Crime and Punishment

A woman kidnapped a newborn from a Sanford, Florida hospital concealed in a bag, but fortunately the crime was “caught on tape” and she was quickly apprehended.

Prosecutors said [alleged kidnapper Jennifer] Latham convinced the [newborn’s] mother she was a nurse and needed to take the baby boy for an eye exam.

Hospital officials had to console the baby’s mother.

An hour later, police stopped Latham on I-4 and returned the child to the hospital.

Latham is being held without bond.

A Virginia man went on a brutal rampage and shot his girlfriend and their two children, ages 1 and 2, before turning the gun on himself.

The man, Aaron Poseidon Jackson, age 24, apparently shot the his girlfriend, Latasha Nicole Thomas, age 23, with an AK-47 type assault rifle, then he took a handgun, went to their children’s bedroom and shot both kids in the head while they lay in their cribs.

The children have been identified as Nicole Aaron Jackson, age 2 and a half years and Aaron Neptune Jackson age one and half years.

According to investigators, Latasha had called a family member two times during the day and asked to be picked up because she was being physically assaulted by the children’s father, but approximately at 9:30 pm, she called that family member back and said there was no need because “everything was ok”.

A cheerleading coach in Naperville, Illinois has been charged with multiple counts of sexual assault to a girl he was coaching in 2006, who was 13 at the time.

Bradley Abrahams, 28, of the 4000 block of Gabrielle Drive, Aurora, is charged with five counts of criminal sexual assault. Abrahams surrendered to Naperville police Monday and was released after posting $100,000 bail, police said.

He is co-owner of ICE Athletics Cheer and Dance on Ambassador Drive in Naperville, where the alleged incidents occurred. A spokesman for the gym said Abrahams has had no contact with children at the gym since the girl’s parents reported the allegations to police in July.

This seems like a case of some serious road rage. What the hell is wrong with people?

A teenage girl remained in critical condition Monday after being shot in the head by someone in another vehicle over the weekend, Washington County authorities said.

Nicole Sell, 16, of Slinger, was being treated at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa, Sheriff Dale Schmidt said in a news release.

Sell was one of three people riding in a vehicle in the town of Addison on Saturday night, deputies said. A second vehicle passed the first about 11 p.m. and one or more occupants fired multiple shots into Sell’s vehicle, authorities said.

German police have arrested a woman when three infants were found in a basement freezer. The woman is apparently the mother of the three babies. WTF?

Police made the grisly find Sunday night in the town of Wenden, near Olpe, in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, after receiving a tip from one of the woman’s three grown children, officials said.

The three infants are believed to have been born alive, said Johannes Daheim, spokesman for prosecutors investigating the case. Authorities were awaiting autopsy results to determine for sure how they died, he said.

The 44-year-old woman, who name was not released, was taken into custody on suspicion that she killed the children.

A school bus driver in Huntley, Illinois was taken into custody. Police say that she deliberately slammed on the brakes, sending kids flying everywhere. The children on the bus were elementary school age, ranging from 5 to 10 years old.

Julieta Clinton, 37, of 9 Savoy Court, Lake in the Hills, was taken into custody at the school district transportation office 650 Academic Drive, Algonquin, at 1:30 p.m. She was charged with 19 counts of reckless conduct, a Class A misdemeanor, and 19 counts of child endangerment, a Class A misdemeanor.

Clinton posted bond and was released. She is scheduled to appear in McHenry County Court at 8:30 a.m. May 22.

Huntley police said they were called about 8:25 a.m. to Leggee Elementary School, 13723 Harmony Road, to assist the Huntley Fire Department on a report of several injured juveniles on a school bus. Police said it initially was reported that the school bus made an abrupt stop in the school parking lot, causing injury to the pupils.

We know we’re going to sound old, but we just have to say that we get annoyed with the teens today always texting, texting, texting. Not to mention how just the noun-turned-verb word “texting” is an assault on the English language. But when we read this story about how a teen’s texting skills caught some bad guys, it softened our attitude a bit.

Lauren Durnbaugh, 13, didn’t go to school Tuesday and was home when she heard someone open an unlocked rear door. She climbed into bed and hid under the covers as the suspects began ransacking rooms in the house about 15 miles southeast of Columbus, authorities said.

“OMG. They’re in the house. I think we’re being robbed,” Durnbaugh said in a text message to her mother, Margo Roby, 53, who was working at a car dealership about 15 minutes away.

Racing home, Roby called 911. Back in the house, the intruders roamed from room to room, and at one point sat on Lauren’s bed, police said.

Good for you, Lauren! If it was us, with our uncoordinated giant thumbs, the message would have said something like “OMg thr nthe hrse roejfoskdffasd;fkasfd”.

OK, this story is all kinds of messed up.

A 12-year-old girl died of a methadone overdose after taking pills she bought from a 15-year-old boy, authorities said.

The boy has been charged as a juvenile with criminally negligent homicide, criminal sale of a controlled substance and endangering the welfare of a child, his lawyer said Wednesday.

The boy took the pills — knowing what they were — from his father’s drawer March 10 and brought them to the girl, Dana Marie Regan, police youth investigator Charles Lopez testified Wednesday in Family Court in Westchester County. Methadone is best known as a prescription drug that curbs heroin addiction, but it increasingly is prescribed as a painkiller.

A mom as well as five others were arrested on Chicago’s South Side after they allegedly got into a tangle with police who had converged on the woman’s home. What makes the story even more interesting is that one of the people arrested was a part of the whole Ryan Harris murder mess from several years ago.

Sonya Crawford, 41, is charged with aggravated battery of a police officer for her alleged actions Tuesday night.

Police arrested six people, including two juveniles, at the Crawford home. At least one other person will face felony charges, Bond said. One of the people arrested, 18-year-old Elijah Henderson, has a difficult history with police.

As an 8-year-old, Henderson and a then-7-year-old friend were arrested and charged with killing 11-year-old Ryan Harris — charges that were later dropped.

In the end, Henderson’s family agreed to a $6.2 million settlement with the City of Chicago.

Sounds like the Hendersons haven’t received that check yet…

While there are some crimes we may feel warrants a long, tortuous death, trespassing isn’t one of them. And especially when the alleged trespasser is only 6-years-old.

Police in northern India arrested a man who allegedly threw a girl into a pile of glowing embers after he caught her trespassing, an attack authorities said Wednesday may have been motivated by caste.

The 6-year-old girl is recuperating at a state-run hospital in Mathura, the north Indian city where the alleged attack occurred, said Dr. Ramesh Kumar.

She is considered a dalit _ a member of the lowest caste in India, where a system of rigid social hierarchy still lingers. The alleged attacker, Madan Singh, 22, comes from a higher caste.

Singh discovered the girl relieving herself Tuesday in a field he owned and demanded she immediately stop what she was doing and leave his property.

“When she did not respond, he simply lifted her and threw her in a heap of embers,” local police official Govind Agarwal told The Associated Press. “The cry of the girl drew the attention of the villagers. They came rushing and pulled the girl out of fire.”

A man in Aurora, Illinois who was previously convicted in 1999 on aggravated criminal sexual abuse has been sentenced back to prison for 13 years after police found an incredibly large stash of child pornography in his home. One perv down, one million to go.

Steven J. Ruby, 44, must serve about half his sentence before he is eligible for parole again, and also receives credit for 1,094 days in the Kane County jail, prosecutors said.

Ruby, formerly of the 200 block of South LaSalle Street, was convicted Feb. 22 of two counts of possession of child pornography.

On April 27, 2005, parole officers on a check at Ruby’s home found several sexually explicit photos of children in his bedroom and inside aluminum cooking trays in the refrigerator, prosecutors said.

A search of Ruby’s computer and compact discs also revealed about 3,500 additional images and more than 100 movies, several of children and infants engaged in sex acts, prosecutors said.

Jerry Jones, who plead guilty to murdering three relatives and his 10-month-old daughter, admitted he killed the baby out of revenge:

GBI agent James Harris said he questioned Jones at a hospital two days after his arrest. At the time, Jones was unable to talk because of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and wrote down brief responses.

Harris said that when asked if he committed the killings, Jones wrote “Yes, uh huh.”

When asked why he killed the infant, Harris said Jones wrote “revenge” across the page.

The Blaylocks, who were shot, were the mother and stepfather of Melissa Peeler, Jones’ ex-girlfriend. Bradley and the infant were strangled with a cord.

Note to criminals — do not bring your 1-month-old son with you when you’re being chased by the cops, he’ll only slow you down.

Timothy Hartford Jr., 38, and Ashley Smith, 26, are suspects in the Thursday shooting deaths of a man and woman in Winston-Salem, N.C., police said. The victims were a 77-year-old Meals on Wheels volunteer and a man she was serving lunch. Another volunteer, the dead woman’s husband, was wounded.

The suspects’ 1-month-old son was with them during the chase and ensuing standoff and was taken into the custody of child protective services. He was not injured, Virginia State Police Sgt. Michelle Cotten said.

A state police officer saw Hartford and Smith’s vehicle in Suffolk at about 2 a.m. Friday and attempted to stop it. Smith drove on and police pursued the vehicle into Norfolk and used road spikes to shred its tires, officials said.

The couple pulled into a shopping mall parking garage and were negotiating with police, but didn’t surrender until about five hours later.

An 8th grader in Omaha, Nebraska was shot in the middle of a school soccer game. Well that’s certainly worth of a red card!

About 100 kids were in and around the middle school about 3:30 p.m. when witnesses saw the boy — a soccer player on the sidelines — bleeding from his face. He had been shot in the mouth and was taken to Creighton University Medical Center; police identified him as 14-year-old Taylor Borgeson.

Tierney said the teen’s injuries suggest he was struck by a discharged round that was falling.

Children were kept in the school as police questioned them. Dozens of parents picked up their children after the lockdown was lifted.

“It’s kind of a hectic scene,” Tierney said.

We just want to know where a 4th grader got a semiautomatic handgun. Supposedly it was old and rusted, with only one bullet in it. It will be interesting to see if it was ditched after a violent crime.

Police say a fourth-grader fired a semiautomatic handgun inside a New Jersey elementary school as he was showing it to a friend.

Linden Lt. Raymond Tyra says no one was injured in the gunfire at School Number 2 on Wednesday afternoon.

A 10-year-old boy was showing the .38-caliber gun to his friend in a coat closet when the weapon went off. A bullet passed through the wall and into the classroom next door, where it lodged in a wall.