$$$ JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES FINANCIAL COURT CASES $$$
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In the following criminal cases, the WatchTower Society - Jehovah's Witnesses religion served as the spiritual element of the perpetrator's and/or other actor's formative environment, or otherwise served as a major influencer of the perpetrator's and/or other actor's behavior. The following cases are often tragic, and speak for themselves.
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REARED-JW HIV POSITIVE HOMOSEXUAL AFRICAN-AMERICAN POLITICAL ASSASSIN. In July 2003, Othniel Boaz Askew, then age 31, an HIV-Positive homosexual African-American male, whom had been reared as one of Jehovah's Witnesses, assassinated Brooklyn Councilman James Davis inside Brooklyn City Hall during an ongoing City Council session. Askew walked into the Council meeting room and emptied a 40 caliber pistol into Davis. A policeman then returned fire and killed Askew. Neighbors verified that Othniel B. Askew had been reared within an African-American Jehovah's Witness family living in West Babylon, Long Island, New York.
Othniel Askew, a newcomer to politics, was a political rival of Brooklyn Councilman James Davis, whom was reportedly despondent over his failure to get on the primary ballot against Councilman Davis. Reportedly, only hours before the assassination, Othniel Askew had told the F.B.I. that Councilman Davis had offered Askew cash and a no-show political job to give up Askew's primary challenge against Davis, and threatened to hurt Askew's family if he refused. Reportedly, Councilman Davis also had threatened to publicly reveal that Othniel Askew had been arrested in 1996 and charged with felony assault on charges that Askew had beat his boyfriend, Mario Romero, with a hammer. Askew was never indicted, and was allowed to plead guilty to second-degree harassment. In 1999, Askew was also charged with petty larceny, after stealing a bag filled with about $900.00 worth of property, including jewelry and a cell phone, from a friend. That charge also was plea-bargained down to a misdemeanor. During the 1990s, Askew also had filed two unsuccessful civil lawsuits against a local gym and a ski lodge. All of that is what you get when you mix "homosexual" with "Jehovah's Witness" -- a TOTAL NUTJOB!!!
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ERIN MICHELLE BOSTIC SHIFFLETT ET AL v. LOUIS B. ONGSINGCO ET AL was a 2001-02 Maryland civil lawsuit which involved plaintiffs and a defendant who had both current and previous affiliations with the WatchTower Cult, and who were all further connected as either instructors or students at the Baltimore School of Massage, which taught standard massage therapy, but also taught alleged new age techniques such as Polarity and Rikki, which attempt to manipulate a client's "energy field". As many as seven female employees and students alleged that former instructor (allegedly unlicensed) and one time African-American Jehovah's Witness Pioneer, Louis Ongsingco (born 1952) inappropriately touched their breasts aand pubic areas while performing massages on them in 1999-2000. Ongsingco's inappropriate touching dated back to the 1980s, when multiple JWs complained about Ongsingco fondling JW females, including teenagers. Typically, there is no indication that Ongsingco was ever reported to the authorities, much less prosecuted.
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JUDGE ADABEE -- New South Wales
NEW SOUTH WALES v. FONG is a 2018-20 Aussie criminal court case in which Appellate Judge Abadee repeatedly expressed concern that this Jehovah Witness Minister's conviction and loss of his driver's license for 18 months would prevent Elder Fong from going out in field service 20 hours per month. So, Judge Abadee totally negated Elder Fong's rightful conviction on the condition that Fong keep his nose clean for 8 months. Notably, Fong fought his criminal prosecution, and thereafter appealed both the conviction and the sentence.
Elder Fong had struck and seriously injured Joan Horsey with his truck in a 7-Eleven while stupidly attempting to backup from a gasoline pump into a parking space in front of the store. Horsey's injuries included: a "degloving" from the knee to the ankle joint on her left leg (tearing off of a substantial section of her skin, thus severing blood supply), and a chronic right heal wound or ulcer, which required the debridement of the right heel wound (removal of tissue), and the placement of a skin graft.
... the appellant relied upon a reference from an overseer and instructor for the Jehovah's Witnesses, Mr Stephen Scanlon. He said that the appellant had been a volunteer Christian Minister for 25 years; spending around 20 hours each week teaching Bible readings for no cost. Having known him for nearly 20 years, Mr Scanlon opined negligence and disregard for another human life was totally out of character for the appellant.
A similar written reference was supplied by George Alexiuc, a Minister of Religion. Mr Alexiuc has known the appellant for a much smaller period of time than Mr Scanlon. The reference emphasised his devotion to worship and his caring and considerate nature to others. ...
Mr Scanlon noted that the appellant also drove every day; not only for his work but also as part of his service to the Ministry. Mr Alexiuc also noted that the loss of his drivers' licence would impact upon his ability to look after his family, his work and his capacity to deliver pastoral care. ...
In my opinion, the dependence of his wife and his congregation upon the appellant's use of a vehicle enlivens the sentencing principle of mercy. ...
However, given the appellant's reduced culpability for the offending -- relying as he did upon ineffective camera coverage -- his remorse (evidenced virtually from the moment he first saw that Mrs Horsey was injured), his otherwise good character, his first-time offending (for an offence of this kind) for a driver who uses his car regularly (on a daily basis) for work, as well as religious and other domestic purposes and finally, his low likelihood of re-offending are circumstances which individually and, in combination, constitute a powerful subjective case which diminish the significance to the principles of specific deterrence, protection of the community and the value of denunciation or retribution. ...
... allowing the appellant to continue his livelihood as a self-employed tradesperson, for his own benefit and that of his wife; as well as servicing his religious community. ...
Unfortunately, after police had seized the truck which was used in the offending, the truck and the equipment had been stolen and burnt; causing the appellant to suffer a substantial financial loss -- the truck was used for the purposes of the appellant's small business. ...
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CALIFORNIA v. JOANNE BAYSE DUES was a 2006 California DRUNK DRIVING DEATH prosecution. In September 2006, on a Friday evening at around 6:30 P.M., Joanne B. Dues, then age 55, of Soulsbyville, California, was driving home from her medical transcriptionist job at Tuolumne General Hospital when, without slowing, she struck from the rear a pedestrian walking on the paved shoulder of a state highway in/near Soulsbyville. Dues never touched her brakes -- neither before nor after she hit that pedestrian. A driver who had witnessed what had occurred followed Joanne Dues, while multiple other drivers stopped to assist the victim -- whom later died at the hospital. On the way to her home, Joanne Dues mistakenly pulled into the Soulsbyville School driveway, and struck a retaining wall before exiting. CHP arrested Dues shortly after she arrived at her Soulsyville home. Dues tested three times the legal limit. A bottle of vodka was found in Dues' car -- which was covered with blood and had the windshield shattered. In November 2006, Joanne Dues pleaded guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter while driving drunk in exchange for a mild sentence of only 48 months in prison -- which even was later reduced due to time off for good behavior.
Joanne Dues' sister, Evelyn Gordon, told the media that Joanne Dues had been acting out of character -- including binge drinking --since her husband of thirty years, Robert Ronald Dues, had committed suicide in April 2006. Although identified as a Jehovah's Witness, Bobby Dues had not received a Kingdom Hall funeral. Gordon further related that Joanne Dues had been reared as a Jehovah's Witness, but that as soon as this incident made the news, Dues had been disfellowshipped from the local congregation.
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NEW YORK v. ARRELLO BARNES was a 1999-20 second degree Murder conviction of a 20 year-old African-American male from Queens, New York, who had been reared as a Jehovah's Witness, and who had been baptized shortly after being incarcerated with a life term plus. Barnes thereafter converted to Judaism, and later rejoined the prison gang to which he belonged as a teen. Bigtime worthless POS.
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AUSTRALIA v. CHAY ARIC MARTIN was a 2006-08 NSW ASSAULT prosecution. In July 2006, in the early AM hours of the morning, Chay A. Martin and a 16 year old friend had been drinking at a Sydney bar. They left around 2:00 am and, together with three or four other males, attacked a man while he was walking along a nearby street. The victim was punched and kicked and left lying on the footpath. He suffered head injuries including severe bruising to both sides of the head, a broken nose and a black eye. He also suffered a laceration to one side of the head requiring eleven stitches and a laceration to his lip requiring three stitches.
After that first assault, Chay Martin and friend returned to the bar and resumed drinking. They stayed until about 3.30 am. Around 4:00 am, Martin, friend, and a third male, approached three men walking through Hyde Park. They punched one of the men, who started to run. The thugs chased down one of their victims. Martin restrained that victim on the ground, while the sixteen year old friend kicked and punched the victim around the head and upper body -- breaking his jaw. The victim's wallet and a digital camera were stolen.
In July 2007, Chay Martin pleaded guilty to malicious wounding in company and to aggravated robbery. He was sentenced in December 2007 to an aggregate sentence of 4 years with a total non-parole period of 2 years.
"The judge noted that the applicant was 23 at the time of the offences. Her Honour recorded the deprivations he suffered due to his parents' adherence to the doctrines of the Jehovah's Witnesses, which had entailed a level of social isolation and had required him to go door knocking with his parents. Her Honour accepted that, as a result of those matters, the applicant felt excluded and humiliated at school. He had also suffered physical abuse at the hands of his father. ... There was also evidence from a psychologist, Dr Lennings, who concluded that the applicant experienced a severe degree of psychological abuse as a child, and as a result had developed "a conflict-ridden personality with remaining significant psychopathology'."
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CALIFORNIA v. KENNETH LEE DUNCANTELL are numerous criminal convictions dating back to 1985. A "one man crime wave", HIV+ Kenneth L. Duncantell was reared in an extended African-American Jehovah's Witness Family, including a JW Mother, JW Aunts, and JW sisters.
Listed chronologically, this included robbery of an inhabited dwelling; five subsequent parole violations; a misdemeanor violation of giving false identity to a police officer; petty theft with a prior; vehicle theft in 1993 which resulted in a 16-month prison term; possession of a controlled substance resulting in another prison term; battery leading to a violation of parole; another violation of parole; driving under the influence; two more parole violations; possession of marijuana and a failure to appear; possession of marijuana for sale and another prison term; another driving under the influence; obstructing an officer; another violation of parole; and the original offense of first degree robbery with a 10-year prison term. In June 2011, Ken Duncantell was sentenced to an indeterminate term of 25 years to life following his convictions of possession of marijuana for sale and possession of drugs/contraband while incarcerated.
At the time of the offense, Kenneth Duncantell was serving a 10-year sentence for attempted robbery of which he had been convicted in 2006. The facts of that case were that Duncantell and a co-perpetrator approached the victim as the latter was seated in her car after withdrawing money from an automated teller machine. Duncantell opened the driver's side door, pointed a gun at the victim, and pulled the trigger several times but the gun did not fire. The victim put her vehicle in reverse and was able to drive away.
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AUSTRALIA v. VINCENT KRUW MAPHAM (2008-09; 2009-13) and AUSTRALIA v. HEATHER MYRLE MAPHAM (2009-13).
A 30-year-old Canberra man has been sentenced to periodic detention for making counterfeit $50 notes and trying to use them in stores. Vincent Mapham from Macquarie pleaded guilty to making the counterfeit money during January last year. He also admitted trying to use the fake notes on two occasions, once at a store in the Canberra Centre and the other at a service station in Holt. In sentencing in the ACT Supreme Court, Justice Malcolm Gray said ... he believed Mapham's actions were more than foolish experimentation, because on nine occasions fake money Mapham had made was used successfully. Justice Gray sentenced him to a total of two years jail. Mapham will have to serve nine months of that in periodic detention then adhere to a good behaviour order for 15 months. -- ABC News, August 26, 2009. (Edited)
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A [Jehovah's Witness] mother [who had immigrated from South Africa] has been cleared of helping cover for her son over a stolen car, following a successful appeal in the ACT Supreme Court. But her son has lost a bid to overturn a conviction for providing false evidence to convince police the car was his.
Vincent Mapham, 34, was charged in 2009 with unlawful possession of a stolen car. Police had found the stolen car at his home during a raid in February, which took place while Mr Mapham was overseas. ... After a hearing at the ACT Magistrates Court, the detective approached Mr Mapham, with the intention of asking for fingerprints. But instead Mr Mapham showed the officer the receipt for the car, claiming he had bought it in June 2008. His [JW] mother, Heather Mapham, 59, was with him, and when the officer raised a doubt, she told him she had been with her son when he bought the car. She then proceeded to give a statement to police at the City Police Station. But investigations soon revealed the receipt was not created or signed by the owner of the car, which had been reported stolen on 21 August 2008. Police records also showed the car was involved in the stealing of petrol in mid-July 2008.
Two weeks after handing police the receipt, Mr Mapham pleaded guilty in the ACT Magistrates Court to being in possession of the stolen car. He and his [JW] mother were subsequently charged with providing false evidence, and both were convicted in early 2011 in the Magistrates Court. The [JW] mother was put on a two year good behaviour order and had a six month jail sentence suspended, while Mr Mapham was sentenced to nine months jail.
Both mother and son appealed in the ACT Supreme Court, challenging the findings of the Magistrates Court. Mr Mapham's lawyer, Michael Kukulies-Smith, argued the appeal on a number of grounds. He said the finding of guilt was "unsafe and unsatisfactory" , and that the evidence of the handing over of the receipt should have been excluded.
Ms Mapham's lawyer, Darryl Perkins, based his appeal on four grounds, including that the charges should have been thrown out, because Ms Mapham had no crime to answer at the end of the prosecution's case. Justice Hilary Penfold, in a judgment handed down on Tuesday, found in favour of the mother, overturning the conviction. She found that, at the end of the prosecution's case, there was not sufficient evidence to establish the mother made her statement to police knowing it was false. ... But she rejected the appeal of Mr Mapham, finding the magistrate made no error in admitting the evidence about the receipt. Justice Penfold said there was no miscarriage of justice, and dismissed the appeal. -- The Canberra Times, August 12, 2013. (Edited)
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A MACQUARIE man involved in a scuffle at Westfield Belconnen on Friday afternoon allegedly used a customised box to shoplift pairs of sneakers while on bail over kidnapping charges. Appearing in the ACT Magistrates Court yesterday, Vincent Mapham, 32, stood accused of dishonestly obtaining a refund, stealing three pairs of sneakers, possessing an article used for theft, obstructing a public officer, and possession of methamphetamine.
ACT Policing told the court Mapham used an empty box with the base removed as a tool to shoplift on several occasions, placing it in a trolley and hiding stolen items underneath. Prosecution witness Senior Constable Stephen Coles told the court Mapham used the box to steal three pairs of Nike sneakers worth $509 from Rebel Sport in Belconnen on Monday, with the box still in his possession when he was arrested by investigating officers on Friday.
Police were called to Westfield Belconnen at about 1.20pm on Friday after reports a man was acting suspiciously in Kmart, where Mapham was alleged to have used a receipt to dishonestly obtain a $79 refund. When officers approached Mapham to arrest him, police say he tried to swallow a small plastic snap-lock bag containing what they believe was methamphetamine before being wrestled to the ground. A pair of new Nike sneakers being worn by Mapham's wife were seized by police, along with two other pairs allegedly stolen earlier in the week.
The court heard Mapham was currently on Supreme Court bail over charges of unlawful confinement and demanding ransom money. Mapham was granted bail after telling the court he was the primary carer of his two children, aged one and four, because his wife was unable to care for them while being treated for post-natal depression. Magistrate Beth Campbell refused to grant Mapham bail yesterday when he appeared in court, telling him post-natal depression was something many women were forced to face and was not an exceptional circumstance. She asked police for the family to be referred to appropriate child welfare agencies for assessment and assistance. -- The Canberra Times, November 18, 2011. (Edited)
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100 YEARS AFTER "PASTOR" RUSSELL LEFT TOWN
GREATER PITTSBURGH'S MOST PROMINENT JEHOVAH'S WITNESS FAMILY
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WORTHLESS PUERTO RICAN JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES
PREYED ON MULTIPLE HARVARD UNIVERSITY VICTIMS
-- DOOR-KNOCKING JW MODUS OPERANDI HIDDEN FROM PUBLIC --
MASSACHUSETTS v. PRING-WILSON was a 2003-08 Massachusetts criminal court case. In January 2008, former Harvard graduate student Alexander Pring-Wilson pleaded "guilty" to "involuntary manslaughter" for stabbing to death an 18 year-old Puerto Rican Jehovah's Witness, named Michael Colono, during an April 2003 confrontation in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A 2004 manslaughter conviction was overturned on appeal, and the 2007 re-trial had ended in a hung jury. In 2008, Pring-Wilson plea bargained to a minimal two year prison sentence, and received ten months credit for time served.
This politically charged case received much publicity over the years, including CourtTV coverage, because it pitted the small affluent Pring-Wilson family from Colorado Springs, Colorado, against a large, extended lower middle-class Cambridge, Massachusetts family of Puerto Rican immigrants. Despite the fact that over the years several reporters have written very specifically about the COLONO FAMILY, but-for a single media reference back in April 2003 it would never have been known that the Gabriel Colono and Ada Colono Family and their RODRIGUEZ FAMILY relatives were Jehovah's Witnesses, or that Michael Colono and his worthless brother, Marcos Colono, had been reared as active Jehovah's Witnesses.
In the early AM hours of Saturday, April 12, 2003, the Harvard University grad student was walking home alone after a Friday night of bar-hopping with friends, when he passed a car parked outside a pizza parlor, which was occupied by Samuel Rodriguez, age 22, Rodriguez's girlfriend (driver), and Rodriguez's cousin, Michael Colono, age 18. Michael Colono made an insulting remark t Pring-Wilson, and an altercation ensued, during which Michael Colono was stabbed five times by Pring-Wilson in self-defense.
Samuel Rodriguez claimed that the Harvard grad student first assaulted Michael Colono, and that he then came to his cousin's aid, and after punching Pring-Wilson only one time, the pair fled to their car and left, and only discovered that Michael Colono had been stabbed afterwards.
Pring-Wilson claimed that he was jumped by Colono and Rodriguez after a verbal exchange that was initiated by the pair insulting and taunting him, and that he only used the pocket knife in self-defense after being repeatedly punched and kicked.
During the 2007 trial, Samuel Rodriguez, who worked as a bouncer in 2003, acknowledged that previous to the altercation he had pleaded guilty to three assault-and-battery charges, as well as one charge of carrying an unlicensed firearm. Samuel Rodriguez reportedly was also sentenced to probation for marijuana possession in 1999. The police had even come to the home of Samuel Rodriguez and his girlfriend, Giselle Abreu, earlier that same Friday evening due to the couple's arguing. Abreu also testified that both Samuel Rodriguez and Michael Colono were drinking beer and brandy in the car as they waited on their pizza.
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MASSACHUSETTS v. MICHAEL COLONO, MASSACHUSETTS v. MICHAEL COLONO, ETC., ETC., ETC. At the time of the 2003 pizza parlor altercation, Michael Colono was on probation for a malicious destruction of property charge, which curiousl arose out of a 2001 arrest when Michael Colono, then age 16, threw money in the face of a cashier at a pizza restaurant, and then kicked in the front door and shattered the glass.
Michael Colono's juvenile record also include three or more disorderly conduct arrests, including a time when he assaulted two people on a subway, and then spat on the police officers who arrested him. In July 2001 Micahel Colono was arrested for trespassing, and in September 2001, Michael Colono was arrested for possession of 16 small bags of crack cocaine with intent to distribute. Michael Colono had also spent time in a substance abuse rehab facility. Michael Colono also had fathered a child when he was only 15 years-old, and he thereafter dropped out of high school. At the time of his death, Colono was employed in the kitchen of a Boston area Days Inn Hotel restaurant.
At Pring-Wilson's sentencing, Desmarias Colono, sister, stated: "Nothing will ever make life better without Michael -- and I mean nothing. It's all Alexander Pring-Wilson's fault, the man who thinks he's God." During a previous hearing, Marcos Colono, older brother of Michael Colono, called Pring-Wilson a "Harvard thug".
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MASSACHUSETTS v. MARCOS A. COLONO was a 2010-2017 Massachusetts criminal court and appellate court case. Marcos A. Colono, now age 38, is a member of a large extended lower middle-class Cambridge, Massachusetts family of Puerto Rican JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES. Marco Colono was reared as a Jehovah's Witness by JW Parents, Gabriel Colono and Ada Colono.
In August 2010, around 1:00 A.M., Marcos Colono broke into the Cambridge, Massachusetts apartment of an unidentified 53 year-old Harvard University's KENNEDY SCHOOL researcher father and his eleven year-old son, and held the pair hostage at knifepoint. Marcos Colono first ORALLY and then ANALLY RAPED the young boy while his father watched. The father did not attempt to physically resist Marcos Colono until Colono declared that he was going to kill the father. Marcos Colono then stabbed the father eleven times and even tried to decapitate him. Wrongly believing the father to be dying, Colono left the apartment.
Interestingly, at trial, Marcos Colono claimed that his fingerprints and DNA, which had been found all over the apartment crime scene, could have been left there when Colono had previously called at the apartment as a Jehovah's Witness Minister. (We get the feeling that there may have been much more to the JW part of this story, which once again, a liberal Democrat prosecutor may have left out of the prosecution in order to protect the reputation of door-knocking "Jehovah's Witnesses".)
Following a March 2013 jury trial in which Marcos Colono was sufficiently confident in his public speaking and ministering abilities to represent himself at trial, Marcos Colon was convicted on two counts of aggravated rape of a child by force, two counts of home invasion, armed assault with intent to murder, assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury, and assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon on a child. Marcos Colono was sentenced to a mere 74-85 years in prison.
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MASSACHUSETTS v. MARCOS COLONO. Marcos Colono's collected DNA also matched DNA collected from the September 2008 home invasion and DOUBLE-RAPE at knifepoint of two Harvard University female students living at a Brighton, Massachusetts apartment building. In June 2014, after once again acting as his own attorney at trial, Marcos Colono was convicted of four counts of aggravated rape, two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, one count of home invasion, and one count of armed burglary. Marcos Colono was sentenced to another 50-60 years in prison.
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CALIFORNIA v. LORD JULIAN ANTWANE was a 2009-14 California CAPITAL MURDER prosecution. On a Sunday night in November 2009, the Antwane family of JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES living in Lancaster, California, decided to hold a barbeque because the oldest son, Lord Christian Antwane, was visiting from Los Angeles. Brothers Lord Julian Antwane, age 22 years-old, and Lord Daireek Antwane, and sister Christine Antwane, and other relatives and guests were in attendance. The Antwane brothers and friends were drinking beer on the front lawn when two visitors got into an argument. Lord Christian Antwane then also got into the argument due to one of the visitor's use of profanity. Lord Christian Antwane and first visitor agreed with second visitor to fight him at a location about a block or so away from the Antwane Family home. Lord Christian Antwane told Lord Julian Antwane to go get the .45 caliber Glock pistol that he had brought with him from LA and bring it to the fight. The only accurate thing known after that is that someone ended up shooting the fighting second visitor six times, and he died. Lord Julian Antwane was prosecuted for the murder, and after a jury trial in which he was found guilty, he was sentencedto 50 years to life in prison. The California Court of Appeal opinion also includes this insightful tidbit about the goings-on in this African-American Jehovah's Witness Family:
In approximately 2005 or 2006, [Lord] Christian broke a toilet while having sex with his girlfriend in the bathroom of the family home. [Lord Julian] told [Christian Antwane Sr.] about the incident and [Lord] Christian had to leave the house. [Christian Antwane Sr.] also testified that [Lord] Christian had sex with [Lord Julian's] girlfriend. When [Lord Julian] found out, he told [Lord] Christian's wife, and this caused a fight between [Lord] Christian and his wife. [Christian Antwane Sr.] testified that there was "intense hatred" between [Lord Julian] and [Lord] Christian.
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This April 2009 SALT LAKE TRIBUNE article reported on the conversion of 39 year-old Abel Escobedo, of Brigham City, Utah, from the Jehovah's Witnesses to Catholicism. Having been born into and reared in the Jehovah's Witness Cult, Escobedo's juvenile criminal record began when he was first arrested at the age of 9. Escobedo's teen years included arrests for truancy, vandalism, and theft. By age 18, Escobedo was sentenced to 5 years in Colorado state prison. In his adult years, Escobedo repeatedly attempted to straighten out his continuing troubled life. Escobedo and his wife and four children sought help at his local Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses. However, Escobedo states, "I just didn't feel it was helping me. I would just fall asleep there." Escobedo and his family eventually turned to their local Catholic Church for help in turning around his life. There, Escobedo states "I finally met God."
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CALIFORNIA v. JIM DEAN WOLFENBARGER (2003-2009), CALIFORNIA v. JIM DEAN WOLFENBARGER (1988) and NEVADA v. JIM DEAN WOLFENBARGER (1980s). Jim Dean Wolfenbarger did prison time in Nevada for the kidnapping and rape of a female cab driver, and thereafter, Wolfenbarger did prison time in California for the kidnapping and rape of a 6 year-old girl. From 2003 through 2009, multiple California courts have declared Wolfenbarger to be a "sexually violent predator" -- a legal label which requires Wolfenbarger's continued incarcerated in a California mental health facility.
Numerous media reports make much of the fact that Jim D. Wolfenbarger supposedly "gradually converted" to the Jehovah's Witnesses, in 1996, while in prison. What most media reports fail to relate is that Wolfenbarger's mother and sister (Leah Harrington), and a cousin (Donna Valles), who have all publicly advocated his release, and possibly other relatives, are all Jehovah's Witnesses -- which raises the real PROBABILITY that Jim Wolfenbarger was actually reared in a Jehovah's Witness family.
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CALIFORNIA v. REGINALD ROBINSON. CALIFORNIA v. RICHARD ROBERTS. This October 2008 CONTRA COSTA TIMES news article reported on two California men who had known each other all their lives because both men had been reared by Jehovah's Witness Parents who had attended the same Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses.
Reginald Robinson, 31, of El Sobrante, California, reportedly has been charged with murder, solicitation of murder, and three other felonies related to a real estate scheme that prosecutors claim was the motive for the April 2008 murder of a San Ramon real estate financier named Kashmir Billon.
In October 2008, Richard Rogers testified at a preliminary court hearing that he had known Reginald Robinson his "whole life", because both men had been reared by Jehovah's Witness Parents who had attended the same Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses. Richard Rogers, who himself reportedly had past felony convictions on drug and gun charges, reportedly claimed to have offered back in 2006 to kill a different man for Reginald Robinson, for a fee of $20,000.00, who Rogers alleged that Robinson suspected of committing a home invasion robbery at Robinson's house. That alleged 2006 murder-for-hire contract supposedly was never finalized.
Richard Rogers reportedly further testified that just two days before Kashmir Billon was found dead that his friend Reginald Robinson had offered Rogers $50,000.00 to murder a business associate, who Robinson supposedly never specifically named, but whom Robinson wanted killed within the next few days.
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DUJAN WHITE MURDER
Readers should directly check out this August 2008 TOLEDO BLADE story about a 27 year-old reared-Jehovah's-Witness, who was shot and killed during a drug deal gone bad. The reporter apparently was disgusted with some of the characterizations made by the JWs' family and friends, and apparently decided to have some tongue-in-cheek fun with such. Here are some excerpts:
"Dujuan White was remembered yesterday by family and friends as a God-centered person ... ... ...
"'What really killed him is his kindness,' his mother, Linda Lawrence, said. 'He was trusting, and kindness killed him.'... ...
"Mr. White was raised in South Toledo by his single mother and his grandmother, though he remained close to his father, Ms. Lawrence said.... ...
"After finishing his GED in 2001 and a brief stint in the U.S. Navy [dishonorably discharged ???], he spent four years working with the elderly as a home health aide.
"He most recently worked at Jimmy Johns Gourmet Sandwiches in Maumee, but hoped to begin attending classes on real estate.
"He also intended to settle down with his girlfriend, Brittaney Steinmiller.... ...
"The Christian values Mr. White learned as a Jehovah's Witness were his core, and he often ministered to friends by sharing the Bible's message, ... ... ...
"'He had his little run-ins with the law. That was always bad luck. He would just always be in the wrong place at the wrong time,' ... ... ... ."
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FLORIDA v. ANDREW S. GEYER was a 2007 Florida criminal court case. In June 2007, Andrew Geyer, then age 29, was arrested in Tampa, Florida by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office on theft charges of obtaining property with a "worthless check". Outcome unknown. Andrew Geyer was a one-time Jehovah's Witness Pioneer Minister at the College Park Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, in north Indianapolis. Geyer's step-father is current JW Elder Clint Duncan.
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CALIFORNIA v. BALTAZAR MORENO was a 2005-07 California court case. Incomplete details. On December 6, 2005, 16 year-old Abraham Ortega was shot and killed just outside the premises of Santiago High School, in Garden Grove, California, shortly after school had been dismissed. As many as 15 students and neighborhood gangbangers may have been involved in a brawl that gave rise to the shooting. Six or more persons, including three students, were eventually charged for their participation in the brawl and shooting, including 16 year-old Baltazar Moreno, who was described as a clean-cut, college-prep student, who both played on the high school's baseball team, and was an active Jehovah's Witness. It is unclear as to what exact charges were lodged against Moreno, nor is the outcome known.
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FLORIDA v. TROY MIGUEL VICTORINO was a 2004-8 capital murder court decision. Labeled "One of Florida's Bloodiest Mass Murders", the August 2004 beating and stabbing deaths of six (6) Deltona, Florida housemates was masterminded by 27 year-old "Latin Kings" gang leader, Troy Miguel Victorino, who had been reared in a Jehovah's Witness Family with whom he continued to enjoy a good relationship, and which proclaimed his "innocence" throughout the extensive judcial proceedings. In August 2006, Troy M. Victorino was convicted on not only six counts of first-degree murder, and one count of armed burglary, but Troy Victorino was also convicted of "abuse of a corpse" for having sexually assaulted one of the female victims after she was dead, plus one count of "torturing an animal" for having stomped to death a dachshund which belonged to that same female victim. Troy Miguel Victorino was sentenced to "death by lethal injection", and is currently going through all the routine "death penalty" appeals.
The Victorino Family, which reportedly is of African-American and Carribean-Hispanic heritage, originally lived in Queens, New York, before relocating to Florida in 1987, when Troy Victorino was 10 years-old. Troy Victorino was the oldest of six children. Knowing that Victorino faced the death penalty, Victorino's defense team attempted to show that Victorino was physically, sexually, and psychologically abused as a child.
Supposedly, the 12 year-old son of an unidentified "care-giver" (possibly an aunt who lived in an adjacent apartment building) had sexually abused Troy Victorino when he was between the ages of 2 and 4. Rather than report such to authorities, and get her son professional help, according to his mother, Sharon Elizabeth Victorino, "we just took him out of the environment". The first of Troy Victorino's five suicide threats came when he was only 8 years-old. Sharon Victorino said her son had been "misunderstood". Troy Victorino reportedly spent three days in a psychiatric hospital as a result. When Troy Victorino was 9 years-old, he spent six weeks in a psychiatric hospital, and was diagnosed with a manic-depressive disorder. It was sometime during this time period that New York authorities allegedly threatened to charge the Victorinos with "child abuse" and remove all their children. Not long thereafter, the Victorinos reportedly relocated to Deltona, Florida.
Despite the fact that the Victorinos were self-proclaimed "strict disciplinarians", who took their children to the three weekly "meetings" at their local Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, Troy Victorino was convicted of burglary when he was 10 years-old, and trespassing when he was around 13-14 years-old. When he was 15 years-old, Victorino was convicted on various charges relating to the theft, burglary, and arson of an automobile, and spent approximately 26 months in prison.
Released in 1997 for only about 8 weeks, Victorino was again arrested on auto theft and battery charges after Victorino had beat the owner in the head with a stick, crushing his face, ripping off one of his ears, knocking out all his teeth, and leaving him with a permanent eye injury. Instead of charging Victorino with attempted murder, the prosecutor went for "battery". Victorino spent approximately six years in prison before again being paroled.
Released from prison in October 2003, Troy Victorino was a leader in the "Latin Kings" street gang, yet he apparently still enjoyed a good relationship with his parents. Victorino reportedly had dinner with his parents either on the same Friday night or the Satuday night after the Friday morning murders. In fact, in 2006, while awaiting trial, a local reporter who eventually interviewed Troy Victorino wrote:
"His mother, Sharon Victorino, called me a few days later. I quickly discovered that Troy consulted her about most of his decisions, and that he took her advice seriously. It was clear she was screening me. We agreed to meet at a restaurant in Lake Mary.
"Sharon Elizabeth Victorino is a tall, statuesque woman with auburn hair who works at a bank. She dresses professionally with a touch of jauntiness; dangling earrings in her double-pierced ears, a conservative black outfit with accents of leopard print. A devout Jehovah's Witness, she has held herself together, though her husband is terminally ill and on dialysis, she herself suffers from hypertension ... .
"'Troy is the big brother of the family," Sharon informed me solemnly. She brought family photographs of her enormously tall brood to our meeting. [Troy Victorino is supposedly 6'7" tall, and weighs 300+ pounds.] She studied one picture of Troy as a toddler inclining a curly head toward his baby brother and tears came to her eyes. 'This is how I remember him,' she said. 'The innocence.' Then she got down to business.
"'This has nothing to do with an Xbox. I have five sons; we never owned an Xbox. This is all because my son is a big, scary black guy. If he were a basketball player, he'd be a hero. And because we live in Volusia County. If I lived 10 miles away, none of this might have happened.'
"'The night before he was arrested, he came over for dinner,' she continued. 'Chinese food. He ate off my plate. That was Troy. After dinner, he was watching the news on TV. He said to me, '"Mom, I bet you 50 dollars within 24 hours they'll be wanting to talk to me."' I took pictures of him because I was afraid.'
"She pushed the snapshot she took that night toward me. It showed Troy in his mother's home posing indulgently, like any son, looking down into the lens as it captured his last night of freedom. ... ...
"As we said goodbye, Sharon looked me straight in the eye. 'I am absolutely convinced of his innocence,' she said. ...
"I don't know why Sharon and Troy agreed to let me visit him in jail. ...
"I made it clear to both Sharon and Troy that I had no interest in trying to vindicate him. She thanked me for not treating her like a monster. He thanked me for 'being on the fence' and at least willing to listen to his side. ... ...
I visited Victorino three times in prison for about 90 minutes each time. ... ...
"'This is a bad place,' the mother said. 'There are bad people in here.' That her son might be one of them didn't seem to occur to her. 'He doesn't have clean underwear,' she told me. ..."
For several weeks during Summer 2004, Troy Miguel Victorino, and other "Latin Kings" associates, had been "squatting" in the Deltona "winter home" owned by one of the victims' grandparents. When the granddaughter arrived from New Hampshire to spend the summer there with friends, she had to have local police arrest some of the squatters who unbelievably refused to leave. In the process, an X-Box and other belongings of Troy Victorino were supposedly left in the house.
When Victorino got out of jail, the granddaughter apparently refused to give Victorino the belongings he claimed to have left in the house, because the gang had stolen all of her grandparents' electronics. In revenge, Victorino first fired a gunshot at the house during a drive-by. Then, a week later during the early AM hours of Friday, August 6, 2004, Troy Victorino kicked in the front door of the home while the six occupants slept. All six victims (four males and two females) were killed by Victorino and his three Latin Kings underlings by being beaten with aluminum baseball bats, and thereafter repeatedly stabbed just to make sure they were dead. Victorino stompe to death the granddaughter's pet dog, and then raped her corpse after savagely beating her to death. The granddaughter's face was so pulverized that dental records could not even identify her.
The judge called the killings "conscienceless" and "unnecessarily torturous". The judge told Victorino, "You have not only forfeited your right to live among us, you have forfeited your right to live at all."
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FLORIDA v. ANITRA NICOLE CARTER was a November 2009 Florida arrest on GRAND THEFT charges. Anitra N. Carter, then age 39, of Jacksonville, Florida, is a member of a large, extended family of African-American Jehovah's Witnesses.
FLORIDA v. ANITRA NICOLE CARTER was an May 2007 Florida arrest oDOMESTIC BATTERY charges in Jacksonville, Florida,
FLORIDA v. ANITRA NICOLE CARTER was an April 2005 Florida arrest on WELFARE FRAUD charges in St. Petersburg, Florida, while supposedly enrolled in vocational school.
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CALIFORNIA v. RYAN MICHAEL MARSHALL was a 1985-2008 California capital murder case. In January 1985, 18 year-old Ryan Marshall and two accomplishes broke into a rural Visalia, Tulare County, California home in order to steal weapons that they knew to be there. The homeowner, Silva Teague, was unexpectedly home, and after being forced to lie down on the bathroom floor, Marshall shot her in the head four times. The Trio were quickly apprehended, and Marshall admitted to the crime. In a 1986 trial, Ryan Marshall was convicted of special circumstance murder, robbery, and burglary, and received the death penalty. The typical death penalty appeals began in 1993, and finally, in 2008, the federal USDC overturned the state court sentence and mandated that Ryan Marshall's sentence be changed to life in prison without possibility of parole.
Ryan Marshall was the 1966 out-of-wedlock child of Lonnie Marshall, of Louisiana, and Phyllis Muldworf, of California. The couple did not marry until 1972, although the mother and child stayed with Lonnie Marshall, in Louisiana, for four months during 1968. As it turns out, Lonnie Marshall was a Jehovah's Witness, and when he moved to California in 1972 to live with his child and new wife, he turned their lives upside down. Marshall was described as a "dictator" who forced the WatchTower religion on Phyllis and Ryan. All of the seven-year-old's toys were discarded. Early on, Ryna was beaten by Lonnie Marshall after Ryan argued with his mother about being forced to attend a meeting at the Kingdom Hall. Ryan was beaten regularly thereafter. However, by the time he was 13 years-old, Ryan Marshall finally became receptive to the WatchTower religion. Ironically, it was around the same time that Lonnie Marshall began to lose interest. Starting at the age of 10, Ryan Marshall suffered from depression and other mental health issues. He constantly thought of suicide, and attempted such on occasions. There were repeated run-ins with the law, and Ryan began using alcohol and drugs. As a teenager, Ryan Marshall suffered from ulcers and hypertension.
Phyllis Marshall, who started working as a social worker for the Child Protective Services of Tulare County in 1976, claimed that she stayed with Lonnie Marshall because she was afraid of him She claimed that Lonnie Marshall's parenting style was "to coerce obedience through cruelty and intimidation". Marshall's concept of family life was that "he was the man of the house, he was the one in charge and everybody was going to do what he wanted." He yelled; he never talked. He threw objects in the house that were not to his standards of cleanness or neatness. He had an explosive personality. She further claimed that Lonnie Marshall forced his Jehovah's Witnesses religion on them, and he berated wife and child for their Jewish heritage.
A JW Elder, named Isaac Hull, testified in the sentencing phase of Ryan Marshall's 1986 trial, and spoke well of him calling him "bright and studious". Hull recounted a time when Ryan Marshall had visited his wife and he at their home in 1983. Hull described Lonnie Marshall as "very knowledgeable about the Bible, [but] he didn't apply what he knew". Elder Hull attempted to label Lonnie Marshall as "strange" by describing an incident when Lonnie Marshall called Hull to the Marshall residence because Marshall insisted that Ryan's foot locker was "possessed". (Readers should understand that Isaac Hull knew that his non-JW listeners would interpret such as a negative against Lonnie Marshall. However, during the 1960s and 1970s, the WatchTower Society had promoted fear amongst JWs that items in their home might be "demon possessed". In fact, this was one of Jehovah's Witnesses favor topics of inter-denominational conversation during that time period. No sympathy for Lonnie Marshall, but that was certainly a hypocritical low-blow by the JW Elder.)
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UNITED STATES v. JOSEPH J. LITTLE was a 2000-03 Missouri federal criminal prosecution of an African-American Jehovah's Witness named Joseph Little, age 35, of St. Louis, Missouri. Joe Little pled "guilty" to one count of making a false statement in attempting to acquire a firearm, and one count of making a false statement to a federally licensed firearms dealer. Joseph J. Little was sentenced to 92 months in prison, but was released in September 2009.
MISSOURI v. JOSEPH J. LITTLE was a drug related conviction for which Joseph Little spent 30 months in prison.
See also JOSEPH J. LITTLE v. SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION (2013) to read about this Jehovah's Witness Minister's attempt to obtain full disability benefits due to sickle cell anemia and complications. Little if any employment history during entire lifetime.
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MICHAEL E. CORRELL v. SCHRIRO, ARIZONA v. MICHAEL EMERSON CORRELL, ARIZONA v. MICHAEL EMERSON CORRELL, Etc., Etc. Michael Emerson Correll currently sits on Arizona's "death row" after being convicted in 1984 of three first-degree murders, one attempted murder, one count of armed robbery, one count of first degree burglary, and four counts of kidnapping. Michael E. Correll's most recent "death penalty" appeal was in May 2008. The USCA ruled that Correll was entitled to a new penalty phase trial, because:
"Correll was constitutionally entitled to the presentation of a mitigation defense. He did not receive one, although substantial mitigation evidence existed."
Michael Correll's mother, Joyce Elene Callahan Correll (remarried Knobel was described as a "fanatical" Jehovah's Witness, whose commitment to the WatchTower Society came before her commitment to her family. She spent most of her time with JW activities, and often neglected her six children's basic needs. Her six children were required to attend all meetings at the Kingdom Hall, and if they misbehaved, or even indicated that they were confused, or did not understand WatchTower doctrine, they were punished.
As a result of their rearing in this abusive Jehovah's Witness household, all six Correll children (Robin Darlene, Patricia Williams, Michael, Daniel, Terry, and Timothy) reported that they had or have had substance abuse problems beginning in childhood or adolescence. At least five of the six children spent time in juvenile correctional facilities, and all four of the boys in the family have spent time in adult correctional facilities.
Michael Correll's problems with drugs and alcohol began early. In response to Correll's obvious substance abuse problems, his parents intervened with beatings and threats of kicking him out of the house. He was arrested multiply times before he was 14 years-old. Correll's JW Parents were not entirely remiss in his rearing. After Correll was expelled from the eighth grade for threatening a teacher with a knife, his parents took him to a private psychologist, and participated in a six-month treatment program with him.
However, shortly thereafter, when Correll was 14 years-old, he got into another incident in which he was shot in the arm. After he recuperated from such, Correll's parents petitioned the State of Arizona to sever their parental rights and make him a ward of the state. According to the court record, Correll's parents had done such in accordance with the WatchTower Society practice of "shunning", which is treating an excommunicated member as if they were already dead, which would also seem to indicate that Michael Correll may have been a "baptized" member, and that he may have been "disfellowshipped", which would further indicate that Correll's local JW Elders may have played an "unadvertised" role in all of the aforementioned.
Within months of becoming a ward of the state, 14-year-old Correll became addicted to heroin. Amongst the various state institutions where Correll spent his teenage years, Correll was committed to psychiatric institutions at least twice, and at age 16, Correll was described as "severely psychologically impaired". Correll was treated with tranquilizer/anti-psychotic drugs while institutionalized, and he attempted suicide on two occasions. Correll's criminal history included numerous escapes from mental health treatment facilities, as well as hostage taking and armed aggression against mental health workers.
Methamphetamine eventually became Correll's drug of choice. At the time of the April 1984 murders, Correll's meth use put him in the top 1% of meth users quantity-wise. Michael Correll's life as a druggie was one of continuously trouble. The court record also included brief remarks about Correll's knifing of one man, and his stabbing of a pregnant woman. Except for 229 days, Correll was incarcerated for the 9-year period between October 1975 and March 1984.
During the early AM hours of April 12, 1984, Michael Correll and John Nabors went to the home of a friend/co-worker of Nabors, pulled a gun, and demanded money and drugs. After Correll secured the homeowner and his girlfriend with duct tape, a tenant and her boyfriend arrived at the home, and Correll secured them with duct tape as well. For whatever reason, the Duo left the home with the friend, tenant, and the tenant's boyfriend in the tenant's car. Curiously, the homeowner's girlfriend was further bound by Nabors, but left at the home. She was later found in the house dead from strangulation.
Correll drove the stolen auto to a deserted area where Nabors's truck was parked. Nabors took his truck and followed Correll to a desert area north of Phoenix. There, they forced the three victims out of the car and made them lie face down on the ground. Correll shot the homeowner in the back of the head. Nabors then shot and killed the tenant's boyfriend, and then tried to shoot and kill the tenant. The gun misfired a couple of times. After reloading the gun, Nabors was finally successful in shooting and killing the tenant.
Miraculously, the homeowner, whom Correll had shot, did not die, nor even lose consciousness, and he reported the crime as soon as Nabors and Correll left the scene. Nabors committed suicide while police were attempting to arrest him a few days later. On April 20, 1984, Michael Correll was apprehended at his father's residence in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he had fled to be with the father and other family members.
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CALIFORNIA v. ALLYSON STONE was a 2007 California criminal court case. In January 2007 an 18 year-old Jehovah's Witness, named Allyson Stone, was convicted in juvenile court of felony assault, with a hate crime enhancement, and thereafter sentenced to "probation", and ordered to perform 250 hours of community service, and ordered to take part in an eight-week racial tolerance program offered by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, for Stone's participation in a racially motivated mob beating which occurred on Halloween 2006. Allyson Stone also spent 99 days in juvenile hall.
Allyson Stone is an African-American Jehovah's Witness, and is the daughter of firefighter, Ervin Stone. At the time of the mob attack, Stone was also a scholarship track athlete at California State University -Long Beach. Stone reportedly had not return to college as of Fall 2007.
On Halloween Eve 2006, a group of ten African-American juveniles attacked and beat three white females outside a "haunted house", which was located in a Long Beach neighborhood known for its extravagant Halloween decorations and celebrations. Stone maintained her innocence throughout the proceeding, proclaiming that as one of Jehovah's Witnesses, she did not even celebrate Halloween. Although Stone had driven some of the ten African-American juveniles to the festivities, she claimed that she was there only because she had been asked to chaperone some of the youths. Stone even claimed that she never even left her car, much less participated in the attack and beatings, which left two of the white females in serious condition -- one of whom required reconstructive surgery on her face, and another possibly lost sight in one eye.
Interestingly, one internet commentator has alleged that during the court proceedings that the prosecution introduced into evidence a photograph extracted from Stone's personal camera showing Stone and her boyfriend, in which the boyfriend is flashing "gang signs".
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DEATH OF JW JAMES KENISKI - DRUG DEAL GONE BAD. On May 16, 2007, James and Keena Keniski, the Jehovah's Witness owners of a window-washing business, allowed four unknown Chicago youths, ages 19-21, into their Villa Park, Illinois home, because the inebriated couple thought that the youths had brought DRUGS for them to purchase. Instead, the youths attacked, beat, and robbed Jim Keniski. Keniski was initially transported to Elmhurst Memorial Hospital, where doctors discovered internal bleeding and pooling. Due to the continuing blood loss, doctors advised that a blood transfusion be administered. Keena Keniski refused to give consent for her then unconscious husband to receive the needed blood transfusion due to their beliefs as Jehovah's Witnesses. In concession to the JWs' request, Doctors gave James Keniski iron supplements, and attempted to stimulate his bone marrow as the WatchTower Society recommended way to replace loss of blood volume. This OBVIOUSLY did not prove to be successful, so the then alert and awake Keniski was transferred to Loyola University Medical Center, on May 22, 2007, where doctors were better equipped to treat Keniski. Surgery to stop the internal bleeding and blood pooling that Keniski was experiencing was unsuccessful. It was again suggested that Keniski accept a life-saving blood transfusion, but he refused. James Keniski died on May 25, 2007.
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CROWN v. CHRISTOPHER ANTHONY HOWELL was a 2006-07 Toronto, Ontario, Canada criminal court case in which then 22 year-old Christopher A. Howell, who had been reared and baptized as a Jehovah's Witness, was convicted on charges relating to the fencing and re-selling of stolen firearms.
Around midnight on January 2, 2006, Toronto police approached a lone car parked in the parking lot of a city park, in which sat Christopher Howell and Roseanne Persaud. A strong odor of marijuana was detected when Howell exited the car. Chris Howell eventually told the officers that there were guns in his car. Police discovered three .22 calibre rifles (one loaded) and 400 rounds of ammunition. After his arrest, Howell admitted that he had been illegally buying and selling firearms, many of which had been stolen by the people from whom Howell was buying. From his apartment, police also seized three more .22 calibre rifles, one shotgun, a .32 calibre pistol, another 400 rounds of ammunition, and $1900.00 in cash. Two of the long guns which Howell possessed or had already sold had been "sawed-off".
During Howell's prosecution, it was learned that Chris Howell had been reared as a Jehovah's Witness, along with his four siblings. Howell had a good school record, but dropped out his senior year to begin working after his girlfriend became pregnant (she may also have been a JW). That was most likely when Howell was disfellowshipped from the JWs. It was the subsequent shunning by family and friends which likely pushed Howell into criminal activity.
Prior to trial, Christopher Howell served seven months of pre-trial custody, and 15 months under house arrest at his Jehovah's Witness Parents' home, where his girlfriend and child also lived. There, Howell took care of his child, while his common-law wife worked. Howell also began attending his local Kingdom hall and working on his reinstatement as a Jehovah's Witness.
Howell pled "not guilty", but cooperated with both the police and the prosecutor. Howell was convicted on ten counts of illegal possession and trafficking of firearms, and possession of the proceeds of a crime. Howell was sentenced to four years in prison, with time-served credit of 18 months, and prohibited from owning/possessing firearms for life.
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COLORADO v. NATHAN MCNEESE. Reportedly reared in a PROMINENT well-to-do eastern seaboard Jehovah's Witness Family, then 26 year-old Nathan McNeese, was arrested in May 2007, in Breckenridge, Colorado, by the Summit County Drug Task Force on one count of possession of a controlled substance, distribution of marijuana, and possession of less than one ounce of marijuana. Nathan McNeese allegedly sold 10 doses of LSD and some marijuana to undercover agents at the Salt Creek Club, in Breckenridge. Outcome unknown, but no prosecution/imprisonment can be located.
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OREGON v. HENRY SYDNEY CRAPSER (2013) and OREGON v. HENRY SYDNEY CRAPSER (1989-96) were related Oregon criminal prosecutions of Henry S. Crapser (DOB: November 1966), who was reared by a Jehovah's Witness Mother named Dolly Crapster, and a JW Step-father named Thomas Crapser, also of Oregon. Henry "Hank" Crapser was initially convicted and sentenced to prison on Criminal Assault charges in 1989. Affirmed by Oregon Court of Appeals. Crapser thereafter has been continuously in-and-out of prison on various assault and drug possession charges. Henry Crapser was last arrested in January 2013 on criminal mischief and probation violations charges, and was returned to prison for unknown time period.
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GEORGIA v. NANCY BRUIN DUKES and GEORGIA v. DERRICK DUKES were related 2001-02 Georgia criminal prosecutions. Nancy Bruin Dukes was reared as the "Baby" in one of Savannah, Georgia's largest extended African-American Jehovah's Witness families -- the parents being Lawrence F. Bruin and his JW Wife, Nancy Bruin Sr., who bore 8 children. Given the circumstances, we are assuming that Nancy Bruin at least married a fellow Jehovah's Witness when she married for the first time in 2001 to Derrick Dukes.
In 2001, Derrick Dukes pleaded guilty to multiple charges of forging and passing checks which he apparently had stolen from a former girlfriend, and he served an unknown length jail term. In January 2002, a few days after her 19 year-old nephew was shot to death while robbing a local c-store, Nancy Bruin Dukes pled guilty to multiple charges of forging and passing checks. Nancy Bruin was sentenced to four years probation, 200 hours of community service (field service?), and restitution payments totaling $1030.00.
No sooner had Derrick Dukes gotten out of jail before he was convicted and sent to prison for financial identity fraud and first-degree forgery. Nancy Bruin divorced him while he was in prison before she delivered an illegitimate child in 2007. In 2009, Nancy Bruin married an ex-con drug dealer with whom she had lived with for a year. He was charged in 2010 with sexually assaulting one of Nancy's teenage relatives who had spent the night with them. Those charges were eventually reduced to disorderly conduct. In July 2011, ex-con stabbed Nancy to death at a birthday party she had arranged for him. So are the days of the lives of one of Savannah, Georgia's largest extended African-American Jehovah's Witness families.
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FLORIDA v. GLENN LEONARD BLACKLEDGE was a 1999-2007 Florida criminal court decision. On Super Bowl night 2007, Coral Springs Police found Glenn L. Blackledge, 28, passed out and slumped over the wheel of his still-running truck as it sat in a Coral Springs parking lot. Blackledge reeked of alcohol. That arrest violated a 13-year probation established in 2004, after Blackledge pleaded guilty to four counts of vehicular homicide in a plea bargain deal relating to a street-racing crash on August 7, 1999. In 2004, Blackledge was sentenced to a mere one year in jail, a year of house arrest, and 13 years of probation. In August 2007, Blackledge's probation was revoked, and he was given a hefty 37+ years prison sentence.
During the August 2007 proceedings, the father of Glenn Blackledge, named Gary Blackledge, testified regarding his son's "tender heart", and desire for treatment for his alcoholism. Gary Blackledge rationalized that his son was feeling isolated on the night of the Super Bowl, having been "socially shunned" for having recently violated WatchTower rules. Gary Blackledge said that his son had not exercised "proper conduct with a person of the opposite sex before marriage." Whether all that "spinning" means that Glenn Blackledge was being totally "shunned" due to having been recently disfellowshipped (excommunicated), or whether Glenn Blackledge was being selectively shunned due to having been "reproved" and "marked", is anyone's guess.
Glenn Blackledge had been reared in one of south Florida's most prominent and reportedly affluent Jehovah's Witnesses families. Allegedly, Glenn Blackledge had once been a "regular pioneer" (fulltime door-knocker), and a Ministerial Servant (deacon) in the organization. The father, Gary Blackledge, was not merely an Elder at the Plantation, Florida, Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses. Ranging from 1985 through 1999, multiple media reports about the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses in south Florida quoted Gary Blackledge as the WatchTower Society's area spokesperson. Gary Blackledge was referred to as "Convention Overseer", "Convention Manager", "Convention Supervisor", "Convention Director", etc. Blackledge evidently also played a significant role in the acquisition of West Palm Beach's "Leaky Teepee".
Most 2007 media reports only briefly referenced the 1999 street-racing crash in which the then 21 year-old Glenn Blackledge was blamed for the deaths of four other young adults. Glenn Blackledge's parents had allowed him to obtain a driver's license when he was only 15 years-old. Reportedly, during his first year of driving, Blackledge was involved in an accident, and received at least one traffic ticket. Between 1993 and 1999, Blackledge received at least nine tickets.
It is unclear whether the total of nine traffic tickets includes the speeding ticket that Blackledge received only about an hour prior to the street-racing crash. Blackledge received the speeding ticket from a Florida Highway Patrol officer while driving his Ford Mustang on the I-595. The speeding ticket made such an impression on Blackledge and his friends that they reportedly stopped and purchased four Heinekens to go with their 12-pack of beer, which the officer never spotted.
Shortly thereafter, Blackledge and his friends challenged another experienced street-racer on Sheridan Street, in Hollywood, Florida. Reportedly, while doing in excess of 120mph, Blackledge allegedly clipped the competitor's vehicle forcing the competitor to smash into a tree. Two males and a female were killed in the crash, and another male died six days later. Blackledge and his friends were accused of attempting to flee the scene, but his Mustang supposedly was not drivable. They were also accused of hiding their booze in some bushes while awaiting the arrival of police. Blackledge apparently hired experts who contested whether he had made contact with the other vehicle. Although charged with DUI, Blackledge's attorneys also successfully contested that charge, which was dropped in the plea bargain.
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MONTANA v. DERRICK CHANDLER LUCERO and MONTANA v. DERRICK CHANDLER LUCERO were related 2002-04 Montana criminal cases which involved Derrick C. Lucero, then 23 years-old, of Billings, Montana. Derrick Lucero was at least a third-generation Jehovah's Witness on both JW Parent's side -- Chandler Lucero and Robin Schwenk Lucero. Reportedly, Lucero was arrested in November 2002 on various drug-related charges, and in 2003, pled guilty to one count of Criminal Possession with Intent To Distribute in exchange for a 24 months prison sentence, which was partially suspended. Lucero was arrested on a probation violation in 2004. Outcome unknown.
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WASHINGTON v. DAVID PLEAKE was a 2006 Washington DUI-vehicular homocide court case. On August 12, 2006, at around 8:00 PM, a drunk Jehovah's Witness, named David Pleake, 51, of Kennewick, blew through a Richland, Washington, red-light and broad-sided a Mazda driven by 22 year-old Samantha Semmern. Semmern later died at an area hospital.
Police found an open beer can in David Pleake's pickup truck, and he reportedly tested at a .20 blood-alcohol level. At the time, Pleake was on probation for a April 2005 DIU offense, in which Pleake had plead guilty for driving drunk with a blood alcohol level of .24. Pleake had been allowed to enter a deferred prosecution program for that DUI, and he had admitted to an alcohol addiction. An ignition interlock device ordered on Pleake's truck for a period of one year had expired three months earlier.
In January 2007, Pleake stipulated to the revocation of his deferred prosecution from an April 2005, and pleaded guilty to DUI. He was sentenced to serve one year in jail. In a second proceeding, Pleake pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide in the Semmern case, and was sentenced to a total of four years and seven months in prison.
According to Pleake's Congergation of Jehovah's Witness, Pleake was an "ordained minister", who was a "former Elder". It was alleged that during Pleake's 2005 proceedings that a number of family members and fellow JWs showed up to show their support for Pleake's receiving a second chance. At the 2007 proceedings, Pleake's mother, wife, brother, two daughters, and two "friends" testified as "character witnesses" in Pleake's behalf. When Pleake's mother testified that the judge was dealing with a "good person", and that "it wasn't right the way Semmern's family had portrayed her son", the crowd reportedly erupted with gasps, and shouts of "She's gone. She's gone", and "He killed her."
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UNITED STATES v. JERIMY SNEED was a 1996 federal MURDER-FOR-HIRE prosecution. Jerimy Sneed was reared in Nebraska by active, proselytizing JW Parents. Sneed alleges that he was sexually assaulted by a fellow Jehovah's Witness when he was 9 years-old (1981). Thereafter, Sneed was continuously in trouble, and he was eventually placed in a foster home at the age of 15 years-old (1989). Thereafter, things only went from bad to worse.
In 1996, at the young age of 22, Sneed was propositioned to kill a Missouri couple, Bobie and Marilyn Blewers, by their oldest daughter, Jamie Borushaski, age 22, and her husband, Rodney Borushaski, whom were jealous of Jamie's two younger siblings' seeming ability to monopolize their parents' finances, and wanted her parents' wealth to resolve her own financial troubles. When Sneed agreed to do the deed, the Borushaskis helped Sneed to get a job with the Blewers at their traveling funnel cake stand. It was while the Blewers were working the Iowa State Fair that Sneed robbed and murdered the couple in the converted bus they shared as living quarters.
Jerimy Sneed was eventually caught in Florida after a nationwide manhunt. Sneed pleaded guilty to federal interstate murder for hire and is serving a life sentence. Rodney Borushaski and Jamie Borushaski also was convicted of first-degree murder and are serving life sentences.
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CALIFORNIA v. ISIDRO CALDERON HERNANDEZ was a 1999-2007 California criminal court case. In August 1999, a supposedly mentally ill 26 year-old Jehovah's Witness, named Isidro Calderon Hernandez, "hit-and-ran" and killed an 18 year-old bicyclist. Hernandez was also linked to a May 1999 "hit-and-run" of a second slightly injured bicyclist, which seemed to indicate that both "hit-and-runs" were intentional.
Around 11:30 PM, on Sunday, August 22, 1999, witnesses saw a white Honda Civic, driven by Isidro Hernandez, hit 18 year-old John Lee Labord as he rode his bicycle home from work on Orangewood Avenue in Anahiem, California. The three witnesses, who just happened to be friends of the victim, claimed that they heard the Honda Civic accelerate just before the impact, swerve toward and hit Labord, then speed away, and escape onto a nearby freeway. Labord's friends found his bicycle broken in two pieces approximately 200 feet from the point of impact. However, they did not find John Labord.
Labord's corpse was discovered about seven hours later, at daybreak, in a turnout off the 241 tollway --13 miles from where Labord was struck. Labord lived at least 20 minutes after the impact, as Hernandez sped down three different freeways with Labord stuck in his windshield. Labord eventually died due to massive blood loss from a large wound on his right forearm. Labord's body also sustained abrasions and a fracture to the right leg, but there were no major injuries to his head or internal organs.
As soon as the office of his insurance agent, Adela Diaz, opened that Monday morning, Isidro Hernandez telephoned that his Honda Civic had been "vandalized", and that he needed to get it repaired ASAP.
A neighbor who lived in Hernandez's apartment building, who had noticed Hernandez repeatedly rubbing on his car, which Hernandez kept covered with a blanket, put two-n-two together after viewing a television news report about the "hit-and-run", and telephoned the police. That neighbor had also attempted to speak with Hernandez while he was messing with his car, but an "unidentified man" called from Hernandez's apartment -- telling Hernandez to be quiet and come inside. Interestingly, Hernandez's visitors were typically only members of his immediate family -- generally his parents, Modesto Hernandez and Lilia Calderon, who came to Hernandez's apartment each day to see after his needs.
Hernandez had moved out of his parents' home into his own apartment only a few weeks prior, so that he would not have to take his "meds". Neighbors reported that Hernandez spent his days reading the Bible and talking and laughing to himself. Hernandez also was known for peeping into his neighbors windows -- supposedly because he would forget which apartment was his. Interestingly, although the circumstances are not known, Anaheim police officers found Hernandez naked and hiding in a dumpster, in 1995.
On the Sunday of the Labord killing, Hernandez's parents stated that he had spent "most of the day" at a Jehovah's Witness "picnic" in Anaheim, before going to their house that evening. Hernandez's parents told police that Hernandez left their house around 9:00 PM, which left an unexplained two hour gap of time until the incident, and provided a possible alibi for Hernandez.
The police investigation found Hernandez's Civic to have front-end damage, a caved-in windshield, a damaged hood, and a broken headlamp. Labord's blood was found on the exterior and interior, despite the fact that Hernandez had attempted to remove such with bleach. Labord's blood was also found on Hernandez's shoes, one sock, and other items of his clothing. Tire tracks found near Labord's dumped corpse were consistent with the tread wear pattern of the tires on Hernandez's car, and a hubcap found at the point of impact matched the hubcaps on Hernandez's car.
During this trial, the prosecution introduced evidence of the second hit-and-run incident that occurred in May 1999. An eyewitness testified that the driver of a small white car veered into the bike lane and hit a bicyclist from behind without warning. Fortunately, that bicyclist was only slightly injured. Interestingly, a police officer testified that Hernandez's sister told him that Hernandez confessed to her that he had hit a bicyclist in May 1999. However, Hernandez's sister testified that Hernandez never confessed the incident to her, and even denied making the statement to the officer.
In July 2000, Hernandez was charged with murder, kidnapping, hit-and-run driving causing injury and death, and filing a fraudulent insurance claim, to which Hernandez entered pleas of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity.
In June 2001, the court suspended criminal proceedings to evaluate Hernandez's mental competence. In May 2002, the court concluded Hernandez was not competent to stand trial and committed him to Patton State Hospital, where he was confined approximately one year until his restoration to competency and return to Orange County for trial.
In January 2004, a jury convicted Hernandez of first degree murder, kidnapping, hit-and-run driving causing death, and making a fraudulent insurance claim. La Bord's father died of a heart attack the day after Hernandez was convicted. In a separate sanity trial, the jury found that as to each crime Hernandez was capable of knowing or understanding the nature and quality of his acts, or that he was able to distinguish right from wrong at the time of the commission of the crimes. The court denied Hernandez's motion for a new trial and sentenced him to a prison term of 25 years to life for first degree murder, with a concurrent five-year term for insurance fraud. The court stayed imposition of sentence of an additional 12 years on the remaining counts.
In 2006, an appellate court reversed and remanded on the "sanity" verdict only. That court ruled that it was prejudicial error when Hernandez's defense attorney did not object when the same psychiatrists testified in the sanity phase who had testified in an earlier competency hearing, because they had elicited potentially incriminating evidence from Hernandez when he was temporarily found mentally incompetent to stand trial.
The outcome of the sanity retrial is unknown. If ruled incompetent, Hernandez will spend his time in a mental health facility rather than a state prison until a time that his sanity is restored and he is able to assist in his defense during a second sanity hearing. However, the appellate opinion included these excerpts:
"... the testimony of Drs. Cutting and Criswell was not uniformly negative. Although Dr. Cutting concluded defendant was not insane, he testified defendant suffered from a schizoid personality disorder and that defendant probably did experience hearing voices in his head. Dr. Criswell testified defendant endured an extremely pathological family, "which could have formed the basis of his developing a mental condition as an adult. ... ... ...
"In this case, the prosecution's expert witnesses gave uniformly negative testimony diagnosing defendant's mental illness as malingering. Not one of the prosecution experts would concede defendant had schizophrenia or some other psychosis, an arguably untenable position in light of the testimony from petitioner's treating physician and the evidence of petitioner's repeated hospitalizations. At most, the prosecution experts would concede some type of a mental illness or personality disorder could not be ruled out, but only because defendant's malingering made a definitive diagnosis difficult. ... ... ...
"In this case, despite abundant evidence of malingering, the jury believed the issue of petitioner's sanity to be a close case. Because the jury considered this to be a close case notwithstanding the overwhelming amount of inadmissible and unfavorable evidence it considered, we conclude petitioner has met his burden of demonstrating a reasonable probability of a more favorable result absent counsel's error. Thus, petitioner is entitled to a new trial on the issue of his sanity. ..."
The appellate opinion included at least two brief references to two prior Worker's Compensation claims filed by Hernandez. One involved some exposure to toxic chemicals, and a second involved a 16-18 foot fall from scaffolding. This excerpt reveals one psychiatrist's analysis of such:
"Rogers summarized petitioner's symptomology as follows:
'When he was in workers comp cases, he tended to complain very heavily about so many symptoms that one doctor at least said that it didn't make any sense. He also complained of mental symptoms. But, when he started at Orange County Mental Health, then he was prone to deny the mental symptoms and to say that there was nothing wrong with him. But, then as time went on, and particularly when this case came into being, his strategies of presentation seemed to change.
'At the time he was arrested he told doctors at the jail it was mistaken identity. And then, he told people he wasn't there. And at various times he said somebody had borrowed his car keys, or that his car was vandalized, and he reportedly made a false report about being vandalized. And he was tending to say at the beginning "I am not mentally ill", and then he switched to "I am mentally ill, I am incompetent, I am insane."
'Those are very unusual words for a patient to use. Then, he switched to "I don't remember. I don't remember anything." And then, in my exam he said, "I did nothing wrong, but I am insane and incompetent."
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BRANDON RANSOM. On December 8, 2006, the day after his 29 year-old son, Brandon Ransom, was killed, Leonard Ralph Ransom, of Newburgh, Indiana, told a reporter that as Jehovah's Witnesses, his family's faith was carrying them through that difficult time. "But we don't grieve in the same way. We cry, and we grieve, but we have hope. We're going to see him again one of these days," stated Leonard R. Ransom. In August 2007, at the killer's sentencing hearing, Brandon Ransom's JW Mother, Sheila Ransom, stated: "Of the six children God gave us, we have two left."
At the time of his death, Brandon Ransom, 29, of Evansville, Indiana, was the father of four children -- ages 1 to 5 -- by three different women -- all of whom were described as "girlfriends" by the media. Several anonymous commenters on the multiple media report webpages alleged that Brandon Ransom was a drug user, who also allegedly had an extensive criminal record.
Christopher Holman, 24, of Tell City, Indiana, was the boyfriend of one of Brandon Ransom's ex-girlfriends. During 2006, Holman and Ransom had had a 8-months long running battle, which had included previous physical confrontations. On the evening of December 8, 2006, Holman and Ransom agreed to have it out in the parking lot of Evansville's Washington Square Mall after the mall closed. Both parties brought friends and weapons. The parties reportedly fist-fought initially, then separated, and thereafter introduced knives and an aluminum baseball bat into the fray. Holman reportedly had a knife, and Ransom reportedly had the baseball bat. One or more of the "friends" may have briefly participated in the battle at this point. At some point thereafter, Holman got the best of Ransom and allegedly stabbed Ransom two or more times in the chest. Brandon Ransom apparently was DOA at a local hospital from a stab wound to his heart. Holman was arrested a few hours later at a Tell City hospital.
Although Holman was initially charged with murder, after reviewing the facts of the case, the local prosecutor and court agreed to a plea deal in which Holman pleaded guilty to only reckless homicide in exchange for a mere six year prison term. At the August 2007 sentencing hearing, both families reportedly had many supporters present. Several anonymous commenters on the multiple media report webpages alleged that members/supporters of the Ransom family threatened and cursed at members of Holman's family. Media reports confirmed the many ongoing threats, although they did not say who was responsible. One media report noted that one member/supporter of the Ransom family noisily stomped out of the courtroom during the proceedings.
"Anonymous commenters" are referenced above for some alleged details. It is obvious from their comments that such included members of both families, as well as one or more of Brandon Ransom's ex-girlfriends and/or baby-mommas. One particularly annoying dominating poster repeatedly used JW buzz-phrases and JW terms in their multiple posts.
Interestingly, it was Holman's family that came across as the "christians" in this tragedy via both the "anonymous" posts and the media reports. In fact, at the sentencing hearing, Holman's father apologized for being too rough on Holman as he grew up. Holman's mother reported that her son was traumatized by Ransom's death, and that he spent he time in jail praying for the Ransom family. These are things that JWs would expect to hear from other JW Parents, not from non-JWs.
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UNITED STATES v. BOANERGES SANTOS, UNITED STATES v. BOANERGES SANTOS, and NEW YORK v. SANTOS were related 1998, 1999, and 2005 New York state and federal court cases. As is typical of illegal aliens, Santos uses multiple aliases. In 2005, Santos pled guilty to unlawfully entering the United States after having been deported from the United States subsequent to convictions in April 1998, in New York, for criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, and criminal sale of a controlled substance in the second degree.
Santos acknowledges being reared by Jehovah's Witness Parents -- the JW Father and only sibling also living in NYC, and the JW Mother living in the Dominican Republic, and raising Santos' out-of-wedlock child, but also occasionally coming to NYC.
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TEXAS v. "THE RAILROAD KILLER" a/k/a "THE RAILWAY KILLER" was a 1999-2006 Texas capital murder court decision. This case summary will be "abbreviated" for numerous reasons. First, for those readers more than routinely interested in this specific case, there is an overwhelming abundance of information available on the internet.
Second, the reasons for the large quantity of available info also constitutes a problem. The mentally-ill serial killer known as "The Railroad Killer" was an illegal alien from Mexico, who for 25 years traveled in and out of Mexico, the United States, and even Canada, committing possibly HUNDREDS of rapes, murders, thefts, and other crimes. "The Railroad Killer" reportedly was deported 17 times -- the first time in 1976. "The Railroad Killer" appears to have served three prison terms, during the 1970-80s, in Florida, in both state and federal prisons, on both state and federal convictions. "The Railroad Killer" also served prison terms in New Mexico, Texas (previously), Louisiana, Missouri, and California. That's not including the numerous "jail" terms all over the United States -- east, west, north, and south.
All the while, "The Railroad Killer" used over 30 different aliases and identities containing conflicting personal data, such as different DOBs (1959-1960-1961), etc. Thus, it is practically impossible to catalog all the crimes for which "The Railroad Killer" was arrested, charged, and convicted, much less the many, many more crimes for which he never was caught. For example, "The Railroad Killer" spent time on the F.B.I.'s "Ten Most Wanted" list, in 1999, as "Rafael Resendez-Ramirez". The State of Texas convicted him in 2000, and executed him, by lethal injection, in June 2006, under the name of "Angel Maturino Resendez". The name on his Mexican birth certificate is "Angel Leoncio Reyes Resendiz".
Readers should bear in mind that I could summarize a dozen or more rapes and murders (shootings, stranglings, stabbings, bludgeonings, etc.) known to have been committed by this "illegal alien", which would be every bit as atrocious and outrageous as any of the other rapes and murders summarized on this an adjacent webpages.
Virginia Maturino Resendiz, mother of "The Railroad Killer", reportedly is a Jehovah's Witness. Available info seems to indicate that she reared Killer, and an unknown number of other children (at least 3 sons and 2 daughters -- probably more -- some of whom reportedly lived in Michigan and Vermont), as a "single mother", who received help with rearing the children from unidentified others. It is not known whether she was widowed, divorced, or more likely, that her husband(s) simply ran off -- probably to the United States. It is known that during some of Killer's later escapes back to Mexico that he lived with her.
Manuela Maturino a/k/a Manuela Karkiewicz, reported as both a sister and as a half-sister, then of Albuquerque, New Mexico, allegedly convinced Killer to surrender to Texas authorities in 1999. She, and other unidentified family members, allegedly shared the reported $125,000.00 reward. Interestingly, this sister traveled to El Paso, and met her brother on the U.S.-Mexico border bridge, when he surrendered to Texas Rangers. Manuela Karkiewicz was accompanied by her unidentified "pastor", who the media indicated came as a "spiritual advisor".
Readers should not be mislead by the numerous media reports which repeatedly both give the impression and outright state that Killer was an uneducated, low-intelligent, half-wit, bungling, bumbling, "vagrant" or "hobo". Killer was in fact "mentally-ill", but he was anything but incompetent. Killer's common-law Mexican wife, Julieta Dominguez Reyes, a lab worker at a local health center, described him as a "model husband" "who never gave signs of being violent". (A "Nancy Beall Resendiz", of Cleveland, Ohio, claimed to be his wife in 2006.) Pointing to a upbringing as a Jehovah's Witness, Killer was literate and well-spoken as an adult, despite apparently never having graduated from any of the Mexican schools that he attended. Reportedly, as an adult, he attended adult education classes during one of his escapes back to Mexico, and passed exams for elementary and middle-school degrees on the same day. Killer reportedly even once taught "English" in Mexico, at what the media article characterized as a "private school" (must be tons of "private schools" in Mexico -- possibly a Mexican Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses).
Quotes from Killer, cited in various media reports, contain numerous religious references. At his execution, Killer stated to those present:
"I know I allowed the Devil to rule my life. I just ask you to forgive me and ask the Lord to forgive me for allowing the Devil to deceive me. I thank God for having patience in me."
Interestingly, Killer's execution was sooner than typical death penalty cases because his attorney missed a filing deadline. Thereafter, in a losing effort, the MEXICAN GOVERNMENT hired an attorney to fight Killer's sentence.
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Despite the fact that the WatchTower Society has proclaimed for decades that Jehovah's Witnesses are the most law-abiding group of people on this planet, the facts establish otherwise. Anyone with any multi-state experience within the JW Community knows for a certainty that Jehovah's Witnesses have absolutely ZERO respect for the immigration laws of the United States and other countries. The entire U.S. is overrun with JWs who are/were illegals from Mexico, the Caribbean, and South and Central America. Curiously, there are even JW illegals from Canada. The WatchTower Bible apparently contains a verse that says that breaking immigration laws is a duty, rather than a sin. If I.C.E. was really serious about deporting "illegals", it could stay busy for months simply by showing up with a passenger bus every Sunday at the numerous "Spanish-speaking" Kingdom Halls of Jehovah's Witnesses that have been newly established throughout the U.S. over the past decade.
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NEW JERSEY v. MICHAEL T. LASANE was a 1996-2006 New Jersey murder court case. On March 14, 1996, 16 year-old Michael T. LaSane, of Toms River, New Jersey, carjacked and eventually murdered a 45 year-old special education teacher, named Kathleen Weinstein. LaSane carjacked at gunpoint the teacher in the parking lot of a local shopping mall. After crying and begging for her life for 2-3 or more hours, and talking with LaSane about her own six year-old son (LaSane's fingerprints were even found on photos that Weinstein had showed him), LaSane suffocated her with her own coat, and then dumped her body in a wooded area not far from the Berkeley apartment he shared with his mother, and older brother, Joseph Bronaugh. LaSane drove Weinstein's Toyota Camry around Toms River for three days before police discovered it parked at his complex.
Because Weinstein had had a tape recorder in her coat pocket, she managed to secretly tape record approximately 45 minutes of her ordeal. LaSane did not find the recorder before dumping her body. During the agonizing two hours before she was murdered, the special-ed teacher pleaded and reasoned with LaSane just to take her car and let her go. She even offered to help LaSane with whatever problems that he had in life. Weinstein even appealed to LaSane's religious and moral values, and talked to him about God, church, prayer, and religion, but all was in vain. Interestingly, after his arrest, "friends" and family of Michael LaSane related to reporters their surprise and disbelief that LaSane would do something like what he had been "accused", despite his prior juvenile record, which included assaulting a police officer***. Those who knew Michael LaSane said that he was "god-fearing".
[***Reportedly, in May 1995, Michael LaSane had had an "encounter" with a local police officer, which had resulted in a broken right arm during his arrest. LaSane still was wearing some type of "arm brace" when he committed this murder, in March 1996. Reportedly, at that time, there was a $500,000.00 lawsuit pending against that police officer and the police department. Media reports also reported that during the trial that it was mentioned that at the time of the murder that Vera Thomas was on disability leave from the Ocean County Probation Department, because of carpal tunnel syndrome.]
In a January 1997 plea deal, LaSane pled "guilty" to felony murder in exchange for a sentence of 30 years to life in prison. However, in 2004, Michael LaSane filed an appeal in which he alleged that his mother, Vera Thomas, reportedly a Jehovah's Witness, had had an affair with his public defender back in 1996, and that his attorney had coerced Vera Thomas to persuade him to take the plea deal, because his attorney did not want to take the case to trial. Vera Thomas allegedly told her son to plead guilty, "or the family would have nothing to do with him". In 2006, that attorney told a reporter that he had had sex with Vera Thomas only one time, after LaSane's plea deal was completed, and that he had done such only because Thomas had threatened to commit suicide.
The New Jersey appellate court allowed LaSane to retract his guilty plea. In a new trial, in March 2007, Michael T. LaSane was convicted of murder, kidnapping, carjacking and robbery, and was sentenced to life in prison. This murder served as the inspiration for an episode of the NBC television drama "Law & Order".
Readers should be aware that some media reports state that Michael LaSane was a member of a local "Baptist Church", and that he also sometimes attended a local Catholic Church. However, in addition to the media report that stated that his mother, Vera Thomas, was a Jehovah's Witness, a second media report referred to Michael LaSane as "a Jehovah's Witness son". Vera [Hobson?] Thomas reportedly was from a large extended NJ family, which included Baptists and Catholics, but she had given birth to Michael LaSane, in Alaska, while her husband was serving in the Army. It is unknown whether Thomas' large extended NJ family also included JWs, or whether she had converted while she lived elsewhere. In either case, does anyone doubt that a Jehovah's Witness Mother is the primary spiritual influencer of any child who resides with her?
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Addison grew up a good athlete, playing football and Little League baseball and riding his bike with his friends in the Brockton neighborhood, relatives said. He often accompanied his grandmother, a social worker with the Massachusetts Department of Social Services, to Jehovah's Witnesses meetings and, as a young boy, went with his grandfather to museums and other educational sites, said another uncle, Lemont Addison, 37.
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