Bradenton, Florida - Manatee County Sheriff's deputies are searching for a man who beat an 81-year-old Franciscan nun on Valentine's Day after she gave him a drink of water.
Investigators say Sister Nora Brick is recovering at Manatee Memorial Hospital.
The search is on for suspect 51-year-old Eliseo Ortiz. Detectives say Ortiz knows Sister Brick and was reportedly mad, because he was issued a trespass warning from her church.
Ortiz reportedly showed up at the Sister's home on Monday and asked for a drink of water. Once inside her home, detectives say he started punching the elderly woman in the face. He was last seen riding his bicycle away from the victim's home.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Ortiz is asked to call the Manatee County Sheriff's Office.
(CNN) -- A Pennsylvania woman was arrested and charged Wednesday with endangering the welfare of a child after showing police a photo of her 2-year-old child duct-taped to a chair.
Caira Ferguson, 21, revealed the photo as part of her claim that someone had stolen her identity, according to a Chester Township Police statement.
Ferguson has also been charged with unlawful restraint and false imprisonment, the statement said.
The photo was posted on mediatakeout.com, a news and gossip blog. It shows Ferguson smiling next to the child, whose hands are bound and mouth is duct-taped shut.
The child is dressed in a diaper and was photographed in July, police said.
"There were some issues with the identity, but our main concern was about the safety of the baby," said
Chester police Chief Kenneth J Coalson.
Police said they searched Ferguson's house Wednesday where they discovered a purple chair with remains of duct tape still attached to it.
It is not clear if Ferguson has acquired legal counsel.
ABC12
HOUSTON -- A man (sort of) assaulted his disabled mother and stole her dentures, police said.
Christopher Harding, 23, has been charged with injury to a disabled person.
Houston police said Harding attacked his mother, who is legally disabled and on Social Security disability, at a home in the 4300 block of Heritage Trail Drive on Feb. 10.
Investigators said Harding grabbed his mother's throat and pushed her to the ground. Police said Harding punched his mother in the face several times with a closed fist.
The mother told police that her son held her neck so tight that she had trouble breathing.
Police said Harding used his free hand to pull out his mother's upper dentures.
Harding then ran out of the home with the dentures, detectives said.
Boston Herald
WORCESTER MA— A 27-year-old mother and her 33-year-old boyfriend — behind bars in connection with the horrific death of her 4-year-old daughter — blamed the bruises and injuries that covered the girl’s battered body on the child’s “clumsiness,” authorities said yesterday.
“It’s a horrible crime and we’re doing everything we can with regards to the investigation,” Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early told the Herald yesterday.
Police were called to Lymari Acevedo and Richard Castillo’s apartment around 5:45 p.m. Thursday on a report that the little girl was not breathing, according to court documents filed in Worcester District Court.
When the cops and EMTs arrived, the girl, identified as Arianie Acevedo, was not responsive. She was taken by ambulance to the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
The girl “sustained numerous injuries and bruising” all over her tiny body — on her chest, thighs, arms, shins, feet, buttocks and back, according to court filings. Her back bore a “clearly visible bruise” in the shape of an adult’s handprint.
Castillo’s explanation for the bruising was that Arianie was “clumsy and walked into walls a lot,” according to authorities. In a separate interview, Acevedo also called her daughter “clumsy.”
When the tot was found, she was wearing urine-soaked underwear and had dried blood around her mouth. Her hair was wet and rigor mortis had begun to set in, court documents state.
Under questioning by authorities, the couple gave different accounts of the girl’s injuries.
Castillo told police the marks on the girl’s arm may have been caused when he grabbed it and “threw” her on the bed after finding her not breathing on the floor. The handprint on her back, he said, came when he “whacked” it to try and get her breathing. Castillo blamed other bruises on the child’s “clumsiness,” court records said.
Acevedo admitted that she sometimes grabbed her daughter’s arms and slapped her hands or behind when she didn’t listen, court records show.
Told about the handprint on Arianie’s back, Acevedo said she may have missed a couple times and accidentally struck the little girl, according to court records.
Castillo also told police he knew that a doctor had raised questions about possible abuse several months ago, records state.
But when police asked Acevedo about the doctor’s suspicions, she said it was she who had pointed out the injuries to the physician. She said she couldn’t remember a follow-up visit to the doctor about possible child abuse, according to authorities.
The couple pleaded not guilty yesterday and were held without bail on charges of assault and battery on a child with substantial injury and permitting substantial injury to a child.
Early said he is awaiting the results of an autopsy before deciding whether to upgrade the charges.
A spokeswoman for the state Department of Children and Families said it had no history with the family and is investigating the incident. The pair’s 6-month-old daughter has been taken into DCF custody.
fat slob convicts get out of prison to save the state dialysis money. so one can give the other a kidney. but they're too fat for the surgery. sweathogs.
PENSACOLA, Fla. — A proposed kidney transplant that won two Mississippi sisters their freedom from prison can't take place until one quits smoking and they lose a combined 160 pounds.
Jamie and Gladys Scott had served nearly 16 years of their life sentences for an armed robbery when they were released from a sprawling prison in central Mississippi on Jan. 7. Gov. Haley Barbour granted Jamie Scott an early release because she suffers from kidney failure, but he agreed to let Gladys Scott go on the condition she follow through on an offer to donate a kidney to her sister.
Jamie Scott told The Associated Press on Wednesday that she needs to lose more than 100 pounds and that her sister has to shed 60 pounds before their doctors will even test them for compatibility. Doctors are also requiring Gladys Scott, a heavy smoker, to quit.
"I have to stay on her about it, I am helping her to stop smoking," said Jamie, who moved with her sister to Pensacola to be with their mother and children.
A freebie personal trainer works twice a week with the sisters. They've also been taking aerobics classes.
Jamie Scott, 38, said she hopes to have a surgery that will help her lose weight so she can get the transplant sooner, but her doctors don't know if she's healthy enough. Florida parole records list her at 5 feet tall and 254 pounds.
Gladys Scott, 36, is listed at 4 feet 9 inches tall and 184 pounds.
Barbour hasn't responded directly to numerous questions from The Associated Press about whether he'll send the sisters back to prison if the transplant doesn't happen. He's called questions about such a scenario "purely hypothetical."
The 17-year-old father of a 5-month-old son was shot and killed yesterday by Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies in Palmdale following an Amber Alert and a violent pursuit. Authorities issued the alert following word the infant was abducted from his caregiver by the suspect, Christopher Earl Glass. The LASD explain that during the initial kidnapping investigation, the suspect contacted the baby's mother by phone and told her he would harm the child, Christopher Earl Glass Jr.
Deputies located the suspect at around 3:35 yesterday afternoon. Glass was in a vehicle with the baby, and appeared to be stabbing the baby as he drove. The authorities attempted to get the suspect to stop, but he did not comply, and a pursuit was initiated. Just minutes into the chase, Glass crashed the car into a building. He got out of the car, and fled on foot, and the deputies continued to pursue him.
The baby, still in the vehicle, and suffering from stab wounds, was taken to the hospital by deputies, however he was pronounced dead upon arrival.
Meanwhile, as Glass attempted to break into a stranger's home, he was shot at by deputies. He successfully entered the home, but, once inside, was fatally shot by deputies.
this crazy bitch from hell stabbed her 3 beautiful children to death~~
it's a damn shame she can't receive the death penalty.
A mother today admitted stabbing her three young children to death while locked in a custody battle with her estranged husband.
Theresa Riggi told a court that she knifed her eight-year-old twin sons Augustino and Gianluca and five-year-old daughter Cecilia in their home.
The little victims, who were forced by their paranoid mother to wear electronic tags when they visited their father and were given mobile phones as she feared he would take them away, were found lying side by side in a bedroom after a gas explosion at an Edinburgh town house. She denied causing the blast.
Moments after the blast U.S. citizen Riggi, 47, lept from a second floor balcony as she tried to commit suicide.
Shortly before the fatal attacks Riggi had repeatedly asked her husband Pasquale, an oil industry engineer, if he was going to take the children away from her.
Advocate depute Alex Prentice QC said: 'On being told that "she had left him no choice" she said "say goodbye then" and hung up.'
Riggi told a hospital chaplain after the killings: 'I want to be with my babies. I'm not meant to be here. I'm meant to be with my babies.'
The defendant, who is currently in Cornton Vale women's prison in Stirling, was originally charged with murdering the children between August 2 and 4 last year Edinburgh's High Court heard.
But the Crown today accepted her guilty pleas to culpable homicide on the basis of diminished responsibility.
Each of the children had been killed with separate knives.
Riggi denied a further charge of causing a gas explosion by culpably and recklessly removing a gas hob from its fixtures.
Her defence counsel Donald Findlay QC said: 'Theresa Riggi is not evil, she is not wicked, she is not a monster. If it is possible to love ones children too much she loved them too much. They were a part of her. She was a part of them.
'She believed the children and she were safer together in death then they ever could be in life.
'This is without doubt the most tragic and difficult case that I have ever had to deal with in over 35 years in these courts.
'It wasn't the children who were to die that day. It was all four of them who were to die that day,' he said.
He said Riggi had been found by psychiatrists who examined her to have narcissistic, paranoid and histrionic personality disorders. in otherwords a drama queen. so fucking what.
'At the time of the deaths of the children she was suffering from or in the midst of an acute stress reaction,' he added.
Riggi, who wanted to be a professional singer or violinist before a teenage accident prevented it, appeared in the dock wearing a white suit clutching a hankie.
She sobbed at times as the harrowing details of her crimes were revealed.
She married her husband on September 1989 and at first they lived in California before moving to Colorado and then to England in 1997.
The twins were born as a result of IVF treatment and other embryos were cryogenically frozen.
Mr Prentice said: 'After their birth the accused was very possessive with the twins and would accept no help or visits.
'She insisted on sleeping with the babies in her bed and would not allow Mr Riggi to sleep in the same bed with them and insisted he moved into another bedroom.'
'Eventually the babies moved into the nursery and were followed by the accused who slept in that room with them. It was at this time that the physical side to their marriage ended,' said the prosecutor.
Despite this he was still committed to the marriage and their daughter was born. The family moved to the Netherlands but returned to England.
They eventually separated in the autumn of 2006.
Mr Riggi continued to generously support his wife and children, the court heard. He met another woman, Michelle Ross, in January the following year.
During last year when Mr Riggi was allowed to have unsupervised time with the children they wore locators - tags - controlled by their mother and were given a mobile phone pre-programmed to call her.
'She had told them that this was for their safety and they were encouraged by her to call her at any time if their father said or did anything they did not like,' said Mr Prentice.
Because of the volatility of the relationship between then and as a result of her restrictions on his time with them Mr Riggi raised court proceedings to get unsupervised access to his children.
The couple had also disagreed on her educating the children at home.
He had made inquiries about them going to the International School in Aberdeen but she insisted on home schooling claiming it would keep them safe and stop bullying.
After the children failed to attend a meeting with their father he reported them missing to the police on July 12.
Police later contacted her at her house. The mother was crying but one officers thought she was being melodramatic.
On the evening of a scheduled court hearing over access she had a final phone conversation with her husband in which she said 'Say goodbye then'.
Two days later on August 2 the children were killed and the mother tried to jump to her death.
A neighbour, Jordan Cochrane, shouted on Riggi not to jump but she intentionally plunged head first, the court heard. He tried to catch her and pushed her onto the bonnet of a car to break her fall.
The court heard that the gas leak in the properties was later traced to the hob in the kitchen of the house where Riggi was staying which had been tampered with.
Pathologists established that all three children died from stab wounds to the chest.
The judge Lord Bracadale said the case will call again on April 26 at the High Court in Glasgow when sentence is expected to be passed.
A statement issued by Victim Support Scotland on behalf of Mr Riggi, said: 'The loss of my three beautiful children has been an overwhelming tragedy.
'Nothing can be said at this or any other time which can mitigate what has happened. I and my extended family loved Austin, Luke and Cecilia dearly and they will live in our minds and hearts forever.
'I don't know what lies ahead but wherever life takes me, my friends and family, it will be with the memory of a dreadful loss and with gratitude for all the good times spent with Austin, Luke and Cecilia.
'My family and I wish to thank all those who provided and continue to provide tremendous support.
'My intention now is to move on, which will not be an easy task.
'I request that, after today, the media give me and my family the privacy to do so.'
the Judge just reamed out this filthy swine and gave him 25 to life, which was the max he could sentence. may he die in misery in a jail cell.
(CNN) -- A New York television executive convicted of second-degree murder in his wife's beheading is expected to be sentenced Wednesday.
An upstate New York jury found Muzzammil "Mo" Hassan guilty in February after a three-week trial and an hour-long deliberation.
In February 2009, Hassan, who founded a TV network aimed at countering Muslim stereotypes, went to a police station in the Buffalo, New York, suburb of Orchard Park and told officers his wife was dead, police have said.
Aasiya Hassan had been decapitated and the long knife used by her husband had left marks on his office's tile floor, prosecutors said during opening arguments.
Hassan gave his own closing arguments. Earlier in the trial, he had dismissed his attorney, Jeremy Schwartz, who by trial's end was acting as his legal adviser.
According to prosecutors, Aasiya Hassan had filed for divorce less than a week before she died.
On the day she died, she agreed to take some of her husband's clothes to his office after he had moved out of their home. He had told her he would not be there, prosecutors said.
"The defendant viciously killed ... and desecrated her (Aasiya's) body because six days earlier she had dared to file for divorce. Dared to seek a better life for herself and the children," Assistant District Attorney Paul Bonanno said in the prosecution's opening statement.
NEW YORK (AP) — Thirteen people died Saturday when a bus returning from a casino flipped onto its side on a major highway in the Bronx and was sliced in half by the support pole for a large sign, authorities said.
The driver, who survived, told police he lost control after being clipped by a tractor trailer. Police began a hunt for the truck, which did not stop after the crash, New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said.
The wreck left a scene of carnage and closed the southbound side of Interstate-95 for hours while emergency workers attended to critically injured survivors and removed bodies.
The bus, operated by the charter company World Wide Tours, was headed to Manhattan's Chinatown neighborhood carrying a full load of passengers returning from the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Conn.
According to the driver, the bus was struck from behind as it entered the city around 5:30 a.m., Browne said. The bus began swerving, toppled and crashed into the support post for a highway sign indicating the exit for the Hutchinson Parkway.
The pole entered through the front window, then sheared the bus from front to back along the window line, cutting like a knife through the seating area and peeling the roof off all the way to the back tires.
Police and fire officials say the bus was carrying at least 31 passengers.
In addition to the fatalities, six passengers were critically hurt, a Fire Department spokesman said. A total of 19 were being treated at area hospitals.
Traffic was also closed on the northbound side of the highway after the crash, but was moving again by mid-morning.
Limo driver Homer Martinez, 56, of Danbury, Conn. happened on the scene just moments after the wreck and saw other drivers sprinting from their cars to see if they could assist the injured. He said they were horrified by what they found.
"People were saying, 'Oh my God. Oh my God,' holding their hands on their heads," Martinez said. "I saw people telling other people not to go there, 'You don't want to see this.'"
Firefighters and medics were on the scene quickly, running to the vehicle with bags and stretchers, he said.
"I see a lot of accidents. I've even seen accidents happen. But I've never seen anything like this," said Martinez.
Boston Herald
If you happen to be missing all your own front teeth, the temptation when you see a man sporting a full set of choppers — gold, no less! — is obviously keen.
Thus, Robert Ester, 46, of Worcester came to be standing before a judge yesterday for allegedly stealing another man’s grill, Springfield police said.
The dental drama began when Ester and another man confronted a 24-year-old outside a Springfield package store at about 8 p.m. Thursday and demanded everything he had, cops said. Ester then pistol-whipped the young man, according to police. When the victim was on the ground, the two men allegedly stole his watch, chain — and gold teeth.
The victim had no trouble describing the tooth-napper to cops in the area: a black man in a blue puffy coat with missing teeth. They quickly spotted Ester.
Police are searching for the second suspect involved in the brush-up. It is believed that man still has the watch, chain and gold teeth, police said.
Ester was arraigned on charges of armed robbery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and ordered held on $25,000 cash bail. He is expected back in court April 7.
(CNN) -- The owner of a Houston day care where four small children perished in a fire will face four counts of murder in those deaths, court records showed Thursday.
Jessica Tata had previously been charged with six counts of reckless injury to a child and several charges of manslaughter. She will be in court to face the new charges on Friday.
Tata, who has dual citizenship in the United States and Nigeria, fled to the African nation shortly after the fatal fire at her Houston home in February. She was taken into custody almost a month later in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, by Interpol and U.S. diplomatic security agents, officials said.
Tata's first stop on her return to the United States was Atlanta, where she was booked into the Fulton County Jail. After waiving her extradition rights during an appearance in magistrate court, Tata was transported to the Harris County Jail in Texas.
Investigators allege that Tata, 22, left seven children alone at her Houston day care center with the stove on while she went to a store. Four children died, and three others were injured in the fire.
U.S. Marshals joined the search after Harris County authorities determined that Tata had left the Houston area. They added her their 15 Most Wanted Fugitives list in early March.
Authorities in Florida have arrested a child psychiatrist from Wisconsin who allegedly attempted to abduct two children at a North Naples beach after attacking them and a sibling.
Kimberly Hammes Frank, 47, of Mequon, Wis., was arrested by deputies from the Collier County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday and charged with three third-degree felony counts of child abuse without great harm. According to a department spokeswoman, Frank remains incarcerated in the Collier County Jail today on a $30,000 bond.
Police arrested Wisconsin child psychiatrist Kimberly Hammes Frank and charged her with attacking three children at a Florida beach.
The incident that precipitated Frank's arrest occurred Wednesday afternoon at Clam Patch Beach. Police received a 911 call from a man who said Frank had attacked his three children while they were playing in the water with their mother.
Upon arrival at the scene, the deputies were approached by the caller, who informed them that he was seated on the beach when he heard his wife yell for help. The man said he looked up to see Frank with her hands on his 4-year-old son and his 9-year-old daughter. His 8-year-old son was running from the water screaming for help, the man said.
When the children's father ran to their aid, he had to physically pry the woman's fingers off his children, who, according to police, "suffered scratches to their arms, neck [and] shoulder."
"According to the mother of the children, Kim Frank approached her kids in the water and grabbed them by their arms while screaming, 'These are my kids, Mattie and Meredith,' " the arresting deputy, Cpl. Chris Jordan, wrote in the arrest report.
The children's mother said she attempted to reason with Frank, telling her the kids were not hers, but she did not respond.
After taking statements from the victims and a female witness who was on the beach at the time of the alleged incident, deputies located Frank on the north side of the beach. She was arrested and transported to a police substation, where authorities say she "refused to be interviewed."
Court records indicate Franks is a divorced child psychiatrist with family living in Naples Beach. A phone number listed as her mother's has been disconnected, and AOL News has been unable to find contact information for any other family members.
KHOU
HOUSTON – Twin brothers were charged with murder Tuesday after police said they were found living with the decomposing body of their 89-year-old mother.
Edward Larry Berndt and Edwin Christian Berndt, both 48, were arrested Monday afternoon at the home they shared with their mother in the 8400 block of Glenscot.
According to police, neighbors had called for a welfare check on Sybil Berndt after they didn’t see her for several months.
"I had called her and left messages and she never returned messages," said a neighbor, who did not want to be identified. "So, today I called Adult Protective Services and they asked me to go ahead and phone in a welfare check and I did."
When detectives arrived at the scene, the twins let them inside and they found Sybil Berndt lying dead on the floor.
The smell was unimaginable, police sources said.
"I’ve been a cop for 17 years and this is the first time I’ve dealt with anything like that," said HPD Homicide Investigator J.R. Johnston.
Investigators said the brothers told police their mother was injured in a fall on January 10. They said they left her on the floor for three days without providing medical attention, food or water.
Mrs. Berndt died on January 13.
According to neighbors, the brothers had always lived with their parents. Their father passed away a few years ago.
Neighbors said they didn’t know how the twins could stay inside with a body for that long.
"Maybe they were scared. Maybe they thought they would be blamed for something," said a neighbor.
another child with a great future. where do they learn cruelty at a tender age? i had a heart soft as a marshmallow at that age.
FOX
DETROIT, Mich.-- An elderly Michigan woman watched helplessly as a girl broke into her apartment.
Seventy nine-year-old Florence of Ferndale, Mich., is confined to a scooter because of Polio. So she couldn't do much when a 12-year-old girl broke into her apartment Friday.
The girl stole her money and a ring, ignoring the disabled woman's cries to stop.
Luckily, neighbor Renee Blackwell noticed her leaving the lobby of the complex and asked Florence if she knew the girl.
Renee figured out that Florence was saying "she took my money."
"I immediately jumped in my car and followed the girl".
Renee called police and watched the girl arrested as they apparently found the stolen goods in her possession.
HIGHLAND, Mich. (WJBK) - Sheriff's deputies say a twelve-year-old girl walked into the Country Lake Food Center with a nine millimeter gun demanding cash. Employees say she's a regular. They recognized her.
The girl can be heard crying on the 911 dispatch. She was held down as employees waited for deputies.
"She pointed a gun to me. I thought it was a joke at first," a store employee said on the 911 call.
The girl was allegedly wearing a bandana over her face and black-colored clothing.
One employee called 911 while another held the girl down.
Investigators say the motive was money.
"How were they trying to rob you," the worker was asked on the 911 call. She responded, "She basically had a mask on and pointed a gun to me … She's on the floor right now."
The dispatcher went on to ask who was holding her down. The woman replied, "One of my employees."
Where would a twelve-year-old get a gun like that? According to investigators, she got it from her neighbor. She had a key to the house and knew exactly where it was kept. The Oakland County Sheriff's Department says there may be charges for stealing that weapon.
As of right now, the twelve-year-old will be charged as a juvenile with armed robbery. She's being housed at the Children's Village in Oakland County.
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