Paroled rapist gets two life without parole sentences for rape, arson murder of sisters

A man who raped and burned to death two Northwest Indiana sisters was sentenced to life without parole Thursday, September 9, 2010. 36 year old David Alan Flores, a sex offender convicted of rape twice before, was sentenced by Lake Criminal Court Judge Thomas Stefaniak Jr for the burglary, rapes, and murders of two twenty something sisters, one of which had recently married.

Flores, 36, of Griffith, had faced the death penalty had the case gone to trial. He pleaded guilty Aug. 26 to two counts of murder and two counts of rape of Jennifer Evans, 28, of Griffith, and Kristen Evans-Kennedy, 25, of Chicago.

Acknowledging the family's wish to avoid reliving the horror of the sisters' deaths during perhaps 25 years of death penalty appeals, Stefaniak reluctantly accepted Flores' guilty plea for which he will serve two life sentences for murder and two 20-year sentences for rape.

Stefaniak said that if Flores had received the death penalty, there was a three-in-five chance that it would have been overturned on appeal. However, the judge made clear that Flores deserved such a punishment. "As I live my life and talk to people, this is just the case in a perfect world that would justify the death sentence. I could pronounce a death sentence. The fact of the matter is you, Mr. Flores, are the devil among us. There are no redeeming qualities that you have and there is nothing you can offer society," Stefaniak told the murderer.

Jennifer had bought a house on North Lindberg Street, and Flores happened to show up with a friend on Sept. 10, 2009, at a small gathering she hosted.

He went inside to use the bathroom, unlocked a window to the office across the hall, and returned after the women were in bed to rape, strangle and stab them. Before he left, he collected items he'd touched, then set fire to the home. The autopsies showed the women were alive when the fire was started.

Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter said that the family of the victims would have gone for the death penalty, but "They did not want in and out of court for the next 25 years.You have to listen to the family."

Family friend Sue Brownwell said that "Each was a force in her own right, and they were an unbeatable team together. They will live in our treasured memories."

Mary Ann Evans, comparing the murders of her daughters to 9-11, called the murders her "personal terrorist attack." Her husband and the victims' father Ron, a retired Munster firefighter, was the person who discovered his daughters' still burning bodies. "I watched him die the day he found Jen and Kristen. I am alone. I am the woman that everybody pities," she said. Ron died of cancer six months after the murder. A slideshow of them was played just before Flores' sentencing.
 
Mary Evans is working with legislators to ensure that repeat sex offenders like Flores can never be granted parole. Flores was on parole for another rape when he murdered the two young women.

"Shotgun Bandit" sentenced to life for rape, attempted murder of woman

A suburban Dallas-Ft Worth man was sentenced to life for the rapes of two women Thursday, September 16. Stanley Vernell Ledbetter Jr., a Muscogee, OK native and a Plano, TX resident, was sentenced to life for aggravated sexual assault in a April 10, 2007 sexual attack. Jurors took half an hour to convict Ledbetter of aggravated sexual assault and another 20 minutes to assess him the maximum sentence - life with a $10,000 fine.

Testimony opened on September 15 with the then 29 year old's account of the attack.

The woman, who is not being named because she is a sexual assault victim, told jurors she was in her pajamas watching television about 2 a.m. when the glass on her patio door exploded.  "I screamed," she said. "I saw a dark figure coming through the door right at me."


The man, holding a short-barreled shotgun, dragged her by her hair to the bedroom. She testified he made her dump out her purse and turn over hundreds of dollars in cash she had earned from her waitress job. He also forced her to give up her debit card and the personal identification number.
He made her stay in the bathtub as he searched the place. What he was looking for, she didn't know, she told jurors. Then the attacker took her to her bedroom, where he forced her to perform a sex act. If she didn't, he threatened to blow her head off, she testified.
The attacker used zip ties to bind her hands behind her and laid her on the bed. He stuffed a sock into her mouth and held it there with duct tape. Then he covered her face with a pillow and stabbed her three times.
"I couldn't believe this was happening," she said. "The pain was unreal."

The woman said she played dead as he checked her wrist for a pulse. She rolled her eyes back as he lifted each lid to check for signs of life. He removed the sock and duct tape. She said she heard her front door open and then close. She waited about five minutes and then went to her kitchen to try to cut the ties with a knife. When she couldn't free herself, she went to get help.

She met her attacker at the front door. "You didn't think I wouldn't see the kitchen light come on?" she recalled him asking. There was a struggle. She told jurors he pushed her down and stabbed her two more times. He locked the door behind him as he left.

The woman said she lay there for 30 to 45 minutes "to make sure he was gone."

During the trial, Ledbetter's defense attorney attempted to introduce reasonable doubt by sugessting that his client wasn't the one who stabbed the victim. The defense conceded the DNA evidence proved Ledbetter raped the victim. The only defense witness, Denise Ledbetter, was the attacker's mom. She portrayed her son as a devoted son and asked jurors to give him less than life so "That I have more time with my son."

The 2007 attack victim's impact statement followed the penalty phase of the trial, and went like this. "No matter how much pain and anguish you caused, not once would I let you get the best of me. I will never let you steal my strength or my perseverance. ... I'm the reason you were caught. I got you. ... May you rot in jail for life."

During the punishment phase of the trial, jurors got a clearer picture of Ledbetter, known before his arrest as the shotgun bandit because of his choice of weapon in some of the crimes.


A former Garland woman testified about a man breaking into her home through the patio door on June 1, 2005. He forced her to drive to two automated teller machines and withdraw $500 while he sat in the back seat of her Jaguar with a sawed-off shotgun jabbed in her side. "I was petrified," she told jurors.

A former Southern Methodist University student testified under a pseudonym about a man dressed in black and wielding a shotgun who broke into the Dallas apartment she shared with a friend on June 4, 2005. Both were sexually assaulted. A DNA expert testified that trace evidence from the Jaguar's back seat and the Dallas attack matched Ledbetter's DNA.
A 41-year-old woman testified about being sexually assaulted by Ledbetter on Nov. 7, 2005, at her Plano apartment. Several details matched the other attacks.

Prosecutor JoDee Neil told jurors: "There is no why," she said. "This is evil, plain and straight."

First Assistant District Attorney Greg Davis said Ledbetter deserved the maximum of life without parole
"so that no other woman will have to look at Stanley Ledbetter again and fear for her life."
 
Ledbetter, known as the "Shotgun Bandit," was already serving two life sentences on similar criminal convictions. Ledbetter is suspected in attacks on 7 women that took place between May 2005 and April 2007, and is suspected in at least 19 home invasions. The presiding judge was State District Judge Webb Biard. The convictions, from Dallas County, are under appeal.

Wooded Rapist guilty in rape of 16 year old girl - Davidson County won't prosecute any more cases

(Original Post 5-6-08)
Nashville, Tennessee police have caught a suspect whom they believe to be the Wooded Rapist, a sexual predator who has attacked at least 14 women on their wooded homes. Robert Jason Burdick has a criminal record going back to 1998 for rape, and authorities are trying to link him with other unsolved rapes in the area.

Pat Young, the Wooded Rapist's first victim, remembers her attack and hopes that

She said she remembers her attack like it was yesterday. "At home asleep in your bed is supposed to be the safest place you are. Well, that's where I was at, home asleep in my bed," she said.

Young was able to bite her attacker and give police DNA, which they said matches Burdick’s.
But Young said she does not believe her attacker was just getting started.

"You have to wonder where he started. We're the first case that we know of, but were there more that went unreported?" she said.

Sources close to the case said Burdick was sent to Spencer Youth Center for Juvenile Offenders. "I think he's been doing this for a very long time. I know there are cases directly related through DNA. I suspect there are others where there is other evidence and if they can tie it to him, good," Young said.

Burdick has been charged with five counts of aggravated rape and more charges are pending. Sources say that Burdick spent time in juvenile detention and was arrested on assault charges involving a possible girlfriend at age 17.

(Update 10-19-09) The Wooded Rapist suspect was found not guilty of the aggravated rape of Pat Young, but was found guilty of attempted aggravated rape. Robert Jason Burdick, 39, still faces between 8 and 12 years for his attack on Young back in 1994. Burdick has been sentenced to 32 years in prison for the rape of another woman and faces 11 more trials.

The issue that prosecutors failed to prove to the Davidson County Jury was whether Burdick's hand entered Young's vaginal area during the attack, not whether there was an attack. "I don't mind not being raped. Tonight, I'll be with my friends and he goes back to the big house."

Young has been willing to share her name and show her face for the same reason she has reached out to other alleged victims of Burdick, the man police call the "Wooded Rapist."

"This shouldn't be embarrassing for the victims," Young said. "We should be looking at the perpetrators. They take people's souls to empower themselves."

Young was looking at Burdick carefully throughout the trial. She stared at him often during her time on the witness stand. She noticed he would not meet her eyes.

"He looks so dead ordinary," she said. "Put him in a suit and he's a banker or a lawyer. Put him in scrubs and he's a doctor. Put him in a shirt with his name on it and he's a technical guy. There's nothing to say there's evil there."

Defense attorneys cited the failure to prove the most serious charges as a small victory for their client. According to Fletcher Long, "anything other than the charged offense in a high-profile case like this is an achievement. He has been obliterated in the war of public opinion, and if the jurors came in tainted, it wasn't in the defendant's favor."

The defense will appeal based on the theory that only a "John Doe" DNA profile was issued an arrest warrant, not their client by name. Attorney Carrie Gasaway stated "It could very likely be the outcome for Mr. Burdick that there is no conviction on this charge."

Meanwhile, prosecutors are more circumspect, because there are numerous trials to go, and that even though they obtained a conviction for lesser charges that aggravated rape, a conviction is a conviction.

Prosecutor Dan Hamm stated that "Quite frankly we understand that reasonable people could find either way. We were just hoping that the emotions wouldn't be so strong they wouldn't be able to make a decision." His colleague Roger Moore said that  "We will try each count as we get to it. That's our philosophy at this point."

(Update 5-28-10) WIlliamson County, TN jurors found Burdick guilty May 20, 2010 of aggravated and especially aggravated rape in an attack on a then 16 year old girl, Elizabeth "Zea" Miller. Burdick broke into her Brentwood, TN townhouse, kidnapped her and took her at gunpoint to a garage where he raped her. Burdick faces 15 to 25 years when he is sentenced July 13, something that the victim wants.

 "I would love just for my own personal edification to have him be sentenced at the maximum. I have to live this to the fullest and so does he. I don't get to escape out of this any earlier in my life so neither should he. I would love to see two 25-year sentences served consecutively."

[Willamson County District Attorney Kim]Helper called eight witnesses to the stand, including Miller, her mother, detectives working the case and Qadriyyah Debnam, a forensic scientist who worked with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation at the time of the rape. She told jurors that she found sperm in Miller's underwear that were a match to Burdick's DNA.

Burdick's next trial will be in Wilson County, where he will be tried on aggravated and especially aggravated rape charges for an attack on hie ex-"girlfriend's" niece who he used to babysit. After that trial, the sexual predator will return to Williamson and Davidson Counties for more rape trials.

(Update 9-4-10) Burdick was sentenced to 50 years imprisonment and a $60,000 fine in a Nashville courtroom July 13, 2010 for Miller's rape. If Burdick had took the plea deal he was offered, he would have only received 20 years maximum. Judge Timothy Easter gave Burdick 2 consecutive 25 year sentences for aggravated and especially aggravated rape.

Davidson County prosecutors have retired the remaining seven cases against Burdick in a cost saving measure.

Metro Assistant District Attorney Roger Moore said putting Burdick on trial would waste taxpayer dollars, and he said the remaining five victims agreed the cases could stop. "Lightning may strike the prison, and he may escape, but we are not dealing on possibility. We are dealing with what has been done," Moore said.

Judge Seth Norman agreed to the prosecutor's request, but two other Tennessee counties still plan on trying Burdick on more rape charges. Williamson County District Attorney Kim Helper is scheduled to prosecute two more Wooded Rapist cases. "Victims do have a say in this state, and the victims very much … have the right to face offenders in court,"  she said.
 
Wilson County plans to try Burdick on aggravated rape and especially aggravated kidnapping of a child beginning March 28, 2011. Tom Swink, Wilson County, TN assistant DA, said "While our office believes that Burdick's convictions and sentences will stand on appeal, nothing is certain, and we will proceed as planned with Mr. Burdick's Wilson County prosecution."

Juarez serial rapist caught - sentenced to 60 years imprisonment

(Original Post 4-9-09)

An El Paso, TX man has been captured by Juarez, Mexico police after allegedly going across the border and raping females between 13 and 20. The rapes took places between 8 and 10 PM, and always Tuesdays and Fridays in neighborhoods near the Rio Grande. The 1st known assault happened April 4, 2008; the last assault was April 3, 2009. Jorge Alberto Mendez Navarro, 43, has been officially charged with the rape of a 17 yera old girl March 24, but suspected in 18 other gunpoint rapes.

Mendez, who allegedly used a handgun, in some cases forced his way into a victim's home and claimed to be a hit man. He allegedly told women not to tell anyone or he would kill them, officials said. There were up to three victims in some assaults. On occasion, Mendez was allegedly nude wearing only black gloves and a tan panty- hose with eye-holes on his head during the attacks. Investigators said Mendez allegedly told one girl that he wasn't from Juárez.

The break in the case came after Mendez broke into two 19 year old women's homes, but was scared off by the victims' relative. The relative took down Mendez's license plate number, and Chihuahua State investigators arrested Mendez when he crossed the border in his 1997 Chevy Tahoe. Clothing, porn, and a Kia sedan were also seized.

Juarez is infamous for its drug related shootings due to the narcotics trade. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, it was the scene of hundereds of femicides (killings of women). Most of these killings are still unsolved.

(Update 7-22-10) Last week, after a two week trial in a Chihuahua, Mexico courtroom, Mendez was sentenced to 60 years imprisonment and an over 60,000 peso fine for the rapes of the girls and young women. Mendez was found guilty of aggravated rape, rape, child pornography, and sexual abuse.

Serial rapist convicted of rape, murder - sentenced to life

(Original Post 3-21-08)

A serial rapist was convicted of 10 charges, including the rape and murder of a woman back in 2003. Chris Kornberger of Evesham, NJ was convicted of raping and murdering Krista Defrancesco, 24. Another woman, Elizabeth Loetzner-Jung, formerly of Evesham, was ran off the road so Kornburger could assault, rape, and kidnap her back in August 2003.

James Ronca, an assistant Burlington County prosecutor, told jurors Kornberger voluntarily confessed to DiFrancesco's killing and his DNA was found in semen taken from her body despite contamination of that sample at a testing laboratory.

"He was the man who killed Krista DiFrancesco," Ronca said in his closing argument, pointing to Kornberger, who sat in the courtroom with his two lawyers. "The crimes were the product of a sexual compulsion that he said he hoped would go away."

Defense lawyer Timothy Reilly attacked mistakes he said were made by the police during the interrogation.

Reilly admitted Kornberger is a "troubled person" with emotional problems, suggesting he may be one of those "disturbed people" who follow major criminal cases in the news and, for notoriety reasons, confess to them.

Reilly said testimony by an independent prosecution expert that the DNA test was valid was based on results from an "incompetent" lab whose procedural standards were criticized by the expert.

Reilly also questioned the confession's validity because the first half of the police interrogation was not taped. He also said there were too many details Kornberger did not remember while speaking to police and that he was led on by police.

Ronca said only the killer would know certain details of the crimes that Kornberger gave -- such as the location of DiFrancesco's stab wounds. Ronca tried to debunk conspiracy theories, calling the confession convincing, candid and truthful.

"He (Kornberger) even professed remorse many times," Ronca said. "He cried. . . . Nobody maneuvered him. . . . No one was forcing him to admit to crimes he didn't do. He said he was under the influence of drugs when he committed the crimes. No wonder he doesn't remember everything."

Kornburger pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of a Evesham woman, Nancy "Kim" Clark, at the start of his trial, and was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the attempted rape of a Waterford, NJ woman. He faces life in prison.

(Update 7-16-08) On July 2, Burlington County Superior Court Judge Thomas S. Smith Jr. sentenced Chris Kornberger to life without parole for 126 years for the crimes mentioned above.

Nancy “Kim” Clark, who survived the stabbing attack, said that she feared for her kids’ safety, just in case they encountered an “evil, deviant person like Christopher Kornberger.” Clark was robbed of her “sense of trust in others.”

The 3rd victim in the July 2 sentencing, Elizabeth Loetzner-Jung, did not attend the sentencing.

On Monday, July 14, Kornberger pleaded guilty to his last crime in front of Camden County Superior Court Judge Samuel Natal, the attempted rape of a Waterford, NJ woman he tried to pull from her home. Prosecutors recommended a 15 year sentence for the attempted rape and kidnapping, which will run concurrent with his other terms. The 18 year sentence for the attempted murder of was reduced to 9 years due to New Jersey sentencing guidelines.

Serial rapist, kidnapper sentenced to 30 years with 25 to serve

Washington County, OR Judge Gayle A. Nachtigal sentenced "serial, sadistic" sex offender James Worley, 47, to 30 years in prison July 10. Under Oregon's dangerous offender law, Worley must serve almost 25 years of that sentence before being considered for parole. In March, a jury found him guilty of 1st degree kidnapping and attempted 1st degree rape and sexual assault, among other charges. Jurors acquitted Worley of attempted 1st degree sodomy and deadlocked on an attempted murder charge.

Worley has a lengthy criminal record for attacking women, having served a total of 25 years in prison for various incidents. In 1983, he raped and kidnapped an Oklahoma woman, and in 1998, he was convicted of harassing a Bend, OR woman. Worley was on post-prison supervision for robbing and kidnapping a Clackamas County woman at the time of the latest crime.

During the trial, [Heather]Struznik riveted the courtroom with harrowing testimony about the night of Oct. 20, 2007. Approaching Struznik outside a Gaston bar, Worley said he was about out of gas and didn't know the area. She said she'd lead him into Forest Grove, but he pulled over on Oregon 47, near the turnoff to Hagg Lake.

Thinking he had run out of gas, Struznik stopped. Worley jumped into her Jeep and punched her in the head three times. During a savage struggle, a profanity-spewing Worley slammed her head into the dash, pulled her face, yanked at her belt and dragged her outside. She scratched, kicked and bit her attacker, gripping the door frame until her hands bled.

On Friday, Struznik, 37, told a smiling Worley that she wasn't his victim and she no longer was afraid of the dark or going out alone. She said she still has a bulging disc in her neck, healing bones in her face and fingers so sore she can't even open a jar.

"Every time it happens, I think 'You got beat by a girl. You picked the wrong girl.' "

Frank P. Colistro, a forensic psychologist for Association of Threat Assessment Professionals, said that community safety was the only consideration and that "this type of individual we can't fix." Colistro, a Portland man, also said that Worley, a misogynist who thinks women look down on him, attacks them from nowhere to inflict terror, humiliation, and sadistic power over them.

Serial Seattle gropers claims 2 dozen victims - a suspect arrested

(Original Post 5-23-08)

A groper who attacked a South Seattle woman over the weekend may have assaulted as many as 23 other in Seattle’s Rainier Valley and Beacon Hill neighborhods.

Seattle police reported that the groper ran up behind a woman walking with her child around 10 AM Saturday morning, and touched her on the buttocks. The victim screamed and ran, bringing out witnesses. The groper, described as a fortyish black man standing 5’-10” with skin blemishes, fled into a vehicle described as a 1994 green Jeep Cherokee.

Police think the same man has continued to prey on women despite increased police patrols, widespread publicity and community meetings about the attacks.

Detectives have not yet spoken to the most recent victim and were urging her to come forward, and asking anyone who knows her to refer her to police.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Sexual Assault Unit at 206-684-5575.

The suspect's behavior became more aggressive in the past year, police said. He tried to drag one woman into a dark alley and in January, preyed on two girls, 13 and 14, as they were crossing the street in the 5200 block of 42nd Avenue South.

Groping is considered a “gateway” sexual crime, just like flashing and peeping, and many gropers have turned into rapists, according to authorities.

"That's why are bringing this to the public seeking assistance... ," police spokeswoman Renee Witt said. "It's really important that we talk to this victim from the last attack and any other victims that may be out there."

(Update 5-24-08) There's a suspect in some of the groping cases. Darin Bolar, a father of 2, has been charged with 4th degree assault in the Saturday, May 17 groping and theft of the cell phone of the man who reported it. He was convicted of molesting a teenage girl at a water park and assaulting his girlfriend in the 1990s, and the assault of his girlfriend was pled down from a rape charge. The water park incident lead to a guilty plea and 2 years in prison.

Bolar is a registered Level 1 sex offender, which is the category considered by authorities at minimal risk of recidivism. He is required by law to inform police each time he changes an address, but is not held to more-stringent regular check-ins mandated for higher-risk sex offenders.

A State Patrol sex-offender database shows that Bolar, who has more than a dozen aliases, registered his last known address at 4247 S. Thistle St.

Police think they are looking for at least one other man, possibly a copycat or an accomplice, because of disparities in the descriptions given of the attacker, Witt said.

In all the cases, Asian women were targeted.

(Update 6-6-08) Bolar was in court June 4 for his arrignment. He pleaded not guilty to robbery and assault for the last alleged attack, and is being held on $500,000 bond.

University of Virginia rapist pleads guilty - faces 40 years

Christopher Allen Noakes, 39, a UVa rapist and assaulter of women will spend 40 years in prison due to a plea agreement to 2 counts of forcible sodomy for an attempted rape which occured February 21. Judge Edward L. Hogshire, of the Charlottesville Circuit Court, accepted the plea agreement, and keeps Noakes from spending possibly the rest of his life in prison. Both prosecutors and Noakes’ public defender praised the agreement.

“A 40 year sentence is a very decent amount of time,” Assistant Commonwealth’s attorney Katherine J. Peters said in court.

“It sends a strong message to the community that this will not be tolerated,” added Nicholas Reppucci, assistant public defender.

Noakes was previously convicted of kidnapping a 19 year old student back in the 1980s, and beating a 35 year old UVa employee as she was getting into her car. This happened 3 days after release from a juvenile facility in Richmond where he had been place for attempted rape.

The last incident occurred February 21, when a sophomore UVa student was talking to a friend on a cell phone. Noakes walked up behind her, held a knife to her throat, and demanded money. The woman’s friend, on the other end of the phone, called 911 to describe what was happening. Noakes ordered to woman to strip and attempted to rape her, but the attack caught a neighbor’s attention, and the victim was able to get that neighbor to call 911.

“She felt the person was bound to call 911 and assist her,” Peters said.

Police arrived to find Noakes on top of the woman, but he jumped up and ran until officers arrested him in the 500 block of 14th Street Northwest. The victim was taken to the UVa Medical Center for non-life-threatening injuries.

The plea deal calls for a 40 year prison sentence and dropping charges of abduction with the intent to defile, intent to rape, and robbery. The judge has the discretion to order an additional suspended term consecutive to the prison sentence when formal sentencing occurs on August 21. Reppucci said that there were multiple reasons why Noakes decided to plead guilty, including “start[ing] the healing process for the victim.” He is curreltly being held at the Albermarle-Charlottsville regional jail.

25 year old Shreveport man charged with video voyeurism

Douglas Chandler, 25, of Shreveport, LA, has been charged with 2 counts of video voyeurism as of May 30. Police expect more charges after a female told police that their sexual encounter had been filmed.

Even though Chandler was charged with two counts of video voyeurism, there are four victims which are known, and there are more tapes of the sexual encounters which have been believed to have been created than the tape seized.

Call Shreveport detectives at (318) 673-6955 or Crime Stoppers at (318) 673-7373 with any information.

KC man convicted of rape he committed while still teenage - 18 year DNA storage cracks case

Harry McNeal, now 33, will spend more time in prison because of rape due to DNA evidence kept for the last 18 years. Jackson County jurors convicted him of an attack on a then 29 year old woman in 1990 as she slept with her then 6 year old son. The then 15 year old assailant pointed a handgun at her, raped her in front of her son, then stole $75 from her. Jurors acquitted McNeal of an armed robbery charge because it was unclear if the gun was out when he stole the money.

After the verdict, the victim, now 47, and her son, now 24, discussed the case in the courthouse hallway. Science closed the case, they said, and protected others from McNeal.

Police matched semen from the 1990 rape to McNeal last year and charged him as he was about to finish a 17-year sentence for another rape. He went to prison for that crime in 1991 as part of a plea deal.

The trial this week also demonstrated how sure DNA is compared to eyewitness evidence, which is a leading cause of false convictions.

Police matched semen from the rape to McNeal last year and charged him just before he would have finished a 17 year sentence for another rape. In 1991, the victim pointed to another man as part of a lineup, not McNeal. At trial, defense attorney Molly Hastings noted than and tried to blame the other man for the rape, but prosecutors countered with the evidence that there was a 1 in 7.3 quadrillion (1 with 15 zeros after it) that anyone but McNeal was the rapist.

French serial killers sentenced to life, life without parole

From The Independant, UK

Michel Fourniret, the so-called "Ogre of the Ardennes", was ordered to spend the rest of his life in prison yesterday after being convicted of a reign of terror on both sides of the French-Belgian border. At the end of a harrowing, and sometimes grotesque, two-month trial, his wife, Monique Olivier, was convicted of being his accomplice and ordered to spend a minimum of 28 years in jail.

Fourniret, 66, was found guilty of kidnapping, sexually assaulting and murdering seven girls and young women, aged from 12 to 24, between 1987 and 2001. Olivier was convicted of being complicit in one murder and helping him to entrap four girls by posing as a mother in distress. Both received life sentences but in Fourniret's case it was ordered to be "incompressible" or "served in full": the highest possible sentence in the French penal code.

The trial, at Charleville-Mézières, was dominated to the end by Fourniret's pseudo-intellectual mind-games with the court and the families of his victims. His final statement consisted of a series of garbled jokes about his wife and the prosecution and defence lawyers, written in rhyming couplets which failed to rhyme properly.

Both Fourniret and Olivier refused to talk at length about their crimes. Neither showed much remorse, although Olivier said she "regretted" what had happened. As a result, the trial failed to dissolve many of the mysteries surrounding Fourniret's reign of terror, including a 10-year spell between 1991 and 2001 when he was apparently inactive.

A second trial is expected next year, in which Fourniret and Olivier will be accused of at least two other murders, including that of the English student, Joanna Parrish in 1990.

Experts who gave evidence said they believed there may have been many other victims of a murderous, "eternal" pact between Fourniret and Olivier.

Letters read to the court revealed a grotesque deal between the couple when he left prison in 1987 after serving a sentence for rape. He agreed to murder her first husband if she helped him to "hunt virgins". The first part of the pact was never carried out.

Fourniret, an inoffensive-looking man with glasses and a wispy beard, had ordered his defence lawyers to say nothing on his behalf. He refused to answer questions and often mocked the court.
The final exchanges between prosecution and defence turned largely on whether Fourniret should be called a "monster". The chief prosecutor, Francis Nachbar, insisted that the word was justified. The principal defence lawyer, appointed against Fourniret's wishes, Maître Pierre Blocquaux, said he was "part of the same humanity as the rest of us, alas, whatever the horrible nature of the crimes".

M. Blocquaux also raised in his final statement one of the other great scandals of the case. How could so many girls and young women have been murdered without the French and Belgian police even suspecting a serial killer was at work? And how did Fourniret, a man with several convictions, evade police attention for so long?

M. Blocquaux said both countries were guilty of a "tragic catalogue of missed opportunities, negligence and blunders".

He told the court that Fourniret had indicated that he would not exercise his right to appeal. That was his single act of consideration towards his victims' families during the trial.

Fourniret's known victims

11 December 1987: Isabelle Laville

The 17-year-old schoolgirl agreed to help a woman who was "lost" in her car near Auxerre in Burgundy. Minutes later, the woman, Monique Olivier, stopped for a man with a jerry-can – Michel Fourniret. Isabelle was raped and murdered and her body never found. The killing set the pattern for at least seven similar rapes and murders in the next 14 years.

3 August 1988: Fabienne Leroy, 20, in the Marne.

18 March 1989: Jeanne-Marie Desramault, 21, at Charleville in the French Ardennes.

20 December 1989: Elisabeth Brichet, 12, kidnapped in Belgium and murdered in France.

21 November 1990: Natacha Danais, 13, at Rezé, near Nantes.

5 May 2001 Manyana Thumpong, 13, at Sedan, the French Ardennes.

16 May 2001 Céline Saison, 18, Charleville.

26 June 2003: Fourniret is arrested after a kidnapped 13-year-old girl jumps from his moving van near Namur in Belgium.

Canadian sex ofender sentenced to long term status

(Original Post 5-13-08)

A repeat sex offender said to the judge at his sentencing hearing that he's had enough jail.

"I don't want no more of this," he told Superior Court Justice Helen Rady yesterday.
"Considering the facts of the case, and how long I've been in, it's been too much."

Middlesex Crown attorney Geoff Beasley said the victim in the case will be affected by the attack for a lot longer.

In her victim impact statement, the woman, whose identity is protected, said the attack changed her life. She lives in constant fear, she never went back the townhouse after she convinced Froude to leave that night and fears for her children. She has even thought of changing her name.

"What happened to me isn't something I can forgive, forget or get over," she wrote. "It is something I must live through and live with."

Froude's previous sex convictions involved victims he either knew, or were prison officials, Beasley noted, and it was "not at all a coincidence" as Froude claimed, that he was in the London woman's townhouse that night. Beasley argued Froude should get enhanced credit for only some of his time in custody.

Froude's lawyer, Craig McLean, said with his time in custody, given a two-for-one credit, the sentence should be time served -- the equivalent of a 7 1/2 -year sentence.
Rady reserved her decision to Friday.

Kenneth Wayne Froude is no stranger to sex crimes. When he's sentenced today for an attack on a London woman in her Bentley Drive townhouse almost four years ago, it'll be his fourth sentencing for sexual assault, to go along with two convictions of committing indecent acts.
That behaviour led Superior Court Justice Helen Rady to declare Froude, 39, a long-term offender last week.

With that, Froude will be under Corrections Canada's supervision after his most recent prison sentence. He was convicted a year ago for the attack on the London woman, a single mother he knew from taking the bus.

On June 21, 2004, the woman, her kids away so she could study for university exams, woke up in her bedroom and found Froude there with a kitchen steak knife. She wrestled him when he tried to pull down her pants and refused his requests for sex. She complied with one sex act when he promised to leave if she did as he said.

She eventually convinced him to leave. She had minor injuries to her face and neck.
Froude hasn't had any sex-offender treatment, although it was recommended in 1998.
Rady, in court, noted Froude had a comprehensive psychiatric assessment which showed he is "a moderate to high risk" to reoffend. Psychiatrist Stephen Hucker found Froude showed signs of being prone to rape exhibitionism, voyeurism, substance abuse and anti-social personality disorder.

But Hucker said Froude is open to treatment and there's "a reasonable possibility" of controlling risk to re-offend.

1990: Sentenced to two months for sexually assaulting a co-worker driving him home.
1997: Sentenced to four years for sexually assaulting a friend he attacked in her bedroom, punching her, tying her arms with his belt, covering her face with a pillow, and warning her not to call police.
1998: Exposed himself to a female staffer at Millhaven prison; sentenced to 45 days.
2000: Sentenced to five months; exposed himself to a Kingston prison psychologist.
2003: Sentenced for sexual assault

(Update 5-18-08) Froude was sentenced to 30 months in prison for the sexual assault. Superior Court Justice Helen Rady called the rape "any woman's worst nightmare."

Vietnam vet accused of kidnapping hookers

Joseph H. Kruppenbacher of Rotterdam, NY is facing attempted rape, imprisonment, and perhaps attempted murder charges for trying to attack women he picked up on the streets during winter of this year. Terence L. Kindlon, his attorney, argued that the $100,000 bail that his client was held under was excessive, while Assistant Schenectady County District Attorney Jessica Lorusso argued that it was too lenient.

Rotterdam police say Kruppenbacher picked up women in January, February and again in April and held them against their will. One woman, police said, was forced to jump from a car to escape.

Kruppenbacher is being held on three counts of first-degree unlawful imprisonment and one count of first-degree attempted rape. Kindlon unsuccessfully sought more information about the grand jury's consideration of an attempted murder charge. Outside court, Kindlon said he was caught off-guard by the prospect of that count.

Kindlon told Schenectady County Judge Karen Drago that Kruppenbacher is a Vietnam veteran, chess champion and family man who wanted to go home to Besch Avenue in Albany so he could attend his son's graduation.

California police chief faces almost 3 dozen charges of rape

Former Blue Lake Police Chief David Gunderson was charged with more counts of spousal rape, bringing the total number of counts he's facing to 33, including 30 felonies. Humboldt County Superior Court Judge John Feeney ruled April 30 that Gunderson be held over on 19 counts, but Gunderson's wife, the victim of the alleged rapes, testified, leading to 14 more counts of spousal rape. Gunderson plead not guilty to all charges.

Gunderson's latest victim, who he married, testified that he raped here while she was under the influence of sleeping pills or other drugs once a month between 2005 and 2007. A second victim, Gunderson's ex-girlfriend, testified that he raped her at gunpoint while forcing her to move from the living room to the back bedroom of the home he then shared with her back in 1999. Judge Feeney reduced the kidnapping or transporting a second victim with the purpose of committing rape to forcible rape with the use of a firearm because he felt the kidnapping was incidental to the rape of the then girlfriend.

For Monday's arraignment, [District Attorney Paul]Gallegos left in the original kidnapping charge.

”We think the evidence warrants kidnapping,” he said. “We respectfully disagree with the court.”
During the arraignment, Gundersen's attorney Russell Clanton retained the right to file a motion to dismiss some or all of the charges.

Gundersen appeared in a red jump suit, indicating he is being kept in isolation at the Humboldt County Jail, and was re-fingerprinted during the proceeding.

The former police chief was arrested Feb. 8 on suspicion of spousal rape, and now faces 26 counts of spousal rape with the use of an intoxicant, and charges of violating a court order, attempting to dissuade a witness of a crime, possessing a controlled substance without a prescription and possessing a submachine gun and a pistol with an attached silencer.

Gunderson is being held in the Humboldt County Jail on $1.25 million bail. Jury selection for his trial is scheduled to start June 30. Gallegos estimated that Gunderson's jury selection for the trial will take a week and a half, but Clanton said, "I think we're looking at anywhere from 20 to 30 court days, including jury selection, at a minimum.”

Gunderson was dismissed from his job as Blue Lake police chief May 5.

Counts 1 through 26: Spousal rape with the use of an intoxicant, one count for each month from January 2006 through February 2008, a violation of California Penal Code section 262 (a) (2)
Count 27: Attempting to dissuade a victim or witness of a crime, a violation of California Penal Code section 136.1 (b) (1)
Count 28: Possession of a machine gun, a violation of California Penal Code section 12220 (a)
Count 29: Possession of a silencer, a violation of California Penal Code section 12520
Count 30: Kidnapping a second victim to commit rape, a violation of California Penal Code section 209 (b) (1), with a special allegation of using a firearm, a violation of California Penal Code section 12022.5 (a) (1)
Count 31: Violating a court order, a violation of California Penal Code section 166 (a) (4)
Count 32: Possession of a controlled substance without a prescription, a violation of the California Business and Professions Code section 4060
Count 33: Disclosure of information without permission, a violation of California Penal Code section 1808.45

Career criminal charged with rape of developmemntally disabled woman

Richland County Common Pleas Judge James Henson will preside over the trial of Loy Hogan, an accused rapist and a criminal with a long history who is charged with a single count of rape after he allagedly raped the 55 year old developmentally disabled woman May 14, 2007. Judge Henson gave the victim a series of questions designed to test her conpetence to take the stand.

Henson asked the woman if she knew Hogan. After initially answering no, the woman changed her mind and pointed him out to the judge.

The judge asked the 55-year-old what a witness does. "Tell the truth," she said.

Because of a grand jury session in the morning, jury selection did not start until the afternoon. The process took four and a half hours. Only seven people were left in the pool when they were dismissed around 5 p.m.

When the trial resumes this morning, attorneys will give opening statements. Assistant Prosecutor Gary Bishop is handling the case for the state; Josh Brown is the defense attorney.
Bishop will not be able to tell the jury about Hogan's past. Hogan pleaded guilty in 1991 to two counts of statutory rape involving children younger than 13. He served 15 years in prison and was released in April 2006.

He was originally charged with five counts of rape, one count of gross sexual imposition and one count of felonious sexual penetration. A plea bargain spared him from a life sentence. A few months before that, Hogan was acquitted of aggravated murder by the suffocation death of his 5 week old son Justin. Phala Blake, then 18, pleaded guilty and agreed to serve a 15 years to life sentence and testify against Hogan. She'll be eligible for parole in 2010.

Chiropractor guilty of groping patients in Montana

Jack Faubion, a 32 year old Gillette, MT chiropractor, was found guilty of 4 out of 5 3rd degree sexual assault charges after a bench trial conducted by Judge John C. Brackley of Sheridan. The verdicts were read shortly after 3PM Thursday in the Campbell County Courthouse. 3rd degree sexual assault is a felony punishable by a maximum of 15 years in a Montana prison.

Across the aisle, the four victims whose allegations were affirmed by the court sat just as silently at the end of what started as an emotional day of testimony for the prosecution’s last witness.A 43-year-old woman accuser cried as she told the courtroom how Faubion groped her breasts during a January 2005 visit to his office for back pain. Asked by Assistant County Attorney Bill Edelman if the Faubion’s touching felt sexual, the woman said yes.

“I thought so at first but after he explained it I thought I was being overly sensitive,” she said, occasionally dabbing her eyes with a tissue from a box next to her on the stand. “It just felt dirty. It didn’t feel medical to me.”

Brackley, who heard the trial after the defense waived its right to a jury, said such emotional testimony and detailed stories of breasts being cupped and massaged helped convince him that four of the women had legitimate claims of assault. A fifth woman, who testified by phone from her out-of-state college, failed to convince Brackley “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

“The law makes no distinction on the weight that the court may give to direct or circumstantial evidence,” he said after reading the verdict. “Not having a nurse or attendant in the examining room is suspect in this day and age.”

While defense attorney Nick Carter tried to convince Judge Brackley that the incidents were outside of Faubion's character, an expert witness he hired, Mark Heller, demonstrated that Faubion's massage technique was inappropriate.

The expert, Mark Heller, was brought in by Carter to try and prove that Faubion’s method of putting his hand under women’s shirts and bras to make chiropractic adjustments was accepted in the profession. Heller demonstrated his techniques on the chest of a hanging skeleton and over the clothes of a female attorney working with Carter.

But even after Carter got his expert to say that an underwire bra would get in the way of chiropractic treatment, Edelman pounced on cross-examination and seemed to land fatal blows to the defense’s attempt to layer doubt on the witness’ accounts.Asked whether the victims’ descriptions of having their breasts cupped, massaged or groped was appropriate for chiropractors, Heller said unequivocally no:“The way you’re saying it, no. Obviously nobody would do that,” Heller responded. “We’re not adjusting the breast itself.”

The Board of Chiropractic Examiners licenses nine other chiropractors in Gillette in addition to Faubion, even with the charges, the conviction. Carter said that Faubion has only seen male patients since December 2006.

The three-member board governs the state’s 203 licensed chiropractors. Its rules allow it to “suspend, revoke or deny licenses and take other disciplinary action” for violations including felony convictions; harassing, intimidating or abusing clients or patients; or engaging in sexual contact with a client or patient. “We’ve never had anything that I can really refer to in this regard,” Bridges said. Bridges said she could not reveal whether a formal complaint had been made to the board, pointing out such proceedings are not public record until they’ve been decided.

The Board's next meeting in May 17. Faubion's sentencing date is unknown.

San Antonio teacher charged with sexual assault of ex-girlfriend, another woman

(Original Post 4-14-08)
James Michael Esquivel, 28, a teacher at San Antonio's Reagan High School, was charged with sexual assault and burglary for allegedly breaking into and assaulting his ex-girlfriend. Bexar County sheriff's deputies claimed that Esquivel forced the woman back into the home and sexuall y assaulted her.

The woman, who sources said is also an employee of the North East Independent School District, then convinced Esquivel to allow her to check on her children, who were upstairs.

"She went upstairs and went into the room and he didn't follow her," said Chief Deputy Dale Bennett of the Bexar County Sheriff's Office. "When she was in the room, she called 911."

Deputies arrived at the home and found Esquivel inside, Bennett said. He was arrested without incident and charged with sexual assault and burglary and was being held in the Bexar County Jail on $100,000 bond.

Sexual assault in Texas is a 2nd degree felony with a 2 to 20 year sentence range and a lifetime SO registration requirement.

(Update 4-22-08) A second victim came forward and alleged that Esquivel raped her after meeting her at a bar. She came forward after seeing Esquivel's arrest for the alleged assault on the ex-girlfriend.

Wednesday's arrest came after a woman told sheriff's deputies that Esquivel assaulted her after she and her cousin met him and a friend at a bar.

The woman had been drinking, she said in an affidavit, and went home with her cousin, where she passed out. Esquivel and his friend later arrived at the home but the woman told the group she was going to sleep. When she woke up the next morning, Esquivel was lying next to her, she said, and her pants and underwear were missing.

She felt compelled to come forward and make a claim that he did sexually assault her," said [Deputy]Chief[Ronald] Bennett.

Chief Bennett said the woman had passed out in her bedroom from drinking too much. That's when Esquivel raped her. The chief also believes there's one maybe two more women out there who have also been sexually abused by Esquivel. He hopes they come forward as well.

"We really want to clear these cases, we know there are some victims out there," said Chief Bennett.

Right now, Esquivel is behind bars, still getting paid by the North East Independent School District.

"The law says that all teachers under contract, they will get continue to get paid, so we have to pay him, even though he's on administrative leave," said Laura Calderon of North East ISD.
But the district found a loophole. Esquivel was hired less than three years ago and still considered to be on probation. Plus, the school year is about to end.

"Because of those two pieces the board has the option to not renew his contract for the following school year," said Calderon.

In 2006, another ex-girlfriend took out a protective order against him, claiming he was violent and sexually assaulter her twice.

In the 2006 case, Esquivel was charged with a family violence assault, a Class A misdemeanor. It later was downgraded when he agreed to plead no contest to a Class C misdemeanor of assault by offensive touch. He received deferred adjudication after completing family violence and anger management classes.

Esquivel resigned Friday, because the school board was scheduled to terminate him Monday.

Serial rapist pleads guilty,confesses to more repes.

Clifford Jones, a Cleveland-area rapist, confessed to five unsloved rapes from the 1980s as well as the rapes of young women in the mid 2000s. The unsolved rapes occured before the imprisonment for raping a relative.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason said, "This monster terrorized Cleveland Heights. Today's plea brings justice to four victims and closes an ugly chapter in the lives of five others."According to the prosecutor's office Jones, 49, of Cleveland, was convicted of raping a young relative in 1985. He was imprisoned for 15 years. After getting out of prison in 2000, Jones raped and sexually assaulted four young women.

On September 16, 2004, Jones attempted to rape a 22-year-old female on Edgehill Drive in Cleveland Heights, after she had parked her car.

He raped a second 22 year old woman, this time a Case Western Reserve student into the woods on October 8, 2004. Jones will be sentenced May 7.

Serial sex offender allegedly strikes again

A serial sex offender was charged with rape of a nurse he met through a clinical drug trial.

Roger Loring Ramsey, 57, a registered sex offender, is jailed in Butler County on single counts of rape and telephone harassment and two counts of menacing by stalking.

Ramsey met the 47-year-old West Chester woman while he participated in paid drug research in January and February at Mount Auburn-based Sterling Research, where she worked, according to police records.

Ramsey, who resided in Clermont County's Union Township, was sentenced to prison for eight years in 1997 after pleading guilty to sexual battery of a Milford student.

Teachers And Trash Education has more on the sexual abuse Ramsey committed while he was a teacher.

Surburban Columbus, OH man convicted of rape, kidnapping

A Pataskala, OH man was convicted after 5 hours of jury deliberation in the rape of a then 23 year old woman on New Years Day 2007 Thursday. Gregory S. Willis, 40, attacked the woman at her apartment complex in Columbus and, then raped her in his van on COlumbus' east side. Willis was convicted of 2 counts of rape and a count of kidnapping. He is charged with raping a second woman.

No date has been set for a trial on the second rape charge. Willis is accused of attacking a woman he met in a West Side bar three months after the attack for which he was convicted.

Willis is a suspect in a third rape. That woman told police that Willis had raped her, after officers described a tattoo of a scorpion on one of his arms. Willis wore long sleeves in his trial this week.

The woman in the Jan. 1 attack told jurors she was walking to her car about 8 a.m. when a man grabbed her from behind and punched her in the face before throwing her into a minivan parked nearby. She said he forced her to perform oral sex as he drove around Bexley. She escaped when he slowed the minivan, Assistant County Prosecutor William Davies said.

Police and a witness found the woman running down the street and bleeding from the mouth, according to testimony.

Willis faces 30 years in prison when he is sentenced on May 28 by Common Pleas Judge Charles A. Schneider. Rape is a tier 3 offense, meaning if released, Willis will spend the rest of his life on the Sex Offender Registry, and will have to report every 90 days.