In jailhouse confession, father admits to killing son:
In an interview with the Boston Globe. Ernesto Gonzalez confessed to stabbing his son to death and dismembering the body in the bathtub of his Lynn apartment.
Police are skeptical about the confession because the blood found in Ernesto Gonzalez’s apartment was not Giovanni’s.
Police are still optimistic that Giovanni is alive.
Thank you, Karen, for pointing that out to me.
This post was revised.
Court rejects claims from Paducah school shooter:
The Kentucky Supreme Court rejected a request from Paducah gunman Michael Carneal to have anew competency hearing. The now 25-year-old Carneal recently claimed, 11 years after the Paducah shootings, that at the time he shot up Heath High School he was mentally ill and that his lawyer was ineffective counsel at the time of his guilty plea
Carneal argued that he was unable to reveal that he was hearing voices at the time of the shooting and guilty plea because of his mental illness. Justice Bill Cunningham, writing for the court, was unpersuaded, saying the claims rest solely on what Carneal says, not any outside evidence creating “a conceptual ‘Catch-22’.”
It’s always nice to see that some judges still have common sense. Especially considering that the kids he killed, Nicole Hadley, Jessica James, and Kayce Steger, don’t have the luxury of appealing their death sentence.
Carneal will be up for parole in 2023.
Jury hears gruesome details of Randolph teen’s death:
Yesterday the jury in the Jonathan Zarate trial heard from the medical examiner about Jennifer Park’s death. I’m going to let the article do the talking…
Randolph slay victim Jennifer Parks was savagely beaten in the face and struck so hard in the stomach that she instantly lost consciousness and choked on her own vomit and blood, a medical examiner testified today at the trial of accused killer Jonathan Zarate.
The girl’s face was severely discolored, battered and swollen. Jurors also heard that Zarate stabbed the girl and that she still was alive, but unconscious, when he started to cut off her right thigh so he could squeeze most of her body into a foot locker. He abandoned the thigh-cutting because it was too difficult and instead cut her legs off at the knees, according to his confession.
The jury also heard from Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Sgt. John Haviland who was the man who took Zarate’s confession. Again the article can do a better job than I can.
The sergeant said he asked Zarate if he felt sad about the killing.
Zarate’s answer was: “It wasn’t supposed to be like that but it is now in the past and there’s nothing I can do about it,” Haviland testified.
The Jury also heard the confession tape. Again to the article.
Later that day, a police officer and a neighbor asked him if he had seen Jennifer because “apparently she was missing,” he said. He told both of them he did not know where she was. He said he went to a party in Florham Park, and upon returning, asked his brother James, then 14, to go for a drive with him.
James noticed a foul smell.
“I told him, don’t worry about it. Just put the window down,” Zarate told Haviland.
The jury was also shown the metal pole used to beat Jennifer and the bloodstained carpet she was killed on.
What really kills me about this case is that through past behavior you can tell that Zarate really thinks he’s going to get away with this. If he does I will have lost all faith in our legal system.
Yolo Mom Who Abandoned Boy In Nebraska Speaks Out:
The Breeder who did drive the 1,170 miles from California to Nebraska is trying to defend her actions in the media.
The 14-year-old was her foster child who she’s had since he was 4. According to her recently he had gotten into drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, and stealing. She also says that he threatened her and her family with knives and was thrown out of a boys’ home for statutory rape. All of this sounds oddly familiar. How can a 14-year-old be charged with statutory rape?
She claims she tried to get the police to arrest him but they told her that juvenile hall was full.
So what do you think dear readers? Legitimate use of Nebraska’s old safe haven laws or a cop-out?
SPECIAL REPORT: Trumping Prostitution on the Popular Craigslist Site:
Just wanted to share with you this quote from Palm Springs, California police about craigslist’s new measures to limit activity on its erotic services section.
Police are optimistic this will help, but they say the only way to stop the abuse completely would be for Craigslist to stop allowing “erotic services” ads.
That’s not likely to happen.
It seems like I remember someone else saying that too.
Dillard Teacher Cleared, Will Return To Class:
The teacher from Dillard High who was thought to have prior knowledge of the gun used to kill Amanda Collette has been cleared by police and has returned to work.
It was thought that a student told the teacher about the gun Teah Wimberly used before she shot Amanda.
When It Comes to Crime, Camden Is No. 2 in U.S.:
New Orleans has been ranked the most crime-ridden city in the U.S. beating such luminaries as Detroit and Gary, Indiana, but that’s not the real story.
The real story is that the perennial favorite from my home state of New Jersey has been ranked #2. That’s right, after a few rebuilding years after being ranked first two years in a row Camden, New Jersey has almost returned to the top spot.
I guess they’ll have to start a few more fires next year. I also like what I read in the FARK thread yesterday that one day Camden will one day jump the river and murder Philadelphia.
Safe Haven Child Dropped Off Before Change:
A Breeder from Yolo, County, California was able to sneak in under the buzzer and dump off a 14-year-old boy at a Kimball, Nebraska hospital. For those of you keeping score that’s 1,170 miles if traveling by car.
The Breeder who dropped him just barely made it in before the new law limiting safe haven drop offs to under 30 days old. The boy was dropped off on Friday and the new law went into effect Saturday at Midnight.
Again I say if these Breeders put half the effort into raising their kids that they did in dumping them off maybe they wouldn’t have had a problem.