Richard Poplawski, 23, met officers at the doorway and shot two of them in the head immediately, Harper said. An officer who tried to help the two also was killed. Poplawski, armed with an assault rifle and two other guns, then held police at bay for four hours as the fallen officers were left bleeding nearby, their colleagues unable to reach them, according to police and witnesses. The three slain officers were Eric Kelly, 41, Stephen Mayhle, 29, and Paul Sciullo III, 37. Kelly had been on the force for 14 years, Mayhle and Sciullo for two years each. gunman wearing a bulletproof vest and "lying in wait" opened fire on officers responding to a domestic disturbance call Saturday, killing three of them and turning a quiet Pittsburgh street into a battlefield, police said.
Police Chief Nate Harper said the motive for the shooting isn't clear, but friends said the gunman recently had been upset about losing his job and feared the Obama administration was poised to ban guns.

Man tried to run over a detective who tried to arrest him after an alleged drug deal, police said.Jose E. Villegas, 30, struck Braintree Det. Brian Cohoon with his SUV, knocking him into a snow bank, then drove directly at him when Cohoon got up, forcing him to leap out of the way to avoid being hit again, according to a police report. Villegas was arrested Jan. 30 in Randolph after a brief chase when he abandoned his Chevrolet Equinox and tried to outrun police.
Bail was set at $35,000 after he pleaded innocent at his Quincy District Court arraignment Monday to charges including attempted murder, heroin distribution and cocaine possession. Police were watching the area of South and Center Street in Randolph for drug activity Jan. 30 when they spotted Villegas’ Equinox. Detectives had received word that the SUV had been involved in a drug deal the previous day in the parking lot of the 4-Way Convenience Store on Center Street, according to the police report filed with the court. On Jan. 30, officers followed Villegas onto Union Street where he met a man who was standing next to a pickup truck that was parked off the side of the road. The man got into the SUV’s passenger seat where he appeared to exchange something with Villegas, the report states. When the man returned to the pickup truck, Cohoon drove a cruiser alongside the Equinox, got out and displayed his badge and knocked on the driver’s window.Villegas drove forward slightly and Cohoon “breached the window” when it appeared he was trying to swallow drugs, according to the police report. Villegas shifted the SUV to reverse, cocked the wheel to the right and backed up, striking Cohoon with the left mirror and quarter panel, throwing him into a snow bank. Cohoon got up, drew his weapon and ordered Villegas to stop, but he drove directly at him, “forcing him to dive out of the way and into another snow bank to prevent being run over,” the report says.
Villegas drove off, striking an unmarked police cruiser and went left onto South Street with detectives following. He stopped near 24 Lantern Lane and ran through backyards to Mark Terrace where a detective pulled up in his cruiser and caught him, according to the report. Cohoon was later taken to South Shore Hospital in Weymouth where he was treated for chest, shoulder and leg injuries, the report states.
Cocaine, heroin and $440 cash was found on Villegas when police searched him, according to the report. Michael Brady, 47, of 142 Deerfield Lane, Hanover, who had met with Villegas, was arrested and charged with heroin possession. Paul M. Matthews, 46, of 377 Pond St., Rockland, who was in the pickup truck with Brady was also arrested on a heroin possession charge. All three men were scheduled to return to court March 4.

Gang activity apparently is on the rise and the FBI says 58 percent of state and local law enforcement agencies reported gangs were active inside their jurisdictions last year.The percent is a jump from 2004 statistics, which showed 45 percent of agencies reporting gang activity.More gang members are migrating from urban to rural communities, according to the FBI.Moorhead Police Chief David Ebinger said the latest FBI report doesn’t surprise him and Fargo-Moorhead continues to be an “appealing market” for drug-dealing gangs.The FBI report shows more gang activity on Indian reservations. The “Native Mob,” a violent American Indian gang, is most active in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Michigan and Wisconsin.In addition, the FBI says gangs pose a growing threat along the Canadian border as American gangs work with them to smuggle drugs into the U.S.

Police Chief Bill Bratton, City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and City Councilman Eric Garcetti, along with dozens of police officers, undercover agents and city workers, gathered in Glassell Park Wednesday to celebrate the demolition of a notorious drug house once owned and operated by Avenues gangsters. Dubbed the "Satellite House" because of a large TV satellite dish on its roof, 3304 Drew Street was long considered the epicenter of the local narcotics trade and headquarters of Maria "Chata" Leon, the reputed matriarch of a large family of drug-dealing gangsters. For more than two decades, until her arrest in 2008 by federal authorities, Leon lived in the modest, northeast Los Angeles home with her 13 children -- a huge brood that included alleged Avenues gangsters Jose Leon, Danny Leon, Nicolas Real, Randy Martinez, Francisco Real and Jesus Martinez, who were all fixtures on Drew Street, a neighborhood isolated by the Glendale Freeway to the southeast, and by Forest Lawn cemetery to the north and west.In October of 2002, after years of trouble connected with the Leon house, Glendale Police arrested Leon for narcotics sales and child endangerment when officers found automatic weapons and explosives stashed throughout the house.Then, in 2003, a local man was shot to death in the Leon front yard -- an apparent drug deal gone bad. In another creepy twist, once inside Maria Leon's home, cops discovered a shrine to the patron saint of narco trafficking, Jesus Malverde, a folklore hero in crime-ridden Sinaloa, Mexico. Danny Leon and his half-brother, Francisco Real, were later convicted of accessory to murder in the killing. In 2005, the City Attorney's Office filed a public nuisance lawsuit and a judge issued a permanent injunction that prevented 57 gang members, including Maria Leon's own family, from congregating within 150 feet of the address. Venturing inside the home, members of the city attorney's office found a veritable fortress: gadgetry straight out of a James Bond movie, including surveillance cameras and a laser tripwire system.There were no takers when the house went up for sale, so two years ago the city barricaded the property. In another twist (this time set a 2007 court hearing and seemingly borrowed from an episode of The Wire), Francisco Leon took a Los Angeles deputy city attorney aside and offered to pay the outstanding judgment on the house in cash -- immediately -- if he were allowed to run out and get the money right away. All the prosecutor had to do was top the proceedings. The deputy city attorney declined the offer. At the same time, Los Angeles Department of Building & Safety issued abatement orders against numerous code violations at the house, and city inspectors noticed that someone had tried to remove the home's floor boards. Deputy City Attorney Nick Karno told the L.A. Weekly that rumors swirled that $80,000 cash was buried there. Last April, Building and Safety Commissioners finally declared the house a "public nuisance."Last June, Leon and several of her extended brood were arrested under a federal racketeering indictment naming 70 defendants for murder, extortion, home invasion and witness intimidation. Delgadillo seemed positively giddy Wednesday that the long ordeal was ending. He told reporters that the Drew Street property was a "terrifying monument to the power of the Avenues [gang]." Delgadillo, who says he was harassed by the Avenues gangsters as a kid when he attended nearby Irving Middle School, says that 3304 Drew Street had such special meaning to the gangsters that some tattooed a replica of the house on their bodies. City officials told the Weekly that today's demolition crew wanted to set up the night before but were warned against it because the city attorney's office feared for the workers' safety. Instead, the work crew waited for the politicians to finish a 30-minute press conference set on a street where graffiti covers sidewalks, curbs, pavement, buildings -- even the neglected trees.Bratton stood quietly next to Garcetti while neighbors watched from a distance behind yellow crime scene tape and photographers snapped photos of Maria Leon's sons' names -- eerily immortalized in concrete near the house's front porch.
"When you shoot at my police officers all bets are off," said Bratton, a reference to a violent incident a year ago, when three Avenues gangsters opened fire on LAPD officers after they shot to death 36-year-old Marcos Salas as he was walking with his two-year-old granddaughter near Aragon Avenue Elementary School in Cypress Park.

Danny Leon, brandishing an AK-47 rifle at police, was gunned down during the exchange of gunfire, and Leon's cousin, Jose Gomez, 18, was wounded and later charged with two counts of murder and attempted murder.

Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, invested $90 million with Bernard Madoff, who was arrested last week for allegedly defrauding clients of $50 billion. “We are currently in the process of investigating the exact amounts and their impact, but it appears that at the time of his arrest, Hadassah had approximately $90 million invested with his firm,” the organization said in a statement today. “Falling victim to this unprecedented fraud will require us to make necessary adjustments, but it has not in the slightest affected our commitment to our core Zionist mission.” Hadassah is the latest Jewish organization to announce losses in Madoff’s alleged scheme. Others include the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family Foundation in Boston, the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, the Ramaz School on New York’s Upper East Side and Yeshiva University in New York. Founded in 1912, Hadassah is the largest women’s Zionist organization in the U.S.

Unidentified black male, age uncertain, was found shot to death Tuesday evening at 101 Woodruff Avenue in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, according to a police report. The victim, shot in the head, was pronounced dead at the scene. A second victim, an unidentified 20-year-old black male who had been shot in the torso at the same location, was taken to Kings County Hospital where he is listed in stable condition. No arrests.

Unidentified black male, believed to be in his 40s, was found stabbed to death late Saturday in front of 573 Wyona Street in Brooklyn, according to a police report. The victim, stabbed numerous times about the body, was pronounced dead at the scene. No arrests.

17-year-old black female was shot and killed early Sunday morning in front of 1495 Morris Avenue in the Bronx, according to a police report. Two other male teenagers with the victim were also shot in the legs but are expected to survive. The girl who died was shot once in the chest and was pronounced dead on arrival at St. Barnabas Hospital, according to police. There have been no arrests and there are very few details about why the shooting took place at this time.

Officer Dawn Ortiz in front of witnesses, ordered the enraged male to drop the chair several times but he continued to approach her in a menacing way and she shot him once in the chest. He later died at Coney Island Hospital. The NYPD said the shooting appeared to be within departmental guidelines because Ortiz was in physical danger. The shooting occurred at the Gospel Assembly Church on Neptune Avenue. Ortiz was at the church as part of a truancy program for teenagers. Ortiz, 33 and a nine-year veteran, was not hurt, appeared shaken up, and was taken to Lutheran Medical Center where she passed the mandatory sobriety test given to officers after a shooting.

Agnes Bermudez, 47, was charged with four counts of murder, arson, assault, and reckless endangerment for setting a fire back in June that killed her boyfriend, and three members of a family who lived above them in a building in the Middle Village section of Queens, according to a story in the Daily News. Bermudez, once described in the News as a "stunning brunette," also was burned severely in the fire and she's been hospitalized at Jacobi Medical Center since the blaze. It was there that she was arrested and charged with the murders, according to the News story. Bermudez reportedly was enraged at her boyfriend William Salazar, 32, and confronted him after a night of clubbing by allegedly dousing him with carpet cleaner and lighting a match. Salazar died, and the fire then spread to an upstairs apartment where three members of the same family -- Heriberto Garcia-Vera, 68, his wife Flor Sandoval, 48, and their son Felipe Garcia-Vera, 20 -- were all killed. The father of William Salazar told the News: "She lost control. She loved my son too much. Too, too much."

Nelson Raul-Gamez faces multiple drug related charges including distribution and possession of heroin. Raul-Gamez and Ryan Welgos were arrested in Silverthorne back in June.The arrest happened after the Drug Enforcement Administration lead a 3 month investigation. That investigation stemmed from the drug overdose death of Adam Peterson in Aspen.

Nelson Raul-Gamez faces multiple drug related charges including distribution and possession of heroin. Raul-Gamez and Ryan Welgos were arrested in Silverthorne back in June.The arrest happened after the Drug Enforcement Administration lead a 3 month investigation. That investigation stemmed from the drug overdose death of Adam Peterson in Aspen.

Fredquinzo Ronte "Snake Eyes" King, 29, of St. Paul, sat expressionless as a judge sentenced him to 45 years in prison; when the judge asked if he had anything to say for himself, King simply said "No." But four hours later, Tonya Yvette Washington, 38, of St. Paul, had lots to say before a judge sentenced her to 10 years in prison for luring the 58-year-old Porter into the robbery and beating that cost him his life. "I would like to apologize," she said in a soliloquy aimed at Porter's family and friends in the courtroom. "Although I have experienced loss in my life, I can't begin to imagine how you must feel." She said she didn't know that her co-defendants would kill Porter. "I'm not expecting your forgiveness, but I'm hoping some day you will forgive me," she said, reading from her apologia, which she'd written on a piece of yellow legal paper. "I am truly sorry for what I did."
Sorry or not, Hennepin County District Judge Margaret A. Daly determined that Washington's crime -- aiding and abetting an aggravated robbery -- was carried out with "particular cruelty." While the state's sentencing guidelines could've sent her to prison for up to four years and nine months, she got more than double that.
"You do have a life left to live," the judge told Washington. "I hope you live your life in a way that would honor Mr. Porter." The third man charged in the case, Rashad Arthur Raleigh, 30, of St. Paul, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced last month. He is serving life without parole at the state prison in St. Cloud. 3-Time All-American / The sentencings were the final somber courtroom gathering for Porter's friends, co-workers, family -- many of them related to Theresa Allene Neal, Porter's fiancee and partner of 17 years. The strain of showing up three times and giving repeated victim-impact statements -- the legal equivalent of a eulogy -- showed on their faces and could be felt in their sobs. They had come to see justice done for Porter, a man from Stuart, Fla., who had known the finest life and darkest that life had to offer and the satisfaction that came from climbing out of an abyss, looking around and deciding to help his fellow man. In a younger day at Villanova University, the 6-foot-9-inch Porter was considered among the nation's best college basketball players. There, he was a three-time All-America selection and led the team to the 1971 NCAA Championship game. Porter scored 25 points in the game, but Villanova lost to UCLA, 68-62. Despite the loss, Porter was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. That honor was taken from him, though, when he was ruled ineligible because during the middle of his senior year, he had signed a pro contract with a team in the American Basketball Association.
Later in 1971, Porter signed with the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association. He spent seven seasons with the Bulls and three other teams. His career was cut short by injuries and drugs. He spent years fighting his way back to sobriety, and in 1994, he became a probation officer for Ramsey County. He often used his own recovery experiences to help probationers who had problems with drugs and alcohol. When they spoke of the demons they battled, he knew what they were talking about.
"Howard spent his career in probation helping people take another course in life," Rhonda Rhodes, Porter's supervisor in the probation department, told Daly when she stood to give a victim-impact statement. She said that after Porter died, she cleaned out his desk and found "so many letters" from prison inmates who didn't know Porter but had heard such good things about him that they wanted to see if they could be assigned to him once they were released from prison. Porter disappeared the night of May 18, 2007. When he failed to return home, Neal reported him missing. The following day, Minneapolis police and firefighters found an unconscious man in an alley in the city's Folwell neighborhood. The man carried no ID and had been beaten so badly that he was comatose. He was admitted to the hospital as "John Doe," but the next day, officials confirmed he was Porter. He died from his injuries May 26, eight days after he was beaten. On June 1, 2007, an anonymous caller told St. Paul police that Raleigh and King had killed Porter, and gave the cops an address where the men had been staying. Detectives found the house empty but saw what appeared to be bloodstains in an entryway. While police were at the scene, Raleigh's mother approached the officers and told them that her son's girlfriend, Washington, also had lived at the house. Police found her. At first, she denied any involvement with Porter. She later charged her story. She didn't tell the truth at first, but when she and Raleigh were finally charged and pleaded guilty, they described what had happened.
They wanted to get some money, so they came up with a plan: Washington would pose as a streetwalker and pick up a man. She'd bring the man back to the house, where Raleigh and King would jump him and take his money. Washington had said she had picked up Porter and claimed they had agreed to a deal where she'd provide sexual favors in return for some crack cocaine. (Porter's autopsy report notes that no controlled substances were found in his blood.) When they got back to Washington's home, the two were engaged in a sex act when Raleigh and King burst through the door of their room. When Porter fought back, King took a chair or stool and hit him over the head. Later, they rummaged through his car and found out Porter was a probation officer. He was just barely alive but they thought he was dead, so they dumped his body in an alley in Minneapolis. As he was sentenced this morning, King showed little emotion and said even less. When Hennepin County District Judge George F. McGunnigle asked if he wanted to say anything before he was sentenced, King said "No." The judge sentenced him to 415 months for second-degree murder and 125 months for kidnapping, and ordered the sentences to run consecutively. That'll be 45 years, and King will have to serve 30 years before he can be considered for supervised release. Before he was sentenced, Neal got up to address the court. She hoped King would one day come to understand the man he helped kill. "I hope these people find a conscience, and the conscience will take care of the rest," she said
Four hours later, her tears not yet exhausted, she stood before a different judge in the sentencing of yet another defendant. "I've yet to figure out how to accept the unacceptable," she said through an ebb and flow of sobs. "How do I continue to go on when part of me was laid to rest with Howard?" She said she felt sorry that the people who killed her partner of 17 years had probably never known the love and caring he had spent his career as a probation officer giving to people just like themselves. "I wish the people who did this could've had just one iota of love like that in their life," she said. "They don't have to live a life of hate."

Thomas Orville Bastian, 31, could face life in prison when he is sentenced on Nov. 21.A Maricopa County Superior Court jury handed up the verdict last week. Bastian, who spent a decade in prison for violent drug offenses and other crimes, was convicted of the April 13, 2007, shooting death of Travis Hartline-Seffern. The 26-year-old was gunned down in a parking lot near Scottsdale and Thomas roads. Hartline-Seffern was lured to the parking lot in a murder-for-profit plot that police say was hatched by his self-anointed "stepfather," John Scott Hartline-Seffern; Bastian and Jose Quintero-Figueroa. Travis was told he was meeting his stepfather to use equipment to power-wash a parking lot, police say. Travis and John Scott Hartline-Seffern apparently met in prison, where they grew so close that Travis Hartline added Seffern's name to his and considered him his stepfather. John Scott Hartline-Seffern raised suspicion after he tried to cash a $500,000 life-insurance policy the day after Travis' death. John Scott Hartline-Seffern stabbed himself to death before police could serve a search warrant on his Mesa home. Quintero-Figueroa also faces a first-degree murder trial for Travis' death.

19 year-old Sato Sigrah made his initial court appearance in district court Monday morning accused of murder, attempted murder and burglary. Family members of the suspect accused of killing a woman and stabbing her husband and their 2 year-old daughter says there is a connection between the two families. The suspect’s brother says he is afraid for the safety of their family and is shocked by the turn of events. “Defense is in receipt of the complaints of these matters,” Sigrah’s defense attorney said. Sigrah is accused of entering this McCully apartment around 4:00am Saturday, and attacking a family with a large kitchen knife. 27 year-old Lyola Mesebeluu died at the Queens Medical Center a few hours later, her husband remains hospitalized and their 2 year-old daughter was treated and released.
"I just cant imagine him doing something like that cause I just cant see it,” Sigrah’s brother said, (he requested his name not to be used for safety reasons).
“I was just scared I don't know what is going to happen to my family now. I mean I don't know if any body is going to come and do something like that to any of us in my family for revenge,” Sigrah’s brother said.
According to police their appeared to be no known relation between Sigrah and the Mesebeluu's but Sigrah's brother makes a shocking revelation. “The family he broke into I actually knew the guy. I knew him from another friend we all used to hang out from work just we just party together,” Sigrah said.
It is not known whether Sigrah knew the victims, but his family says they are distraught by what happened.“I just want to apologize to the family you know I just want to say that I would never want that to happen to anybody. I have a kid too she is what she is going to be a year in a couple weeks and for a family to loose a mother it just hurts,” Sigrah’s brother said. Sigrah's family says Sato is a good kid he had hopes of going into the military and wanted to have a family of his own someday. “We was always raised in the right way to not do drugs you know stay away from gangs,” Sigrah’s brother said. Sigrah remains in police custody in lieu of $500,000 bail; his preliminary hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.

Indicted Keith A. Baskerville, the sole survivor in the crash that also killed his accomplice, Lutchman L. Chandler, the prosecutor said. Baskerville, who was critically injured in the crash, remains hospitalized but has been moved out of intensive care, he said. Baskerville was charged last week with carjacking and abducting Bosworth with the intention of extorting money. The investigation shows that Baskerville appears to have been a passenger when the car crashed, but Commowealth's Attorney Paul B. Ebert said the murder charge against him was warranted. He said felony murder is defined as the "unintentional killing of another" while committing a felony. "The commonwealth's position would be that they were accomplices and that they shared a community of criminal intent," Ebert said at a news conference today. "As a result, they are bound by each other's actions. The fact that [Baskerville] . . . may or may not have been the driver, in my judgment, won't make any difference. . . . This is a rather unusual case. Of course, it's a very tragic case."
Bosworth was abducted Sept. 13 while on a shopping trip at the mall. A videotape from a camera in a parking garage shows the two suspects with her at her car. It is not yet known if she was abducted inside the mall or as she walked to her car.
The carjackers then drove Bosworth in her red Saturn to a PDQ Mart 18 miles away in Prince William, where they tried to use her ATM card to withdraw money. After arousing suspicion there, the men left the store with Bosworth and crashed the car while fleeing the area. While in the store, police said a man thought the three looked suspicious together and feared that Bosworth was in trouble. The man, pretending to know her, walked up and embraced her, asking in a whisper if she was all right, police said. Bosworth said she needed help.
At the news conference, Prince William Police Chief Charlie T. Deane said the bystander did the right thing given the situation. "I think he did everything he could do," Deane said. Baskerville is due in circuit court on the murder charge Oct. 16, Ebert said.

Jonathan Sanders,is accused of shooting Dwayne Graham in the head on March 30, 2007. Graham was rushed to Boston Medical Center where he died of his injuries one day later. The late afternoon shooting stunned the city and led the MBTA to accelerate the installation of security cameras on hundreds of buses, including those used for the Route 23 line.Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley and Police Commissioner Edward Davis jointly applauded the arrest in a statement."Today’s announcement is a testament to the fact the investigators and prosecutors will not rest until justice is secured for homicide victims and their surviving loved ones,'' Davis said.
Conley said the charges grew out of an investigation that began when Graham was shot and was done with the assistance of Transit Police detectives.“Though more than a year has passed, we never abandoned our shared efforts to find justice for Dwayne Graham and his loved ones,'' Conley said.In a statement, Acting Transit Police Chief Paul MacMillan said “public transit users should be assured that all law enforcement agencies will continue to work together to ensure their safety.’’
Graham had five brothers and was a senior at McKinley High School in Dorchester.
A motive for the killing was not identified by authorities.

Karthik Rajaram wrote that he saw two ways out. The first, he said in a suicide letter, was to simply kill himself. He instead chose the second, which he felt was more honorable, and killed five family members first, police said. The 45-year-old unemployed financial manager, despondent over extreme money problems, was found dead with a gun in his hand by police officers in his two-story house in an upscale gated community, authorities said Monday. He had shot and killed his wife, three children, mother-in-law and then himself in the home in the Porter Ranch area of the San Fernando Valley. Investigators found two suicide letters and a will, and determined that Rajaram once worked for a major accounting firm and was at least the part-owner of a financial holding company, Deputy Police Chief Michel Moore said. Rajaram wrote in his suicide letter that he felt he had two options — to just kill himself or to kill himself and his family — and decided the second option was more honorable, Moore said. "The source of it appears to be a financial state, a crisis if you will, that this man became embroiled in that has unfolded over the past weeks," Moore said. The bodies were found when officers checked the home Monday morning after the wife failed to show up at a neighbor's home to go to work as a pharmacy bookkeeper, Moore said. Officers found the mother-in-law, Indra Ramasesham, 69, dead in bed on the first floor. Upstairs, they found a 19-year-old son, Krishna Rajaram, dead in bed in the master bedroom. The gunman's 39-year-old wife, Subasri, was found in another room, also apparently shot while sleeping, Moore said. In an adjoining room, a 12-year-old son, Ganesha, was dead on the floor, and his 7-year-old brother, Arjuna, was dead in bed. Their father's body also was found there with a handgun "in his grasp," Moore said. The gun was purchased Sept. 16. Coroner's assistant chief Ed Winter said the victims were shot multiple times. The killings occurred some time between midnight Saturday and early Monday morning, Winter said

Harrell Johnson kick little Erica Green in the head dumped the girl's decapitated body in a wooded area of Kansas City.A police officer found Erica's naked, headless naked body in April 2001. Lacking an identity, she was known only as "Precious Doe" until 2005, when a community activist received a tip Harrell Johnson's grandfather in Muskogee, Okla., where the couple lived.Harrell Johnson's trial began Monday in Jackson County Circuit Court, and prosecutors completed their presentation Tuesday with Michelle Johnson's testimony and a videotaped confession by the 29-year-old defendant.The defense also rested, without calling any witnesses, and closing arguments are expected Wednesday. The defense admits that Harrell Johnson kicked the girl, but contends that the act was not premeditated, as required for a first-degree murder conviction.Michelle Johnson, 33, who pleaded guilty last year to second-degree murder, spent nearly two hours on the stand Tuesday. She held back tears at times as she described the hours that led up to her daughter's death.She testified that Harrell Johnson — her boyfriend at the time — was high on drugs when he kicked Erica at a Kansas City home where they were staying. She said she watched helplessly as her daughter dropped to the floor."He just picked up his feet and kicked her on the side of the face. I said, 'What the (expletive) did you do?' It shook him out of his high," Johnson said, rising from the witness chair and lifting her temporarily unshackled foot to demonstrate.Johnson said she put her daughter in a cold bath hoping to revive her, then placed the unresponsive child on the bedroom floor.
The couple did not seek medical help for the girl for fear of being arrested on outstanding warrants, Michelle Johnson testified."We wasn't going to get it," she said. "Because we both was on the run from police."She said Erica lay on the bedroom floor for what seemed like days, although Harrell Johnson contends it was hours. She said she knew that Erica would die if they didn't get her to a hospital.
"I was on the floor with her. I was singing her favorite song to her, which was a Barney song," Michelle Johnson told the jury. "I kissed her. I was asking God to let my daughter live and to take me."After Erica took her last breath, the couple waited until night to dispose of the body so that neighbors wouldn't see them, Michelle Johnson said.When Harrell Johnson's grandfather came forward with the tip in 2005, the couple were in custody in Oklahoma on charges unrelated to Erica's death.
Kansas City detective Danny Phillips testified Tuesday that he and other officers interviewed the Johnsons in Oklahoma and that the couple admitted their role in the child's death.In the videotape of Harrell Johnson's statement to police in 2005, he was emotional as he described how he grabbed Erica by the shoulder and kicked her after she ignored his repeated orders for her to go to bed. He said the girl's head hit the floor.Prosecutors contend that the Johnsons committed murder by failing to seek medical help as Erica lay dying. A pediatric neurosurgeon testified Monday that if the couple had quickly sought medical attention for Erica, doctors probably could have reversed the damage.If convicted of first-degree murder, Harrell Johnson's only possible sentence would be life in prison without parole. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty, partly because Johnson agreed to withdraw his request to have the case moved out of Kansas City.

Skylar Deleon, the former actor on trial for murder by drowning an Arizona couple to steal their yacht. Jury selection in the Skylar Deleon murder trial began this week in Santa Ana, California. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in the case. The former actor is also accused of murdering someone in 2003.Skylar Deleon is 29 years old. He has worked as a television actor, appearing in one episode of “The Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers” as Roger in 1994.As prosecutors tell the story, Deleon met with Thomas and Jackie Hanks in 2004, pretending to be interested in their 55-foot yacht. Once aboard, he asked them to sign ownership of the boat over, before tying them to an anchor and throwing it overboard. The couple, whose bodies still have not been found, was from Arizona. He is also accused of destroying several pieces of the couple’s memorabilia, including a homemade family tree and a retirement plaque.Deleon has been awaiting trial for this matter for quite some time. In July 2008, he was found in his cell attempting to slice off his penis with a razorblade. After being rushed to the hospital, doctors saved attachment of the organ.
In 2006, Deleon’s ex-wife, Jennifer Deleon Henderson, was convicted for taking part in the murder plot. She was sentenced to two life sentences.Deleon is accused of killing the Arizona couple, Tom and Jackie Hawks, in 2004 in order to steal their yacht, and killing another man he took thousands of dollars from in 2003. He has pleaded not guilty to murder and murder for financial gain.The defense strategy stunned Ryan Hawks, the 32-year-old son of Tom Hawks, who came to hear testimony.
"I was blown away," Ryan Hawks said. "Thank God I was sitting down."Pohlson said outside court that he told jurors Deleon was guilty to maintain his credibility when he argues they should preserve his client's life. Orange County prosecutor Matt Murphy said he wasn't surprised by the strategy but declined to elaborate.
Earlier, Murphy told jurors the couple took a cruise off Southern California thinking they were showing off their yacht, the Well Deserved, to an interested buyer and ended up pleading to be spared.
"The evidence is going to show that is how Tom and Jackie Hawks died, begging for their lives," Murphy said. "The evidence is going to show Jackie Hawks was crying and saying ... I have a grandchild. Please don't kill me."
The prosecutor graphically described the killings."Skylar threw the anchor overboard, the rope goes taut and it rips Tom and Jackie Hawks off that (boat)," he said.Deleon, 29, is a former child actor who allegedly boasted that he was a star on the "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" but apparently only had a small part in one episode.Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Deleon, who they say drafted a plan to kill the Hawkses after learning they were planning to sell their 55-foot yacht in November 2004 to spend more time with their baby grandson.
They say Deleon feigned interest in buying the nearly half-million-dollar yacht, then enlisted the help of two men to overpower the Hawkses on the cruise before forcing them to sign over paperwork for the yacht and killing them.Murphy took jurors on a step-by-step outline of how the case unfolded after the Hawkses disappeared and family and friends began to frantically search for them around Newport Harbor, where they docked their boat.Murphy said Deleon and his former wife, Jennifer Henderson, were a young couple saddled in debt and living in a converted garage, and had a bank account with only $2,619 two days before Deleon took the test cruise.Henderson was convicted in 2006 of murder and murder for financial gain for her role in the deaths and was sentenced to two terms of life in prison without parole. Three other men have pleaded not guilty to murder and murder for financial gain and have yet to stand trial. One is expected to testify in Deleon's case.
The jury will also consider the separate murder charge in the death of a man Deleon met in a work furlough program in 2003 while serving jail time for burglary. Murphy said Deleon got $50,000 from John Jarvi, then drove down to Mexico and slashed his throat and dumped his body before coming back.

Frank Siganoff faces felony charges of murder, arson and causing a fatal explosion, after a Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Tuesday found sufficient evidence for a trial. Prosecutors say they have not decided whether to pursue the death penalty against the 25-year-old. Police say Siganoff threw a Molotov cocktail into the business of 57-year-old Rose Marco on Sept. 3, 2007, killing the fortuneteller. They say the attack was prompted by a dispute between two Gypsy families. Siganoff surrendered in April in Phoenix after his case was featured on the television show "America's Most Wanted." His arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 21.

Waldemar Rivera, accused of a fatal prison beating of the man convicted of killing Rivera's cousin in 2006. Rivera, 29, instead will be charged with manslaughter in the May death of Kevin Cales, prosecutor Herbert Carlson said in Superior Court in Hartford Tuesday."We feel we could not prove intent to cause death, so we could not proceed with murder," Carlson told Judge David Gold.Cales had been serving a 79-year sentence for manslaughter for his role in a deadly car chase that killed Maryneliz Jimenez, 21, and four of her friends in a crash on the Chamberlain Highway in Berlin on May 27, 2006. Cales had chased Jimenez, his ex-girlfriend, at speeds as high as 120 mph. Jimenez lost control of the car, which crashed into a small patch of trees. All five were pronounced dead at the scene.Cales had served less then two months of his sentence when he was killed.Court records show that Rivera, serving time for robbery at McDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield, was watching television news with fellow prison inmates earlier this year when he learned that his cousin had died in the crash. Convicted of manslaughter in the case, Cales in April was sent to McDougall-Walker and put in the same 114-man cellblock as Rivera.
There, Rivera threatened Cales and warned him to seek transfer to another block, court records say.On May 13, Rivera knocked Cales to the floor and stomped on his head while the two were in the lunchroom, according to accounts by prison staff in an arrest-warrant affidavit. Cales died hours later at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford. The attack was captured on the prison's surveillance system.Rivera originally was charged with murder and first-degree assault. His next court date is scheduled for Nov. 13.

Kentucky State Police and U.S. Marshals are searching for a Simpson County Sheriff's Deputy wanted for murder, and they believe he may be in the Louisville area. We're told 41-year-old Randall Creek is considered armed and "very" dangerous. Police say he could be carrying a shotgun and a handgun. A witness told state police that Creek shot and killed his former girlfriend, 46-year-old Debbie Rediess, outside her home in Smith Grove, Kentucky about 8 a.m. Sunday morning. Creek, who is 6-foot-2 and weighs 220 pounds, was last seen wearing black fatigues and boots.

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