Goodizen :: Killing & Murder

BELLEVILLE • The doctor who performed an autopsy on Ryon Smith testified in court on Wednesday that the 6-year-old found dead at his Cahokia home on Christmas Day 2005 had 57 distinct injuries and died of blunt trauma to the stomach. The cause of those injuries became the chief battleground in the trial of Lee Crutchfield, accused in St. Clair County Circuit Court of first-degree murder. Dr. Raj Nanduri, a forensic pathologist for the coroner's office, testified that Ryon's death was a homicide from blunt force trauma to the stomach. A forensic pathologist hired by Crutchfield later contradicted that opinion, saying the boy died of natural causes stemming from epilepsy. Ryon's mother, Starr Lohman, admitted in court earlier in the day that she stood idly by while her boyfriend, Crutchfield, struck Ryon 15 to 30 times. Lohman, 29, testified without emotion for about 90 minutes as a key witness against Crutchfield, 39. "Why did not you protect your son?" publi...

Mugshot of Scott Sullivan, a Lockport man accused of beating his elderly father to death last year. Updated: November 29, 2011 3:57PM Scott Sullivan told police his father fell. Paramedics found 86-year-old Fred Sullivan lying on his back in his son’s living room July 18, 2010. He couldn’t talk and, according to prosecutors, he never would again. Paramedics said the senior citizen’s face was swollen, his skin was torn and his body bruised. They found blood in the living room and the dining room — on the carpet, the walls and the ceiling. “His father did not fall,” James Long, an assistant state’s attorney, told a Will County jury. “He suffered a physical assault.” That assault came at the hands of his 58-year-old son, prosecutors said as they put Scott Sullivan on trial for his father’s murder Tuesday. Leaning forward in a gray shirt and black tie, Scott Sullivan listened in a Joliet courtroom as prosecutors explained how his father suffered from dementia and lived with his son in the ...

PHOENIX— An Arizona jury on Wednesday sentenced a man to death for killing nine people during a spree that terrorized the Phoenix area, rejecting the man's pleas for mercy and denials of guilt and agreeing with prosecutors that the killings were especially cruel. Jurors reached the verdict about a month after they found 47-year-old Mark Goudeau (goo-DOH') guilty of the nine murders and 58 other charges, including kidnapping and rape. They sentenced him to death on each of the nine murder counts. Goudeau was accused of attacking his victims as they went about daily activities, such as leaving work or washing their car. He left most of them with their pants unzipped and partially pulled down. Police named the series of killings and other crimes after Baseline Road in south Phoenix where many of the earliest attacks happened. Goudeau lived only a few miles from many of the attack sites. "It's a relief that it's over," said Maria Nunez, the mother of...

John Suchocki / The Republican 11-30-11 - Holyoke - 20-year-old Damion Johnson denied murder and firearm charges in connection with the shooting death of his 19-year-old brother, Jefforey Johnson, during his arraignment Wednesday in Holyoke District Court HOLYOKE – Damion Johnson denied murder and weapons charges pertaining to the Sunday shooting of his younger brother early Wednesday afternoon in District Court and was ordered held without right to bail. Joanne Couture, meanwhile, the 45-year-old mother of the suspect and victim, 19-year-old Jefforey Johnson, denied a charge of willfully misleading police during the investigation. Judge Bethzaida Sanabria-Vega ordered the 20-year-old Johnson to be held without right to bail and Couture to be held in lieu of $ 1,000 cash or $ 10,000 personal surety. The fatal shooting occurred about 8:30 p.m. inside the apartment at 101 Beech St., where Couture and the late Johnson, 19, lived. Damion Johnson's address is listed as 68 Essex St. ...

MENTOR-ON-THE-LAKE, Ohio (AP) — A retired Ohio police officer was charged with murder after his wife's body was found wrapped in plastic inside a sleeping bag at their home. Police found the body Sunday after a relative called to report a smell coming from the garage of Gary Stroud 's Mentor-on-the-Lake home, authorities said. Authorities said that Stroud's 53-year-old wife, Diane, had been missing for several weeks, and on Wednesday they confirmed that the body was hers. She died from a blunt force injury, Mentor-on-the Lake police Chief John Gielink said. He declined to comment further. Gary Stroud, a 57-year-old former Mentor police officer , was in jail Wednesday with bail set at $ 1 million. A woman answering the telephone at the office of his attorney, Tim Deeb, said they would not comment on the case. Diane Stroud served on the Mentor-on-the-Lake City Council from 1996 to 2003, including one year as council president. She had been missing for six weeks, an...

  Facebook Google buzz Del.icio.us Digg Reddit Newsvine Buzz up! Fark it - A A A + Written by KARE 11 MINNEAPOLIS - Homicide investigators are on the scene of what is being called a suspicious death in north Minneapolis. Squads were called to 4101 Thomas Avenue North late Wednesday morning and discovered the body of a 24-year-old female in a second floor apartment. She was dead on the scene. A police spokesman did not share how the victim died but did term her death "suspicious." The woman did not live in the apartment alone and investigators scrambled to check on the welfare of her roommate. He was eventually located and found to be OK.   KARE 11 has a crew on the scene and will have details as they become available. (Copyright 2011 by KARE. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. ) You Might Be Interested In Read More @ Source Criminal Stories Here

Sean Stennett SAGINAW — Opening arguments in the trial for the two men charged in the Dec. 2 homicide of Sean Stennett are scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. Steven J. Rembish, 36, and Jonathon L. Jones, 22, both are charged with first-degree premeditated murder in the shooting death of the 25-year-old Stennett. Saginaw County Assistant Prosecutor Paul Fehrman will have the first opportunity to address the jury. Rembish’s Saginaw Township-based attorney, Kirk C. Ellsworth, and Jones’ Toledo-based attorney, Stevin Groth, will have the opportunity to follow. Both Ellsworth and Groth have the choice to reserve their opening arguments until after Fehrman is done presenting witnesses. County Circuit Judge James T. Borchard is presiding over the trial. The Saginaw News was to cover the trial live on Twitter, but Borchard decided against allowing the coverage after the attorneys objected because it would allow sequestered witnesses to read about the testimony before testifying themselves. The...

Michael Phillip Driver BAY MINETTE, Alabama - Baldwin County District Attorney Hallie Dixon said it was decided that a Pensacola man will not be prosecuted in the 2008 boating deaths of his mother and sister after the defense revealed it had two witnesses who would testify that Michael Phillip Driver was not operating the vessel. The new evidence was presented during a hearing Monday. Driver’s attorney, Spencer E. Davis Jr., said the defense had been aware of the witnesses since just after the accident. But because Driver was not indicted until earlier this year, “there was nobody to inform of their existence until after the charge came up.” “Generally, when you end up having witnesses that are real favorable to the defense, you don’t tell the other side and kind of ambush them with it at trial,” Davis said. “But the prosecutor in this case (Patrick Prendergast) was real open with me about what his evidence was and I had enough faith that he might make the right decision.” Davis said...

TAMPA -- A woman awaiting trial for murder in the 2008 death of a 78-year-old woman in her care has been charged with stealing from another woman whose home she cleaned, Tampa police said. Jana Porter, 46, was arrested Sunday at her home, 6318 S. Richard Ave. She was charged with third-degree grand theft, and her bail was revoked on the previous charges of second-degree murder and aggravated abuse of an elderly or disabled adult. According to police, Porter stole jewelry from a home while she was working for a maid service. When the victim discovered the jewelry was missing, she went to a nearby pawn shop and found one of her rings, police said. In March 2008, Porter called 911 to report Peggy Albury Mehrman had died of natural causes, police said. Mehrman's daughter soon arrived and questioned where her mother's prescription medication and checks had gone. Police began investigating the case for possible exploitation and eventually as a homicide. Porter was arrested in Se...

Indian Catholic nuns attend a prayer meeting to condemn the murder of Sister Valsa John, held in Kolkata on Nov. 21, 2011 Dibyangshu Sarkar / AFP / Getty Images The town of Jharia never sleeps. When the sun sets over its coalfields, illegal miners take over, toiling through the night. Jharia's second shift is controlled by men like Israel Bhai, who started mining at age 7. "I had to survive somehow, and this was the easiest way," he recalls. By 2007, Bhai headed a small-scale syndicate of 12 men and women; today, he employs 50 people. Under cover of darkness, he leads them 15 stories underground, seeking out unscoured nooks. If the police come, Bhai bribes them or sends his team scrambling through a secret tunnel. But, he says, local officials "generally don't bother us." In India, illegal mining is a big, booming business. In Jharkhand state, where Bhai lives, and neighboring Bihar, the so-called coal mafia rules over an empire worth an estimated ...

Click photo to enlarge Stewart Skuba in court last month. SANTA CRUZ - A key witness took the stand in the Stewart Skuba homicide trial Tuesday, relating hearing crashing sounds and a man pleading with others to stop on the night prosecutors say a man was killed in a Santa Cruz garage. Kristin Roberts, 21, was living at Stewart Skuba's Felix Street home on July 20, 2009 when prosecutors maintain Skuba killed Elias Sorokin, a 29-year-old from Los Angeles. Roberts cried several times on the witness stand, struggling to maintain her composure as she detailed cleaning up blood from the garage that night. She sobbed when shown a photograph of Sorokin's identification card, testifying that she'd seen the same card when she looked through a wallet she found in Skuba's bedroom. Skuba, 33, a former Westside hair stylist, is charged with murder, robbery and kidnapping in the disappearance of Sorokin. Sorokin's body has never been found, but his burned truck was disc...

Who would murder a mathematician? Not just murder – assassinate , with a bomb made from rocket fuel that incinerates an Amsterdam hotel room before James Fenster's scheduled speech at a World Trade Organization conference. That's the question, and the case, confounding veteran Interpol agent Henri Poincare. The agent's great-grandfather was Jules Henri Poincare , the 19th-century French philosopher and physicist noted for his work on chaos theory and fractals, which show how parts of a pattern found in nature mirror the whole shape. But the modern-day Poincare is concerned with crimes, not equations. Fenster's death, with its aftertaste of terrorism, isn't an everyday homicide, and Poincare tracks suspects from the Netherlands to the United States and beyond. A cast of strange characters ripples across his radar, including Fenster's tight-lipped former fiancee, an ambitious graduate student who takes over Fenster's Harvard classes, a hedge-fund manager...

Michael Jackson's doctor will learn his punishment Tuesday for ending the life and career of one of pop music's greatest entertainers and for leaving his three children without a father. Conrad Murray is set to be sentenced for involuntary manslaughter after a six-week trial that presented the most detailed account yet of Jackson's final hours but left many questions about Murray's treatment of the superstar with an operating-room anesthetic as he battled chronic insomnia. Prosecutors want Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor to sentence Murray to a maximum four-year term that likely would be cut at least in half due to jail overcrowding. Defense attorneys want probation for the cardiologist, saying he will lose his ability to practice medicine and likely face a lifetime of ostracism. Jackson's family members will have an opportunity to speak before Murray is sentenced, although it remained unclear if any planned to make a statement. The singer's mother Kath...

Kansas City police told The Star on Tuesday that they are investigating whether Jerry Petty — the man who killed his wife and her goddaughter before officers killed him in a Thanksgiving gunbattle — killed a third woman in her home before the shootout. The third woman, Denise Hall, was found shot to death in the 2900 block of East 69th Street on Saturday afternoon — at least two days after police think she was killed. Police said Hall, 56, was an acquaintance of Petty. "We are looking at different tips and evidence that could possibly link the cases," said homicide Capt. Floyd Mitchell. "We're waiting on analysis of evidence recovered at the scene." Friends of Petty, 64, and his wife, Loretta Petty, think Jerry Petty robbed Hall for money to buy crack. Police said they weren't sure why Jerry Petty killed his wife and her 16-year-old goddaughter, Deja Davis, but police found drug paraphernalia inside the home. Police said they thought Jerry Petty had been...

TAMPA -- While awaiting trial for murder in the death of a 78-year-old woman, Jana Porter stole jewelry from a woman whose home she cleaned, Tampa police said. Porter, 46, was arrested Sunday at her home, 6318 S. Richard Ave. She was charged with third-degree grand theft, and her bond was revoked on charges of second-degree murder and aggravated abuse of an elderly or disabled adult. The latest incident happened when Porter stole jewelry from a home while working for a maid service, police said. When the victim discovered missing jewelry, she went to a nearby pawn shop and found one of her missing rings. In the prior incident, Porter called 911 in March 2008 to report Peggy Albury Mehrman had died of natural causes, police said. Mehrman's daughter soon arrived and questioned where her mother's prescription medication and checks had gone. Police began investigating the case for possible exploitation and eventually as a homicide. Porter was arrested in September 2009. Police...

Tyler Theis, who's been arrested in the death of a 22-year-old Colorado Springs man, was like a "brother" to the victim and was with him in his final hours at the hospital, Theis' father said Tuesday. "Murder charges, I just don't get it," said Richard Theis. Theis is in the El Paso County jail on a $ 200,000 bond and faces a possible reckless manslaughter charge in the death of Jacob Seabright. He was in court Tuesday to be advised of his rights. Colorado Springs police say an unknown person took Seabright to Penrose Main Hospital about 12:10 a.m. Friday. Police didn't know at first if he had been involved in an accident or assaulted. Seabright died about 12:30 p.m. Sunday. Police did not release details about how he died, but the El Paso County Coroner ruled his death a homicide. His death was the 28 th homicide of the year in Colorado Springs, which ties the record of the most homicides ever in the city. Richard Theis said that Seabright a...

The 16-year-old suspect in an Ohio Craigslist murder spree is now facing four murder-related charges. If he is tried as a juvenile and convicted of the highest charge, aggravated murder, he would likely be out of prison by the time he's 21. But if suspect Brogan Rafferty is tried and convicted of the highest charges as an adult, he could face life in prison. Either way, he is not eligible for the death penalty since he is under the age of 18. Rafferty has been charged with attempted murder, complicity to attempted murder, aggravated murder and complicity to aggravated murder. The latter two charges were added Tuesday by a Noble County, Ohio, judge. The court was expected to decide whether Rafferty will be tried as an adult or juvenile on Tuesday, but a technicality related to giving sufficient notification to Rafferty's parents for the hearing prevented the decision from being made. When asked questions regarding the killings of three men who responded to a job ad on C...

Van der Sloot, being arrested by Peruvian authorities on June 7, 2010. (Karel Navarro … Joran van der Sloot, the man still suspected of murdering disappeared American student Natalee Holloway in Aruba, has filed a lawsuit against the Chilean government claiming his human rights were violated while being investigated for a second murder of a young woman. The 24-year-old van der Sloot says his rights were violated when he was forcibly extradited from Chile to Peru to face murder charges in the May 30 killing of Stephany Flores, a 21-year-old Peruvian business student, who was found dead in his hotel room in Lima on June 2, 2010. Van der Sloot has been charged with first-degree murder and robbery in the Flores case after already being indicted by the U.S. government on charges of attempting to extort $ 250,000 from Holloway's family in exchange for information on her death and the alleged location of her body. The Huffington Post's David Lohr explains the nature of the la...

Updated: 2011-11-29T16:36:57Z Kansas City police arrested a homicide suspect about mid-morning today after searching a wooded area on the city's East Side. Travis A. Robling was taken into custody about 9:50 a.m. in the 7000 block of East 28th Street. Police were dispatched about 7:50 a.m. to the 3000 block of Manchester Avenue on a report of two suspicious parties — a man and a woman. The man's description fit that of Robling, who is suspected in the shotgun slaying of Nathan L. Davis on Nov. 8 inside a home that was later set on fire. Police established a perimeter and shortly thereafter took the woman into custody for questioning. Police continued to search for Robling in a wooded area near Manchester Avenue and U.S. 40. Shortly before 10 a.m., officers responded to a nearby mobile home where they found Robling and arrested him. Robling was charged last week with second-degree murder and armed criminal action for the death of Davis, 25, in the 5400 block of East ...

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A homeless Eugene woman has been found dead in Clackamas County, a victim of suspected homicide, according to a sheriff's office spokesman. Officers found Dana Crippen, 50, on a bike path at 1 a.m. Friday morning in a mostly commercial area where Johnson Creek Boulevard crosses Interstate 205, said Sgt. James Rhodes, spokesman for the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office. Crippen's body was found on the bike path below the boulevard and just west of I-205. That's several miles north of Oregon City in the Happy Valley area. "A deputy sheriff was flagged down by a passer-by, who said, 'I think there's a guy who's really hurt, if not dead,'" Rhodes said. It turned out to be Crippen, Rhodes said. An autopsy revealed that she died of "traumatic homicidal violence," Rhodes said. He said investigators have declined to be more specific, but they believe she died very close to the time her body was discovered. Crippen was interviewed and ph...

The key witness in the murder case against suspect Charles Jones -- whose 7-year-old daughter was killed in a police raid -- was held in contempt of court Monday for refusing to testify and could lose his plea deal with prosecutors, attorneys said. Under the agreement, Chauncey Owens pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and agreed to testify that Jones, who is charged with first-degree murder, gave him the gun he used to shoot teenager Je'Rean Blake in May 2010. Owens refused to testify earlier this month. He took the stand Monday, but remained silent -- despite an order signed by 36th District Judge E. Lynise Bryant-Weekes, offering him immunity against self-incrimination. Bryant-Weekes found Owens in contempt, but adjourned the preliminary exam until Dec. 22 to give him time to reconsider. If his silence continues, Owens -- whose sentencing is scheduled for Friday --could once again find himself charged with first-degree murder, his attorney and prosecutors said. Accordin...

LONDON — A man arrested and then cleared of murder charges has told a committee investigating Britain's press that tabloids destroyed his reputation with false front page stories. Christopher Jefferies told Britain's press ethics committee that the negative coverage of him was so widespread that some people still assume he is a "weird character" who should be avoided even though he was cleared of wrongdoing. Jefferies, a landlord, was arrested last year by police investigating the murder of his tenant, Joanna Yeates. Another man has since been convicted of the crime. Jefferies said he felt he could not go out in public because of the smears. The inquiry, led by Judge Brian Leveson, plans to issue a report next year and could recommend major changes to Britain's system of media self regulation. Read More @ Source Criminal Stories Here