On the run

My heart goes out to the families of the victims.

Stabbing is an up close personal crime.  I agree that the victims probably knew the assailant and I am confident that SAPD will find him or her.

Unless he or she fled across the border, it should be relatively soon.

Double slaying on East Side

Bodies of man and woman found in apartment, stabbed multiple times; motive unclear as killer still sought.
By Jazmine Ulloa - Express-News

A man discovered the bodies of his 24-year-old daughter and a man in an East Side residence Wednesday morning, victims of what San Antonio police said was a double homicide.

Two young children who were in the ground floor apartment in the 1700 block of Dawson Street when the bodies were found were later released to family members, San Antonio Police Lt. Paul Heitzman said.

Relatives identified the woman as Daniella Medrano, 24, although police have not yet released her identity or that of the man who was also killed.

The rest of the story:

Queen of all legal battles - Round I

What a mess.

There will be no "winners" here only losers by the time the legal wrangling and battle is done.

Pageant's legal battle escalates

Group counter-sues disputed queen.
By Guillermo Contreras - Express-News

The organization that runs the Miss San Antonio pageant on Wednesday counter-sued the queen it was trying to oust, Domonique Ramirez, as a judge put off ruling whether she should keep her crown.

The counterclaim filed by the Miss Bexar County Organization Inc. accuses Ramirez and her mother, Lorena Briseño, of breach of contract. It said the organization suffered damage to its reputation, loss of income from sponsors and “diminution” of the value of the Miss San Antonio franchise.

“We feel there are some damages that have occurred,” said Ben Wallis Jr., the organization's lawyer.

The rest of the story:

One sick freak No. 2

Apparently he had been the General Manager of the Holiday Inn near Market Square when he was arrested.

No indication of him doing anything from the hotel's computers.

Man pleads guilty in violent child-porn case

He admitted to distributing images of minors being raped.
By Guillermo Contreras - Express-News

A San Antonio man pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges that he distributed images of children being raped.

Phillip Wade Henderson, 51, who worked at the Holiday Inn near Market Square when FBI agents arrested him last May, admitted distributing child pornography before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Nowak.

“They made him plead guilty to distribution because he was using the peer-to-peer networks,” said his lawyer, Van Hilley. “He's obviously been doing the best he can, getting treatment and attempting to rectify the wrongs he did.”

The rest of the story:

POS Alert

Take a good look at this man.

Police believe he is the POS that mugged a 96 year old man and stole five bucks.

Do you know him or know where he is?

Please call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS

Middle-aged crook mugged 96 year old man in Woodside for $5: cops

BY Rocco Parascandola  - DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF

A 96-year-old Queens man was mugged for all of $5 by a man half his age, police said Tuesday.

The victim was knocked to the ground but escaped serious injury in Tuesday's incident.

His attacker is still being sought.

The NYPD released surveillance photos taken in an elevator at the victim's building on 54th St. in Woodside.

The suspect is described as a short black man in his 40s. He was clad all in black at the time, wearing a parka, knitted ski cap, glove and pants.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.

Hill Country Porn

Nice work folks!

Kiddie porn bust on Galveston Street

By Judith Pannebaker - The Bandera County Courier

A Bandera County resident has been busted for possession of child pornography – aka kiddie porn – according to Chief Deputy Richard Smith of the Bandera County Sheriff’s Office.

The raid of the unidentified man’s house, located in the 100 block of Galveston Street, took place on Thursday, Jan. 6. Agents with the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Division (ICE) of the Department of Homeland Security executed a federal evidentiary search warrant. Smith said members of the BCSO Emergency Response Team assisted with serving the warrant and recovering evidence. “Sufficient evidence was found at the man’s home for federal agents to seek an indictment and secure an arrest warrant,” he noted.

The ICE division became involved in the case because child pornography in cyberspace possibly involves victims from many countries. Additionally, ICE is now under the larger umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security.

The rest of the story:

At a seminar in beautiful Bandera

Yeeee Haww!

Dear Readers,

I am attending a DWI Seminar today being put on by the Texas District and County Attorneys Association.

The presenter is Clay Abbott, who is an outstanding speaker.

Introductions by Bandera County Attorney John Payne.

As they say here in Bandera "enjoy your day the Cowboy way!"

Yippee kay yay!

See you on the other side of the ranch


Man o' Law

The Fifth Down

Last suspect plead Guilty in murder case and sentenced to 20 years for Aggravated Assault.

Fifth suspect guilty in party shooting

By Craig Kapitan - Express-News

The last of five defendants in a 2009 murder case pleaded guilty this week to a lesser charge of aggravated assault, accepting a 20-year sentence for encouraging his friend's shooting death.

Gilbert Anthony Vargas, 22, entered the plea Monday before state District Judge Maria Teresa Herr.

He was arrested in July 2009, days after a friend, Justin Rodriguez, 21, was gunned down outside a party at his West Side apartment. Witnesses said Vargas got in a fight at a party and later returned, yelling at Rodriguez for not backing him up in the fight.

The rest of the story:

Down for the count

Yes, they may have acquitted him of one count but he's down for the count on the other one.

55 years down to be exact.

Man gets 55 years for raping girl

Witnesses describe violence they were forced to endure.
By Craig Kapitan - Express-News

A San Antonio man was sentenced to 55 years in prison Tuesday for the aggravated sexual assault of a young girl who he was alleged to have given a venereal disease.

A jury last month convicted Thesus Williams, 37, of one count of molesting the girl and acquitted him of a second count. He chose to have state District Judge Raymond Angelini set his sentence.

Williams told the child's mother in September 2007 he had been reading the Bible to get the devil out of him after having impure thoughts about the child, and months later the child made an outcry, saying Williams had shown her porn, then raped her, court documents say.

The rest of the story:

All you need is......Drug sub!

Man, you know its getting bad when the drug cartels and bad guys start shipping by freaking submarines.

Columbian military seizes 100-foot drug sub capable of holding 8 tons of cocaine

By Phillip Caulfield - NY Daily News

The Colombian military has nabbed a sophisticated, 100-foot long submarine capable of transporting eight tons of cocaine to the coast of Mexico, authorities said Monday.

The fiberglass sub, which was seized in a jungle in Timbiqui, near the Colombia's southwestern Pacific coast, could carry a crew of four to six people, had two diesel engines and navigational equipment allowing it to remain fully submerged up to 30 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, navy officials said.

It also had a 16 ½ foot periscope and an air-conditioner to keep the crew cool during the trip. Authorities estimated it cost about $2 million to build.
The vessel was a step up technologically from previous narcosubs found in Colombia, which could not operate completely underwater.

The rest of the story:

The Italian stallion

Its never the deed its always the cover-up that gets you.

Ask Former Presidents Clinton and Nixon.

Okay, you can't ask Nixon because he's dead.  It was meant as a rhetorical statement.

Italy's Berlusconi indicted in prostitution probe

By Colleen Barry - Breitbart

MILAN (AP) - An Italian judge on Tuesday ordered Premier Silvio Berlusconi to stand trial on charges he paid for sex with a 17-year-old Moroccan girl, then tried to cover it up.

Berlusconi has stood trial on a number of business-related charges, but this is the first time the 74-year-old billionaire businessman is being tried for personal conduct. Berlusconi has denied wrongdoing, accusing the prosecutors of seeking to oust him from power.

Judge Cristina Di Censo handed down the indictment with a terse statement. The trial is to begin April 6, and will be heard by a panel of three judges, all of them women.

The rest of the story:

The Magic Mushroom

A young entrepreneur put out of business, for good I hope.

Over 355 grams of chocolates laced with Psilocybin; ought to be enough to put him away for a while.


Mushroom-laced chocolates seized in Friendswood drug bust
Houston Chronicle -

Friendswood police say they found chocolates laced with psychedelic mushrooms during a drug bust on Friday.
Police say the discovery led to the arrest of Friendswood resident Kory Allen Long, 19.

He was charged with a first degree felony: possession of a controlled substance -- penalty group 2 -- with intent to deliver. He was booked into the Friendswood City Jail on Friday afternoon and later transferred to the Galveston County Jail. His bond was set at $20,000.

In a news release, officer Lisa Price said the police had obtained a search warrant for the 800 block of Briarmeadow Avenue after a months-long investigation into the sale of marijuana and other drug activities at the home.

The rest of the story:

And as if on cue; you too can have your kid play a drug cartel thug.....

Really Ubisoft?  Really?

Innocent children and cops are being slaughtered but lets not let that get in the way of making some bucks off of it.


Video game named Call of Juarez: The Cartel

By Andy Chalk - Blue Water - Green Tree

Police in Texas are unhappy with Ubisoft's upcoming Call of Juarez: The Cartel, which they say glorifies drug-related violence in Mexico and could even help push teenagers into the lifestyle.

Not much is known about Ubisoft's plans for the next Call of Juarez game except that it will take the series out of its wild west roots and drop it into the modern day instead. But that's enough to earn it a thumbs-down from law enforcement in Texas, where the game's apparent tie-in to the ongoing cartel wars in Mexico seems to have struck a nerve.

"Unfortunately there are companies that are looking to capitalize on the violent situation in Mexico which has had a very negative impact on the country," Brownsville Police Chief Carlos Garcia told the Brownsville Herald. "There have been spillover cases in certain areas of our country with cases of kidnappings and murders. This is a serious topic and this is just another violent video game."

The rest of the story:

Stop the madness

When will Mexico put an end to the lawlessness?

Better question.  Can they put an end to the lawlessness?

Rest in Peace little Antonio, Rest in Peace.

Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico - Second Grader Executed In Acapulco

Staff Reporter - Blue Water - Green Tree

Today was another painful reminder of the senseless on going cartel related executions of innocent children. This one occurred in the port city of Acapulco in the state of Guerrero, Mexico. Early Saturday morning in the Infonavit Alto Progreso neighborhood in Acapulco, the lifeless body of a seven year old elementary school child was discovered.

He had been reported missing at 10:40 a.m. on Friday. This was after not returning from running a short distance errand to the neighborhood store to buy his Mother, María de los Angeles Jiménez Sotelo, age 36, a package of tortillas.

His disappearance was reported to the police "Policia Preventiva", and she had also spoken on the local television station pleading for her son's safe return. All day Friday and into the night her family members and many neighbors had searched the entire neighborhood.

She had also distributed dozens of flyers on the various walls, and lamp posts with the child's photograph in a futile attempt to find him.

At the scene of the crime outraged residents commented that the little boy was on his way back to his house when he was forced into a vehicle by unknown men. Another neighbor told of how they as well as several policemen had swept the neighborhood looking for the little boy. Even late into Friday night there were several army trucks still searching the surrounding streets.

One neighbor lamented, "They waited until everyone had left before they dropped off the body." That neighbor remembers seeing the BOMU convoy after midnight, driving on Paseo de la Cañada, as she was coming home from working at a factory.

The body that was found on Saturday at 6:30 a.m. was that of the missing seven year old little boy, Antonio Rodrigo Jiménez Cortes. His lifeless body was found on the steps of pedestrian overpass of the Paseo de la Cañada, just a few feet away from Building # 10 and apartment # 201 where he lived with his Mother.

The rest of the story:

Thirty-five years to think about what he did

This is not a victimless crime.

Every-time someone views or reviews the sexual abuse of the children who are being molested it is as if they are being molested all over again.

God bless the young woman, who had been a child victim, who bravely stepped forward and testified to the abuse and how she feels when someone views the tapes her father made as he molested her.

My hat's off to Jennifer Tharp and the ADA's in my office who helped get this sentence.

New Braunfels man gets 35 years for possession of child porn

By J. Louise Larson -The Herald-Zeitung

NEW BRAUNFELS - One of the most viewed "known victims" of child pornography testified Monday in the sentencing phase of James Paul Barron, 55.

The New Braunfels man was sentenced to 35 years in prison for six counts of possession of child pornography.

The rest of the story:

Love Arabian-style

Valentine's Day is apparently okay but no red please.

Couples find novel ways to celebrate Valentine's Day

By Sarah Abdullah - Arab News

JEDDAH: While some retail outlets in the Kingdom have geared up for Valentine’s Day only to be warned by the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice to remove items that are red, many couples have devised novel ways to celebrate Feb. 14 by exchanging other types of gifts.

Instead of exchanging red roses or balloons, couples are now exchanging jewelry, perfumes, chocolates and other gifts, in addition to having dinner in some of the city’s most popular restaurants.

“I have already bought my wife a gold and diamond bracelet and have reserved seats at a local restaurant to celebrate,” said Amjad, a 28-year-old Saudi who recently got married.

He added that if celebrating Valentine’s Day can bring a couple’s relationship closer, then it is well worth it given the high rate of divorce in the Kingdom.

Restaurants in Jeddah have been reporting a 90 percent increase in reservations for Monday evening. Many expect a very busy night as couples and families celebrate Valentine’s Day.

The rest of the story: