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.

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.

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

Former professor’s sexual advances brutally rejected, detectives say

1-15-17 Florida:

Manatee, Fla. Former college professor Hollant Maxford Adrien was acquainted with the 20-year-old man who detectives say rejected his sexual advances in a brutal attack, stabbing and then beating him to death with a hammer.

Barry Joshua Baer of Bradenton told detectives Friday, that Adrien, 56, had picked him up and driven him to the area of the intersection of 58th Avenue East and 21st Street East, a dead end in an industrial park, where Adrien’s body was later found, according to an arrest report.

“Baer stated that victim began to make sexual advances, which Baer rejected,” Manatee County Detective Ben Main, lead homicide investigator in the case, wrote in his report.

It was then when Baer said he took out a knife that he regularly carried for protection and stabbed Adrien in the neck. A physical struggle began outside of the vehicle, and Baer grabbed a hammer and struck Adrien 40 to 45 times in the head, the report said.

Police identify motel homicide victim

11-17-2016 Missouri:

COLUMBIA — The man found dead from an apparent gunshot wound earlier this week in a motel is Gregory J. Moore, a 54-year-old Columbia resident, police said Saturday in a news release.

Moore's body was found around 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Welcome Inn on Providence Road, where police say Moore was a long-term resident. Authorities are treating his death as a homicide.

A man with Moore's full name, address and birth year is registered as a sex offender with the Missouri Highway Patrol, though authorities have not confirmed they are the same person. In 1996, the man pleaded guilty to second-degree sodomy against a 16-year-old girl in St. Charles, along with supplying a minor with liquor, according to online court records and the sex offender database.

Search warrant provides more details about death of man found in shallow grave

11-15-2016 Utah:

INDIANOLA, Sanpete County — A newly unsealed search warrant gives more details about what Wesley Dee Nay, 22, was doing before remains of his charred body were discovered in a shallow grave in a wooded area on the border of Utah and Sanpete counties.

As of Tuesday, no one had been arrested or charged in connection with the homicide investigation. But based on the warrant released Tuesday, there appears to be no shortage of suspects or people of interest for detectives to interview.

Nay was reported missing on Sept. 18, though the last time he was seen was on Aug. 29. His body was discovered in a shallow grave in a remote area near U.S. 89, about 2,000 feet inside the Utah County line near a church in Indianola.

The Utah County Sheriff's Office is the lead investigating agency in the case, but investigators from Sanpete County are also heavily involved.

Nay, who was living with a couple in their backyard, was seen getting into a vehicle on Aug. 29, according to a search warrant affidavit filed by the Sanpete County Sheriff's Office.

Man admits fatally beating pastor to fend off sex assault

9-28-15 Pennsylvania:

A homeless man admitted to fatally beating his pastor with a hammer to fend off an attempted rape by the pastor.

Jose Colon, 20, pleaded guilty Monday to involuntary manslaughter in the heat of passion in the death of Luis Herrera (47) this spring in Allentown.

Colon was initially charged with homicide in the case and has been held without bail.

Colon is scheduled to be sentenced next month. Under the plea deal, he faces a minimum of up to 72 months in state prison, and a maximum of up to 20 years.

Attorneys said Colon and Herrera's families knew each other, and they met when Colon moved to the area with his family when he was 10. Herrera was a pastor, whose mission was to help "troubled youth," First Assistant District Attorney Steve Luksa said.

Herrera began "grooming" Colon when he was a child and eventually it lead to sexual contact between the two, defense attorney Kim Makoul said.

Dylan Lentini claims self-defense from sex attack in Wimbert slaying

12-11-2015 New York:

A 19-year-old Manhattan homeless man says he was fending off a sexual attack when he fatally stabbed a 66-year-old former teacher in West Nyack.

Dylan Lentini pleaded not guilty to murder and robbery charges during his arraignment Thursday in state Supreme Court in New City.

He is accused of killing Michael Wimbert on Dec. 1 at Wimbert's apartment at 68 Demarest Ave. in West Nyack, where he had been living for several days. Wimbert met his Lentini Nov. 27 through an advertisement for a roommate placed on Craigslist, Clarkstown police said.

Lentini was "the victim of an unwanted sexual attack and he defended himself," defense lawyer Walter Sakowski claimed after an arraignment on the indictment before Supreme Court Justice William Kelly at the Rockland Courthouse in New City. Sakowski is representing Lentini with fellow public defender Kenneth Murphy.

Woman who claimed self defense in fatal stabbing near Bullitt County rest stop now charged with murder

6-25-15 Kentucky:

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A California woman told investigators she fatally stabbed a man in self defense near a Bullitt County rest stop last week, but police now say it was murder.

Shepherdsville police held a press conference Thursday morning to discuss the case.

Nicole Skyberg, 26 is accused of stabbing 45-year-old Aaron Jerrell on Saturday. Officers found Jerrell's body on an exit ramp near a rest stop along Interstate 65.

Police have confirmed that Jerrell, who is from Alabama, was a registered sex offender.

Police say Skyberg, who has been a person of interest from the start, was a passenger in the car with Jerrell.

Man fatally hit with skateboard at Starbucks ID'd as registered sex offender

11-30-15 California:

A man who was fatally hit over the head by a skateboard after police and witnesses said he harassed a customer inside a Santa Ana, Calif., Starbucks was a registered sex offender.

Ozro Robert Lee, 50, was killed in the Nov. 24 incident, according to KTLA . The Orange County coroner’s office released Lee’s name over the weekend.

Lee was a registered sex offender, whose offenses included annoying or molesting a child after illegal entry into inhabited dwelling, as well as indecent exposure with prior conviction for the offense.

Lee was sentenced to four years in prison in 2012 after he was convicted of breaking into a Stanton, Calif., home and masturbating in front of a partially paralyzed grandmother and her two young granddaughters, according to the Orange County Register.

Michael Anthony Aparicio Charged with Special Circumstances Murder for Halloween Slaying

11-10-15 California:

UPDATE NO. 3, NOV. 9, 12:20 P.M.: Michael Anthony Aparicio is scheduled to be arraigned on a special circumstances murder charge today for allegedly strangling 61-year-old Floyd Taylor Jr. to death inside a Stanton motel room Halloween morning, the Orange County District Attorney's office announced.

Aparicio, 27, of Anaheim, could get life in state prison without the possibility of parole if he is convicted of felony special circumstances murder with a sentencing enhancement allegation for murder during the commission of a robbery.

Around 6:15 a.m. on Oct. 31, Aparicio met Taylor inside his motel room at the Chester Inn in Stanton, where surveillance footage viewed later showed Taylor left his room alone but returned twice within the next hour, the OCDA says. After the last time Taylor returned, Aparicio allegedly wrapped a bungee cord around the older man's neck, strangled him, placed a pillow over the victim's face and pulled the bed covers up over the body before taking Taylor's wallet and fleeing the scene, prosecutors claim.

Teen charged in convicted sex offender's murder attempts to get bond reduced

11-13-15 Louisiana:

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - A teenage murder suspect is expected to be in court Friday for a motions hearing. The attorney for Brittany Monk, 17, of Denham Springs, is trying to get her bond reduced. She is currently housed in the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on a $400,000 bond.

Monk is one of two suspects charged with second-degree murder in the death of Robert Noce Jr., 47, of Zachary.

The East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office reported Noce was stabbed and strangled. He was found in a plastic 55-gallon drum in his home on July 4. Monk’s boyfriend, Jace Crehan, 21, also of Denham Springs, faces the same charge. They have both pleaded not guilty.

Court records show Noce accepted a plea deal for sex crimes against a juvenile less than two weeks before his death. He pleaded “no contest” (neither admitted to nor denied) to a charge of carnal knowledge of a juvenile.

Muncie police investigate stabbing as possible homicide

10-25-15 Indiana:

MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) — Muncie police say they’re investigating the death of a 29-year-old man as a suspected homicide.

Delaware County Coroner Scott Hahn says Hector Cedillo Jr. died Thursday from injuries he suffered in an incident on Oct. 16. Muncie police Sgt. Mike Engle tells The (Muncie) Star Press (http://tspne.ws/1H16HoN) that the investigation involves a possible stabbing but would not comment further.

Hahn says an autopsy was scheduled for Friday but results wouldn’t be available until Monday.

The coroner says details of the incident are “sketchy.” He says Cedillo underwent surgery to repair a stabbing wound to the heart.

Detectives investigate murder of registered sex offender

2-2-14 Florida:

Lake County detectives have determined a possible suspect in the fatal shooting of a 31-year-old sex offender that happened in Groveland early Saturday, deputies reported.

Detectives say the victim, Justin Russell, got into an argument with 18-year-old Travis L. Miller early Saturday morning. The argument ended with Miller opening fire and fatally shooting Russell.

Around 2:30 a.m., deputies responded to a call about the shooting in the 15700 block of Stuckey Loop in Groveland.

By the time they got to the scene, Russell was being treated for a gunshot wound by EMS personnel, an incident report said.

Police: Man stabbed near rest stop may have been killed in self defense

6-21-15 Kentucky:

BULLITT COUNTY, Ky. (WDRB) - Police say the man stabbed near a rest stop along I-65 in Bullitt County may have been killed in self defense.

Raymond Logsdon was near the scene Saturday afternoon.

"Police came through here, they were doing about 75-80 coming through the rest area here so something was up," Logsdon said.

Shepherdsville Police say 45-year-old Aaron Michael Jerrell of Tuscumbia, Alabama was stabbed in the arm and bled to death.

His body was found on the exit ramp.

Authorities have not released much information about Jerrell but have confirmed he was a registered sex offender. Online records show he was convicted of raping a 14-year-old girl in 2000 in Florida.

Accused killer: 'I ridded one less child molester from the earth'

4-15-15 North Carolina:

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Daytona Beach police arrested a man wanted in the killing of a man at a North Carolina community college early Monday morning, authorities said.

Authorities said 20-year-old Kenneth Stancil III confessed to shooting and killing Ron Lane at Wayne Community College in Goldsboro, North Carolina, on Monday.

"There's a warrant that's been issued out of the state of North Carolina for you for the charge of murder," Judge Chris Kelly told Stancil.

"I just want you to know, I ridded one less (expletive) child molester from the (expletive) earth that (expletive) with my little brother. All right? That's all I got to say," Stancil told the judge. “I don’t give a (expletive) how much time they give me. Doing time is the easy (expletive) part, know what I’m saying?”

Investigators said Stancil entered the campus print shop where he used to work as part of a work-study program and fired once with a pistol-grip shotgun, killing Lane, his former supervisor.

School officials said Stancil was dismissed from the school's work-study program for too many absences.

With body on the floor, suspects in Belfair homicide came back the next day to steal items

5-29-15 Washington:

SHELTON — A man being held on suspicion of murder for shooting a Belfair man last weekend told investigators he had accused the victim of being a pedophile and, when confronted, the victim lunged at him so he shot him in the head.

Daniel A. Dunn, 35, of Belfair, also is believed to have returned to Charles Albion Austin’s residence the next day, Sunday, and taken a number of items. Christopher G. Redfern, 27, of Port Orchard, also was arrested in connection with Austin’s death, although Dunn told investigators Redfern was not involved in the shooting.

Austin, 51, was found by a neighbor Monday at his residence on the 100 block of Southridge Drive in Belfair.

Although Dunn said he told Austin he intended to call police to report him for “weird” conversations, when investigators asked why Dunn didn’t go to police to report the shooting, Dunn said he didn’t want to go to jail.

Clues left at Austin’s house led investigators to Dunn and Redfern, said Mason County Sheriff’s Detective Bill Adam.

Neither man has been charged in Austin’s death. However, they appeared Thursday in Superior Court, and Judge Toni Sheldon found probable cause to hold both. Sheldon set $1 million bail for Dunn and $500,000 for Redfern, said Prosecutor Mike Dorcy.

Two dead in apparent murder-suicide at group home in Amelia Island

Note: The RSO was murdered by a non RSO who then committed suicide.

5-20-15 Florida:

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. — Two men are dead after an apparent murder-suicide at a group home in Amelia Island.

The Nassau County sheriff says Ken Supernor Sr. shot and killed Paul Auld, a registered sexual predator, then turned the gun on himself.

Neighbors there were already concerned about living next to the house, which operated as a halfway house for recovering addicts and criminals.

The halfway house in the middle of a heated zoning debate is now at the center of a murder-suicide investigation.

“Shocked that I wasn’t aware enough to recognize these people with this kind of behavior,” said Kathy Lynn Hamby, who lives at the home.

“We never would have any thought like this,” said Christopher Collins who also lives at the home.

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.

Sheriff: Man stabbed to death during fight in south Whatcom County

3-23-15 Washington:

BELLINGHAM — A Whatcom County man accused of killing another man by stabbing him multiple times Sunday morning, March 22, remains in Whatcom County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail.

William Ralph Smith, 45, faces a charge of second-degree murder while armed with a deadly weapon for stabbing Jeremy Derek McClellan, 25, of Skagit County during a party at Smith’s home in the 300 block of Pacific Highway, in south Whatcom County.

Smith — with the word “evil” tattooed on his right arm — made his first appearance in court Monday, March 23. His voice became shaky as Superior Court Commissioner Martha Gross read him the charge and its maximum sentence of 20 years to life in prison.

Smith and McClellan got in a fight early Sunday between 6 and 6:30 a.m, Sheriff Bill Elfo said. Deputies responded shortly after and found McClellan bleeding at the front door. By the time firefighters arrived, he was dead.

Elfo was not immediately sure what led to the altercation.

Prosecuting attorney David Graham read a probable cause statement against Smith at his first appearance Monday. The statement detailed the injuries to McClellan: multiple stab wounds to his back and neck that were inflicted by both a knife and the sharp edge of a glass bottle.