Bloomfield man shot and killed by police was under investigation for child sexual assault

9-21-2014 New Mexico:

Search warrant sheds light on fatal, officer-involved shooting of John Rogers

AZTEC — The 61-year-old Bloomfield man shot by a police officer in late August was under investigation for multiple counts of criminal sexual penetration of minors at the time of his death, according to a search warrant affidavit.

Bloomfield Police Chief Randy Foster confirmed that John Rogers was under investigation by his department on suspicion of child sexual assault. He said that for legal reasons, he could not discuss the specifics of the case.

Jonathan Rogers, John Rogers' son, referred questions to the family's attorney, Brendan O'Reilly of Albuquerque. O'Reilly said he had no comment on the investigation.

The affidavit, issued Aug. 28 to investigators from the New Mexico State Police, sheds new light on the shooting of John Rogers at his home on 414 Ruth Lane.

Two officers from the Bloomfield Police Department were dispatched to the residence at 10:18 a.m. on Aug. 27, after receiving reports of a suicidal man.

Eyewitnesses scarce in Williams murder case

9-17-2014 Florida:

The 46-year-old Eastpoint man charged in the bludgeoning death May 10 of a known sexual predator has said he doesn’t recall striking the victim with an axe handle, and so far there are few individuals at the scene that night willing to come forward to say he did.

Bobby J. Bullock, Jr. faces second degree murder charges in the death of Norman Bill Williams, 59, which police say took place sometime before 8:30 p.m. at a house on Washington Street.

An autopsy report from Dr. Lisa M. Flannagan, with the medical examiner’s office, said she found “blunt force trauma and hemorrhage. It appears that (Williams) was struck by a very significant impact near the base of the skull near left ear. The source of hemorrhage in this area is often difficult to locate.”

Bullock was in court last week on an unrelated felony charge of child abuse dating back to Sept. 2013. Nan Weaver, spokeswoman for the Office of Criminal Conflict & Civil Regional Counsel for the First District Court of Appeals Region, said Bullock’s attorney, Thomas Cassidy, from Port St. Joe, had sought a plea agreement to reduce the charge to misdemeanor domestic battery, with the punishment time served of about nine months.

Professor accused in death of her alleged rapist pleads guilty

9-12-2014 California:

A professor of psychology who was arrested nearly two years ago in the cold case slaying of a man she said had raped her pleaded guilty Friday to a reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter.

The Orange County case had drawn wide attention and gained support from advocates for rape victims who said she was being unfairly targeted.

Norma Patricia Esparza, who grew up in Santa Ana and went on to become a professor in Europe, was charged along with three others in the death of 24-year-old Gonzalo Ramirez while she was a college student in Claremont almost 20 years ago.

Esparza was accused of conspiring to commit the slaying, though she did not actually carry it out.

She is expected to be sentenced to six years in state prison and will testify against her co-defendants, the Orange County district attorney’s office said in a news release.

According to prosecutors, Esparza and a group that included her ex-boyfriend went to a Santa Ana bar in the spring of 1995 so she could point out Ramirez, who she said raped her in her dorm room.

Update: Tucson homicide suspect killed 2 in Nevada

6-18-2014 Nevada:

A suspect in a Tucson homicide was shot to death by deputies in Nevada, after he killed two women near Reno, law enforcement officials say.

The suspect, Anthony Gustave Nelson, 40, was killed June 13 in a shootout with law enforcement officers in Nevada, a Washoe County Sheriff’s Office news release stated.

Tucson detectives are investigating Nelson’s connection to the badly decomposed body of 32-year-old Quincy G. Gangwer, discovered Monday afternoon at a home in the 3000 block of East 30th Street near South Country Club Road.

During their investigation into the deaths of two Reno-area women, Washoe County detectives found at the scene a white Nissan Frontier pickup truck and personal property belonging to Gangwer, Sgt. Pete Dugan, spokesman for the Tucson Police Department, said in a news release.

On June 16, Washoe County sheriff’s investigators contacted the TPD and requested they conduct a welfare check on Gangwer.

Upon arriving at Gangwer’s home, they “could detect a foul odor and forced entry into the home” and found his body, Dugan said. “Detectives later found signs of trauma on the body indicative of a homicide.”

Man accused of killing in retaliation for alleged sex assault

10-20-2010 Texas:

Authorities say Shawn Phillips, 32, told his wife he was 'going to take care of it his way' after a family member accused Mark A. Gabler, 33, of sexually assaulting her.

Authorities have accused a Bexar County man of killing another man in retaliation for an alleged sexual assault of one of his family members.

Declining to call police, Shawn Phillips, 32, told his wife he was "going to take care of it his way" after a family member accused Mark A. Gabler, 33, of sexually assaulting a relative, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

Police found Gabler's decomposed body May 20 in a hayfield in Southeast Bexar County after they responded to a service call at 13400 Donop Road near the intersection with Old Corpus Christi Road. He was identified through his fingerprints, the affidavit states.