Category Archives: Crime
Nice dress! Bank robber wows in green floor-length gown
Stuart police are looking for someone who robbed a local bank while wearing a bright green dress, officials said.
Officers responded to a report of a bank robbery at First State Bank in Stuart around 3:45 p.m. Monday, authorities said.
The suspect handed the teller a note demanding money and the teller complied, police said. The suspect fled and a witness later reported seeing the suspect climb into the trunk of a car parked in a nearby alley.
The car was described as a newer dark navy sedan with a square back end.
Anyone with information or who recognizes the person in the photo can call Stuard police at (515) 523-1896 or the Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office at (641) 747-2214.
Kyle Dube Charged With The Murder Of, 15 year-old, Nichole Cable
BANGOR, Maine — A 20-year-old Orono man was charged Tuesday with murder in connection with the death of Nichole Cable, a 15-year-old girl from Glenburn. Police discovered a body they believe is Cable’s on Monday night in a wooded area of Old Town.
Kyle J. Dube was charged with intentional and knowing murder, police announced during a press conference at the former Superior Court building. Dube’s arrest came nine days after Cable was last seen alive on Mother’s Day evening. Hundreds of volunteers and law enforcement personnel had spent many of those days searching for the missing girl, combing the woods and fields for miles around Cable’s home.
Maine State Police Lt. Christopher Coleman said during Tuesday’s press conference, “I am not at liberty to go into details about what led to the arrest” of Dube, who has a minor criminal history.
Coleman would not say if Cable and Dube knew each other, but Tyler-Ann Harris, a friend of Cable’s from Old Town High School who was at the press conference, stated emotionally before a room filled with media that the two had been “hanging out” for the last 1½ to two months.
Information from “several different sources” led investigators to Gilman Falls in Old Town, located along Route 43, where a game warden and his dog located a female body about 9:30 p.m. Monday, said Coleman, who leads the major crime unit for northern Maine.
Dube was already in custody, having turned himself in at the Penobscot County Jail on Thursday to begin serving a 90-day sentence for a high-speed motorcycle chase and crash in June 2012, according to court records and jail officials.
His first court appearance on the murder charge is scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday, which is when more details about the crime will be released in a court affidavit, Coleman said. Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson is prosecuting the case.
Stephen Smith, a Bangor lawyer, confirmed Tuesday morning that he has been appointed to represent Dube.
The Maine State Police, Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office and Orono police were at the Dubes’ residence at 5 Maplewood Ave. on Wednesday, May 15, according to neighbors James and Deborah Bowie. The Maine State Police Mobile Crime Unit was there Sunday and Monday, they said.
Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, said Sunday night that he didn’t have any information on why the crime lab was there, but the neighbors said the mother of that household told them that Cable had been there about a week earlier to visit and that she reported that to police.
Neighbors said Dube reportedly had been using his father’s black Ford Ranger for work purposes. The truck has been impounded, state police confirmed Tuesday.
Dube’s Facebook page shows he twice posted a flier about Nichole Cable being missing last week. On Monday, the day after Nichole went missing, he reportedly posted the following about a girlfriend who is not Cable:
“OK so I don’t with the droma. Let’s get this straight. I KYLE DUBE is and always will be with [my girlfriend]. We have had are up and downs but we have worked them out so stop talking to me if you are trying to flirt and guys you better stop hitting on [her] I get crazy when I’m pissed off and I’m about there.”
Early Tuesday morning, authorities were in the woods near the Stillwater River in Old Town at the site where a body believed to be Cable was found.
State police and other law enforcement personnel were gathered near the intersection of Routes 43 and 16 and were seen putting up yellow crime scene tape about 9:30 a.m. A state police spokesman confirmed the activity at the scene was related to the discovery of the body Monday night. A black minivan was seen entering the barricaded area and leaving minutes later.
Assistant Attorney General William Stokes said Tuesday afternoon that an autopsy on the female’s body was started but was not complete.
“I don’t expect to have any additional information until tomorrow,” said Stokes, who leads the criminal division in the Maine attorney general’s office.
Cable’s parents, who are divorced, were each told of the development by members of the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office and Maine State Police.
Jason Wiley, who is married to Cable’s mother, Kristine, answered the door at their house Tuesday morning and declined to comment until after speaking with the investigator. He and his wife later provided the Bangor Daily News with an interview.
Nichole Cable was last seen at her home on Spruce Lane on the evening of May 12, and her parents thought she was taken by someone using a false Facebook profile, according to the family’s Facebook page, Bring Nichole Cable Home.
“The fake Facebook [site] was real,” Cable’s friend Harris said Tuesday.
She said she believes that Dube created the fake Facebook page, but Harris added, “I don’t know why he would need to. She willingly would hang out with him before. I don’t know what else to think.”
Cable lived with Harris for a couple of weeks, at one point, and she spent the night at her house on the Friday before she went missing, Harris said.
“It’s been really hard. I’ve been really scared for her,” the Old Town High School sophomore said, adding that she is relieved that her friend is not suffering. “It’s been really hard to just wait and not know.”
Grief counseling was set up at Old Town High School for students, a school secretary said Tuesday morning.
Between 40 and 70 law enforcement officers had been working on the case, Troy Morton, deputy chief for the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office, said Monday.
“Every officer can identify with the pain of a missing 15-year-old,” Sheriff Glenn Ross said at the beginning of the Tuesday press conference, as he thanked every law enforcement officer — local, state and federal — who assisted, and the members of the public who turned out in force on Sunday to search for the missing girl.
“It was unbelievable,” Ross said of the 500-plus turnout. “I know the family appreciates it and we appreciate it.”
The sheriff ended by saying the Penobscot County case had been deemed a homicide and therefore would be handled by the state police. Maine Warden Service Lt. Kevin Adam said four game wardens searched the area off Route 43 where the body was found.
Dube, who was enrolled at Eastern Maine Community College in the spring semester of 2012, was arrested last June after he led police on a chase that reached speeds of 150 mph from Orono to Howland on Interstate 95 before it ended with his motorcycle hitting a police cruiser at the town offramp.
The chase resulted in charges of eluding police officers, driving to endanger and criminal speeding.
Dube slowed enough, evading two partial roadblocks, to apparently avoid injury in the crash. He refused hospitalization by Penobscot Valley Hospital paramedics at the scene, state police said at that time.
Dube told state police Trooper Chris Hashey after the crash that he evaded the trooper because “he was scared and just basically didn’t want a ticket,” Hashey said.
Dube had received his motorcycle learner’s permit three days before that arrest, Hashey said.
Dube has a criminal record beyond the motorcycle incident.
He was a juvenile, 17 years old, when he was charged for carrying a loaded firearm or crossbow in a motor vehicle that resulted in a January 2011 conviction and $200 fine, according to court listings printed in the Bangor Daily News.
Dube also was convicted of theft by unauthorized taking or transfer and burglary of a motor vehicle in January 2012 and was sentenced to a $300 fine for both, the BDN archives state.
He also has another theft by unauthorized taking or transfer conviction from February 2012 that resulted in a $500 fine, according to a background check done by the BDN through the Maine State Bureau of Identification.
Dube was employed by Getchell Agency, a Bangor-based home health care agency, according to an attorney for the business.
Andres Munos-Munos Charged With Intoxication Manslaughter In Death Of Sheriff’s Deputy
HOUSTON — The man accused of hitting and killing a Harris County sheriff’s deputy while driving drunk was in the country illegally, a judge said in court overnight.
Andres Munos-Munos, 23, was charged with intoxication manslaughter in the death of Sgt. Dwayne Polk.
According to the Houston Police Department, Munos-Munos allegedly ran a red light on Little York at N. Shepherd and hit Polk’s personal truck shortly after 3 a.m. Sunday. HPD said there were no skid marks to indicate Munos-Munos even attempted to stop prior to the crash.
The deputy died at the scene. He was in uniform, and officials believe he was driving home following an off-duty job.
During his court appearance early Monday, Munos-Munos was ordered held without bond. Details weren’t immediately available on his attorney.
Police said the suspect suffered minor injuries in the wreck and was taken to the hospital prior to being taken to court. It was there he underwent a mandatory blood draw.
Polk, 47, had been with the sheriff’s office for 16 years. On Sunday afternoon family and friends left small mementos at the Houston intersection where the deputy was killed.
“Tough morning,” Sheriff Adrian Garcia tweeted. “The HCSO suffered a terrible loss & we are all grieving. Keep HCSO members & their families in your prayers.”
According to the Houston Chronicle, Polk grew up in Houston with his two brothers, three sisters and many cousins. The Bible was among the books his mother used to teach him and his siblings to read, according to a 2012 obituary for his younger brother.
The suspect accused in Polk’s death has had trouble with the law before.
Records show he was arrested on June 10, 2012 for driving while intoxicated. He also was charged with unlawful carrying of a weapon. He was deported in July 2012, but later returned to the U.S.
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Sheriff Garcia sent this e-mail to his staff following Polk’s death:
The members of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office mourn the untimely death of Sgt. Dwayne Polk, a 16 year veteran of the HCSO and a dedicated public servant.
The HCSO deals with on a daily basis the tragedy that happens in our community. Our deputies are trained to handle these situations and do what we can to help our citizens move forward when they have been touched by tragedy. Today, it reminds us that although we wear badges and guns, we too are human and our hearts hurt and are heavy as anyone else who has dealt with the loss of a son, a brother, a dedicated colleague, a caring friend and a proud father. Our prayers are with Sgt. Polk’s family and those who knew him best.
Sgt. Polk’s death reminds us that we must stop these senseless actions at the hands of irresponsible individuals who insist on ignoring the law and common sense, and get behind the wheel after having too much to drink!
As we move forward, Sgt. Polk’s death will not be in vain. We will continue to put behind bars those who run the risk of devastating other families, as the Polk family has been. It was eerily ironic that on the morning of June 18th I was with Mothers Against Drunk Driving as they held the annual “Walk Like MADD”.
Let’s remind ourselves that these deaths can be prevented either by personal responsibility or by handcuffs, but we will not stop in our efforts to save lives on our roadways!
Selena Velasquez, 17, Accused Of Blackmailing Man With False Rape Claim
State police say a 17-year-old Glorieta girl faces a charge of extortion after allegedly trying to blackmail a 43-year-old sexual partner for cash.
The man had met the girl, Selena Velasquez, at a Cinco de Mayo party in Pecos, police said Thursday, and the two had consensual sex. After that encounter, the man claims, the girl threatened to call police to report that he had raped her — unless he paid her $500 every Friday for three weeks.
State police said Velasquez had been visiting the man at work, texting him and calling him since the encounter, allegedly threatening to harm him and his daughter.
State police met with the man May 8, according to Sgt. Emmanuel Gutierrez, and he told police about the girl and her alleged efforts to blackmail him. Officers then monitored a phone call between the man and the girl, during which “the suspect clearly threatened and extorted the victim.”
On May 10, state police officers set up surveillance at Wal-Mart, 3251 Cerrillos Road, where the man told Velasquez he would meet her to pay her the money.
Instead, several police officers arrested her on the extortion charge.
Gutierrez said Velasquez was arrested in the parking lot without incident, although police had prepared for potential violence at the scene because of Velasquez’s alleged threats. Gutierrez said police did find that a male associate of Velasquez, who also was at the scene, was in possession of a pellet gun.
Velasquez was booked into the Santa Fe County Juvenile Detention Center and was released from custody Monday.
Gutierrez said he was unsure if she would be prosecuted as an adult or as a juvenile.
Gutierrez said the man, who didn’t give the girl any money, wasn’t charged with a sexual crime because the girl is over the age of consent in New Mexico.
“It was a consensual encounter,” Gutierrez said. “There was no crime because the age of consent is 16, and he was not in a position of authority over her.”
Tiara Drake Charged With Poisoning Family Members After Being Denied Cheese
BATTLEBORO, N.C. — A North Carolina woman is charged with trying to poison five family members after one of them refused to share some cheese with her.
A statement from the Nash County Sheriff’s Office said 24-year-old Tiara Drake wanted some of a relative’s cheese on Friday, but the woman refused to share.
The sheriff’s office said Drake awakened before the rest of the family the next morning and used detergent, window cleaner and a household cleanser to poison the cheese. The rest of the family made breakfast with the cheese and began eating it before one of them determined it was tainted.
Drake is charged with five counts of attempted first-degree murder and jailed under $50,000 bond. She had a court appearance Monday but didn’t have an attorney at the hearing.
Won’t share your bottle of soy sauce? That’s a stabbin’
pupil at a £24,000-a-year boarding school has been jailed after stabbing another student twice in a row over soy sauce.
Minheng He, a boarder at Langley School in Loddon, Norfolk, attacked the boy last October, inflicting serious wounds to his elbow and shoulder which caused him to lose two pints of blood.
He, 17 at the time but now 18, was locked up at Norwich Crown Court yesterday after admitting wounding with intent.
Violent: Minheng He, 18, has been jailed for four years in a young offenders; institute after stabbing a fellow pupil at Langley School in Loddon, Norfolk, after a row about a bottle of soy sauce
Judge Nicholas Coleman gave the Chinese thug four years in a young offenders’ institute.
The judge said He had carried out a ‘serious pre-meditated’ attack on an ‘innocent unarmed victim’ whose injuries were ‘appalling’.
Judge Coleman said: ‘You armed yourself with a knife.
‘This was a revenge attack – it was planned out of revenge.’
Andrew Shaw, prosecuting, said the victim, who was not named, was preparing a meal with a fellow student at the school at about 7.30pm last October 7 before going to the boarding quarters to eat it.
Mr Shaw said He went in and ‘wanted to borrow some Soy sauce which was refused’.
The victim then asked He how much he was going to pay for it.
The boy meant it as a joke but the Chinese student was not amused and the two boys exchanged angry words.
Shocked eye-witnesses heard He tell his victim to ‘wait where he was’ before he ran off upstairs.
But nothing happened until He stormed into the boy’s room at about 10.30pm that night as he did his homework.
The victim asked him to leave three times.
Mr Shaw said: ‘The next thing He advanced quickly towards him with something in his hand.’
The victim then ‘backed himself in towards the corner of the room where the defendant stabbed him’.
Mr Shaw said the terrified teenager ‘turned his back and raised his arm to try and defend himself’ and managed to push He away.
But he had already been knifed in his left arm and shoulder.
He was later seen nearby ‘shouting and screaming’.
The agitated yob was breathing heavily and holding a knife with blood on the handle.
He, of Hendon, north London, was also heard to say ‘I don’t care any more’.
Mr Shaw said the fact the stabbing happened three hours after the soy sauce bust-up was crucial as it ‘shows an element of pre-meditation’.
Staff dashed to the scene and He told one teacher he had acted because his target had insulted his mum.
The knifeman, who injured his own hand in the attack, was driven to hospital by a teacher to get treatment.
The victim was also taken to hospital and received emergency treatment for two stab wounds that went all the way to the bone in his left shoulder and left elbow.
He lost two pints of blood in the savage assault.
Jonathan Goodman, defending, said He should be given credit for his guilty plea and was of ‘hitherto good character’.
Mr Goodman said the ‘gifted mathematician’ had gone to Norfolk to learn English.
He said he had no family support network and was one of only two Chinese students who spoke Mandarin – the rest speaking Cantonese – until the other then moved on.
Mr Goodman said this meant that He, who found out his mother had ovarian cancer when he returned to China for his holidays, was left ‘isolated, alone and vulnerable’.
He said he was ‘extraordinarily remorseful’ and is ‘simply stunned by his own actions and what he did’.
Judge Coleman told He he must serve half his sentence before being released on licence.
Speaking after the case, Dominic Findlay, headteacher of Langley School, said: ‘We’re glad that the whole incident and ordeal is over.
‘For us the fact the victim and staff were not needed for the case because of a guilty plea meant the right decision was reached.’
Langley is a co-educational day and boarding school.
The highly-rated school charges £8,100-a-term and £3,985 day fees.
It has 729 pupils, 429 boys and 300 girls made up of 648 day students and 81 boarders.
If you’re going to butt-dial someone, make sure it’s not 9-1-1 while you are breaking into a car
Accidentally butt dialing someone is embarrassing or inconsequential to most, but for two Fresno, Calif., men, their cell phone mishap landed them in jail.
The call, which went to 911, started like any other call to the police dispatcher, with the operator asking, “What is your emergency?”
But when no one answered, the operator didn’t hang up, instead staying on the line and listening to the pair, who police identified as Nathan Teklemariam and Carson Rinehart, both 20, as they talked about wanting to do drugs. It wasn’t long before the conversation turned to breaking into a car.
“Get the bolt and give me the hammer just in case,” one of the two voices on the phone said.
Shortly after that statement, the dispatcher heard a window shatter and the people on the phone started yelling that they found prescription drugs.
As the two were driving away, police were already in the area searching for the men based on clues that the 911 dispatcher was feeding to them.
The police finally tracked the suspects down and pulled them over. The suspects acted confused and questioned what why they were being pulled over, police said.
“Oh, he’s following me, dog,” one of the suspects said in the recording. “Wow, what the [expletive] did I do?”
As they were being questioned, the suspects allegedly denied any wrongdoing, but after searching the car, police said they found items that allegedly were taken from the burglarized vehicle.
After being cuffed, the suspects were finally told how they were caught.
“This fool really called 911?” one of the suspects said. “Damn.”
“I have never heard of something like this,” Sgt. Jaime Rios of the Fresno Police Department told ABCNews.com. “There have been times where the dispatcher hears something like this, but never has a call come in before a crime being committed and staying on all the way to the end.”
Rios said the suspects are being charged with burglary, conspiracy and possession of stolen property.
Usually, if your soon-to-be father-in-law doesn’t approve of you, he will tell you to your face, not stab you.
A Waukegan man was arrested last week after authorities allege he stabbed his daughter’s fiancé nine times during a dispute last year on Chicago’s Far South Side.
Claude Jones, 50, hit and struck the man during an argument Nov. 8, 2012, authorities said. Then, armed with a knife, Jones stabbed the man nine times in the chest, shoulder and back on the 8900 block of South Aberdeen, according to police reports.
On Sunday in Cook County Bond Court, prosecutors described Jones, a military veteran, as the father of the victim’s fiancée and grandfather of their child. They did not say how or why the fight started.
The victim, whose age was not given, was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he received 32 stitches, prosecutors said.
Authorities arrested Jones on May 17 at his home on the 2000 block of Georgetown Lane after the victim identified him, police reports state. He was charged with a felony count of aggravated battery and use of a deadly weapon. It was unclear why police arrested Jones several months after the alleged incident.
Cook County Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil ordered Jones to stay away from the victim’s home and work. He is being held in lieu of $400,000 bail, and his next court date is scheduled for Friday.
Three Teens Accused Of Raping Girl, 12, Posting Video On Facebook
Three teenagers face sex assault charges after they raped a 12-year-old girl at gunpoint and posted a video of the December attacks on Facebook, prosecutors said.
Scandale Fritz, 16, Kenneth Brown, 15, and Justin Applewhite, 16, were all ordered held in lieu of $900,000 bail in a hearing today before Criminal Court Judge James Brown, said Cook County state’s attorney spokeswoman Tandra Simonton. The three were charged as adults.
The assaults took place about 3:30 p.m. Dec. 15 in Fritz’s home in the 400 block of West 60th Place in the Englewood neighborhood, according to Chicago police records.
The girl had gone to Fritz’s house on 60th Place that afternoon to talk to him, and when she went inside, she saw Brown, with a gun in his pocket, prosecutors said. Fritz took the girl downstairs in the house and after she declined his demands for sex, he raped and sodomized her, prosecutors said.
Brown and Applewhite came down to the basement, and Fritz demanded the girl have sex with the other two boys, prosecutors said. At first, the girl refused, but she saw that Brown had a gun in his pocket, and so they sexually assaulted her and forced her to perform sex acts on them.
Fritz videotaped the sex acts, including Brown holding a gun during sex, and all three of the boys shouting gang slogans, prosecutors said. All three of the boys are visible in the video, with Fritz entering the frame when he turns the camera toward himself.
The day after the assaults, the girl told someone about the attacks, and a police report was made and the girl was treated and examined at a hospital. On Dec. 17, the video was posted on Brown’s Facebook page, and then on all three boys’ Facebook pages, prosecutors said.
Fritz admitted to investigators he made the tape, prosecutors said.
Fritz and Brown, also of the 400 block of West 60th Place, are co-defendants in a previous, unrelated robbery and aggravated battery case, according to prosecutors. Brown also is on 18 months probation in a Nov. 28, 2012, unlawful use of a weapon case, prosecutors said. Brown is due back in court on that case May 22.
Applewhite, of the 500 block of East 80th Street, has no publishable criminal background, prosecutors said.
The three are due back in court June 6.
It was not known why it took until May to charge the three teens.
LAS VEGAS (FOX5) – A high school teacher in Henderson charged with counts of luring a child admitted to being romantically involved with one of her students, police stated in an arrest report.
Amanda Brennan, 24, was arrested Friday on two counts of luring a child and a count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, according to a Las Vegas Metro police arrest report.
According to police, the parents of a male student at Foothill High School accused the English teacher of suspicious activity with their son.
In the arrest report, the parents’ suspicions were raised when Brennan picked up the boy at their gated neighborhood on Wednesday. The parents, as police were told in the report, did not know Brennan was coming to see the teen and denied permission for the boy to go out with her. Still, the boy and Brennan left together from the neighborhood, according to the report.
Police also stated in the report Brennan returned the boy home past curfew.
Detectives were also looking into the boy’s mobile phone records, which showed about 1,000 text messages between him and a number belonging to Brennan on May 1-9, according to the arrest report.
“We used a variety of different information and sources to determine that a crime was committed. At this point I won’t detail those messages what they are due to the fact they are in the justice system,” said Captain Mitch MaCiszak with the Clark County School Police Department.
Police, in the report, visited the boy at the school on Friday. It was then, in the report, the boy admitted Brennan picked him up at his home two days before despite his parents denying him permission to go out with her.
The boy, in the report, also admitted to a romantic relationship between him and Brennan. He told police in the report they loved each other and there were only two times they kissed.
The boy told police, in the report, that the two only cuddled in the back of her vehicle on the night he was denied permission to go out.
Police, in the report, then interviewed Brennan and admitted that she loved the teen and knew the relationship was wrong.
Brennan, in the report, confessed to another time when he picked up the teen without his parents’ permission. In that instant, she said to police in the report, they sat in the front seat of her vehicle and kissed.
Brennan was booked into Clark County Detention Center on $20,000 bail, according to jail records.
