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Muncie man convicted in slaying returns

1-30-2011 Indiana:

A Muncie man serving a 40-year prison term for fatally stabbing an acquaintance was back in Delaware County last week continuing his pursuit of a reduced sentence. ..Source..

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There is a good explanation of the events that led to the actual stabbing in the Appellate Court decision, summarizing, Brown contends that Seldomridge molested him and his brothers earlier in time. Assuming that to be true this is a victim based crime rather than "by Acq".

Woman sentenced for killing abusive father

8-27-2004 South Carolina:
YORK, S.C. - A woman was sentenced on Friday to seven years in prison for killing her father.

Janice Clark Smith, 50, pleaded guilty to shooting George Manley Clark three times in the chest on Dec. 11. She said the man had abused her for nearly all of her life.

During five hours of testimony on Thursday, nearly 40 other people told Judge Howard King of Sumter that they either were molested by Clark or knew someone who had been.

All asked the judge to have mercy on Smith. ..more.. Associated Press

---

Parole brings her peace after killing abusive dad
January 2006 SOuth Carolina:

CATAWBA, S.C. -- Down a dirt road named Copperhead lives a woman who had good reason to kill the man who gave her life.

But Janice Clark Smith, who was paroled from prison last week for fatally shooting her father, George Manley Clark -- decades after he sexually abused his daughters and assaulted his grandchild, executed family pets and held a shotgun to his wife's head -- said it still wasn't good enough.

"I done wrong; I should not have shot him in the chest like I did," said the 51-year-old grandmother of eight as she held her squirming 3-year-old grandson Austin Lamb in her lap. "And now I'm a criminal. But someone had to stop that man before he hurt someone else."

Smith is flying this morning to Los Angeles to tell her story tonight on ... ..more.. by DAN HUNTLEY

---

Woman Convicted for Killing 73-Year-Old Father Who Molested Her, Dozens of Others

Aug. 28, 2004 – A South Carolina women was sentenced to seven years for killing her 73-year-old father, who she said abused her nearly all of her life.

About 40 other people told the judge that they either were molested by George Manley Clark or knew someone who had been. Clark was convicted in 1987 of molesting two girls. Witnesses testified that Clark executed family pets, invited drunken friends to his house where his daughters were abused and wreaked havoc on his children all their lives.

His daughter, Janice Clark Smith, 50, shot him three times in the chest last December. ..Source..

Police Shooting: Victim (Sex Offender) Suffered From Schizophrenia!

6-20-2004 Oregon:

ASTORIA, Ore. -- An Astoria man shot and killed by police suffered from schizophrenia, according to his mother.

Neighbors called police Wednesday night after seeing Douglas Pollock on the roof, cutting live electrical wires.

Officers shot 41-year-old Pollock five times inside the home after he allegedly came at them with a baseball bat.

Pollock was a convicted sex offender and recently served jail time for failing to register as such.

"He was a kind and loving person. He wouldn't hurt anybody," Pollock's mother, Catherine, told KOIN.

Two officers involved are on leave until the investigation is complete. ..more.. by KOIN.com

----------------------------------------------------------------

Police killing in Astoria

6-17-2004 Oregon:

Catherine Pollock, the mother of Doug Pollock who was killed Wednesday by police, stands at the police line this morning. Patrice Stanley, a neighbor who talked with Cathy Pollock, said, "She looked at me and said 'I told them not to shoot him.'"

Pollock had record; officers on paid administrative leave

The man Astoria police shot dead in his home Wednesday night might have been mentally ill. A neighbor reported that the man's mother begged police not to shoot him.

An autopsy on the dead man, Douglas Eugene Pollock Jr., is scheduled for Friday, Clatsop County District Attorney Josh Marquis said this morning.

Two Astoria police officers are on paid administrative leave while detectives from other agencies in Clatsop County investigate what happened. The names of the officers involved in the shooting have not been released.

Clatsop County court records show that Pollock has had extensive dealings with law enforcement agencies over the past few years. He recently served jail time for failing to register as a sex offender.

The incident that led to the death of 41-year-old Pollock began when a neighbor saw him on the roof of the house at 218 Franklin Ave. at 7:30 p.m. cutting electrical wires. He shared the home with his mother, Catherine Pollock.

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

Thursday morning, investigators gather on the deck of a Franklin Avenue duplex where an Astoria man, Douglas Eugene Pollock Jr., was shot and killed Wednesday night.

The neighbor, Astoria High School Principal Larry Lockett, who lives around the corner on Second Street, said he was watering his lawn,when he heard a pop and saw a big man with a beard "lumbering across the roof."

Lockett said live wires were on the ground, so he called police.

He said an Astoria police officer responded, then called for back-up. Two officers went up the steps, and another went to the back of the house, he said.

Lockett said he heard four gunshots come from inside the man's house. Neighbor watched. Patrice Stanley who lives across the street, watched the incident unfold.

Stanley said Cathy Pollock, said she told police her son was a paranoid schizophrenic who was unstable but not dangerous or violent. Stanley said Cathy Pollock told her she begged police not to shoot Pollock, and they said they were using a bean bag gun.

"But the next thing she knew, he was dead right there in her living room," Stanley said Cathy Pollock told her.

Police said the man had a baseball bat, Stanley said, and she saw one officer emerge from the house holding an injured arm.

Eamon and Cathy Pollock, the brother and mother of Doug Pollock Jr., stand together outside the police line.

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

"We were beside ourselves," Stanley said of herself and the victim's mother. "We didn't understand why they didn't mace him or 'Taze' him," she said. "But of course, I wasn't there," Stanley said. "I don't know what he might have said to the police."

Stanley said the usually quiet street was filled with emergency vehicles, including five police cars, an ambulance and a fire engine.

"It was the whole nine yards," Stanley said. "It looked like a circus."

Later, the victim's father, also named Douglas Pollock, arrived from Portland, Stanley said, and began yelling at police, "cussing up a blue streak." Stanley said he yelled, "You SOBs killed my son! Where's the weapon? Where's the baseball bat?"

Stanley said the woman who rents the other side of the duplex,was also very angry and said she would testify against police in court.

Astoria not involved in probe

The case is being investigated by the Clatsop County Major Crimes team, which includes Oregon State Police and the Clatsop County Sheriff's Office.

The Astoria Police department will not take any part in the investigation, Marquis said, because the case involves Astoria police officers.

"They are on paid administrative leave, which is standard practice and does not imply any wrongdoing," Marquis said. He said the Astoria Police Department has been very cooperative.

He declined to offer further details because of the preliminary nature of the interviews, but he confirmed that the incident started with the report of a person cutting a power line.

Marquis said he believed it was the first officer-involved shooting in Astoria in 50 years. ..more.. by SANDRA SWAIN

Witnesses: Girls recruited robbers who murdered sex offender

9-30-2004 Florida:

Three Fort Myers girls jailed on murder and robbery charges tried to convince four men to rob Maurice Larry before he turned up dead in a Dunbar yard, according to witness statements taken by police.

Police said Keasha Evans, 16, Veronica Joyner, 16, and Queenetta Marshal, 16, didn't pull the trigger July 16, but they were directly involved in the plot to kill Larry, 25, a convicted sex offender who was found slain outside 2604 St. Charles St. ..more.. by GRANT BOXLEITNER

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Teen girls charged in fatal shooting

7-18-2004 Florida:

Three teenage girls face murder charges after investigators say they asked a fourth person to rob the man found dead Friday in a Dunbar yard, Fort Myers police said.

Officers are seeking the other suspect, Frederick W. Brown, 26, of Fort Myers.

Keasha R. Evans, 3045 Willard St.; Veronica S. Joyner, 3027 Second St.; and Queenetta Marshal, 2643 Blake St.; --all 16 --were arrested Saturday. Each was charged with one count of murder and one count of armed robbery.

Police say the girls asked Brown to rob the unidentified victim late Thursday but are not releasing details about the robbery and shooting until he is arrested.

Neighbors called police to 2604 St. Charles St., around 11:45 a.m. Friday after they spotted a body lying in the grass on the east side of the house. The victim was described as a black man wearing a blue-and-white shirt and black shorts. Residents told officers they heard what they believed to be gunshots late Thursday but did not call police.

Officers said Saturday they believe they know who the victim is but are awaiting fingerprint comparisons for a positive identification. His family also has not been notified, they said.

The man's death is the 11th homicide in the city this year and the sixth in Dunbar.

An autopsy on Saturday confirmed the man died from gunshot wounds, but police will not disclose details about his injuries until Brown is in custody. ..Source..

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Delphine Rayner, 39, of Fort Myers wipes a tear away as she talks about her daughter, Keasha Evans, 16, who has been arrested in connection with the death of Maurice A. Larry, whose body was found Thursday night. Rayner is holding the outfit that Keasha wore on her birthday, the same day as the incident. At left is Linese Weaver, 45, Keasha's aunt. ..Source..

Suspect fatally shot during arrest attempt

10-1-2004 Florida:
RIVERVIEW - It was still dark Thursday morning when Madeline Grimes and her daughter April heard the two detectives across the street shout:

"He's got a gun! He's got a gun!"

Then, Grimes heard five shots pierce the quietness of her neighborhood of big, towering trees and modest homes.

Later, she would learn that a veteran Hillsborough sheriff's detective fatally shot her neighbor John Stanley Lewis, who is accused of possessing child pornography. According to the Sheriff's Office, Lewis pointed a gun at detectives and refused to drop it.

"We have a very peaceful neighborhood, and this is just the kind of thing you see on the news," Grimes, 56, said with tears in her eyes. "I don't like to witness somebody die like that."

Sheriff's spokesman Lt. Rod Reder said detectives Albert Padron, 44, and David Atkinson, 42, went to Lewis' home at 8202 Oakwilde St. about 6 a.m. to pick up Lewis, who was wanted by the State Attorney's Office on 30 counts of Internet child pornography.

The detectives knocked and identified themselves, Reder said. Lewis was carrying a gun when he came out to his screened porch, which was dark because the street is still without power following Hurricane Frances.

"He's aiming it at the detectives, and he wouldn't put the gun down," Reder said. "So Detective Padron fired several times."

Reder said Padron has been trained to use a Taser, a device that shoots aggressive subjects with jolts of electricity. He said he didn't know if Padron was carrying a Taser at the time of the confrontation, but said, "I don't expect we'd rely on the Taser for people who are pointing guns at us."

Lewis, 55, died on his porch while his wife and three dogs were inside the one-story home.

Padron, a 20-year veteran with only minor blemishes in his personnel history, is on administrative leave while the shooting is investigated, Reder said.

Lewis' death comes just four months after he tried to commit suicide following an arrest on one count of lewd and lascivious molestation of a 13-year-old girl, according to State Attorney's Office spokeswoman Pam Bondi. Lewis was arrested May 26 and released the same day after posting a $15,000 bail. During the Memorial Day weekend, Lewis went to a Tampa motel and shot himself in the head, Bondi said.

He survived, and prosecutors in July decided not to pursue the case because the teenager refused to cooperate, Bondi said.

Reder said a search warrant obtained for that May arrest led to the 30 pornography counts filed last week by the State Attorney's Office.

Detectives seized a digital camera and computer from Lewis' home and sent them to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's computer crimes analysts in Tampa. The analysts found evidence of child pornography, Reder said.

Neighbor Debi Wilson said Lewis and his wife moved to the neighborhood about four years ago. She said she didn't know him well, but said they sometimes chatted when Lewis was out walking his three dogs.

"He seemed to me like a nice person until that whole thing came down," Wilson said, referring to the lewd and lascivious charge filed in May. "The day before yesterday was the first day I saw him since he shot himself. Oh, you should have seen the scars on his face."

Florida criminal records show the May arrest was Lewis' first here. He has lived in Hillsborough County for several years, and before that he lived in Texas.

He worked at an envelope-making company, Silver Envelope, in Tampa. But Wilson said the company owner recently died, and Lewis has been worried about his job future.

April Grimes, 29, is a dispatcher for the Sheriff's Office. When she heard detectives yell that Lewis had a gun, she pulled her mother Madeline inside their house.

"He pointed that gun because he wanted to be shot," the younger Grimes said. "That was suicide by cop. You point a gun at a deputy, you get shot."

Padron, a graduate of Jefferson High School, joined the Sheriff's Office as a jail deputy in 1984 after a short stint in the Air Force and work as a personal trainer at a gym. He became a street deputy in 1989. In 1995, he became a detective.

In 1990, Padron was one of several deputies involved in a shootout with bank robbers who came from Orlando and hit a Thonotosassa bank, then fired dozens of rounds at deputies' cars. One of the suspects was killed, one was paralyzed and two were arrested, Reder said. Padron was cleared in that shooting investigation, and it was never determined which deputies' bullets hit the suspects.

Padron's personnel file has numerous commendations from supervisors and Hillsborough residents. Recently, he received commendations for helping arrest three violent felons and for his role in apprehending two suspects accused of trying to kill law enforcement officers.

Padron had one written reprimand in 1992 for failing to establish probable cause in a Baker Act case. In 1990, he was suspended for a day after failing to show up for traffic court.

In his annual evaluations, supervisors described Padron as "hardworking," "experienced," "very knowledgeable" and "a team player." ..more.. by SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER

Freeport man killed in shooting

11-8-2004 Illinois:

FREEPORT -- A Freeport man was shot early Sunday morning and died shortly after his arrival to FHN Memorial Hospital. Isaac Hall Jr., 26, of 227 W. Pleasant St., was found by Freeport Police lying in the street with multiple gunshot wounds in the 100 block of North Adelbert Avenue. Freeport police had responded to several 911 calls at approximately 1:11 a.m. Sunday.

Hall had been shot less than three months ago under unusual circumstances, and an arrest was never made in that incident, that occurred Aug. 26. Police responded to a report of a shooting in the 400 block of East Winneshiek Street in Freeport to find that Hall had been shot twice - once in the foot and once in the hip. He was taken to FHN and recovered from his injuries.

In 1998, Hall had been sentenced to four years at the Illinois River Correctional Center near Canton on a charge of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. Illinois Department of Corrections records show that he had been released on parole from the facility in November 2003. ..more.. Pam Eggemeier, The Journal-Standard

Arundel Judge Frees Woman In Death of 'Horrible' Man

11-10-2004 Maryland:
Laura Rogers killed her husband in April, shooting him as he slept and claiming it was a suicide. But when she pleaded guilty to manslaughter yesterday, 198 days after her arrest, an Anne Arundel County Circuit Court judge set her free.

Her husband, Walter Rogers, 43, had raped and impregnated her teenage daughter, a child from a previous marriage, both sides said in court. And the day before Laura Rogers leveled a shotgun at her husband's head, she watched a videotape he had made of the sex acts.

Judge Paul A. Hackner, who watched the tape in his chambers yesterday, called the slain man "a horrible human being" and effectively ordered that Laura Rogers, 36, be freed from jail. Although the abuse of her daughter was discussed at length during the proceeding, Hackner said a psychiatrist's diagnosis that Laura Rogers suffered from battered spouse syndrome was the more significant factor in his decision.

He sentenced her to 10 years in prison, then suspended all but the time she had served, telling her, "You'll be released sometime this afternoon."

Countless women have been abused by their spouses, and more than a few of them have resorted to homicide. Among those, however, a much smaller number later walked free -- and that is precisely what happened in Anne Arundel yesterday.

"It was the right thing to do," prosecutor Laura Kiessling said outside court. Kiessling did not object to the defense request for leniency for Laura Rogers, who had no criminal record.

"This man Walter Rogers was a sociopath who had it coming, and he got what he deserved," said Laura Rogers's attorney, Clarke F. Ahlers.

Walter and Laura Rogers, both divorced, had been married for 11 years. They lived in an apartment attached to an office building in a Laurel industrial park. He was a laborer, and she worked as a secretary when her husband permitted it, Ahlers said.

A deputy sheriff escorted her into court yesterday and removed her handcuffs. She turned to tearful family members and waved.

Later, in a brief statement, she declared her dedication to her three children. "I ask the court to see that I'm able to go home and give these children the love they not only need but that they deserve," she said.

Kiessling described the events that led to the slaying. She said Laura Rogers and her teenage daughter spent part of April 23 at a laundromat. At one point, Rogers went to a Wal-Mart to buy a shotgun. Her attorney said later that she did so at the direction of her husband, a convicted felon who could not purchase the gun himself.

Kiessling said that the girl, then seven months pregnant, told her mother she was being abused. The girl had previously made such claims but recanted and was, in fact, convicted of making false accusations. This time, she said, there was a videotape that would prove her allegations. She told her mother where to find the tape.

Rogers watched it. And DNA tests later confirmed what the tape suggested: that her husband was the father of her daughter's baby, Kiessling said. Rogers stayed up most of the night. Then, in the morning, she called police to their residence, saying her husband had shot himself.

An autopsy later found that the death was a homicide, and Laura Rogers admitted that she had pulled the trigger.

"To me it appeared that she was a person who had been pushed to the brink," Kiessling said outside court. She said Walter Rogers had abused his wife "psychologically and physically" and terrorized her by, for example, swinging a baseball bat so that it narrowly missed her head.

In addition, she said, a trial probably would have required that the girl testify against her mother. Kiessling said the girl, who has since given birth to her stepfather's baby, "has been victimized enough."

"It's time for it to be over for her," Kiessling said, adding later that Walter Rogers had abused the girl for nearly a decade.

Kiessling declined to discuss Walter Rogers's family or their thoughts about the plea arrangement except to say that "many of them were victims of his abuse as well."

Laura Rogers's attorney, Ahlers, called Walter Rogers "a person who took a sick and sadistic pleasure in killing the spirit of other people" and said that he "continued to rape the child even in pregnancy." Ahlers said the shooting was a homicide without a victim. "This man Walter Rogers abused people probably from adolescence to the time of his death."

Laura Rogers was released from the Anne Arundel Detention Center about 6 p.m. yesterday. In a scrum of reporters, she thanked her family and the judge and said that she was looking forward to hugging her children for the first time in seven months. ..more.. by Eric Rich

Woman Shoots, Kills Uncle Over Alleged Molestation

7-19-2004 Alabama:
TUSCSALOOSA, Ala. -- A 37-year-old Tuscaloosa woman has been arrested in the shooting death of her 56-year-old uncle.

Tuscaloosa Police Lt. Loyd Baker said the suspect, Shirley Jean Brantley, was enraged that her uncle allegedly had molested a preteen family member. Mose Aron (56) died from multiple gunshot wounds Saturday. ..more. by Associated Press