State v. Jason. No. 9-679 / 08-1042

Stalking case. Jason is the scorned ex-boyfriend. Courter is the creeped out ex-girlfriend. At first this case was sort of fun…

During November and December 2006, Jason sent several letters (one included a check) and an unsolicited pizza to Courter, communications that she reported to the Iowa City police. The police applied for a warrant to arrest Jason for violating the no-contact order.

But then the facts just got downright creepy.

On February 7, 2007, Jason was convicted of the simple misdemeanor assault and the three counts of harassment. Jason stipulated to violating a no-contact order. On February 16, 2007, he was sentenced to 120 days in jail—all suspended—with the no-contact order being extended for five years. Jason stated at the sentencing hearing that he would never contact Courter again. However, he was released from jail just after noon on February 27 and sent an e-mail to Courter at 2:26 p.m. Jason sent more than 100 e-mail messages to Courter in late February and March 2007.

On March 10, 2007, Courter went out with friends in downtown Iowa City to celebrate her birthday. Jason showed up at the bar uninvited, approached Courter’s table, and reached across as if to grab her. Courter pulled out her cell phone and called the Iowa City police, a number she had programmed into her speed dial. Police could not locate Jason that night, but applied for an arrest warrant for the no-contact order violation.
On March 19, 2007, Jason started sending e-mails to the law student who served as a prosecuting intern at Jason’s simple misdemeanor trial. The messages indicated that Jason did not feel compelled to comply with the no-contact order issued by the magistrate court because “it’s a free country” and “no judge will tell me what I can do, I can do what I want.” He also admitted seeing Courter on her birthday and dared the prosecuting intern to file stalking charges.

From mid to late March, Courter received e-mails from Jason that indicated he was in Florida. Some of them featured photograph attachments, including nude photographs where Jason’s body appeared to be smeared with feces and another where he had an erect penis. In others, Jason took on “the persona of a little boy” and talked about wearing diapers. In still others, Jason threatened to beat Courter “black and blue” and to “hunt [her] like prey.”

The full case is here via PDF format.

State v. Warren Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals, No. E2008-01135-CCA-R3-CD – Filed December 1, 2009

The case begins as a battered-girlfriend-kills-boyfriend situation:

The Defendant testified that on the day of the shooting, she had gone to the doctor for a
checkup following treatment she had received for a tubal pregnancy.

She said that she returned home about 4:00 p.m. and that she drank some wine but did not take illegal drugs. She said that the victim was already at home and that he was drinking beer. She said that they left to go pick up the victim’s paycheck, that they stopped at the dollar store, and that the victim remained in the car while she went inside.

She said she observed a man she knew as a crack dealer talking to the victim, although she did not see an exchange. She said they returned home about 6:00 p.m. and smoked crack. She said that a friend of hers called wanting to buy marijuana and that the victim left to purchase some for the friend. She said that the victim called her to tell her he was on his way home and that when he did not return immediately, she called her sister to see if the victim was there, which he was. She said that when the victim returned home, they fought but that she could not remember about what.

She said that the victim ordered her to leave and that as she took some belongings to her car, the victim grabbed her by the hair. She said that the victim released her and pushed her from behind as she walked out the door and that her belongings spilled onto the ground.

When asked what she was thinking at that moment, she replied, “I was mad and sad and just tired.” She said that she walked into the house and that she could barely remember going to the gun cabinet and grabbing the gun. She said she thought she grabbed shotgun shells. She recalled walking into the bathroom and closing the gun. She said the next thing she remembered was watching the victim fall backwards.

…and then a little judicial misconduct gets thrown in:

On July 28, 2008, there appeared in the Maryville Daily Times a letter to the Editor from Lori Barnes, the sister of the deceased. This letter praised the conduct of the trial court in sentencing the defendant
to the maximum sentence. The letter also stated Ms. Barnes[’s] intention [for] her family to vote for and [to] support . . . the trial judge in the upcoming election to be conducted on August 7, 2008.

Also appearing in the July 28 edition of the Maryville Daily Times was another letter of support for the trial judge by another victim of a homicide case. Both of these cases had been prosecuted by Ms. Tammy Harrington, Assistant District Attorney for Blount County Tennessee. Ms. Harrington was concerned that the Barnes family might be upset with the manner in which her office prosecuted this murder.

As a result, Ms. Harrington called Ms. Barnes about the July 28 letter. During the course of this conversation, Ms. Barnes revealed that the trial court had contacted her by phone. The trial court had inquired if the family was satisfied with the sentence and if so, would the family write a letter in support [of] the trial judge’s upcoming election. The trial court also inquired if she was a registered voter. Ms. Harrington disclosed this information to defense counsel.
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The full opinion (in PDF format) is here.

Mom smells pot, calls the police.

A mother who didn’t like what she saw while visiting her son’s Mankato apartment last month followed her intuition, called police and started an investigation that led to more than a pound of pot.

The woman called police after her son let her into his apartment in the 1800 block of Monks Avenue. She was suspicious about what she thought was drug paraphernalia. Those items turned out to be a suspected marijuana pipe and pot grinder, according to the officer who responded to her call.

A search warrant was issued to agents of the Minnesota River Valley Drug Task Force after the woman also told the officer that her son told her his roommates were selling marijuana. The search was executed the same day.

One roommate, Nathan Daniel Brumbaugh, 20, was at the apartment during the search and arrested for an outstanding warrant. His room kept the agents and other officers busy, according to a criminal complaint that was filed last week.

A couple of bongs, several suspected pot pipes, another pot grinder and two street signs that were possibly taken from Eden Prairie were the first items found, the complaint said.

Then several containers filled with suspected marijuana, including one labeled “Colorado,” were found.

Eventually, several individually wrapped baggies of suspected marijuana were found. A piece of paper labeled that stash — which added up to just more than a pound — as ” stinky pink,” investigators reported. All of the suspected marijuana found added up to nearly 20 ounces.

Via Twincities.com

The defendant’s quote is straight of a 1970’s B-movie.

State v. Pegues, Wisconsin Appeals, November 11, 2009.

Pegues contends that statements he made to police at the scene should have been suppressed. The trial court denied Pegues’s pretrial suppression motion.

The court found that police were dispatched to a report of shots being fired and that when Officer Novy arrived, Pegues was slowly walking away from the vehicles, using a four-legged walker.

Novy recognized Pegues from previous contacts. The court found that Novy approached Pegues and asked him words to the effect of what was going on. Before Pegues responded, another officer told Novy that the victim said that Pegues had been shooting at her.

Novy could not see a gun in Pegues’s hands, and he asked Pegues if he had a gun. Pegues replied that he did and it was in his car.

Pegues also told Novy “I tried to shoot the bitch, she won’t leave me alone.”

Pegues was then arrested.

via FindLaw | Cases and Codes.

This is beyond me, really.

Police are investigating a video that shows young people attacking passersby, apparently at random.

The video was posted on YouTube, but has been removed. Community members e-mailed it to St. Paul police this morning, said Sgt. Paul Schnell, police spokesman.

At about six minutes and 30 seconds long, the video shows young people “going out and finding or preying upon bicyclists or joggers, shoving them down, pushing them onto the ground, running up behind them and grabbing their hat, for example,” Schnell said. “In one instance, they are seen tackling and trying to fight with someone.”

via TwinCities.com.

This is too stupid for words. How does the conversation to tape criminal acts go?

Billy: “Hey I have an idea!”
Timmy: “Yes Billy?”
Billy: “Let’s run around the city and terrorize people!”
Timmy: “Like Lady Gaga does when she refuses to wear pants in public?”
Billy: “Nono. Much more hardcore. I’m thinking simple assault, harassment. You know… mayhem!”
Timmy: “I like it! That sounds bad ass.”
Billy: “Oh, and let’s tape this and post it online!”
Timmy: “Like those girls in Florida?”
Billy: “Yes! We will be internet sensations! Just like them!”
Timmy: “Or Balloon boy! Awesome!”

State v. Avila, in which cake was used as a self defense tool.

We reject defendant’s arguments advanced in support of the reversal of his conviction. We agree, however, that defendant’s sentence must be reversed and remanded for re-sentencing.

The operative facts the State presented to the jury relevant to our discussion disclose that defendant accosted his victim during the late evening of April 9, 2006, when the victim was returning home carrying a large slice of birthday cake given to her by a friend.

As the victim ascended the nine stairs leading to her front door, she heard “somebody running behind [her].”

She proceeded to turn around and ask the person, whom she later identified as a Hispanic male, what he wanted. The individual responded by demanding money.

When the victim told the man that she did not have any money, he displayed a knife. The victim testified that at that point, the encounter became violent, with the perpetrator attempting to stab her in the stomach. She avoided the attack by ducking, screaming and throwing the cake at him.

The man continued in his attempt to stab her by swinging the knife towards her face. She parried the attack by blocking her face with her hands while continuing to scream, at which time she was cut “through [the] fingers” of her right hand. Her assailant eventually fled on foot.

Defendant contends the court’s failure to instruct the jury on attempted theft, an essential element of robbery, left the jury without direction, an error defendant argues was clearly capable of causing an unjust result. We disagree.

The full case is available via Rutger’s Law School.

Apparently it’s easy to find celeb homes and break in… I wonder where the body guards are and what stops the stalkers…

Like many teenage girls, these friends were fascinated by the high fashion and flashy bling of such young Hollywood celebrities as Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton and Audrina Patridge.

But unlike other fans, they allegedly didn’t stop at Hollywood fantasy.

According to Los Angeles police detectives, the group studied television shows, celebrity magazines and websites picking out clothing and jewelry they wanted. Then they figured out where the celebrities lived and, after casing the homes, broke in and took what they wanted, detectives allege.

“This is a no-brains caper. There’s not a lot of self-awareness,” LAPD Det. Brett Goodkin said. “They saw it, they wanted it, they took it and continued taking it.”

LAPD sources said detectives have linked the teenagers to break-ins at the homes of Hilton, Lohan, Patridge, “Pirates of the Caribbean” actor Orlando Bloom and “The O.C.” star Rachel Bilson.

Four teens — Rachel Lee, 19; Diana Tamayo, 19; Courtney Ames, 18; and Alexis Neiers, 18 — were arrested last week on suspicion of burglary in several of the cases. The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has not filed charges against them.

via  latimes.com.

“I think next time we’ll hang out at my house.”

Four teenagers were trapped by a gunman inside a Hudson house Saturday, hiding in a closet while multiple shots were fired, then escaping to safety out a basement window, police said.

A 43-year-old gunman was shot and critically wounded by sheriff’s deputies, after firing at police at the end of a seven-hour standoff, officials said. None of the teenagers nor the police were wounded, although the gunman fired perhaps two-dozen shots during the incident.

The St. Croix County Sheriff’s Department identified the shooter as Daniel Christenson, 43, whose house is directly behind Hudson High School. Police said Christenson had been in an argument Saturday night with his son, Zachary, 19, when the father pulled out a pistol and began firing.

via 4 teens escape Hudson, Wis., gun standoff; father of one arrested – TwinCities.com.

I was exposed to this, so I thought I’d share:

Horn was convicted in 2002 of first-degree murder of his grandmother, who died from multiple blows from a carpenter’s level, followed by partial decapitation while still alive.

Horn appealed his conviction to our Supreme Court, arguing the invalidity of a warrantless search of his home, the inadmissibility of a pornographic magazine, and his entitlement to an instruction on the lesser included offense of voluntary manslaughter.

The Supreme Court affirmed his conviction.

He tried to get a second postconviction hearing based on “recently recovered memory” and the court was not having it…

State v. Horn, 278 Kan. 24, 91 P.3d 517 (2004)

So, when I first saw this headline, I thought the defendant was trying to pull something.

Diplomatic officials and rights groups in Britain are waging a campaign to save the life of a British man who has been sentenced to death for drug smuggling by a Chinese court despite apparent signs of mental illness.

But this guy is certifiable:

Those who have followed Mr. Shaikh’s case closely say signs of his mental illness were evident for all to see. He was prone to outlandish behavior and frequently made grandiose statements about himself. In e-mail messages he sent to British and American officials in 2005, he described himself as a millionaire and a messiah who was poised to start a new airline despite having no means of support.

And what is sad is that the Chinese judges are aware of it too:

Convicted and sentenced during a half-hour trial, Mr. Shaikh was apparently so delusional during an appeals hearing in May that the judges could not help but laugh out loud. That appeal, British officials said, was rejected.

via NYTimes.com.