The man who killed San Diego County teens Amber Dubois and Chelsea King described himself in his first interview since pleading guilty as "the most dangerous type of sexual predator."
"I am the type that needs to be locked up forever," John Albert Gardner III, 31, told CBS News in an interview to be broadcast Saturday on "48 Hours".
Gardner pleaded guilty in April to strangling King during a rape attempt and stabbing Dubois during a rape attempt. He also admitted attacking another female jogger, who escaped.
In the CBS interview, Gardner describes in detail his encounter with Dubois. "I passed her driving down the street. And that's the first time I saw her. I pulled up next to her with the windows down on the car. I had the knife out and visible. And told her that I also had a gun. And to get in the car or it was going to be a lot worse," according to an excerpt released by CBS News.
"She actually looked at me in kinda shock and disbelief. And asked me if I was kidding. And I raised my voice and yelled, 'No, get the 'F' in the car.' I drove to the remote area. On driving I put the music on. She wanted to hear music so that she could pretend she wasn't there."
The plea bargain was meant to spare him from the death penalty. Under the agreement, Gardner will be returned to prison for life without the possibility of parole.
I'd watch that. I find it interesting that he comprehends he needs to be behind bars, that he can't ever be allowed in society, he totally gets how bad he is yet, he has no self control.
Authorities arrested a Holly Hill woman on Friday on charges that she tried to sell her 12-week-old grandson.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrested 45-year-old Patty Bigbee, of Holly Hill, on Friday. Investigators said they arrested her about 4 p.m., when she met with a buyer in Daytona Beach.
Deputies announced later Friday that they'd arrested a second person connection with the case.
Lawrence Works, 42, of Holly Hill, was charged with being a principal to the illegal sale or surrender of a child. It's unclear what his connection is to Bigbee or the child. (he's the old bat's boyfriend}
The FDLE said the investigation began in October, when they said Bigbee approached an unidentified "third party," offering to sell the baby for $75,000.
Investigators say the buyer talked down the price of the infant to $30,000, which Bigbee agreed to accept. FDLE agents said they arrested Bigbee at the scene of the would-be transaction, turning the infant over to the Department of Children and Families.
Officials said the baby's mother is currently incarcerated on unrelated charges. Bigbee was booked into Volusia County Jail on charges of illegal sale or surrender of a child and communication fraud.
The FDLE said its investigation is ongoing. Officials described the buyer as a "confidential source."
A Department of Children and Families spokesman said the baby showed no outward signs of neglect or abuse and is "doing well."
Spokesman John Harrell said the baby will be subjected to a full physical screening. The FDLE initially said the baby was eight weeks old, but Harrell said the child was actually 12 weeks old.
He said the baby's mother had no history of child abuse or neglect.
Orlando Sentinel
A 21-year-old Bradenton mother who authorities say abandoned her baby and agreed to let her own mother sell him for $10,000 has been arrested as a principal to the illegal sale of a child, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced today.
Stephanie Bigbee-Fleming, also known as Stephannie Bigbee-Davis, Stephanie Bigbee-Davis and Stephanie Bigbee Davis Fleming, is being held in the Manatee County Jail without bail. She was planning to use money from the sale to buy a car and pay court costs and fines in another criminal case, authorities said.
Bigbee-Fleming's mother, Patti Sharree Bigbee, also known as Patty Bigbee, was arrested Friday night in Daytona Beach when she tried to exchange Aidan Fleming, now 11 weeks old, for $30,000, investigators said. She apparently was trying to rip off her daughter by telling her the sale price was $10,000, arrest papers show. Bigbee, 45, of Holly Hill, told her daughter she planned to keep only $1,000 for herself, paperwork shows.
Bigbee and her boyfriend, Lawrence Works, 42, were arrested on charges of illegal sale or surrender of a child. Bigbee also is charged with communication fraud.
Investigators said Works was in on the financial negotiations, allowed his cell phone to be used to broker the transaction and placed some of the baby's belongings, including a stroller, blankets, food and clothes, in a car he thought belonged to the woman "buying" the child. In fact, the car was an undercover agent's.
The deal began when Bigbee in July contacted another daughter, whom she had given up for adoption in 1983, on Facebook, arrest documents show. The two hadn't been in contact since the adoption.
The daughter, Danielle Skiver, 27, of Hillsborough County, told Bigbee that she wanted more children, law officers said. Bigbee said she didn't want to take care of Aidan and offered him to Skiver and her husband, who live in Hillsborough County, records show. Eventually, Bigbee said she wanted $75,000 for the boy but later came down to $60,000, $50,000 and finally $30,000, papers show.
The deal was consummated Friday night in a Best Buy parking lot on International Speedway Boulevard, where Skiver came with an undercover agent. Bigbee asked Skiver for a $30,000 cashier's check made out to her, arrest papers show.
Agents are investigating what role, if any, a man thought to be Aidan's father played in the scheme. Bigbee told agents that he wants more children with Bigbee-Fleming so they can earn more money, they said.
His criminal history includes convictions for aggravated assault with a weapon, domestic battery and child cruelty with physical and/or mental injury, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said.
Bigbee-Fleming will be extradited to Orange County to face a violation-of-probation charge. She is on probation for a 2008 conviction in a felony organized-fraud case. It's unclear what the violation is, but Bigbee-Davis' address on probation documents is listed as Daytona Beach. People on probation cannot move without court permission.
Aidan is in the custody of the state Department of Children and Families.
fucking tragic waste and ruination of lives. Jesus.
Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- Bobby Maurice Tillman, the Georgia teen stomped to death outside a home where a party was being held, died from a lacerated heart, Douglas County Coroner Randy Daniel told CNN Tuesday.
He said the 18-year-old likely suffered a break in a rib bone, which in turn punctured his heart. If the young man had not been stomped, he probably would not have been injured in that way and would have survived the beating, Daniel added.
Police say Horace Damon Coleman, 19, Emanuel Benjamin Boykins, 18, Quantez Devonta Mallory, 18, and Tracen Franklin, 19, stomped and beat Tillman outside a party in metro Atlanta over the weekend. The four men are facing felony murder charges.
Douglas County Sheriff Phil Miller has said the attack happened after some girls got into a fight, and one of them hit a boy. That boy, according to Miller, said he wasn't going to "hit a girl," but the next guy who came by was going to get "beat down."
Tillman walked by.
Miller said the victim was a "little guy, 18 years old, 5-foot-6, weighed 125 pounds."
"He was small in stature, but ... his spirit and his strength were bigger to me than this world," Tillman's mother, Monique Rivarde, told CNN Tuesday. "My son was bullied by four cowards."
No drugs or alcohol were found at the scene, according to the sheriff, who said he doesn't expect any more charges in the case.
wow! jerry springer would love this! (photos post #5)
Not only did Patty Bigbee try to sell her 10-week-old grandson on the Internet, she hatched a plan to cheat the baby's mother out of her cut of the cash, investigators said Tuesday.
Last week, the 45-year-old grandmother from Volusia County tried to broker a deal on Facebook to have another daughter — one she hadn't seen in decades — pay $75,000 in exchange for the infant, records show.
The deal culminated Friday in a Best Buy parking lot in Daytona Beach, where Bigbee was arrested.
Then things got even weirder.
On Tuesday, Florida Department of Law Enforcement officials laid out the elaborate scheme they say Bigbee — who moved to Florida with a criminal record and a trail of bad debt — cooked up to sell Aidan Fleming, now 11 weeks old, and enrich herself in the process.
According to authorities and the paper trail in the case, it went like this:
Bigbee won $1 million in the Missouri lottery two years ago, but she apparently squandered it.
Bigbee moved to Florida last year, unemployed and strapped for cash. In July, a small-claims judgment was lodged against her for $2,185. In August, her landlord evicted her from an apartment in Daytona Beach.
Then, on Aug. 24, Aidan was born to Bigbee's daughter Stephanie Bigbee-Fleming, also known as Stephanie Bigbee-Davis. She turns 22 today.
At some point, Bigbee-Fleming left Aidan at her mother's Holly Hill apartment and moved to Bradenton, where she lives with Aidan's presumed father, according to the FDLE report. Bigbee said the man, who has not been arrested, wanted more children with her daughter so they, too, could be sold, the report states. The man's criminal record includes convictions for aggravated assault with a weapon, domestic battery and child cruelty with physical and/or mental injury.
Bigbee-Fleming is on probation for stealing cash and theme-park and dinner-show tickets from an International Drive hotel in 2007.
Her mother, too, has a criminal past. She was released from prison in Michigan in February 2007 after serving eight years for armed robbery. The conviction was for breaking into a Lansing, Mich., home and stealing jewelry, a Michigan prisons spokesman said. In 1992, Bigbee spent nearly seven months in prison in Ohio for passing bad checks.
Investigators aren't sure when the plan to sell the baby was hatched. Who would buy him?
Bigbee turned to another daughter, one she had given up for adoption decades ago and found on Facebook in July. Bigbee soon learned that the woman, 27-year-old Danielle Skiver of Hillsborough County, wanted more children. After Skiver agreed that she and her husband, Guy, would adopt Aidan, Bigbee told her that Bigbee-Fleming wanted a $75,000 "fee."
Appalled, Skiver called Tampa police, who got FDLE involved on Oct. 28. Meanwhile, Skiver began surreptitiously working with law officers to clinch the deal.
(11-09-2010, 07:23 PM)Lady Cop Wrote: [b]fucking tragic waste and ruination of lives. Jesus.
This story has been making me angry all week. It is a disgusting display of bad parenting.
The only one of those kids with any life in his eyes is now dead. I don't know that any jury would put 4 young men on Death Row, but they sure do belong there.
(03-15-2013, 07:12 PM)aussiefriend Wrote: You see Duchess, I have set up a thread to discuss something and this troll is behaving just like Riotgear did.
On 11/10/10, at 9:26 a.m., officers responded to a home in the 2700 block of Idaho Street regarding a baby not breathing. The 35 day old baby boy was transported to Kern Medical Center where he was pronounced deceased. The baby was found to have fractured limbs and suspicious burns. Subsequent interviews led to the arrest of both parents, Denise Belmonte 21 and James Willis Johnson Jr. 31, for felony child endangerment. Belmonte and Johnson were booked into the Kern County Jail. The autopsy is scheduled for Thursday 11/11/10. The investigation is continuing.
DECEDENT'S NAME: Jordan Johnson CASE #: C01985-10
CITY OF RESIDENCE: Bakersfield &n bsp; AGE: 34 days
TYPE OF CASE: Homicide
DATE OF INCIDENT: 11/10/2010 TIME: Unknown
LOCATION: 2705 Idaho Street #A Bakersfield, CA 93305
DATE OF DEATH: 11/10/2010 TIME: 0945 hours
PLACE OF DEATH: Kern Medical Center-ER
INVESTIGATING AGENCY: Bakersfield Police Department
Details: The infant arrived at Kern Medical Center-ER via Hall Ambulance paramedics on 11/10/2010 at 0936 hours and was asystole on arrival. All resuscitation measures failed and death was pronounced. An autospy was conducted on 11/11/2010 and it was determined the infant died from Multiple Blunt Force Injuries with Cutaneous 3rd Degree Burns. The mode of death was listed as a homicide.
FUCKING POS ANIMALS
Johnson is the father of seven children with four different mothers and owes back child support of more than $40,000
Bakersfield Now:
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- A Bakersfield father says he is not to blame for the death of his 1-month-old child. The tiny baby was found not breathing and died at Kern Medical Center. Both parents are facing murder charges.
James Willis Johnson, Jr. said little Jordan seemed fine, and he has no idea why the baby died. The baby was rushed to the hospital Wednesday morning, after the parents found him not breathing.
Johnson said the baby, his fiancee Denise Belmonte, 21, and the couple's toddler were staying with him in his apartment in the 2700 block of Idaho Street Tuesday night. The infant was sleeping near the couple. When he woke up, Johnson checked on the baby.
"I looked at my son, he looked like he was stiff, because he wasn't crying," Johnson told Eyewitness News Thursday in a jailhouse interview. "I touched him, he was as stiff as a doll."
The 31-year-old father said his fiancee called 911, and they both tried CPR.
On Thursday, the Kern County Coroner's office reported autopsy results finding the baby died from "multiple blunt force injuries with cutaneous 3rd degree burns."
"They said that I neglected my son by not taking him to the doctor because he had burns on his buttocks from the water three weeks prior," Johnson said. He told Eyewitness News that happened when Jordan was given a bath. "The water in the apartment is extremely hot."
The father said they didn't take the baby to a doctor, but about a week later they noticed blisters and called a pharmacy. Johnson said the pharmacist told them to get ointment.
Investigators say the baby also had fractured limbs.
"They said he has fractures on his arms and legs," Johnson said. Asked if he saw any sign of broken bones, Johnson said, No -- except for a lump on the infant's arm.
"I saw a lump on his left arm about a week ago," Johnson said. The father said he did not call a doctor about that.
Johnson said in 2008 he was accused of domestic violence, and court-ordered to take classes. Because of that, he was only supposed to have supervised visits with his children. Johnson said he hasn't completed the classes because he ended up in jail for a year on narcotic-possession charges.
The father said he and Denise Belmonte have three children together. The infant, a one-year-old, and a two-year-old. He said one child has been in foster care. Johnson has three other, older children.
The father said the night before the baby's death he had fallen asleep after drinking beer. He said the mother was caring for the infant.
"She told me she took his temperature at 93.1 degrees, she said the doctor said that wasn't normal," Johnson said Thursday. "She had tried to wake me up, but she didn't call the police at that time."
Johnson's mother, Anita Walker, told Eyewitness News she had never seen any signs of problems or neglect. Walker said Denise Belmonte and the baby had stayed with her at times.
"She was a good mother, she appreciated my help," Walker said.
James Johnson, Sr. also said his son has been a good father.
"That doesn't sound like James, he's a mild-mannered kid," Johnson, Sr. said.
He added he had only seen this grandson once. That was Tuesday night when the family was in the car at a grocery store.
"I just saw the top of his head in the car," Johnson said. "I said 'Hey, it's cold out here tonight, you guys need to put jackets on the kids.'"
Johnson's apartment has signs in the windows reading "No Trespassing." He said he grows medicinal marijuana in one room, and he has a permit for that. He said he has chronic back and knee pain and suffers with "post traumatic stress disorder." Johnson said that's from the time he served in the Navy from 1998 through 2001.
Denise Belmonte declined to be interviewed. According to information on the Kern County Sheriff's website, she was booked on suspicion of murder. Johnson faces the same charge.
The father says he was doing everything possible to provide for his children.
"I want to get this out that that I'm not a bad parent, I didn't neglect my child," Johnson said. "And now I'm in jail over something they said I did, which I did not do."
Boston Herald
Two Everett women were each held on $50,000 bail yesterday in connection with the near-fatal stabbing of a Winthrop woman they tried to rob of drugs, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.
Sharnell Donahue, 31, and Diane Tuck, 51, pleaded not guilty in East Boston District Court to armed assault with intent to rob, prosecutors said. Donahue also pleaded not guilty to armed assault with intent to murder, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
Judge Roberto Ronquillo Jr. ordered both women to stay away from the victim, stay out of Winthrop and wear a GPS device if they post bail.
Wearing a ski mask, Donahue allegedly stabbed the 44-year-old victim in the chest shortly after 7:30 p.m. Thursday on Forrest Street in Winthrop after devising a plan with Tuck and a 15-year-old girl to rob her of drugs, authorities said. The teen is not being identified because she is a juvenile.
According to authorities, the women’s getaway car was described by witnesses — including one who entered the license plate number into a cell phone — and stopped in Revere by police, who found a black ski mask inside.
The victim was listed in critical but stable condition yesterday at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Authorities Sunday morning were searching for a driver who they believe caused an accident in Imperial County that killed five people and injured six.
Four of the dead belonged to a Lakeside motorcycle club called the Saddle Tramps, according to CHP Officer Deeann Goudie. Goudie told The Times that the club was celebrating its 10th anniversary Saturday with a ride across the desert.
The members met at 9 a.m. for breakfast in Lakeside before getting on the road, Goudie told The Times. They were riding east on Route 98 near Ocotillo, about 80 miles out of San Diego, when a gold Honda Accord revved up behind them and tried to pass. Authorities believe the Honda driver caused the crash, but the driver fled from the scene.
A white Dodge Avenger coming from the opposite direction swerved to avoid the oncoming Honda, lost control and then crashed into the pack of motorcycles.
Four motorcyclists -- including a husband-and-wife team who were riding the same bike -- were killed, Goudie said. A passenger in the Avenger was also killed.
CHP officials told the Associated Press on Sunday that the driver of the Avenger, who suffered injuries, was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving. But officials said they don't consider him responsible for the accident because the Honda forced him off the road.
Several of the people who were injured were airlifted to hospitals.
The gold Honda that tried to pass the motorcycles did not suffer any damage. Goudie said. She said authorities did not know the year of the car or the license plate number. Witnesses said the driver was a man wearing a baseball cap.
i like Ohio. they have the death penalty, and they USE it.
NBC4:
COLUMBUS, Ohio --
A Columbus man who is accused of slamming an infant to the ground faces murder charges.
Quindell Sherman, 20, was fighting with the 3-month-old’s mother, Sonja Mitchell, before he took the infant outside, threw him to the ground several times and then ran off with the infant, according to a police report.
Columbus police officers were called to the 1100 block of East 16th Avenue at about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Officers found the infant, severely injured, in a dumpster.
The infant was transported to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in trauma arrest.
He was pronounced dead at the hospital less than an hour later.
Sherman was arrested and charged with murder Tuesday night.
“From what I understood, they said the baby was, I mean the guy, was in the dumpster with the baby, and he was on top of the baby,” witness Wayne Green told NBC 4.
Green said the man was hiding from officers.
A Columbus police report did confirm the argument between Sherman and Mitchell was a domestic dispute, but it remained unclear whether Sherman is the infant’s father.
Sherman was scheduled to make his first appearance in Franklin County municipal court Thursday.
Additional information was not available immediately.
Another excellent example of why I want to begin a spay/neuter program for homosapiens in America. It's badly needed & I think we should inact & enforce it so that we can be a shining example for the world over. All aboard say, aye.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Two parents who were charged with child neglect Tuesday have had their children taken away from them.
Jacksonville police called to the 11500 block of Renne Drive on the Northside said they found five children living in a home covered with roaches and mold.
David See III, 36, and Virginia See, 34, were arrested and then released from jail Wednesday when they posted bail.
The Department of Children and Families called police to the home and recommended the children, ages 10, 8, 5, 2 and 10 months, be immediately removed from the poor living conditions, according to a police report.
According to the report, the officer called to the 1,100 square-foot home "could immediately smell a horrible, putrid smell of a combination of dirty laundry, stale food, stale cigarette smoke and mold."
There were roaches and spiders on every table, and there were dirty clothes on the floor, couch and TV, according to the police report.
The carpet was filthy with large stains, loose dirt and small rocks "as if it had not been cleaned in months," the report reads.
In the corner of the living room was a small two-gallon aquarium containing dead fish floating in stagnant water, according to the report.
Uncovered food sat on the kitchen counter that had been there long enough for mold to grow on it, the report says.
"Roaches were in every place I looked," the responding officer wrote. "So many roaches, they were falling from the ceiling onto the floor."
The officer said he saw a molded-over pan in the oven covered in roaches and small bugs. The sink was full of dirty, dried dishes, and the cupboards had no clean plates or cups for the children to eat and drink from, according to the report.
The refrigerator was filthy, containing sour milk with an expiration date of Oct. 12 and food that appeared to have been there so long that it was beginning to mold, according to the report.
No baby formula or food of substance for the children was found, and all the food was so old that it was spoiled, according to the report.
A 5-foot-tall, 10-foot-wide mound of dirty clothes that had not been washed in months was found in the laundry room.
"I could not see a washer and dryer, perhaps because they were covered in soiled clothes," the officer wrote. "I could not find any laundry detergent."
The floor of the back bedroom was covered in dirty laundry and soiled baby diapers, and in the middle of the floor was a small crib with roaches inside it, according to the police report.
The children's bedroom also had piles of dirty clothes all over the floor, and there were two mattresses on the floor with no bed frames and no sheets or blankets, according to the report.
"There were open containers of food on the floor that could have been there for days, if not weeks," the officer wrote in the report. "The room was filthy and smelled of stale urine as if the children had wet their beds over and over again without being cleaned."
According to the police report, some of the children had blisters and chaffed areas from their diapers, and some had not had a bath in days.
The officer wrote of one child: "Her diaper was soiled, and it appeared if she had been wearing it for days."
"It was horrible living conditions for children. This was inhumane," DCF spokesman John Harrell said. "You couldn't imagine the children in this day and age, 2010, would be living in this sort of environment.
"There's a big difference between this and having a house that just happens to be messy with a few things out of place -- big difference," Harrell said. "It's a health risk. It's a sanitary risk for children when you have things like dead fish in an aquarium, clothes that haven't been washed in several months. All sorts of things on the floor. It's incredibly disturbing."
The children's grandmother said in a phone interview Friday that she had to inform DCF about what was going on for the safety of the children.
This family is linked to anther child abuse tragedy. The Sees' nephew Jonathan died in 2006 when his grandmother used a powerful pain killer patch on him. She recently pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
i'm waiting to hear what the hell this was about! 3 little kids!
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A woman and her three young children were found dead at a violent crime scene in a north Florida home on Saturday, and homicide detectives were out looking for whoever might have had a reason to harm them, police said.
Family and neighbors said the woman was a single, stay-at-home mother raising twin 6-year-old girls and a 3-year-old son.
Police spokesman David McCranie wouldn't elaborate on the signs of violence police found at the home, but investigators believe the four were slain by someone else. The case is being investigated as a homicide.
"We are trying to find out if anyone would want to harm the family," he said.
The man who lives two doors down said the neighborhood had burglary problems in recent years, though the crimes had waned with increased police patrols. McCranie said he wasn't aware of a lot of problems in the neighborhood and that police hadn't been called to the one-story home before.
It sits in a subdivision built about five years ago that's surrounded by dense woods a few miles from the campuses of Florida State University and Florida A&M University. McCranie said a lot of families live in the neighborhood.
McCranie wouldn't say how the four died or release their names. Their bodies were found after police received a suspicious call at 10:15 a.m.
Phone numbers listed for the home were not in service. A man who owns the property declined comment.
On Saturday afternoon, a crowd gathered outside the house while crime scene investigators came in and out. Several relatives had come but mostly wouldn't talk to reporters.
Dennis Williams, 35, of Albany, Ga., identified himself as the half-brother of the slain woman, who he said was 28. He said the two weren't close, but he knew the woman's focus was on her children.
condit didn't kill her, but he was a fucking slimeball of the first order. they found his DNA in her panties and all he ever did was deny deny deny.
happily, he's been a loser ever since.
CNN
Updated at 12:41 p.m] A jury on Monday found Ingmar Guandique guilty of murdering Washington intern Chandra Levy.
convicted of first-degree murder, Ingmar Guandique faces a sentence of life without parole. The jury could instead find him guilty of second-degree murder, which could mean 20 years to life.
Earlier, attorneys made their closing arguments in the case against Guandique, who denies he killed Levy, then an intern for the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
"She's been waiting nine years for justice," said prosecutor Amanda Haines, holding up for the jury a poster-sized photograph of the smiling young woman. "It's been nine years, but you need to say the words 'Ingmar Guandique is guilty.'"
Levy's mother was in the spectators' gallery, and at times looked close to tears as prosecutors brought out her daughter's clothing, found at the crime scene in 2002.
Haines told the jury, "You have a roomful of corroboration" for the circumstantial case against Guandique.
That includes the fact Guandique is serving time for two other attacks on women that prosecutors say closely resemble the one that led to Levy's death, she said. Both of those attack victims testified during the trial.
Former Playboy bunny Laurie Bembenek died of liver failure on Saturday. She was 52.
Bembenek's lawyer Mary Woehrer said she died at a hospice care centre in Portland, Oregon.
Bembenek, an ex-cop, was convicted in 1982 of fatally shooting her police detective husband's ex-wife and sentenced to life in prison. She escaped in 1990 and fled to Canada.
Her flight resulted in supporters selling shirts and bumper stickers that read ‘Run Bambi Run’.
She was captured but later released after pleading no contest to second-degree murder.
UK Telegraph
Laurie Bembenek always maintained her innocence and, eight years into her sentence, escaped from prison and fled to Canada.
As a fugitive she became a folk-hero to her supporters, who sold T-shirts and bumper stickers with the slogan: "Run Bambi Run".
Three months later she was recaptured, and in a complex plea bargain prosecutors agreed to release her, taking into account the time she had already served. By pleading "no contest" to a lesser charge of second-degree murder, Laurie Bembenek gave up her right to appeal and was sentenced to 10 years' probation.
The murder victim, Christine Schultz, had been shot dead after being bound and gagged at her home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on May 28 1981. Laurie Bembenek, then married to Elfred "Fred" Schultz, was charged with the murder a few weeks later. She had recently been sacked from the police; her husband, a detective, resigned from the force in December 1981.
At Laurie Bembenek's trial, witnesses said she had talked about having Christine killed because of the crippling alimony payments Fred was forced to make. Hairs from a wig hidden at Laurie Bembenek's block of flats matched hairs found near the victim's body. Evidence suggested that the murder weapon was a service revolver belonging to Fred Schultz.
While the assistant Attorney General, Robert Kraemer, portrayed Laurie Bembenek as a woman addicted to "the fast life", her own attorney, Donald Eisenberg, argued that his client had been framed, and in the course of a four-hour closing argument quoted the Bible and Pope Paul VI. But at the end of her 15-day trial Laurie Bembenek was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Lawrencia Bembenek was born in Milwaukee on August 15 1958, the youngest daughter of a doting middle-class family. After Bay View High School, where she had been an accomplished flautist, she worked as a model, and for three weeks was employed as a waitress at the Playboy Club in the ski resort of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
In 1980 she joined the Milwaukee police force, but was sacked during her probationary period and brought a sexual discrimination complaint against the department. She married Detective Fred Schultz, who had recently divorced his wife Christine, early in 1981.
Laurie Bembenek escaped from prison in 1990 by squeezing through a tiny laundry-room window. She was recaptured at Thunder Bay, Ontario (where she had been working as a waitress in a Greek restaurant under a false name), after being featured on the television show America's Most Wanted.
After her release on probation she was arrested for possession of marijuana, filed for bankruptcy, and admitted to a drink problem. Her case became the subject of a book and a 1993 television miniseries, Woman on Trial: The Lawrencia Bembenek Story, starring Tatum O'Neal in the title role.
In 2002, after completing her parole, Laurie Bembenek sought to clear her name by having evidence from the murder scene subjected to DNA tests. A television show called Dr Phil agreed to conduct the expensive testing, with the results to be revealed on air. According to her lawyer, Laurie Bembenek was sequestered in an apartment in Los Angeles by the programme's producers – apparently to shield her from media reports about her case.
But the confinement reminded her of prison and triggered a panic attack. As she tried to escape from a second-floor window by sliding down a bed sheet, she fell and badly injured her right foot, which later had to be amputated.
She then tried repeatedly to clear her name, and a petition for a full pardon remains before the Wisconsin state governor, Jim Doyle. In a recent television interview, shortly before being treated for the liver failure that killed her, she was asked to rate her life on a scale of one to 10.
"Two," she replied.
"It's been that bad?" asked the reporter.
"Yeah."
Laurie Bembenek is survived by a former husband, Martin Carson. Her family intend to continue seeking a pardon on her behalf.
![[Image: Zy3rKpW.png]](https://i.imgur.com/Zy3rKpW.png)
(photos post #5)
