TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

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  • Henderson pleads not guilty

    Man pleads not guilty to 4 deaths:

    Say what now? Yesterday a grand jury handed down a four-count indictment on Richard Henderson Jr. of first-degree murder. Henderson previously confessed to the crimes. Then Assistant Public Defender Carolyn DaSilva entered a plea of not guilty. Again I say “huh?” I realize that they are probably going to try an insanity defense with Henderson but I think it’s an extreme longshot. If he had pleaded guilty it probably would have spared him the death penalty. Now it’s possible that prosecutors will seek the death penalty. But hey, it’s his funeral.

  • Marshfield trials to start soon

    Nee, Kerns heading to trial:

    This is the first news we’ve hard out of Marshfield in a while. It basically just states that both Joe Nee and Toby Kerns are due back in court shortly for the charges filed against both of them in planning a Columbine-like attack against their school. But again what kills me is what defense attorneys have to say. In this case Joe Nee’s defense attorney Thomas Drechsler…

    Drechsler pointed out that while Toby Kerns has a criminal history, having been arrested on breaking and entering charges, and has been treated in a psychiatric facility, Nee has never been in trouble with a law or treated for mental illness.

    Like I’ve said before that’s great that Joe Nee doesn’t have a “criminal record”. His dad is a Boston cop. As much respect as I have for the police, I know that there is special treatment for family members of cops. It’s not that much of a stretch to think that Joe Nee has gotten out of trouble by saying his dad was a Boston cop.

    The article refreshes our memory again on the whole situation…

    Toby Kerns was arrested on Sept. 17, 2004 after Nee and two other teens, Joseph Sullivan and Daniel Farley, went to the police and said Kerns had hand drawn maps of the school, had looked up how to make bombs on the Internet and was trying to order guns. Nee told police that most of the information was kept in a black binder in a spare room at the Kerns home.

    Police found the 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 was arrested Oct. 18, 2004 after other students came forward with information implicating him in the plan.

    Nee lived in the Kerns home for several weeks late last spring, and Toby’s father, Ben Kerns said he noticed the older boy seemed fascinated with Nazism and appeared to be a bad influence on his son. Ben Kerns said Nee stayed in the spare bedroom where the black binder was found.

    Kerns claims Nee, not his son, created the maps of the school and looked at bomb making Web sites while he was staying in their home. But Nee’s attorney argued that the plan was Toby’s and his client went to police to prevent him from carrying it out.

    What the article leaves out is that Joe Nee wore a t-shirt to school that had pictures of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold that said: “Remember the Heroes”. Joe Nee went to school for Halloween one year dressed as Eric Harris. Joe Nee was witnessed bring a gun to school even though it’s in doubt whether or not the gun was real. The reason Joe Nee was staying at the Kernses’ was that he assaulted his father and his father threw him out. Toby Kerns did nothing like that. Like I’ve said before it sounds like to me that Joe Nee went to police before Toby Kerns could. It also sounds like to me that Joe Nee was one the planning this attack and Toby decided to bail on the plan after he got help.

    Not only that but I received an e-mail today from someone in the Marshfield area that said there’s a rumor going around that a friend of Joe Nee’s was arrested for having a hit list and hand-drawn maps of Marshfield High.

    As far as I’m concerned Toby Kerns’ only crime was trusting Joe Nee and talking his dad into letting Joe Nee stay at their house. I only hope a jury can see that as well.

  • Tookie and Mumia

    Tookie and Mumia:

    Who would have thought? An actual informative and entertaining piece from the Huffington Post. Then again it is from Michael Smerconish whose work I’ve previously enjoyed in the Philadelphia Daily News.

    Anyway, it’s a great piece about the similarities between the case of Tookie Williams and the never-ending saga of convicted cop killing scumbag Mumia Abu Jamal. And it especially looks at how it affects Maureen Faulkner, the widow of Officer Daniel Faulkner who was killed by Mumia Abu Jamal.

    “These weeks have been very emotional for me because people have been bringing up Danny’s case out here in California,” she told me. “Last week I was driving home from work and a talk radio station was discussing Williams and Abu-Jamal, and there was Mike Farrell, saying many of the same things he has said in Danny’s case. I just pulled over and started crying. It’s been 24-years, and I am a strong woman, but it was emotional to hear it once again.”

    “I feel as though justice was done to this man who has never actually said he murdered these individuals, he denied it, he never apologized and it’s a sad thing for the families, but at least they have peace,” she said.

    She was referring to the sort of peace she still seeks.

    Now that the attention is off of Tookie maybe the Pennsylvania courts will get around to reinstating Mumia’s death sentence and hopefully give Maureen Faulkner the peace she deserves.

  • Prophetic Patrick

    Capt. Fantastic over at The Cellar found a plethora of information about Patrick Armstrong, the 14-year-old accused of killing Marlee Johnston.

    CF found a LiveJournal by an alleged friend of Patrick Armstrong. It seems like they were writing some kind of zombie story together. Sound familiar?

    Anyway, check out this entry that was allegedly written by Patrick Armstrong…

    This is also by Patrick.

    There would be no heroic moment for (name removed, see update below). She did not get a chance to fight the good fight against the zombies. For the zombie of Patrick had laid in wait in their pond, until the moment was just right, at which point he thrust out one hand, grabbed (name removed) by the ankle, and pulled her into the water. She died a soggy death, and was quickly forgotten.

    Kind of eerily prophetic considering Marlee Johnston’s body was found in a pond.

    CF also found that Patrick Armstrong’s LiveJournal used the screen name “saintmaggot”. The LJ has since been deleted but CF was able to find Armstrong’s interests through LJVIZ where some of his interests listed are Columbine, Satanism, serial killers, Anton Lavey, deviant behavior, and shotguns. And this is the kid that his defense attorney says is well-adjusted.

    If you want to see more of the “zombie story” you can go here, here, here, and here.

    Again a huge TOF to Capt. Fantastic.

    UPDATE: I had to remove the name of one of the characters in the zombie because it turns out it’s the name of an actual person. Thanks again to CF for the info. Both CF and I are now thinking could it have been possible that he was planning on killing this other person instead of Marlee?

  • Cop killing scumbag gets yet another appeal

    Court takes up Black Panther’s appeal:

    You’ve got to be kidding me. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed to hear yet another appeal from convicted cop-killing scumbag Mumia Abu-Jamal. Why? This guy gets more appeals than the Chiquita Banana lady.

    The appeals court said Tuesday it will consider Abu-Jamal’s claims that prosecutors illegally removed blacks from the jury pool, that a prosecutor gave an improper summation to the jury, and that the judge in a previous appeal was biased.

    Seriously how many appeals can this guy get? And he gets to appeal because of a previous appeal. It’s been 24 freakin’ years since this scumbag killed Officer Daniel Faulkner. It’s been almost 2 1/2 decades. Daniel Faulkner didn’t have the luxury of 2 or more decades worth of appeals. Mumia Abu-Jamal shot him on the spot. It’s bad enough some assclown judge overturned his death sentence back in 2001. If anything should be appealed it’s that decision.

    This scumbag should have been executed years ago. It’s time for someone in the courts to actually stood up to this scumbag, reinstate his death sentence, and terminate his appeals.

  • Defense attorneys say the stupidest things II

    Lawyer asks for delay on freeing suspect:

    The ever funny defense attorney Walter McKee strikes again. To refresh your memory McKee is representing 14-year-old Patrick Armstrong who is accused of killing 14-year-old Marlee Johnston. Some more gems from Mr. McKee…

    McKee said Thursday that he has received new information from the investigation into Johnston’s death, and about Armstrong’s character, that could affect the decision on whether Armstrong should be returned to his parents’ care.

    McKee said Armstrong has no criminal record and should be released to his parents’ custody while the case moves through the system. In the days since his arrest, a more troubling picture of Armstrong has emerged, as Web sites believed to have been produced by Armstrong profess his admiration for the Columbine school shooters and a notorious serial killer.

    McKee downplayed the significance of the material on Thursday.

    “There are a lot of things that 14-year-olds say to other kids that would be disturbing if you took it out of context,” he said.

    Out of context? Are you kidding me? How is claiming Columbine killer Eric Harris as your hero considered out of context? The thought process of criminal defense attorneys astounds me sometimes. And they went to law school to learn how to come up with this crap.

    Some not so funny stuff came out of this article too…

    Armstrong will face different penalties depending on whether he is charged as a juvenile or an adult. Because he is younger than 18, he could be committed to a juvenile detention center until his 21st birthday. If convicted as an adult, he would face 25 years to life in prison.

    The judge would consider the seriousness of the crime, as well as the likelihood that Armstrong would benefit from treatment. In Maine, no one has been tried as an adult in the last 40 years for a crime committed when they were 14. Several defendants have been charged as adults for crimes committed when they were 15.

    Let’s hope Maine decides to end the streak. 7 years in juvenile detention is not nearly enough for a killer.

  • Official cause of death for Eddie Guerrero

    Guerrero was heart disease victim:

    Eddie Guerrero’s official cause of death has been released…

    The Hennepin County medical examiner’s office ruled Thursday that World Wrestling Entertainment star Eddie Guerrero died of natural causes related to a heart disease known as hardening of the arteries.

    Arteriosclerotic heart disease occurs when the heart vessels narrow, limiting blood flow, said Roberta Geiselhart, supervisor of investigators for the medical examiner’s office. Genetics, poor diet and smoking are common causes.

    The office also said he suffered from enlarged organs, a condition commonly linked to anabolic steroids use. He also suffered chronic pain and tested positive for pain medication, said the medical examiner’s office.

    Authorities from the medical examiner’s office said Guerrero’s heart disease and enlarged organs can’t be directly linked. They conceded that the combination took an overall toll on his body. “He’s awfully young to have [heart disease], and as his wife and I conferred … his years of drug abuse didn’t help that,” said Kathryn Berg, a doctor with the medical examiner’s office. “His body had to work harder because it had bigger organs and bigger muscle mass.”

    Again, we will miss you Eddie and my prayers and condolences go out to the Guerrero family.

  • A question for Danielle

    Murders in Myakka: ‘I knew he would snap someday’:

    Right off the top, my site was mentioned in this article…sort of. As of the time I’m typing this they called it trenchcoat.com. Which is all well and good but as most of you know this (used to be -2018 Trench) thetrenchcoat.com. Trenchcoat.com, if I’m not mistaken, is a porn site, so the joke’s on The Herald. Anyway, the article basically states that those closest to Richard Henderson Jr. had no idea that he would bludgeon his own family to death…

    Zach Anderson said he always thought Richard E. Henderson Jr. was crazy, but he never thought he would kill members of his own family.

    “I figured he’d be a 35-year-old serial killer, going state to state,” said Anderson, 21, a long-time friend of Henderson’s. “He’s been crazy ever since I knew him. He’s always been out there.”

    The crime has since become a hot topic in cyberspace, with everyone from strangers weighing in on sites such as trenchcoat.com, to Henderson’s most recent girlfriend writing on her personal Web site.

    In her blog, Henderson’s girlfriend, Danielle Kelvin, said the young man was “broken.”

    “All I want you to know is I loved him and he loved me, and I had no idea or help in this,” Kelvin wrote. “I don’t believe in any way what he did was right. He was completely wrong . . . He was a good person with a good heart, he was just broken and I couldn’t change him.”

    In addition to the blog on Kelvin’s Web site, there is also a collage of pictures of Kelvin and Henderson, both alone and together. One shows Henderson’s bare back, covered in a marijuana leaf tattoo.

    Kelvin recently began dating Henderson and spent the weekend in an Ellenton hotel room with him before he was arrested. She had no idea he had killed his family, according to an investigator’s reports.

    “I knew he would snap someday, but why the people that cared about you – the only people in the world who truly care about you. None of us saw this coming. Rich did love his parents. I wish I could have warned his parents,” Anderson said.

    I think the girl mentioned in the article has been leaving comments here since a lot of the phrases she posted on her blog match almost exactly to what someone posting as “ex-girlfriend” left on mine. If anybody has the address to her blog let me know, please. I’m not going to harass her or anything I just want to take a look at it. And since I believe Ms. Kelvin is posting here I have a question for her if she would be so kind as to indulge me. Did you know of Henderson’s previous criminal record before you started dating? And if yes why did you date him? And I’m calling off the dogs for this too. I will keep my commenters in check while awaiting your answer. And to my commenters please be polite and let’s keep the insults non-existent in this thread.

    I await your reply.

    A huge nod to T-Rock.

  • More details in Jennifer Parks’ murder

    Pal’s statement: Zarate brothers plotted to slay Randolph teen:

    More information in the case of Jonathan Zarate and his younger brother who killed and dismembered Jennifer Parks…

    Two brothers plotted to lure teenager Jennifer Parks to their father’s house in Randolph, where they beat, stabbed and shared the grisly task of cutting off her legs, according to a statement given to police by a friend who tried to help the siblings dump the body.

    Recktenwald said that V.B. told her and another detective that the brothers confided on July 31 that Jonathan Zarate was communicating with the 16-year-old girl next door over the Internet and invited her over.

    “They were planning to kill her,” Recktenwald quoted V.B. as saying.

    V.B. said the brothers told him they killed Parks because she had gotten the younger brother in trouble so that he had to pay some fines. Recktenwald said the Clifton teen gave the following account, based on what the brothers told him:

    Jonathan Zarate talked a few minutes with Parks after her arrival at his home around 2 a.m. on July 30. Zarate started choking the girl. His younger brother, who was hiding in a basement closet, jumped out, started punching Parks all over her body, and then grabbed a knife and started stabbing her. The elder Zarate put a bandanna over her face to stifle her screams. Both brothers then shared the job of cutting off Parks’ legs so they could fit her body into a trunk that normally held camping equipment.

    “They cut her legs off and put her in, like, a box,” V.B. related, Recktenwald said.

    Authorities have said the Zarate brothers — who allegedly used to bully Parks over her weight and appearance –recruited the help of the Clifton friend to help them try to toss a trunk containing the girl’s body over a bridge in Rutherford into the Passaic River.

    The trio was caught by passing police officers around 3 a.m. on July 31 before the trunk could be heaved. Jonathan Zarate confessed, saying that he alone invited Parks over to watch television around 2 a.m. on July 30, after which he flew into a rage, beat her with a pole, stuffed a bandanna down her throat, stabbed her and cut off her legs. The younger Zarate –whose full name has not been publicly released because he is a juvenile — told police he learned of the murder after the fact. The Clifton teen originally gave two statements: in one, he denied any knowledge of the killing; in the second, he claimed Jonathan Zarate did the murder. His story changed on Sept. 20.

    Authorities said that the younger Zarate got in trouble several years ago when he damaged Laurie Parks’ car by throwing rocks at it. School officials also rearranged his classes in Randolph so that he and Jennifer Parks did not run into each other. The 15-year-old wound up leaving Randolph a few years ago to live with his biological mother in Garfield but was visiting his father on Old Brookside Road the weekend Parks was slain.

    Jonathan Zarate was transferred last week out of the Morris County jail to a psychiatric facility after two episodes of punching corrections officers and relieving himself multiple times on the floor of his cell. His lawyer said Jonathan Zarate admits the killing and a psychiatric defense is being pursued.

    Try the younger brother as an adult and send them both to the needle.

  • 12/8/05 From The Mail Sack

    Let’s dip into the old mail sack, shall we? Today’s offering is from one of my banned mutants named Edgar…

    Enough of the Defense-Attorney bashing

    This is from Ed

    they’re just doing their job. Besides, there are worse things than a greedy lawyer. Like, how about, a blogger who makes a living by being a cyber-bully? Yeah, I’m talking about you.

    I’ll take this in order. First, I’ll stop bashing soulless defense attorneys when they stop trying to get murderers released into the custody of their parents. Secondly, I am hardly making a living doing this. It would be nice if I did but I’m not. I got my first payment from advertisers last week for a whole $19. Considering how much I’ve paid over the years for web hosting and domain names it’s not even close to making a profit. And lastly, how am I cyber-bully? Have I threatened you? No, of course, I haven’t. You’re pissed because I’ve banned you. That’s my prerogative. I own this site. I pay for it so I can do with it what I want. Think of it as any business you might go to during the course of your day. Most businesses have the right to refuse service to anyone they choose within reason. And with some of the comments I’ve received, I’m well within reason. If you don’t like it you can always go somewhere else. Hell, you can even start your own blog and you can ban whomever you want.