Child Molester Killed By Victim’s Father, But What They Did To The Dad Is Way Worse

4-27-17 Alabama:

Most parents would do anything to protect their children from pain, including literally laying down their lives.

Fortunately, most parents never find their resolve tested by being put in that position, but Jay Maynor did. By saving his daughter from a traumatic ordeal, Maynor literally gave up forty years of his life, and the world thinks that this is too high of a price to pay for his actions.

Was what Jay Maynor did irresponsible and inexcusable vigilante justice? Or did he do what any other parent might do if they were in his shoes, actions for which the punishment should be significantly less?

Read on and decide for yourself. ...Continued.. by Editorial Board

Sex offender, Vernon Beam, dies of cancer in prison

4-26-17 Illinois:

INA — A Galesburg man who couldn’t meet the conditions of his release died in prison last week.

Vernon Beam, who had been suffering from cancer in recent months, died at 64 within the Illinois Department of Corrections late last week. His case was featured in a Feb. 7, 2016, Register-Mail story.

He had been ordered to be released from IDOC custody in May 2013 after then-Circuit Judge James Stewart found that he was no longer a sexually dangerous person. But Beam, a sex offender, couldn’t meet the conditions of his release and was stuck in prison until his death.

Beam was arrested in late October 1991 and charged with five offenses after he allegedly lured three boys, all under the age of 13, to a Galesburg motel, rented a VCR and showed them X-rated movies.

His charges were child abduction, providing harmful material to children and three counts of aggravated kidnapping. Beam remained in custody from the time of his arrest to his death.

After Beam rejected a 12-year plea deal, the Knox County State’s Attorney’s office changed direction. Rather than trying to convict Beam of those charges, then-State’s Attorney Ray Kimball pushed to classify Beam to be a sexually dangerous person, according to Register-Mail archives.

Two juries found Beam to be a sexually dangerous person and he was civilly confined to the state prison. His felony case never proceeded after he was indicted by a Knox County grand jury on all five counts.

A person suffering from a mental disorder for at least a year and who has shown a criminal propensity to commit sex offenses against children is eligible to be designated a sexually dangerous person.

Beam had two prior sex-related offenses involving minors in Henry County in the 1980s. Register-Mail archives said Beam was diagnosed as a pedophile with a mild learning disability and antisocial personality disorder before his confinement.

Court documents listed other disorders, such as organic brain syndrome due to serious head injuries and alcohol dependency.

Beam, in a letter seeking answers about his conditional release in 2013, wrote to Judge Stewart, “I really don’t want to be stuck here forever.”

Knox County Chief Public Defender David Hansen declined comment on Beam’s death.

“I really don’t want to spend the rest of my life here,” Beam wrote. ..Source.. by Robert Connelly

Man convicted of kidnapping, killing 6-year-old girl dies in prison

4-13-17 New Jersey:

A man serving two life sentences for the kidnapping and murder of a 6-year-old girl in Manalapan in a highly-publicized case that helped spur Megan's Law registries for sex offenders has died in a state prison. Kevin Aquino, 42, died on March 11, according to the state Department of Corrections website.

Aquino pleaded guilty in July 1995 to abducting and killing 6-year-old Amanda Wengert from her Manalapan home. Wengert's parents were at an anniversary party honoring Aquinos' parents when he broke into the Wengert home and kidnapped Amanda, who was sleeping on a couch.

As he carried her through the backyard, the 6-year-old awoke and began fighting with Aquino. He knocked her unconscious, then killed her and hid the body in a wooded area 200 yards behind his home. An autopsy determined she died of a skull fracture.

Aquino had previously been convicted as a juvenile for sexually assaulting three young children, but the Wengerts were unaware of his past.

The killing and the death of 7-year-old Megan Kanka several months later in 1994 led to the legislation that established the Megan's Law registry. The Wengerts joined Megan Kanka's family in pressing for the law to register sex offenders.

Aquino would have had to serve at least 55 years in prison before being eligible for parole.

According to an email from a Department of Corrections spokesman, Aquino was found unresponsive in his cell and there appeared to be no suspicious circumstances around his death.

The Asbury Park Press reported that he was found about 20 minutes after he was last seen taking a shower. ..Source.. by Rajeev Dhir

Not guilty verdict given in inmate death

7-29-17 Missouri:

A Cole County jury has found a man not guilty of charges in connection with the killing of an inmate at the Algoa Correctional Center in December 2015.

David Young, 43, had been charged with second-degree murder and violence against a Department of Corrections offender.

His defense had argued he was an accomplice and not the person who killed Harley Holt, 35, who had been serving a four-year sentence for two counts of failure to register as a sex offender in Greene and Howell counties at the time of his death.

Young was serving a sentence for drug possession at the time Holt was killed.

Teen killer of child molester to be resentenced 22 years later

July 2017 Florida:

U.S. Supreme Court rulings that juveniles can't be sentenced to life without parole has given a Florida man in prison for a 1995 murder of a suspected child molester a chance at freedom, WFTV in Orlando reports.

Mark Berrios was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for shooting Olen Hepler, 47, a suspected pedophile, when he was 14. He stole Hepler's truck and $800.

Margaret Loring told Action News Jax that her son met Hepler when he ran away from a juvenile program in Daytona Beach, becoming the victim of abuse. "My son grabbed the molester's gun and shot him," she said.

Loring said Hepler was a pedophile who preyed on troubled boys. She said her son felt there was no way out.

State police investigate homicide at Auburn Correctional Facility

July 2017 New York:

Jul 18, 2017 Updated 5 hrs ago

State police are investigating the recent death of an inmate at Auburn Correctional Facility after a violent altercation last week.

The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision reported that inmate Daniel Wingate, 51, was pronounced dead Friday at an unspecified hospital outside the prison.

According to a press release Tuesday, New York State Police responded to the prison July 9 for a report of an inmate-on-inmate assault. Police said Wingate died July 14 as a result of injuries he received during an altercation with other inmates.

Cayuga County District Attorney Jon Budelmann said troopers are treating the case as a homicide after Wingate died at the hospital a few days after the incident. Budelmann described the case as "inmate-on-inmate violence."

Rochester-area convict dies after prison fight

New York:

AUBURN - Authorities said Tuesday that an investigation is underway into the death of a Rochester-area convict who was attacked in a New York state prison July 9.

The Citizen of Auburn reports that the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision reported that 51-year-old Daniel Wingate was pronounced dead last Friday at a hospital July 14.

Wingate was an inmate at the maximum-security Auburn Correctional Facility in Cayuga County. State prison officials said he was a repeat sex offender.

New York State Police said in a news release that troopers responded to the prison July 9 after an altercation between Wingate and other prisoners.

Cayuga County prosecutors said Wingate was attacked by another inmate and that state police are investigating his death as a homicide.

According to Syracuse.com, the Cayuga County coroner expects to determine the manner and cause of death in about two weeks.

Wingate, who would have turned 52 next month, was scheduled to be released in September, according to a state website about prisoners. He was imprisoned in Auburn in January 2013 after being convicted in Monroe County of first-degree sexual abuse and sentenced to five years in prison, it said. No details were available.

Prior to his most recent sentence, he was convicted of sex abuse and spent time in prison from 1995 to 2008, The Citizen said. According to the New York State Sex Offenders Registry, he was convicted Jan. 17, 1995, of abusing a 7-year-old girl in Monroe County on April 1, 1994. ..Source..

Homeowner killed wanted suspect 'to protect myself, my family, and my neighbors'

July 2017 Tennessee:

MEMPHIS, TN (WMC) - A man wanted by police for ramming Memphis police cruisers and speeding off was shot and killed by a homeowner over the weekend.

The homeowner said it was all in self-defense.

The homeowner said he was in his driveway trying to protect himself, his family, and his neighbors. As a last resort, he opened fire.

Larry Hampton said he has some remorse for shooting and killing the man in his driveway, but he stands firmly behind his choice to pull the trigger.

"To protect myself, my family, my neighbors. I feared for my life," Hampton said.

DA: Rap Pioneer Killed Man Because He Thought He Hit On Him and was Going to Rob Him; Homeless Man was a Sex Offender

August 2017 New York:

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York prosecutor said Thursday that a founding member of Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five stabbed a homeless man to death in Manhattan after he became enraged because he thought the man believed he was gay and was hitting on him, and he feared he would be robbed.

Rapper Kidd Creole — whose real name is Nathaniel Glover — was returned to jail without bail by Judge Phyllis Chu on Thursday after an initial appearance in a Manhattan criminal court on a second-degree murder charge.

Assistant District Attorney Mark Dahl said Glover, 57, a lyricist with the pioneering group, gave a detailed account of the street encounter in midtown shortly before midnight Tuesday that Dahl described to the judge, saying he wanted to demonstrate “the strength of the case.”

Defense lawyer Patrick Watts told the judge the evidence was “circumstantial” as his calm client stood alongside him, a tightly wound gray braid draped halfway down his back. Outside court, Watts declined comment.

La Crosse police identify career felon as carjacker killed during pursuit

8-16-17 Wisconsin:

La Crosse police identified career felon Roger Burzinski as the armed carjacker fatally shot by officers during a pursuit Sunday on the city’s South Side.

Burzinski, 54, of Green Bay, stole a Chevy Trailblazer from Houska Park about 5 p.m. after confronting a woman in the passenger seat at gunpoint. She was able remove her 3-year-old daughter from the backseat before Burzinski sped off with her 1-year-old daughter still inside.

Police found the car minutes later at 10th and Green Bay streets. Burzinski led officers on a pursuit of speeds up to 47 mph from South Avenue to Eighth Street, where he drove through a road construction site at Johnson Street, went airborne and crashed into a parked car about 10 minutes later.

Two officers, identified as Andrew Adey and Stephen Hughes, shot and killed Burzinski when he refused to comply with orders and they noticed he had a firearm, according to the department.

Hale homicide victim was a convicted sex offender

8-15-17 Michigan

HALE, MI -- Before being killed and buried in his backyard in rural Michigan, a 72-year-old man served time for sexually assaulting a minor.

The Michigan Public Sex Offender Registry states Roger L. Knickerbocker II in July 2000 was convicted of two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a victim 13 or younger. The charge is a life offense and involves penetration.

Since 2006, a person convicted of the crime when the victim is 13 or younger must serve a mandatory minimum 25 years in prison.

The crime occurred in Pontiac. The conviction was handed down in Oakland County Circuit Court. He was paroled of May 2009 and discharged from parole in May 2011, said Chris Gautz, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections.

Knickerbocker had to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. He last registered on June 26.

Two suspects identified in homicide of inmate at Oklahoma County jail

6-5-2017 Oklahoma:

An inmate at the Oklahoma County jail who died in early February was the victim of a homicide, the first at the troubled facility in almost three years, an autopsy report shows.

Two suspects already have been identified and are in custody, authorities said.

The victim, Ricky Earl Windle, died because of complications from multiple blunt force trauma, the pathologist who did the autopsy concluded. He was 53.

The autopsy report — released in May by the Office of Chief Medical Examiner — lists the manner of death as homicide. Windle had been assaulted at the jail Jan. 10, the autopsy report also shows. His injuries included three broken ribs.

Windle died Feb. 5 at a hospital, a day after being found unconscious alone in his cell. His death earlier had been described by the sheriff's office as apparently from natural causes.

Suicidal Man Shot Dead by Deputy was Registered Sex Offender Bruce Dawley

6-5-2017 California:

Authorities released the name Monday of a 66-year-old Campo man fatally shot by a deputy during an exchange of gunfire in a rural neighborhood near Lake Morena County Park.

Bruce Dawley of Campo — a registered sex offender — made a 911 call shortly before 11 a.m. Sunday from his home in the 2500 block of Gladiola Drive and reported that he was suicidal and armed with a gun, according to sheriff’s officials.

“Deputies arrived a short time later and established a perimeter in front of the home,” said Lt. Kenneth Nelson. “Shortly after doing so, deputies heard at least one gunshot … from inside the home.”

Moments later, Dawley appeared at the front door of his house, holding a pistol.

During a brief confrontation, Dawley allegedly fired at least one round from the handgun at deputies, prompting one of them to shoot back with a shotgun. Dawley then retreated back into his residence.

Getting no further response from Dawley, sheriff’s officials sent members of a SWAT team into the home, where they found him dead from a gunshot wound to his torso.

Though authorities were initially unsure whether Dawley’s fatal wound had been self-inflicted or resulted from the deputy’s return fire, the county Medical Examiner’s Office determined that the latter was the case, Nelson said. ..Source..

Prison death of convicted Kan. sex offender under investigation

4-11-17 Kansas:

LANSING – Officials are investigating a suspicious death at the Lansing Correctional Facility.

James Beeson, 56, died on Sunday, according to statement from the Kansas Department of Corrections and confirmed on the state’s web site.

An autopsy is planned to help determine the cause of death.

Beeson had eight convictions since December of 1998 for a variety of child sex crimes in Osage County.

He had been in held in the El Dorado and Hutchison Correctional facilities until a move to Lansing earlier this month. ..Source.. by Hays Post

Man killed by Stockton officer had ties to Sauk Valley

3-31-17 California:

STOCKTON — The Pearl City man shot and killed by a Stockton Police officer Wednesday was a longtime drug dealer with convictions in Jo Daviess, Carroll and Whiteside counties, and a registered sex offender in Florida and Illinois.

Troy J. Boyle, 41, was shot shortly after noon at the intersection of West Front Avenue and Blackhawk Drive in Jo Daviess County, ISP said in a news release.

State police would not confirm media reports that Boyle fired at the officer.

He was pronounced dead at FHN Memorial Hospital in Freeport, the Stephenson County coroner said in a news release. An autopsy was done Thursday; toxicology results will take a a few weeks.

The Stockton officer's body camera was out of service; video from various squad cars is being reviewed, and witnesses are being questioned, the ISP release said.

Man Who Went to Register as Sex Offender Dies After Shootout With Deputies at Temple City Sheriff's Station: LASD

3-20-17 California:

California -- A man died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after engaging in a gunbattle with deputies in the parking lot of the Temple City sheriff's station, where he had gone to register as a sex offender Monday morning, authorities said.

The man, identified only as a 47-year-old white male, entered the station located in the 8800 block of East Las Tunas Drive about 7:25 a.m. to register as a sex offender, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Lt. Joe Mendoza said.

The deputy at the counter inside the station realized that the man had a $40,000 warrant for his arrest in connection with a felony sex crime that occurred in the city of Los Angeles, Mendoza said. When the deputy went further inside the station and returned with other deputies in order to arrest him, the man ran toward his vehicle, the lieutenant said.

Officials release names of inmates killed in Tecumseh incident

3-5-17 Nebraska:

Police have released the names of two inmates who were killed during an incident at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution.

TECUMSEH, Neb. — Police have released the names of two inmates who were killed during an incident at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution.

Damon Fitzgerald, 39, and Michael Galindo, 31, died during the Thursday disturbance.

Fitzgerald was serving 310 to 470 years for two counts of first-degree sexual assault, robbery, burglary, five counts of use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony, two counts of assault by a confined person and assault on a peace officer.

Galindo was serving a 12 to 21 year sentence for robbery, second-degree forgery, and three misdemeanors of attempted possession of a controlled substance, sale of alcohol to a minor and driving under suspension.

“Any loss of life is tragic. The TSCI staff handled the situation extremely well, which limited the incident to a small number of participants and minimal damage,”said Director Scott R. Frakes. “The public’s safety was never compromised.”

Frakes sent an updated release on Friday:

SWAT standoff sparked by donut fight ends with deputy shot, sex offender dead & suspect arrested

3-15-17 Florida:

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A SWAT standoff in unincorporated Pinellas County has ended with a deputy shot and a sex offender dead.

Pinellas County deputies responded to a home located in the 5100 block of 80 Way N. on Wednesday morning.

Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said Susan DiFabbio called police Wednesday morning after an argument with her son, 24-year-old Jeffrey Falsey.

"What triggered it this morning was Falsey wanted his mom to go get donuts and she wouldn't do that," said Gualtieri.

DiFabbio called police after a heated argument with Falsey because she refused to get him donuts

Portland homicide victim was convicted sex offender

2-28-17 Maine:

Bryan K. Garcia of Scarborough, who was found unresponsive Monday in his car on a West End street, also had convictions for drug and weapons offenses.

Portland police have identified the homicide victim who was found slumped over in his car on a West End street as Bryan K. Garcia, a registered sex offender who also had convictions for drug and weapons offenses.

No details were released about Garcia’s death or the circumstances that led the Scarborough resident to Portland on Monday afternoon, when he was found unresponsive in his Silver Infiniti G35 near the intersection of Chadwick and Carroll streets.

Police have not released details about how Garcia, 35, died, whether he suffered obvious injuries or if they have any suspects in his slaying.

St. Lucie County detectives vet more than 150 fair workers, arrest two and find one sex offender

2-23-17 Florida:

ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. -- The St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office announced it has vetted more than 150 carnival workers at the St. Lucie County fair, set to begin Friday.

Detectives made sure anyone with an outstanding warrant or sex offender status was removed from the fairgrounds before floods of visitors arrive.

“We get a list of all the employees out at the fairgrounds when the fair comes to town. Our detectives vet all of those people,” said St. Lucie County Chief Deputy Garry Wilson.

More than 100,000 people are expected to attend the 10-day fair.

General Manager Jeanne Keaton says there are also hundreds of children who attend with various organizations volunteering, and working alongside livestock.