TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

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  • James Zarate’s bail reduction denied

    James Zarate’s bail reduction denied

    Judge: No bail change in Randolph teen’s murder:

    It seems that James Zarate, the brother, and accomplice of Jonathan Zarate, won’t be having his bail reduced anytime soon…

    A 15-year-old boy, scheduled to be tried as an adult along with his 19-year-old brother on charges of killing and mutilating neighbor Jennifer Parks a year ago in Randolph, will continue to be held on $1 million bail in the Morris County jail, a judge ruled this morning.

    The defense lawyer for James Zarate unsuccessfully asked Superior Court Judge Salem Vincent Ahto to reduce bail for the youth, who was transferred in June from the county juvenile detention center to the jail after a judge ruled he would be tried as an adult.

    The juvenile is charged with assisting his brother, Jonathan Zarate, in the stabbing, beating and dismemberment of the 16-year-old Parks at her home on Old Brookside Road in Randolph on July 30. The brothers were staying next door at the time at the home of their father.

    Ahto read aloud excerpts of psychological reports that have been done on the juvenile, in which none refer to him as having a mental illness or chemical dependency. But one expert concluded he has little empathy for people, enjoyed getting into fights, and believes the girl’s killing was justified.

    Justified? How in the hell could the murder and dismembering of Jennifer Parks be justified? What possible reason could the little shit have for saying it was justified?

    I can’t wait to hear the explanation behind that.

  • Andrea Yates “Not Guilty”

    Andrea Yates “Not Guilty”

    Yates not guilty by reason of insanity:

    From the “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me” Department…

    HOUSTON, Texas (AP) — Andrea Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity Wednesday in her second murder trial for the bathtub drownings of her young children.

    Yates, 42, will now be committed to a state mental hospital, with periodic hearings before a judge to determine whether she should be released. An earlier jury had found her guilty of murder, but the verdict was overturned on appeal.

    The defense never disputed that Yates drowned her five children one by one in the bathtub of their Houston-area home. But they said she suffered from severe postpartum psychosis and, in a delusional state, believed Satan was inside her and was trying to save them from hell.

    The state’s key witness was Dr. Michael Welner, a forensic psychiatrist who interviewed Yates for two days in May. He testified that Yates killed the youngsters because she felt overwhelmed and inadequate as a mother, not for altruistic reasons.

    Welner said that although Yates may have been psychotic on the day of the murders, it wasn’t until the next day in jail that she talked about Satan, wanting to be executed and saving her kids from hell. He said the hallucination may have been triggered by the stresses of being naked in a cell on suicide watch and realizing what she had done.

    Welner said Yates knew her actions were wrong and showed it in multiple ways: waiting until her husband left for work to kill them, covering the bodies with a sheet and calling 911 soon after the crime.

    ‘They’ should bring back Homes for the Criminally Batshit Crazy and throw her in it. And her dumbass fucking ex-husband Rusty too for making her have more kids after having such problems with postpartum depression.

  • Pete Solis indicted

    Pete Solis indicted

    Buda Man Indicted In MySpace Sexual Assault:

    (CBS 42) A Buda man accused of sexually assaulting a girl he met on MySpace.com has been indicted.

    Pete Ignacio Solis, 20, is charged with the assault of a 14-year-old girl in May.

    According to police, Solis picked up the girl at Bowie High School and assaulted her in the parking lot of an apartment complex at Westgate and William Cannon.

    If the name Pete Solis sounds familiar, it’s because he’s the alleged perpetrator in the middle of the MySpace lawsuit.

  • They can’t be serious

    They can’t be serious

    Possible Dyleski jurors quizzed on Goth, magic:

    The prosecutor in the Scott Dyleski murder trial asked prospective jurors Friday whether they were familiar with or knew anyone who embraced the Goth culture or the Wicca religious movement, and whether they had read books about psychopaths, serial killers and Jack the Ripper.

    The discussion in Contra Costa Superior Court touched on good and bad witches, black and white magic and “the dark side,” in what could be key elements in the upcoming trial of Dyleski, who has pleaded not guilty to special-circumstances murder and burglary in the Oct. 15 slaying of Pamela Vitale, the wife of lawyer and legal analyst Daniel Horowitz.

    Prosecutor Harold Jewett noted that Dyleski, 17, appeared “neat and tidy” while clad in a blue dress shirt and tie in the Martinez courtroom. Jewett suggested in his questioning to potential jurors that they would hear evidence that the defendant had embraced a different lifestyle before his arrest.

    When a prospective juror told Jewett that he enjoyed role-playing in the form of dressing up like people did during the Renaissance, Jewett asked whether he did that because “you’re visiting the dark side.” The man said no.

    Please tell me that they’re not going with a “satanic ritual” killing prosecution. Welcome to 1985.

    Just stick with the facts and the evidence. That shit may fly in Arkansas, but not in California.

  • McCombs “devastated”

    McCombs “devastated”

    Attorney: McCombs ‘Devastated’ About Glover’s Death:

    You’re kidding me, right?

    RICHMOND, Texas — One of the teens accused of killing Ashton Glover, 16, said he “feels terrible” about what happened, his attorney told KPRC Local 2.

    Matthew McCombs, 18, appeared in Fort Bend County court for an arraignment Tuesday.

    The judge read McCombs his rights and set his bail at $1 million.

    “He’s devastated about this. He’s really sorry for what’s happened in this case. He feels terrible,” said Ira Chenken, McCombs’ attorney. “If any of you are parents, and something like this happened to your child, you could just imagine how devastated the family is.”

    Let me speak for the entire planet when I say Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? You’re devastated? What about the family of the girl whose brain you put a bullet in? How do you think they feel?

    You are a soulless monster, McCombs. I hope you rot in hell.

  • 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.