Idaho Man and Woman Fractured 14 Bones in 7-Week-Old Baby Girl’s Body During ‘Traumatic’ Episodes of Sex Abuse and Child Abuse: Authorities

 

An Idaho couple were recently arrested in connection with a horrific child abuse case involving sexual assault and “traumatic” injury last week. Now, new details about the case have emerged.

Nicholas T. Branson, 26, stands accused of felony injury to a child and forcible sexual penetration by a foreign object. Hailey N. Harris, 26, stands accused of felony injury to a child. Both defendants hail from Hayden, Idaho and were arrested on Jan. 21, 2022 by deputies with the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office. Branson and Harris remain in jail on $20,000 bail, which is mandatory in the Gem State unless one is accused of a crime that could result in the death penalty.

The alleged victim in the case is a 7-week-old baby girl.

In December, KCSO deputies responded to Kootenai Health, a hospital in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, after the agency received reports of the infant sustaining “traumatic” injuries that were said to be both “significant and critical” and consistent with sexual abuse, according to court documents cited by the Coeur d’Alene Post Falls Press.

After a month-long investigation, authorities executed arrest warrants and took the pair into custody.

Additional and recently-released documents cited by the paper allege that a doctor who examined the child described her as suffering brain injuries “very specific to abuse” and “not seen in accidental head injury.” According to medical personnel cited by law enforcement, the girl suffered at least 14 fractures, including multiple fractures to both legs. Those court documents say that such injuries are likely caused by “forceful grabbing and twisting” of an infant’s limbs.

But that wasn’t nearly all the doctors found.

Additionally, doctors reportedly said, the girl appeared to have sustained multiple rib fractures that likely occurred at different times. Those fractures are reportedly consistent with blunt force trauma and/or squeezing. The girl also had liver damage that was said to be consistent with blunt force trauma to her abdomen.

The girl also showed signs of bruising on her torso. Those bruises, doctors said, were “patterned after a fist or fingers.” She also reportedly had mouth injuries consistent with a bottle being roughly forced into her mouth. Medical staff at the hospital also told law enforcement there was evidence of trauma on the child’s genitals.

According to the KCSO, law enforcement collected evidence that included a bloody diaper and numerous allegedly tell-tale text message exchanges between Harris and Branson regarding the girl.

“She won’t stop ducking [sic] crying,” Harris reportedly said to Branson in a frantic string of messages one day in December of last year.

“I’m going to freak out,” those messages allegedly continued.  “I cannot handle it anymore.”

When questioned by police, Branson allegedly admitted to causing some of the girl’s injuries and to sexually abusing the newborn. Harris, however, denied shaking or sexually abusing the child.

The child abuse charges are punishable by up to 10 years in state prison. The sexual abuse charge is punishable by life in prison.

Prosecutors are reportedly likely to request additional bail for the defendants in a hearing currently slated for next week.

https://lawandcrime.com/crime/idaho-man-and-woman-fractured-14-bones-in-7-week-old-baby-girls-body-during-traumatic-episodes-of-sex-abuse-and-child-abuse-authorities/

Minneapolis Man Sentenced for Repeatedly Making ‘Abusive Sexual Contact’ With Teen Boy Who ‘Began to Cry’ on Airplane Flight Home After Hockey Game

 

A Minneapolis man was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison earlier this week for engaging in non-consensual and abusive sexual contact with a minor on an airplane out of Boston in April 2019.

Neeraj Chopra, 41, was sentenced to 15 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel on Thursday. After originally being charged with two additional transportation-related crimes, the defendant was only found guilty on the one abusive sexual conduct charge and sentenced in line with a request from federal prosecutors.

According to the brief, one-page indictment obtained by Law&Crime, Chopra violated a sex crime statute on a Jet Blue flight on April 8, 2019 “by touching” a 16-year-old victim’s “groin over clothing.”

A sentencing memorandum filed by the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office sheds additional light on the circumstances of the incident “During the second leg of the trip home from a hockey tournament in Buffalo, New York attended by numerous family members, N.F. took his window seat on Jet Blue Flight 1735 from Boston to Minneapolis,” the memo says. “Chopra was seated in the middle seat next to N.F., and another passenger was initially seated in the aisle seat next to Chopra, though that passenger left his seat during the flight and did not return. Chopra did not initially move to the empty seat.”

The defendant quickly took advantage of the situation by getting a blanket out of his backpack and draping it “over his lap” as well as over “a portion of N.F.’s right leg,” according to the sentencing memo, which recounts the evidence shown and found to have been correct at trial.

“With his arm under the blanket, Chopra placed his hand on N.F.’s right knee,” the memo goes on. N.F. moved closer to the window and asked Chopra to move over, stating words to the effect of ‘do you mind?’ Chopra apologized and removed his hand from N.F.’s knee.”

But that wasn’t nearly the end of it.

After taking out his tablet, the defendant initiated his victim in conversation, bringing up his background in IT, showing the boy things on the screen, “including photos of himself and his friends partying.” He also asked the boy if he wanted to “hang out sometime.” Apparently wise to the much-older man’s designs, the victim explained “that he was a junior in high school” and, when pressed by the defendant to hang out, entered a fake name and phone number into Chopra’s cellular phone.

Still, Chopra was not content to leave the teen alone.

“Later in the flight, Chopra put his tray table down and his head on the tray table as if he was sleeping; the blanket was still on Chopra’s lap and N.F.’s leg,” the memo continues. “With his left arm under the blanket, Chopra again put his hand on N.F.’s right knee and moved his hand around on N.F.’s knee and inner thigh. Afraid and uncomfortable, N.F. tried tapping his brother C.F., who was seated directly in front of him, but C.F. was sleeping and did not respond. N.F. attempted to move away from Chopra and asked him to move. Chopra removed his hand a second time, apologized and claimed he must have fallen asleep.”

The reprieve, however, didn’t last for long; things eventually became unbearable for the victim. From the filing at length:

Chopra returned his head to the tray table and again touched N.F.’s leg and inner thigh with his hand and arm under the blanket. Unable to get his brother’s attention, N.F. took three photographs of Chopra’s hand and arm on N.F.’s right leg partially covered by the blanket.  Taken over a 10-to-15-minute period, the photographs show Chopra’s increasing encroachment on N.F.’s personal space. Chopra’s hand and arm move first from the side of N.F.’s right leg closest to Chopra, then to the top of N.F.’s leg, and eventually to N.F.’s inner right thigh and groin area. The final photo, Government Exhibit 2d, shows N.F.’s right leg entirely covered by Chopra’s left arm and Chopra’s elbow resting atop N.F.’s groin area. N.F. became so uncomfortable with Chopra’s touching that he began to cry.

When C.F. eventually responded to N.F.’s attempts to get his attention, he turned around to see that N.F. was in distress. In fact, C.F. testified that he had never seen that look on his brother’s face before. C.F. then summoned a flight attendant and asked her to check on Chopra. The flight attendant testified that she did not have to wake Chopra, who immediately raised his head and responded affirmatively when she asked him if he was okay. N.F. testified that as Chopra was raising his head from the tray table to respond to the flight attendant, Chopra ran his hand along N.F.’s inner thigh and up over his penis before removing his hand from N.F.’s leg.

After that, the older brother contacted his father and said there was a problem. The boys’ father switched seats with his youngest son. Chopra, when asked by the older brother, finally moved to the long-empty seat next to him.

Law enforcement met the defendant at the gate, who admitted to touching the boy inappropriately, but said it was because he was asleep and having a bad dream “about a family member being killed.” That same story was repeated during trial and rejected by a Minnesota jury.

[image via Joe Raedle/Getty Images]

https://lawandcrime.com/crime/minneapolis-man-sentenced-for-repeatedly-making-abusive-sexual-contact-with-teen-boy-who-began-to-cry-on-airplane-flight-home-after-hockey-game/

In Remembrance of Malaka Taylor and Maurice Taylor Jr.

 

Arizona mother of decapitated children charged in their 2020 killings

LANCASTER, Calif. – An Arizona woman accused of killing her two children, who were decapitated in their Southern California home last year, has been arrested at her Tucson home, authorities said Wednesday.

Natalie Brothwell, 44, was taken into custody Tuesday and was being held at the Pima County Jail pending extradition to California, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.

Brothwell was charged Monday with murder and felony child endangerment, the department said. 

Her 13-year-old daughter, Malaka Taylor, and 12-year-old son, Maurice Taylor Jr., were found decapitated Dec. 4 at their home in Lancaster, in the Mojave Desert northeast of Los Angeles.

The children’s father, 35-year-old Maurice Taylor Sr., was earlier charged in their deaths and remains in custody, authorities said.

Maurice Taylor allegedly killed the children on Nov. 29, kept the bodies in the home for days and then showed their bodies to his two other sons. 

Taylor was charged with child abuse of the surviving sons, who were 8 and 9 years old at the time. The children also were forced to stay in their rooms without food for several days, prosecutors contended.

Brothwell’s alleged role in the killings wasn’t immediately clear from the Sheriff’s Department statement. 

It also wasn’t immediately clear whether Brothwell or Taylor had attorneys to speak on her behalf.

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In Remembrance of Damari Driver

 

CHICAGO (WLS) - The Chicago mother of a 6-year-old boy found dead in Indiana has now been charged with his murder. Police say two of the child’s siblings also played a role in the crime.

The body of Damari Driver was found in Gary, Indiana, Friday night after North Chicago police said he was last seen Tuesday and reported missing on Wednesday.

The boy’s father and cousin, Dalvin Driver and Dreena Driver, returned to the scene in Gary, Indiana with other family members.

“I’m lost, man. I feel like I lost a part of myself when I got the news,” Dalvin Driver said.

“We’re his voice, I want them to know this really hurt us,” Dreena Driver, the boy’s cousin, said. “This is not replaceable. He’s not replaceable. We can’t go back and get another Damari.”

Police said the boy’s mother, Jannie Perry, originally told them her son was missing in Skokie, Illinois. However, investigators said the evidence didn’t add up, and they shifted their focus to the family’s home in North Chicago.

After investigating, police arrested Jannie Perry, Damari’s older brother Jeremiah Perry and another sibling too young to be identified.

“My little cousin should’ve been away from her,” Dreena Driver said. “We’re all shocked, we’re all in disbelief, we all don’t understand how she could let it get to this point.”

Prosecutors in Indiana said Jannie Perry, the boy’s mother, has been charged with first degree murder, concealment of a homicide and obstruction of justice.

Damari Driver’s 20-year-old brother, Jeremiah Perry, was charged with aggravated battery, concealing a homicide and obstruction of justice. Charges the other sibling is facing have not been revealed.

“I pray God don’t have no mercy on none of their souls for what they did to him because they hurt my whole family,” Dreena Driver said.

Damari Driver’s family described him as having a huge personality.

“He was just the life of me, man,” Dalvin Driver said. “It’s like you can walk in the room, and everybody loved him. I only had a little time to spend with my baby, man. I wish that I had more. Basically, i just wish he was still here.”

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