TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Category: Crime

  • Indictments and guilty pleas in WV torture case

    Indictments and guilty pleas in WV torture case

    2 plead guilty, 5 others indicted in torture case:

    A lot of news coming out of West Virginia lately in the kidnap and torture case of Megan Williams. If you’re not familiar with the case, you can see my first post about it here or this search which shows the bulk of the posts related to the case.

    Anyway…

    A Logan County grand jury handed up indictments Tuesday charging Bobby Brewster, 24; his mother, Frankie Brewster, 49, of Big Creek; Danny Combs, 20, of Harts; Karen Burton, 46, of Chapmanville; and her son, Linnie Burton Jr., in the case.

    Two other defendants — Karen Burton’s daughter, 23-year-old Alisha Burton, and 27-year-old George A. Messer — each pleaded guilty Friday to one count of kidnapping and one count of assault during the commission of a felony. Messer and Alisha Burton, both of Chapmanville, were each sentenced to concurrent prison terms of 10 years on the kidnapping charge and 2 to 10 years on the assault charge, Logan County Prosecuting Attorney Brian Abraham said.

    Karen Burton is the only defendant charged with a hate crime. She also was indicted on kidnapping and malicious wounding charges.

    Burton allegedly used the N-word as she stabbed Williams in the ankle, Abraham said.

    Personally, I couldn’t care less about the color of the victim or the perpetrators. The only thing I care about is justice being served for the sick, depraved things these scumbags did to Megan Williams that you only normally see in over the top horror movies.

  • Bail reduction denied in ‘Mortal Kombat’ killing

    Bail reduction denied in ‘Mortal Kombat’ killing

    Suspect in girl’s death denied bail reduction:

    A bail reduction request for Heather Trujillo has been denied. She’s currently being held on $100K bond in the death of her sister Zoe Garcia. Trujillo and her 17-year-old boyfriend Lamar Roberts killed Garcia by allegedly imitating moves from a Mortal Kombat game.

    16-year-old Trujillo has been charged as an adult and faces up to 48 years behind bars.

  • Dana Trujillo arrested

    Dana Trujillo arrested

    Dana Trujillo, mother of murder victim Zoe Garcia arrested:

    Dana Trujillo, the mother of both Zoe Garcia and Heather Trujillo, was arrested this past Thursday on child abuse charges. Zoe Garcia was the 7-year-old killed by her sister and her sister’s boyfriend, Lamar Roberts, when they supposedly practiced ‘Mortal Kombat’ moves on Zoe. Heather Trujillo and Roberts are both being charged as adults for Zoe’s murder.

    Dana Trujillo was arrested on an outstanding warrant from 2003 in New Mexico.

    But the charges against the girls’ mother, Dana Trujillo, stem back to 2003, when Dana and three daughters lived in Socorro, N.M. Police in the small New Mexico town said Dana Trujillo is suspected of leaving her children, — then ages 12, 4. and 3.

    “There was no assault or battery,” said Capt. Mike Winders of the Socorro Police Department. “The crime was that she was not feeding or caring for them properly, and that’s why we issued the warrant.”

    It’s obvious that Mortal Kombat had nothing to do with Zoe’s murder, but the media just can’t let that go. It just shows how clueless they still are about video games. It’s not like they haven’t been around for 30+ years or anything.

  • Alleged autistic ruled competent to stand trial

    Alleged autistic ruled competent to stand trial

    Competency test result withheld:

    I’ve posted about Robert Derderian before. He’s the 19-year-old supposed autistic from New Hampshire who allegedly sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl and videotaping the assault. He’s also accused of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl several times.

    He’s not speaking to his attorney, which she claims is because of autism, Asperger’s, ADHD, and, as the article puts it, another unspecified learning disorder that limits his speaking abilities. That’s very convenient. The prosecution thinks he has a case of faker-itis and I tend to agree.

    Anyway, since I last posted about this, it seems that he’s had top mental competency tests. The first report found him to be mentally competent. The second one is under review as we speak.

    Like I’ve said previously, if he had the mental capacity to videotape a sexual assault I’m pretty sure he can talk to his lawyer.

  • Dyleski sentence appeal

    Dyleski sentence appeal

    Scott Dyleski files appeal of life sentence for murder conviction:

    The attorneys for Scott Dyleski are trying the spaghetti plan to get their client out of a life sentence without parole. By spaghetti plan, I mean they’re throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks.

    Scott Dyleski was the 16-year-old who was tried as an adult, convicted, and sentenced to life without parole in the murder of Pam Vitale. Vitale was the wife of famous criminal defense attorney Daniel Horowitz.

    One of the focuses on the trial was that some people felt trying Dyleski as an adult was inhumane, and that sentencing him to life without parole was worse. I’m not one of those people. He brutally bludgeoned Pam Vitale and carved a symbol in her back. If that doesn’t warrant being tried as an adult, nothing does.

    Anyway, on to the matter at hand, his appeal.

    Scott Dyleski’s sentence of life without the possibility of parole in the October 2005 bludgeoning death of Lafayette resident Pamela Vitale amounts to unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment because he was only 16 at the time, his lawyer argued in a court appeal this week.

    The 183-page brief, filed Wednesday in state appeals court, also argues that there was not enough evidence during the trial of burglary — the special circumstance that allowed Judge Barbara Zuniga to sentence Dyleski to life without parole.

    The judge also should have allowed a change of court venue because of the local notoriety; held a hearing on the reliability of DNA testing that linked Dyleski to the murder; and should have thrown out evidence from a home search that attorney Philip Brooks claims was based on a “recklessly inaccurate” search warrant affidavit, the brief argues.

    Is there anything else? Can we get you a coffee or something? Did you not care for the color of the bailiff’s uniform? Were the courtroom chairs too stiff for you?

    If Dyleski was 21 when he killed Pam Vitale this wouldn’t even be an issue, but some people just have to do things “for the children”. Even if those children are cold-blooded and callous killers.

  • West Memphis Schism

    West Memphis Schism

    Money at root of effort to free WM3:

    When a group becomes too big or its leadership becomes corrupt, a schism is inevitable. The supporters of the West Memphis 3 are just finding this out.

    On the one hand, you have 44-year-old Lorri Davis, the wife of Damien Echols who married him 8 years ago while in jail, probably after getting moist from watching the ‘documentaries’. She’s basically in charge of all the donations given in the name of the West Memphis 3.

    A new splinter group has arisen calling itself the West Memphis 3 Innocence Project, and they claim that Davis has not been forthcoming about how the funds are being spent.

    Let’s hear from West Memphis 3 Innocence Project president Kelly Duda.

    “Isn’t it a clear conflict of interest for a spouse of one of the WM3 to have what appears to be ultimate control over funding that is intended for all three young men?” asks the new Web site that seeks donations of its own on behalf of the three defendants.

    West Memphis 3 Innocence Project president Kelly Duda said he likes Davis and applauds her efforts but said she’s given no public accounting of her fund-raising efforts. Among concerns, Duda said when he and associates contributed money, they didn’t receive receipts.

    “People have been asking these questions for a long time. The house of cards is crumbling,” Duda, a Little Rock filmmaker, said Wednesday. “Donors have a right to know where their money is going and how it’s being spent. That’s not happening.”

    In rebuttal, let’s hear from Ms. Davis’ and her publicist?

    “They are all happy with the way the money is being spent,” Davis said. Indeed, Echols’ San Francisco lawyer, Dennis Riordan, said he had no misgivings about Davis’ fund-raising.

    “It’s all accounted for,” Riordon said. Suggestions to the contrary by the new organization are “absolutely false,” he said.

    Davis’ New York publicist, Alice Leeds, dismissed the new group’s assertions, saying her client’s devotion to the case has left her with a mound of bills. “Right now, she’s about $40,000 in debt,” Leeds said.

    Leeds also questioned the motives of two people affiliated with the new organization — board member Mara Leveritt, who wrote a book, “Devil’s Knot,” about the West Memphis murders; and Paragould, Ark., lawyer Dan Stidham, Misskelley’s original attorney. Stidham consulted with the new organization before becoming a full-time judge this month and has often been paid expenses for speaking to groups about the case.

    “These individuals have been making their names and money … by using this case for years,” Leeds said. “It is about self-interest.”

    I think that can be said for everybody involved. Once the case became a cause célèbre, it became profitable.

    I think this is the beginning of the end for the West Memphis 3 movement. Remember, kids, a house divided against itself cannot stand.

  • Ark. AG says WM3 DNA campaign is misleading

    Ark. AG says WM3 DNA campaign is misleading

    Ark. AG slams ‘misleading’ campaign on DNA evidence in 1993 West Memphis slayings:

    Arkansas’ Attorney General, Dustin McDaniel, says that the campaign that the West Memphis 3 cultists are waging about the new DNA evidence is misleading at best.

    “I’m growing increasingly frustrated by what I see as a misleading press campaign to suggest that there’s new DNA evidence that in some way exonerates these boys that a jury found guilty and whose appeals they all lost. There is no new DNA evidence that exonerates these boys at all,” McDaniel told reporters.

    “If there was any new evidence that exonerated the defendants, I would be the first one to start approaching the governor on options on bringing justice to the matter. But I’ve seen nothing, at this point, that leads me to believe that Judge (David) Burnett should on the basis of newly discovered scientific evidence grant a new trial,” McDaniel said.

    You don’t have to be an AG to realize that, since this is exactly what I said back in July.

    Then again, you can’t bring facts into a discussion with zealots.

  • White’s request for house arrest denied

    White’s request for house arrest denied

    White’s request to await trial on house arrest rejected:

    Thomas White’s request to await his trial under house arrest has been denied.

    As you know, Thomas White was the 13-year-old who brought an assault rifle to Memorial Middle School in Joplin, MO. He fired a round into the ceiling and is accused of pointing the gun at his principal and pulling the trigger, but the gun jammed after the first shot.

    His attorneys had requested that he await trial on house arrest to meet his educational needs that could not be met in prison.

    White has been charged as an adult, but the State Supreme Court will hold a hearing in late February to determine if White should be sent back to juvenile court.

    White’s Lawyers are also trying to get his bond lowered, which is currently at $250K.

    If all the people who think White should be tried as a juvenile got together, I’m sure they could scrape up his bond but for some reason, they’re just not doing that.

  • Trial rescheduled for Sean Brown

    Trial rescheduled for Sean Brown

    Trial of Suspect in Sugar Land Teen Murder Rescheduled:

    The trial for the other suspect in the murder of 16-year-old Ashton Glover from Sugar Land, Texas has been rescheduled as additional charges have been added. Sean Brown was not the trigger man in Ashton’s death but helped dispose of her body. Matthew McCombs was the actual killer, who killed Ashton out of ‘morbid curiosity’. McCombs had previously copped to a plea of 50 years with the possibility of parole in 25. He also said that Brown had nothing to with the murder.

    Apparently, the prosecution disagrees as they’ve filed an additional charge of obstruction of evidence since Brown was complicit in helping McCombs dispose of Ashton’s body. The pair tried to flee to Canada after the murder but were caught at the border.

    Due to the additional charge, the trial for Brown has been rescheduled until March. The trial was supposed to have started today.

  • Hustler prints nude Nancy pics

    Hustler prints nude Nancy pics

    Link

    Well, that bastion of taste known as Hustler Magazine has gone ahead and published the nude pictures of murder victim Nancy Benoit. The front cover reads “Wrestler Chris Benoit’s murdered wife – nude”.

    This is how Hustler defended their decision…

    In an exclusive interview, Assistant Managing Editor Mark Johnson defended his magazine.

    He told The Sun: “Publishing the photos of Nancy Benoit was a no-brainer.

    “She was beautiful and popular. We knew millions of people would want to see these pictures.

    “The feedback has been huge and overwhelmingly positive. Some questioned our decision, but the piece was presented in a tasteful, respectful fashion and people recognize that.”

    First of all, only knuckle draggers read Hustler. Secondly, the ‘millions’ of people who wanted to see the pictures are probably the same people who go to sites like Ogrish and that crap.