A family finally gets justice three years later Florida Teenager Sentenced To 11-Years For Setting His Classmate On Fire A Florida teenager who was convicted of aggravated battery for setting his classmate on fire in 2009 was recently sentenced to 11 years in prison….even though he maintains that he is innocent. via CBS News A Florida teenager convicted of orchestrating a burning attack on a middle school classmate continued to insist on his innocence as he was sentenced to 11 years in prison Thursday. Circuit Judge Matthew Destry agreed with prosecutors that 18-year-old Matthew Bent was just as much to blame in the 2009 attack on Michael Brewer, who was soaked in alcohol and then set on fire. Brewer was 15 years old at the time. Bent was convicted of aggravated battery in June. Before he was sentenced, Bent turned and apologized to Brewer but said he was not the ringleader. “I didn’t intend for any of this to happen,” he said. “I didn’t tell nobody to do that.” Brewer survived by leaping into an apartment complex swimming pool, but suffered severe burns over two-thirds of his body. In court Thursday, he looked in good shape physically but family members said his skin grafts still cause pain and he suffers from frequent nightmares. Sounds like justice for this boy and his family was long overdue. Images via Shutterstock
Jesus take the wheel !!! ‘ Connecticut Elementary School Shooting A lone gunman at the center of a terrifying Friday morning elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn., has been killed, authorities say. Via USA Today : The Hartford Courant reported that shortly after 9:40 a.m., the shooter was in the main office at Sandy Hook Elementary School and at least one victim had numerous gunshot wounds. Two handguns were recovered from the scene. Mayor Mark Boughton said several victims had been taken to local hospitals. But details were sketchy. The Newtown Bee reported that a police officer carried a seriously wounded child from the building. (The Courant also said one shooter was reported dead). Groups of students — some crying, some holding hands — were being escorted away from the school by their teachers. Some students were still in the school at 10:30 a.m., after it was placed on lock down, parents said. The school is in a residential, wooded neighborhood about 90 minutes north of New York City. It has has 39 teachers and about 650 students. A reverse 911 call went out to parents warning of an incident. Parents were being reunited with children. But, NBC Connecticut reported, police are searching the area behind the school with guns drawn. The Courant said Alexis Wasik, a third-grader at the school, said police were checking everybody inside the school before they were escorted to the firehouse. “We had to walk with a partner,” said Wasik, 8. One child leaving the school said that there was shattered glass everywhere. A police officer ran into the classroom and told them to run outside and keep going until the reach the firehouse, The Courant reported. Dozens of state troopers are on the scene assisting local police. Heavily armed police gathered in front of the school around 10:45 a.m., and a number of stretchers were set up. The school superintendent’s office says the district has locked down schools as a preventive measure to ensure the safety of students and staff. State police spokesman Lt. Paul Vance says they have a number of personnel on the scene to assist. We’ll keep you updated on this developing story… AP
We forgive you PSY, but we can’t speak for A-Rod and Jeter. Korean pop sensation PSY wants us to know he deeply regrets making anti-American music back in the day. Via TMZ reports : PSY- the pop singer behind the hit “Gangnam Style” — says he “will forever be sorry” for performing a song in 2004 that called for the killing of “Yankees” … and is begging for Americans to accept his apology. The song in question was called, “Dear Americans” … and featured the lyrics, “Kill those fawking Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives.” He continues, “Kill those f—ing Yankees who ordered them to torture … Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law and fathers … Kill them all slowly and painfully.” In response to the outcry over his past racism Psy issued the following statement: “As a proud South Korean who was educated in the United States and lived there for a very significant part of my life, I understand the sacrifices American servicemen and women have made to protect freedom and democracy in my country and around the world. The song I featured on in question from eight years ago — was part of a deeply emotional reaction to the war in Iraq and the killing of two Korean schoolgirls that was part of the overall antiwar sentiment shared by others around the world at that time. While I’m grateful for the freedom to express one’s self, I’ve learned there are limits to what language is appropriate and I’m deeply sorry for how these lyrics could be interpreted. I will forever be sorry for any pain I have caused by those words. I have been honored to perform in front of American soldiers in recent months — including an appearance on the Jay Leno show specifically for them — and I hope they and all Americans can accept my apology. While it’s important that we express our opinions, I deeply regret the inflammatory and inappropriate language I used to do so. In my music, I try to give people a release, a reason to smile. I have learned that thru music, our universal language we can all come together as a culture of humanity and I hope that you will accept my apology.” While this would surely get him banned from performing at any RNC functions we can’t really fault this guy considering how much we love us some good ol’ Ice-Cube, Ice-T and NWA songs that have helped us through our own issues with America. Do you think this is going to hurt his career or should PSY be forgiven, considering that Chris Brown is still allowed to have a career? Image via Mediaite
Come on VOGUE! Apparently being the child of Madonna means you grow up around a lot of really interesting characters who can either teach you how to Zoolander or body board with the best of them. Oh and nannies with nice fannies are a bonus. Rocco hung out with mom’s boytoy Brahim and a friend at the hotel pool in Sao Paulo while his sister Mercy and brother David Banda had a blast body boarding at Ipanema Beach with a nanny and security guard. GSIMedia
This is gonna be a hard hole to climb out of. It’s hard out here for a pimp , especially one who just lost his day job. Via NY Daily News reports : It could be lights out for a Con Edison employee arrested for allegedly using his computer at the utility company to pimp out two underage girls. Royce Corley, 27, will appear in Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday on two counts of promoting pr0stitution that could earn the accused flesh-peddler up to seven years in the slammer. Corley allegedly advertised his steamy service through the notorious website backpage.com, according to court papers first reported by Mario Diaz of PIX 11. But the Harlem man’s father says the NYU-Poly graduate is a nerdy systems analyst who posted a few ads for an acquaintance. “They didn’t know how to do it, so they asked him,” said Richard Corley, 53. “He’s a good kid.” Con Ed fired Corley “without a conviction,” his father said as he fumed. The company did not comment. Cops nabbed Corley in January after raiding his apartment and an alleged “crash pad” in tony Gramercy Park, where the 17-year-old girls took johns. They also seized his Con Ed computer and taped a phone call. But Corley is no pimp, his lawyer said Monday. “My client maintains his innocence,” lawyer Glenn Hardy said. “He … knows nothing about this alleged ring.” Court papers show cops found $1,000 and nearly 20 cellphones in the apartment and alleged sex den, as well as a booklet with names and phone numbers allegedly linked to the shady business. Neighbors of the lair said they saw johns cycle in and out. “This very nice-looking young guy rings the bell,” said a resident. “He comes down a while later tucking his shirt into his pants.” The police targeted Corley after one of the girls spilled the beans about the ads, which were paid for by the suspect from his Con Ed computer, cops said. Corley is locked up on $25,000 bail. SMH. His poor naive dad. Some parents will believe anything. “Not my son… He’s no pimp!” Images via Steve Sandberg/1010 WINS/WPIX.com
What the hell?? According to the San Antonio-Express News , she had numerous encounters with the boy …and thankfully, his Dad caught her and pressed charges: A longtime elementary school teacher whose repeated sexual encounters with a 12-year-old student came to light following a high-speed chase in which she let the boy drive her SUV was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison. Lucinda Rodriguez Caldwell, 41, choked back sobs as she was placed in handcuffs after asking state District Judge Lori Valenzuela for probation. Although the judge denied the request, she did retain jurisdiction of the case, leaving open the possibility that Caldwell could be released from prison on shock probation sometime in the next six months. “I just want to say that I’m sorry for what I did and I apologize to the court, to (the child) and his family, and to my family,” Caldwell said through tears during the brief sentencing hearing. “I have lost so much because of what I did, and I ask the court to let me stay with my family and take care of my children,” she said. Caldwell had been an educator for 16 years and was teaching fifth grade at Cable Elementary in the Northside Independent School District when she was arrested in July 2010 after the boy’s father took him to police to report the sexual assaults. Earlier that morning, at about 3 a.m., the father had recognized the teacher’s Ford Explorer outside his house after realizing that his son wasn’t home, court documents state. The SUV sped off and the father pursued in his own vehicle for about 30 miles before both vehicles were pulled over in Hondo. The traffic officer didn’t make an immediate arrest but returned the boy to his father and advised him to contact the San Antonio Police Department, according to court documents. Caldwell reached a plea agreement in October in which she agreed to plead no contest to indecency with child by exposure — a third-degree felony — instead of aggravated sexual assault of a child, which could have resulted in a sentence of up to life. Both sides also agreed to a 10-year sentence, with the stipulation that prosecutors would remain silent as Caldwell asked the judge to let her serve the term on probation. In addition, Caldwell agreed to surrender her teaching certificate. Neither Caldwell’s accuser nor his family attended the hearing. “We felt like we had a good case, but the family was worried about putting the young boy through the emotional ordeal of a trial,” First Assistant District Attorney Cliff Herberg said of the plea agreement. “We wanted to be respectful of the family’s desires.” After the allegations were revealed, the boy appeared to withdraw from friends and family, prosecutors said they were told by the family. Although the boy has since made progress, his father feared that testifying at a trial would cause setbacks, according to Adriana Biggs, chief of the white-collar-crimes division. Since the arrest, Caldwell and her two children have moved to Eagle Pass. Her husband testified on her behalf Tuesday, suggesting that her “exemplary record” as a teacher prior to the incident provided a more accurate portrayal of who she is. “She was by all accounts a very good, dedicated teacher,” added defense attorney John Carroll. “The public humiliation and shame has been very difficult for her to deal with.” She’s got some dayum nerve asking the Judge for fawking probation! Images via tumblr
Teenage ‘Craigslist Killer’ Sentenced To Life In Prison The 17-year-old accomplis who aided another 53-year old mad in a Craigslist scheme where they lured and murdered several victims into their lives using phony job ads has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. via CBS News A teenager was sentenced to life in prison with no chance for parole Friday for his role in a deadly plot to lure men desperate for work with phony Craigslist job offers. Judge Lynne Callahan sentenced 17-year-old Brogan Rafferty, who had been convicted on Oct. 30 of aggravated murder and attempted murder in the deaths of three men and wounding of a fourth. The jury rejected the defense claim that Rafferty feared for himself and his family if he didn’t cooperate with his co-defendant, Richard Beasley of Akron. The 53-year-old Beasley, described as the teen’s spiritual mentor, has pleaded not guilty and faces a Jan. 7 trial. Prosecutors say the victims, all down in their luck and with few family ties that might highlight their disappearance, were lured with phony offers of farmhand jobs on Craigslist last year. Even though we agree that this teenager deserves to be held accountable for his own actions, that grown a** man should be ashamed of himself for influencing this 17-year-old boy to throw his life away like that. SMH. Image via Shutterstock
She ran out for three hours to charge her cell phone and luckily, an on-duty security guard came through the back door she left OPEN and found her 2 and 6-year old children sleeping in bed. According to The Daily Mail : A 22-year-old mother of two from Atlanta was arrested after police said she left her children alone in a cold, dark apartment with only the oven on to keep them warm while she went out to charge her cell phone. A security guard at an apartment complex on Confederate Court was making his rounds at around 11pm Tuesday when he noticed the back door to a unit ajar. He entered the apartment to investigate and discovered Shantonia Heard’s two young children, ages six and two, lying on the bed in a rear bedroom. According to the official, the home had no electricity or heat, and dog feces from the family’s pit bull puppy were littering the floor. In the kitchen, the gas oven was left on with the door open. The guard called police and told them that the kids were on their own for ‘a couple of hours’ before officers arrived on the scene. Paramedics who were called to the apartment complex examined the kids and determined that both were unharmed and in good health. An hour later, the children’s mother returned home to be greeted by investigators who were still at the apartment. Heard told police that she stepped out to charge her cell phone at a cousin’s nearby home, Fox 2 Now reported The 22-year-old mother was arrested and charged with cruelty to children, but during a hearing on Wednesday, her charge was downgraded to a misdemeanor reckless conduct, and she was granted a $5,000 signature bond, according to Atlanta Journal Constitution. Her two kids were taken into the custody of Division of Family and Children Services. The family dog was placed with Fulton County Animal Control, where it will remain until Heard is released from jail. Heard’s neighbors were outraged to hear about the young mother’s alleged actions. ‘You’re supposed to know better,’ Marquita Crudup, who lives with her six-year-old son in the apartment above Heard, told WXIA-TV. ‘I would be worried about the house burning down…. I just don’t understand.’ Heard’s family say this is all a misunderstand. One of her cousins told 11Alive that the 22-year-old was only gone a few minutes and did not want to wake the children. SMH. We’ve got too many questions, (like why the fawk do you have a puppy and no electricity on?), so we’ll let you ask them for us below! Images via facebook
The Cops never even released an Amber Alert , citing the teen “did not fit the criteria”. Her poor family had to get the heartbreaking news that their baby girl’s body was found, stuffed inside a furniture trunk, alongside the highway and everyone’s wondering if the Police should have done more. According to The Huffington Post , the family is asking the killer to come forward. The emotional plea came Thursday from Alicia Chanta Moore’s aunt, Jessica Byrd, on behalf of the 16-year-old murder victims’ entire family. “Do the right thing and turn yourself in. That’s all we ask you to do so we can get some sort of peace from this situation,” Byrd told The Huffington Post. The distraught aunt, whose deep sorrow was evident in her voice, added, “We’re not here to judge you. That’s not our job. That’s God’s job.” The body of 16-year-old Alicia Moore was discovered at about 12 p.m. Tuesday in a furniture trunk along Highway 47. The body, police said, was transported to the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office for the positive identification. According to Greenville Police Chief Dan Busken, detectives are treating the case as a homicide. Moore appears to have suffered trauma wounds, though the exact cause of death has not yet been determined, Busken said. “We have a lot of work ahead of us with this investigation,” Busken said. “We have received many tips from the community, and we hope those tips continue to come in.” The police chief did not elaborate on what type of trauma Moore suffered and did indicate whether police have a suspect in mind. Moore’s body was found in Van Zandt County, about 40 miles away from Greenville where she disappeared. Moore was last seen Friday afternoon when she got off the school bus. Busken said officials at Greenville Independent School District reviewed campus surveillance camera footage that showed Moore safely exit the bus at 3:25 p.m. Friday, near her home at the corner of Bourland and Walnut streets. What happened to the teen after her drop-off — roughly one block from her home — remains a mystery. “There’s nothing that we can think of that could have happened,” Byrd said. “She’s not the type that would just take off and she would not walk up to anybody she did not know. She is very shy and quiet. Either someone threatened her to come with them or she was approached by someone she trusted. We just don’t know.” Authorities said they interviewed Moore’s friends and teachers. The school district’s technology department also attempted to trace the location of Moore’s school-issued iPad, however officials said the device had been reset and was untraceable. Byrd said Moore’s family is upset that police did not do more to locate the missing teenager. An Amber Alert was never issued and a police press release was not issued until Monday, Byrd said. “[Police] didn’t do enough,” Byrd said. “They told us the situation did not qualify for an Amber Alert because there was no evidence of abduction. Then they waited till Monday to do something.” Cedric Fisher, a friend of Moore’s family, expressed the same doubts in an interview with The Dallas Morning News. “I feel like personally [the police] really dropped the ball,” Fisher said. Lori Philyaw, public information officer for the city of Greenville, Texas, told HuffPost Wednesday that authorities did not issue an Amber Alert for Moore because the case “did not fit the criteria.” According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, a law enforcement agency in Texas must meet a number of specific criteria’s to issue a state Amber Alert. That criterion includes determining whether abduction occurred and or if the child is in “immediate danger of sexual assault, death or serious bodily injury.” The Greenville Independent School District issued a notice to parents Thursday about a suspicious person who had approached a student. According to the notice, a student at Greenville Middle School reported being approached Wednesday and offered a ride by a man in a gray or silver Dodge four-door pickup truck. “The student reported that the suspect had been waiting on Texas Street in front of the Middle School as though waiting to pick up a child, only he did not pick up a child,” Superintendent Don Jeffries said. “Instead, the man drove his pickup truck toward the student in the parking lot. He lowered his window and asked if the student needed a ride and offered to take the student home. When the student refused, the man drove away west on Park.” Authorities have not yet commented on the possibility of a link between Wednesday’s report of a suspicious person and Moore’s homicide. Meanwhile, Byrd said that the last 6 days have been a living nightmare for her family. “We just don’t know why [this happened] or who could be responsible,” she said. “This is a nightmare that we wish would just go away.” Anyone with information in this case is asked to contact the Greenville Police Department at 903-457-2900. This is just all-around sad to think about. Knowing that last image of Alicia getting off of the bus is the last her loved ones have of her. Thoughts and prayers go to the family and we hope this is a reminder to us all to keep your beautiful babies close. There are monsters out there! Images via tumblr
Some people really shouldn’t be allowed to have kids . According to The Daily Mail : A Florida couple banished their six-year-old to a porch — where he was made to sleep for at least three days — ‘as punishment for stealing and eating too much,’ according to police. John Haley, 47, and his wife, Stephanie Haley, 41, were charged with felony child neglect Sunday after the shivering boy knocked on a neighbor’s door at 2 a.m. He told the neighbor he had been locked out of the house and forced to sleep on the porch, sheriff’s spokesman Gary Davidson told the Daytona Beach News-Journal. The neighbor gave the boy a blanket and potato chips and called for help. Temperatures dipped into the 50s on the nights that the child was forced to sleep outside. ‘When deputies arrived at the scene, the boy told them that he had been forced to sleep on the back porch for three days,’ Davidson told the newspaper. ‘He also said that he’s fed rice for lunch and dinner every day, and when there’s no rice, he’s given lettuce to eat.’ When he’s not on the porch, he’s often locked in the garage and only allowed inside when he needs to use the bathroom, the boy said. Authorities knocked on the Haley’s door after talking to their son and asked them if they knew where he was. The couple said he was asleep in a bedroom. ‘When deputies informed them that he was at a neighbor’s house cold and hungry and complaining about being forced to sleep on the porch, John Haley initially acted shocked at the news,’ Davidson said. ‘But he later admitted that he and his wife make the boy sleep on the porch as punishment for stealing and eating too much.’ The Haley’s didn’t see anything wrong with the boy’s punishment, Davidson said. They were booked into Volusia County Branch Jail and are being held without bail. The Department of Children & Families has now taken custody of the other six children at the house — three boys and three girls, ranging in age from 1 to 15 years old. All of their kids have been sent to live with other family members. Hopefully they get better treatment with them since their own dayum parents didn’t give an isht! SMH. Images via facebook
