TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Author: Trench Reynolds

  • Henderson Jr. to have brain scan

    Manatee murder suspects to undergo brain scans:

    This is a somewhat interesting article about how defense attorneys are trying to use PET scans in order to find a medical defense for their clients. In this case specifically, one Richard Henderson Jr. who as you may recall, slaughtered his entire family on Thanksgiving…

    BRADENTON – Three men, each accused of first-degree murder, received a judge’s consent for brain scans Thursday.

    Manatee County court officials scheduled one hearing on several motions for four men accused in separate, unrelated murder cases – Clifford Davis, 19, Richard Henderson Jr., 20, Darrell Mitchell, 36, and Blaine Ross, 23.

    If convicted, each defendant could be sentenced to death.

    Lawyers for Davis, Henderson, and Mitchell requested the procedure, known as PET scans. Ross has already been tested.

    If any of the defendants are convicted, results from the positron emission tomography scan could be used as evidence during the sentencing phase of a trial, said Assistant Public Defender Carolyn DaSilva, who along with Assistant Public Defender Steven Schaefer is representing the three men.

    “We have to do everything to prepare for the penalty phase,” DaSilva said. “It doesn’t mean we’ll get there.”

    A doctor hired by the defense lawyers said the scans were necessary for him to complete his evaluation of the defendants, according to court records.

    The scan, commonly used to detect cancer and brain and other neurological disorders, has become a popular tool for defense lawyers, said Charles Rose, a professor at the Stetson University law school.

    The procedure, which costs about $2,000-$3,000, involves injecting a person with a radioactive substance containing glucose, and using a machine shaped like a doughnut to scan and detect the body’s reaction to the substance, according to medical experts.

    In patients with certain brain disorders, the machine tracks the spot and the rate at which the glucose metabolizes, said Dr. Eric Cotton, a radiologist at National PET Scan in St. Petersburg, which is where Davis, Henderson and Mitchell will be tested.

    The information, which the center sends to an expert in California to be interpreted, could be used to support diagnosis for Alzheimer’s disease, dementia and tumors, Cotton said.

    How ironic would it be if they found a tumor in Henderson? Then they’d have to race to execute him before the tumor got him?

  • More on the Red Lake lawsuit

    More on the Red Lake lawsuit

    ‘No amount of money will bring them back’:

    Some more interesting lawyer-related details about the Red Lake lawsuit…

    The deal ends the district’s financial liability for the shootings because state law caps legal claims against school districts at $1 million.

    But families and survivors could sue other parties. Attorneys representing the 27 people involved in the school settlement said they are looking at their options.

    “Our investigation into the circumstances of the shooting continues as we speak,” said Minneapolis attorney Philip Sieff, who represented 14 people in the settlement. “This is the end of the families’ claims against the Red Lake School District but not the end of their claims in general over the shooting.”

    Who the hell else can they possibly sue? Jeff Weise’s father is dead, and his mother is severely disabled. The Jourdain’s? The gun manufacturers?

    The settlement includes families of the five students killed and the seven students injured, and one student who was in the line of fire. It also includes five surviving school workers, the families of the two slain school employees and a relative of the grandfather’s companion.

    I can see a settlement for those who died or were wounded, but there seems to be a lot of extraneous people involved in this lawsuit.

    The Ambulance Chasers are killing personal responsibility in this country.

  • Red Lake lawsuit settled

    Red Lake lawsuit settled

    Families settle lawsuit over Red Lake shootings:

    MINNEAPOLIS – Families of victims in last year’s shootings on the Red Lake Indian Reservation have settled a lawsuit against the school district for $1 million.

    The settlement was to be distributed among 21 families of shooting victims.

    In Philip Sieff, an attorney for the victims’ families, called the settlement “best for everyone because it provides these highly deserving families some compensation for their losses and allows the School District to return all of its focus to education.”

    Personally, I don’t see why the school district was sued. They had metal detectors and they had an armed security guard. Granted, neither of those steps stopped Jeff Weise, but what else was the school supposed to do? Not only that, but now you’re taking money away from the school that’s supposed to educate your children.

    What does this accomplish?

  • Morbid Curiosity II

    Morbid Curiosity II

    Ashton Glover Killed for Morbid Curiosity?:

    This is another great article from the fine folks at Crime Library. Check out the details of Ashton Glover’s murder by Matt McCombs…

    SUGAR LAND, Tx. (Crime Library) Matthew McCombs, 18, Ashton Glover’s former classmate told police that he and neighbor Sean Brown, also 18, went riding with Sugar Land, Texas, 16-year-old teenager Ashton Glover July 7. After getting out of the car, and without any warning or provocation, McCombs pulled out a rare revolver that he had stolen and shot Ashton in the head, killing her. The two men then left Ashton’s body where she lay and went for some breakfast. After their breakfast, McCombs and Brown went back to the field and buried Ashton’s body. Then went home to sleep.

    Why did McCombs do this? “Morbid curiosity” is what he told the police.

    This story, first reported by Eric Hanson in the Houston Chronicle, suggests that prosecutors may not be treating this as a capital case. Perhaps because they have not yet been made aware of things that McCombs had published that put his killing of Ashton Glover in a new light.

    In an earlier Crime Library story on this case, Steve Huff pointed out that McCombs had put on his MySpace pages that when he grew up, he wanted to be a “killer,” and that his goal this year “was not to get caught.”

    So, he steals a revolver a few weeks ago from a friend in Kerrville, takes the loaded pistol with him on this ride with unsuspecting Ashton, and once they are miles away in a rural construction site where the shot won’t be heard, he pulls out the gun and executes his first kill.

    Sounds like premeditation to me.

    Not only that, but shouldn’t the cold-blooded way that McCombs killed her carry any weight towards the charges?

    Personally, I hope he gets a date with the needle.

  • Love letter from Hell

    Love letter from Hell

    Dylan Klebold in Love:

    When the Columbine documents were released, the mutant reaction was one of apathy. Most of the reactions went along the lines of “Well it’s bad that Eric Harris was a racist and a homophobe but look at how cute Dylan Klebold was for writing love letters”. I think this article has a much more realistic perspective…

    We don’t know whether Klebold ever summoned the nerve to deliver the love letter. We just know that, mixed in with the grotesque torments that impelled Klebold and Harris to slaughter their schoolmates, there dwelt (within Klebold, at least; experts now believe Harris was more clearly psychopathic) recognizably human torments more typical of the adolescent male. To some, this may make Klebold seem more sympathetic. To me, it makes the very notion of love, or at least teenage infatuation, seem much darker and creepier. This is not to say that I would recommend that school officials across the country mobilize en masse to expel all young swains who declare their love to unsuspecting schoolgirls. (The high schools would be emptied within a week.) Judging from the text of Klebold’s letter, it shouldn’t be as difficult as many suppose to spot the distinct warning signs that a young man is seriously deranged. Still, I’m not sure I’ll ever think the same way about what it means to have a secret admirer.

    Even monsters are capable of love, but it never stops them from killing the villagers.

  • Immunity granted

    Immunity granted

    Kerns case will go to trial in fall:

    I’m still not holding my breath on that one, but in other news, Farley and Sullivan have been granted immunity in the trial of Tobin Kerns…

    A single justice of the Supreme Judicial Court ruled last week to enact immunity for two key witnesses in Kerns upcoming trial, bringing an end to another legal stalemate that had kept the case from moving forward.

    Kerns, 18, and Joseph Nee, 20, both former Marshfield High School students, are facing trial separately for their alleged involvement in staging a Columbine-like attack on the high school in 2004. Kerns, was arrested in September of that year after Nee and two other MHS students – Joseph Sullivan and Daniel Farely – informed he school resource officer about the plot. A few weeks later, Nee was also arrested after Farley and Sullivan implicated him in the planned attack on the school.

    Kerns and Nee were both charged with promotion of anarchy, conspiracy to commit murder and threatened use of a deadly weapon after police found materials at Kerns’ home outlining a planned attack on Marshfield High School. Police found a binder and evidence that Kerns’ computer had been used to look at Web sites like the Anarchist’s Cookbook, which explains how to make explosives. Nee had been staying with the Kerns family for a few weeks earlier in the spring, and Kerns father, Ben has argued that the materials in the binder belonged to him, not his son.

    Kerns’ trial was set to start in March, but things came to a standstill when Farley and Sullivan sought immunity under the Fifth Amendment out of fear they might incriminate themselves through their testimonies.

    The Plymouth County District Attorney’s office then sought to enact immunity in the Nee trial in hopes of carrying immunity over into the Kerns trial.

    While immunity was granted to both witnesses in Superior Court, Judge Louis Coffin said in April he was unsure if he had the authority to grant immunity in Juvenile Court, citing a ruling in Commonwealth vs. Russ, a 2001 case that set a precedent against enacting immunity in juvenile cases. Assistant District Attorney John McLaughlin then brought the matter before a single Supreme Judicial Court Justice in Boston.

    If this helps Tobin get exonerated, then I’m all for it, but I can’t shake the feeling that two people who were complicit in the plot are getting away.

  • Zero Day

    Zero Day

    Last night, I watched the movie Zero Day. For those of you who haven’t heard of Zero Day, it’s about a fictitious school shooting filmed from the point of view of the shooters much like what Harris and Klebold did with their basement tapes.

    As far as movies about school shootings go, Zero Day is the best. It is much more interesting than the crap fest that is Elephant, and much more realistic than Home Room. In my opinion, the director tried to make it like Columbine without it actually being Columbine.

    What at first I didn’t like about the movie turns out makes the movie better and more disturbing. In the actual basement tapes, you can see the anger and hatred in Harris and Klebold. In Zero Day, the actors were much more subdued about the whole thing.

    My only complaint about the film isn’t with the film itself, it’s the fact that the mutants look at this as almost a “fan film” when I’m pretty sure that this was not the film’s intent.

    Anyway, I won’t spoil any more of it, but I highly recommend that anybody, especially those with kids still in school, to watch this movie.

  • Morbid Curiosity

    Morbid Curiosity

    Sheriff: ‘Morbid Curiosity’ Given As Motive For Killing Teen:

    I’ve been blogging about various crimes for 6 years now. I’ve become almost detached from my emotions when writing about these stories. Until I read this article. I almost flung my laptop across the room. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I have a (step)daughter her age…

    RICHMOND, Texas — Morbid curiosity was given as the motive by one of two suspects charged with killing 16-year-old Ashton Glover, KPRC Local 2 reported Monday.

    Matthew McCombs arrived in Fort Bend County Monday afternoon after he waived extradition from Michigan, where he and Sean Brown were captured while trying to cross the U.S.-Canada border into Ontario.

    McCombs and Brown, both 18, were charged with murder in the death of Glover on Wednesday.

    McCombs has given a statement,” Fort Bend County Sheriff Milton Wright said. “We think the statement, at this point, is pretty accurate because it’s collaborated by some of the facts that we have.”

    Wright said McCombs implicated Brown in the killing but admitted to pulling the trigger.

    “The pistol that we recovered in the search warrant at McCombs’ house is indeed the murder weapon,” Wright said. “Mr. McCombs pulled the trigger (with a) 22-32. It’s an old model replica, a frontier model, an old pistol. You can still buy ammunition for it, I think, but those guns have been out of production for some time.”

    He said that McCombs stole the gun from a friend’s grandmother’s house in Kerrville.

    Wright did not elaborate on the statement or motive in order to not jeopardize the case. He also would not say why Glover was the victim.

    “I’ll have to stop with the statement made — morbid curiosity. Of course, there are more answers to that, but, after conferring with the district attorney and others, they requested that we not go beyond that,” he said.

    Matthew McCombs, may God have mercy on your soul.

  • Pamela Rogers gets 7 years

    Pamela Rogers gets 7 years

    Pamela Rogers

    7-year term jolts a tearful Rogers:

    Everyone’s favorite statutory rapist is going to do time in the pokey…

    McMINNVILLE, Tenn. Near the end of the 59-minute probation violation hearing, convicted sexual offender Pamela Rogers rose to address the judge who would send her to jail for more than seven years.

    “I’m sorry,” she began.

    The tears fell first as a trickle that she wiped away with a wad of tissue in a handcuffed hand, but the salty flow quickly became a river of sobs as she further apologized for the pain and the embarrassment her actions of the past two years had brought her victim and his family, her family and her friends.

    Then the former elementary school gym teacher asked Circuit Court Judge Bart Stanley for mercy.

    But the judge was not in a generous mood.

    Less than four minutes after her tearful apology, Stanley sternly took the young woman to task for her behavior since she was paroled in February.

    “The thing I can’t understand is why, when you were released after seven or eight months in jail, you didn’t blink an eye. You continued at that point to violate your probation and contacted this family, send lewd videos and lewd pictures to the same person,” the judge told the hushed courtroom.

    Sitting two rows behind Rogers in the spectators’ gallery, her parents, Lamar and Karen Rogers, lowered their chins and wiped away tears.

    In order to deliver a message to the state of Tennessee, the judge said in a measured voice, he was sending Rogers to the Tennessee Prison for Women to serve the remainder of the eight-year sentence that she received in August after pleading no-contest to four counts of sexual battery.

    The charges involved a sexual relationship with a teenage boy, then 14, who was a student at the school where Rogers taught, Centertown Elementary. Court documents indicate she had sex with him multiple times, at school, in her car and at his home. After her conviction, she served a few months in jail, then was released on probation and ordered not to communicate with the boy.

    However, authorities said that, less than two months later, she sent explicit photos and videos of herself to the boy via cameraphone. They also said she had created a Web page through MySpace.com on which she posted messages to the boy, addressing him by his basketball jersey number, saying she was still in love with him and suggesting she would wait until he turned 18 to continue their romance.

    “I don’t mind giving someone a second chance if there’s a reasonable likelihood that they can be rehabilitated, that they will take probation seriously in an attempt to straighten their life out,” the judge said in court Friday. “We all make mistakes, but you have done everything except show this court that you wanted to abide by the terms of your probation and get your life back in order and follow the law.”

    The decision pleased District Attorney General Dale Potter, who told reporters: “She deserves what she got.”

    Actually, she deserved more, but why should we let justice get in the way of a double standard?

  • Pistol found at McCombs home

    Pistol found at McCombs home

    Glover Murder Suspect Admits Part In Killing; Pistol Found At His Home:

    Just a brief update…

    Matthew McCombs, one of two suspects in the murder of Sugar Land teenager Ashton Glover, has given detectives a “self-implicating statement,” Fort Bend County Sheriff Milton Wright said Monday morning.

    Investigators also have discovered a pistol at McCombs’ home in Sugar Land, the sheriff said. However, test results are not yet available that could indicate whether or not the weapon was used in Glover’s death.