Martin Vega here knows exactly how you feel. When his landlord, William Hallin, 67, came to collect his rent, Vega, 28, tried to beg off, telling Hallin he wasn’t going to pay up that day. This was not the first time he was late with his rent, and there were other problems with Martin Vega’s short, 2 month tenancy. Hallin had recently accused him of stealing some of his garden tools, and Vega had also shot out the windows of several neighborhood cars with a BB gun.

While the two men discussed the lack of funds at the door of Martin Vega’s second floor apartment in the Southwest Side of Chicago, Hallin noticed that Vega was keeping a dog in his apartment. Apparently this was the last straw for Martin Vega. Hallin told him he was going to have to move out. That was definitely the last straw for William Hallin.

Martin Vega pushed Hallin down the stairs, then beat Hallin’s head and body with various garden tools, an ice scraper, a BB gun and a pipe. Vega dragged Hallin to the basement, where Hallin began to cry and beg for his life. To shut him up, Vega shoved a shirt in his landlord’s mouth, then beat his skull with a lamp.

Someone noticed smoke coming from the basement of the two story apartment building and called 911. Firefighters found the charred and smoking remains of William Hallin. Martin Vega had put Hallin’s body on a rug, threw gasoline from a lawn mower on the rug and on Hallin, and took a match to the whole thing.

Police took Vega and two other people down to the headquarters for questioning. After an autopsy confirmed that William Hallin had died from blunt force trauma to the head, Martin Vega was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Prosecutors in Cook County recently announced the will seek the death penalty in this case.

Martin Vega already has five felony convictions to his credit, including for unlawful use of a weapon, residential burglary and aggravated vehicular hijacking. He’s just one of these career criminals who thinks the law doesn’t apply to him. Looks to me like Chicago law enforcement will have little problem applying the law in this case.

William Hallin, on the other hand, was well like by everyone in the neighborhood, including the other tenants of his two apartment buildings. He had a reputation for being helpful and caring, and often accommodated his people when they ran into hard times and were late with rent.

Rebecca Rangel, a tenant of Hallin’s, couldn’t believe what happened:

“I can’t imagine what would have triggered this. He’s not the type to argue.”

“I’m still shaking my head because I can’t believe it. We didn’t have a problem with him ever. He gave everybody a chance.”

Rangel said the last time she saw William Hallin, he had stopped to say hi to her as she sat out out in the yard watching her daughter catch fireflies. He even took a few minutes to help her little girl with her hunt, catching a few of the tiny insects for her.

“He was just nice.”

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But what to do about Sloopy and Skeeter, the two mutts he had adopted for the Humane Society in 2007. Money was tight, so he couldn’t afford to pay to board them, and for some reason, he chose not to let a neighbor watch the dogs while he was away, despite the fact that the neighbor twice offered to do it for free.

Instead, David P. Santuomo took his best friends into the basement, strung then up from a pipe running across the ceiling, took his .22 caliber rifle with a crude, home made silencer attached (How thoughtful – wouldn’t want to disturb the neighbors.), and used the dogs for target practice.

He blasted the two helpless animals with eleven shots – One dog had six bullets in his head. He then wrapped the carcasses in plastic and threw them in a dumpster behind a firehouse.

Now, how to explain the dog’s disappearance to his children and ex-wife. Simple of course – He lied.

I don’t know if David Santuomo ever went on that cruise. I do know that he was pretty proud of the way he solved his animal problem. He bragged to other firefighter about what he had done, laughing as he told them about concrete flying everywhere from the bullets that went completely through the two dogs’ bodies.

Unfortunately for Dave, his fellow smoke eaters were disgusted with his actions, and one of them reported him to the Humane Society. Needless to say, Jodi Buckman, executive director of the Capital Area Humane Society, was pretty pissed off:

“This is a travesty and abhorrent behavior to those in this community who work to save the lives of animals.”

“Fellow firefighters were disgusted by what he did, and the Capital Area Humane Society was called to investigate.”

At first, David Santuomo lied to the investigators, telling them he shot the dogs to put them out of their misery after they accidentally drank antifreeze, but a necropsy showed no trace of the poison.

Reporters obtained a search warrant served on David Santuomo’s home late last year that said Santuomo sent several text messages also bragging that he was going to shoot his dogs instead of paying for their boarding during his vacation.

After the investigation, David Santuomo was arrested and charged with two counts of animal cruelty and and one count of possession of a criminal tool, for the plastic soda bottle he use as his makeshift silencer. All three charges are misdemeanors.

On June 25th, 2009, David P. Santuomo pleaded guilty in Ohio Municipal Court, and was sentenced to 90 days in jail and ordered to pay $4,500 to cover the cost of his investigation and serve five years’ probation by Judge Harland H. Hale. Hale also fined Santuomo $150 and ordered him to perform 200 hours of community service. He must not have pets or weapons in his house for five years and must undergo random home inspections.

He was also ordered to publish a public apology in a firefighters’ magazine.

Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor Heather Robinson said this about David Santuomo:

“I think it was the thrill of the kill for him. He has shown no remorse for this.”

Defense attorney Sam Shamansky disagreed:

“This was an isolated event not to be repeated and totally out of character for him. He is extremely remorseful.”

In the courtroom, David Santuomo showed just how remorseful he was, flipping the bird at the reporters who were there to cover his case.

Yeah, remorseful.

There’s an online poll set up at The Petition Site for folks who would like to express their opinion of Davis Santuomo’s sentence (Click Here).

David Santuomo, a firefighter since 1996, remains on active duty while awaiting a disciplinary hearing with Columbus Fire Chief Ned Pettus Jr.

I dug up something interesting on our boy Dave. According to court records, in February David P. Santuomo petitioned the court to reinstate his driving privileges on a limited use basis. It had been suspended for “Non-Compliance”, a legal term used to describe a parent who doesn’t pay his child support. Yes my friends, it appears David Santuomo is a deadbeat dad too. You can view those court records by clicking here.

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In early 1991 I was attending college in Sacramento while working as a supervisor at a fast food restaurant on Auburn Blvd. And I was scared. My coworkers were also scared. The entire neighborhood was scared. In fact, the police were scared. We were afraid of Sacramento’s latest serial killer, nick-named the “Thrill Killer” but also known as the “Beef Jerky Killer” by Sacramento homicide detectives outside the hearing of the public. Sacramento has a long history in the serial killer arena, ranking as the 20th largest United States metropolitan area but according to the Sacramento News and Review, it has been home to a whopping 15% of the nations known serial killers.

The story of the “Thrill Killer”, and the weeks of terror in the first half of 1991, all began on Monday, February 11th. This was the day when Eric Royce Leonard pleaded guilty to shoplifting eight bars of soap. He was told to either spend two days in jail or pay a $141 dollar fine. Leonard did not want to spend two days in jail so he promised to pay the fine but asked for a little time to come up with the money. Leonard kept his promise and came up with the money.

Shortly before midnight on Tuesday February 12th Sacramento County Sheriffs Deputies arrived to a scene of carnage at Quik Stop #112 on Auburn Blvd. Found dead in the store were employees Zeid Ahmad Obeid, twenty, Mark Anderson, thirty-five. Outside the store was fatally wounded customer Thor Johnston, who lived in the nearby trailer park. He was laying next to his overturned wheel chair. All three had been shot in the back of the head execution style. At first, the Sheriff’s investigators misinformed the media, were mistaken, or there was a communication break-down. The media was told nothing was stolen from the Quik Stop and the unknown perpetrator was dubbed a “Thrill Killer”.

Eric Royce Leonard paid his fine. It would turn out that money was taken from the Quik Stop. Less than $200 dollars. What was also stolen from the Quik Stop was five containers of beef jerky. The containers were found outside the store, empty.

Exactly one week later, shortly after 11PM Tuesday, February 19th about a mile away from the Quik Stop, three employees of the Watt Avenue Round Table were found in the back kitchen shot execution style in the back of the head. Dead were thirty-year-old manager Andrea Colangelo, twenty-year-old Kyle Reynolds, and eighteen-year-old Sarah Crook.

Ballistics tests on the shell casings linked the killings to the same firearm. “Thrill Killer” had struck again. Although $500 dollars was stolen in this robbery, once again the Sheriff’s Department would not disclose money was taken.

The case made national news as local media and law enforcement alarmed Sacramento by speculating that the “Thrill Killer” would continue to kill on consecutive Tuesdays. On Tuesday, February 26th the region in which the killer had struck was swamped with officers from the Sheriff’s Department, Police Department, and Highway Patrol as well as from other neighboring agencies. A would be car thief found himself spread eagle on the ground as a dozen law enforcements officers converged upon him. But “Thrill Killer” would not make another appearance.

On this night I was off from work but out of concern for my coworkers went in around 8 PM to discover the restaurant in the process of closing two hours early. Although we had appealed to the corporate management to close before nightfall because of the possibility of being killed, the request was denied. Shortly before I had arrived, police officers had come in and ordered the restaurant to close. Although the police had no authority to do it, the staff was more than happy to comply with the “order” and locked the doors.

It would be sixteen weeks of hard old fashioned police work before the identity of the “Thrill Killer” would be solved. Shortly after the Quik Stop murders the neighborhood had been canvassed by police and in the door-to-door questioning police had noted what respondents had been wearing. Eric Royce Leonard answered his apartment door wearing a green toned trench coat. He answered some brief questions and aroused no suspicion. Some of the witnesses in the neighborhood on the night of the robbery stated they had seen someone wearing a trench coat. On the evening of the Round Table murders, a witness had stated she had seen a man riding a bicycle behind the restaurant wearing a trench coat. Questioning local gun dealers a shop owner admitted to selling the same caliber ammo used in the killings to a customer wearing a trench coat.

Over 700 people were identified as suspects in the killings, one person even gave a false confession while two prison escapees were known to be in the area and had stolen a weapon of the same caliber used in the murders. But it was the trench coat that brought police back to Leonard’s apartment. When Leonard was taken in for questioning, detectives could not help but notice he was processing his own home made beef jerky in the kitchen.

Eric Royce Leonard came into his interview with a notepad of his own taking names and making threats against detectives. When the detectives informed Leonard he had been identified as having bought ammunition from a gun store, Leonard informed them that he did not even own a .25 caliber pistol. Leonard had hung himself. No one but the police and the murderer knew the caliber of the weapon. The police had made it a point not to release that information to anyone. Asked if he knew anyone who owned a .25 caliber pistol Leonard admitted his father owned one and the detectives drove out to Rio Linda and retrieved what ballistics would prove was the murder weapon in all six killings.

Leonard’s father was brought in to talk to him and Leonard confessed that he did the killings and acted alone.

Eric Royce Leonard pleaded innocent and the trial is one of the most memorable in Sacramento history. While his defense attorney questioned a witness about Leonard’s seizures, Leonard had one. A law enforcement officer would sarcastically remark that Leonard’s seizures did not prevent him from killing six people. Also notable was that in the middle of the trial Leonard stood up and shouted “I did it!!”. Leonard’s attorney demanded a mistrial in a scene that would lead to an amusing cartoon being printed in the Sacramento Bee in which a lawyer who is covering his clients mouth argues, “Your honor, now that my client has confessed, he cannot get a fair trial”. You can view a copy or Eric Royce Leonard’s court records by clicking here

Eric Royce Leonard currently is on California’s death row and in May of 2007 the California Supreme Court upheld his death sentence. To view the court’s decision, click here.

Between the time the murders were committed and the time he was caught the case was under the spotlight of the media. In many instances the community was able to catch glimpses of the people Eric Royce Leonard murdered for “get out of jail money” and beef jerky. Twenty year old Zeid Ahmad Obeid was a recent Kuwaiti immigrant who had quit the Quik Mart after a previous robbery but returned because he needed the measly $125 dollar a week job in order to live, there was no furniture in his apartment and he slept on the floor. 42-year-old Thor Johnston was loved by his family and was going through bad health when he was gunned down in his wheel chair.

Twenty year old Kyle Reynolds came from a loving family and was raised in the Sierra Nevada Foothills. In order to attend college he transferred from the Round Table he had worked at for three years to move down to Sacramento to be out on his own for the first time. On a memorial page created by Kyle’s mother on MurderVictims.com, mom commented on her twenty year old son, “From the very beginning Kyle was bright and caring and loved by all. …he loved everyone and always saw the good in people. …Even with all the positive efforts we make forward, the void of Kyle’s death remains with us everyday, nothing will ever be the same.”

Judie Reynolds also remarked on the fact that the Deputy District Attorney was honest enough to tell her that she nor her husband would probably ever live long enough to see the death sentence carried out.

I’d like to welcome Lantern to our little cadre of writers. This is one first class write-up my friend.

-Max

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In an interview with police, accused cat killer Tyler Weinman eagerly detailed how to dissect cats, even describing the ”tearing sound” made when cutting open a feline’s flesh, according to an arrest affidavit released Monday.

Miami-Dade police detectives concluded Weinman fits the bill of a “sociopath.”

The arrest affidavit, released one month after Weinman’s arrest, details a circumstantial case based on the teen’s suspicious late-night forays, cat claw scratches on his body and cryptic, disturbing comments about feline dissection.

The document reveals for the first time evidence used to arrest Weinman in a case that terrorized pet owners and generated national headlines. The warrant ‘’speaks for itself,” said Miami-Dade prosecutor Elijah Levitt.

Weinman, however, in initial talks with police did not acknowledge killing any of the dozens of cats found mutilated across South Miami-Dade between April and June, according to the warrant. And no eyewitnesses to the killings were cited in the document. (Click Here to view arrest affidavit)

”It’s really important to note that there is not one single witness in there that says that Tyler Weinman touched a cat — not one witness,” said David Macey, Weinman’s attorney.

Weinman, accused of slaying 19 cats in South Miami-Dade, was formally charged Monday during arraignment in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. He has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors made public the 10-page arrest warrant affidavit, which had been sealed because investigators were looking at other possible suspects. No further arrests have been announced.

Weinman is charged with 19 counts of felony animal cruelty, 19 counts of improperly disposing of an animal body and four counts of burglary for allegedly returning to homes to dump the cats.

Weinman is on house arrest, free on $249,500 bond. His lawyers will return to court Friday to ask a judge to return property seized by police after his arrest.

The case against Weinman could strengthen considerably; investigators are awaiting lab results on cutting tools found in searches of Weinman’s parents’ houses.

Police psychological profilers concluded the killer ”would be referred to as a sociopath” — and detectives agreed Weinman fit the description.

”I’m not exactly sure where they came up with their conclusion or their junk science but all that’s going to be proven faulty,” Macey responded.

Prosecutors charged Hayes in connection with the mutilations of 19 cats, the first found on April 28 near Weinman’s home on the 19400 block of Ridgeland Drive in Cutler Bay.

One cat was posed with a slit down the its stomach. Another was missing the top of its mouth. Another was missing genitalia. The scenes were bloodless, meaning the cats were killed elsewhere and dumped at the scenes.

Among evidence cited by prosecutors:

• On May 14 about 2 a.m., officers found him walking along Whispering Pines Road. A witness told police he saw Weinman walking and using his cell phone on the same street about an hour later — then three hours after that, another cat was found nearby.

The next night, a Miami-Dade sergeant found Weinman — clad in black, wearing a backpack — skateboarding in Cutler Bay. Weinman laughed when the sergeant suggested he keep his cats indoors.

• On May 15, officers stopped Weinman when he ran a red light in Cutler Bay. They found a ”cutting tool” he apparently threw outside his driver’s side window. The tool was impounded. Weinman was arrested for marijuana possession.

• During that arrest, officers noticed a ”prominent red-colored scratch across the right side of Weinman’s neck.” He claimed it came from feeding a stray cat at his mother’s house — he then eagerly showed detectives another scratch on his back.

”The cat climbed down my back,” Weinman told Miami-Dade Detective Dominick Columbro.

• Police attached an electronic tracking device to his car that pinpointed him in the immediate area of one killing reported June 6. A witness also told police that a suspicious black car — similar to Weinman’s — was seen casing the street as detectives pored over the crime scene. The car sped off.

• Weinman, at length, described dissecting cats, which he learned during an anatomy class at Palmetto Senior High. To police, he noted ”with excitement” that cats for dissection could only be received from Mexico, the warrant said.

During his interview, he seemed almost to be toying with investigators.

Detective Columbro asked what tools someone would use to kill cats.

”I don’t know but I’m sure they are very well-hidden,” he said.

How do you think the cats are captured, he asked.

”They either have to be tranquilized or poisoned,” Weinman replied.

While he did not admit to any cat killings, he did disclose to investigators that he ”despises” his father. In media interviews, his father and stepmother have said they own several cats.

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The marriage of Raul and Cathy Sarinana was “a match made in hell” that resulted in the deaths of two defenseless boys, a judge said Friday before sentencing the Corona couple to death.

Raul Ricardo Sarinana, 42, and Cathy Lynn Sarinana, 32, were convicted in March of torturing and murdering 11-year-old Ricky Morales, their nephew. Authorities have said they believe the couple also killed 13-year-old Conrad Morales, Ricky’s brother, in Randle, Wash. Charges have not been filed in that death.

In pronouncing sentences for the Sarinanas in Superior Court in Riverside, Judge Paul E. Zellerbach followed the recommendations two juries made in April. A sentence of death in California is automatically appealed.

Cathy Sarinana will be the 16th woman on California’s death row. Overall, 680 inmates await execution. The most recent execution was in January 2006.

Zellerbach said a dominant factor in his decision was the way Ricky was abused repeatedly by both Sarinanas. In autopsy photos shown at the trial, the boy’s body was covered with new and old scabs, bruises and scars, and a pathologist testified that Ricky had cracked ribs and a torn lung.

“The ongoing and almost mind-numbing extent of the torture inflicted on these boys … is horrifying,” Zellerbach said.

Ricky died in a closet at the Sarinanas’ Corona home on Christmas Day 2005 after Raul Sarinana kicked and beat him for cleaning a bathroom too slowly, according to trial testimony.

Raul Sarinana also told police he had beaten Conrad and later found him dead. The older boy’s body was found encased in concrete in a trash can outside the Corona home.

In a courtroom packed with members of the Sarinana and Morales families and members of the two juries, five of Ricky and Conrad’s relatives told the court Friday how the boys’ deaths have devastated their family.

Rosa Sarinana, the boys’ mother, described how Conrad and Ricky always knew when she was upset and tried to help. Now her main consolation is her youngest son, the child she was carrying when she learned of Conrad and Ricky’s deaths, she said.

She sent Ricky and Conrad to live with the Sarinanas when she and other relatives couldn’t care for them.

“How can I enjoy life after what they’ve done to my sons?” Rosa Sarinana said.

“God has given me another chance, but it’s not the same.”

She and the boys’ sister, Destinee Morales, 19, said they believed death sentences would serve justice, although Rosa added that Raul and Cathy should suffer the torture her sons did.

Jurors were released from their obligations in April but some returned Friday. The harrowing experience of the three-month trial has stayed with Brad Wrightstone, 34, a Riverside resident who was foreman of Raul Sarinana’s jury.

“I pretty much think about it every day,” Wrightstone said. “I wanted to make sure that our decision that we came up with was upheld, and if it wasn’t I wanted to know why.”

Many thanks to Cristina for tipping us off to the good news.

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.

UPDATE 07-07-2009 – NIXZMARY BROWN AUTOPSY PHOTOGRAPHS

I received a great email from Joan, the administrator of End Child Abuse Now, a website dedicated to the memory of children that died at the hands of their parent/parents, like Nixzmary Brown or Kristen Salem. It’s a beautiful site with touching memorials to several different victims.

So anyways, she sent me a links to Nixzmary Brown’s autopsy photos. There not too graphic – there’s no blood or views of the actual procedure – but they do show all of her external injuries. Instead of posting them to the site and possible offending someone, I’ve decided to link to them instead. If you want to see these autopsy photos for yourself, click here.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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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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