Thursday, May 2, 2013
Uncle of suspect involved in shooting speaks out
Posted: Oct 14, 2010 4:59 PM
Updated: Oct 14, 2010 9:34 PM
Rating:
3.0 (2 votes)
TUCSON - TucsonPpolice have identified the man shot and killed by U-S Marshals in a barrage of gunfire.
He is 30 year old Billie Joe Carter.
Tucson Police say he was wanted for a probation violation warrant and also in connection to a missing and endangered child case.
Wednesday, a shots fired call came in at the Circle K on Miracle Mile and Flowing Wells Road.
Tucson Police say U.S. Marshals were looking for Carter and followed him to the Circle K where he stopped to pump gas.
Gunfire then erupted and Carter was shot and killed.
There was another person in the car that had gone into the convenience store just before the shots.
It was Carter's uncle, who asked not to be identified by his name.
He described what happened just minutes before gunfire erupted."Actually I went in the store to pay for some gas, and there was cops shooting at my nephew in the seat of his car," he said.
According to police investigators once the U-S Marshal's boxed Billy Joe Carter in he tried to flee in the vehicle, Carter then displayed a handgun.
It's unclear if Carter fired his weapon.
His uncle told us, "He was struggling to get out of the car , apparently he had gun and they kept firing until he was on the ground on the other side of car."
The uncle claims he was unaware his nephew had a weapon.
"It was horrible a lot of shots fired and a lot of people in the cross fire in a public place like that I thought it was overdone, he's dead now."
Tucson police preformed C-P-R but were unsuccessful.
We checked the Department of Corrections records, and it shows carter went into prison in 2005 on felony theft.
He was paroled in June of this year.
In August was listed as an absconder.
http://www.kvoa.com/news/uncle-of-suspect-involved-in-shooting-speaks-out/
TPD releases details on deadly shootout in midtown
Posted: Oct 14, 2010 10:35 AM
Updated: Oct 14, 2010 2:59 PM
TUCSON - U.S. Marshals followed the victim of Wednesday's deadly shootout to the Circle K in midtown, and fired at him after he pulled a handgun, following an unsuccessful flee attempt.
According to a press release from Tucson Police, TPD officers responded to 1395 W. Miracle Mile after U.S. Marshals had already exchanged gunfire with 30-year-old Billy Joe Carter.
Officers found him, suffering from gunshot trauma, and administered CPR. They were unsuccessful, and Carter died at the scene, the release states.
Members of the Arizona WANTED Violent Offender Task Force were attempting to locate Carter; he was wanted for a probation violation warrant in connection with a missing/endangered child case, according to the release.
Marshals with the task force located Carter in the area, and followed him to the Circle K, where he stopped his vehicle at the gas pumps, the release states.
Members of the task force drove up to Carter and blocked his vehicle in. He attempted to maneuver his vehicle around them in an attempt to flee, but was unsuccessful.
Carter pulled out a handgun, which the Marshals took as a lethal threat, and several of them fired at him. There were no injuries to members of the task force, or to citizens in the area.
Tucson Police homicide detectives are continuing to investigate the incident.
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Saturday, January 26, 2013
Pictured: The tiny dog cage in which foster mother 'kept four-year-old girl she is accused of murdering'
- Geralyn Graham on trial for murder 12 years after Rilta disappeared in her care
- Case rests on a confession she made to another inmate while she was in jail on an unrelated fraud charge
- Rilya's disappearance went undetected for two years leading to a massive shakeup in Florida Department of Children and Families
- Graham told friends a social worker took her and never brought her back
- Her body has never been found
PUBLISHED: 11:03 EST, 30 November 2012 | UPDATED: 13:19 EST, 30 November 2012
The tiny dog cage a foster mother kept the four-year-old child she is accused of murdering trapped in was wheeled out in court yesterday for jurors to see during the trial for first-degree murder, kidnapping and child abuse.
Rilya Wilson vanished in 2000 under the nose of Florida's child welfare agency while she was under the care of Geralyn Graham, 66. Her body has never been found.
Authorities long suspected Graham in Rilya's disappearance, but didn't charge her until 2005 when prosecutors said she confessed to an inmate while serving time on an unrelated fraud charge.
Prosecutors brought the wire dog cage into the court room yesterday and placed it in front of the jurors as Graham's friend Detra Coakley Winfield testified she loaned it to her specifically to keep the child in.
Vanished: Rilya Wilson, 4, was missing for two years before the state of Florida realized and began to search for her
Yesterday: Detra Coakley Winfield testifies in a Miami-Dade Criminal Court about the steel dog cage, left, she loaned Geralyn Graham to put Rilya Wilson in before the four-year-old child disappeared
She said Graham asked to borrow it and told her it was so she could keep the four-year-old in it at night 'to stop her from doing harm to herself'.
However she did admit she had never seen her inside the cage.
Graham has always maintained that a child welfare worker took Rilya from her home in January 2001 and never returned her. Her disappearance was not discovered until April 2002, leading to major reforms at the Florida Department of Children and Families.
Winfield was also asked earlier in the week about how Rilya was cared for and admitted she once saw her confined to a laundry room as punishment for bad behavior, according to The Miami Herald.
'I saw her in timeout but I never saw her in the dog cage,' she said, adding that she had never saw Graham strike the child once.
She also said she often seemed 'sad' during her eight-month stay at the Graham home and once saw her play with feces.
'To me, she had some issues, some mental issues,' Winfield told jurors yesterday.
Trial: Rilya (right) disappeared in 2000 aged four. Her foster mother, Geralyn Graham, now 66, is on trial more than a dozen years later
Graham told her Rilya, who was taken into care after being born to a crack-addicted mom, was taken to New York by a Spanish lady who had befriended her before being taken away by DCF.
On Wednesday, another family friend, Laquica Tuff, told jurors that she saw Rilya with scratches and a gash on her forehead about two months before the girl’s disappearance.
Lost: Rilya's body has never been found
She also said Graham told her the same story about her being taken to New York by a friend.
In the afternoon, a crime scene detective dispatched to Graham's home in Kendall in 2004, more than three years after Rilya disappeared and after the family had already moved, testified that little forensic evidence was found at the home except for latent evidence of human bodily fluid or blood in the garage, according to Local10.com.
Graham's attorney raised the possibility that Rilya could still be alive because her body has not been found.
Attorney Scott Sakin suggested Rilya could've been relocated to a new home and lost in a system that has a history of caseworker incompetence.
Sakin also reminded jurors that jailhouse snitches have much to gain for helping out prosecutors.
'Is there any evidence at all that this child is dead?' Sakin said. 'Where is the body? We don't have to prove that she's alive. They have to prove that this child is dead.'
Prosecutors said Graham confessed to killing Rilya, who would be 16 now, because she believed the girl was evil and possessed by demons.
Rilya and a younger sister were both given over to state care because their drug-addicted, frequently homeless mother could not care for them.
More...
- Boy, 12, found beaten, malnourished and without shoes after escaping parents 'who locked him away for three months'
- Grandmother 'beat, burned and bit her two young grandchildren and made them eat CAT FOOD’...after they'd been removed from their mother over abuse
Rilya's name is an acronym for 'remember I love you always' given by her birth mother.
One now-retired DCF supervisor, Willie Harris, testified that in April 2000 he received a call from Graham claiming Rilya's first foster home was 'deplorable' and might be unsafe.
Accused: Geralyn Graham is sworn in at Miami-Dade Criminal Court where she is charged with the murder of Rilya Wilson, who was in her care when she vanished in 2000
'I saw her in timeout but I never saw her in the dog cage,' Mrs Winfield said, adding that she had never saw Graham strike the child once
Rilya's younger sister was living with Graham and her unrelated companion, Pamela Graham, and Rilya had recently visited their house.
Harris said he decided to remove Rilya from the first foster home when he was denied access to investigate its condition. He took the girl to the Grahams' home.
'I thought it would be necessary to remove the child because I couldn't prove whether she was at risk or not at risk,' Harris testified.
The key to the case, both sides agree, is the testimony of career criminal Robin Lunceford, who befriended Graham in jail.
Lunceford claims that Graham, referring to Rilya as 'it,' told her she smothered the girl with a pillow and buried the remains near water 'because water represented peace,' Weintraub told jurors. Another inmate also claims that Graham confessed at a different time.
Weintraub said Lunceford was reluctant to snitch but 'couldn't stomach' knowing about the death of a child.
'If you tell me you killed an innocent child, I'm going to snitch, and I'm going to snitch proud. Because it's different,' Weintraub quoted Lunceford as telling detectives.
Lunceford had been facing a life sentence as a repeat offender but has had her sentence reduced to 10 years because of her cooperation, court records show. With time off for good behavior, she could be released by the end of December, Sakin pointed out.
'She's a rat,' Sakin said. 'Robin Lunceford would do anything, anything, to get out of prison.'
Graham also has a checkered past, including a history of convictions for fraud. Authorities said she has used 47 different aliases and had 10 different driver's licenses when she was arrested.
Weintraub said Graham forged documents falsely claiming she was Rilya's grandmother in order to collect state benefits — even after police believed the girl was dead.
The trial resumes on Tuesday.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Phoenix Man Gets Long Prison Term In Girls Death
5 hours ago
A Phoenix man has been sentenced to 22 years in prison in the death of his girlfriend's young daughter.
Maricopa County prosecutors say 19-year-old Martwane Mackey will be on lifetime probation with domestic violence and mental health terms after serving his prison term.
Mackey pleaded guilty in November to second-degree murder and child abuse in the death of 3-year-old Tyshea Austin. He was sentenced Thursday.
Phoenix police say Mackey called 911 around 2 a.m. on June 25, 2011 and claimed the girl wasn't breathing.
Responding officers reported seeing bite marks and injuries to her head and torso and said she appeared to have been dead for some time.
Investigators found similar injuries to Austin's 1-year-old sister.
Police say Mackey admitted to abusing the girls, but denied causing Austin's death.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Trial Date Set For Tucson Mom
http://www.tucsonnewsnow.com/story/20374904/trial-date-set-for-tucson-mom-accused-of-killing-2
Posted: Dec 18, 2012 1:05 PM Updated: Dec 18, 2012 1:05 PM
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - The trial for a Tucson woman accused of killing her two young children has been scheduled for February 2014.
The Arizona Daily Star (http://bit.ly/VPeX2F) reports that a status hearing in the case is set for April 15.
Pima County prosecutors say they are seeking the death penalty. They say the 26-year-old Morales qualifies for the death penalty because she shot multiple victims and both were under 15.
Police say Morales told them she shot 17-month-old Richard Rosovich Jr. and 4-year-old Emma Rosovich several times after her boyfriend threatened to leave her last Aug. 11.
Morales called 911 and told the dispatcher she needed an ambulance because her children were dead.
When the dispatcher called back, Morales told the dispatcher she had shot her kids and cut her wrists.
Information from: Arizona Daily Star, http://www.azstarnet.com
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Christy Ann Fornoff's murder not easily forgotten
Posted: Wednesday, May 11, 2011 5:30 am | Updated: 4:31 pm, Wed May 25, 2011.
Christy Ann Fornoff's murder not easily forgotten By Dan Zeiger, Tribune East Valley Tribune | comments
A man is scheduled to be executed soon for the kidnapping, rape and murder of a girl in a Tempe apartment complex more than a quarter-century ago. (See related story.)
For many of us who lived in the Valley at the time of the senseless incident, the victim’s name, Christy Ann Fornoff, is remembered almost instantaneously, recalling a time when an entire community was sickened, its faith and innocence shattered. For thousands of parents, Fornoff — killed on May 9, 1984, five days after her 13th birthday — could have been their son or daughter.
For many more children, including me, she could have been them.
At the time, Fornoff was a student at Connolly Middle School; I attended nearby Fees Intermediate School. Both fed into Marcos de Niza High School, where I attended with some of Fornoff’s former Connolly classmates. Fornoff was collecting payments for her newspaper route when she was abducted; I often helped out or filled in for a friend on his route.
Maybe those similarities are the biggest reason I have never forgotten Fornoff’s name. Or it could be the picture of her that was on the front page of every paper and led every television newscast for days.
Life in the Valley was much different then; the Phoenix metro area was less than half of its current population of 4.1 million. There were big-city crime realities, for sure, but nothing that held the attention of the entire area — particularly during the two days she was missing. Ask anyone who remembers: Fornoff’s disappearance and death was a big, big story.
Donald Beaty, the maintenance supervisor at the apartment complex where Fornoff disappeared, said he found her body behind a trash Dumpster. Ten days later, he was arrested for the murder and is slated to be executed on May 25.
People were outraged and disgusted — but most of all, scared.
“There was a sense of fear; it was pervading everything,” Peter DeCindis, a teacher at Connolly at the time of the murder, told the Tribune in 2004. “Every little kid was looking over their shoulder coming home. Parents coming to pick up their kids — no one was going to let their kid walk home.”
I lived the first nine years of my life in Indiana. On weekend and summer days, I, my sister, cousins and friends were often our own child care, heading off to play wherever in the mornings and not expected back home until dinner time. Our safety was not given a second thought.
Today, I will not let my boys go to the park behind our Gilbert home without them being in my line of sight.
After Fornoff’s death, more adults began handling newspaper routes, with each day’s edition more likely to be tossed into a driveway from a moving car than an over-the-shoulder bag. And technology has enabled billing to be conducted electronically, not door-to-door.
No, what happened to Fornoff did not result in all this. Her death was simply a symptom of an evolving society.
Through it all, life has gone on.
No Connolly teachers were available for recollection; a Tempe Elementary School District spokeswoman said that all of the faculty at the school when Fornoff died have retired or moved on. Harry Mitchell, then the mayor of Tempe who wrote a letter of condolence to the Fornoff family, declined an interview request through a spokesman. Even Fornoff’s parents, Carol and Roger, no longer live in Tempe.
But for myself and many others, Christy Ann Fornoff will live on in our memories, a name and face associated with tragedy and times changing.
• Contact writer: (480) 898-6301 or dzeiger@evtrib.com