On June 29th, 2009, Justin Shine saw a six-year-old girl who lived in the same Hanover Woods apartment complex as his ex-girlfriend. Shine’s ex-girlfriend, Holly Hersh, kicked Shine out of the apartment two weeks prior to the attack after he became hooked on drugs and she found a hypodermic needle in the apartment they shared with her young son, but he broke in over the weekend.

She was riding her pink bicycle when Justin Shine shouted down from the apartment window and asked her if she’d like to see some cute little gerbils. The child knew Justin as the father of a little boy she often played with. Well we all know how much little kids love small furry creatures – the little girl jumped at the chance.

Justin Shine took the girl inside and showed her the family’s pet gerbils. Shine then asked the girl if she’d like to play a game. A very special game.

Justin Shine bound her hands with duct tape, gagged her and shackled her legs. He took a syringe filled with cocaine and injected the drug into her thigh. The little girl immediately felt woozy and lightheaded.

Fortunately for Justin Shine’s intended victim, and unlike so many of the so-called mothers you read about on PYSIH, this young girl’s mom noticed the girl was missing right away and immediately called the Hanover, Massachusetts police. The cops, along with other residents of the apartment complex began an intensive, door-to-door search of the area. Some started knocking on the doors of the complex.

Inside the apartment, Justin Shine heard the knocking, and as it began getting louder, realized he was in big, big trouble. He panicked, made a half-hearted attempt at slicing open his left wrist, cut the tape off the girls hands and shoved her out the back door.

She was soon spotted by rescuers, sans gag but still shackled at the ankles. When she was asked what had happened to her, she pointed to the apartment Justin Shine was in and said, “The man took me.”

Police kicked in the door Justin Shine’s hiding place and found him cowering in the bathroom. Officer David J. Zemotel described the arrest in his report. After he lunged at the cops, he was struck in the head with the gun of one of the officers:

“The suspect was momentarily stunned, as we attempted to place him into custody he began to fight and resist us again.” I continued to yell at the suspect to ‘Stop resisting’ as the fight took us into the master bedroom. Officer Smith, Officer Torino, and I were finally able to subdue the suspect on the floor and place him in handcuffs.”

Inside the apartment, police found the the 6-year-old girl’s pink bike and Barbie helmet, as well as condoms, hypodermic needles, ropes and chains and other sexual bondage items. Looks like Justin Shine was planing to play a very adult version of “Pirates Of The Caribbean” with the kid.

Justin P. Shine was charged with kidnapping, attempted rape, assault and battery, and resisting arrest. During a hearing to decide if Shine was an danger to society and should not be granted bail, Assistant Plymouth County District Attorney Sharon Donatelle called the girl’s abduction a “deliberate, premeditated act” and asked he remain in jail pending trial:

“He is dangerous because of the trickery and deception he used to lure this girl into his apartment. His choice of weapon in this case was a loaded syringe, a syringe that could have certainly disabled her.”

“Clearly this defendant had an evil attempt to disable her and cause harm to her.”

“His attempt to commit suicide shows that he is certainly mentally unbalanced.’’

Justin Shine’s attorney, William Leonard (The older gentleman pictured above), who has given us one more reason to hate lawyers, asked the court to hold his client on $5,000 cash bail, saying the incident was a “one-time aberration.”

“He’s gone through a lot in the last couple of days and I’m sure it’s knocked some sense into him. If he is released, I’m sure he will not be a threat to anybody.”

Well, maybe he can stay with you, counselor – what do you say?

Hingham District Court Judge Ronald F. Moynahan wasn’t buying that bill of goods. As he ordered Justin Shine held without bail until trial, he had this to say about the defendant:

“I think this man reaps terror on 6-year-old little girls. I have heard enough here to find that Mr. Shine being released would cause a terror to the Commonwealth. I have no hesitance holding him without bail.’’

Justin Shine could be sentenced up to 15 years in prison if convicted on the kidnapping charge alone, and prosecutors say there is probable cause to file additional charges of drugging the girl to kidnap her, drugging her to have sexual intercourse, assault and battery with a hypodermic needle and aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon on a child. If he’s convicted of those charges too, he faces decades more of imprisonment.

It looks like we won’t have to worry about Justin Shine for a very, very long time.

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Little Nixzmary Brown was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy would later reveal that Nixzmary weighed only 36 pounds, about half the weight of a normal girl of her age. She had a gash on her forehead and a huge scab on here chin to go along with the two black eyes. Bruises of all different colors ran up and down her painfully thin frame. There were raw wounds on both her ankles, apparently from being tied to a chair or some other object. The direct cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. She had also been sexually abused.

Police were called to the scene and searched the apartment. They found a fairly clean and well-kept home. Obviously there were other young children living there. Although there were three bedrooms, the three older kids were forced to sleep in a single bedroom, because the radiator in the other bedroom was broken. The two youngest children, 18 months and 6-months old, stayed in the master bedroom with their parents, Nixzaliz Santiago, 27, and Cesar Rodriguez, also 27. The kid’s room was full of all the things you would associate with kids – toys and games were scattered about, cute little outfits hung in the closets.

In the back of the apartment, they noticed a door with a length of rope tied to it’s doorknob. Originally, the family had used this small room as a storage area – the other children called it the “dirty room”.

There weren’t any toys in that room, and there were no cute little outfits. Amongst the Christmas decorations, bicycles and boxes, a lone chair sat in the center of the room, one of those metal torture devices with the hard wooden seat and backrest, like I had when I was in grammar school. Remnants of duct tape and rope hung from it’s frame, and a bungee cord sat on the floor by next to it. A pillow stained with streaks of blood lay off to the side, and a length of rope was tied to the doorknob.

In the corner of the room, police found a litter box – a litter box that had most certainly not been used by a cat, but by a young child. If you click here, you can see pictures of the items found in the “dirty room”.

This was Nixzmary’s room.

Detectives questioned the child’s mother, Cesar was very forthcoming, explaining how, because Nixzmary Brown was an especially difficult child – she was always stealing food and getting into trouble for breaking things around the house. He was forced to take “special measures” in order to keep the unruly child under control.

To punish her, Rodriguez would slap her, throw her to the ground, and whip her with a leather belt, then lock her in the “dirty room” for days with little or no food. When she was allowed to eat, she was forced to choke down cat food. She began sneaking out at night, so he put the littler box in the room and used the length of rope to tie the doorknob to the one across the hall. When that didn’t succeed in keeping her in her make-shift cell, Rodriguez began tying Nixzmary to the chair, wrapping duct tape around her torso and using the bungee cord to secure her ankles to the metal legs.

That night, Rodriguez had been beating Nixzmary for stealing a cup of strawberry Jello pudding and jamming his printer. After he was tired of hitting her, he picked her up and carried her to the bathroom. She cried for her mother, who begged Cesar to stop, but he refused to listen. He turn on the cold water and started dunking Nixzmary’s head in to the ice cold water, banging her head hard on the faucet each time he pulled her out. When he was satisfied he’d tortured the little 7-year-old enough, he threw he down on the floor in her room.

“I probably used all my force. I told her, ‘This is for your own good’”

Nixzaliz Santiago took a quick look at at Nixzmary sprawled naked on a comforter, then went back into the living room. She waited two more hours before she bothered to check her daughter again. By then she was cold to the touch and shivering violently. Santiago took her into the bathroom and let her soak in a warm bath, then dressed he in a red jogging suit and put her to bed. As she went to leave the room, Nixzmary pleaded with her mother, “Mommy, mommy, don’t leave me.” Those were the last words she would ever speak.

Santiago went into the living room and told Cesar Rodriguez that she thought something might be wrong with Nixzmary. Even though he could hear hear gasping for breath, he told Santiago that she was probably faking. At around 4:00 AM, one of the older children woke his parents up to tell them that Nixzmary wasn’t making a noises. Rodriguez discovered she wasn’t breathing. In truth, Nixzmay Brown had been dead almost 7 hours – 7 hours and no one cared enough to check on her. There was no phone in the apartment, so a panicked Nixzaliz Santiago ran upstairs to her neighbor’s apartment to call 911 while Rodriguez tried to perform CPR on the child’s lifeless body.

Cesar Rodriguez and Nixzaliz Santiago were both arrested that day and charged with the murder of Nixzmary Brown, and were locked up at Riker’s Island to await trial. Rodriguez gave a jailhouse interview while he was awaiting trial. Here and some excerpts from that interview:

“I don’t want to say she deserved it, but . . .” Rodriguez said, then reeled off a list of transgressions, most of which would hardly shock the parents of a rambunctious grade-schooler.

He said that Nixzmary could not stop breaking her siblings’ toys and parents’ belongings. She would cut her sister’s hair, steal money from her parents, and steal milk from the baby, he said, and she would also “attack” her siblings while they slept.

“This child was a handful,” he said.

He said that she recently admitted to burning his 6-month-old son, Gabriel, with a cigarette lighter. Mr. Rodriguez recalled beating her for it and asking her, “How could you do this to a helpless little child?”

He said he would lock Nixzmary in her room at night, where she used a litter box to urinate. Sometimes he would bind her to a chair with twine and duct tape.

Mr. Rodriguez said that often after a beating, he would hold her up to a mirror and urge her that it was easier to just behave.

“I would say: ‘Talk to yourself, how do you feel about yourself now? Do you really want to live like this?’ ” he said. “She would say no.”

Nixzmary was losing weight in recent months, he said, because she refused to eat most foods. She weighed 36 pounds when she died.

Mr. Rodriguez added, “If I had to do it all over, I would pressure myself to take her to the precinct and just leave her there.”

Here, he describes the night of Nixzmary’s death:

The last night of Nixzmary’s life, there was tension in the home, he said. Groceries were brought home, and Mr. Rodriguez said he began doling out cups of vanilla-strawberry yogurt, but an extra yogurt remained unaccounted for. After an extensive interrogation of the children, he concluded that Nixzmary had eaten it without permission.

He calmed himself by using his computer but found that his printer was jammed. Nixzmary had jammed it with toys, he said.

Mr. Rodriguez refused to say what he did next. He began sobbing and said that he sees Nixzmary in his mind. “I ask her why she had to put me through so much trouble.”

She won’t be causing anyone trouble anymore, will she Cesar? You asshole.

Cesar Rodriguez was the first to face a jury, in January of 2008. His lawyer, Jeffery Schwartz, a man after my own heart, set the tone for the trial by blaming the victim, Nixzmary Brown, for the abuse she received at the hands of Mr. Rodriguez.

“Little Nixzmary Brown was quite a feisty youngster for whatever reason.”

“She was like a little Houdini trying to get out. She was feisty, spiky and funky.”

He admitted Rodriguez slapped, spanked and whipped Nixzmary with a belt, but “he didn’t do it with the intent to hurt.”

For reasons I cannot fathom, the jury acquitted Cesar Rodriguez of 2nd Degree Murder. Instead, they convicted him of first-degree manslaughter and unlawful imprisonment. After the trial the jurors said they couldn’t agree that Rodriguez intended to kill Nixzmary Brown, so it wasn’t possible to convict him of 2nd degree murder.

As he faced Justice L. Priscilla Hall, about to sentence him for causing his 7-year-old stepdaughter’s death, Cesar Rodriguez said he was sorry. He said he loved his stepdaughter, Nixzmary Brown. He said he would serve his time. But he just could let well enough alone:

“I’m just sorry for causing everybody any emotional pain or distorted memories about the child. I’m just sorry. I loved Nixzmary.”

“But I can honestly say that I’m being accused of something I did not do.”

“If in the end, God gives me enough life to show to this court how wrong this makes that judgment, I wish to prove that some day.”

Justice Hall was not impressed, and sentenced Cesar Rodriguez to the maximum term allowed by law, 29 years, with a minimum of 27.

Nixzaliz Santiago went on trial in October of 2007. One of the highlights was a 79 minute taped police interrogation of Nixzaliz Santiago. You can watch the entire tape by clicking here. It shows a woman who did nothing to stop the beatings her daughter endured at the hands of Cesar Rodriguez, and in the end, left her daughter to die alone in a filthy storage room. Prosecutors accused her of showing “depraved indifference” to the suffering of Nixzmary, and that made her guilty of 2nd degree murder.

The Jury disagreed. On October 17th 2008, Santiago was found guilty of first-degree manslaughter, assault, unlawful imprisonment and endangering the welfare of a child. Justice Patricia M. DiMango sentenced Santiago to 43 years in prison. Justice DiMango had nothing nice to say about the mother of Nixzmary Brown:

“By your own statements, she gasped for air, moaning, and called for you twice until she died. You, Ms. Santiago, ignored these desperate calls.

“You may not have delivered the fatal blow, but the jury found it was in your power to prevent the effects of it. Were it not for your failure to act, Nixzmary Brown would have probably not died from that blow on that day.”

There’s an excellent memorial page set up for Nixmary Brown on MySpace, which I highly recommend everyone take a good look at. To be redirected there, click here.

UPDATE: NEW YORK CITY’S CHILD SERVICE’S ROLE IN NIXZMARY’S DEATH

As the comments started coming in, I realized what a mistake it was for me to have not included the failure of New York City’s version of child services, the Administration for Children’s Services, to act and save Nixzmary Brown’s life in my story. Very early on in the abuse that was perpetrated on the 7-year-old girls, her teachers recognized the signs and reported their concerns to ACS, but ACS repeatedly either did nothing or delayed making mandatory home visits, even after Nixzmary began missing weeks of school at a time because of injuries received at the hands of Cesar Rodriguez and Nixzaliz Santiago.

After an extensive investigation, child welfare commissioner John B. Mattingly read a report to the City Council General Welfare Committee, detailing the many missed opportunities to rescue Nixzmary Brown. The New York Times reported on this meeting:

The new chronology of missteps in Nixzmary’s case came as City Hall remained transfixed by what is suspected to be another case of fatal child abuse, this time in the Bronx, and the potentially deadly inefficiencies in the system designed to prevent it. The review was released as the city’s child welfare commissioner, John B. Mattingly, appeared before the City Council to answer questions about agency procedures and as the police sorted through the details of the most recent death, in a home the agency had been monitoring.

The report on the death of Nixzmary, 7, revealed a series of missteps and miscommunications that hampered efforts to protect the little girl.

The report said caseworkers had failed to react to warning signs of a “crisis mounting in the household,” including Nixzmary’s extended absences from school, strange behavior by the girl’s mother and an inability to gain access to the child’s Brooklyn apartment to check on her. A summary accompanying the report said caseworkers had taken weeks to contact the school guidance counselor who had initially reported Nixzmary’s prolonged absence.

On Jan. 10, an agency supervisor instructed caseworkers to go to Nixzmary’s home that night, but they never went, the report said. Instead, a caseworker went to the apartment the next morning, discovered ambulances and police officers at the scene, “and was informed that Nixzmary had died.”

During testimony before the City Council’s General Welfare Committee yesterday, Mr. Mattingly pinpointed “two lost opportunities,” in which, he said, “we were in a position to protect Nixzmary and were not able to get the job done.”

The first opportunity, he said, came in May, when a guidance counselor at the girl’s school reported that the child had missed 46 days and had sustained a burn to her hand, among other injuries. But after a two extensive reviews, the agency determined that Nixzmary was not suffering educational neglect and that her absences had been due to her mother’s inability to get her to school during her pregnancy.

“There is no way you can unfound an educational neglect case when a child has missed 46 days of school,” Mr. Mattingly said yesterday. He said the agency was considering new procedures requiring more aggressive investigation in such cases.

The second missed opportunity, Mr. Mattingly said, started with school officials again reporting suspicions of abuse in early December. Mr. Mattingly said during his testimony that caseworkers had moved quickly, but inadequately, to investigate. For one, he said, caseworkers should have been more diligent in pursuing a court order giving them access to Nixzmary’s home after Mr. Rodriguez refused to let them in.

Mr. Mattingly pointed to several other problems, as well. He said that upon receiving the new complaint in December, authorities failed to form the sort of emergency response team of police detectives and caseworkers that is required in cases determined to be the most serious.

Case notes indicate that the child welfare official in charge of initiating such an “instant response team” had moved to do so, the report found, “but this was later contradicted in an interview where she clarified that the discussion with Detective F. concluded the case not to be an I.R.T.,” the abbreviation for the emergency team. Detective F. is not more fully identified in the report.

So there you have it. As is usually the case in these kinds of child deaths, child services has their fair share of blood on their hands. Their was a massive shakeup at ACS, their budget was increased, incompetent employees were fired, new case workers were hired, blah, blah, blah. You guys have heard this all before. And you’ll hear it again, as long as the people treat what they do at child services as just a job and not a calling. Children’s lives depend on them doing what their supposed to do, and there’s no place for those people who cut corners and refuse to do their jobs.

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Saying James Sargent showed a “complete and total lack of remorse” for the death of his son last year, a Peoria County judge on Friday sentenced him to the maximum of 100 years in prison.

Sargent, 24, showed little reaction and stared ahead as Circuit Judge James Shadid read his appeal rights. As he left the courtroom, he didn’t look back at his parents or the parents of his former girlfriend, Tracy Hermann, also facing murder charges for the February 2008 death of Benjamin Sargent.

Shadid said little beyond praising detectives for their work, and he didn’t lay out his reasoning for the sentencing, as he normally does, beyond noting various legalities, saying “facts speak for themselves.”

“I don’t believe that someone who would let a 5-month-old rot to death would benefit from (an explanation of the sentencing) or even deserves one,” he said.

Sargent had just finished a 20-minute speech where he indicated he was at peace but was concerned for the rest of society. Talking with a clear and enthusiastic voice, he related a story about a farmer coping with an impeding storm, a parable for Armageddon. His 15-page statement didn’t mention Benjamin, nor did it offer an apology.

It was the longest Sargent had spoken in public since his arrest, as he didn’t testify at trial.

Sargent was convicted in April of first-degree murder for the infant death (Original PYSIH Story). At that bench trial, Shadid also found the South Peoria man’s actions from Feb. 4 to Feb. 12, 2008, were “brutal and heinous . . . indicative of wanton cruelty,” factors which led to the enhanced sentence of up to 100 years.

After the sentencing, Thomas and Rosemary Sargent, James Sargent’s parents, were shocked and stunned with the decision. Both said they believed a sentence closer to the minimum of 20 years was more appropriate, considering their son will have to serve 100 percent of his time. Thomas Sargent looked saddened when he said that given his age, he would probably never seen his son free again.

Prosecutors Donna Cruz and Nancy Mermelstein argued that the infant’s diaper wasn’t changed for at least five days and possibly up to a week. He wasn’t bathed for about nine days. His last meal likely came three to four days before he was found, lifeless, on Feb. 12, 2008. Prolonged exposure to that unchanged diaper caused his skin to be eaten away and allowed bacteria to seep into his body, ultimately causing his death.

“It’s pretty difficult to think of a more horrendous series of events than those caused by the defendant,” Cruz said. “He took a defenseless 5-month-old, strapped him into a car seat, put him into a crib and left him there for days on end.

“This child suffered and suffered terribly,” Cruz said.

Hermann, 22, of 3012 W. Proctor St., will stand trial in October. She remains in custody at the Peoria County Jail.

The infant was an acceptable weight at his two-month checkup. It had been unclear what caused such a tragic turnaround until the bench trial, when Sargent said on a videotaped statement to police the couple and the boy had been living with Hermann’s parents, who were helping with the child-care duties. Sargent and Hermann moved out when Benjamin was about 2 months old.

Sargent’s attorney William Loeffel contended his client was mentally ill and suffered from a slew of problems, all of which contributed to his neglect of Benjamin. At trial, Shadid denied a request by Loeffel to present evidence about Sargent’s dissociative disorder, a condition in which he would assume a role from “The Lord of the Rings” and shut himself off from the real world. The attorney did argue that at the sentencing but to little avail.

James Sargent, he said, wasn’t a bad person and pointed to testimony from the Sargents and Hermann’s parents who all described him as caring and kind. His role models, they all said, were knights in shining armor, and he was the type of person who stood up for the underdog.

Loeffel also said Sargent had done an adequate job of providing child care to the infant until his relationship with Hermann fell apart. That, Loeffel said, sent his client into a rage in which he attacked furniture and a door with a sword from his collection. After that, he retreated into his fantasy world.

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WEST PALM BEACH, FL — A plea deal in the high-profile murder of a Palm Beach Gardens softball star. Jason Shenfeld (Original PYSIH Story) will spend the rest of his life in prison for the murder of Amanda Buckley.

Eighteen-year-old Amanda Buckley was killed in July of 2007. Her friend, Jason Shenfeld, was twenty-six at the time. Buckley’s body was found in his closet.

According to court records, duct tape was found in Buckley’s hair. She had extensive bruising. Investigators concluded the trauma was so severe Shenfeld intentionally killed Buckley.

Under a plea deal, Shenfeld pleaded guilty to murder, kidnapping and two counts of sexual battery. He will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. By taking the deal, Shenfeld avoids the possibility of the death penalty if he was convicted at trial.

Bill Johnson, the Buckley’s attorney, says the family is happy with the plea. They didn’t want to take another human life for one already taken. He says the family wanted to put the chapter behind them instead of going to trial and then years of appeals. He says Shenfeld never apologized or expressed remorse to the Buckley family.

Jason Shenfeld’s attorneys say he took the deal because at some point you have to do what’s in the best interest of everyone involved. Attorneys Brian Gabriel and Bryan Raymond say there are hundreds of factors for agreeing to the deal and one of the biggest factors is the possibility of the death penalty if Jason Shenfeld was convicted.

The Buckley family has set up a foundation “Give A Smile To A Child” to help families and children dealing with tragedies beyond their control.

According to police reports, Shenfeld’s father found Buckley’s body stuffed in his son’s closet, wedged between blankets and other objects. The 26-year-old’s father said he noticed his son was acting nervous that day and had been locking his bedroom door every time he left it.

Shenfeld’s father drove to his attorney’s home, leaving his wife to stand guard over the body. Afterwards, Shenfeld’s Dad returned home and called 911 ((Hear 911 Call))

Investigators said they found duct tape in Buckley’s hair, bruises on her body and evidence of rape.

An autopsy revealed the Amanda Buckley was strangled, beaten and sexually abused.

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Nearly a year after Michael Gagnon was sentenced to 43 years in prison for causing the drunken-driving crash that killed a mother and four children, the victims’ family has sued him, his family, and the owners of the Oregon bar where he became intoxicated.

The suit was filed in Lucas County Common Pleas Court late Thursday by surviving members of the family, including Danny Griffin, Jr., who was driving his family home to Maryland on the night of the crash. It seeks damages in excess of $25,000 against each defendant.

“The timing in the filing of the lawsuit does not indicate that they are moving forward. They are doing as well as can be expected,” said attorney Kurt Anselmi of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., who along with Cooper & Walinski of Toledo is representing the family.

“The timing of this lawsuit is not to indicate that they are at one point or another point in their grieving process,” he added.

Gagnon, 25, was convicted on seven charges and sentenced on June, 27, 2008, to consecutive prison terms for causing the crash that killed five members of the Griffin family and severely injured two others. With a blood-alcohol content more than twice the legal limit, the Adrian man drove the wrong way on I-280, colliding nearly head on with Mr. Griffin’s van.

Killed in the crash were Bethany Griffin, 36; Jordan Griffin and Haley Burkman, both 10; Lacie Burkman, 7, and Vadie Griffin, 8 weeks. Sydney Griffin, 9, and Danny Griffin, 37, were treated for injuries.

The family was driving through Toledo Dec. 30, 2007, after spending several days in Michigan celebrating the holidays with family.

On that same night, Gagnon was drinking at the Rodeo Bar & Grill on Navarre Avenue in Oregon at a family gathering. The bar has since closed and another establishment opened in its place.

Listed in the suit are Samuel Gagnon and Michael Gagnon, Sr., who according to the complaint, owned the pickup Gagnon was driving on the night of the crash. Also listed were Michael Yousif, Jon Roumaya, and Glen Murdzia, owners of the Rodeo Bar & Grill on Navarre Avenue.

The lawsuit alleges that each defendant was negligent in his actions, including the bar owners for serving Gagnon excessive alcoholic beverages and his family for giving him access to the vehicle.

Gagnon has served one year in the Toledo Correctional Institution. His case was appealed to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals alleging six errors, including that “the trial court violated Gagnon’s constitutional rights and abused its discretion when it imposed [sentences for] all counts of the indictment consecutive to one another.”

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April 8, 2006- Tracy Mei, 34, is lying in a pool of her own blood on the floor of her garage.

Let’s take a look at the chain of events that led to this point. Tracy was the live-in girlfriend of Steven R. Bourgeois, 43, of Westminster, MA.

April 8th started like any other day, people woke up, ate, went to work. Police patrolled the small town streets and the rural backroads. Happy citizens took their trash out to the curb for collection. Just another day in backwoods Massachusetts. Until…

Steve and Tracy had a blow-out argument over some stereo equipment that had been accidentally thrown out. He went outside, she went into the garage, and that is when all hell broke loose. Suddenly, Steve’s truck come crashing through the garage door, striking an ATV, which in turn pinned Tracy to the wall. Seeing that the love of his life was not entirely dead, Steve grabbed an ax and promptly began swinging it at her. Tracy’s 8 year-old son (from a previous relationship) heard his mother crying and screaming “Ouch! No, Steven! Stop!” Steve didn’t stop.

The boy called his uncle for help after Steve sent him inside. By the time EMTs arrived, Steve had fled the scene in his pick-up truck. Police recovered the ax that he used to maul Tracy. His own family turned him and his truck in the same day after they found Steve in the nearby town of Hubbardston.

To make things worse, Tracy didn’t die right away. She lingered for NINE days. NINE DAYS! She suffered for over a week from skull fractures and brain lacerations, caused by Steve hacking at her head with an ax, before succumbing to her injuries. She also had a broken leg (from the ATV,) and lacerations all over her body from being struck with the ax.

Bourgeois’ attorney argued that because of Steve’s history of mental illness, he could not have formed the criminal intent necessary to be convicted of first degree murder.

District Attorney Thomas Landry offered a deal: “Plea guilty in exchange for the lesser sentence of second degree murder and we won’t have our star witness (Tracy’s 8 year old son) testify to what he saw and heard.”

Steve took the deal. He was convicted on May 4, 2007 and will be eligible for parole in 13 years. If he had been convicted of first degree murder, he would not have the chance of parole.

Tracy left behind three children.

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CROWN POINT | Lake County police had to use a stun gun Monday morning on one of the two adults now charged with the murder of 2-year-old Jada Justice.

Tim Tkachik, 24, of Hobart, appeared for his initial hearing Monday morning with his head bandaged and a prominent bruise on his left cheek.

Michael Higgins, a spokesman for county police, said Tkachik became disruptive in a holding cell shortly before the court session. “He got up on a table and was trying to get into an electrical panel. He was asked nicely to get down and when he didn’t they had to use a Tazer,” Higgins said.

Higgins said jail medical staff tended to Tkachik’s injuries arising from the incident.

His 18-year-old girlfriend, Engelica Castillo, also of Hobart was visibly trembling during the court session as she stood a few feet from Tkachik and heard they both were being charged with neglecting, battering and murdering Jada on June 13 as well as being charged with lying to police in their effort to cover up the crime.

The girl’s disappearance sparked a nine-day search by family, friends and members of the public caught up in the drama.

Lake Criminal Court Magistrate Natalie Bakota entered innocent pleas on behalf of Tkachik and Castillo’s and said they will be held without bond until trial.

Merrillville attorney T. Edward Page, who represented Castillo’s family last week, patted Castillo’s shoulder in an effort to comfort her during the hour-long session.

Police say Jada’s mother, Melissa Swiontek, left the child with Castillo June 8 for an extended period. Castillo and Swiontek are cousins. Police allege Castillo fatally beat the victim after becoming angry with her.

She and Tkachik tried to dispose of the body by burning it. Tkachik said he only suceeded in burning himself. They finally encased the child in concrete and dumped her in a swamp north of Westville in LaPorte County near Tkachik’s family home. Tkachik directed police to the place where they recovered the body last week.

Castillo told police that someone abducted Jada from her car June 16 while it was parked outside a Glen Park service station in Gary.

Tkachik, who initially agreed with Castillo’s story, later told police that his girlfriend killed the girl. Tkachik said he and Castillo were using heroin and marijuana throughout the period leading up and after Jada’s death.

Tkachik briefly disrupted the court session Monday as the magistrate was questioning Castillo about whether she could afford a private lawyer or needed a court-appointed attorney who would defend her a taxpayer expense.

Castillo said she cannot afford to retain Page in the future. Bakota said the Lake County Public Defender’s staff will appoint a new attorney to represent her.

As the magistrate was questioning Castillo about her lack of income, Tkachik said Castillo wasn’t disclosing all her family’s income. “You get child support. She gets child support,” Tkachik said.

A source close to the family said Castillo doesn’t have children and that Tkachik is referring to child support Castillo’s mother is owed.

The magistrate warned Tkachik not to interrupt her or Castillo. She repeatedly told Tkachik to pay attention to her and not talk about other matters.

Tkachik said he plans to hire his own lawyer.

Page said her defense will require more financial resources then her family can afford. Page said he may assist the public defender’s staff in her case at some future date if asked.

The magistrate ordered both to appear in Criminal Court next week for the beginning of a series pre-trial hearing. No trial date has been set.

So what do you think guys? Does this sound like two Junkies who are jonesing on heroin or what? Knowing exactly what they’re going through, I almost have sympathy for Castillo and Tkachik, until I think of little Jada’s last moments on earth. That’s when I thank God for physical addiction. Believe me, they’re hurting – they haven’t ate or slept in at least 4 days, and the muscle cramps and spasms are at their worst right now.

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.

Robert Knight had Tracey F. Moore’s head and arms in his freezer.

Tracey Moore, 44-years-old and mother of nine children, was Knight’s girlfriend. Neighbors say they were always fighting, and strangely, were said to walk about 15-20 feet apart from each other when they went anywhere. Sounds cozy, no?

He of course has a nice long record of violence, having been in jail for about 23 of the past 30 years on four different convictions – ranging from breaking & entering, to kidnapping. In February of last year, he was charged with stabbing Tracey Moore in the arm. Tracey didn’t show up for court (surprise!) and he got off.

William K. Bell, the victim’s long-estranged husband, showed up at Knight’s arraignment on Friday, along with their children. He told reporters that Moore met Knight and moved in with him four years ago. She stayed with Knight off and on even though he physically abused her, including stabbing her several different times and stealing from her, he said.

“She just kept going back.”

No one knows why he decided to kill and dismember her body, but fortunately, Knight is pretty stupid. He decided to scatter most of the remains in his apartment complex, leaving parts in the various dumpsters and around a pond in the complex. Brilliant guy, isn’t he? Of course, the apartment manager called police (incredibly calmly) as soon as the first pieces were discovered.

Apparently, it really didn’t take the authorities long to focus in on Knight, who allowed them to search his apartment. That’s when they found his strange freezer contents. My guess is that Knight was the early suspect because he cuts a quite a noticeable and dashing figure (as in children and old ladies dash away from him as fast as they can.)

One neighbor reportedly said this about Knight with his conspicuous dreadlocks:

“He looked like Predator … He looked that weird.”

One other neighbor summed up this situation like this:

“I don’t get the idea of putting it 5 feet from your bedroom window. You should have just mailed it to the police with your name on it.”

I completely agree. But I am glad that most murderers are stupid. It makes it easier to catch them.

Robert Knight has been charged with murder. His bond is set at $2 million.

Editor’s Note: Reading Mazzi’s story was troubling enough, but then I ran across this little tidbit of information in the Columbus Dispatch:

Knight has served at least three prison terms in Ohio, beginning with a 10-month stay in 1979 for breaking and entering.

In 1981, a jury convicted him of the aggravated robbery of an older woman; the woman’s pelvis was cracked when he knocked her to the ground at gunpoint for her money and purse. A judge sentenced Knight to between seven and 25 years in prison. He was paroled in 1988.

In 1989, he served six months for possession of criminal tools and, one year later, he held a couple at gunpoint on the Near East Side. Knight pleaded guilty to one count of felonious assault and one count of kidnapping. He was sentenced to consecutive terms of 10-to-25 years in prison. He was paroled Nov. 1, 2005.

So we have another violent repeat offender who should still be in prison, walking the streets and eventually graduating to murder. I know parole is a necessary thing, even a good thing, but I’m still annoyed at the justice system for not realizing this guy was a danger to society. We have got to do better at recognizing potential killers like Robert Knight, or else the death toll from fools like him will continue to grow.