From his childhood, Charles Cullen was surrounded by death. His dad died while driving a bus when Cullen was seven months old. Four of his eight siblings died in their childhood. When he was seventeen, his mom died in a car accident.

A miserable child, Cullen attempted to commit suicide twenty times in the course of twenty years. Nothing like an annual tradition. The first occurred at the age of nine, when Cullen drank chemicals from his chemistry set. From there, the attempts got more creative, ranging from stealing drugs from the hospital in which he worked, to plunging a pair of scissors through his sick, twisted skull.

Charles Cullen was discharged from the Navy after trying to kill himself. Cullen was discharged from several hospitals for trying to kill himself (and others, as it would turn out later). He was discharged from his family for, once again, trying to kill himself. Cullen was overall a suicidal maniac who wished for others to feel the pain that he felt, but also be free.

Here’s a direct quote from Cullen’s (accurate. I checked) Wikipedia entry: In March 1993, [Cullen] broke into a co-worker’s home while she and her young son slept, but left without waking them. Cullen then started phoning her frequently, leaving numerous messages and following her at work and around town. The woman filed a complaint, and Cullen pleaded guilty to trespassing and was placed on a year’s probation. The day after his arrest, Cullen attempted suicide. He took two months off work, and was treated for depression in two psychiatric facilities. He attempted suicide two more times before the end of the year.

Insanity-pleading worthy? Yes, I think so. But that won’t save Charles Cullen from eternal death in the fiery pits of hell when he dies, now, will it? No, I think not.

Digoxin was Cullen’s weapon of choice. He used it to effectively murder five patients in 1996, and then the hospital bouncing began.

Warren Hospital in New Jersey from 1992 to 1993. Hunterdon Medical Center from 1993 to 1996. Morris Memorial Hospital in 1997. Liberty Nursing and Rehabilitation Center (ironic?) in Pennsylvania from 1997 to 1998. Easton Hospital from 1998 to 1999. Lehigh Valley Hospital in Pennsylvania in 1999. St. Luke’s Hospital from 1999 to 2000. Somerset Medical Center from 2002 to 2003.

In every one of those places, deaths occurred. At all of those job placement instances, Cullen tried to kill himself. And at every one of those occupations, Cullen was present in the room during a good 75% of the deaths. Odd, isn’t it?

Cullen was arrested on one count of murder and one count of attempted murder at a restaurant December 14, 2003. On December 14, 2003, Cullen admitted to the murder of Rev. Florian Gall and the attempted murder of Tin Kyushu Han, both patients at Somerset.

In April of 2004, Cullen pleaded guilty to murdering thirteen patients and attempting to kill two others by his own crude form of “lethal injection”. As part of a plea bargain, Charles Cullen promised to cooperate with the authorities if they were willing to not give him the death penalty. Twenty suicides attempts later, could Cullen be a changed man? Or does he wish to die at his own hand?

In May of that same year, Cullen pleaded guilty to the silent murders of three more patients. In November, Cullen pleaded guilty as the responsible party in the deaths of six patients and attempting to kill three more.

As of July 2005, Cullen remains in the Somerset County Jail as local and federal authorities continue to investigate the definite possibility of his responsibility for numerous other deaths.
As per the news, Cullen is serving a sentence of life in prison without parole for 30 years, to be served consecutively with his other sentences in Pennsylvania. On March 2, 2006, Cullen was sentenced to 11 consecutive life sentences in New Jersey, to be ineligible for parole for 397 years. Charles Cullen is held at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton.

But what makes Paul Warner Powell stand out from all the other scumbags that get written up here on PYSIH? Well, Paul Powell is incredibly stupid. I’m not just talking two plus two equals five stupid here, I’m talking stuck his hand in the lawnmower, shot himself while cleaning his gun, Darwin Award winning stupid.

But before we get to Paul Warner Powell’s lack of brain power, I will have to tell you a story that will get very dark and seriously disturbing. Unfortunately it’s a necessary part of the process that you, the reader, know everything Powell did and all that’s transpired during the past ten years in order for you to appreciate his ultimate fate.

First, a little background information on the principles. In 1999 Paul Warner Powell was a 20-year-old unemployed day laborer serving a suspended sentence for petty theft. He’d taken a plea deal after being busted for burglary in 1998. This was his latests arrest in a criminal history that began with no less than thirteen convictions as a juvenile:

* Nov. 30, 1992: 18 days, Prince William County Juvenile Detention Home

* Dec. 30, 1992: 21 days, Prince William County Juvenile Detention Home

* Jan. 31, 1993: 65 days, Prince William County Juvenile Detention Home

* April 5, 1993: 10 days, Prince William County Juvenile Detention Home

* April 15, 1993: 66 days, Department of Youth and Family Services

* Sept. 29, 1993: 56 days, Prince William County Juvenile Detention Home

* Oct. 20, 1993: Two days, DeJarnette Center

* Dec. 6, 1993: 45 days, Prince William County Juvenile Detention Home

* Jan. 19, 1994: 89 days, Springwood Psychiatric Unit, Acute Care

* April 4, 1994: 44 days, Springwood Academy

* Jan. 1, 1995: 46 days, Prince William County Juvenile Detention Home

* April 17, 1995: 81 days, Beaumont Juvenile Correctional Center

* July 7, 1995: Eight days, Harriet Tubman House

Paul Warner Powell’s adult record began on May 19, 1997, when he was caught speeding 70 mph in a 55 mph zone. He was arrested thirteen (there’s that number again) more times for charges including possession of drug paraphernalia, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, breaking and entering, trespassing, grand larceny and writing a bad check.

Stacey Lynn Reed, 16, and Kristie Erin Reed, 14, were sisters and acquaintances of Paul Warner Powell. They lived, together with their parents, in a small brick house in the town of Manassas, Virginia. It was known that Powell wanted to date Stacey Reed, but was afraid he’d get himself in trouble for if he got into a relationship with an underaged girl.

Paul Warner Powell, a self-avowed “racist and white supremacist,” found out that Stacey, who was white, was dating Sean Wilkerson, who is black. This did not please Paul Powell at all. In fact, he became quite angry about it and decided to do something about it.

Stacey got home from school on January 29th, 1999 at about noon, and found Paul Warner Powell waiting for her. They began to argue, but Powell left when he heard that a friend of the family, Robert Culver, would arrive there soon for lunch. He returned shortly with two knives and a nine-millimeter semiautomatic pistol, waited for Culver to go back to work, and barged in on Stacey as she was talking to none other than Sean Wilkerson on the telephone.

When Stacey got off the phone, Paul Warner Powell made a pass at her, but she rebuffed him, telling him she had a boyfriend. This must have truly pissed him off, being rejected in favor of a Black kid, so he slammed Stacey to the floor, pinned her down and told her he was going to rape her.

Stacey began to fight and claw at Paul Warner Powell’s face. He had his knife out now, and told her if she continued to fight he would kill her. When she tried to leave the room, he stabbed her twice in the chest.

She stumbled into her sister Kristie’s room and collapsed to the floor, dying – Powell’s blade had severed her aorta. I guess she didn’t die fast enough for Paul Warner Powell, because he stomped on her neck with his boot several times until she stopped breathing.

Then he went and got himself a glass of iced tea.

Some time later, Kristie Reed arrived home to find Paul Warner Powell lying on her couch sipping iced tea. She asked Powell “where Stacey was.” He replied, “she was in her room.” Kristie walked to Stacey’s room, but Stacey was not there. Then, Kristie turned to enter her own room and saw Stacey’s body lying on the floor.

Powell, who had followed Kristie to the bedroom, ordered Kristie to go downstairs to the basement, where he ordered her to remove her clothes. She took her clothes off because she “didn’t want to die.” Powell told Kristie to lay on the floor, and then he raped her.

After Paul Warner Powell raped Kristie, he dressed himself, and, using shoelaces taken from Kristie’s shoes, tied her feet together. He also used shoelaces to tie her arms behind her back. Someone knocked on the door to the house, and Powell went upstairs, leaving Kristie naked and bound on the basement floor.

A few minutes later, Powell came back downstairs. Without saying a word, he put his hands around Kristie’s throat and strangled her until she was unconscious. Next he stabbed her in the stomach, the knife stopping within a centimeter of her aorta. He slashed her in her neck and stabbed her in the abdomen numerous times.

When he thought she was dead, he climbed those basement stairs one more time, so he could search the house for valuables. The last thing Paul Warner Powell did after his orgy of rape, violence and murder was to grab himself another glass of that yummy iced tea.

Paul Warner Powell and a friend drove to Washington, where they bought some drugs. Then they went to his friend’s girlfriend’s house, got some beer and ordered a pizza. I suppose you must work up quite an appetite after a long day committing murder and rape.

Kristie had multiple stab wounds to her neck and abdomen. She also had wounds on her wrists. The repair of the knife wounds to her neck alone required 61 sutures. But somehow through the grace of God, Kristie Reed lived.

Before Kristie went into surgery, she ID’d Paul Warner Powell as her attacker. Police officers arrested him on January 30, 1999 at his girlfriend’s house, still waiting for that pizza he and his buddy had ordered but would never come.

Now this is important. During interrogation, Paul Warner Powell admitted immediately to the murder of Stacey Reed. But he never told police the he attempted to sexually assault her. At first, he even denied raping Kristie, but during a second interview he finally confessed. He also told police that he had been at the Reed home that day to tell Stacey to stop seeing Sean Wilkerson, that they had argued, there was a struggle, and Stacey got stabbed during that struggle.

Paul Warner Powell was charged with Capital Murder, Attempted Capital Murder, Rape, Robbery, Attempted Robbery, and Use Of A Firearm. His trial was held in the Spring of 2000. Because the prosecution considered the murder of Stacey and the rape of Kristie as one continuous crime, Powell was eligible for the Death Penalty.

This seemingly obvious concept would come back to haunt prosecutors later.

On May 6th, 2000, a jury found Paul Warner Powell guilty on all charges. He was sentenced to death on August 10th, and sent to death row to await his execution. This should have been the end of the story.

It wasn’t.

On April 20th, 2001, The Virginia Supreme Court overturned Paul Powell’s conviction for Capital Murder, citing several trial errors (click here to view the judgment). The most important of those errors appear to be these two;

1. The verdict form was confusing and didn’t make it clear that jurors had the option of sentencing Paul Warner Powell to life in prison. This was a problem with all Death Penalty cases in Virginia at this time.

2. Jurors convicted Paul Warner Powell of capital murder because prosecutors considered Stacie’s slaying and the rape of her sister to be part of the same criminal enterprise. The court ruled that the rape would have had to occur before or during the murder to elevate the charge to a capital case. Of course, the court didn’t know that he lied to investigators when he told them he didn’t attempt to rape Stacey, or that Stacey was actually murdered when she resisted his attempt to rape her.

The court affirmed Paul Warner Powell’s convictions for abduction, rape, attempted capital murder, and grand larceny for the attack. His case was sent back to Prince William County Circuit Court for a new trial, in which Powell would be retried on first-degree murder charges and wouldn’t be eligible for the Death Penalty.

It looked like Paul Warner Powell was going to slip out of the hangman’s noose. That wasn’t right, because he deserved to die for what he did to Stacey and Kristie.

So remember how I told you all at the beginning of this story that Paul Warner Powell is incredibly stupid? Well, now is the time when his complete lack of common sense and intelligence really gets to shine.

Knowing that his “cleverness” has allowed him beat a Death Penalty rap, he couldn’t help himself from telling someone! He sent this letter to one of his ex-girlfriends:

“About when you asked me why I wouldn’t do to you what I did to Stacie, I couldn’t ever hurt you because you mean to much to me. See Stacie didn’t mean anything to me. She was a nigger lover and some of her wannabe skin head friends were supposed to kill me. That’s part of the reason why she died. Almost everything that happened in that house was planned. The only thing that wasn’t planned was trying to fuck Kristie. What was supposed to happen was, Stacie was supposed to die, and did, Kristie was supposed to die and then I was going to wait for their mom and stepdad to get home and I was going to kill them and then I was going to take their mom struck and then I was gonna go to North Carolina and knock this dude off that stole all of my clothes and everything else I owned. I had been thinking about doing it for along time but I could never bring myself to do it. I don’t know what happened to make me finally do it. I feel bad for doing it. Stacie was a good kid.”

That was pretty stupid, to send this letter, what with the new trial coming up and all. But this was nothing compared to the next bonehead move he made.

Like a lot of people do when they finally defeat their main adversary, Paul Warner Powell wanted to gloat. He really wanted to rub the face of the Commonwealth’s Attorney of Prince William County, Paul Ebert, in dog shit. So Powell took paper and pen in hand, and he began to write. And when he was finished, he put the paper containing what he had written into an envelope, sealed the envelope, placed a stamp on it, and mailed it off to Mr. Ebert.

When Paul Ebert, the Commonwealth’s Attorney of Prince William County, opened Paul Warner Powell’s letter and began to read it, I can only imagine the emotions he must have been feeling as his eyes moved down the page…

“Mr. Ebert,

“Since I have already been indicted on first degree murder and the Va. Supreme Court said that I can’t be charged with capital murder again, I figured I would tell you the rest of what happened on Jan. 29, 1999, to show you how stupid all of y’all mother fuckers are.

“Y’all should have known that there is more to the story than what I told by what I said. You had it in writing that I planned to kill the whole family. Since I planned to kill the whole family, why would I have fought with Stacie before killing her? She had no idea I was planning to kill everybody and talked and carried on like usual, so I could’ve stabbed her up at any time because she was unsuspecting.

“I had other plans for her before she died. You know I came back to the house after Bobby’s lunch break was over and he had went back to work. When I got back, she was on the phone so I went inside and I laid down on the couch. When the cab came to bring me my pager, I ran out of the house and she jumped and got off the phone and came off the porch to see why I ran out of the house like I did.

“When the cab left we went in the house. I laid on the couch again and she went to her room and got her clothes and went downstairs to do her laundry. When she went downstairs, I got up and shut and locked the back door and went downstairs. We talked while she put her clothes in the wash. We continued talking when she had everything in the wash and I reached over and touched her tit and asked if she wanted to fuck. She said no, because she had a boyfriend.

“I started arguing with her because she had never turned anybody down because of having a boyfriend.

“We started walking upstairs, arguing the whole time. When we got upstairs we went to her room and she turned the radio off. After she turned the radio off I pushed her onto her bed and grabbed her wrists and pinned her hands down by her head and sat on top of her. I told her that all I wanted to do was fuck her and then I would leave and that we could do it the easy way or the hard way.

“She said she would fuck me so I got up. After I got up, she got up and started fighting with me and clawed me face. We wrestled around a little and then I slammed her to the floor. When she hit the floor I sat on top of her and pinned her hands down again. She said she would fuck me and I told her that if she tried fighting with me again, I would kill her.

“When I got up she stood up and kept asking me why I was doing this and all I kept saying is take your clothes off. Finally she undid her pants and pulled them down to her ankles. She was getting ready to take them the rest of the way off and the phone rang. When she heard the phone she pulled her pants back up and said she had to answer the phone. I pushed her back and said no. She said that she wouldn’t say anything about me being there and I told her no and to take her clothes off.

“She tried to get out of the room again and I pushed her back and pulled out my knife. I guess she thought I was just trying to scare her and that I wouldn’t really stab her because she tried to leave again.

“When she got to me and tried to squeeze between me and the door jam I stabbed her. When I stabbed her, she fell back against the door jam and just looked at me with a shocked look on her face.

“When I pulled the knife out she stumbled a couple steps and fell in her sister’s room. I walked over and looked at her. I saw that she was still breathing so I stepped over her body and into the bedroom. Then I put my foot on her throat and stepped up so she couldn’t breath. Then I stepped down and started stomping on her throat. Then I stepped back onto her throat and moved up and down putting more pressure to make it harder to breathe.

“When I didn’t see her breathing anymore, I left the room and got some iced tea and sat on the couch and smoked a cigarette. You know the rest of what happened after that point.

“I would like to thank you for saving my life. I know you’re probably wondering how you saved my life, so I’ll tell you.

“You saved my life by fucking up. There were 2 main fuck-ups you made that saved me. The first was the way you worded my capital murder indictment. The second was the comment you made in your closing argument when you said we won’t know because he won’t tell us.

“One more time, thank you! Now y’all know everything that happened in that house at 8023 McLean St. on Jan. 29, 1999.

“I guess I forgot to mention these events when I was being questioned. Ha Ha! Sike!

“I knew what y’all would be able to prove in court, so I told you what you already knew. Stacey was dead and no one else was in the house so I knew ya’ll would never know everything she went through unless she came back to life.

“Since the Supreme Court said I can’t be charged with capital murder again, I can tell you what I just told you because I no longer have to worry about the death penalty. And y’all are supposed to be so goddamn smart. I can’t believe that y’all thought I told you everything.

“Well, it’s too late now. Nothing you can do about it now so fuck you you fat, cocksucking, cumguzzling, gutter slut. I guess I’ll see your bitch ass on Dec. 18 at trial because I’m not pleading to shit. Tell the family to be ready to testify and relive it all again because if I have to suffer for the next 50 or 60 years or however long then they can suffer the torment of reliving what happened for a couple of days.

“I’m gone. Fuck you and anyone like you or that associates with people like you. I almost forgot, fuck your god, too. Jesus knows how to suck a dick real good. Did you teach him?

“Well, die a slow, painful, miserable death. See ya punk.

“Do you just hate yourself for being so stupid and for fuckin’ up and saving me?

“Sincerely,

“Paul Powell.”

Talk about mixed emotions. He must have been torn between the horror of the subject matter and the realization that Paul Warner Powell was one DUMB son of a bitch.

You see, Paul Warner Powell believed that he was permanently ineligible for the Death Penalty as far a the Stacey Reed case was concerned, because of a thing called double jeopardy. And as things stood the way they were at the time he was convicted, yes, he was.

But what Paul Powell didn’t understand was that because his original conviction had been overturned, it was, in legal terms, as if it had never happened. And because they had Powell’s letter, the prosecution had what amounted to a confession to a new crime in their hands. Remember, Powell never told authorities that he had tried to rape Stacey, and that she’d gotten stabbed while trying to resist him.

In other words, he had been convicted in the first trial for something that never really happened – he’d lied to the detectives, and they believed him because they had no reason not to. Now that that conviction had been thrown out, they were free to re-indict Paul Powell on entirely new charges. Charges that made him eligible for the Death Penalty again.

Just to be sure, Paul Ebert sent two detectives to ask Paul Powell if he had sent the taunting letter to Ebert. Not only did Paul Warner Powell confirm that he sent it, but he proudly bragged to them that every fucking word of it was true.

Stupid…

But Paul Warner Powell wasn’t finished yet. Not satisfied with the damaged he thought he had caused, Powell sent a letter to Lorraine Reed, the mother of Stacey and Kristie. Powell enclosed a photograph of a partially nude woman. Powell wrote:

“Lorraine,

“I was wondering if you might be able to help me think of something. I found this picture in a magazine and it kinda looks like someone I know or used to know, but I can’t think of the persons name.I think you know the person too, so I was wondering if you could tell me the name of the person this picture resembles so I can quit racking my brain trying to think of it? I would appreciate it. If you don’t know the person I’m talking about, ask Kristie or Kelly Welch because I know they know who I’m thinking of. If you talk to the person I’m talking about, please give her my address and tell her to write me.”

The partially nude woman shown in the photograph resembled Lorraine Reed’s daughter, Stacey.

Stupid and cruel…

Imagine Paul Warner Powell’s surprise when he found himself on trial for his life again in January of 2003. Mainly because of his own big mouth, Powell was convicted of Capital Murder on January 16th, 2003, and sentenced to death the next day.

After years of delay caused by endless appeals, The United States Supreme Court announced on January 26th, 2010 that it would not hear Paul Powell’s appeal, effectively ensuring his execution will go forward this Spring. As if to hammer home that fact, today Virginia announced Powell’s execution date will be March 18th, 2010.

So ends the saga of Paul Warner Powell, a man who is a legend in his own mind, but an idiot in everyone else’s. He has already selected the electric chair as his mode of execution – another brilliant decision by this undiscovered Rhodes Scholar. Thank God that, for the rest of us, it will surely be his last.

Note: The young girl on the right in the second picture is Kristie Erin Reed, Stacey’s little sister and Paul Warner Powell’s second victim. If you look closely at the left side of her neck, you can still see several scars from Powell’s savage attempt to cut her throat. I personally had a very hard time with this picture – It brought the crime to life and shook me up pretty badly.

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Brought to you by People You’ll See In Hell. The best reason to get a background check that just about anyone can think of.

He has publically announced, at one time or another, the following decrees in the name of God:

Hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment for the United States continuing to support legalized abortion. 1800 dead, including many innocent children, because The Good Lord was upset about the murder of, well, innocent children. Seem to me that someone who’s got it together as well as God does could have come up with a better way to get his message across.

The September 11th terrorist attack was a judgment from God. He was angry with us because of America’s growing acceptance of Gay people and their right to live in this country with the same rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as any other citizen. Apparently, The Big Guy is quite homophobic – according to Reverend Pat that is.

Back in the mid-1990’s, Disney World in Orlando, Florida began the tradition of having a Gay Pride day. Pat announced that God was quite upset about that. He told the world that the Lord came to him in a dream and told him he would send a great hurricane to destroy Orlando Florida and Disney World. Now the last time I looked, both those places are still on the map and no more worse for 15 extra years of wear and tear. Did God lie to Pat Robertson, or was Pat just plain full of shit? – I leave it to you to decide.

In 2007, Robertson said God helped him with another prediction – a bomb attack on the United States. “I’m not necessarily saying it’s going to be nuclear,” he said on the “700 Club” Jan. 2, 2007. “The Lord didn’t say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that.” The following year, Robertson explained the lack of an attack this way, “Somehow the people of God prayed, and God in his mercy spared us.” Or maybe He just forgot – God is a busy God you know.

But today the Reverend Pat Robertson outdid himself.

On Tuesday, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck the island nation of Haiti. Due shoddy construction, many buildings collapsed on their occupants. The latest estimate of casualties is there are over 100,000 dead and many, many more injured. Haiti is one of the poorest countries on the face of the earth, the government is overwhelmed, and there is suffering beyond anyone’s imagination. If these people don’t get help soon, a million dead is a real possibility due to starvation and disease.

Did Pat Robertson encourage the millions of members of his “700 Club” to donate to Haitian relief? Did he ask his large congregation to pray for the survivors? No? Well let’s see exactly what he did say:

“And you know, Kristi, something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it.

“They were under the heel of the French, uh, you know Napoleon the 3rd and whatever, and they got together and swore a pact to the Devil.

“They said, ‘We will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French.’

“True story.

“And so the Devil said, ‘Okay, it’s a deal.’

“And, uh, they kicked the French out, you know, with Haitians revolted and got themselves free.

“But ever since they have been cursed by, by one thing after another, desperately poor.

“That island of Hispaniola is one island. It’s cut down the middle. On the one side is Haiti on the other side is the Dominican Republican.

“Dominican Republic is, is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etcetera.

“Haiti is in desperate poverty.

“Same island.

“They need to have and we need to pray for them a great turning to God and out of this tragedy I’m optimistic something good may come. But right now we’re helping the suffering people and the suffering is unimaginable.”

What Pat is referring to here is a Haitian legend which tells of the leaders of the revolt against the French receiving help from the voodoo gods. I don’t know the details of this legend, but I can tell you it has nothing to do with the actual history of the first successful slave revolt in the Western Hemisphere. But Pat didn’t let the fact that he was paraphrasing a folk legend stop him from ignoring the sacrifices of all the men and women who gave their live so that former Black slaves could live in freedom.

I was very angry when I read this, angry enough to start writing again after taking several weeks off for health reasons. It’s midnight and I’m still writing. I guess I just can’t wrap my mind around the kind of thinking that says I’m a good Christian who loves my fellow man but can tell the world that my God has no problem with wiping out 100,000 people in a few short minutes. Imagine the arrogance it takes to believe you know what is in the mind of God to begin with. And Pat feels no shame as he tells us all that what he’s just described as mass murder could be a great opportunity to sign up a few more believers.

Paul Raushenbush, Religion Editor for the Huffington Post, wrote about Pat Robertson’s comments in his column. I only wish I was able to say it as well as he did:

Go to Hell, Pat Robertson — and the sooner the better. Your ‘theological’ nonsense is revolting. Don’t speak for Haiti, and don’t speak for God. Haiti is suffering a catastrophe and you offer silliness at best, and racism at the worst. Haiti was the first island in the Western hemisphere to overthrow slavery and white oppression — this is what you call a pact with the Devil? God’s heart is breaking with this tragedy, and ours should be too. You never had much credibility — but now it is all gone.

But here’s the thing. I’m wondering why God puts up with this shit. Pat just told the world that the Lord killed 100,000 people over a 200 year old curse. I know for myself, if some clown accused me of killing just one person I’d be mad as hell. I guess you need a lot of patience to be God, and this is why I’m just a man.

[sigh] Thanks for letting me rant a bit tonight, but I’ve never liked Pat Robertson, and today was the last straw. He’s a joke, but he’s a dangerous joke because a lot of lost people searching for direction in their lives look to him for guidance. He should be more careful about what he says and does, but because I believe he’s evil to his core, he’s deliberately leading people in the wrong direction.

To Mr. Raushenbush: We’re going to do our best and see if we can’t accommodate your wish for Pat Robertson to go straight to Hell. We’d love it if you also took this opportunity to use our poll.

UPDATE

My good friend Tito sent in a link to this clip from The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. It’s hysterical no doubt, but the brilliance with which Mr. Stewart gets his message across and stays politically neutral at the same time is something to see.

Thank you John Stewart for taking shots at both the right and the left for trying to use this terrible tragedy to further their respective agendas. There’s no place for politics when people can’t get even basic human needs like food and water.

And Tito, you have no idea how timely and useful this video clip was. Bless your little Hispanic heart for sending us the link. As usual your contributions to the discussion are clever, intelligent, and always to the point.

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Take the case of Dylan Morse.

On Valentine’s Day, 2009, Morse was driving home after attending a Sonoma State University frat party with his best friend, Ryne Spitzer, when he ran a red light and T-boned another car driven by 22-year-old Alexander Ruiz and his girlfriend, 25-year-old Vanessa King.

Ryne Spitzer was seriously injured, and remains paralyzed to this day. Vanessa King was also injured. Alexander Ruiz – art student, musician, lead singer in his own band, a young man who was showing so much promise – was killed, torn from his family in the blink of an eye.

Toxicology reports showed Dylan Morse had a blood-alcohol level of at least 0.15 percent, nearly twice the legal limit for an adult driver, and had marijuana in his system. Investigators discovered Morse and Spitzer were drinking at the fraternity party and bought beer at a grocery store with Morse’s fake ID before the crash.

Dylan Morse was charged with three felonies and three misdemeanor counts, including vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence; driving under the influence causing great bodily injury; driving with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent or higher and causing bodily injury; under-age possession of alcohol; possession of a false driver’s license; and possession of under one ounce of marijuana.

On May 22nd, 2009, Dylan Morse pleaded guilty to all charges – no plea deal, no sentencing agreement. It actually sounded like this kid was going to take responsibility for the life of Alexander Ruiz, and for seriously injuring his own best fried Ryan Spitzer, especially after Sonoma County, California, Judge Kenneth Gnoss threw the book at Dylan and sentenced him to 12-years in prison. According to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, Judge Gnoss seemed to really get the severity of Dylan Morse’s actions:

“Judge Ken Gnoss leveled one of the harshest sentences of the past decade for a fatal DUI, ordering Dylan Morse behind bars for at least 10 years for killing one man and leaving his best friend in a coma.

The sentence followed the recommendation of the county probation department, which said that Morse was “well aware” of the dangers of driving while intoxicated.

“This has been an extremely difficult sentencing decision for this court,” he said.

But, he said, ultimately Morse knew his behavior was illegal and dangerous, having participated in his high school’s “Every 15 Minutes” anti-drunken driving presentation and having driven Spitzer — who had his own DUI arrest several months prior — to a court-mandated class the day before the fatal crash.”

I hear you all out there, “So far, so good, what’s the problem here Max?”

Well, first I need to give you a little background information about this story. Dylan Morse just happens to be the son of Merced County District Attorney Larry Morse. The same Larry Morse who has developed a well deserved reputation in some circles for being extra tough when prosecuting drunk drivers, especially drunk drivers who kill other innocent drivers.

For example, Aubree Hogue received an 11-year sentence after she pleaded guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter and felony drunken driving. She was drunk and driving the wrong way on California Highway 99 when she slammed into an oncoming car carrying four military servicemen, killing two sailors.

To be fair, there are many defense attorneys in Morse’s county who say he isn’t any tougher on drunk drivers than any other Merced County District Attorney has been, and California has been cracking down on DUI’s in general. But it was Larry Morse’s status as District Attorney of a notoriously tough County that figured into Dylan Morse’s harsh sentence.

That’s why the family of Alexander Ruiz was taken totally by surprise when, on October 14th, Judge Kenneth Gnoss announced he would reconsider the 12-year prison sentence he imposed on Dylan Morse.

What he did, called a “Recall Motion”, is rarely done – the last time it was invoked in Sanoma County was back in 2002, when Judge Elliot Daum cut the five-year sentence of a gay man accused of stabbing his boyfriend to three years because the man had AIDS and was not getting sufficient medical treatment in prison.

From what I can tell, the “Recall” provision of the California State Penal Code was created for use in extreme hardship.

Obviously, Michael Ruiz, Alexander’s father, and the rest of the Ruiz family, was very vocal in their objection to any reduction in Dylan Morse’s sentence. According to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat:

Michael Ruiz, Alex Ruiz’s father, said the 12-year, 4-month prison term was a “strong and appropriate” statement that followed sentencing guidelines called for in the law.

Ruiz said it only appears harsh because other judges have chosen to greatly reduce penalties. But he said public sentiment about fatal drunken driving crashes is turning and the original sentence reflects that shift.

“The sentence was not out of bounds by any stretch of the imagination,” said Ruiz, a general contractor by trade. “It’s disappointing to hear he is reconsidering.”

Other DUI victim’s advocates and even members of the general public were also angered by Judge Gnoss’ revisiting of Morse’s Sentence:

Lynn Darst of Windsor, an advocate with Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said she feared Gnoss was being swayed by letters and other correspondence sent by Morse’s friends and family in Merced County, where Morse’s father, Larry Morse, is district attorney.

A number of letters appeared in The Press Democrat and others were written directly to the judge, she said.

Darst said it was unfortunate Merced County residents didn’t express the same level of concern for Morse’s drinking before the deadly accident occurred and she called on Gnoss to uphold the 12 years.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Darst said. “The judge should follow his original sentencing.”

Do I need to tell any of you the results of Judge Gnoss’s “Recall”? Probably not, right? In this time of justice based on class and a blatant, ‘rub our faces in it’ kind of unfairness, the judge’s decision was a foregone conclusion. What did surprise me was how far he went, and how little anyone seems to care about it.

Most people expected a 4 year reduction in Dylan Morse’s sentence, because the family of Ryne Spitzer supported letting Morse out early. Spitzer was left paralyzed after the crash, but his parents felt that community service would teach Dylan a more positive lesson than a long prison term.

Judge Kenneth Gnoss, citing Dylan Morse’s youth, his willingness to pleas guilty to all the charge, and his clean criminal record, reduced the original 12 year sentence he had imposed on Dylan to three years and four months.

Yes, that’s correct – three years, four months. Ignoring the wishes of both the Ruiz family and the family of Vanessa Coleman, Dylan Morse’s third victim, he lopped nine years off for absolutely no good reason. I think Michael Ruiz, Alexander’s Father, said it best when he told the media:

“I believe that this extreme sentence reduction will make it more difficult for (Morse) to comprehend the magnitude of his crimes and that it will, therefore, likely be even more of a struggle for him to live to his full potential.”

“I believe Judge Gnoss failed Alex, failed Ryne, failed Vanessa, failed Dylan, failed the citizens of Sonoma County, failed us all.”

“The man behind the bench on Wednesday was unrecognizable to me. How does a judge have a thoughtful, coherent justification for a sentence on one day then change that sentence so radically on another day when no facts in the case have changed and then have no explanation whatsoever for this radical change?”

Michael Ruiz was referring to Judge Gnoss’ statement during Dylan Morse’s original sentencing hearing, when he declared he would “not tolerate, not accept this type of crime” and said he wanted to send a strong message to the community.

Well, along with Mr. Ruiz, I’m very curious to know what exactly changed between July, when Dylan Morse was originally sentenced, and when Judge Kenneth Gnoss announced his Recall decision on December 2nd. Let’s see, Dylan didn’t get any younger from July til now, nor did he manage to plead any guiltier than he already had. And as far as I know his criminal record isn’t any cleaner today than it was in July.

Judge Gnoss did not make a statement after resentencing Dylan Morse on December 2nd, nor has he made any comment on how he came to such a highly unusual and controversial decision, but anyone with any kind of intelligence can smell the stench of politics on this case from 1000 yards away. It makes me wonder aloud if Larry Morse was able to put to put any pressure to bear on Judge Gnoss, or what Larry Morse agreed to do to save his son from very long prison term, if anything at all.

Is Merced County DA Larry Morse ultimately responsible for his son’s big break, or did he just bargain for Dylan’s freedom behind the scenes (Larry Morse never made a public comment about Dylan’s case until the resentencing hearing was over, when he expressed relief and gratitude)? Either way, he is now a huge hypocrite at the very least.

What promises were made, what threats were whispered? Who’s career will prosper over the dead body of Alexander Ruiz? And even if nothing underhanded actually happened, doesn’t the appearance of impropriety make this decision unwise at best? How many people’s faith in the justice system has been shattered by what has happened in Sonoma County, California, in the past couple of weeks?

sigh….Perhaps I’ve just gotten extremely cynical in my old age. Maybe Judge Gnoss honestly did have a change of heart and chose to reduce the sentence of Dylan Morse based solely on the best interests of justice.

But Judge Gnoss has to be an intelligent man, he must have realized that to come to such a drastic change of heart, without any explanation whatsoever on how he arrived there, would look terribly suspicious. I guess that didn’t matter.

He also must have known the pain it would have cause the family of Alexander Ruiz. I imagine that, for Michael Ruiz, it must have been very much like the night he found out his son was dead. But that didn’t matter either.

I would dearly love to know what does matter to Judge Kenneth Gnoss, because from where I’m sitting, it has very little, if anything, to do with Justice.

The Pictures Are, From Top to Bottom:

1. Dylan Morse in court
2. Alexander Ruiz
3. Alexander Ruiz and his father, Michael
4. Lydia and Michael Ruiz
5. The Morse Family
6. Alexander Ruiz

Some of you might be wondering why Dylan Morse wasn’t nominated for a one way ticket to hell also. From everything I was able to find out, Dylan appears to have real remorse for what he did. I could be wrong about him, but because he pled guilty to all the charges against him, without any plea deal in place, it made me believe that he deserved the benefit of the doubt.

Only time will tell if my assessment of Dylan Morse is an accurate one. I’d really like to be able to point at this one young man and say, “here’s a person who chose to man up for what he did, and face the consequences of his actions.”

We’ll see, we’ll see.

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On Saturday, December 15th, 2007, four bystanders rescued Michelle Lynn Kehoe, 33, of Coralville, Iowa and her two young sons after she drove her minivan into the icy Iowa River. Kehoe said she lost control of the car when she was distracted by her kids and drifted off the driving surface of the road onto the dirt shoulder.

No one suspected this was really her first attempt to kill herself and the two boys. There would be another, much more successful attempt approximately a year later.

On Sunday, October 26, 2008, Michelle Kehoe loaded Sean and Seth into her Volkswagen Eurovan and left her home in Coralville, Iowa for a trip to visit relatives in Sumner. They would never make it there.

Instead, Michelle Kehoe appeared at Littleton home near a pond owned by the Hook-N-Liner Sportsmen’s Club in a panic, bleeding from a bad cut to her throat. She collapsed on the floor of the home but police found a note which said she was hit in the head by a man after he snuck into the van while they were at a playground and tried to force them to take him to Chicago. Kehoe wrote she attempted to pepper spray him but he overpowered her and knocked her unconscious. When she awoke, Seth was dead and Sean was injured.

When cops located the minivan a short distance away, they found the youngest son, 2-year-old Seth, dead with his throat cut and his 6-year-old brother Sean locked in the car, still alive but with a similar wound. Both boys had their hands and eyes duct taped.

Needless to say, the police were a bit “skeptical” about the Michelle Kehoe’s story, especially after they were able to ask Sean what happened to him and his brother. Here is some testimony from the first day of Michelle Kehoe’s Trial for murdering her son Seth and attempting to murder her other son Sean:

Jurors this morning heard Sean Kehoe describe to Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Deputy Stephen Petersen what he saw when he pulled off the duct tape his mother, Michelle Kehoe, had placed over his eyes before cutting his throat.

“She was hurting my baby brother,” Sean said in a recording played for the jury Thursday morning.

Following the playing of the first part of Petersen’s interview with Sean, two photos Petersen took at Covenant Medical Center in Waterloo were displayed. The first depicted Sean, his face caked in dry blood, a breathing tube in his nose, facing the camera. The second showed the deep cut on the lower right side of his throat.

Various police, fire and medical personnel testified Thursday morning. When first responders found Sean Kehoe alive in his mother’s van last October, they asked him about the first-aid kit they had found nearby.

“He said the first-aid kit was from him trying to help his brother,” Sean Even, a firefighter who responded to the scene with the Jesup Fire Department, said.

But 2-year-old Seth Kehoe was already dead, Even testified.

Iowa State Patrol Trooper Jim Smith talked to Sean Kehoe at the scene. A recording from Smith’s patrol vehicle was played for the jury, though much of it was hard to understand.

“Who hurt your brother?” Smith asked.

“My mom,” Sean replied.

Later, Smith asked Sean who hurt him.

“Your mommy hurt you?” he asked.

“Yes,” Sean replied.

First responders testified that Sean was alert and articulate when speaking with them. However, Smith testified that Sean was often looking past him when he spoke and instead looked at the body of his brother.

Also at Michelle Kehoe’s trial, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Chris Callaway testified about her eventual confession during questioning the day after the murder:

Originally, Kehoe told Callaway that she and the boys were headed to Sumner to see her mother, who was in a nursing home there. They left Coralville around 11:15 a.m. She stopped in Jesup around 12:30 p.m., for snacks and to let the boys burn off some excess energy at the St. Athanasius School playground.

It was there, Kehoe said, the man likely climbed into the back of her van and hid. She said he was in his 50s, with a beard and long, graying hair under a stocking cap. He had two scars on his face and was wearing a trench coat. She didn’t see him until his head popped up in the rearview mirror, she said.

Kehoe eventually ended up at the Hook-N-Liner pond, where she said she tried to fight the man using pepper spray. She hoped to escape, but the man kicked the canister away.

“I was trying, trying, trying to get away,” she wrote. “He’ll have nasty bruises on his shins.”

The man banged her head against the van and knocked her out. When she came to, she was in the back of the vehicle. Her wrists and ankles were bound with duct tape.

She also found the boys injured. Sean was still bleeding. Kehoe tried to administer first aid. Seth’s lips were already purple.

The man came back and assaulted her. He cut her throat and then she blacked out, she said. The next day, she managed to make it to Debra Hinde’s house a quarter-mile up the road. Hinde called 911, and first responders discovered the van.

Kehoe appeared worried in the interview about what family members said during hospital visits.

“When Aunt Colleen was here yesterday, Sean said I was trying to hurt him,” she said. “(I was) trying to stop the bleeding.”

Story Unravels

Callaway told jurors details of the story didn’t match up with the evidence they already had, including a statement from Sean Kehoe that Michelle cut him.

“The mystery assailant, we didn’t think was true,” he said.

He confronted her in the same interview, and she confessed she hurt the boys. She couldn’t say why.

“I want to die. I can’t explain this to anyone. Just kill me,” she wrote.

Kehoe said she intended to kill the boys and herself. She drove them out to the pond and told them she had to take care of something. She then bound Sean with tape and covered his eyes. She chose him first because he was older, she said. She killed Seth next, she wrote.

“I knew they would go up to heaven, and I would go to hell,” she said.

She cut her throat about 5 minutes later. Michelle Kehoe went to the road and curled up in a ball and “waited to finish dying.” In the meantime, Sean had crawled into the van to hide, though Kehoe didn’t see him.

Several family members had gathered at the hospital, though Kehoe declined the offer by Callaway to have them come into her room.

“I don’t want to see anyone, I don’t want to face anyone, once they know I’m not OK,” she said.

On Thursday, October 29th, 2008, Michelle Kehoe was officially charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and child endangerment causing serious injury. To view a copy of the Complaint & Affidavit for all three charges, click on the following three links:

Murder in the First Degree
Attempt to Commit Murder
Child Endangerment Resulting in Serious Injury

On October 28th, 2009. almost exactly one year to the day since Michelle Kehoe slit the throats of her two sons, he trial began. As is usually the case when the prosecution has a defendant cold, and the crime is so unbelievably heinous, Michelle Kehoe had pled insanity.

Her attorneys pointed to the previous attempt at suicide, when Michelle Kehoe drove her minivan into the Iowa River, and to an even earlier attempt when she was growing up. Besides, they argued, what mother in her right mind tries to kill her own children?

Unfortunately for them, and for Michelle Kehoe too, investigators found evidence that she had planned the murder of Sean and Seth almost a month in advance. Part of that evidence was receipts that proved she had bought the duct tape and the knife several weeks before making her move.

The jury didn’t buy the insanity defense. On November 5th, 2009, after only 2 hours of deliberation, Michelle Lynn Kehoe was convicted on all counts:

Coralville mother Michelle Kehoe cried and her family sobbed as a jury found her guilty of first-degree murder in the death last fall of her 2-year-old son in a remote area of northeast Iowa.

Kehoe used a white handkerchief to stem her tears as the jury of eight women and four men also found her guilty of attempted murder and child endangerment causing serious injury to cap the week-long trial.

It took jurors only two hours to come back with the three guilty verdicts against Kehoe, 35, who had been accused of killing her son, Seth, near Littleton on Oct. 28, 2008, and then trying to kill her then 7-year-old son, Sean, before also cutting her own throat. She had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

In a statement read by B.J. Franklin of the Cedar Rapids-based Horizon Survivors Program, the family said the ordeal caused them “a great sadness” and that they did not know the extent of Kehoe’s mental illness.

“This situation has been extremely traumatic for all involved,” Franklin read.

The family said they will now focus their attention on Sean Kehoe.

“There are no winners in this case,” Franklin read. “Lives have been irreparably damaged.”

As the verdict was read, Michelle Kehoe’s husband, Eugene, looked straight ahead and showed no emotion.

Defense attorney Andrea Dryer left the courtroom shortly after the verdict was read and was not immediately available for comment; her office said she would not be in for the rest of the day. Iowa Assistant Attorney General Andy Prosser, who prosecuted the case, said all homicide trials are difficult and “this one had its issues that were very tragic.”

Michelle Kehoe will be sentenced Dec. 15 in Independence; the trial took place in Grundy Center on a change of venue because of pretrial publicity.

Michelle Kehoe and her family seemed to predict the outcome of the short deliberation as they filed back into the courtroom and cried before the jury entered. Eugene Kehoe sat with his hands clasped and looked forward.

In closing arguments earlier in the day, attorneys for both sides argued whether Michelle Kehoe was mentally capable of distinguishing right from wrong at the time of the attacks.

Dryer said there was no contesting what Kehoe had done. However, her mental state at the time of the attacks prevents her from being held accountable, she said.

Dryer also reiterated what defense witnesses testified earlier about Michelle Kehoe’s reasons for attacking her children, attempting to kill herself and blaming it on a fictitious attacker — she would save her children the burden of losing a parent and living with mental illness and they would go to heaven. That was fixed, delusional thinking, Dryer said.

“There is absolutely no reason for this other than what she said,” Dryer said. “She wanted to die, she thought it was right. She thought it was right for the kids, too.”

In his closing, Prosser countered that “thinking it’s right is not the same as losing the capacity to tell right from wrong.”

Legal insanity does not have a cause and effect relationship with Kehoe’s mental illness nor does the incomprehensibility of her acts mean Kehoe is legally insane, Prosser said.

“Failing to comprehend why she did it does not mean she’s legally insane,” he said.

Michelle Kehoe will be automatically be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

This was another story that took me several days to finish, because it was just too difficult to keep my anger in check for more than a hour or two at a clip. People who choose to take their children with them when they commit suicide – especially the ones who fail miserably at their own attempt to end their life – have earned special status in the place in my mind where I store my rage. What gives them the right to take the lives of these children before they’ve even had a chance to start living it? Who are they to make that choice?

I hope Michelle Kehoe spends the rest of her life in abject misery. I hope she never, ever finds the peace she is looking for in this life. Most of all, I hope that life is a long one, full of painful memories of Seth.

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It’s been just over 7 years since Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad were arrested, sleeping in their 1990 Chevrolet Caprice Sedan. The murder weapon the two had used to kill ten people, a Bushmaster .223 rifle was found inside the car, and was later conclusively linked through ballistics to 8 of the 10 shootings, though the eventual conviction that led to Muhammad’s death sentence relates to only a single shooting, that of Dean Harold Meyers, a 53 year-old man who was just pumping his gas.

At the time, in the post 9-11 aftermath of fear and conspiracy, systematic murders by a man named Muhammad and his young disciple added fuel to the fire of religious hatred and disjointed relations that colored the character of national and international decisions. Was Muhammad and the young Malvo a dastardly duo on a mission from Allah?

No, Muhammad was angry at one woman, his ex-wife, who had estranged him from his children. His killing spree, shooting 10 other people and basically scaring the piss out of everyone and anyone living near the Beltway, was his “clever” cover for his plans to murder his ex-wife.

Yeah, this guy killed 10 people, in order to hide the fact that he was going to kill his ex-wife….How does this make sense?

Here’s a list of Muhammad’s victims:

James Martin, age 55, shot and killed, October 2, 2002
Premkumar Walekar, age 54, shot and killed, October 3, 2002
Sarah Ramos, age 34, shot and killed, October 3, 2002
Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, age 25, shot and killed, October 3, 2002
Pascal Charlot, age 72, shot and killed October 3, 2002
Caroline Seawell, age 43, shot and seriously wounded, October 4, 2002
Iran Brown, age 13, shot and seriously wounded, October 7, 2002
Dean Harold Meyers, shot and killed October 9, 2002
Kenneth Bridges, age 53, shot and killed October 11, 2002
Linda Franklin, age 47, shot and killed October 14, 2002
Jeffrey Hopper, age 37, shot and seriously wounded, October 19, 2002
Conrad Johnson, age 35, shot and killed October 22, 2002

Well, soon we won’t have to worry about him. Governor Kaine over in Virginia, whatever your feelings about his politics has stepped out of the way, and barring some rather lofty judicial intervention or some other major event, Muhammad will be executed by lethal injection this evening at 9:00 PM.

John Allen Muhammad, age 48, was pronounced dead a 9:11pm on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009. He was executed by lethal injection at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Virginia. Relatives of his victims, his attorneys, members of the media and official state witnesses watched as Muhammad’s sentence was carried out.

You can bet the fires of hell burned a little brighter the moment Muhammad’s soul arrived.

Note: “The Final Report – The DC Sniper” is from a CNN special report on the sniper attacks. There’s a lot of opinion mixed in with the facts, so don’t let yourself get sidetracked by the producer’s spin on things. I chose to use the videos because it contained the most thorough examination of the facts surrounding Muhammad’s and Malvo’s killing spree.

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Pacheco would beat Jessica’s “favorite son”, 4-year-old Raymond, to get back at Jessica, and Jessica would in turn beat his favorite child, her 5-year-old daughter Alea. The probable cause affidavit said Arrowood had:

“snatched Alea up by her hair, picked her up by her throat one-handed, threw her like a rag doll and wrapped her arms around Alea’s throat.”

The last time she choked her daughter was the day before Pacheco beat Raymond within inches of his life (more on this soon).

The probable cause affidavit also said:

“Alea stopped screaming and turned blue when Jessica began choking her…(Jessica Arrowood) threw Alea across the room.”

Greenwood, Indiana, Police Department Commander Matt Fillenwarth said:

“Alea was Pacheco’s favorite and Arrowood would beat her to get back at him. She would pick the little girl up by her hair, choke her and then throw her around the room.”

The following day, Jesse Pacheco must have been really pissed that Jessica had hurt little Alea, because he retaliated by slamming little Raymond’s head onto the floor so hard, the boy went limp and fell into a coma. Now, being the great mother is, Jessica took Raymond to the hospital, where doctors found numerous injuries on the boy, including a blood clot on his brain, bruising to the left ear, a forehead abrasion and a bite mark on his stomach. She was questioned about abuse, because typically 4 year olds don’t have severe head trauma for no reason. At first, Jessica denied there was any abuse going on, then confessed that both she a Pacheco beat the children.

She also admitted that the beatings had been going on for nearly two years. Two years!

Now to make this case that much more interesting, Raymond was going to day care, Kid Co. Childcare Inc. The day care providers had noticed some bruising on Raymond that didn’t seem quite right, so they turned the mother and boyfriend in for child abuse. Oh, wait, that’s right, if they had done that, maybe Raymond wouldn’t be in a coma right now. They told Jessica that they wouldn’t “report her this time.” This daycare is now under investigation….hmm…can’t figure out why.

When questioned by reporters, an administrator at Kid Co. Childcare Inc. initially denied neglecting the signs of abuse but then, a few minutes later, she changed her tune.

“The police was in on this, CPS was in on this, everything was done. I’m not arguing with you.”

Jesse Pacheco III, 27, was charged on August 10th, 2009, with battery resulting in serious bodily injury to a person younger than 14 on allegations that he beat Raymond Arrowood. On August 14th, Jessica Arrowood, 27, was charged with battery resulting in bodily injury, neglect of a dependent and two counts of strangulation for the alleged abuse of Alea Arrowood.

Jesse Pacheco remained in the Johnson County Jail on Thursday on $60,000 bond. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted on all charges. Jessica Arrowood, who faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted, remained in the Johnson County Jail on $15,000 bond.

This Story Was Written And Submitted By Lost Cause

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Christie Scott, 30, is one of those people. Back on July 8th of this year, she was convicted of setting fire to the bedroom where her six-year-old autistic son, Mason Scott, was sleeping. She and her younger son, Noah, now 5, were outside when first responders arrived at their home in Franklin County, Alabama, but little Mason didn’t survive the blaze. The fire occurred on August 17th, 2007.

But this isn’t your usual mother of an autistic child killing the kid to put him out of his misery or to release herself from the burden of caring for a special needs child. Oh no, this is much worse than that. You see, Christie Scott here figured that as long as she was going to lose a son, she ought to receive something in return. That something was one hundred thousand dollars from an insurance policy she took out on Mason Scott the day before the fire.

I said she was evil, I never said she was smart.

She steadfastly maintained her innocence, but there were other things that pointed to Christie Scott’s guilt. Fire investigators determined the fire began on or around Noah Scott’s bed. Those same investigators also proved Scott disabled the smoke detector in Mason’s room to prevent it from alerting her son to the fire. The victim was sleeping alone in his bedroom; Mason’s younger brother Noah normally slept with his brother, but on the night of the fire he slept with his mom, and both were able to escape the burning home through a window in her bedroom.

In October of 2008, Christie Michelle Scott was indicted on charges of Capital Murder for Financial Gain, Committing Capital Murder During a First-Degree Arson and Committing Capital Murder by Intentionally Killing Someone Younger Than Fourteen. She faced the Death Penalty.

The highlight of the trial was Christie Scott’s decision to testify in her own defense. When asked about why she purchased a $100,000 life insurance policy for both her sons the day before the fire, she responded by saying she wanted to lock in on a low rate:

“When they were 40-year-old men, they would still pay premiums for a 6-year-old and a 4-year-old.”

She also testified that after she had escaped the house with Noah, she ran next door to get help from her neighbors, Jennifer Davidson, and her fiancée, Brian Copeland. She said Davidson called 911 while Copeland went back with Scott to try and rescue Mason. Christie Scott attempted to enter the home by using the keypad for the garage doors:

“My hands were trembling so badly, I was hitting the wrong buttons. I tried myself about six times. I saw Brian put (the code) in twice I know.”

But she’d been caught in a lie. Brian Copeland had testified earlier in the trial for the prosecution, and said that Scott beat on the garage door, but he never saw her attempt to use the key pad, and that he never tried to use the key pad either.

Christie Scott’s defense also tried to minimize Mason Scott’s suffering, insisting that he died of smoke inhalation alone and never felt any pain. That was also proven untrue by the prosecution

Dr. Emily Ward, who performed the autopsy on Mason’s body, testified he died of smoke inhalation AND thermal burns. Ward testified that soot found in the child’s throat and lungs during the autopsy indicates he was alive as the fire began.

Mason was also found on the floor next to the bed, indicating that at some point the boy was awake and tried to escape the flames.

“We don’t think he was alive the whole time the burning was going on, but we don’t know at what point the death occurred.”

After nearly 4 weeks of testimony, and 9 hours of deliberations spread out over three days, the jury of six men and six women finally had their verdict. They found Christie Michelle Scott guilty of all three counts of Capital Murder. The sentencing hearing was an emotional roller coaster that would test the resolve of the strongest members of the jury.

Christie Scott’s husband, Jeremy, cried as he told jurors that he still loves her.

“She doesn’t deserve to get the death penalty.”

Scott’s mother, Kathy Bray, told jurors that executing Scott would reunite a mother and son.

“If you choose to take Christie’s life, you would really do her a favor because she will go to heaven to be with Mason.”

I found this statement particularly annoying – Mrs. Bray seems so sure of herself. I, on the other hand, doubt Christie Scott will see Mason Scott again, unless it’s to explain to him why mommy set him on fire and left him to burn to death. But enough editorializing…

Scott’s father, Donald Bray, also begged for his daughter’s life.

“I know in my heart that Christie didn’t kill Mason, and I know in my heart that Mason is in heaven. Christie doesn’t deserve to die.”

Finally, Christie Scott’s sister, Mitzi Bray, told jurors that Noah prays every night for his mother to come home.

It was just too much for the members of the jury. They returned from their deliberations with a recommendation of Life in Prison without the possibility of parole.

Enter The Honorable Judge Terry Dempsey.

On Wednesday, August 5th, Judge Dempsey exercised his power as trial judge to ignore the recommendation of the jury and sentenced Christie Scott to Death. Here are some excerpts from his sentencing order:

“The capital offense was particularly heinous, atrocious and cruel compared to other capital offenses.

There may be no more painful way for a human to die than by fire. It is not certain whether the victim died from thermal burns or smoke inhalation.

A high carbon monoxide level in the victim’s blood … indicate he was still breathing as he was burning. This would be a horrific death with immense pain for the victim.”

“It is easier to believe that Mason Scott died in his sleep, not knowing of the fire. However, the stark truth is, in all likelihood, that is not the way he died. It is reasonable to assume he died a very painful and terrifying death.

Regardless of the amount of pain suffered by the victim, it is still more heinous, atrocious and cruel when compared to other capital offenses.”

“The Court is a great believer in the jury system and following the jury when at all possible. Killing your own child for money by burning him alive is too much to overcome.

Christie Scott and her supporters were stunned.

It’s a shame that Mason Scott’s entire family forgot about him, and it took a complete stranger, one man with a powerful sense of what is right, to remind that courtroom what real justice is about. This wasn’t really about whether or not Christie Scott deserved the death penalty – she did, of course – this was a question of whether or not someone would have the courage to speak for Mason Scott. It seemed that no one, not his father, not his grandparents, not the jury, was willing or able to do that. Thankfully, Judge Dempsey was – he didn’t forget about Mason and his suffering, and justice for the little six-year-old-boy was finally served.

We couldn’t agree more, Your Honor.

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