LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — The third trial for Mauricio Torres begins on Monday, Jan. 30 in Benton County, according to court documents.

Torres was found guilty of capital murder twice, once in 2016 and once in 2020, for raping and killing his 6-year-old son, Isaiah, in March 2015.

He was sentenced to death in 2016 for using a stick to sexually assault Isaiah while the family was camping in Missouri.

The boy died at an Arkansas hospital the day after the assault.

Torres’ attorneys have said his actions were intended as punishment and the father didn’t know they could kill the boy.

A medical examiner testified that the boy’s death was caused by a bacterial infection resulting from sodomy and chronic child abuse.

The 2016 conviction was overturned by the Arkansas Supreme Court in 2019 due to questions about jurisdictionand because prosecutors could not use rape as justification for a capital murder charge.

Torres' 2020 trial ended in a mistrial when his stepson leaped out of the witness stand and tried to attack him in court while testifying during the sentencing phase.

ARKANSAS MAN TWICE CONVICTED OF KILLING SON FACES 3RD TRIAL

Torres now faces charges of capital murder and first degree battery.

Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty for him, according to our content partner, 40/29 News.

Jury selection for the third trial is set to begin Monday.

https://katv.com/news/local/third-trial-for-arkansas-man-accused-of-raping-killing-his-6-year-old-son-begins-monday-mauricio-torres-benton-county-isaiah-torres-arkansas-supreme-court-overturned-capital-murder-sexual-assault-mistrial-jurisdiction-death-penalty-bella-vista-guilty

| ...
| I understand how it's hard for Republican voters to cross
| over. I understand that there's this partisan muscle
| memory, and that they disagree on a variety of issues. But
| the point, I think, that has to be made over and over again
| is that this is not a normal election. This is not Dukakis
| versus Bush.
|
| This is not Republican versus Democrat.
|
| This is not left versus right.
|
| We are talking about the possibility of the return to power
| of a convicted felon, a rapey seditionist who threatens to
| undo the constitutional order. There is nothing
| conservative about that.
| ...
<https://charliesykes.substack.com/p/america-needs-an-intervention-doesnt>

--bks

https://wreg.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2024/09/tadarius-nichols.jpg?resize=876,492
Tadarius Nichols (SCSO)

UPDATE, TUESDAY: Police have arrested and charged the suspect who survived this chase.

Tadarius Nichols, 26, is listed in the Shelby County Jail log, charged with motor vehicle theft and evading arrest. He has a court date set for Wednesday.

A city spokesperson confirmed Nichols was a part-time employee in the Parks department.

A court affidavit states that Nichols was the driver of the stolen Dodge Charger that stopped near Cornerstone Academy on Overton Crossing on Monday. Nichols denied to police that he was involved in the earlier carjacking. Records do not list the name of the man who was killed.

Earlier coverage is below.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A man wanted in a carjacking is dead after an exchange of gunfire with officers during a chase in Frayser, Memphis Police said Monday.

Police say it started in Raleigh just after midnight Monday morning when a white Dodge Charger was taken in a carjacking from the 4100 block of Ann Arbor Lane.

“He came on my side of the car – on the driver side with a long silver shotgun and pointed at me,” carjacking victim Stacey Adams said. “(He) told me to get out the car.”

Adams said the armed gunman wasn’t alone.

On her passenger side, another man was brandishing a handgun.

She said she was just getting home from work and was caught off guard.

“I had my own gun, but I was just too frozen and afraid to even reach for it,” Adams said.

Police put out a citywide alert for the suspects.

At 2 p.m. officers spotted the carjacked vehicle near Watkins Street and Dellwood, with two males inside. They say they attempted a traffic stop, but the driver refused to stop.

The Charger stopped at Frayser Boulevard and Adair Drive, where the suspects got out and ran east on Frayser Boulevard.

As officers pursued them on foot, they say one of the suspects fired shots at officers.

Officers returned fire, striking the suspect. The man was pronounced dead on the scene, and a weapon was found nearby.

The second suspect was caught after a brief pursuit.

No officers were injured.

“I don’t know how to feel,” Adams said. “I’m mad, and I’m sad and I don’t really care because of how I was treated.”

One dead in officer-involved shooting in Olive Branch
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says their agents are in Memphis to investigate.

The scene is near the Cornerstone Prep Denver Campus on Frayser Boulevard.

It was the second deadly police shooting in the Memphis area on Monday. Another suspect was killed as police in Olive Branch, Mississippi were serving a warrant.

https://wreg.com/news/local/memphis-police-involved-in-shooting-in-frayser/

https://jonesbororightnow.sagacom.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/286/files/2024/09/GetPhoto6-12.jpg
Source: Craighead County Sheriffs Office

Jonesboro, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – Sept. 16, 2024 – A man was charged with rape on Monday.

In May, Jonesboro police responded to an assault, where upon arrival, the victim told officers she’d been raped.

According to the probable cause affidavit, the 15-year-old victim was asked to go to the laundromat on Gee Street by two juveniles she knew. Upon arrival, a man she’d seen before, later identified as 53-year-old Joe Davis, of Blytheville, forced her across the road behind a closed business where she was raped.

Reportedly, Davis then forced the victim to a nearby residence, where he raped her again.

The responding officer collected DNA samples from cigarette butts the victim said Davis smoked and a sample of alleged ejaculate on the ground. A sexual assault kit was later collected on the victim. The kit, cigarette butts, and sample were sent to Arkansas State Crime Laboratory for DNA analysis.

The DNA found on the cigarette butts and the sample was confirmed a match. They were then run through the Combined DNA Index System, which confirmed a match to Davis.

Jonesboro police arrested Davis on Saturday around 4 p.m. and transported him to the Craighead County Detention Center.

According to the court document, Davis has a long criminal history, including prior rape and murder charges.

Davis was given a court date of Oct. 28 at 8:30 a.m. and a bond of $750,000 c/s. Conditions of the bond are a no-contact order with the victim and a GPS ankle monitor.

https://jonesbororightnow.sagacom.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/286/files/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-16-152318-1200x215.png

https://jonesbororightnow.com/news/blytheville-man-charged-with-rape-in-jonesboro/

https://gray-wmctv-prod.gtv-cdn.com/resizer/v2/https%3A%2F%2Fdo0bihdskp9dy.cloudfront.net%2F08-21-2023%2Ft_8fc3ace125fd43a5880198f674e3f9a0_name_file_1280x720_2000_v3_1_.jpg?auth=14a70087a26eb0abf9ba0c47332b9538274c04e4f1559da45d17cb8b68f42111&width=1920&height=1080&smart=true
Tyler Watkins

WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. (WMC) - Tyler Watkins was found dead in South Memphis in what law enforcement officials believe was a suicide.

Watkins was wanted out of Crittenden County after not showing up for his trial on charges of rape and other sex crimes.

Crittenden County Sheriff’s Department says Watkins, 29, was scheduled for trial last week, but never showed up to court.

Watkins had an ankle monitor that officers found at his home, cut off.

Since Watkins was only present for part of the trial the jury was able to proceed without him and sentence Watkins to life in prison, plus an additional 176 years for the other felony charges including child pornography.

Officials found Watkins on Saturday with a gunshot wound, and he was taken to the hospital where he later died.

https://www.actionnews5.com/2023/08/21/west-memphis-rape-suspect-dead-after-skipping-court/

Derrick Rose cried foul at the woman accusing him of gang rape in new court filings, saying her effort to revisit his test-cheating scandal while playing for the University of Memphis is way out of bounds.

Attorneys for the new New York Knick say the woman, identified only as Jane Doe, revealed at the last minute that she planned to call an NCAA official and custodian of testing records to testify about Rose’s alleged cheating on an SAT exam while he was a high school student in Chicago.

In 2009, an NCAA investigation found Rose had failed to meet the qualifying score on the ACT three times in Chicago, yet met the SAT requirement in Detroit — raising the prospect that someone took the latter exam for him.

Rose’s SAT test score was invalidated — despite his denials — making him retroactively ineligible to play for Memphis.

The NCAA then invalidated Memphis’ entire 2007-2008 season, which concluded with the team’s loss to Kansas in the title game.

“I know I took the test,” Rose said at the time.

That scandal, Rose’s attorneys argue, has nothing to do with the 30-year-old woman’s $21 million suit alleging the former NBA MVP drugged her, entered her Southern California apartment and raped her in August 2013.

“Irrelevant evidence from Mr. Rose’s teenage years is far removed in subject matter and time period and has no connection to any issue in this case and will only unfairly prejudice Mr. Rose,” attorney Mark Baute wrote in new court filings first reported by The Jasmine Brand.

After that one tarnished year in college Rose declared he was turning pro. He was the first pick of the 2008 NBA draft, allowing him to dodge NCAA sanctions.

In court papers Rose, now 27, also asked a judge to forbid the woman’s legal team from calling witnesses who will testify regarding the value of his Beverly Hills home and a high-end rental car used the night of the alleged rape.

Rose’s attorneys said the accuser was trying to influence the jury by “sneaking in evidence of Mr. Rose’s wealth.”

Rose has argued he was in a consensual relationship with the woman and that her suit is “extortion.”

The case is scheduled to go to trial next month in Los Angeles.

https://www.nydailynews.com/2016/09/13/derrick-rose-gang-rape-accuser-wants-to-use-knicks-college-sat-cheating-scandal-as-trial-evidence/

https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/MgoldvT5Jqlm1_7hpf5h9Q--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTE4MDA7aD0xMzUwO2NmPXdlYnA-/https://media.zenfs.com/en/wreg_articles_784/e3a1db0d24a870ecf1e4cef79c0f9ee1

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A man was arrested and accused of rape after an incident in Oxford, Mississippi last week, according to the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Office.

On May 29, the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Criminal Investigation Unit was notified about a reported sexual assault from Baptist Memorial Hospital in Oxford.

The sheriff’s office says an investigation regarding the alleged assault was opened.

After completing the investigation, an arrest warrant on the charge of Rape-Assault was issued for 47-year-old Cory Lemond Smith of Oxford, Miss.

Smith reportedly turned himself into the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Office on May 31.

He is being held at the Lafayette County Detention Center where his bond has been set at $100,000.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/oxford-ms-man-arrested-charged-171617087.html

Shawana Hall ran across two lanes of the empty highway and through the rain-soaked grass in the median.

She ran across two more lanes and toward a fence. Fleeing through the western part of Kalamazoo, she spotted the police car, a laptop screen illuminating the vehicle, so she kept going. Over the fence, through a parking lot. She sprinted up to the patrol car, beat on the window and said she’d been raped.

The man had a knife and struck her in the face, she told the officer. She met her attacker that night, but didn’t know his name.

The officer gave Shawana a number to call if she wanted police to pursue the case and then took her to a nurse trained in collecting information and evidence, including swabs and samples, they hoped might identify her rapist. The process took hours. She left alone and in different clothes when the exam was over, having never spoken with police again.

Eight months later, in December 2008, DNA evidence identified a suspect: Calvin Kelly, a Memphis man who spent decades as a truck driver and traveled all over the country.

Shawana wasn’t the first woman whose rape led police to Kelly. Marie, a St. Louis woman, said he raped her in the back of his truck the year before. And Shawana wasn’t the last. A woman in Virginia the following year told police she was raped, the investigation once again leading police to Kelly. Three women in three states in three consecutive years.

Kelly maintains his innocence. He never raped anyone, he’s said, and these women lied to settle a grudge.

Yet a look at these women reveals something else. Kelly’s victims were poor, black and vulnerable, characteristics that make them more likely to be raped and less likely to be believed. Almost all the investigations ended without charges, the most common outcome when a rape is reported. Indeed, less than one percent of rapes end with a rapist in jail.

"These are challenging, but also simple cases," said Angela Povilaitis, an experienced sex crimes prosecutor who at the same time led the prosecutions of Kelly and disgraced former doctor Larry Nassar.

"It really comes down to do you believe his version or do you believe the victim’s version."

Kelly’s case went to trial in September 2017. After six days of testimony – including from Shawana and Marie and the woman from Virginia – and a day of deliberation, Povilaitis found herself waiting for the verdict as confident as she’d ever been as prosecutor. The jury, however, found Kelly not guilty.

But that isn’t the whole story. And that isn’t the end of the story.

Falsely accused or serial rapist?
What Povilaitis knew and couldn’t tell the Kalamazoo County jury was that it wasn’t just three women in three states in three years.

It was 11 women in four states over the course of three decades who told police that they’d been raped with the ensuing investigations leading to Kelly.

So Kelly is either a man who has repeatedly been falsely accused, or Kelly is a serial rapist.

The first known rape report police connected to Kelly is from Memphis in 1985, when a small, red sports car pulled up alongside a woman walking down the street.

The driver offered a ride, and she accepted. Once inside the car, he hit her in the chest and pulled out a gun. He drove her to a lot behind a school and raped her twice. The woman picked Kelly out of a photo lineup, but by the time police went for their warrant, Kelly had moved to St. Louis and an extradition effort failed.

Two years later, in May 1987, a woman told St. Louis police that a man raped her in her home. DNA evidence eventually linked the case to Kelly, but not until 2015.

In November 1987, a woman told police she was standing near an intersection in the rain when a man drove up and asked if she wanted a ride. She said yes, and he drove her to an alley, pulled out a knife and raped her.

He told police they had sex in his car and she wanted money afterward, adding that she had a knife and tried to cut him. At the police station, she identified Kelly as her rapist.

Prosecutors didn’t charge Kelly.

In 1989, two women told St. Louis police they were raped in Sherman Park. Police made the connection between the two cases and tracked down Kelly. He told police the women were prostitutes and he hadn’t paid them.

Prosecutors didn’t charge Kelly in either case.

Months later, in August 1990, a woman told police that she’d invited Kelly, whom she knew, into her home. He later choked her until she passed out and then raped her on the floor.

Kelly told police the sex was consensual. He fell asleep afterward, and when he woke up, he thought the woman had stolen from him.

"I got so mad, I hit her one time, and that’s what she got mad about," Kelly told police during an interview in the St. Louis police sex crimes unit. "She knew I had been down here for rape before, and she was mad 'cause I hit her. That’s why she called the police and said I raped her. There was no rape."

For the fourth time since November 1987, St. Louis prosecutors didn’t charge Kelly.

The pattern in St. Louis – reported rape, denial and no charges – would play out again.

A fight in the dark
Seventeen years later, in March 2007, Marie stood in the rain on a St. Louis street. She’d missed her bus and was facing a 45-minute wait for the next one when she turned to see Kelly getting out of a tractor trailer parked at a gas station.

He’d called out to her, and she walked over.

She was 36 and had been fighting drug addiction for 19 years. She’d been clean for four months but recently relapsed. She was feeling down and was headed to see a friend.

Marie didn’t know Kelly, but he offered a ride.

He assured her he’d take her to her friend’s house but had to drop off the trailer first. Marie expected the detour to be quick.

As he drove, he asked if something was wrong, and they talked about her relapse.

A short while later, he pulled into a lot, within sight of a St. Louis police station, and got out of the cab.

When Kelly got back in, he lunged at Marie.

She struggled to fight him off in the darkness. She kicked him. She bit him. She tried everything she could. Then, as he put pressure on her throat and she struggled to breathe, she stopped fighting. Maybe, she thought, if she stopped she’d live through the night.

She says he raped her on the bed in the back of the cab.

Marie had a knife with her that night, tucked into in her sock. She reached down and searched for the handle as he raped her. But he noticed and got there first.

He continued raping her, telling her how much he liked it and that he could continue all night. Marie isn’t sure how long this went on, but when he was done, he became a different person. The violent man was gone; he was back to the man who offered her a ride and refuge from the rain.

As he drove her to her friend’s house, Kelly said he wanted to date her and wondered what they’d tell their friends about how they met. Marie forced herself to smile because she wanted to get out alive.

When he pulled up to her friend’s house, he gave her back the knife and handed her a piece of paper with his phone number.

After he drove off, Marie called police and told them what happened.

"He was telling me that he drives from state to state and that he pick girls that get high because he knows that the police won’t believe them," Marie said. "And all he’s got to do is say 'They mad because I didn’t pay them what they wanted. I promised to pay them, and I didn't. I just got what I wanted, and I didn’t have to pay them.'

"And he said they would believe him over me. He said he had done it before. He got away with it before."

As she began to see that police didn’t believe her – they pointed out that she used drugs and questioned why a rapist would give his phone number – Marie told them the man forced her into the truck with a knife of his own.

"I wanted them to take me serious," she said. "I wanted them to act on what just happened to me. And it’s like, as long as they stood there and debated whether I was telling the truth or not, they was letting him get away."

She also told them that he forced her to smoke crack, knowing police would find out that she’d recently used and that would be yet another reason to doubt her. She admitted these lies to police about two weeks after the initial report.

After she reported her rape, police took Marie to the hospital where a nurse collected evidence for the rape kit that would be processed and later be entered into a database accessible by law enforcement all over the country.

"I left the hospital and just said forget it. I just felt like nothing was going to come of it," Marie said. She believed police saw her as a drug addict who got into a truck with a stranger and maybe deserved what happened.

"That’s how they make you feel."

In March 2007, for the fifth time since 1987, St. Louis prosecutors decided not to charge Kelly.

'I ran from here'
About a year later, in April 2008, Shawana was celebrating her 31st birthday. She had a few drinks with her aunt and sister, then walked to a friend’s house in Kalamazoo, had a few more drinks and got high.

Shawana had been around drugs, in one way or another, most of her adult life, but she didn’t try crack until 2007.

Shawana had talked with her younger sister Talaya about rehab and was thinking about going. But the night of her birthday she was still using.

As Shawana and her friend walked to a nearby liquor store, a light-colored four-door car pulled up and the driver struck up a conversation.

https://wreg.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2019/11/ferlinscott.jpg?w=876&h=493&crop=1
Ferlin Scott, 62 

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Prosecutors say a Michigan man has been charged in the rape of a Memphis woman 15 years ago.

Shelby County prosecutors said Friday that 62-year-old Ferlin Scott is being held in jail after he was taken into custody last week. Scott is a former resident of Memphis, Tennessee. His last known address was in Detroit.

Investigators say that a woman who was walking in a Memphis neighborhood was abducted and raped by a man with a pocket knife in August 2004.

DNA evidence from the attack was tested in 2014. Investigators say the profile matched Scott’s DNA.

Prosecutors say the victim identified Scott from a photographic lineup.

Online records do not show if Scott has a lawyer who can speak on his behalf. An arraignment is scheduled for Dec. 13.

https://wreg.com/news/michigan-man-charged-in-2004-rape-of-memphis-woman/

https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/fox13memphis.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/b/ac/bac595d8-757e-50a8-ad3c-41e9c3a84ce0/64922a2e4fd7b.image.jpg?resize=400%2C225

A convicted rapist who was scheduled to get out of jail next year is now under investigation for another rape of a family member.

Investigators charged Tracy Jamison Wednesday after his DNA came up in a back-logged rape kit.

This newly discovered rape happened three years before police arrested Jamison for raping two girls under the age of 15, police said.

Jamison is currently servicing a 15-year prison sentence for those incidents.

Investigators said Jamison raped a member of his family in 2000, and that happened after he served eight years in prison for a 1993 sexual battery charge.

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According to a police affidavit, Jamison raped the woman after breaking into her South Memphis home.

Police said Jamison put a sheet over the victim's head and pulled a knife on her. She noticed his voice, which is how she recognized him.

In 2003, Jamison broke into a home and started to rape a 12-year-old girl. Then he also raped a 14-year-old girl.

Police said Jamison threatened both girls with a knife.

Law enforcement did put a warrant out for his arrest in 2015 and later learned Jamison was already in jail.

Jamison will be in court Sept. 20 for this new rape charge.

https://www.fox13memphis.com/news/convicted-rapist-scheduled-to-get-out-of-prison-charged-with-raping-family-member-in-south/article_2330f7b1-34d5-5484-a6f6-7db701ab439e.html

A 43-year-old woman said she was raped while jogging along Manhattan's West Side Highway Thursday morning, according to police.

The woman told authorities she was jogging near Pier 45 when, at about 5:30 a.m., a man grabbed her from behind, choked her and knocked her to the ground, the New York Police Department said.

She said he raped her, stole her wallet and phone and then fled on foot, according to police.

The victim flagged down another jogger who dialed 911, police said.

She was taken to a hospital in stable condition, police said.

Police announced the arrest of 29-year-old Carl Phanor on Thursday in connection with the jogger's rape. Phanor has also been charged in the March 27 rape of a different woman in a nearly identical location. Additionally, police said Phanor has been charged in a third incident, an attack on a woman on the East Side of Manhattan. He is facing charges of sexually motivated robbery, robbery, grand larceny, strangulation, predatory sexual assault and criminal sex act.

https://i.abcnewsfe.com/a/9831ae02-87e2-4bbe-ac6d-7e931a07ec74/PHANOR-ht-er-221103_1667510469921_hpMain_4x5.jpg?w=750
Carl Phanor in a photo released by police.
NYPD

Police said Phanor is undomiciled.

Law enforcement sources told ABC News earlier that a suspect was apprehended after he used the victim's credit card at a Target store in Midtown Manhattan.

Gabrielle Sumkin, who identified herself as the jogger who called 911, told ABC News she was on her usual running route when she noticed the victim, who she said appeared to be in distress. She said the victim had blood on her arm and elbows and was covering her eyes with her hand.

The 23-year-old said the victim could barely speak. Sumkin said, while she was on the phone with 911, the woman kept repeating, "I need help."

She said she didn't want to press the woman about what happened, and said she left the scene once first responders arrived. Sumkin said it wasn't until news reports came out that she learned the woman had been raped.

Sumkin said she was sickened when she found out, and excused herself from work to go on a walk and cry.

"It's disgusting. I'm a staunch feminist. I support women," she said. "People who commit crimes like that are at the absolute bottom of my list."

https://abcnews.go.com/US/43-year-woman-raped-jogging-manhattan-police/story?id=92620213

UPDATE: The subject who died in this police shooting was identified by the TBI as Tremayne D. French, 26.

Records show French pleaded guilty to carjacking in 2019. He also pleaded guilty in a 2018 robbery and was sentenced to six years.

*****

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The man arrested after a carjacking and police shooting that ended in another suspect’s death Monday was a part-time City of Memphis employee, officials said.

Tadarius Nichols, 25, is in the Shelby County Jail log, charged with motor vehicle theft and evading arrest in the incident that ended with a fatal shooting by police near a school in Frayser.

“We can confirm that at the time of the incident he was a part-time employee in our Parks division,” a city spokesperson said Tuesday in an email. They had no further comment.

https://wreg.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2024/09/tadarius-nichols.jpg?resize=876,492
Tadarius Nichols (SCSO)

A court affidavit states that Nichols was the driver of the stolen Dodge Charger that stopped near Cornerstone Academy on Overton Crossing on Monday afternoon. Nichols denied to police that he was involved in the earlier carjacking.

Police say it started in Raleigh just after midnight Monday morning when a white Dodge Charger was taken in a carjacking from the 4100 block of Ann Arbor Lane.

At 2 p.m. officers spotted the carjacked vehicle near Watkins Street and Dellwood, with two males inside. They say they attempted a traffic stop, but the driver refused to stop.

The Charger stopped at Frayser Boulevard and Adair Drive, where the suspects got out and ran east on Frayser Boulevard.

Martin testifies Tyre Nichols was ‘not a threat,’ but says he was ‘angry’
As officers pursued them on foot, they say one of the suspects fired shots at officers. Officers returned fire, striking the suspect. The man was pronounced dead on the scene, and a weapon was found nearby.

Records do not list the name of the suspect who was killed. TBI said they will release his name once they notify family.

Nichols’ grandmother, Mattie Kelly, said she raised Nichols and has never known him to be in trouble.

“If Tadarius knew that car was stolen or carjacked, he would’ve never got in that car,” Kelly said. “He probably was scared and he probably ran, but he did stop.”

She said her grandson has a job and was working, and described him as very quiet.

“Sometimes you get involved with the wrong people,” she said.

We checked and did not find other listed arrests for Nichols as an adult in Shelby County.

https://wreg.com/news/local/suspect-arrested-after-police-shooting-was-memphis-parks-employee-city-confirms/?ipid=promo-link-block1

https://wreg.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2019/11/ferlinscott.jpg?w=876&h=493&crop=1
Ferlin Scott, 62

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Prosecutors say a Michigan man has been charged in the rape of a Memphis woman 15 years ago.

Shelby County prosecutors said Friday that 62-year-old Ferlin Scott is being held in jail after he was taken into custody last week. Scott is a former resident of Memphis, Tennessee. His last known address was in Detroit.

Investigators say that a woman who was walking in a Memphis neighborhood was abducted and raped by a man with a pocket knife in August 2004.

DNA evidence from the attack was tested in 2014. Investigators say the profile matched Scott’s DNA.

Prosecutors say the victim identified Scott from a photographic lineup.

Online records do not show if Scott has a lawyer who can speak on his behalf. An arraignment is scheduled for Dec. 13.

https://wreg.com/news/michigan-man-charged-in-2004-rape-of-memphis-woman/

A Tennessee bill that would authorize the death penalty as punishment for the rape of a child has moved forward following a heated debate during the Tennessee Senate Judiciary committee meeting on Tuesday.

Senate Bill 1834 (SB1834), sponsored by Republican Sen. Jack Johnson, would allow the death penalty as a punishment for "rape of a child, aggravated rape of a child, or especially aggravated rape of a child."

The bill was presented to the committee by Republican Sen. Ken Yager, However, committee members brought two amendments forward on the bill, neither of which passed.

During the meeting, Democratic Sen. London Lamar, who was pushing for an amendment, claimed that placing the death penalty on child rapists was "a lot of pressure" to put on the victims.

A Tennessee bill that would authorize the death penalty as punishment for the rape of a child has moved forward following a heated debate during the Tennessee Senate Judiciary committee meeting on Tuesday.

Senate Bill 1834 (SB1834), sponsored by Republican Sen. Jack Johnson, would allow the death penalty as a punishment for "rape of a child, aggravated rape of a child, or especially aggravated rape of a child."

The bill was presented to the committee by Republican Sen. Ken Yager, However, committee members brought two amendments forward on the bill, neither of which passed.

During the meeting, Democratic Sen. London Lamar, who was pushing for an amendment, claimed that placing the death penalty on child rapists was "a lot of pressure" to put on the victims.

Lamar goes on to explain that she feels this could prevent children from wanting to speak up.

"That is a lot of pressure we are putting on children. In order for them to speak up about the violations they experienced, they know, in response, that somebody is going to die," Lamar said.

After lengthy testimony from the District Attorney’s office, several lawyers and child advocates, Lamar made a motion to send the bill to summer study to allow for more research and greater consideration of the information that was presented.

During the testimony, District Attorney General Stephen Crump fired back at Lamar, who still insisted that passing the bill would harm the victims.

"It is our position that the child victim would not be the one putting them to death. If anyone put them to death, it would be the rapist who asked for it," Crump said.

NYC MAN CHARGED WITH RAPING 10-YEAR-OLD GIRL IN HER HOME AFTER MEETING HER ONLINE: POLICE

"I will push back against that. While the perpetrator deserves to be held accountable to the full extent of the law, should probably be sitting in prison for life, I do see a situation where you are going to force children to kill people, who may not come forth now because they know that someone they love was close to them will die," Lamar said.

Ultimately, the committee voted against sending the bill to summer study and went on to vote on the bill itself.

In final statements, both Republican Sen. Kerry Roberts and Chairman Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga-District 10) noted that a vote against the bill did not mean a member was opposed to the death penalty for cases of rape but instead, that they were opposed to the bill itself as written.

Roberts insisted that he was all in favor of issuing the death penalty as a punishment for those charges, but he could not support it because too many of those cases were based on circumstantial evidence.

The bill passed with five in favor and four opposed. Voting against the bill were Gardenhire, Lamar, Roberts and Senator Sara Kyle (D-Memphis-District 30).

The bill has now been referred to the Senate Calendar Committee.

Tennessee is one of 27 states that allows capital punishment, and currently does not allow capital punishment for non-homicide crimes. Only seven other states allow the death penalty for certain child rape offenses.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/tennessee-bill-authorizing-use-death-penalty-child-rapists-moves-1-step-closer-becoming-law

A woman in her 30s told police she was trying to go into her house when Antoine Dillon pulled out a gun and said he was robbing her

If you see this black scumbag, shoot to kill.

https://media.ksdk.com/assets/KSDK/images/347a758d-4605-48a0-ae76-df1b413531c4/347a758d-4605-48a0-ae76-df1b413531c4_1920x1080.jpg
Credit: St. Louis County Police Department
Antoine Dillon

ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — A 15-year-old is accused of kidnapping a woman and sexually assaulting her at gunpoint in St. Louis County.

Antoine Dillon was arrested and charged this week with kidnapping, rape, sodomy, first-degree robbery and four counts of armed criminal action. The charges stem from an incident reported in the 3500 block of Sugarcrest Drive on Sept. 29, 2020.

A woman in her 30s told St. Louis County police she was trying to go into her house at about 11 p.m. when Dillon pulled out a gun and said he was robbing her. The woman said he forced her back into her car and made her drive them to a different location, where he raped her at gunpoint.

The victim said she was forced at gunpoint to withdraw $500 from her bank account. She said Dillon then had her drive to another location where she was sexually assaulted, again while he pointed a gun at her.

St. Louis County police said the victim’s allegations are backed up by several pieces of evidence.

Police said Dillon was wearing a monitoring bracelet, which put him at the locations described by the victim. DNA analysis also matches the woman’s statement, and Dillon had an item that belonged to the victim when he was arrested on Monday.

St. Louis County police interviewed Dillon after taking him into custody. He told investigators the sexual contact was consensual.

Dillon is being held on a $200,000 cash-only, no 10% bond.

Editor's note: The story previously stated Dillon is 16 years old, as was reported by police. It has been updated to correct he is 15.

https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/crime/st-louis-county-teen-charged-rape-kidnapping/63-9dc6579f-300c-4fca-8fd9-fdea77c9bcef

https://s7d2.scene7.com/is/image/TWCNews/enrique_wright_stl_0714?wid=1250&hei=703&$wide-bg$
Enrique Wright is accused of being a serial rapist around St. Louis. Police said he met woman on a dating website and hired them to clean his house, then assault them. (Photo credit: St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney)

ST. LOUIS—An accused serial rapist has been charged with several sexual crimes and police believe there could be more victims in the area.

Enrique White, 29, faces seven felony charges, including rape and sodomy. Police in St. Louis County, Hazelwood and Berkeley know about four victims assaulted between 2015 to 2023.

Two of the victims say they were assaulted after White contacted them on a dating website and offered them money to clean his house, according to investigators. Those incidents happened in 2016 and 2019.

Another victim alleges White and two other men offered to drive her home from a bar in 2015. Police say they stopped at a home in St. Louis County where White held her down, forcing her to have sex with himself and the other men. White is also accused of taking that victim to another home where he forced her to have sex while she begged him to stop. He then forced her to participate in sex acts to use a phone to call someone for a ride, according to police.

A fourth victim says White contacted her in May 2023 on a dating website, according to police. He then is accused of picking her up from college in Illinois, driving her to St. Louis County, and pointing a gun at her head while forcing her to perform sex acts.

“We believe there may be even more victims of this defendant, and we ask any victim to please come forward and seek justice,” said St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell in a press release.

White’s charges of robbery and sodomy carry sentences from five years to life in prison. The count of alleged first-degree rape from 2015 has an aggravating factor that extends the sentencing range to 15 years to life in prison.

White is in custody and is being held without bond. If you have information, call 911 or St. Louis County Police at at 636-529-8210.

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/mo/st-louis/news/2023/07/14/serial-rapist-accused-of-meeting-victims-on-dating-site-charged-in-st--louis-county

ST. LOUIS — Keisha Scarlett's employment as the superintendent of Saint Louis Public Schools was terminated Monday, months after being placed on leave amid an investigation into the district's budget.

The district's board voted to terminate Scarlett's employment "for cause" by a vote of 5-0, with one member abstaining. A news release from the district said the vote came Monday night after the board held an evidentiary hearing.

"At the conclusion of the hearing, the Board of Education voted to terminate the employment of Dr. Scarlett for cause, effective immediately," the press release said. "By virtue of this vote, Dr. Scarlett is no longer an employee of Saint Louis Public Schools."

The board voted to start the termination process at a meeting last month. Scarlett appealed the process and requested a hearing before the education board to contest the decision. She remained on administrative leave with pay until Monday's meeting, when her employment was formally terminated.

In a statement, Scarlett said she did not attend the hearing in protest over what she called deliberate violations of her due process.

"The Board actively hindered Dr. Scarlett’s ability to prepare for and participate in the termination hearing, denying her the due process that was contractually promised," the statement said.

The full statement is below:

https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25212201/keisha-scarlett-statement.pdf

The district started the year with a surplus of $17 million in its general operations budget but now is in a projected $35 million deficit. Mayor Tishaura Jones and other leaders have called into question pricey contracts issued in the past year overseen by Scarlett.

A state audit of the school's finances began in August and is still underway.

When the board voted to start the termination process, Scarlett said she was innocent in a written statement.

"I did nothing wrong," Scarlett wrote in a response released through her attorney last month. "My leadership decisions were always made to benefit our students and community. When I arrived, the administration was in crisis with significant operational problems, student service deficiencies, and staff compensation disparities. After several external studies and audits, I focused on redistributing resources to support our mission more equitably. I communicated regularly with the Board about these needed changes."

RELATED: 'I did nothing wrong': School board votes to remove St. Louis schools superintendent; she plans a challenge

The board previously appointed Deputy Superintendent Millicent Borishade, who has been acting as superintendent since July 25, to continue as interim superintendent through the remainder of the school year, pending the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's approval certification.

Borishade does not currently have superintendent certification in Missouri, which is required for a district to have full accreditation.

https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/education/slps-fires-former-superintendent-for-cause-budget-controversy/63-974c8605-139b-487b-808d-3d68c06e4cd6?ref=exit-recirc

The complaint states that an employee described Getachew as "weird" and that they suspected he had mental issues.

Aren't ALL blacks "weird" and have mental issues?

A St. Paul post office worker has been charged with attempted 2nd-degree murder after shooting his supervisor on Sunday.

Tewabe Getachew, 28, of St. Paul, was arrested on Sunday after attempting to kill 50-year-old coworker Roy Varghese, of Eagan, at the U.S. Post Office at 1715 West 7th Street. Charges were officially filed against Getachew on Tuesday.

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The man who was shot at least five times miraculously survived and is in stable condition. He was required to undergo an additional surgery on Tuesday as well.

According to the complaint, officers arrived at the post office at 3:24 p.m. after an employee had come back to the office and found the victim, a supervisor, had been shot several times. The supervisor asked the employee to call the police, and when officers arrived, he told them that Getachew was the shooter.

At the scene, officers recovered twelve .40 caliber casings on the floor near where the supervisor had been shot. He was taken to Regions Hospital in critical condition and was unable to respond as to why Getachew shot him in the first place.

Police discovered that Getachew had been working at that office earlier that day but was told by a coworker that his car was no longer in his parking spot. Surveillance video from a gas station across the street shows him leaving the Post Office parking lot around 3:19 p.m.

The complaint states that an employee described Getachew as "weird" and that they suspected he had mental health issues. He had been working at the office since February of this year, with every Thursday off to attend appointments for his mental health.

Additional surveillance video showed Getachew arriving at his home at on West 7th Street and leaving shortly after 3:37 p.m.

Officers arrived at his address, and Getachew's landlord told them he was supposed to be returning home. Further interviews with neighbors of Getachew revealed that he was "always drinking" and was suspected of being an alcoholic. He would also speak about how he needed a gun and a license for one.

Getachew was arrested and taken into custody when officers finally found his car. The complaint says that he had what looked like blood on the laces of his right shoe, but no firearm was found in his possession.

A search warrant was executed at his home, where police found a Glock .40 caliber firearm and a magazine that held several rounds of ammunition that matched the ones found at the scene.

While being interviewed by police once in custody, Getachew said that he did own a gun but was not sure what caliber it was. When asked why he smelled like alcohol, he told officers he drank a beer when he came home.

Getachew said he bought the gun a month ago and kept it in his car while he was at work. He confessed to police that he put the gun in the apartment after returning home from work on Sunday.

He said he saw his supervisor while clocking out that day and was not injured when he left. According to the complaint, he had no explanation as to why or who shot the supervisor.

This is not his first run-in with law enforcement, having been previously convicted of a gross misdemeanor for harassment. The complaint says that he allegedly told a witness where he previously worked that the owner should be killed while drawing a finger across his neck.

Getachew is currently in the Ramsey County jail. His bail has been set at $1 million, and he must not contact the victim. His next hearing is scheduled for Nov. 5 at 1:30 p.m.

https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-news/charges-st-paul-post-office-worker-shot-supervisor-five-times

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Jabron Dedrick Jiles (Hennepin County Jail)

A Minneapolis teenager has been certified as an adult to face charges in connection to a violent robbery spree in the fall of 2021.

A judge formally certified 18-year-old Jabron Dedrick Jiles as an adult on Monday. He’s charged with 11 counts of first-degree aggravated robbery and four counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon for a string of violence when he was 16 years old.

The incidents, which ranged from Sept. 15, 2021, through Oct. 21, 2021, resulted not only in loss of money and property for many victims but also physical injuries.

According to charging documents, Jiles and two other males robbed people inside an apartment in the 2600 block of 16th Avenue South in the first incident. Jiles allegedly was childhood friends with one of the victims and, during that robbery, his accomplices allegedly pointed guns at the victims, one of whom was holding a 3-week-old child.

Jiles and the other males are accused of taking the victims’ cellphones and around $2,000 in cash before running away.

Two weeks later, Jiles and another person allegedly robbed a welding company in the 2300 block of Second Street North. In that incident, Jiles allegedly pointed a gun at an employee and hit him in the head, causing a deep, bleeding cut.

On Oct. 13, Minneapolis police were called to a garden store in the 3700 block of 42nd Avenue South after Jiles, and another male allegedly robbed the store at gunpoint. His accomplice is also accused of hitting an employee in the head twice and struggling with employees. The employee who was hit in the head suffered a broken nose, broken cheekbone, and several chipped teeth, charging documents state.

Later that same day, Jiles and another male allegedly robbed a cafe in the 2200 block of Hennepin Avenue. An employee told police that Jiles was asking about earrings before he pulled out a gun and demanded money from the cash register. When they couldn’t get into a back room, they demanded money from a second cash register, then ran away, court documents state.

Three days later, Jiles and two others allegedly robbed a gas station in the 6000 block of Penn Avenue South. An employee told police one of the males pointed a gun at him and demanded money from the cash register and safe, as well as the employee’s credit and debit cards. They then ran away.

On Oct. 18, a business in the 400 block of Penn Avenue South and another in the 400 block of Cedar Lake Road South reported that Jiles and another male robbed them at gunpoint. During those incidents, Jiles allegedly punched an employee in the face several times, then stole her backpack full of belongings. That victim had to be taken to a hospital for trauma to her head. Meanwhile, the other male held another employee at gunpoint and demanded cash from the register. An employee at the second business gave a similar account, saying they held the cashier at gunpoint and then ran away with the money.

Two days later, Jiles and two males allegedly robbed a skincare business in the 4000 block of Nicollet Avenue South. In that incident, court documents state the robbers held the victims at gunpoint, made threats, took money, iPads and cellphones.

On Oct. 21, Minneapolis police were called to two robberies — one in the 4800 block of 28th Avenue South, the other just afterward in the 2300 block of 28th Street Southeast. An employee at the first place, a bakery, said Jiles pulled out a gun and demanded money from the register. The other two acted as lookouts, then they ran away with the cash, court documents state. Video showed the same three robbers went to the second business, pointed guns at victims and, took their money, wallets or phones, then fled.

Jiles made his first court appearance Tuesday. His next hearing is set for March 13.

https://kstp.com/kstp-news/local-news/minneapolis-teen-charged-in-violent-monthlong-robbery-spree-in-2021/

https://townsquare.media/site/67/files/2022/07/attachment-Untitled-design-25.jpg?w=980&q=75
Sherburne County Jail

MINNEAPOLIS -- A Minneapolis man has been sentenced to more than 17 years for armed robbery.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says 30-year-old Keanu Ross was sentenced Friday to 210 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $1,850 in restitution for his part in the armed robberies of two gas stations and a hotel.

Court records show on three separate days in February 2020 Ross entered a gas station in Columbia Heights, a gas station in Fridley, and a hotel in Brooklyn Center.

According to the documents, at each of these locations, Ross pulled out a gun and proceeded to steal cash, tobacco products, lottery tickets, cell phones, and car keys from employees before fleeing in a waiting vehicle.

In January 2022 Ross pleaded guilty to three counts of aiding and abetting interference with commerce by robbery and one count of using, carrying, and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.

Ross’s co-defendant, 30-year-old Antoinette Deniece Mae Dobyne, has yet to be sentenced.

https://wjon.com/minneapolis-man-sentenced-to-17-5-years-for-armed-robbery/

"The reported actions are not, and will not, be tolerated at Woodbury High School or in South Washington County Schools," Wagner said.

A substitute teacher has been banned from Woodbury High School after displaying "racially harmful" behavior in multiple classes, including reenacting how George Floyd was killed with a student.

The teacher was banned from campus on Monday after making multiple racially charged comments and gestures in four separate English classes, one of which was putting a student on the ground and reenacting how police "restrained" George Floyd when he was murdered in May of 2020.

"I specifically want to acknowledge racial harm that occurred when the substitute teacher reenacted the prone restraint that resulted in the murder of George Floyd," Woodbury High School's Principal, Sarah Sorenson-Wagner, said in an email to parents, which was first reported by Woodbury News Net.

"This reported behavior is reprehensible. I am embarrassed, and I am sorry this happened to our students. We will take as much time as students need to listen and create open space for courageous conversations that lead to healing, action, and education."

https://bringmethenews.com/.image/c_limit%2Ccs_srgb%2Cq_auto:good%2Cw_620/MjEwMDI2ODI0ODQxODMxOTAy/img_3282.webp

After an initial email on Monday to parents assuring them the man was barred from campus as soon as his behavior was discovered, a follow-up email on Tuesday detailed what the substitute teacher said in his classes.

According to the email sent to students who reported the incident, the man thought they would want to hear about his life as a police officer, even though he is not a police officer in the state of Minnesota.

Other behaviors exhibited unprovoked during the classes are as follows:

Stating that "police brutality isn’t real."
Speaking at length about his gun collection.
Stated that “cops would be the best criminals” and that “they know how to get away with stuff,” saying that he once got an "A" on a paper about how to get away with murder.
Sharing the specific names of the people he arrested.
Speaking in disturbing detail about dead bodies he had seen and sharing explicit details about two sexual assault cases he investigated.
Telling sexist jokes.
Repeatedly telling racially harmful comments.
"Invading students’ space" and mimicking holding up a gun and pointing it at students.
Speaking about a bar fight and fake punching a student with his fist “really close” to the student’s face.
Twisting a student’s arm behind the student’s back and showed pressure points on the chin.
While the man's name has not been shared, Principal Wagner said in her email that the school sent a full report to the Minnesota Department of Education and PELSB (educator licensing department) and is collaborating with the Woodbury Police Department to investigate this incident.

The Woodbury Police department confirmed they will be investigating the incident further and are "disturbed" by what occurred. According to Woodbury police, the teacher has no affiliation with the department.

"The reported actions are not, and will not, be tolerated at Woodbury High School or in South Washington County Schools," Wagner said. "We are partnering with Teachers on Call, our substitute contracted vendor, to ensure that this person is removed from the Teachers on Call substitute list and will never be allowed to fill any vacancies in our school district."

Bring Me The News has attempted to contact the Teachers On Call, Principal Wagner, and the Superintendent of the South Washington County district but has not received a response at this time.

https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-news/substitute-teacher-banned-from-woodbury-high-after-reenacting-george-floyd-murder

The New Brighton man accused of fatally shooting another man during a road rage incident was found guilty of his murder on Friday.

Dhaha Hassan, 25, was found guilty on one count of second-degree murder without intent and guilty of possessing a firearm without a serial number. For the other two felonies he was charged with, he was found not guilty, including a second-degree murder with intent charge.

Hassan was arrested in November 2023 for shooting and killing 34-year-old Randy John Burris in Minneapolis during a traffic dispute.

https://bringmethenews.com/.image/c_limit%2Ccs_srgb%2Cq_auto:good%2Cw_620/MjAyMzc4MDk2MDkzOTYzMjc2/screen-shot-2023-11-21-at-32550-pm.webp
Via Hennepin County Jail.

According to the criminal complaint, on Nov. 18, Hassan was driving the wrong way and blocking traffic on a narrow street when a minivan driver attempted to pass him.

Burris was a passenger in the minivan attempting to pass Hassan. According to witnesses, Burris exited the car to tell Hassan he needed to reverse to clear the road. Hassan allegedly refused to reverse, asking Burris, "What are you going to do about it?"

Charges state that Burris appeared concerned and asked another passenger from the minivan to exit the car to speak with Hassan, but the two began arguing.

The complaint says that when Hassan tried to open his car door and step out, a witness saw Burris push his car door closed. This caused Hassan to fire his handgun, striking Burris four times.

When officers arrived at the scene, Burris was lying on the ground with several gunshot wounds to his chest and stomach. He was able to speak with officers and pointed them in Hassan's direction when asked who shot him.

Officers arrested Hassan at the scene, who was allegedly high on marijuana, and Burris was taken to Hennepin Healthcare, where he would die shortly after.

Once in custody, the complaint states Hassan admitted to shooting Burris, claiming he had begun driving in reverse, but the minivan was "riding" him "bumper to bumper" with its high beams on.

He further claimed Burris was "acting aggressively" towards him and tried pushing the vehicle at one point.

Hassan's sentencing will be on Nov. 5 at 9 a.m.

https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-news/new-brighton-man-found-guilty-for-fatal-road-rage-shooting-in-2023

A Hennepin County jury convicted a Minneapolis man Wednesday of fatally shooting a woman at close range in south Minneapolis last year.

Damarean Kaylon Bible, 25, was found guilty of second-degree murder with intent in connection with the Nov. 29, 2023 death of Savannah Ryan Williams, a 38-year-old transgender woman.

He now faces up to 40 years in prison.

Warning: The following contains graphic details.

The charges
According to the criminal complaint, police responded to the 3000 block of 4th Avenue South around 9 a.m. the morning of the shooting on reports of a person on the ground and not breathing in a courtyard.

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Hennepin County Jail

When officers arrived, they found Williams dead, with a gunshot wound to the head. She had a hooded sweatshirt on, and the gunshot residue found on the hood suggested the shot was from close range.

Witnesses told officers that they had heard a gunshot near the scene at approximately 5:45 a.m. and had seen a man, now known to be Bible, walking north from the scene along 4th Avenue toward Lake Street.

Surveillance video was recovered from nearby buildings, showing Williams and Bible walking toward the scene at approximately 5 a.m. Bible is then shown leaving the area alone around 5:45 a.m.

Investigators followed Bible on these surveillance videos to his apartment building at 95 South 10th Street., where management confirmed he was a resident.

Bible was arrested at his home, and when given a phone to call his parents in the jail, he was heard telling his dad that he "just murdered someone," and while feeling sorry, he "had to do it."

A search warrant for his apartment resulted in the finding of a 9mm Polymer80 handgun with no serial number and a .22 caliber rifle. They also found the shoes and clothes he wore during the murder.

Bible initially claimed he wasn't the shooter but then confessed after seeing the video evidence. He claims that while walking past a bus shelter in Lake Street, Williams had asked him if he wanted sex, to which he agreed. However, during and after they had sex, he said he felt "suspicious," so he shot her.

In the wake of the shooting, the Queer Legislative Caucus in the Minnesota House of Representatives issued a statement remembering Williams as a "beloved member of the transgender community."

“We stand in collective grief and outrage at the senseless murder of Savannah Ryan Williams, a 38-year-old transgender woman brutally taken from our community," the Caucus shared, in part.

In a statement Wednesday, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said she shares in the community's outrage over Williams' death.

"This was not an act of self-defense," Moriarty stated. "Mr. Bible caused immeasurable harm to Savannah's family and the broader community, and following today's verdict, he will face a long sentence, which is necessary to protect public safety."

Bible is scheduled to be sentenced September 11 at 8:45 a.m.

https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-news/jury-finds-minneapolis-man-guilty-in-killing-of-transgender-woman

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David Lee Jones

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Leon Johnson on Thursday set bail at $1 million for a 22-year-old North Little Rock man facing 23 felony charges over accusations he is responsible for six attacks on women. The charges include four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape.

The amount is a reduction from David Lee Jones Jr.’s original $4 million bail but still 20 times more than the $50,000 his lawyer had requested.

Most murderers don’t have bail that high, defense attorney Ron Davis said. Bail is only supposed to serve as a financial guarantee that the defendant will show up for court, and it’s not to be used to punish a suspect, Davis said.

Jones is charged with two counts of aggravated assault, three counts each of rape, aggravated robbery and theft, four counts of kidnapping and six counts of terroristic threatening. He faces a potential life sentence.

He has been jailed about 9 ½ months since his June 10 arrest, a day after, prosecutors say, he ambushed a woman inside an abandoned house next door to his home on Virginia Drive.

The 36-year-old woman was grabbed from behind; her assailant put a pistol to her head and threatened to kill her, deputy prosecutor Jeanna Sherrill told the judge at Thursday’s hearing.

But the woman was able to struggle from her assailant and run as the man shot at her, Sherrill said.

The woman had gone to the house to meet a man for a sexual encounter arranged through Backpage.com, the prosecutor said. She left her backpack when she ran, and police later found it in Jones’ home. The woman came forward after hearing about Jones’ arrest and recognizing his picture, the prosecutor said.

Sherrill argued that Jones, who did not testify, is a flight risk who evaded Texas authorities for months before being arrested and extradited to that state for a 2011 juvenile residential burglary conviction in Dallas. She said he spent almost three years in juvenile incarceration until he was released on his 19th birthday.

Jones also has juvenile convictions for minor in possession of a firearm in 2009 and aggravated assault, reduced from aggravated robbery, in 2012, stemming from separate arrests in Pulaski County, she said.

The first attack police associated with Jones came about 2 a.m. April 11, when a 19-year-old woman reported she’d been raped by an assailant who attacked her in the 4900 block of Allen Street while she was walking home from her Wendy’s restaurant shift and listening to music through headphones.

The rapist approached her from behind, grabbed her by her hair and put a gun to her head, the prosecutor said. The man threatened to kill her if she did not do what he told her. He pulled her into some woods and forced her to perform oral sex. He left, stealing her wallet and cell phone, after telling her to count down from 300 before leaving, Sherill said.

The woman was able to direct police to where she’d been attacked, and investigators found her headphones and some sugar packets she had dropped from her pockets, the prosecutor told the judge.

Five days later, a 38-year-old woman told police she was jogging on the Five Mile Creek Trail when she came upon a man who suddenly punched her, stuck a gun in her back and dragged her into the woods.

The assailant told her he’d kill her if she resisted, Sherrill said. But she grabbed him by the groin and squeezed as hard as she could, prompting him to release her.

Someone else on the trail saw the man and was able to identify Jones from a police photo lineup, the prosecutor said.

But Jones was not a suspect until after the June 6 rape of a 33-year-old woman who was ambushed by a gunman hiding in the back seat of her car, Sherrill told the judge. She’d finished doing her laundry at the Fun Wash, 4804 John F. Kennedy Boulevard, shortly before 5 p.m. when she got into her car.

The attacker, whose face was covered, forced her to drive somewhere and park, then made her perform oral sex, before stealing the $800 she had and her checkbook.

Police got Jones’ DNA from a pink shirt the woman used to wipe her mouth, Sherrill said.

The DNA also matched genetic material found on the clothes of the Wendy’s worker in April, she told the judge.

The prosecutor said Jones subsequently told detective Julie Eckert that he’d had consensual sexual encounters with the Wendy’s worker and admitted to assaulting the creek trail jogger.

Jones also identified himself as the assailant of two women on March 25, 2017, outside the now-closed Fox & Hound bar in the Lakewood Village shopping center on McCain Boulevard the prosecutor said.

The women told investigators they’d been sitting in a car when a man came up, put something against the head of the driver and said he’d kill her if they didn’t cooperate. When one of the women opened the car door for the man to get in, they saw he had been using a bottle, not a gun, so they ran into the restaurant and called police.

Jones also told police he’d had a consensual sexual encounter with a woman at a Lynn Lane home in August 2016 and that he’d stolen her phone, Sherrill said. He identified the woman by name but the subsequent investigation led detectives to a woman with a similar name and features who said she’d been raped on Aug. 1, 2016, but had never reported it, the prosecutor said.

The 24-year-old said she’d been assaulted at an empty house at Lynn Lane and 44th streets where she’d gone for an arranged sexual encounter with a stranger, the prosecutor told the judge. An associate who came to pick her up from the house told police she was hysterical when he arrived.

The location of the house is significant because Jones used to live on Lynn Lane, Sherrill said.

When he was arrested last, Jones was already awaiting trial on a residential burglary charge. According to arrest reports, Jones and another man were arrested in July 2016 — three days before Jones’ 20th birthday — by police responding to a home alarm at a Moss Street house, just after sunrise.

Officers arrived to see two men in the carport who ran into the house when they saw the police. The two men were taken into custody without incident.

Jones’ co-defendant, 22-year-old Devante Lamar Williams, is scheduled to stand trial in May.

https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2018/mar/30/bail-set-1m-nlr-suspect-rapes-attacks/

https://wehco.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/img/photos/2017/03/15/Screen_Shot_2017-03-15_at_8.46.26_AM_t800.png?90232451fbcadccc64a17de7521d859a8f88077d
Ambrose Williams

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims set bail at $600,000 on Monday for a Sherwood man accused of raping a former girlfriend's daughter after hearing testimony that North Little Rock police have charged him with raping a second girl, the daughter of another girlfriend.

Allegations against 32-year-old Ambrose Bernard Williams by a third girl, also a daughter of a girlfriend, are under investigation by police, with deputy prosecutor Meredith Moore saying she will call a fourth girl, yet another girlfriend's daughter, to testify against Williams at trial about how he molested her in Jacksonville when she was 5.

Testifying at Williams' bail hearing, detective Julie Eckert told the judge that a 12-year-old girl called 911 three days after Thanksgiving to report how Williams had just raped her.

Eckert said the girl was on the couch, wearing a "onesie" and watching TV when Williams came up to her and started "play-fighting" and wrestling with her. While they were playing, Williams poked holes in her jumpsuit and violated her with his hand, the detective said, describing her interview with the girl. When Williams left the room, the girl ran to the next door neighbor's house and called police, later demonstrating for investigators on an anatomically correct doll how the defendant had groped her, Eckert testified.

Williams was arrested about two weeks after a Dec. 1 interview in which he denied having any sexual contact with the child but also disclosed that he'd been similarly accused before on more than one occasion, the detective told the judge.

Eckert said she tracked down a girl who said Williams had sodomized her around Thanksgiving 2010, inflicting "the most ungodly pain" while demanding that she call him "master." Williams only stopped his attack when he heard the girl's uncle drive up, Eckert told the judge. She said that accuser's account resulted in Williams' second rape arrest.

Since Williams' arrest, police have heard from a former Little Rock woman who called from Georgia to accuse Williams of sodomizing and raping her 5-year-old daughter in 2015, Eckert said, telling the judge that investigation has only just begun.

Williams had been jailed without bail since his Dec. 15 arrest. Defense attorney Leslie Borgognoni told the judge that Williams is a lifelong central Arkansas resident whose parents live in Sherwood and would take him in and guarantee him transportation to court.

Also promising to provide Williams with a place to live was 32-year-old mother of four Francies Hollins, who said she's known Williams for about a year. A college student enrolled in online classes, Hollins told the judge she'd always be home with him and that she had no worries about him being around her children, who are ages 4 through 9.

Williams did not testify but court records show Williams has been on probation out of Benton County since June 2014 when he pleaded to aggravated assault, felony theft and misdemeanor assault. In Pulaski County, he has felony convictions for felon in possession of a firearm, domestic battering, theft and commercial burglary.

https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2017/mar/15/bail-set-at-600-000-in-rape-case-201703/