Tuesday, May 22, 2012

The Kid Killers of Indiana

"Indiana teen pleads not guilty in shooting of 5" March 27, 2012

INDIANAPOLIS - A teenager who allegedly shot five other teens along the canal in downtown Indianapolis pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of attempted murder and illegally carrying a gun....

One of the victims said in the probable cause affidavit that the boy had been threatening and harassing him on Facebook before the shooting.

The suspect told investigators that he had gone to the mall to meet with some girls.

During the shooting, the teen reportedly shouted “Uptown Dough Boys,’’ a reference to a city gang, police said....

A state trooper has been credited with saving the life of one of the victims, a 16-year-old girl. He used his hands to stop the blood flow from her leg until medical help arrived.

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"Girl, 14, charged with killing cousin, 4" Associated Press, May 07, 2012

INDIANAPOLIS - A 14-year-old girl found covered with blood faces a preliminary murder charge in her 4-year-old cousin’s stabbing death, authorities said Sunday.

Police spokesman Kendale Adams said the girl was arrested after being questioned by officers. She is being held on a preliminary murder charge at the Marion County Juvenile Detention Center.

Prosecutors will determine whether she will be formally charged in the death of Leon Thomas III, who was found with multiple stab wounds.

Officers were called about 11 p.m. Saturday to an Indianapolis apartment, where they found the bleeding boy. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

Police later found the teenager, bloodied and walking along a nearby street.

Adams said the boy and his 11-year-old sister were at their grandparent’s apartment at the time of the attack. Investigators said the grandparents were in an upstairs room when the attack occurred. No additional details were released.

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"Charges stand against woman who ate poison, May 12, 2012

INDIANAPOLIS - The Indiana Supreme Court on Friday declined to drop murder and feticide charges against a woman who ate rat poison while she was pregnant in a case that medical and women’s rights groups warn could have larger repercussions.

However, the court’s unanimous ruling does allow Bei Bei Shuai to be released on bond, which is rare in murder cases.

Shuai’s attorneys contend the Chinese immigrant living in Indianapolis ate rat poison in a suicide attempt, not to kill her baby, and that she was suffering from depression. Prosecutors have said she wanted the baby to die. The baby died three days after being born.

Defense attorneys argued in court documents filed March 9 that prosecuting a woman based on the outcome of her pregnancy violates constitutional rights to due process and equal treatment and is cruel and unusual punishment.

Shuai, 34, lost her bid to have the charges against her dropped when Indiana’s highest court declined to hear her appeal. Friday’s order let stand a February Indiana Court of Appeals ruling that ordered a Marion County judge to set bond. Shuai was charged in March 2011 and has been jailed since.

Shuai’s attorney, Linda Pence, said she was “devastated’’ that the high court declined to hear the case. “It’s horrible. She shouldn’t be in jail. She should never have been in jail in the first place,’’ Pence said.

Bryan Corbin, a spokesman for the state attorney general’s office, which defended the charges on appeal, e-mailed a brief statement. “We respect the Court and the process in this difficult case,’’ Corbin said.

A spokeswoman for the Marion County prosecutor’s office had no immediate comment.

Several medical and women’s rights groups, including the National Organization for Women and the National Alliance for Mental Illness, have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in support of Shuai, claiming that prosecuting Shuai could set a precedent under which pregnant women could be prosecuted for smoking or other behavior that might be deemed a danger to their fetus.

Lynn Paltrow, executive director of the New York-based National Advocates for Pregnant Women, said Indiana courts have ignored 80 organizations and experts who have warned that allowing the case to go forward is “bad for mothers and babies.’’ An attorney from Paltrow’s group is helping defend Shuai.

“The message is . . . if you suffer a pregnancy loss or do anything an outsider thinks could be harming your pregnancy, you could be charged with a crime and put on trial,’’ Paltrow said.

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"Pair held for strapping kids to car hood" Associated Press, May 09, 2012

FORT WAYNE, Ind. - An Indiana man accused of driving three blocks with four children strapped to the hood of his car was being held in jail Tuesday on charges of drunken driving and neglect, police said.

Fort Wayne police said the mother of three of those children also was being held on neglect charges. The other child belonged to the man. The children - ages 4, 5, 6, and 7 - were not injured, police spokeswoman Raquel Foster said.

A witness called police Monday evening after seeing a man and woman using a tow strap to tie the children to the car in a liquor store parking lot and then drive away, Foster said.

“Apparently they were traveling a short distance, and he believed they would enjoy it,’’ Foster said.

She said a US marshal overheard the police radio traffic, spotted the car, and pulled it over....

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