TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Tag: washington

  • craigslist babysiter was a level 3 sex offender

    Neighbor catches sex offender seeking babysitting job on Craigslist:

    Gather ’round and listen to the tale of John Gilbert Gray. A level 3 Washington State sex offender who thought he was pretty slick. His original crime was for the sexual assault of a 21-year-old woman. When he got out he told authorities he was homeless. In actuality, he was living with his wife in an apartment. The reason was that if he reported as homeless a sex offender notification would not be distributed around the neighborhood.

    And he would have gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for those meddling housewives. And the fact that he took an ad out on craigslist for BABYSITTING!!!

    But a young mother in Gray’s neighborhood, who fears retaliation and wants to remain anonymous, says she was checking Craigslist, and found an ad for babysitting that made her suspicious.

    “We decided out of the blue to check it up on Washington State sex offender’s list and lo and behold there was his face,” the mother said.

    In the neighborhood, the woman says Gray went by the name “Logan”. She says she and other mothers were alarmed to realize Gray is a level three-sex offender — the highest risk to re-offend — and that he and his wife were advertising to babysit.

    So she reported him.

    For his efforts, Gray is looking at a year in the pokey.

    I really wonder what made him think that babysitter was the logical career choice for a sex offender trying to hide from authorities. Did he think that no parent would do any kind of background check on him? Not to mention the fact that hiring a babysitter from craigslist is not the most logical choice for a parent.

  • 100 craigslist johns busted…ah ah ah!

    Prostitution sting leads to nearly 100 arrests:

    Rented furnishings and hidden cameras were among the props Seattle police vice detectives used to arrest nearly 100 men who showed up at a ritzy downtown condo in the past two weeks expecting to pay for sex.

    Nearly three-fourths of the men who were arrested on suspicion of patronizing a prostitute responded to postings in the “erotic services” category on craigslist, the free online community where people can search for apartments, jobs, used cars, friends and dates. The rest answered escort ads found in the back pages of The Stranger and Seattle Weekly.

    Vice detectives then turned their attention to men who, instead of cruising the streets for prostitutes, respond to online and newspaper ads looking for sex, he said. To make their ads believable, Sano said, female detectives were photographed in flirty poses, phone lines were established and appointments were set up.

    When a man arrived at the rented condo, he was greeted at the door and ushered inside, Sano said. As other detectives hid in a bedroom watching live footage from hidden cameras, the female detective, posing as “a provider,” would engage in a conversation about sex and collect her fee, he said.

    Once money had changed hands, Sano said, other officers would then walk out and arrest the man.

    All but five of the men were interviewed, cited and released: One man, a registered sex offender, was booked into the King County Jail for violating conditions of his release, three others were booked on drug violations and another on a weapons charge, Sano said.

    Arrestees have included “bank presidents, state employees, business owners, construction workers, physicians and surgeons,” Sano said.

    And here’s what Craig himself had to say…

    Craig Newmark, who founded craigslist in San Francisco in 1995, said he has heard that “prostitution is a significant problem” on the Web site and noted that craigslist has built a “top-notch” reputation for responding to complaints of illegal activity.
    advertising

    As for the local craigslist review board where men discuss the sexual exploits they paid for, Newmark said those who operate the site are improperly using the craigslist name and that legal action is being discussed by the Seattle-based law firm representing his site.

    Craigslist, which is now available in some 300 cities worldwide, doesn’t monitor what people post.

    “We are a democracy … and we find we can trust our community,” he said. “I don’t know what the situation is like in Seattle, but we would prefer that [police] go after violent criminals or crooked congressmen.”

    I’d prefer that my local police would go after all of them. This is not a debate on whether or not prostitution should be legal. Right now it’s illegal in most of the country. When prostitution moves into a neighborhood it’s not long before the drugs move in, then the violent criminals. Cracking down on prostitution is stopping the flood of crime before it even starts.

  • Murder charges to be filed against Newland

    Second-degree murder charges requested against Newland :

    SPOKANE — A Spokane County Sheriff detective has requested a Second Degree Murder charge be filed against Kevin Newland in the death of 19-year-old Jamie Lynn Drake.

    Detective Tim Hines filed a Summary of Facts with the Spokane County Prosecutor’s Office Tuesday afternoon detailing the results of his investigation into Drake’s disappearance and murder and determined there was probable cause for the murder charge.

    Hines said Tuesday afternoon that following the prosecutor’s review of the case the requested charge could be upgraded to First Degree Murder.

    And the cause of death for Jamie Lynn Drake has been released…

    Medical Examiner Sally Aiken found in an autopsy that Jamie Drake died of suffocation due to homicidal violence.

  • Witnesses sought in Jamie Lynn Drake case

    Detectives seek potential witnesses in Jamie Drake case:

    Sheriff’s major crimes detectives are looking for four persons that homicide suspect Kevin Wayne Newland said he spent the day with on the day Jamie Lynn Drake was killed.

    According to Newland, he has been living a transient lifestyle and spending nights in city and county parks. On Thursday, June 22, he was at Chief Garry Park at Mission and Greene when he met four people who invited him to go drinking with them.

    One of the men was named “John” and drove a dark blue Ford F-150 pickup.

    A second man was called “Louis” and a woman was called “Boo.” The fourth person, another male, went unidentified. These last three were in a dark gray or black Acura.

    Newland and the four drove to a spot along the Little Spokane River north of Commellini’s Restaurant where they drank alcohol. At some point there was a disagreement and John used his pickup to drive Newland to Jamie Drake’s apartment so he could talk with her roommate who was his girlfriend.

    Detective Jim Dresback asks that these four people call him at the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office major crimes unit, 509-477-2714.

    In addition to these four potential witnesses, detectives asked that anyone else who had contact with Kevin Wayne Newland on Thursday, June 22, to call the sheriff’s office.

    An autopsy was performed late Friday afternoon, but the medical examiner is awaiting further tests before announcing the cause of death in Jamie Drake’s homicide.

    Transient yet he has a MySpace profile. Anyway, it sounds like he’s trying to shift the blame to his new drinking buddies even though he was found driving Jamie Lynn Drake’s car and her body was found in his family’s cabin. If he didn’t kill her he sure was involved.

  • Jamie Lynn Drake’s body found

    Missing woman’s body believed found:

    Jamie Lynn Drake who I told you about here has been found but sadly not alive…

    ADDY, Wash. — The search for a 19-year-old Mead woman ended Friday in rural Stevens County, where detectives apparently located the body of Jamie Lynn Drake under the floorboards of a tiny cabin.

    The suspect, 20-year-old Kevin Wayne Newland, allegedly led detectives to the site in a late-night drive through the forested back roads northwest of Addy, Wash.

    “They said, ‘OK, why are we here?’ He walked over and pulled open the hatch and walked away,’” said Sgt. Dave Reagan of the Spokane County Sheriff’s Department.

    The discovery of the body, wrapped in a blue plastic tarp, ended the statewide search for Drake, who disappeared on June 23. Reagan said detectives believe that Drake was killed at her apartment and her body moved to the cabin.

    Drake’s family released a statement on Friday thanking law enforcement for their work and urging families “to celebrate what they have.”

    “We should all be reminded that life is very precious and we should let all of those around us know how special they are to us,” the family said.

    After a statewide alert, Newland was arrested Tuesday in King County when he was found driving the Mustang.

    According to a search warrant filed in Spokane County District Court, Newland told one acquaintance that he bought the car in Kennewick, Wash., for $3,200 from someone a guy who just got out of prison; he told a second friend that he bought it in a bar.

    The court documents said Newland later told a detective that he bought the car from a man male in Spokane named Jamie, who did not have the car’s title.

    Arrested on suspicion of possessing stolen property, Newland was transferred to Spokane on Thursday afternoon. Within hours, he led detectives to the cabin, Reagan said.

    “They just kept talking to him and chipping away,” Reagan said.

    Stevens County sheriff’s personnel guarded the cabin overnight, as Spokane County officers worked to secure a search warrant.

    “We had great teamwork throughout the state,” said Spokane Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, who traveled to the site himself. “It brought this to a very, very short resolution.”

    By mid-afternoon on Friday, sheriff’s deputies had finished the recovery at the cabin, which they believe is owned by Newland’s mother. The small red cabin, ringed with white Christmas lights, is on Marble Valley Basin Road.

    In Stevens County, Newland has prior convictions for second-degree theft, vehicle prowling and theft of a firearm, according a bench warrant issued on Thursday.

    Reagan declined to discuss a possible motive or the cause of death, pending an autopsy.

    The Sheriff’s Office said additional charges are expected to be filed against Newland in the coming days.

    On Friday, about 70 friends gathered at MEAD Alternative High School, where Drake had graduated in the spring.

    “There are a lot of people who were touched by Jamie,” said Dave Vaughn, a counselor at Mead High School. “One person said, ‘If you met Jamie once, you were impacted for life.’ ”

    After graduation, Drake moved in with her friend Jordan Sheffield at Deer Run Apartments and was looking toward the future.

    Newland can now be added to the MySpace Rogues Gallery.

    My thoughts and prayers go out to the Drake family.

  • MISSING: Jamie Lynn Drake

    Spokane Teen Jamie Lynn Drake, Missing Since June 23rd:

    Another fine article at Crime Library from crime blogging’s godfather Steve Huff. The article is about Jamie Lynn Drake of Spokane, Washington who went missing recently. her car was found being driven by a former male roommate…

    Spokane, Wash. (Crime Library) The last time anyone saw Jamie Lynn Drake, age 19, she was at a friend’s apartment in Spokane, Washington (WA). That was on Friday morning, June 23, 2006.

    Jamie’s car, a 1993 Ford Mustang, was found on Tuesday night, June 27, 2006. Spokane police arrested a 20-year-old acquaintance of Jamie Lynn Drake’s named Kevin Wayne Newland (Spokane press reports spell Kevin’s last name ‘Newlund’), who was driving the car. At one time Newland roomed with Jamie and a female roommate.

    Kevin Newland was charged with possession of stolen property.

    Jamie Lynn Drake is still missing.

    According to articles published in the Spokane Spokesman-Review published on June 28, 2006, Jamie left work at 11:30 on Thursday the 22nd. She was going to visit a man she’d recently met.

    Her makeup bag was later found in the man’s apartment. His name is being withheld, but authorities in Spokane indicate that he is cooperating with the investigation.

    Here is the MySpace of Jamie Lynn Drake. And here is the MySpace of the man arrested for driving her car, Kevin Wayne Newland.

  • Brandon Bare

    Soldier’s Myspace site listed serial killers as idols:

    FORT LEWIS, Wash. — Military attorneys on Thursday repeatedly objected to evidence and witness testimony in the case of a soldier accused of brutally mutilating his teenage wife, bringing to a crawl a murder trial that was expected to last only five days.

    The government in the past four days has presented more than 10 witnesses – evidence specialists, family and mental health workers – as its builds its case against Spc. Brandon Bare, accused in the death of Nabila Bare, 18, at this Army post south of Tacoma.

    The young woman was found in the couple’s kitchen on July 12, 2005, a pentagram carved into her stomach and stabbed at least 71 times, including with a meat cleaver that remained in her neck.

    Bare, 20, of Wilkesboro, N.C., is charged with premeditated murder and faces a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted.

    Prosecutors contend Bare planned to kill his wife and had been scanning Web sites for pentagrams. On Thursday, the government attempted to show a military jury Internet sites it said he visited before the killing in search of such diagrams.

    Lead prosecutor Capt. Scott DiRocco was allowed to submit what the government says was Bare’s page on MySpace.com, a social networking Web site where users can chat with friends and list their interests.

    The page shows serial killers Richard Ramirez and Charles Manson as people the user would like to meet.

    In interviews with investigators, Bare said he’d thought about strangling Nabila Bare, and had thought of Ramirez, the Los Angeles “Night Stalker” convicted of 13 murders.

    Army special agent Patrick Rasmussen testified that only a person with Bare’s username and password would have been able to enter information under his MySpace profile.

    Bare apparently last visited the site July 11, 2005, one day before the killing.

    Surprisingly his MySpace is still up. And sure enough, he describes himself as a Dark Neo-Pagan Witch and anti-social. His favorite books are The Satanic Bible, Nocturnal WitchCraft, Gothic Grimoire, A-Z encyclopedia of Serial Killers, and oddly enough The Bible. And in fact, he does list Richard Ramirez and Charles Manson as his heroes.

    If that isn’t relative evidence I don’t know what is.

  • Pedophile busted by 12-year-old girl

    Man Allegedly Lures Girl For Sex Through MySpace:

    Here’s another story of a pedophile who thought he was meeting a 12-year-old girl but is instead met by law enforcement…

    VANCOUVER, Wash. — A 26-year-old man is behind bars after allegedly making a date with a 12-year-old girl he met online.

    Jeramie Eidem is behind bars in Clark County. He will be back in court Friday.

    Detectives say he carried on a sexually explicit cyber conversation with a 12-year-old on the popular Web site MySpace and tried to meet with her.

    Detectives say the girl did the right thing. She called her mom into the situation when she realized what was happening on the MySpace Web site. The mom called the sheriff’s office. A meeting was set up, and deputies arrested Eidem, who they say drove up from Columbia City, Ore., with plans to have sex with the girl.

    “An arrangement was made for them to meet him at a place in Hazel Dell, and he came over there, and instead he met us,” Sgt. Craig Hogman said.

    Detectives say Eidem knew the girl was 12, but that didn’t matter to him. In fact, the meeting was set up in a phone conversation after the Internet chat ended.

    Detectives have seized Eidem’s computer from his home to investigate this case. They say it’s possible that he’ll also face federal charges because he crossed state lines in the commission of the crimes.

    Luckily, in this case, the girl and her mom had enough sense to realize what was going on and this scumbag will hopefully go away for a long time,