Rapist sentenced to 50 more years for week-long assault on wife - appeal denied

(Original Post 9-29-09)
A man who was convicted of raping his wife in a second trial was sentenced to 50 years in prison in addition to 22 years handed down in a previous aggravated rape conviction. The 50 years sentence stems from two consecutive 25 year sentences for aggravated rape and especially aggravated kidnapping. 6 year sentences for aggravated burglary and aggravated assault were imposed, but they'll run concurrently with the other charges.

Sullivan County Criminal Court Judge Robert Montgomery said that he “I shudder to think what might have happened” if Bristol TN resident Doug Young, 49, hadn't been apprehended in Georgia a week after he kidnapped and raped his wife, Heather Moore.

The rapes and kidnapping occurred over the week of January 4 to 11, 2008 after they ate breakfast at Moore's home. Young's presence was a violation of the protective order Moore filed against him on December 3, 2007, citing that “[Young] possesses many firearms and has threatened to shoot me and I am in fear for my life.” Moore's father, fred Moore began staying with his daughter, trying to protect her.

The two traveled in Moore’s vehicle to Asheville, N.C., where they spent the night at a rest stop; to Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where they circled the scenic loop over and over again; and to Cherokee, N.C., where they holed up at the Drama Inn for most of the next week, according to testimony presented Monday and Tuesday.

From Cherokee, Young and Moore took shopping and dining excursions to Spartanburg, S.C., and Clayton, Ga. From Jan. 4 to Jan. 11, Moore testified, Young kept a gun trained on her at almost all times, and forced her to have sex with him on at least seven separate occasions. Prosecutors are focusing only on the incidents that occurred in Sullivan County.

Everywhere they went, Moore testified, Young kept the pistol in his right-hand pants pocket. One day, while drinking vodka and driving, Young menaced her with the gun, running it up and down her head, saying, “I could kill you right now,” she recalled.

Friday’s sentencing concluded the most serious charges that Young racked up in just over a month between Dec. 1, 2007, and Jan. 10, 2008. Before then, he had been a superintendent at BurWil Construction, whose worst offense was an incident of joyriding as a juvenile.

But with his marriage to Moore unraveling, Young turned violent, sexually assaulting Moore in December 2007 at her home, after she refused to give him a hug, a jury concluded.

Then, on the eve of finalizing their divorce and days ahead of a hearing on Young’s aggravated rape charge, he violated the court’s no-contact order and stole in to Moore’s house to wait for her.

Prosecutors in Young’s second trial in August built their case by focusing on his offenses from the time he entered Moore’s residence, to when he left, abducting her at gunpoint, and commandeering her car.

According to Moore's previous victim impact statement, she fears coming home at dark, her rapist escaping and putting a gun to her head, and has to face the door when eating at restaurants. "All of this make it very difficult to report a crime like this and have the most horrible thing that has ever happened to you be exposed in the media for all to see.”

Moore's mother, Margaret Schaffer, said that “We’re going forward now. We’re not looking back.” Young's 2008 rape conviction is currently being appealed.

(Update 5-27-11) Doug Young's appeal of his 2009 rape conviction has been denied by the Tennessee Court Of Criminal Appeals in a unanimous decision dated Monday, May 23, 2011. The appeal is based on the introduction of Young's 1st rape conviction in the second trial as evidence. The court said that while testimony regarding the first rape conviction was a bit excessive, it allowed prosecutors to privide evidence of a criminal plan or motive. The appellate court also ruled that other evidence against Young outweightd the error of allowing the testimony relating to the first conviction. The entire decision can be found here in this pdf file. The case number is E2010-00027-CCA-R3-CD.

Man who shot father-in-law to death while stalking estranged wife sentenced to 50 years

A man who shot his father-in-law to death at a mall while gunning for his estranged wife was sentenced to 50 years without parole. Michael James Young Jr, 25, was sentenced in a Lexington County, SC courtroom Monday, April 11 after pleading guilty to murder and assault with intent to kill for the shooting of his estranged wife, then 21 year old Shaunna Bell, and her father, a retired US Air Force officer, 49 year old Robert Lynn Bell, on June 13, 2007 in the Columbiana Center mall parking lot.

Before the deadly shooting four days shy of Father’s Day that year, Bell had called police to report that Young threatened to destroy the kiosk at the mall where she sold computers and told her he didn’t care if she lost her job. He also damaged her parents’ vehicle. She told police at the time that Young was known to carry a snub-nosed .38-caliber revolver.

Her father had been driving Bell to and from work for several weeks in an attempt to keep Young away from his daughter, said Robert Rikard, a Columbia lawyer hired by the family.

The Bells are suing the security company, saying that they did not do enough to protect Shaunna from her husband's stalking. While Young was banned from the mall, the supervisor on duty was not informed of this fact.

Shaunna said in her victim impact statement, "I think about getting married and not having anyone to walk me down the aisle. My father/daughter dance was taken from me. When my mom’s birthday or Mother’s Day comes around, I do not have anyone to secretly call for details of what she has been wanting.”

Young has accepted his responsibility for the mall shooting and has expressed his remorse “innumerable” times, his lawyer, John Delgado, said. “He considers it a life sentence, but he considers it a just sentence for what he did.” Despite Young’s imposing size, his aggression toward women “was his way of being able to assert himself in the world,” Delgado said, saying Young had no self esteem.
“He’s a completely different person now,” the lawyer said.

The 50 year sentence for murder will be served concurrently with the assault with intent to kill. In exchange for the guilty plea, Young saw four stalking charges, and single charges of forgery, telephone harassment, and assault with intent to kill. Judge Thomas Russo was the presiding judge over this case.

LA county health inspector gets 115 days jail, lifetime SO registration for groping donut shop owner

A Los Angeles County health inspector was sentenced to 115 days in jail, three years probation and lifetime sex offender registration February 3 for groping a Pomona, CA doughnut shop owner. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David Brougham meted out the sentence February 3 in a Pomona, CA courtroom. 51 year old Magdy Tawadros was convicted on January 26 after jurors found him guilty of a single sexual battery count.

The groping took place March 24, 2010, at the 45 year old victim's shop, Pixie Donuts. A surveillance camera caught Tawadros grabbing the woman in the back room of her shop and touching her chest as she tried to get away. The victim's civil attorney, Tim McDonough, elaborates on the encounter.

"The first actual assault was a hug, at which point the female store owner distracts him and says, 'I have to look out for the customers,' and she escapes, and after that a second altercation occurs where she's reeled in and of course there's some groping that occurs, and some inappropriate hand touching and things of that nature, and at that point a second escape occurs that then leads on to a third physical altercation. He spends about 15 minutes on the premises asking the female store owner if he can date her, and asks for her phone number and apparently leaves another business card with her in an attempt to solicit her to engage in some sort of encounter with him in the future," said McDonough. The victim went to the police March 29, 2010.

Tawadros, who worked in the West Covina bureau of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, was initially placed on desk duty, but fired on April 14 after the surveillance tape came to light. According to defense attorney Michael Holmes, "Watching (the jury) view the surveillance tape it was clear they were uncomfortable with what happened and I think that was the deciding factor."

It was the second jury trial in the case. The first ended in a mistrial after Deputy District Attorney Lauren Guber failed to give Tawadros' defense attorney an audio recording she made during interviews with the alleged victim and her husband. Deputy District Attorney Daniel Rochmes prosecuted the case to conviction, Gibbons said. Rochmes could not immediately be reached for comment.

The victim impact statement by the woman and her husband said they were "so relieved now that the jury has found Mr. Tawadros guilty... In our view, he has shown no remorse for what he did and he has fabricated a gross public lie intended to prove that he was innocent and to turn the tables on his victims, our family. He used his advantageous position as a county public code enforcer to commit a criminal act while he was on duty."

A $10 million lawsuit has been filed against Tawadros by the victim.

Fabulist who murdered wife convicted, sentenced to LWOP

(Initial Post 9-26-10)
A Tulsa County, OK jury needed only a half hour of deliberation in a lawyer's shooting murder by her own husband. John Robert Kastner, 52, was convicted of the 1st degree murder of his wife, 44 year old Lori Moon Kastner, at their south side Tulsa, OK home on June 25, 2008. The motive, according to Tulsa County, OK prosecutors, was that the victim was about to expose her husband's lies.

Kastner had led his family to believe that all five family members were traveling by plane to Israel on June 25, 2008, prosecutors said. Kastner indicated he was a former member of the Israeli military who had been honored for heroism and that the trip to Israel was related to a high-paying job that Lori Kastner was going to get with a corporation connected to her husband.

No such flight or job offer existed, and Kastner never served in the Israeli military, prosecutors said.

Kastner made significant financial promises to benefit Webster that he could not keep, and he "was a ticking time bomb getting ready to explode," [First Assistant District Attorney Doug] Drummond said.

Drummond also insisted that "[Kastner's] reputation was going to be ruined, and that was the most important thing in John Kastner's life."

The other prosecutor in the case, Assistant District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler, said that Kastner, the "legend of Webster High School," is "nothing but a bald-faced liar. You cannot believe a word that the defendant says."

Kastner said the killer was an intruder who he said picked up Kastner's gun in the house. He told police that he struggled with the intruder and was shot in the hand, and he said the intruder fled with a bag containing about $5,000, evidence indicated.

Kunzweiler said Kastner's account features a "mysterious man" moving around in a dark house and finding a loaded gun and money on the same table. Kastner was an English teacher, "and as an English teacher he deals in fiction," Kunzweiler said

Assistant Public Defender Jill Webb said that Kastner had no motive to kill his wife because killing her would not solve his problems - "John's problem was John." Webb said that while Kastner was guilty of lying and making false promises, it did not prove he was a murderer. Kastner was never called to the witness stand.

When he is formally sentenced tomorrow, Kastner will be sentenced to life without parole - in Oklahoma, murder carries death, life without parole, or life with parole. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty, and jurors ruled out life with parole.  Amber Merchant, Lori Kastner's best friend, said "We're very pleased with the verdict and feel like justice was served."

Kastner plans to appeal the verdict, according to Chief Public Defender Pete Silva. The presiding judge is District Judge Tom Gillert.

(Update 9-29-10) Kastner was formally sentenced to life without parole Monday, September 27, 2010. If he had been granted parole, he would have had to serve 38 and 3 months before his first chance of it.

Bangor, ME woman gets six years for scalding, sexually assaulting man

A 28 year old Bangor, ME woman was sentenced to 6 years in the Maine prison system yesterday for sexually assaulting, then scalding a now 43 year old man. Laura M. Smith plead guilty in June to elevated aggravated assault and gross sexual assault for scalding her victim with boiling water and sexually assaulting him with a wooden dowel on November 28, 2009.

The 43-year-old man, who is not being identified by the Bangor Daily News, was passed out at a party at Smith’s First Street apartment in Bangor. In addition to suffering second-degree burns on his back, the man’s bowel was perforated, according to court documents. The victim also suffered a broken ankle when Smith and another man moved him to his apartment. He was hospitalized for more than a month, according to previous reports.

Superior Court Justice William Anderson sentenced Smith to 18 years in prison with six to serve and four years probation afterwards. Penobscot County district attorney Michael Roberts and  defense attorney David Bate agreed on the 18 year sentence, but Roberts believe only 6 years of the sentence should be suspended. Bate did not give a sentencing recommendation.

Just before the sentencing, Smith said “I am truly sorry for the pain and suffering I caused. I truly, truly am sorry for all that you have been through.” The victim was not present during Smith's sentencing. Smith also tried to partially excuse herself by claiming the attack was due to her alcoholism.

The following is Judge Anderson's sentencing statement. “Although this was a barbaric and depraved act, I can’t conclude it was done for sexual gratification as the statute defines the crime. It seems to have begun as a cruel, painful and degrading prank. The person who did it was not really aware of how horribly painful this was going to be to the victim. There’s absolutely no reason in the world for this to have happened.”

Smith will be credited for the time she has served in the Penobscot County Jail. After release, she will have to register as a sex offender for a decade.

Katy, TX man sentenced to 48 years with half to serve for point-blank shooting murder of wife

A Katy, TX man was sentenced to 48 years imprisonment Monday, September 20 for the point-blank shooting murder of his wife. Michael Wayne Cantu, a petrochemical engineer, will be eligible for parole after serving half of his sentence. Cantu was tried in Texas 400th District Court under Presiding Judge Clifford J. Vacek.

Cantu reported his wife of 15 years, Jackie Ramirez Cantu, shot herself at their home in the 26300 block of Eden Point on April 24, 2008.

He said during the initial police investigation that he and his 37-year-old wife got into an argument while looking at family photos and reported that his wife then went into the master bathroom and shot herself in the forehead with a .38-caliber revolver.

The couple's two children, now 11 and 9, were in the house at the time but were asleep, [Defense attorney Wendell]Odom said.

Changing statements about the manner of the woman's death led police to charge Cantu with murder. Cantu first told police that he was in the kitchen when his wife committed suicide, then changed his story to claim he was in the bathroom. Cantu later told detectives that he move the gun from the bathroom floor, where it was pointed towards the victim's neck. Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office officials eventually ruled Jackie Cantu's death a homicide.

During the trial, Fort Bend County prosecutor Chad Bridges successfully argued that the changing statements, along with ballistics showing gunpowder residue on Michael's hands and a bruise where he pressed the gun up against Jackie's forehead before firing, constituted evidence of murder. According to Bridges, the forehead bruise was "a tight contact wound, which is inconsistent with trying to pull the firearm away." Jackie tried to defend herself before the father of her two children killed her.

As for the nature of the argument, Bridges said "As for what exactly happened that night and what they were arguing about, we don't know," Bridges said. "We don't know what the exact nature of the conversation was."  About the jury, he said, "We recognize the juror’s personal sacrifice to see that justice is done. It was a long trial of terrible circumstances and intense emotions.  It’s never pleasant but always necessary

The Cantus met while both of them were attending Texas A&M University. Jackie Cantu was originally from Bryan, while Michael Cantu was from Houston. They married in 1992. Both graduated from Texas A&M with Jackie Cantu earning a degree in microbiology, said her father, Guillermo Ramirez of Bryan.
 
"I wish this thing would have never happened to my daughter, to the family. There's a lot of sadness. The only justice that would satisfy me is if my daughter came back and if I could turn back time and prevent this from happening. But I can't."
 
Odom said this about his client after the sentencing. "He's always maintained that it was an accident, that he was trying to take the gun away from her.He's realizing that his life will never be the same — that he'll probably spend the rest of his adult life in the penitentiary. He vows that someday he'll be exonerated."
 
The Cantu children, the true victims of this crime, are being cared for by both sets of grandparents.

Man who dropped into house, stabbed estranged wife to death sentenced to life without parole

On Friday, September 17, a Ft. Worth, TX man who stabbed his estranged wife to death in front of his 8 year old twin boys, named after him, was sentenced to life without parole by State District Judge Mike Thomas. 41-year-old Alma Garcia was stabbed to death by her husband, 42 year old Abel Noe Dominguez, on March 8, 2009. Dominguez broke into his wife's house and stabbed her between 11 PM and 10 AM, according to the testimony of his two oldest children, earning him a capital murder charge, which is applied to murder committed in the course of another felony, in this case, burglary.

[Noely] Dominguez, 17, said she spent most of the day [March 7, 2009] at South Hills High School practicing track and cheerleading.

She said her brothers, Abel and Noe, were at a neighbor’s house while their mother and Janette [Jaimes, 20 year old]were at a birthday party. After returning home about 10 p.m., Dominguez said she picked up her brothers and went back to their house, where the boys watched television in their mother’s room. Dominguez said she watched TV in her own room.

About 11 p.m., when she looked out the window after her dog began barking, Dominguez said she saw a ladder leaned up against the house. Several hours after she went to sleep, she heard her mother and Janette come home but she went back to sleep, she said.

Prosecutors contend that Dominguez broke into the home and waited for Garcia. Defense attorneys say that Dominguez walked through the front door of a house that he shared with Garcia.

Nohely Dominguez said she and Janette were awakened about 11 a.m. by her brothers screaming, “Wake up, I think Mommy’s dead.” When she hesitantly went into her mother’s room, where the boys had been sleeping, Dominguez found “blood everywhere” and her mother['s] body. “We tried shaking her but she was dead,” she said.

During closing arguments,  prosecutors Alana Minton and Kimberly D'Avignon argued that the break-in was burglary because the victim's sister owned the home and the victim kicked her husband out during a violent argument two weeks before her murder. While defense attorneys Wes Ball and Santiago Salinas argued it was Dominguez' home because he made mortgage payments for 15 years, Minton said that the way he entered - climbing onto the roof, dropping through a hole in his sons' room, then lying in wait to stab him victim 19 times, made it murder committed during a burglary.

The burglary specification was significant because in Texas, jurors can convict defendants of capital murder, which carried life without parole or the death penalty, if the homicide is committed during the course of another felony. In Texas, burglary is defined as breaking into someone's home without permission to commit another felony. If not, the homicide becomes simple murder, punishable by 5 to 99 years with one-third to serve. Tarrant County jurors found Dominguez guilty of capital murder after three hours of deliberation over two days.

During the victim impact statement, made after sentencing, Patricia Rodriguez, the homeowner and sister of the victim, said that the children They not only lost their mother. They lost their father. They still have nightmares and cry themselves to sleep because what you’ve done.”

British man receives 15 to life for stabbing "girlfriend" during sex

By Jaya Narain [Daily Mail] Last updated at 8:00 AM [BST] on 8th September 2010

A man stabbed his girlfriend to death after she accidentally blurted out the name of another man as they made love. Gary Higgs, 44, flew into a rage when his girlfriend suddenly cried out: 'Chris!'. He stormed downstairs, grabbed a chef's knife and stabbed Joanne Kitchen once in the back and once in the chest.

As she was dying from her wounds, he throttled the 41-year-old to death with the electrical flex of their alarm clock. He later told police: 'I asked her why she said "Chris", but she said she must have been thinking about her daughter's boyfriend Chris.' Manchester Crown Court heard Chris had been at the house the day before.

But Higgs told officers: 'It didn't make any sense to me and I was getting more angry. Why was she thinking about her daughter's boyfriend when we were having sex?

'I couldn't get things out of my mind. I didn't know exactly what I was thinking. I picked the knife up and carried it upstairs to the bedroom. I don't remember thinking I wanted to harm Jo at this time.I was just so mad.' Higgs also said that after he stabbed her, Miss Kitchen told him: 'You've killed me.'

Higgs, who admitted murder, was yesterday jailed for life and told he must serve a minimum of 15 years.
The court heard the couple ditched their long-term partners and moved in together after talking on Facebook.

Paul Reid, QC, prosecuting, said they struggled financially and depended on Miss Kitchen's wage as a security officer at a college in Bury. Early one morning in April this year a woman waiting at a bus stop heard 'argumentative screams' from a woman coming from the couple's home and another witness saw Higgs standing bare - chested at the window.

The alarm was raised when Miss Kitchen failed to turn up for work and her daughters could not contact their mother by phone or text. The landlord of the house in Radcliffe, near Bury, let the two women in and he found her body in the upstairs room.

Sentencing Higgs, Judge Andrew Gilbart, QC, said the relationship had been overcome by financial tensions and arguments. He said: "Those tensions can lead to mistrust and sexual jealousy. It seems you were overcome by your view that she could still be interested sexually in others and be as readily welcoming to conduct an affair with others as she had been with you. There is no evidence of that whatsoever, but even if there were, it cannot justify what you did. In my judgment, this is a case of an unreasonably possessive man killing his lover in a rage."

Policeman in Oz sentenced to 33 years with 24 to serve in cliff murder of wife

Des Campbell, the former policeman who murdered his wife Janet by pushing her off a cliff, was jailed for a maximum of 33 years [Friday September 3]. Campbell, 52, dressed in a green prison tracksuit, did not react as the sentence was handed down.

"There can be no doubt that the circumstances under which Janet Campbell met her death demonstrate the offender's sustained callousness towards her for nothing more than monetary gain," the sentencing judge, Megan Latham, said.

Justice Latham, whose decision was shown live to the public via video link, sentenced him to a 24-year non-parole period in "recognition of the deliberate taking of a life". Justice Latham said the non-parole period would expire in May 2034.

Killer and victim met in the Riverina town of Deniliquin, where Janet Fisicaro worked as a hospital orderly.

Campbell, who had previously been a policeman in Victoria and England, was working as a paramedic.

Janet, 49, had been left well off when her first husband died. Prosecutors argued that Campbell was only ever after her money, with the Crown prosecutor, Mark Tedeschi, QC, comparing the murder to a contract killing.

On March 24, 2005 - six months after they secretly wed, and a week after Janet finally told her family of the marriage - Campbell took her camping in the Royal National Park. Just before nightfall Janet fell to her death from a 50-metre cliff near their campsite. ASupreme Court jury rejected Campbell's claims that she fell accidentally, convicting him in May of murder.

The trial heard that Campbell secretly carried on affairs with other women during his relationship with Janet.

He did not attend her funeral, and booked a holiday with one of his girlfriends the week after his wife plunged to her death.A few months later, the widower holidayed in the Philippines, where he met the woman who became his fourth wife.

"Boyfriend" who strangled woman to death with bra sentenced to 45 years

A man with a long history of mental illness was sentenced to 45 years behind bars for the 2nd degree murder of his "girlfriend," who he strangled to death with her own bra. Circuit Judge F. Rand Wallis imposed the sentence on Orlando, FL resident Abdullah Khalig as the result of a guilty plea to 2nd degree murder in the death of Lolitta Flores February last year. The sentencing range was between 30 and 45 years.

Khalig described a long history of drug use and mental illness. But he admitted to strangling Flores with a bra. He said the voices came in his sleep. He woke up, reached over and started strangling her, he said.

"What I remember that night, I was hearing voices and I couldn't control myself," the 38 year old said in court this morning. "They were telling me to strangle her. I strangled her with the bra," he said. 49 year old Flores, a victim of Khalig's violence according to a December 2008 DV complaint, was last seen alive February 21, 2009.

He went away to use drugs and told a friend what happened. The friend contacted police, who arrested Khalig. The perpetrator led authorities to Flores' nude body, bra still around her neck, who had been dead about a week. Police believe she was murdered the night of February 22-23, 2009.  "I just needed to let it out. I felt bad for what I did. I'm thinking clearly now. I'd just like to apologize to the family and the friends."

Initially, Khalig denied killing Flores to authorities, but he later confessed. Khalig said he suffers from schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder. A psychiatric evaluation, however, determined Khalig's condition did not meet the legal requirements of an insanity plea. And all parties agreed Khalig was competent to make his guilty plea.

Khalig asked for a 30-year sentence. So did his defense attorney, Marc Burnham, who told the judge that no matter what his sentence, Khalig would be an old man if he makes it out of prison. [He]described a long history of drug use — including crack cocaine and heroin — and mental illness. He said he was homeless before staying with Flores, who held a steady job as manager for a telemarketing company. He added that they used drugs together. And he openly admitted to strangling Flores with a bra.

Phillip Marion Warren, the half brother of Flores, who experienced her as a mother figure, asked for the maximum sentence. "You took away my mother.I know he's accepted responsibility. Do I forgive him, your honor? Yes, I do. I also believe he deserves the maximum time he can get."

Assistant State Attorney Jim Altman also asked for the maximum. "You took that bra and wrapped it around her neck until you were sure she was dead?" "Yes sir," Khalig responded.

After the sentencing, Warren said, "The judge listened. He gave us the 45-year maximum. We were very happy with that."

Man kills woman he wed twice over other husband - had 2nd wife of own

Clair Fullarton, Kilmarnock Standard

A KILMARNOCK man has been jailed for life for murdering the woman he had married for the second time. George Clark, 53, was ordered to spend at least 14 years for what temporary judge Michael O'Grady QC described as the ‘cowardly and brutal’ murder of his wife Sharlene. The High Court in Glasgow heard that love triangle killer Clark married his victim Sharlene twice and moved with her into the home he shared with his second wife Helen, 58.

Judge O'Grady told Clark: “You have taken the life of your own wife. A woman who had a lot to live for.”
The High Court in Glasgow heard that Clark told a social worker that she had it coming to her saying: “I would have done it sooner or later.”

Clark murdered 44-year-old Sharlene by knifing her three times on the chest and once on the neck, a day after sending a chilling text message saying he was going to kill her. As Sharlene lay dying Clark dialled 999 and told an operator: “I've just stabbed my wife. Would you please get an ambulance. She's not breathing, hurry up.” When paramedics arrived on the scene they found Clark with both hands covered in blood and Sharlene lying dead on the living room floor.

Prosecutor Alastair Carmichael revealed that Clark has previous convictions for assault, breach of the peace and road traffic offences.

The couple who were first married 27 years earlier fell in love again after meeting by chance when Clark returned to Kilmarnock. Within seven months on March 11, 2009, they had married for a second time on the anniversary of their first wedding. They were the last couple to be married in the old registrar’s office in Kilmarnock town centre.

At first the couple were besotted with each other and even got tattoos to show their love for one another. Sharlene had the word George tattooed on her back and Clark had Sharlene tattooed on his body. But, Clark was jealous of Sharlene's friendship with former love Hayden McGonigale, 42, and she feared Clark was going to return to his second wife Helen.

Clark said he loved his wife and added: “I wouldn't have hurt Sharlene in a million years”, claimed he had killed her in self-defence after she had launched a murderous attack on him with a kitchen knife. He admitted picking up a double-edged hunter's knife and stabbing her, but claimed he was fighting for his life.

But the jury didn't believe his story and convicted him of murdering 44-year-old Sharlene, a mum of four and a gran of one, at 25 Lindsay Drive on October 12, last year.

Ex-"boyfriend" sentenced to 15 years for attemped murder of woman outside mall

A man who stabbed his ex-"girlfriend" 5 times outside the Main Place Mall in downtown Buffalo, NY last year was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment by Erie County Judge Thomas P. Franczyk Tuesday, June 22. Jeffery Pearson, 51, stabbed "girlfriend" 48 year old Jean Cox on February 25, 2009 after an argument, presumably over her new boyfriend. According to Homicide Prosecutor Thomas M. Finnerty, only the actions of two bystanders prevented the attack from becoming a murder case.

He was found guilty by the judge after a two-day trial in April. Besides attempted murder, he was convicted of aggravated criminal contempt for violating a court order of protection that the victim had obtained against him before the attack and aggravated harassment for threatening telephone calls he kept making to her. 

Pearson claimed that he "snapped," with Cox accidentally falling on his knife 5 times. The judge saw through that lie - people don't accidently fall on knives carried by others even once.

His lawyer, Louis P. Violanti, argued that the attack represented only “two minutes of [Pearson’s] life.” He also told the judge that his client, a reformed drug addict, is “an emotional man who suffers from depression and anxiety.”

Though Pearson apologized to Cox, who was in court for the sentencing, Pearson still tried to minimize responsibility, stating that the knife was intended for a suicide in front of the victim, not her attempted murder.

"Husband" gets 5 years for infecting wife with HIV

A 51 year old suburban Cleveland man was sentenced to 5 years in prison for giving his wife HIV, which because of lack of treatment, progressed into full-blown AIDS. Fernando Castro pleaded guilty to felonious assault February 10 in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. Judge Timothy McGinty said, "This is a crime that calls for punishment. There is a price to pay for such irresponsible behavior."

Castro began getting treatment for HIV from MetroHealth Medical Center in 1993, medical officials testified.

His first wife died of health problems caused by the infection the following year.

When he met his current wife in 1995, he told her that his first wife died of cervical cancer. He got treatment behind her back and even got his son from his first marriage, who is now 17, tested. He never told his current wife, however, that he was infected and made up excuses when she saw him taking pills.

The victim was charmed by Castro's knowledge of the Bible and basketball. "I thought he was going to be a real good father figure to my children," she said. Warning signs she sped past included sugessting that she drop contact with her family. "He never wanted me to have any contact with his family at all. My family always thought he was sneaky." They married in 2004.

Then she started dropping weight, feeling cold and getting the chills. She chalked it up to the cool temperature in the lab, then decided she was catching a cold. By the end of July, she was running a fever, coughing and having trouble breathing. Her doctor diagnosed a respiratory infection and prescribed antibiotics.

Instead of getting better, she grew worse. On Aug. 5, she went without her husband to the emergency room at Fairview Hospital. Doctors admitted her immediately and kept her for more than a week. "They thought I was going to die," she said.

While she was in the hospital, her husband moved out of their Cleveland home and into an apartment in Beachwood. Finally, doctors confirmed she had had HIV for years and that it had developed into AIDS. She ordered her family out of her hospital room, and, as she cried, she remembered a fight she once had with her husband.

"He said, 'One of these days you're going to get what's coming to you,' " she said. "I told him, 'If you hurt me in any kind of way, I'm going to press charges.' "

She had never thought he would do anything to hurt her, but now that she inexplicably had AIDS, she went to Cleveland police. Officers pulled her husband's medical records, which revealed that he had been getting treatment for HIV since at least 2004, the year they married.

It was then that Castro abandoned his victim. He was charged in October, and this exchange occurred on Castro's 51st birthday, when the victim's 7 year old adopted son sent Castro a card. "I said, 'What, were you waiting for me to die? I was at the hospital and you didn't even tell me. That way they can take care of me right away rather than me waiting 10 days [in the hospital] to figure it out so they can give me the right medicine.'

The hospitailzations and treatment cost the woman her job as a dialysis worker. SHe sold her wedding ring to support her family, including the 7 year old boy. However, she still needs assistance in getting the divorce finalized. When one of her older children got married earlier this year and their HIV tests came back healthy, "I cried the whole ceremony. I'm not going to let this destroy me."

Ghanian immigrant gets 20 to 40 years for murder of wife in front of their 7 year old child

A Ghanian immigrant was sentenced to 20-40 years for strangling his wife and leaving her 7 year old son to find his mother's body by Allegany County, PA Common Pleas Judge Kathleen A. Durkin. Jude Agbley, 35 and of Forest hills, a suburb of Pittsburgh, was handed the maximum for the 3rd degree murder of his wife Brenda Agbley, 40 because "It's an especially traumatic situation for the child to see his mother [killed]."

In a victim impact statement, Corey Gibson, the 7 year old son of the victim, said "Keep Jude in jail for life. I wish my dad hadn't done what he did to my mom. I am still angry at my dad, Jude, and I will miss him."

Heather Lorigan, the 23 year old daughter of the victim, and Corey's half sister, said that Agbley should be imprisoned for life - something which is mandatory in Pennsylvania only for 1st and 2nd degree murder.

For Lorigan and her family, her mother's death was the second tragedy to strike. Eight months earlier in May 2008, two people attacked Heather and her father, Thomas Lorigan, in Greenville in Mercer County. Thomas Lorigan died in the attack and Heather, who was stabbed in the head, now uses a wheelchair.

The victim's mother, 61 year old Marilyn Allen, said Agbley's murder of her daughter compounded her family's tragedy. "We had just gone through all of that eight months earlier and Jude knew that," she said.

Mrs. Agbley was found dead on the living room couch in her Ogden Avenue home by her son. A week later, immigration agents captured Mr. Agbley at a Greyhound bus station in Detroit. Detectives found 14 threatening text messages on Mrs. Agbley's cell phone, sent from a number listed in her directory as "Jude." The text messages suggested that Mr. Agbley believed his wife was cheating on him.

Agbley was facing outstanding burglary charges and a failure to appear warrant on them dating from 2003, and ICE agents issued a deportation order for him the following year. He apologized to the victim's family, saying "I deeply regret this unfortunate incident. I pray for Brenda every day and I hope that she can find peace and comfort."

However, Assistant District Attorney Mike Sullivan pointed to the brutality and callousness of the crime in explaining why he believed Agbley's "remorse" was an act. "He leaves the body on the couch and doesn't call police. He leaves an 8-year-old boy alone. The remorse Mr. Agbley is attempting to express is nothing more than a ruse."

Wife who set fire, ran over husband sentenced to life without parole

A woman who murdered her husband was sentenced to life without parole by a Michigan judge Monday, February 8. Linda Kay Stermer, 45, was found guilty by a Van Buren County circuit court jury of 1st degree and felony murder. On Jan. 7, 2007, Sterner set fire to the house she shared with her husband and sons. Her husband was incapacitated by the perpetrator by either medicine or a hit upside the head, according to prosecution witnesses.

Todd Stermer, 42, made it out of the house, according to testimony, but was run over by a van driven by his wife and died shortly after emergency personnel arrived.

Michigan State Police investigators testified during the five-day trial that the fire at the residence in the 66500 block of County Road 215 was deliberately set. Forensic laboratory specialists said Todd Stermer’s clothing had gasoline on them and a gas station employee testified to seeing Linda Stermer purchased gasoline that she dispensed into a container earlier on the day of the fire.

There was testimony linking Linda Stermer to another man, that she and Todd Stermer had been arguing and that she had sent their boys to a Kalamazoo mall on the day of the fire.

Even after her conviction and sentencing, Linda still claimed innocence. “I didn’t set the fire. I did not kill my husband. And at this point, I fully believe that it was not arson, either.”

Brad Sterner, the victim's brother, shot back, saying “The jury didn’t get it wrong, Linda. They got it right. When you go to prison, we will be relieved that his children will be safe and you’ll never hurt anyone again."

Helping those kids become productive adults will be part of Sandra Stermer's job. She thanked prosecutors for speaking for her. “I hadn’t thought about standing up to speak. The police, the prosecutors, the jury got it right. They spoke for me.”

Suburban Toledo man gets 40 years for rape of estranged wife during standoff

A suburban Toledo, OH man was sentenced to 40 years in prison yesterday for a hostage standoff where he held and raped his then estranged, now ex-wife, Barbara at gunpoint for six hours. After a two day trial, Michael Sweirgosz, 47, was convicted of three counts of kidnapping, one count of felonious assault, two counts of rape, one count of aggravated burglary, and a count of weapon posession while under felony indictment.

The convictions stem from an incident April 28 in which he held his victim hostage for several hours during a standoff with police that shut down a local retirement village and schools in the area.

Nine witnesses testified during the trial, including Swiergosz's ex-wife and Swiergosz himself. The evidence showed that Swiergosz armed himself with a stolen 9mm pistol and went to the Sunset Retirement Communities on Indian Road where his then-estranged wife was employed.

About 50 police officers responded to the scene, and Swiergosz kept them at bay for about six hours. He released his ex-wife after more than five hours and gave himself up about 30 minutes later.

During the trial, Swiergosz said that the purpose of his entry onto his estranged wife's workplace was to get answers to a long list of questions, and a desire to be with his kids. He admitted that he brought the gun with him and had sex, but claimed the gun was there as a prop and the sex was consensual.

Before sentencing, he said, "I lived my life as a good person and a faithful husband and a good father for 46+ years. I let all of what happened get the best of me. For that I am truly sorry. All I want is for the opportunity to be a father again."

The victim said she still has images of blood dripping down her body as her now ex-husband raped and was threatening to kill her.

The Swiergosz's were married for 14 years before the attack last year. Their four kids are 17, 12, 8 and 1. On March 10, 2009, police were called to their home for a domestic violence incident which turned into a standoff. This incident started as an argument and escalated after he fired twice at Barbara, who escaped. Their 7 year old daughter witnessed the incident in a van. Barbara left and took the kids with her after the first standoff. Judge Alan Mayberry of Wood County Common Pleas Court sentenced Sweirgosz to seven years for the standoff, inculding a year in a plea to burglary of the gun used in the April 28 incident from an acquaintance's home. Judge Denise Ann Dart's sentence will run consecutive to Judge Mayberry's sentence.

Judge Dart told the perpetrator, "It's clear you are very disturbed," and said that he had no regard for his kids only for himself.

Prosecutor Dean Mandrose said, "I think the judge recognized that he has an obsession - fixation on his ex-wife and that he twice subjected her to very traumatic incidents where she was physically injured." The victim said she still has images of blood dripping down her body as her now ex-husband raped and was threatening to kill her.

Swiergosz plans to appeal. If he gets out (highly unlikely because Ohio sentences have no good time reductions), he must register for the rest of his life as a Tier 3 sex offender.

"Girlfriend" gets at least 32 years for torture death of man in Northern England

Life sentences for Chilton torture murderers
12:07pm Friday 22nd January 2010
Neil Hunter The Northern Echo

TWO people are today starting life sentences after being found guilty of the brutal torture murder of a man at the home they shared in County Durham. Clare Nicholls, 28, will serve a minimum 32 years for the torture and murder of her patrner Andrew Gardner and her brother, Simon Nicholls, 24, will serve a minimum 25 years. Her on-off lover Steven Martin, 44, is also facing a life term. He will be sentenced in February following the results of tests by a psychiatrist.

Mr Gardner’s battered and burnt body had more than 120 injuries on it when paramedics found him in his living room on March 13 last year. The 35-year-old had been starved, whipped, scalded, slashed, kicked and punched before he died in agony from a catalogue of horrific injuries.

Doctors found he had suffered 21 rib fractures and associated tissue damage as well as a fractured skull, bleeding on the brain and blood poisoning. Crude abuse had been scrawled on his back in nail varnish, and marks on his torso were described in court as “a grotesque game of noughts and crosses”.

His girlfriend, her brother and her former lover denied murder but were this afternoon convicted by a jury at the end of a harrowing three-week trial.  Nicholls shook her head, laid it on a glass barrier in the dock and wept when the verdict was announced, but the two men showed no reaction.

The court heard how Clare Nicholls ruled the home in Arthur Street, Chilton, and how the men of the household were terrified of her temper. She repeatedly attacked Mr Gardner – the father of her youngest child – for what she saw as him being lazy or “stealing” food from the cupboards.

Some jurors wept during the trial as they heard how children saw the punishment beatings and, at times, were encouraged to join in. Nicholls’ brother and Martin – an ex-lover who moved into the house three weeks before Mr Gardner’s death and reignited an affair – also helped.

They later told police that Nicholls was the instigator and they were too frightened to stop the attacks in case she turned her violence towards them. On March 13 last year, Simon Nicholls made a 999 call, saying Mr Gardner had returned home half-an-hour earlier and collapsed unconscious.

He told paramedics that Mr Gardner said he had been beaten up by a gang while out for a walk, and was complaining about severe back pain. The story quickly raised doubts and police were called in, and a lengthy investigation followed – which resulted in the three being arrested.

A series of medical examinations showed that many of Mr Gardner’s injuries had been inflicted days – if not weeks or months – before he died. The suspects were released on bail, but were re-arrested and charged with murder in July when the results of the tests were received by police.

Clare Nicholls pleaded guilty to manslaughter at the end of the prosecution case, but the plea was not accepted and she was forced into the witness box. She confessed to inflicting “the best part” of Mr Gardner’s injuries, but also blamed her brother for some of the rib fractures and other beatings.

Martin was accused of “branding” Mr Gardner with a white-hot cigarette lighter, and scalding his feet and leg with boiling water from a kettle. He also owned up to repeatedly holding his lover’s boyfriend against a piping hot radiator for up to 20 seconds, causing three separate burns.

The court heard how the rib fractures were probably caused when former charity shop worker Nicholls jumped on her partner with her knees. A pathologist told the jury that the injuries were the kind usually associated with victims of car crashes or falls from “considerable” heights.

Prosecutors are seeking a 30-year starting point for the killers, but defence teams will argue this afternoon that the tariff should not be as high as that. The jurors who heard the harrowing details of Andrew Gardner's death will be spared jury service for the next 20 years.

Judge Peter Fox, QC, told the seven men and five women: "This has been a case of particular responsibility and heavy responsibility in its discharge.

"What I can decide and, indeed, pronounce my decision about, is to say as a reflection of my appreciation of the responisbility you have carried out, you are excused jury service for at least 20 years, with my thanks."

Michigan man sentenced to life without parole in shotgun murder of wife

Calhoun Couty Circuit Judge Conrad Sindt sentenced a man who murdered his wife to life without parole in a Branch County, MI courtroom Friday, December 18. 40 year old Thomas Foley was sentenced to the mandatory life without parole sentence for the shotgun murder of Dee Dee Foley, 41 on February 7, 2009.

Foley was convicted by a jury the day after Thanksgiving of shooting and killing his wife in the shower in their rural farmhouse while the couple's son and a friend played outside. Police speculate that Foley used a 12-gauge shotgun he took months before from the home of his brother-in-law.

Prosecutors told the jury he killed Dee Dee Foley, a Union City teacher, about 3 p.m., and only two hours before the family was to celebrate their son's 10th birthday at a party at the home of friends.

When Dee Dee Foley didn't arrive at the party, Tom Foley returned to the home and called police about 5:20 p.m. and said he found her dead. A month later Michigan State Police arrested Foley and he was found guilty after a three-week trial in Coldwater.

Before the sentencing, Calhoun Couty Circuit Judge Conrad Sindt, who presided over the trial, agreed to conduct a hearing after defense attorney J. Thomas Schaeffer said a woman came forward the day after the verdict and said she saw a car with a young man driving leaving the Foley driveway about 4:45 p.m. the day of the murder. A couple testified for the defense at trial they passed the house about 4 p.m. and also saw a white car leaving.

Prosecutor Terri Norris argued against Schaeffer's motion for a new trial and said the new witness is just cumulative and should not be heard. But while Sindt would not dismiss the jury verdict, he said the new witness should be examined under oath as part of Schaeffer's motion for a new trial.

Foley said about his wife, "I love her with all my heart and I never tried to hurt her. She is my best friend. There was no way, no way in hell, no way in heaven that I did this to her. I looked for justice in this trial and I didn't find it. I just want the person who did this to her to be found. There is no way I planned to kill my best friend, the mother of my child."

However, Marilyn Shiery, the victim's mother (and perpetrator's mother-in-law) said that "God and the world, including this family, would have forgiven you your affairs, your ending your marriage, you desire to move but do not ever ask for forgiveness for this hideous murder and the aftermath you and you alone created. There is no forgiveness."
 
She also made this statement prior to Foley's sentencing.
 
  We can now believe you were not only not in love with Dar, but were never in love with anyone including yours and Dar's son. We also now know you were and are in love with only yourself and your selfish wants. Now when your son says, 'Grandma, I think my Dad killed my mom and he did it when he sent us outdoors, but I don't know why,' I will be able to truthfully answer him 'Because he wanted everything your mother stood for, he just didn't want her in the picture. You were devious, misleading, zealously hiding your dark side and deluded enough to think you could get away with murdering her. You took her father's gun from her brother's home to kill his sister.

Canadian Customs strip search woman back from grandmother's funeral - racial profiling suspected

A Ottawa, ON woman of Carribean decent alleges that she was singled out for a strip search by the Canada Border Services Agency (Canadian Customs) because she was a Jamaican born woman. Charmaine Archer, a 42 year old nurses aide at a nursing home, was pulled over with her cousin and 4 year old son by Canadian customs agents as they were headed home from their grandmother's home in Jamaica. The cousin and son were inspected without further incident, but Archer was forced to undergo a strip search.

Agents told Archer, who is a Canadian citizen, she was flagged because she paid for part of her ticket with a credit card, because she booked last minute and because she only stayed for four days.

Agents took what she described as gauze swabs and ran them over her wallet, the lining of her suitcase and even her toothbrush. This took over an hour, Archer said. Her toothbrush, agents said, tested positive for heroin and THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

Archer said to the agents that “You’re a liar. I don’t do drugs, I don’t know anybody that does drugs, and I wasn’t around drugs when I was in Jamaica … I come from an upstanding family and nobody touched that toothbrush but me.”

Canadian officers told Archer that she would have to undergo a strip search. “I said to her, ‘No way that’s going to happen! My husband don’t know what’s inside my rectum and neither will you.” After the customs agents handcuffed Archer and threatened to take her son away from her, she submitted. Archer describes what happened next.

 I got undressed. There were three women in the room — quite humiliating, quite degrading. I’m a big person, very conscious of my body … you can imagine how I felt. They made me stand up and hold my arm up and they made me lift up my breast. Then she told me to turn around and bend all the way over with my feet wide apart. And then she told me to use my hand and open my rectum.

 They told me to put one foot forward then squat and cough … they told me to lift up my belly and they told me open my feet apart and to pry my legs apart and they looked underneath my crotch. When it was over they asked if I wanted to take a minute to sit down.

“This is by no means isolated,” said Ewart Walters, editor of the Spectrum, a monthly newspaper aimed at Ottawa’s black community. “There have been enough incidents over the years of people being picked on.”

He pointed to Leon Stewart, who was held for three hours at the airport in March, 2000. Like Archer, he was strip searched, only Stewart was asked to produce a bowel movement to satisfy customs agents he wasn’t concealing drugs.

“There is an overwhelming number of black people coming from Jamaica who get stopped and asked questions.” Walters said.

Archer's travel agent, Kermit Dougan of Voyages G Travel in Gatineau, PQ, across the river from Ottawa, said that Jamaica is on a list of destinations with a reputation for drug use. Even so, many of his clients, who are black and “not happy about how they’ve been treated,”  have used Toronto's Pearson International Airport, Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau AIrport, and even Syracuse NY's Hancock International Airport to avoid the racial profiling at Ottawa's airport.

Archer says that she is retaining a lawyer since “I want to know what my rights were. I hope no one will ever have to feel the form of degradation that I felt. And that lack of power.”

Anchorage man sentenced to 48 years after slashing man to death after sex

A 29 year old man who slashed a man to death during a sexual encounter in Anchorage, AK was sentenced to 48 years in prison Thursday, December 10 by State Superior Court Judge Philip Volland.

Hunter killed Randall Roe, 47, after Roe picked him up on Fourth Avenue early one morning in November 2006. Roe, who had brain damage from a bicycle accident, was high on cocaine and had his own history of trouble. Something went wrong during the encounter, the men struggled, and Hunter pulled out a knife and killed Roe in the cab of Roe's pickup, according to trial testimony.

Hunter testified at both his trials that he acted in self-defense and that he was not himself because he was so intoxicated on malt beer and vodka the morning of the murder. The first jury couldn't reach a verdict. The second jury acquitted him of first-degree murder but convicted him of the lesser second-degree murder charge.

At the sentencing, the defense and prosecution argued over whether Hunter was just intoxicated that night and acting out or if he is a dangerous man with mental health problems who cannot be controlled. Prosecutor John Skidmore asked Volland to send Hunter away for 60 years, saying he was a danger to the community. Defense attorney Paul Maslakowski asked for the minimum 10 years.

One aspect of the trial which helped Judge Volland determine the character and mental state of Hunter was his two hour long statement, read to the courtroom after his conviction. Volland said that the statement told him more about the defendant than the evidence and statements from officials.
 
That allocution was telling me more about Mr. Hunter than anything else in this case...[It was] a rambling, disjointed discourse largely irrelevant to sentencing in which Mr. Hunter both simultaneously admitted to his various mental health and addiction problems and denied them...This is a man in denial of his problems. This is a man who has some significant cognitive problems. This is a man not completely in touch with his surroundings and the world.