Police refused to take missing person reports in serial killer case 1
Orlando shooter blames firm for his bankruptcy 2
Woman killed for selling rock salt as dope 3
Monday, Nov. 2 2009 @ 12:10PM
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The Little Rock TV anchor was murdered in her bed last October
In October of last year, Little Rock morning TV anchor Anne Pressly awoke to find a man "committing a sex act" beside her bed, according to police. Startled, the man began hammering her with a garden tool. Anne fought back, as her shattered left arm would indicate. But the man hit her as many as five times.

Anne was taken to the hospital in a coma, and she never regained consciousness before dying five days later. But even without her statement, police still believe they have their man: Curtis Lavelle Vance.

He goes on trial today for the murder of the 26-year-old TV woman, who was killed in her home near the Little Rock Country Club. As police tell it, they not only have the DNA from semen found in Anne's bedroom, but a taped confession from Vance himself...

Tags: Arkansas
Thursday, Oct. 29 2009 @ 2:12PM
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Lou Dobbs believes his enemies are being inflamed by the liberal media
After getting a series of threatening phone calls, CNN host Lou Dobbs claims someone shot at his Wantage, New Jersey home earlier this month. Dobbs said on his radio show that he was outside with his wife when someone shot at the house on October 5.

"This shot was fired with my wife not, I don't know, 15 feet away, and we had threatening phone calls that I decided not to report because I get threatening phone calls."

New Jersey State police were called to the home that day after Dobbs and his wife heard gunfire. The bullet struck the side of the house and fell to the ground. It's now being analyzed. "We're not sure what the intended target was," Sgt. Steve Jones told Fox News. "It's still under investigation..."

Tags: New Jersey
By Pete Kotz in celebrity crime, homicide
Monday, Oct. 26 2009 @ 2:07PM
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The cowboy champ was shot in a dispute over a fence
Rodeo star Sonny Jim was among the toughest to ever enter the sport. The Navajo was a world champion cowboy into his 40s and 50s. Now he's dead, gunned down in Grant, New Mexico.

Detectives say the incident was prompted when Sonny was visiting the home of friend Wayne Johnson. They apparently got into a beef with neighbor Danny Stanfield over a fence that divides their property. As things heated up, Stanfield retrieved a gun from his home and started blasting. Sonny and Johnson were shot multiple times.

One of them tried to call 911, police say, but Stanfield kicked the phone away. He was still standing near the bodies when detectives arrived.

Tags: New Mexico
By Pete Kotz in celebrity crime, homicide
Tuesday, Oct. 20 2009 @ 6:50PM
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The murder occurred during a violent struggle in suburban New Orleans
From Caleb Hannan at our sister paper, Seattle Weekly:

Former Seahawks player Terreal Michael Bierria, 29, has been arrested on one count of first degree murder after a violent struggle in a New Orleans suburb left one man dead. St. Tammany's parish deputies in Slidell booked Bierria after he placed himself at the apartment where authorities found 29-year-old Soron Salter dead.

When they arrived on the scene deputies found the front door partially opened with blood smeared on it and Salter on the floor behind the door. Investigators say Salter had wounds that indicated a violent struggle. Witnesses told police that a gray Cadillac had been parked at the scene until just a few minutes before they arrived.

Read complete story here.

Tuesday, Oct. 20 2009 @ 11:02AM
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Police found Jasper Howard stabbed outside a school dance
UPDATE: Police have arrested a suspect in the murder. See update after the jump...

University of Connecticut starting cornerback Jasper Howard was leaving a school dance just after midnight this morning when a fight broke out between two groups of people. Howard and another person were stabbed.

Police responded at about 12:30 a.m. to find the victims. Howard, 20, was later pronounced dead at a hospital. (See his Facebook page here.) The second victim, who hasn't been named, was treated and released. Police are still looking for the attacker, and believe the assault wasn't a random crime.

Howard is the third Connecticut student to be killed in the last three months. In September, Yale graduate student Annie Le was found murdered in a laboratory building at the campus. Coworker Raymond Clark was arrested in the case...

By Pete Kotz in assault, bizarre, celebrity crime
Saturday, Oct. 17 2009 @ 12:06PM
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Todd English, assault by luxury watch
Ladies and gentlemen, this may go down as the daintiest assault case in U.S. history. Earlier this month, celeb chef Todd English -- a ubiquitous TV presence who once made People's 50 Most Beautiful People list -- decided to call it quits with his fiance of three years.

The big problem is he did it just a week before their wedding, scheduled to be a $150,000 affair at New York's St. Regis Hotel. Though reports say they'd fought over a prenuptial agreement, English told People their relationship had become "volatile and vicious."

Naturally, fiance Erica Wang wasn't pleased by being left at the altar just a week before the big day. So she reportedly smacked English with a luxury Copard watch, a blow that left English with seven stitches. But instead of just manning up, English had assault charges filed against her. Which once again proves that while fame and fortune may be nice, it will also turn you into a huge candy-ass.


By Pete Kotz in celebrity crime, robbery
Friday, Oct. 16 2009 @ 10:43AM
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Melanie Sinclair: Great at gymnastics, but sucks at picking boyfriends
Bud Leonard Williams is not a nice man. Or a good criminal, for that matter. Last year, he was released from prison after doing two years on robbery and burglary convictions. But he does appear to have something that attracts the ladies. He managed to snag for a girlfriend Melanie Sinclair, the beautiful All-American gymnast at the University of Florida.

As police tell it, Williams didn't go straight after being released from the joint. He promptly embarked on a series of burglaries, specializing in the stealing and selling of guns. And he seems to have used Sinclair's apartment as his stash house...

Tags: Florida
Tuesday, Oct. 13 2009 @ 8:51AM
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Rumeal Robinson: From Sports Illustrated to strip club addiction
Good morning, dear reader. Here's today's fine Breakfast Reading from around the Village Voice Empire:

Send Lawyers, Guns & Strippers
Miami New Times' Gus Garcia-Roberts reports that former Michigan basketball star Rumeal Robinson went bankrupt after becoming a strip club addict -- and now he's indicted for fraud.

Haleigh Cummings and the Bad-Ass Bounty Hunter
William "Cobra" Staubs, the Forrest Gump of bail-bondsmen, could end up in handcuffs over his work in the missing 6-year-old's case. From the lovely and talented Lisa Rab at New Times Broward-Palm Beach.

Wisconsin Man Stalks Jewel
He stakes out the singer at her Texas ranch because God thought it would be a good idea, writes Matt Snyders of City Pages in Minneapolis.

Monday, Oct. 12 2009 @ 10:18AM
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Kandi Burruss and A.J. Jewell
UPDATE: The fight was apparently over the direction of the club. See update after the jump...

Ashley "A.J." Jewell, who appeared on The Real Housewives of Atlanta as the fiance of Kandi Burruss, has been killed in a bar fight. Police say he got into a beef in the parking lot of The Body Tap Club in Atlanta, when he took "a severe blow to the head." Though details of the incident are still sketchy, detectives do have a person of interest in the case.

Jewell appeared on the TV show as the love interest of Burruss, the newest cast member and former member of the R&B group Xscape. The Grammy-winning producer recently recently told Essence magazine that she and Jewell were on "hiatus..."

Tags: Georgia
Friday, Oct. 9 2009 @ 5:05PM
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Actress and model Felicia Tang was tortured to death
On September 11, police arrived at the Monrovia, California apartment of Brian Lee Randone and Felicia Tang. He was a former preacher turned successful communications salesman who'd once appeared on the reality show The Sexiest Bachelor in America. She was a model and soft-core porn actress who'd made appearances in moves such as Rush Hour 2 and "The Fast And The Furious. And she was near death.

Randone told police that he tried to restrain Tang -- who's real name was Felicia Lee -- after she went out of control during a drug overdose. The evidence at the scene painted an entirely different story. Randone has since been charged with beating Tang with a metal object, then slowly suffocating her to death. The slaying was so vicious police added torture charges...