TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

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  • Johnson convicted

    Johnson convicted

    Federal court jury convicts Jonesboro school shooter:

    Mitchell Johnson was convicted today on federal weapons charges. The best part is that the prosecution didn’t even bring up Jonesboro to do it.

    Government lawyers did not bring up Johnson’s violent past. The only clue during the two-day trial came during jury selection, when potential panelists were asked one-by-one whether Johnson’s name sounded familiar.

    The husband and son of one of his victims attended the trial…

    Mitch Wright, the widower of a teacher killed March 25, 1998, watched Tuesday’s court session along with his son Zane, who was 2 at the time of the shootings and is now 12. Wright said the boy “wanted to see what this person looked like.”

    Johnson will be sentenced within the next 45 days. He’s looking at a 10-year maximum.

  • Johnson trial starts

    Johnson trial starts

    Weapons trial begins for Jonesboro school shooter Johnson:

    The federal weapons trial for Jonesboro shooter Mitchell Johnson started earlier today.

    In opening statements, the prosecution stated that Johnson is a heavy marijuana user and had a nickel-plated 9mm in his possession at the time of the traffic stop on New Year’s Day 2007.

    The defense says that Johnson was pulled over on a bogus tip that Johnson was in possession of 100 pounds of marijuana, and that police were looking for any reason to pull him over.

    The article also contained this little gem of information…

    Johnson left prison with an “adjudicated” record _ meaning he could own firearms.

    I really hope the state of Arkansas closed that loophole too when they fixed the law that allowed Johnson and his cohort Andrew Golden to be released.

    The cop that pulled Johnson over testified that he saw Johnson driving erratically but admitted that he was looking for a legal reason to pull Johnson over.

    I’ll admit the evidence against him seems pretty flimsy, but Johnson should have never set foot out of jail in my opinion.

    Thanks to everyone who sent in tips.

  • Going to California

    Going to California

    New Trial to Begin for School Shooter:

    It seems that Jonesboro shooter Mitchell Johnson was on his way to California to make a new life for himself. Too bad he got caught traveling with another convicted murderer, and marijuana, and a gun.

    “Honest to God, I’m just trying to get to Cali, man,” Johnson told deputies as they searched the loaded-down, 1980s Ford van at a Fayetteville convenience store. The incident was recorded on video.

    Awwww…isn’t that cute?

    And it seems that he had just received the gun prior to his arrest on New Year’s Day 2007.

    Johnson lived in North Carolina and California for a while. He even returned to Jonesboro over Christmas 2006, where Craighead County Sheriff Jack McCann had warned that deputies “couldn’t guarantee” the safety of either him or Golden.

    He received a silver 9 mm Lorein pistol as a present and practiced “target shooting” near the city.

    Who in the blue hell thought it was a good idea to give a convicted school shooter and murderer another gun?

    Since he had already lived in California and returned to Arkansas, it proves the old adage. You can’t go home again. Or maybe that should be, you shouldn’t go home again.

  • 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.

  • Chanthabouly ruled mentally incompetent

    Chanthabouly ruled mentally incompetent

    Teen charged with fatal Tacoma school shooting found mentally ill:

    Douglas S. Chanthabouly is the gunman from Foss High School in Tacoma who fatally shot Samnang Kok last year. The last we heard he was found mentally fit to stand trial. Apparently, something happened between August and now because he’s declared mentally incompetent.

    His trial was set to start on February 4th, but that has been pushed back pending the results of a 90-day judge ordered stay at a mental facility.

  • IP addresses close but no cigar

    IP addresses close but no cigar

    Want To Protect Kids On MySpace? IP Addresses Are The Answer:

    The short answer is no.

    The author of the article takes MySpace to task for their pointless new safety measures. He also suggests that instead of giving your child’s e-mail address to MySpace to keep them from it, he suggests giving your IP address instead.

    I think that’s a great suggestion, but it’s just as flawed as the e-mail plan.

    There are sites and software out there called anonymizers which easily mask your IP address, making any IP block useless.

    Whatever block MySpace can think of, kids and predators have already thought of a way around it.

    Actual parental involvement is the best line of defense in my book.

  • Canadian child porn charges

    Canadian child porn charges

    Man admits to possessing child pornography, pursuing teens online:

    26-year-old Ian Stuart Johnson of Calgary, Alberta, Canada pleaded guilty to child porn charges. It seems that Johnson would lure underage girls over the Canadian social site Nexopia offering them money and alcohol.

    Every time a Nexopia user would complain about Johnson they would shut down his account only to have him open a new one.

    The prosecutor said all of the communications Johnson had was with females who reside in Calgary and were between 14 and 18 years old.

    The correspondence, which occurred under the user names satellite_eye, Secureca, Coca-cola55 and dmwarehouse – all Johnson’s – occurred between August 2002 and February 2005 and elicited several complaints from other Nexopia users, prompting site owner Timo Ewalds to terminate the man’s accounts one by one.

    While I’m glad that this scumbag is being put away I wonder why it is that you don’t hear about the Canadian government putting pressure on these sites. Maybe they actually think it’s a parent’s job to protect their children.

    What a novel concept.

  • Parents of Christopher Penley sue police

    Parents of Christopher Penley sue police

    Parents of Orlando-area teen sue sheriff’s office over fatal school shooting:

    The parents of Christopher Penley are suing the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office in Florida.

    In January 2006, 15-year-old Christopher took a pellet gun and altered it to look like a real gun. He took the gun to Milwee Middle School where he used the gun to take a classmate hostage then held police at bay. Lt. Mike Weippert, who did not know the gun was not real, made the split-second decision to shoot Penley. Penley died at the hospital two days later after being declared brain-dead and taken off life support.

    Weippert was cleared of any wrongdoing and from what I’ve heard from people who claim to know him, he was very distraught over the incident.

    Penley’s parents are seeking unspecified damages. I feel bad for the Penley’s but as I’ve stated before, but their son sealed his own fate by pointing a gun at police. If Christopher had not brought the gun to school and acted like it was a real firearm, police would have never been called, and he’d still be alive. We are all responsible for our own actions.

    If I were a judge, I would never let this case see a courtroom.

  • Mystery Man’s Annual Visit to Poe Grave

    Mystery Man’s Annual Visit to Poe Grave

    Link

    Another year goes by, another year that I missed the mysterious Poe Toaster. I know I say this every year, but one of these days I’ll get to Baltimore to see this.