The Face of America in Year 2016

[kscarbel2]

(The Face of America in Year 2015 - http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/40732-the-face-of-america-in-year-2015/?hl=face)

Continued..............

[kscarbel2]

Lesbian couple torture 5-year-old boy

Associated Press / January 13, 2016

A lesbian couple from Oklahoma have been charged with child abuse involving one of the suspects’ 5-year-old son, who police say was struck with a hammer, whipped with a belt and tortured so badly he suffered strokes and seizures.

Rachel Stevens, 28, and her partner Kayla Jones, 25, were booked into the Muskogee County Jail Tuesday on charges of felony child abuse by injury and child neglect.

The case first came to light in early December when Stevens' 5-year-old son was flown to St John Medical Center in Tulsa suffering from seizures and lesions on his face.

Doctors at the hospital contacted police after determining that the child had several broken bones in various stages of healing and appeared malnourished.

While the boy was receiving medical treatment, he suffered two strokes 'due to his trauma.'

Investigators subsequently interviewed the little boy and learned that the child had been tied up, had duct tape placed over his eyes and had been kept in a locked room.

The toddler said his mother struck him on the hand with a hammer, and that both she and Jones hit him with a belt all over his body.

According to police, the horrific abuse went on for several months. The little boy said on one occasion, his step-mother kicked him in the groin until he bled.

The lesbian couple then had the audacity to launch a GoFundMe campaign for Stevens' son, claiming that the toddler was picking his own face and was having seizures after suffering a fall.

Now more than a month later, the 5-year-old remains at the Tulsa hospital getting treated for his injuries.

Stevens and Jones are out on bail, due back in court later this month.

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[kscarbel2]

Florida couple kept adopted daughter in cage

The Washington Post / January 9, 2016

A husband and wife in Sarasota, Fla., have been accused of child abuse after they admitted to authorities they routinely tied up and locked their 12-year-old daughter inside a playhouse.

In an affidavit, the 5-by-7 foot playhouse was described by a detective as a “glorified cage.”

“She wasn’t allowed to leave the playhouse to use the restroom,” said Sheriff’s Lt. Joe Giasone told WTSP. “She’d have to do all that inside.”

Police say Eugenio Erquiaga, a doctor, and his wife, Victoria, a lawyer, used zip ties to restrain the girl’s ankles and wrists before locking her inside the cramped enclosure for hours on end.

The playhouse could be barred shut with a piece of wood, had most of its windows screwed shut and smelled of urine

Police said the couple — who were arrested Wednesday — told investigators that their daughter was prone to violent outbursts and the restraints were used to protect the family’s six other children. Police said the couple came up with the method of restraint recently, after seeing zip ties used in a television show featuring police.

The pair is facing aggravated child abuse charges

The alleged abuse may have escaped authorities’ attention if the victim hadn’t fled her family’s house, finding her way to a neighbor’s home.

When the little girl with zip ties on her ankles and wrists arrived Sean Macindoe’s front door, the 19-year-old neighbor told authorities that the girl said: “My parents abandoned me. I was left and ran away.”

The 12-year-old girl, who was adopted, was part of a large group of a biological and adopted children in the Erquiaga household, according to CBS News. In addition to two other adopted children, the family also includes four biological children from five to 13 years old.

The couple’s other children are in custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families.

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[kscarbel2]

New Jersey father murders 3-year-old toddler son

Associated Press / January 13, 2016

David "D.J." Creato Jr., 22, murdered his 3-year-old son Brendan Creato because the child was an impediment to his relationship with a teenage girlfriend.

Creato is also charged with child endangerment and faces a possible life sentence if he's convicted on the murder charge.

Brendan vanished from his father's home in the pre-dawn hours of October 13th on the 100 block of Cooper Street in Haddon Township.

The 3-year-old todder was later found by a K-9 unit partially submerged in the water in a wooded section of nearby Cooper River Park. He was still wearing his pajamas.

Investigators do not believe the child went to that area on his own because his socks were clean despite the muddy surroundings, and family members say Brendan was afraid of the dark making it unlikely that he would have gone into the wooded area in the pre-dawn hours. Also, there were no signs of forced entry at the home and Brendan slept on a love seat just nine feet from his father's bedroom door.

D.J. Creato began dating a 17-year-old girl, Julie Spensky, in June of 2015 who had a dislike of children.

In September, the girl became upset that Creato had custody of his son every other weekend, limiting their time together.

Around 6 a.m., Creato called 911 to report his son missing. Brendan would be found dead just a few hours later.

Medical examiners say the toddler’s brain showed a lack of oxygen before his death, indicating homicidal violence such as drowning, smothering or asphyxiation. He also had a fresh bruise near his collarbone.

Creato’s bail was set at $750,000 and he cannot leave the state if he posts bail.

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[kscarbel2]

Two teenage girls face trial in Colorado for planning mass school shooting

The Guardian / January 14, 2016

Two 16-year-olds have been charged with plotting a mass shooting at their suburban Denver high school.

Brooke Higgins, who was charged on Thursday, and Sienna Johnson, who was charged last week, will both be tried as adults on two counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, in a district court in Castle Rock, Colorado.

The girls took what the prosecution called “overt acts” towards purchasing firearms in order to carry out their plan, assistant district attorney Jason Siers told the court on Thursday.

Prosecutors said the two girls worshipped the Columbine shooters, and the movie Natural Born Killers. They had specific targets, the prosecution said, but everyone at the school was a potential victim. Entries on social networking sites show moody pictures of blood-spattered walls, and hand-scrawled journal entries filled with anguished prose.

On Thursday, district court judge Paul King set her bond at $1m, as he had for Johnson.

The cases are currently under seal, and a motion filed by a consortium of media to remove that seal from the case file was denied by King, though he did allow the trials to take place in open court.

Highlands Ranch, Colorado, is a satellite suburban town about 25 miles south of Denver. Nestled among snowy brush-covered hillocks, its skyline is dominated by the distant Rockies and little else. It is a town of cookie-cutter houses in uniform blue-grey and beige.

Columbine, probably America’s most infamous school shooting, is a quarter-hour drive north-west. Aurora, where 12 people were murdered at a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises three years ago, is about a half-hour north-east. Colorado Springs, site of two shootings in as many months in October and November 2015, is an hour south.

It was through an anonymous text hotline begun after the 1999 Columbine shooting that the Mountain Vista high school plot was supposedly uncovered. In fact, Columbine looms large over the whole alleged plot. On 10 December, Higgins took a picture of the road outside Columbine high school, and Googled the names of the shooters. She also wrote about how she wished she had done Columbine with them.

In setting the strict bond conditions for Higgins on Thursday, Judge King addressed the issue of the cult of Columbine directly. “The idea that the incident at Columbine is to be admired, that the people who did that are gods or heroes …” he paused. “There are parents in this city that want to make sure their kids are protected.”

The sheriff’s office and the district attorney say the girls had planned their attack in the days running up to Christmas, and that Johnson had practised shooting with BB guns.

When she was arrested that, Johnson said were she released, she would go back to plotting a shooting.

Referring to Higgins, Johnson had written in her diary in 2015 about meeting someone “who’s got what it takes to … make this school a living [expletive] nightmare”.

“God, Brooke and me will be unstoppable,” Johnson wrote.

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[theakerstwo]

I listen to the radio most of the day as I am in a truck most of the day and I never hear one person say any thing about why we are here.Americam along with the world don't have time for God and he is getting tired of this nosense.Why is people killing their own kids and more and so unhappy with what we have is for told in the Bible. Read Matt 24 5 thru 13

I wish I could copy and paste

[kscarbel2]

Georgia grandmother murders baby

Associated Press / January 15,. 2016

A grandmother in Georgia has been charged with second-degree murder after leaving her 13-month-old grandson in the car with the heat running for five hours while she visited some friends.

Barbara Michelle Pemberton, 47, has also been charged with child cruelty, after the little boy was found dead in Rossville, Walker County, on Tuesday.

Pemberton told police she was watching the baby, Shadoe Braxton Pate, for her son while his wife worked.

Allegedly, when she arrived at a friend's house, the child was asleep in the back of her Ford Focus. Instead of waking him, she left the car running with heat on while she went inside the house.

When she returned to the car about five hours later, about 4.20 p.m., the baby was dead.

The infant was pronounced dead at Hutcheson Medical Center.

Police say that the combination of the sun pouring in through the window and the blast of heat gave the little boy heatstroke, which subsequently killed him.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation conducted an autopsy and concluded Thursday that Shadoe died of hyperthermia.

Investigators believe the temperature in the car rose to around 100 degrees by the time Pemberton checked on the child five hours later.

Police said the people Pemberton was visiting indicated that they prodded her two or three times to go check on the child.

Pemberton is being held in the Walker County Jail on a $100,000 bond.

Last year, 24 children in America died of heatstroke after they were left in cars. Predominantly the cases occurred in the summer.

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[kscarbel2]

Two VA Tech college students charged in murder of 13-year-old girl

Reuters / January 31, 2016

Two Virginia Tech engineering students were in jail on Sunday, one charged with abducting and killing a 13-year-old girl and the other accused of helping to dispose of the teenager's body, police said.

The arrests came after police, following an extensive four-day search, on Saturday found the remains of Nicole Lovell in North Carolina, about 90 miles south of Blacksburg, Virginia, where her home and the university are located.

Lovell had been missing from her family's home since Wednesday. A family member said it appeared she had climbed out a first-floor window.

How she crossed paths with David E. Eisenhauer, 18, a freshman from Columbia, Maryland, and member of the university's cross county team, is not clear.

But police in Blacksburg, about 40 miles west of Roanoke, Virginia, said investigators had determined the two teens became acquainted prior to her disappearance. Police say Eisenhauer took advantage of that relationship to abduct and kill Lovell.

Police have not said how Lovell died.

Eisenhauer was arrested at his campus residence on Saturday, first charged with abduction and then accused of murder after Lovell's remains were discovered near a highway in Surry County, North Carolina.

Natalie Marie Keepers, 19, a sophomore at Virginia Tech from Laurel, Maryland, was arrested on Sunday and charged with improper disposal of a dead body and accessory after the fact in the commission of a felony.

"I'm so in shock I know nothing more to say," the girl's father, David Lovell, said. "I'm broken!"

Family members had pleaded for Nicole Lovell's return, saying she was without the prescription medicine she needed daily after undergoing a liver transplant.

Authorities said the investigation was ongoing as they worked to piece together the timeline of events leading to Lovell's death.

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[mrsmackpaul]

here I was hoping the US would have had a better start to the new year Hmmmmmmmmmmmm come on get it together maybe Mr Trump has the answers???? however I doubt it

Paul

[david wild]

Well if Trump does not have the answer I know that bitch and commie boy sure don't, maybe just maybe Trump might get something done because he is not a Washington suck up.

[kscarbel2]

Reuters / February 1, 2016

Four Oklahoma high school wrestlers were charged on Monday with raping two boys aged 12 and 16 after a wrestling tournament in January.

All suspects were members of the Norman North High School wrestling team. Three were charged as youth offenders and one was charged as an adult stemming from the Jan. 9 incident.

The two victims were assaulted on a bus after a wrestling tournament in Garvin County, and the 12-year-old was assaulted a second time when the bus arrived back at Norman North High School.

The adult suspect was charged in Garvin County with felony counts of first-degree rape by instrumentation by force and fear, meaning rape with an object other than a sexual organ. He was also charged with two counts of first-degree rape by instrumentation of a victim under the age of 14, police said.

The three other suspects were charged with rape by instrumentation and two counts of rape by instrumentation of a victim under the age of 14.

In addition to the arrests, an adjunct coach was dismissed in January and another coach was suspended, the school district said.

[kscarbel2]

Associated Press / February 17, 2016

The Indiana man who murdered his niece and her 4-year-old son in their Zionsville house was found dead in a downtown Indianapolis hotel room following a manhunt that began Wednesday morning.

Officers were called to a home in the 6800 block of Old Hunt Club Road around 8:50 a.m. in rural Zionsville after a neighbor found the bodies of 31-year-old Katherine Janet Giehll and 4-year-old Raymond Peter Giehll.

Police say Giehll and her son died from gunshot wounds.

Authorities soon launched a manhunt for Giehll's uncle, 61-year-old Lucius Oliver Hamilton III, a Wabash College employee.

“I will not stop until I find you. We have a great team assembled here, and we will find you," Boone County Sheriff Mike Nielsen said at a press conference. "And we will find you today. I suggest if you see this or if you hear this that you turn yourself in immediately.”

Nielsen said the Boone County Sheriff's Office was collaborating with police in Zionsville, Whitestown and Lebanon as well as the Indiana State Police, U.S. Marshals Service and FBI.

Around 3:30 p.m., Sheriff Nielsen said they tracked Hamilton to the Hilton Indianapolis Hotel and Suites in the 120 block of West Market Street downtown, and about 20 minutes later, he announced that Hamilton shot and killed himself inside a hotel room.

Investigators believe the motive behind the killings was financial gain from a family trust.

According to Indiana State Police, law enforcement officers knocked on the door, and Hamilton responded, “Yes.” Upon realizing it was law enforcement at the door, two shots were fired.

“I could not be more proud of all the law enforcement officers involved today. Agencies from across the state, including our federal partners, offered every resource available to locate Hamilton. We were able to track Hamilton down to a specific location in downtown Indianapolis where he cowardly took his life instead of choosing to face justice for his actions. My heart goes out to the Giehll family and to the first responders that witnessed this horrific scene," said Sheriff Nielsen.

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[kscarbel2]

Associated Press / February 16, 2016

An investigation that began after flames devoured a $4.5 million mansion led to a grand jury indictment Wednesday in the killings of three people from a prominent Washington family and their housekeeper.

Darron Dellon Dennis Wint, 35, faces 20 felony charges, including first-degree murder while armed, burglary, kidnapping, extortion, arson, and theft, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Wint, of Lanham, Maryland, is facing 555 years in prison after he was charged with brutally murdering 46-year-old Savvas Savopoulos, his wife Amy, 47, their 10-year-old son Philip and housekeeper Veralicia Figueroa, 57, before setting their house on fire on May 13, 2015.

The list of indictments has revealed that he beat his victims with a baseball and then stabbed them with a samurai sword.

Wint burned 10-year-old Philip Savopoulos alive, after knifing him.

Guyanese-born Wint entered their home, kidnapped the family and extorted $40,000 from them as ransom before killing them.

The grand jury in the D.C. Superior Court found the murders were 'especially heinous, atrocious or cruel.'

The seventh charge on the indictment reads: 'While armed with a bat and other blunt force object and a sharp object (believed to be a samurai sword), in perpetrating and attempting to perpetrate the crime of kidnapping, as set forth in the second count of this indictment, killed Savvas Savopoulos by, among other things beating him with a bat and other blunt force object and stabbing him with a sharp object.'

Wint entered the Northeast Washington D.C. home on May 13 and held the family and their housekeeper.

After Mr Savopoulos' assistant dropped off $40,000 the following morning, the victims were killed and their bodies were found after the killers set the mansion on fire and fled.

The adults all suffered fatal blunt force trauma before the blaze, while Philip died from sharp injuries and then burned to death.

Police arrested Wint the next week after his DNA was allegedly found on a pizza crust at the scene, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.

Forensic analysis also matched traces of blood on Wint's shoe to at least one of the murder victims, two law enforcement officials said.

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[kscarbel2]

Reuters, AP  /  June 15, 2016

A 20-year-old Indiana man who was found with guns and explosive chemicals in his car on the way to a California gay pride parade has been formally charged.

James Wesley Howell, who was ordered held on $2million bail, faces three felony counts of unlawful possession of an assault weapon, high capacity magazines, and explosives.

Howell told police he was headed to the pride festival in Santa Monica around 5am on Sunday, just hours after the Orlando massacre began. Authorities have said there is no apparent link.

Howell appeared at the Airport Courthouse in Los Angeles Tuesday, where he pleaded not guilty.

In addition to the three felonies, he also faces a misdemeanor for the possession of a firearm in a car. 

Officers responded to reports of a man knocking on a window and found Howell sitting in his white Acura on Sunday morning.

Howell was found with a high-capacity assault rifle, two other loaded rifles, magazines, a Taser, buck knife, handcuffs and security badge in his car when he was arrested.

There was also a five-gallon container of gasoline in the white Acura, and a 25-gallon container of a commercially sold explosive was two-thirds full.

The explosive, composed of two chemicals, had already been combined, and the assault rifle was loaded with a 30-round magazine, which had another inverted 30-round magazine taped to it.

Deputy District Attorney Sean Carney said gun enthusiasts don't mix Shoc-Shot until it's ready to be used, as federal regulations require, and the amount that Howell had 'far exceeds any amount that would reasonably be used.' 

Alone, each item found in Howell's car might not indicate anything sinister, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Keith Schwartz said. But together, they 'just don't pass the common sense test.'

'I cannot in good conscience think of any reasonable reason that somebody would be traveling across the country with all of these things,' he said.

Howell recently drove from Indiana to Los Angeles because of pending charges against him in his home state. 

Friends in Indiana described Howell as a gun enthusiast with a short temper. In October, he twice was accused of pulling a gun and making threats, once against his then-boyfriend and once against a neighbor.

Howell was convicted in April of misdemeanor intimidation for the incident with his neighbor. Under the terms of his probation, Howell was not allowed to have weapons or leave Indiana. 

Howell’s attorney said a black hood found in his car was 'just a clothing item,' and nothing indicated Howell planned to use it as a mask, as police contended was a possibility.

James Wedick, a former longtime FBI agent, said the manipulation of the gun magazines would allow someone to reload 30 rounds in less than 2 seconds.

'It doubles your killing capacity by 100 percent,' he said. For a civilian to have a weapon rigged as such, 'it suggests his purposes are deadly.'

The FBI took the lead in the investigation and its probe continues.

Federal agents searched Howell's Jeffersonville, Indiana, home Monday. 

On Tuesday, the sheriff's office in Clark County, Indiana, said Howell also is the subject of a sexual assault investigation. The alleged incident occurred May 31, about two weeks before Howell's arrest in California. 

Howell can face a sentence up to nine years and four months if found guilty on all charges. 

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[kscarbel2]

The Guardian  /  June 22, 2016

Federal prosecutors are investigating whether a Department of Homeland Security employee with top-secret clearance was planning an attack at the agency’s Washington headquarters when he entered the building with a gun, a knife, an infrared camera, pepper spray and handcuffs.

Court documents filed by the federal government state that investigators have probable cause to believe Jonathan Wienke, an analyst in the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, “was conspiring with another to commit workplace violence, and more particularly may have been conspiring or planning to commit violence against senior DHS officials in the building”.

Wienke was charged on 10 June with carrying a pistol without a license and was released on 13 June [???] pending further court proceedings. The case remains under investigation. email.

Wienke has been placed on administrative leave.

The FBI searched Wienke’s home in Martinsburg, West Virginia, a 75-mile commute from the office.

In the affidavit for the search warrant, Department of Homeland Security Special Agent Eric Mann described the series of events that led the government to suspect Wienke was potentially plotting an attack.

At 7.30am on 9 June, Wienke entered the building, which has a security level on par with the White House and the Pentagon. Security measures include random screening at the door; Wienke was selected and his backpack was placed in a screening machine.

Security officers found a folding knife with a three-inch blade, two handheld radios, pepper spray, an infrared camera and a set of handcuffs. The officers seized the knife and spray.

At 9am, Mann and another officer followed up with Wienke at his cubicle, directly across from where senior officials were meeting.

Wienke gave them permission to search him and denied he was carrying any additional weapons. Mann patted Wienke down and discovered a five-shot revolver loaded with .22-caliber hollow-point rounds in the front pocket of his pants. He then heard Wienke “utter an audible expletive”.

In his affidavit for a search warrant, Mann listed the potential crimes as attempt and conspiracy to assassinate, kidnap or assault a member of the executive branch of the government, false impersonation of a federal officer and possession of a firearm in a federal facility.

[kscarbel2]

Cultural decay and declining standards of behavior in the United States (an ocean of trash)

 

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‘Worst thing that has come before this court': Mother financed addiction by letting drug dealer rape her child

The Washington Post  /  July 20, 2016

“I can honestly say that, in three-and-a-half years on the bench, this is by far the worst thing that has come before this court.” So said Judge Leslie Ghiz of the Hamilton (Ohio) County Pleas Court as she sentenced April Corcoran to 51 years in prison Tuesday.

Her crime: Corcoran, 32, had pleaded guilty in June to raising money to feed her heroin addiction by loaning out her 11-year-old daughter to her drug dealer, who, with the mother’s blessing, raped and abused her, sometimes videotaping it, reported the Cincinnati Inquirer.

Thanks to Corcoran’s drug habit, this pre-teen was being forced to have vaginal, anal and oral sex with a 40-year-old man, according to the indictment against her.  She pleaded guilty to multiple counts of complicity to rape, human trafficking and child endangerment.

The alleged dealer, Shandell Willingham, was also charged and is awaiting a hearing.

Corcoran had a special routine after her daughter was brutalized by her drug dealer. As a “reward,” she gave her 11-year-old daughter heroin, the court was told. The middle schooler vomited each time.

This happened at four times between February and June 2014. Corcoran still hasn’t expressed any apologies for her daughter for drugs, the judge said in court on Tuesday.

Now 13 years old, the girl is living out-of-state with her father and stepmother. She is taking medication, has had suicidal thoughts and is undergoing medical care, Ghiz said in court Tuesday. There’s doubt she will be able to cope.

The authorities learned of the case in June 2014, when the girl moved in with her father, who reported it.

The young teen’s plight didn’t shock locals in the rural area of Ohio where Corcoran lived, the paper reported at the time of her arrest. “I mean, things like this happen a lot down here,” resident Keith Benson said. “Probably not to this degree, but there’s constantly being reports of animal abuse and fights breaking out around. It’s a little bit surprising but not entirely unexpected.” [?????????]

“As a parent, it is hard to imagine how you could use your child to satisfy your drug addiction,” Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph T. Deters said at the time of the indictment.   “Even after all my years as a prosecutor, I continue to be amazed at how badly parents treat their children.  What this little girl endured is unimaginable and I can only hope that mom and drug dealer’s prosecution and intense counseling will help this child regain some trust in the world. This case is Exhibit A for how devastating heroin is to our communities.”

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[grayhair]

Soft on crime.  Political correctness. For starters, consider the legal profession's long-standing objections to three strikes and you're out legislation.  Things won't get better until the punishment truly serves the public good.  Forget about rehabilitating these scumbags.  If we summarily execute heroin dealers it may not be a deterrent, but they won't be able to hook anyone else.  

Bring it home...  Do you know where your kids are right now?  Is there a heroine dealer lurking nearby looking to hook new customers?  I think we need to pay more attention to who we elect for judges in the future.  If your judges are appointed, pay attention to electing the individual who will be  appointing your regional judges.  Until there is real public involvement and outcry, nothing will change.   

[grayhair]

Here an example of soft on crime.  This piece of excrement brutally murdered a family and now dodges execution.  And wow, his defense lawyer is so relieved.  Encourage you to read the article.  The people of Connecticut get to pay his medical, dental, room and board and for the next 50 years.  Your tax dollars at work...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/home-invader-murdered-petit-family-195000928.html?nhp=1

Edited July 27, 2016 by grayhair

[kscarbel2]

Arizona mother murders her 3 children

( Cultural decay and declining standards of behavior in America ) 

Associated Press  /  June 3, 2016

A Phoenix woman killed her three sons and partially dismembered their bodies before stabbing herself in the neck and abdomen, police said Thursday. 

Octavia Rogers, 29, was in critical condition at a local hospital and is expected to face charges.

Police found the bodies of Jaikare Rahaman, 8; Jeremiah Adams, 5; and Avery Robinson, 2 months, inside an upstairs closet.

Police spokesman Sgt. Trent Crump said the youngest boy's body was in a suitcase.

All the children has suffered multiple stab wounds.

Police were called to the house early Thursday by Rogers' brother, who became concerned after she talked to him about religion and said that she had found "the answer". The brother said Rogers then locked him out of the house. After forcing his way in, the brother found Rogers bleeding in the bathtub, where she also attempted to drown herself. 

When first responders arrived at the house, Rogers lied, claiming her children were staying with a relative. 

A source told ABC15 the mother was on Spice at the time of the killings. The drug, known as synthetic marijuana, can have psychotic effects on some users, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.   

Synthetic marijuana contains man-made chemicals that act on the same cell receptors in the brain as THC does in natural marijuana. Researchers have found instances in which chemicals in synthetic marijuana can bind much more strongly to cell receptors than THC does in marijuana that is grown - producing stronger effects. 

These effects could be anything from an elevated mood and feeling of relaxation to psychotic effects such as extreme anxiety, confusion, paranoia and even hallucinations, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse. 

Arizona child welfare officials had previous contact with the family. The State Child Safety Department said investigators could not locate the family back in 2010 to check reports of a boy with a small abrasion on his forehead. They investigated cases in 2011 and 2016 involving marijuana allegations in which they found no legal grounds to take the children into emergency care. One allegation was substantiated, and the other was not. The substantiated allegation accused the mother of giving birth to a baby exposed to marijuana, but investigators found the children to be safe. 

In 2006, Rogers had an order of protection filed against her for pushing her mother after Rogers was told to move out. Her mother wanted her to take part in domestic violence counseling.

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[kscarbel2]

Man, mother of two children killed in set fire charged with murder

( Cultural decay and declining standards of behavior in America ) 

Michigan Live  /  June 14, 2016

Two people will face murder charges after a set fire claimed the lives of three children, including a four-year-old boy who was locked in his bedroom with a padlock.

Rodney Dale King Jr., 40, of Burton faces three counts of felony murder, punishable by life without parole; and a count of first-degree arson, punishable by life with the possibility of parole.

Erica Marie Starkey, 39, the mother of 4-year-old Kaydon Hull and 13-year-old Onyah Starkey who died in the fire, faces a total of 11 counts:

• Felony murder, punishable by life without parole
• Two counts of second-degree murder, punishable by life in prison with the possibility of parole
• Three counts of second-degree child abuse, punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment
• Three counts of unlawful imprisonment, punishable by up to 15 years
• Two counts of killing an animal – Leyton said two dogs died in the fire – punishable by up to four years.

Brianna Beaushaw, 14, who was friends with Onyah Starkey and was spending the night at the home the night of the fire also died Sunday, June 12, from injuries sustained in the blaze.

Starkey and King were expected to be arraigned on the charges Tuesday afternoon, June 14, according to Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton.

During a press conference Tuesday morning, June 14, Leyton described how authorities believe the night unfolded – including that evidence showed the 4-year-old tried to escape, but couldn't because he was padlocked in his room. Leyton also said one of the children called 911.

Here's a timeline of what authorities say happened early Friday morning, June 10:

3 a.m. – King was walking home from a bar and encountered Erica Starkey on the street. They met up, agreed to go to Starkey's home at 643 Vermilya and do crack-cocaine.

3:30 a.m. – They left that home around 3:30 a.m. in an attempt to find more drugs.

3:45 a.m. – Starkey and King went back to Starkey's home, where the three children slept.

4 a.m. – King gave Starkey money to buy additional crack-cocaine. She left to find the cocaine, and King falls asleep on the couch.

5:50 a.m. – King wakes up, and finds that Starkey still has not returned. Authorities believe she went to another home, did more drugs and some drinking. She never returned. King believed Starkey stole the money and had no intentions of returning with drugs. Angry, he sets the couch on fire, unaware three children were sleeping in the home, and leaves.

6:05 a.m. – 911 is called. The recording sounds like a child inside the home and there are clearly smoke alarms going off in the background.

6:14 a.m. – The Flint Fire Department arrives on scene. The three children are located within the house and rushed to Hurley Medical Center, where Hull and Starkey were pronounced dead the same day. Beaushaw died Sunday, June 12.

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[kscarbel2]

Tennessee mother murders her 4 children

( Cultural decay and declining standards of behavior in America ) 

Associated Press  /  July 3, 2016

A Memphis mother, Shanynthia Gardner, has been charged with first- degree murder after stabbing her four children to death in their home.

After killing the children, she phoned the father of the deceased children, Martin Gardner, and admitted to killing four of their children who police say were 4,3,2 and 6-months-old.

Earlier that day, first responders received a call to the home from a neighbor.

They said Gardner’s 7-year-old had come running out of the house, screaming for help.

His sister, he said, had been stabbed.

Authorities witnessed the mother come out of the home with a large knife in her hand, then re-enter.

In the living room, first responders discovered 6-month-old Yahzi Gardner sitting in her baby carrier and her sister, 3-year-old Sya Gardner, lying next to her dead.

Both had severe lacerations to their throats [the mother slit the throats of her 3 daughters and 1 son].

Four-year-old Tallen Gardner and 2-year-old Sahvi Gardner were found in a bedroom.

Tallen was on the floor while his little sister was on the bed.

They had the same wounds as their siblings.

Gardner reportedly also had cuts to her neck and wrists.

A knife with blood on it was taken into evidence.

On Saturday, Gardner was charged with four counts of aggravated child abuse-endangerment, four counts of aggravated child abuse, four counts of aggravated child abuse-neglect, and four counts of first- degree murder.

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[kscarbel2]

Florida father shoots 1-year-old daughter and son

( Cultural decay and declining standards of behavior in America ) 

Associated Press  /  July 27, 2016

A 7-year-old boy was clinging to life Wednesday evening after his father shot him and killed his younger sister before turning the gun on himself in Dania Beach.

What began as an argument between parents led to the murder-suicide in which Timothy Hollis, 32, killed Kalila Hollis, 1, and critically injured Timothy Hollis Jr. before taking his own life, the Broward Sheriff's Office said.

The bodies of Hollis and his daughter were found on the sidewalk near the intersection of West Dania Beach Boulevard and Southwest Eighth Avenue early Wednesday.

Timothy Hollis Jr. was found in the street with life-threatening injuries. He was taken to Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital in Hollywood.

The shootings took place early Wednesday around 1:30 a.m.

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[kscarbel2]

‘No kid deserves that’: Police say barefoot child was forced outside on 110-degree day as punishment

( Cultural decay and declining standards of behavior in America ) 

The Washington Post  /  July 31, 2016

On July 12, the high in Phoenix was 110 degrees. That’s not quite hot enough to effectively fry an egg on the street, but it is hot enough to severely burn the bottom of someone’s feet.

Police said that’s exactly what happened when Mark Simmons decided to punish his 6-year-old son by “taking the boy outside and making him stand barefoot on the ground in the backyard as punishment,” according to court records cited by ABC affiliate KNXV-TV.

Simmons also used a belt to whip the child.

On camera, KNXV-TV reporter Sonu Wasu demonstrated that she could barely endure the blazing Phoenix concrete for more than a second or two.

Police say Simmons’s child was forced to stand outside for about 10 minutes.

The child told police that his stepmother, identified as 30-year-old Sarah Simmons, was home at the time and aware of the brutal punishment.

Sarah Simmons is accused of cutting blistered flaps from the bottom of her stepson’s feet.

Simmons told the child that “if he didn’t stop crying, he would go back outside and burn worse.”

Simmons didn’t initially seek medical treatment for the boy because she was “afraid the children in the house would be taken away.”

Simmons instead bandaged the boy’s feet and used a spray medication to treat the pain.

Simmons had “approximately 30 prior reports with the Department of Child Safety.”

“It was only when the victim’s wounds became infected and the top of his feet became red that the couple decided to call the fire department for medical care.”

Authorities found out about the burns when child-crimes detectives with the Phoenix Police Department were called to the Maricopa County hospital’s burn center on July 12.

Mark Simmons was arrested and charged with two counts of child abuse the next day. Sarah Simmons was arrested Thursday and charged with intent to commit child abuse.

Video - http://www.abc15.com/news/crime/phoenix-pd-parents-force-6-year-old-to-stand-outside-barefoot-causing-sever-burns-to-his-feet

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[kscarbel2]

Phoenix parents abandon toddler son to play Pokemon Go

Associated Press  /  August 1, 2016

An Arizona couple has been charged with child endangerment after leaving their toddler home alone so they could out and play “Pokemon Go”.

Pinal County Sheriff’s Office said Brent and Brianne Daley were arrested last week at their San Tan Valley home. They admitted they left the boy sleeping to play the popular location-based interactive smartphone game.

At some point the boy exited the home while distraught in temperatures of approximately 95 degrees.

A neighbor called authorities Thursday around 10:30 p.m. to report seeing the 2-year-old outside the house crying and trying to get back into the house.

The neighbor said the parents didn’t appear to be home.

Deputies said after they brought the boy inside — the front door was unlocked — they confirmed he lived there based on photos around the house.

Deputies called a phone number they found and a man answered.

When a deputy told the man they had found an abandoned child, authorities said the man answered, “Whatever” and hung up.

The Daleys returned an hour later and were taken into custody.

They told police they had gone to gas up the car and then drove around the neighborhood playing the game.

The Arizona Department of Child Safety took over care of the boy, who was barefoot and wearing a diaper and T-shirt when found.

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[kscarbel2]

Georgia teens executed

Associated Press  /  August 3, 2016

Georgia police have arrested a 20-year-old man for the murders of two teenagers shot execution-style whose bodies were found behind a grocery store.

Jeffrey A. Hazelwood, of Roswell, Georgia, has been charged with the murders of Natalie Henderson and Carter Davis, both age 17.

The bodies of Henderson and Davis were found behind the Publix store in Roswell near Atlanta, Georgia, by a delivery driver before dawn on Monday.

The Fulton County medical examiner's office says the two teenagers died from a single gunshot to the head. 

Parents of both victims told officers they thought their children were still at home in bed.

Roswell police chief Rusty Grant said he could not discuss the motive, but police believe Hazelwood acted alone. 

Hazelwood was arrested at 5am this morning is being held at the Roswell Detention Center and will be transferred to Fulton County Jail, police said.

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