An Ohio woman accused of setting fire to a home several months ago was indicted on arson and murder charges last week in the death of her own mother.
Alisha Marie Lang, 27, has been indicted by a grand jury for the alleged arson murder of 53-year-old Beth Lang, who died 12 days after the February blaze. Records show charges are one count of murder, three counts of aggravated arson as a first-degree felony, and one count of aggravated arson as a second-degree felony.
Charges stem from a home fire on Feb. 2 at 321 W. Cherry St. in Georgetown, Ohio, according to the Brown County Sheriff’s Office. Neighbor Jerry James was on Facebook Live when he ran in and attempted to save Beth Lang from the fire, according to WXIX. The woman died at the hospital less than two weeks later on Feb. 14 because of her injuries sustained in the arson, deputies said.
The investigation into the deadly fire continued on.
“After the fire there was a joint investigation by the Brown County Drug and Major Crimes Task Force, and the Ohio State Fire Marshal’s Office,” deputies wrote.
According to the indictment that was filed in Brown County on Thursday, three aggravated arson charges are presented as first-degree felonies because Alisha Lang is accused of knowingly creating “a substantial risk of serious physical harm” to three people: her mom, a person identified as Bronson Green, and another person named as Cainin Green. The second-degree aggravated arson charge alleges that Lang knowingly caused damage to the home.
Alisha Lang remains at the Brown County Jail without bond, records show. It is unclear if she has an attorney in this matter. The Ohio Attorney General’s Office provided a special prosecutor for the case, prosecutors said.
Michael Higgins courtesy of the Manchester Police Department
A New Hampshire man faces multiple criminal charges after police say he put his infant daughter in a clothes dryer and ran the machine.
According to the Manchester Police Department, 34-year-old Michael Higgins, of Manchester, was taken into custody on Sunday and charged with reckless conduct, endangering the welfare of a child, and criminal threatening.
In a statement released Monday, the department said that officers responded to a domestic incident call at a residence located on the 400 block of Kimball Street Sunday afternoon. Upon arriving, the officers learned that Higgins and a woman identified as the child’s mother had been in a heated argument, but authorities said it did not appear there was evidence that the altercation had become physical.
The woman allegedly told police, however, that several days prior to the domestic incident, on Sept. 8, Higgins had grabbed the couple’s 4-month-old daughter, put her in a clothes dryer and then ran the machine. The mother said she was able to intervene quickly and pull the infant from the machine and the officers said that the child did not appear to be injured.
In a statement, the department said there should be consequences for putting a small child in that kind of danger, even if it was only for a very brief time and did not directly result in a physical injury.
“It’s very disturbing,” spokesperson for the Manchester Police Department told local independent news station WHDH. “This child is just 4-months-old and was put inside a dryer — it doesn’t matter if it’s a few seconds. The point of the matter is, this child is at a young age who can get hurt very easily. This is very frightening for the child, traumatic. And traumatic for the mother who witnessed the whole thing as well.”
Higgins reportedly waived his arraignment on Monday and a judge ordered him to remain in jail without bond, per a Patch.com report.
“The court finds that the state has shown that the release of Defendant would pose a danger to the community and the alleged victims based on the nature of the alleged assault (placing a four-month-old in a dryer and turning on the dryer),” the court wrote in the bond order. “Defendant’s history of domestic violence, and Defendant’s apparent conviction for violating a restraining order in Massachusetts.”
Specifics concerning instances of domestic violence were not made available and the Manchester Police Department did not immediately respond to an email from Law&Crime.
The case has been assigned to the public defender’s office but an attorney had not yet been assigned to his case as of Tuesday morning, per WGME-TV. It is not clear when Higgins is next scheduled to appear in court.
A federal judge on Monday blocked state officials in Iowa from enforcing a ban on mask mandates for public schools.
The law, House File 847, was signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) in May of this year and prohibits local school boards and superintendents from issuing mask mandates “unless the facial covering is necessary for a specific extracurricular or instructional purpose.”
Senior District Judge Robert Pratt, a Bill Clinton appointee, issued a temporary restraining order which immediately halts enforcement of the controversial culture war law that has drawn intense scrutiny in recent weeks as children in the Hawkeye State return to in-person classrooms amidst a massive surge in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and fatalities.
The court agreed with experts cited by the plaintiffs–as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention–that mask-wearing in schools effectively reduces the spread of the virus and will reap substantial safety dividends for disabled children and other children with preexisting conditions that make them susceptible to COVID-19.
In the 29-page ruling, Pratt cast his decision as necessary and logical to vindicate the constitutional right to an education:
It has been almost forty years since the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that, regardless of citizenship status, denying school-aged children a free public education violates the U.S. Constitution. In [one landmark case], Justice [William] Brennan described the importance of protecting the most vulnerable class of society—innocent children—who “can affect neither their parents’ conduct nor their own status.” Forcing children to bear the brunt of societal discord “is illogical and unjust.”
Citing Brown v. Board of Education, the judge went on to opine that “education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments” implicitly upbraiding state officials for a law that encroaches on local decision-making over such matters.
“The Court agrees with Plaintiffs that Iowa Code section 280.31 substantially increases Plaintiffs’ children’s risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 by prohibiting school districts from instituting mask mandates for students, staff, teachers, and visitors, which in turn substantially increases Plaintiffs’ children’s risk of severe illness or death,” Pratt wrote. “Because Plaintiffs have shown that Iowa Code section 280.31’s ban on mask mandates in schools substantially increases their risk of contracting the virus that causes Covid-19 and that due to their various medical conditions they are at an increased risk of severe illness or death, Plaintiffs have demonstrated that an irreparable harm exists.”
The judge’s order casts his decision as an “extreme remedy” which is nevertheless necessary and legally valid due to the current data on COVID-19 and the constitutional right of children to be safe in school.
“[I]f the drastic increase in the number of pediatric COVID-19 cases since the start of the school year in Iowa is any indication of what is to come, such an extreme remedy is necessary to ensure that the children involved in this case are not irreparably harmed,” the order from the senior judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa concludes.
Pratt also said the law banning mask mandates violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
The decision was met with scorn by the law’s proponents.
“Today, a federal judge unilaterally overturned a state law, ignored the decision by our elected legislature and took away parents’ ability to decide what’s best for their child,” Reynolds said via Twitter. “We will appeal and exercise every legal option we have to uphold state law and defend the rights and liberties afforded to any American citizen protected by our constitution.”
“This is a huge victory for parents of children with disabilities who have faced the agonizing choice of protecting their children’s health, or risking it to ensure they receive an equal education,” the group tweeted. “This decision will ensure Iowa schools can take basic public health measures to protect their students. It also sends a message to states across the country that they cannot put politics over the rights and safety of students with disabilities.”
The judge’s order quickly had a real-world effect.
On Monday evening, hours after the ruling was published, Des Moines Public Schools announced that all students, staff and visitors must wear masks beginning on Wednesday, Sept. 15.
“The court’s decision to set aside Iowa’s ban on school districts being able to protect children in our care is welcome news,” Dr. Thomas Ahart, superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools, the largest school district in the state, said in a statement. “As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to surge in Iowa, our families and staff have expressed their concerns about schools not being able to require minimal, effective mitigation steps, such as wearing a mask, in order to keep people healthy and safe. With today’s ruling, as Superintendent I will reinstate a mask mandate – as we had in place for most of last school year – for all students, staff and visitors to Des Moines Public Schools.”
Read the court’s full opinion and order below:
[image via BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images]
A sign reading, ‘masks required in this area,’ is seen as travelers prepare to check-in for their Delta Airlines flight at the Miami International Airport.
A group of 13 plaintiffs sued seven major airlines Monday, asking a federal court to award them close to $1 million in damages for a “conspiracy to interfere with civil rights” by requiring masks aboard flights.
The lawsuit was first filed in June in United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida by 44-year-old Lucas Wall of Washington, D.C. According to a press release obtained by Law&Crime, Southwest Airlines refused to grant Wall a medical mask exemption for a flight from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale; he also had travel plans on other airlines throughout the summer, but those airlines similarly refused to absolve him of the requirement to wear a face mask. Wall says he is unable to wear a mask because he suffers panic attacks and hyperventilation if his sources of oxygen are obstructed.
Wall named Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Allegiant Air, Delta Airlines, Frontier Air Lines, JetBlue Airways, and Spirit Airlines as defendants, along with executives of the seven airlines.
Now Wall has amended his 242-page complaint to include claims from a dozen other individuals along with 525 exhibits. All but one of the plaintiffs claim that they are disabled and that the airlines’ mask requirement violates their rights under federal law. Wall and the other plaintiffs allege that the airlines have “conspired” to ban millions of disabled Americans from using air travel.
In particular, Wall alleges that Delta CEO Ed Bastian “targeted” disabled passengers, “relegating them to second-class citizenship by telling them they can’t travel.”
In Wall’s emailed statement, he explained that after he filed his individual lawsuit, he heard from “hundreds of other Americans who have been banned from flying because of their medical conditions.” He then amended his complaint to include other plaintiffs “to represent the class of tens of millions of Americans who have been illegally forced to muzzle themselves by the defendants since May 2020.”
The sole passenger plaintiff who is not disabled claims to have been “forced” by the airlines “to wear unauthorized and/or EUA masks in violation of federal law and in breach of the defendants’ contracts of carriage.”
The plaintiffs plan to follow the process to be certified as a class-action lawsuit. If the court grants them class status, other similarly-situated plaintiffs will be permitted to join the litigation. For now, the named plaintiffs have requested both compensatory and punitive damages in the amount of $100,000 per airline and $10,000 per airline executive (the complaint names as defendants “numerous airline executives”).
Wall and his fellow plaintiffs are currently representing themselves in the lawsuit, but request that the court award them attorneys fees should they seek legal counsel later.
Before the case was a class action, Wall attempted to have the magistrate disqualified after that magistrate issued an adverse ruling, arguing that the magistrate made the ruling too quickly and could not possibly have adequately considered his side.
Lucas Wall has already sued President Joe Biden, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Transportation Security Administration, the Department of Homeland Security over mask mandates. The federal government has moved to dismiss Wall’s claims, arguing that mask mandates are perfectly legal under federal law.
Wall also filed an emergency petition before the Supreme Court asking that the federal mask mandate be lifted.
WOW at SCOTUS: the COVID shadow docket lives
District of Columbia resident & generalized anxiety disorder sufferer Lucas Wall asks Justice Thomas to lift the federal transportation mask mandate for him so he can fly to Germany maskless to visit his brother & wife this weekend. pic.twitter.com/oPDnGpFOkB
Ex-pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli speaks to the press in front of U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York with members of his legal team after the jury issued a verdict on Aug. 4, 2017.
Facing a little more than a year left of his seven-year securities fraud sentence, so-called “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli will face a civil trial later this year where state and federal regulators will try to permanently ban him from the pharmaceutical industry.
U.S. District Judge Denise Cote, who will be hearing the case without a jury, set a bench trial date for Dec. 14.
In an order on Tuesday, Judge Cote ordered Shkreli’s counsel to confirm whether Shkreli will be present at his trial.
If so, she wants the parties to request any necessary writ of habeas corpus for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to transfer the 38-year-old from the Allenwood Correctional Institution in Pennsylvania to the Southern District of New York in lower Manhattan.
Shkreli’s civil litigation stems from his decision to jack up the price of the live-saving drug Daraprim 40-fold, an act that earned him national scorn and a cult following for his unapologetic defense of that hike.
At the time, Shkreli served as CEO of the company then-named Turing Pharmaceuticals, but regulators claim that the anticompetitive conduct continued after he went to prison and his company got a rebranding as Vyera.
“Daraprim is a lifesaving drug for vulnerable patients,” Gail Levine, the deputy director of the Bureau of Competition at the Federal Trade Commission, noted when unveiling the case in January 2020. “Vyera kept the price of Daraprim astronomically high by illegally boxing out the competition.”
New York Attorney General LetitiaJames (D), who also brought the case along with the FTC, echoed those sentiments at the time.
“Martin Shkreli and Vyera not only enriched themselves by despicably jacking up the price of this life-saving medication by 4,000 percent in a single day, but held this critical drug hostage from patients and competitors as they illegally sought to maintain their monopoly,” AG James wrote more than a year and a half ago. “We filed this lawsuit to stop Vyera’s egregious conduct, make the company pay for its illegal scheming, and block Martin Shkreli from ever working in the pharmaceutical industry again. We won’t allow ‘Pharma Bros’ to manipulate the market and line their pockets at the expense of vulnerable patients and the health care system.”
Citing reporting in the Wall Street Journal, regulators claim that Shkreli exercised “shadow power” over Vyera and its Swiss corporate parent Phoenixus from behind bars.
In June, Judge Cote found that Shkreli used a contraband phone behind bars to communicate with his associates, including Vyera executive Akeel Mithani and Kevin Mulleady, an owner and former director of Vyera.
When asked during a deposition earlier this year whether he had a cell phone in prison, Shkreli invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, according to the ruling.
In late July, the U.S. government sold one of Shkreli’s once-prized but since-forfeited possessions: Wu Tang Clan’s bespoke album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.” The buyer’s identity is currently unknown.
[Part 2 of the sentencing is above. Part 1 is below.]
A Dickson County judge is scheduled to sentence the local man convicted of murdering a 5-year-old autistic, non-verbal boy. Tennessee man Joseph Ray Daniels, 31, will formally learn his fate for killing son Joe Clyde Daniels, 5. The hearing is set to begin at 2 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. CT. You can watch in the player above.
The elder Daniels killed “Baby Joe” after the child’s mother Krystal Daniels planned on dumping the defendant for another man, prosecutor Josh Turnbow told jurors in closing arguments. Krystal Daniels, who is separately charged with aggravated child neglect and other charges, got $1,200 a month for her son and needed the money to leave the relationship.
Joseph Ray Daniels and Joe Clyde Daniels
Baby Joe was reported missing April 4, 2018, with the father initially claiming the boy “escaped.” As eventually confessed by the defendant, Joseph Ray beat his son to death the night before and hid his body. A major sticking point in the state’s case was the lack of remains. Daniels changed his story about where he put his son, and a body was never found.
Prosecutors relied on witness testimony and Joseph Ray’s confession to build their case. Baby Joe’s 11-year-old half-brother Alex, whose mother is also Krystal Daniels, testified to seeing Joseph Ray stand over the boy’s body and said that their father carried the victim out of the home. Though the defendant was inconsistent on details about where he put the victim’s body, he did confess to killing his son, the prosecution argued.
Joseph Ray Daniels was ultimately convicted of the lesser charges of second-degree murder instead of first-degree murder as charges. Jurors also found him guilty of first-degree murder in perpetration of a felony, aggravated child abuse, initiating a false report, and tampering with evidence.
[You can see part 1 of the sentencing below.]
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Legal jeopardy has intensified for the woman who allegedly failed to protect her 5-year-old son from his own father. That 5-year-old son is now presumed to be dead, and his father has been convicted of murder.
Krystal Daniels, 29, is now charged with aggravated child abuse/neglect/endangerment, conspiracy to commit aggravated child abuse, making false reports to an officer, and tampering with evidence, according to WTVF reporter Nick Beres. Daniels was previously charged with aggravated child neglect. If convicted, she faces a possible life sentence.
Daniels’ son Joe Clyde Daniels, who was on the autism spectrum and also non-verbal, died at the hands of his father Joseph Ray Daniels, 31. A jury convicted the father in June of second-degree murder and other charges. The child’s elder brother Alex, who was eight years old during the 2018 murder, testified that “Baby Joe” got up from bed and urinated on the floor. Joseph Ray Daniels then beat Baby Joe. Alex testified to seeing his father take his brother outside.
#JosephDaniels – Alex testifies he heard a loud bang. He sat there for a couple of minutes then went out of the bedroom. He saw Baby Joe on the floor. Then saw Joseph take Joe outside and lay him in the yard. @LawCrimeNetwork
Krystal Daniels is alleged to have changed her story on whether she saw Joseph Ray Daniels kill the child. She has denied knowing her son’s whereabouts.
Authorities have never found Baby Joe’s body.
“I’m with the public,” she said in an interview with WTVF in 2019. “You know, I want to know where he’s at and if he’s OK. Or if Joseph actually did anything to him.”
As described by Agent Joey Boyd of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation during direct examination, Daniels gave “several different iterations” on whether he was angry at Baby Joe for peeing on the floor that night, whether the defendant went straight back to sleep that night, where Daniels removed locks to the home, and so on. Prosecutors argued that Daniels killed his son out of spite toward Krystal Daniels, who was planning to leave him and was getting money out of Baby Joe’s condition.
A man recently arrested after authorities allegedly found a machete and bayonet-style knife inside a pickup truck with swastikas scrawled on it outside Democratic National Committee headquarters must stay behind bars, a D.C. judge ruled on Tuesday.
U.S. Capitol police arrested California man Donald Craighead, 44, after finding his Dodge Dakota pickup truck near the DNC building around midnight on Monday. The photographs of his vehicle show it covered with neo-Nazi and white supremacist iconography.
“This is good police work plain and simple,” Chief Tom Mangerwrote in a statement on Monday. “We applaud the officers’ keen observation and the teamwork that resulted in this arrest.”
On Tuesday afternoon, D.C. Superior Court Magistrate Judge Lloyd Nolan Jr. granted the government’s request to hold Craighead, after rejecting his defense counsel’s arguments for his release. The judge said that Craighead’s record showed a prior assault charge that involved a weapon about a year ago.
“Why are you all pulling me over when there are brown people hurting white people?” Craighead asked, according to the affidavit.
Asked why he had weapons in his truck, Craighead allegedly replied: “I just like the look of it. It’s not like I’m trained to fucking kill anyone or anything.”
The affidavit records Craighead’s tirade of racist and homophobic invective in detail, showing him flinging an anti-gay slur at the officer questioning him.
“The f****ts with the drones are following me,” Craighead allegedly said, according to the affidavit.
The responding officer recorded the various symbols associated with white supremacy on the truck, including an Odin’s cross, swastikas, and Norse runes. Scrawled in Sharpie on the passenger glove compartment, the officer wrote that he found the message: “Red is Alpha III Death to Others White Power.”
The officer also wrote that Craighead wore a T-shirt associated with the “Boogaloo movement,” a group known to pine for a second U.S. Civil War.
According to the affidavit, Craighead waived his rights and agreed to an interview where he admitted to possessing the weapons for “offensive purposes.”
“Despite [his] beliefs, he claimed no association with any extremist group,” the affidavit states.
“Signs of Possible Mental Illness”
In separate document, police recount additional observations from the interview, including details about Craighead’s ideology, appearance, travels and mental state.
“During the interview the defendant appeared to be malnourished with a thinning face as compared to social media photos of the defendant,” the supplemental affidavit states. “He appeared disheveled, with visibly unclean hands and arms, and he emitted body odor consistent with not bathing in several days.”
Craighead allegedly told authorities that he traveled to Washington, D.C., roughly three months ago in May.
“While in DC, the defendant camped outside of Union Station and ultimately left DC because it was too diverse, traveled to Richmond, looking for and expecting it to be a white community,” the document states. “Upon arriving, he realized it was no longer a white community or Valhalla. He then traveled back to DC. At some point he references traveling by train to North Carolina. The defendant also advised that he had been feeding on animals he encountered during his travels.”
The police officer opined that Craighead “exhibited signs of possible mental illness.”
“The defendant further stated that he sees and feels magnetic frequencies believes drones are following him, and believes certain numbers are assigned to people,” the supplemental affidavit continues. “The defendant also believes that his assigned number is being used by other people who are being victimized. To block the frequencies, the defendant placed coins, magnets, and metal devices throughout his vehicle. The defendant also explained he insulated the fuse box inside of his truck to reduce the frequency that it was emitting.”
Craighead pleaded not guilty to a felony weapons possession charge through his attorney and has been held without bond.
According to court papers, the defendant already has made plans for after his release.
“After the defendant’s release, he would like to legally register his vehicle in DC to travel to Louisiana where there is a purer white, non-gay community,” the document states. “Upon review of the crime scene photographs of the weapons recovered from the defendant’s vehicle, the item listed as a bayonet is in fact a large hunting knife with a blade approximately 7.5 inches long”
“Ties to Any Previous Cases”?
When first announcing Craighead’s case, Capitol Police emphasized their investigation is ongoing and added that it is unclear whether he “has ties to any previous cases in this area.” Those other cases have been well-publicized, the most high-profile of which relates to the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.
Some eight months after the siege, the FBI’s search continues for the person who planted two improvised explosive devices outside DNC and Republican National Committee headquarters. The bureau recently released new footage to the public.
In a development last week involving a separate incident, Alabama man Lonnie Coffmanannounced plans to plead guilty in a case accusing him of toting 11 Molotov cocktails and loaded firearms from his home state to a few blocks from the DNC. Authorities claim they found Coffman’s stash of deadly weapons inside the 71-year-old’s red GMC Sierra truck.
Read the affidavit below:
Read the supplemental affidavit:
(Photos via Yellowstone County mugshot, U.S. Capitol Police)
Joseph L. Pollard courtesy of the Florida Department of Corrections
Law enforcement authorities in Florida on Tuesday announced a suspect with a long criminal record has been indicted and charged with murder nearly two decades after 15-year-old Farrah Carter was viciously stabbed to death in her home.
“With the advancement of DNA technology and the diligence and hard work of detectives, Joseph L. Pollard was indicted with first-degree murder,” the Miramar Police Department announced Tuesday. “Farrah would have been celebrating her 35th birthday on September 10, but instead the family so thankful to be one step closer to her justice.”
We are pleased to announce recent developments in the 2002 homicide of 15-year-old Farrah Carter. With the advancement of DNA technology and the diligence and hard work of detectives, Joseph L. Pollard, was indicted with first degree murder. #MiramarPD#ColdCasepic.twitter.com/kssBAdWFWF
If the 56-year-old Pollard is the man responsible for Carter’s death, he did not dodge police for long following the May 2002 murder. According to online records from the Florida Department of Corrections, Pollard was sentenced in 2004 to life in prison for robbery with a deadly weapon, burglary, and attempted kidnapping. He is currently being held at the Taylor Correctional Institute in Perry, Florida.
Carter, a student at the Hallandale Adult Community Center, was living with her mother Kim Battle and two sisters at a home located in the 6500 block of Southwest 27th street when her family came home on the evening of May 22, 2002 to find her lifeless body in the back of her bedroom.
According to a police report obtained by Law&Crime, the three-bedroom home had been transformed into a grisly nightmarish scene with blood located “throughout much of the residence.”
“The living room had a large amount of blood on the tiled floor. There was an appearance of a struggle in the living room as a chair was knocked over, a glass jar was broken on the floor, and a couch was pushed against the window blinds,” the report stated. “Blood was present on the walls and bedspread of the master bedroom. This room belonged to the victim’s mother. Blood was also found in the victim’s bedroom where she was discovered.”
A neighbor who lived across the street told police that he saw a Black male of average build wearing a hat and driving a white van, which stopped at Carter’s home on the morning of the murder. He said the man stood outside of the front door talking to a female resident and trying to get her to let him inside but left without trying to force his way in.
Police said there was no sign of forced entry, so Carter may have known her attacker. But police noted that once the person was inside the residence there was a violent struggle and the attacker was cut, leaving DNA evidence behind.
Minor spots of blood that did not belong to Carter were found on a doorknob. A hat found inside the house did not belong to Carter nor to any members of her family. Authorities entered the samples into the National Database and got “a minor match with Pollard” on both.
Those two matches to Pollard were enough for prosecutors to obtain an indictment against the convicted felon.
Despite waiting nearly two decades to get some closure on her daughter’s murder, Battle said it was still difficult to process because the family has no apparent connection to Pollard. There’s also no indication of a possible motive for killing Carter.
“For the detectives to come forward with this information, it is very pleasing in a sense but it is still heartbreaking without her being here to see what her life would have been like, to see the children maybe she would have had,” Battle said during a press conference Tuesday. “There’s a still big hole in my heart that will never be filled.”
Tony Carter, Farrah’s father, echoed Battle’s sentiment in a brief, tear-filled statement Tuesday.
“For 19 years I haven’t been able to get my life together. Everything’s changed in my life. Right now is like the first day of the rest of my life. I’m hoping to get a new start on it. But I miss my baby so much,” he said. “It’s just really, really fuzzy for me. Nothing makes sense for me.”
Keli Craig, Farrah’s younger sister, was just a child at the time. Still, she said the memory of what she saw that day was still as vivid as ever.
“You wouldn’t think that at 8 years old you could remember that much,” Craig said Tuesday. “But I remember that day as if it was yesterday,”
Police said that Pollard, who in 2002 was living just South of Miramar in Miami-Dade County, has denied having any involvement in Carter’s murder.
Miramar Police told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that Pollard is expected to be extradited by the Broward County Sheriff’s Office next week.
Miramar Police and the Broward County State Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to emails from Law&Crime seeking comment on the indictment and plans to prosecute Pollard.
Police also noted that “research into Pollard showed that he has been accused and/or charged with violence towards women in several different police reports prior to his incarceration.”
A Tennessee man convicted of murdering his 5-year-old son by beating him to death has learned his punishment.
A judge sentenced Joseph Ray Daniels, 31, on Tuesday to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 51 years for murdering Joe Clyde Daniels, 5. Prosecutors did not seek the death sentence or life without parole, said Judge David D. Wolfe.
The victim, often referred to as “Baby Joe,” was on the autism spectrum and non-verbal. The prosecution tried to show that the father had a pattern of violent behavior. For example, Tennessee Department of Corrections Patrol Station Manager John Wesley McGranahan testified that he wrote the pre-sentencing report and said that Joseph Ray Daniels admitted to aggravated assault of his aunt as a juvenile. Joseph Ray Daniels had admitted to previously threatening to kill his stepmother, according to this testimony.
Jurors convicted Daniels of second-degree murder and other charges in June. Baby Joe’s half-brother Alex, who was 8 years old during the 2018 murder, testified to seeing their father beat the victim for peeing in the bed, and to seeing their father take Baby Joe’s body outside. Krystal Daniels, 29, the mother of both boys, faces trial next February for charges including aggravated child neglect.
Investigators have never found the 5-year-old boy’s remains. Joe Clyde Daniels was nicknamed “Baby Joe” to differentiate him from his grandfather of the same name. As seen on video, Joseph Ray Daniels tearfully confessed to the murder after initially denying guilt and claiming the 5-year-old escaped the home.
“My dad is going to kill me,” he said, according to a transcript read by Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Agent Joey Boyd. “He’s going to kill me.”
