Man mistaken for child molester yells during fatal beating, ‘I have kids. It’s not me’

9-22-2016 Georgia:

While being beaten to death, mistaken for a man his alleged attackers believed had molested a young girl, Sylvester Harden Jr. screamed, “I didn’t do this. I have kids. It’s not me,” a Bibb County prosecutor said at a Thursday hearing.

Ceyunta Cater, one of three people charged with murder in Harden’s 2015 death, stood in a Bibb jail courtroom Thursday, asking a judge to lower his bond. In jail since Feb. 19, 2015, his bond had been set at $275,000.

His attorney, John Carter, said the case has been postponed from the trial calendar because he and the prosecutor assigned to the case have been “diligently working, trying to resolve” it.

Authorities have said an 11-year-old girl called family members Feb. 19, 2015, saying 30-year-old Levi Moss had showed her a pornographic video on his cellphone and molested her.

The girl’s grandmother and other family reached out to relatives in Macon, trying to find someone to go get the child.

Court documents shed new light on Lake Isabella murder

5-22-15 California:

BAKERSFIELD, CA- A Lake Isabella man allegedly beat his roommate to death last month after he learned the roommate may have molested two children.

That's according to new court documents, obtained by 17 News.

Sheriff's deputies say 48-year-old Kirk Haag was physically assaulted by 31-year-old Raymond Tenorio on April 25 on Curran Avenue in Lake Isabella.

According to court documents two days before the incident Tenorio's wife told him that Haag may have molested two of her children.

She says Tenorio was drinking that night and that is what caused him to lose control and assault Haag.

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.

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.

Double murder suspect/child rapist claims his roommates were thinking of grooming boys

Posted in Related Deaths

8-18-2014 Washington:

TACOMA — A child rapist from California allegedly admitted killing his two roommates in their Spanaway-area home Sunday, telling police he suspected they were interested in grooming young boys for sex, according to court documents released Monday.

Richard Atkisson, 40, appeared in Pierce County Superior Court Monday. He was ordered held in the county jail without bail while deputies continue investigating the murders. He is wanted in California on $50,000 arrest warrant for a sex charge, the documents state.

Court documents say Atkisson used a pipe Sunday to beat both Joseph Moisa, 60, a registered sex offender, and Michael Henderson, 20, inside the Spanaway-area home he had shared with them for the past year.

Henderson died after Atkisson allegedly forced him to his knees and continued beating him. Moisa didn’t die from the beating, according to the documents, so Atkisson used a plastic bag over his head to suffocate him.

Police investigate possible Providence homicide; man dies weeks after beating

6-15-2014 Rhode Island:

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The recent death of a 69-year-old Providence man is being investigated as a possible homicide.

Milton Lyles, who died Thursday, had been found severely beaten on the ground in 300-block of Broad Street on May 19, said Providence Police Maj. David Lapatin. Lyles was taken to Rhode Island Hospital, but never recovered.

The police are searching for several suspects, but Lapatin did not discuss any descriptions of the men. It’s unclear what led to the attack on Lyles, but Lapatin said the older man appeared to be an “innocent party.”

Lyles, who lived nearby on Pine Street, was a registered sex offender with a criminal record in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, according to police and court records.