Robert Snyder

Chess Teacher sexually molested three of his students. The charges were filed after the father of one of his students found Snyder and his son in the boy's room with a chair wedged against the shut door.

Click HERE for the story from the Denver Channel.com.

A chess teacher who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a child was sentenced Wednesday to two years in County Jail with 10 years to life of probation, the Larimer County District Attorney's office said.

Robert Snyder pleaded guilty to one count each of sexual assault on a child and unlawful sexual contact after being accused in 2005 of sexually assaulting three of his students. Snyder faced four counts of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust and two counts of sexual assault on a child pattern of abuse. The abuses were alleged to have happened at his home in late 2002 and the summer of 2005.

The district attorney's office said that for the duration of his probation Snyder will be on a sexual intensive probation, which is meant to make sure he is always monitored and has no contact with children. Officials said once he is out of jail, he must register as a sex offender and must submit to genetic counseling. The DA's office said he must also write a letter of apology to the victim.

Snyder owned the Fort Collins-based Chess For Juniors that operated out of his home.
The recent charges weren't the first to surface regarding Snyder who moved to Colorado from California in 2000. In 1983, he was found not guilty on four counts of sexual assault a California student. A judge dismissed the fifth count against him, according to the Los Angeles Times. The charges were filed after the father of one of his students found Snyder and his son in the boy's room with a chair wedged against the shut door, the Times reported.

The not guilty verdicts came after a four-week trial and two hours of deliberation by the jury.
Snyder is the author of several chess books published by Random House, which includes the bestseller "Chess For Juniors," and has written articles for "Chess Life" and "School Mates" magazines, according to his Web site. The Web site also said that Snyder taught the game to students such as actor Will Smith, and the son of actor Nicholas Cage.

Timothy Michael Gaut

Click HERE for the story from the Tribune Chronicle.

A Hubbard man who has been accused of raping a 6-year-old girl on a live Internet broadcast complained Wednesday about his treatment in jail. Timothy Michael Gaut, who has a foot injury, is not allowed to use crutches, which could be used as weapons against corrections officers. Gaut complained that jailers and inmates have referred to him as the ‘‘Easter Bunny rapist’’ after seeing him hobbling around.

His attorney, Anthony Consoldane, said Gaut claims he heard voices in his head, that he can’t sleep at night and is on suicide watch inside the Trumbull County Jail. ‘‘I want him to be in a hospital,’’ Consoldane told Trumbull County Judge W. Wyatt McKay.

Gaut, 32, of Gary Drive, is due back in court May 2, after a psychological evaluation is completed. The evaluation is to offer opinions on the defendant’s competency and sanity. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Gaut was arrested Jan. 28 when police said he still was in the process of soliciting online a man who turned out to be an undercover federal agent posing as a man offering his young daughter — another federal agent — for sex. They settled on $250 for the sex.

Gaut also faces a federal indictment in U.S. District Court of Eastern District of Virginia for ‘‘coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity and distribution of child pornography’’ since the federal agents were working out of Fairfax, Va.

Locally, Gaut, a one-time electrician, faces nine counts of rape that carry potential life sentences. One of those alleged rapes occurred in January and, under new laws, carries a life sentence with parole eligibility after serving 15 rather than 10 years. Other rapes occurred as far back as the fall of 2003 when the girl was age 3, the indictment states. Besides another charge of gross sexual imposition and one for importuning, Gaut also faces nine other counts of pandering obscenity involving a minor — all occurring earlier this year.

It was Jan. 26 and continuing through Jan. 27 that the federal agents, posing as ‘‘Alyson’’ and her father, ‘‘Rich,’’ communicated with Gaut in an online chat room and later by telephone, the indictments state.Rich told Gaut of his 11-year-old daughter, describing her as sexually experienced. Gaut inquired as to how much it would cost to have sex with her and elaborated on what types of sex he likes.

The indictments claim that Gaut offered to buy gifts for Alyson and described his own private parts before sending the live video of what police said was a rape. The federal officers immediately contacted Hubbard police after viewing the video and the local officers got the search warrant to ensure the safety of the victim, the indictment states. Police said the victim is now in the custody of Children Services.

Ronald Jones

Repeatedly raped a 13-year-old girl placed in his family's home for foster care. His mother threatened to kick her out if the girl reported the incidents.

Click HERE to read the story from the New York Post.

A 13-year-old Brooklyn girl was placed in a hellish foster home where she was repeatedly raped by the family's teenage son, authorities said. The girl claims her foster mom told her "keep your mouth shut or I won't adopt you," and intimated that the child had provoked the assault.

Ronald Jones, 18, first raped the victim in October, and the attacks continued until February, police said.

On March 5, the girl reported the attacks to Concord Family Services.

Jones was busted April 7 on charges of rape, sexual misconduct and sexual abuse. Authorities are investigating his mother, too.

Victor Caraballo, Hector Caraballo, Joel Lebron, Cesar Mena and Jesus Roman

Five men who kidnapped and robbed an 18 year-old couple, raped and killed the girl, tried to stab the guy to death.

Click HERE to read the story from the Miami Herald.

Nelson Portobanco didn't see the men raping his girlfriend, but he heard them take turns with her for 15 or maybe 20 minutes as they sped on Interstate 95 in an extended-cab pickup truck.

Portobanco choked back tears Monday as he described for a Miami-Dade Circuit Court jury what he remembered of that awful night, April 27, 2002. ''She asked them not to. She was crying,'' he said.

Jurors shook their heads, and one seemed close to tears listening to Portobanco struggle to describe what happened to him and what he heard happening to his girlfriend, Ana Maria Angel.

They were both 18 years old, high school seniors, out for a romantic dinner in Miami and a walk on South Beach. When they headed back to his car, five men jumped them, pushing them into the pickup. One had a gun. Another had a knife. They told Portobanco to put his head on his knees. He said he couldn't identify the man on trial, Victor Caraballo. ''I couldn't see any of them,'' he told the jury. He described how he heard them demand Angel's bank card and her PIN and how they used it to get gas and money before they got on I-95. After the prolonged rape, the men pulled over by the side of the highway and pushed Portobanco out, but they weren't done with him.

With seagrape bushes shielding them from passing cars on the highway, they stabbed Portobanco over and over again, 10 or 11 times, he thought. Finally, he decided to play dead so maybe they would stop. They kicked him a few times and stomped on his head, and then they drove away.

Angel was still in the truck.

''I ran towards the highway and I tried to wave somebody down to help me,'' Portobanco said. ``It was hard for me to breathe.'' He had a cut artery and was bleeding from his neck and back.

It didn't take long for someone to stop.

''The first thing I told him was that my girlfriend and I had been kidnapped and they still had her and the truck was up the road,'' he said.

Portobanco was taken to a hospital, where he told police the same story. It sounded too awful to be true. ''I was skeptical at first, but after I heard him, I realized it was very serious,'' said Miami Beach Detective Larry Marrero.

At that point, police began searching for Angel.

Angel's mother, Margarita Osorio, also went to the hospital and spoke with Portobanco.
''He had cuts all over his face and neck. He was extremely nervous, crying,'' she told the jury. "He asked for my forgiveness.'' She said that she and Portobanco's mother each called Angel's cellphone, leaving messages they hoped the kidnappers would hear. ''I said I would fulfill any requirement from them but not to hurt her,'' testified Osorio, who is from Medellín, Colombia.

At that point, no one knew that Angel was already dead by the side of the highway.

''We know she was forced to get down on her knees and we know that she had her hands clasped like this,'' Assistant State Attorney Laura Adams said, her own hands folded as if in prayer.
Angel was found in that position with a gunshot wound to the back of her head.

Police say they have DNA evidence that ties Caraballo to the crime, and Caraballo has confessed three times. He gave a statement to detectives the day he was arrested in Orlando, the day after the kidnapping, rape and homicide. He also wrote a letter to Assistant State Attorney Abe Laeser explaining that he didn't think he should be charged with rape because he only masturbated on Angel. He said he feared that he might get AIDS if he raped her because his brother had already raped her and he knew his brother had AIDS. Caraballo also gave an interview to a Spanish-language television station, making the same claims.

Investigators say Caraballo was not the ringleader, but he is the first of the five men, all from Orlando, to go on trial. If he is convicted, he is facing the death penalty. His attorney, Gary Rosenberg, gave only a brief opening statement Monday. ''We need to get past the horrible acts that happened to Miss Angel and we need to look at the evidence of who committed these crimes,'' Rosenberg said. His defense: "Victor Caraballo never touched a gun, never had a knife.''

The prosecutors have charged Caraballo under the felony murder statute, which holds everyone who commits a crime together responsible if someone is killed during that crime. The other accused men are Hector Caraballo, Joel Lebron, Cesar Mena and Jesus Roman.

Rodney Nickerson

Advertises his mentally challenged sister on Craigslist for sex.

Click HERE to read story from KVBC.com.

A Las Vegas man is under arrest accused of sexually assaulting his mentally challenged sister and attempting to offer her for sex out on the internet. 34-year-old Rodney Nickerson is being held on $800,000 bail.

According to a police report, Nickerson admitted to putting a photo of his 36-year-old sister on craigslist website. The ad featuring his sister apparently asked men if they wanted to have sex with her. The report states Nickerson also fondled his sister and had another man touch her as well. Nickerson's mother told New's 3 her son has always taken care of his sister since they were little .

"I know my son didn't do what they said he did," Deborah Nickerson told News 3. "My son also stuck up for her, (has) taken care of her. He's never bothered her sexually."

Police say they received a tip about the craigslist ad around mid-March. An undercover officer tried to arrange a meeting with Nickerson twice, but Nickerson never showed up.

Victor Lesley Urquhart and Robbie Sebastian Wheeler

A fourteen-year-old boy was kidnapped and held for three weeks while the HIV-positive Urquhart and his gay lover repeatedly sexually molested the teen.

Click HERE to read the story from The Australian News.

Update: More information HERE in this story, courtesy of the West Australian.

A teenage kidnap victim — chained to a bed by his captors — initially refused food and drink in case they were drugged and only had some water when he was allowed a shower three days into what became a threeweek ordeal as a sex slave to two paedophiles. “I was not going to eat unless I was very hungry in case they drugged it. They are bad people and that is what bad people do,” the boy said as some of the shocking details of his story were revealed to a District Court jury yesterday.

The boy also described how one morning he got up, grabbed his bag and intended to try to go to school — but the two men blocked his path. “I gave them a bit of a snigger — a ‘you f . . . . . .bastard’ kind of look,” he said.

The boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was snatched off a busy Perth street in 2005 by 46-yearold Victor Lesley Urquhart and 43-year-old Robbie Sebastian Wheeler. It was 20 days before he was rescued by police.

After his rescue he spent many hours with detectives and slowly started to talk about how he was tortured, abused and sexually assaulted. The video recordings of those interviews have been played to the jury over the past two days. Wheeler has pleaded guilty to 21 charges and Urquhart to 13 charges covering kidnap, indecently dealing with the boy and sexually penetrating him — but they have gone to trial on a charge of conspiring together to wilfully murder the teenager.

The boy said he was wagging school and walking along a busy street when two men suddenly grabbed him and dragged him into their home. He said Urquhart used the name Wayne and Wheeler used the name Ryan during the 20 days he was held.

“They dragged me through the bedroom door and Ryan slammed me on the bed,” the boy said.
“Ryan was holding me down. Wayne was fumbling around in the drawers getting the cuffs out. Even on the smallest setting I could still slip my hands out of it. “They put them on my legs instead. He put one around my foot and the other end around one of the posts on the end of the bed. Wayne went to get some rope and he lifted my arm up and tied it up. He did the same with the other arm.

“I was complaining so bad he loosened it for me so I would not scream. It was the only nice thing he did in the time I was there.

“Wayne put a hanky in my mouth. Before I could spit it out I had gaffer tape slammed over my mouth and stuck down.” The boy added: “They left the room for about 15 minutes and came back in and put a gay porno on. They stabbed speed into their arms and smoked marijuana.
“Wayne sat next to me on the bed and started jerking off. The other one brought in a couple of drinks. He sat down on the other side of me and started jerking off. I just sat watching, pretty scared. I was just looking around the room trying to think if there was a way out of what I was in. “Every time I tried to go to sleep they gave me a slap across the face so I just stayed awake all night. They jabbed themselves with the needle about three more times that night. They watched porn all night.”

The boy said he could not remember everything that happened each day but the two men used sex toys and other objects when they lay on the bed with him. He recalled how he was forced to use some of the objects and how it hurt. “Ryan handed them to me and said, ‘Use these or I’ll f . . . . . . rearrange your face, you little turd’,” the boy said. “They were sitting and watching with an excited look on their face.”

The boy said that because the house had an outside toilet he was forced to use a bucket or a cordial bottle as his toilet. He was allowed to have a shower on about the third day and a bath about three days before “the end of my stay”.

Marco Allen Chapman

Brutally stabbed a whole family, killing the two youngest children, after which he rapes their mother.

Click HERE to read the story from the Charleston Daily Mail.

Marco Allen Chapman wants to die by lethal injection after admitting he brutally killed two children and left their sister and mother for dead. Now, the Kentucky Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on the legality of Chapman's request.

The case is unprecedented in Kentucky - posing the question of whether a defendant can waive all his rights and request an execution. It also has the unusual twist of putting prosecutors and Chapman on the same side - arguing for the death sentence to be upheld, while Chapman's court-appointed defense attorneys seeking to save Chapman from committing what they call "suicide by court.''

"This is a defense lawyer's worst nightmare,'' said Michael Mello, a University of Vermont law professor and former lawyer for death row inmates in Florida.

The Kentucky Supreme Court set for oral arguments in the automatic appeal on April 12. Chapman, who has declined multiple interview requests, pleaded guilty in December 2004 to killing 7-year old Chelbi Sharon and 6-year old Cody Sharon in their home in the northern Kentucky community of Warsaw. Chapman also admitted attacking 10-year-old Courtney Sharon, who played dead after being stabbed several times, then raping and trying to kill their mother, Carolyn Marksberry, during the August 2002 assault. A judge granted his request to be sentenced to death.

Prosecutors say Chapman's attack was revenge for Marksberry advising a friend to end a relationship with Chapman. Immediately after the attacks, Chapman burglarized the home and fled to West Virginia, where he was arrested later that day.

Volunteering for a death sentence is not new. Since 1977, when Gary Mark Gilmore waived his appeals and stepped before a firing squad in Utah, 124 inmates in 26 of the 38 states with a death penalty law have waived appeals and asked to die. Nevada has had a dozen executions in that time, with 10 of them being inmates who volunteered. Texas, with 26 people volunteering, leads the nation in inmates giving up the fight against a death sentence, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C.

One of the two people executed in Kentucky since 1976 - Eddie Lee Harper - waived the remainder of his appeals and was executed in 1999.

A second Kentucky Death Row inmate, Shawn Windsor, is attempting the same thing as Chapman. Windsor pleaded guilty in 2006 to killing his wife and son and asked for execution. He is on Kentucky's Death Row, but Chapman's case is further along in the automatic appeals process granted in all death penalty cases.

What makes Chapman's case groundbreaking, lawyers said, was his decision to waive trial, sentencing by a jury, and nearly beg to be sentenced to death. Professors who teach criminal law have found Chapman's case - and it's potential implications for future defendants - disturbing.

Michael Hoffheimer, a criminal law professor at the University of Mississippi, said a ruling giving deference to a client's decision to seek a death sentence could be troubling because it would take away multiple legal safeguards to ensure that a competent, guilty person is put to death. Without those safeguards, there's a chance someone who is not guilty, but suicidal, could be executed, Hoffheimer said.

"Permitting defendants to make decisions that increase the risk of wrongful convictions is bad policy,'' Hoffheimer said. "The rights to life and liberty are unalienable. They should be accorded greater weight than the right to control one's legal defense.''

Judy Fairbanks

Leaves her disabled husband in a car in 28-degree weather while she goes into a casino. Thoughtfully puts a sign on the window asking people not to call security.

Click HERE to read the story from KETV.com.

A Nebraska woman was told on Monday that she could be sentenced to 10 years in jail on charges that she left her disabled husband in the car in sub-freezing temperatures outside an Iowa casino.

Authorities said Judy Fairbanks, of Bellevue, Neb., is charged with neglect of a dependent person after she allegedly left her husband, Charles, in a car outside the Horseshoe Casino over the weekend. Council Bluffs police said Fairbanks taped a sign to the window indicating her husband had a disability, he was resting and security should not be contacted.

Security guards for the casino found Charles Fairbanks in the car. Officials said they later found Fairbanks inside the casino gambling. She was arrested.

"This is the first time I've been made aware of this type of such a situation being unattended," said Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilber.

Police estimated that her husband had been left in the vehicle in a parking garage for about an hour before he was discovered. The temperature was about 28 degrees at the time.

"It's something we're taking very seriously," Wilber said. "It'd really be little different than having an infant left unattended in a parking garage, in terms of being able to look after himself, to care for himself." Wilber said Charles Fairbanks has suffered multiple strokes, has dementia and Alzheimer's disease. The man can't speak or move on his own. He was taken to a hospital. Officials said he wasn't injured during his time in the freezing car.

Police said a similar incident happened with Judy Fairbanks at the Horseshoe Casino in March, but officers weren't called out to the casino. Wilber said officers get called all the time for people leaving children in their cars while they go to gamble.

Lisa Gonzales

Mother advertised on her MySpace page that she would pay a bounty of five-hundred dollars for someone to kidnap her son from his father and bring the child to her.

Click HERE to read the story from My San Antonio.com.

Vernardo "Ben" Morales is happy to have his son, Junior, in his arms. The 2-year-old boy was kidnapped from his home Sunday night by strangers at the request of his mother.

"In her MySpace page, she advertised to them she was willing to pay $500 for anyone who could help her get her son back," said Bexar County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Russel McHorter. The mother, 20-year-old Lisa Gonzales, was arrested and is in jail.

"Lisa had to pay somebody to get somebody to come over here," Morales said.

According to a warrant, two people responded to the offer. On Saturday, Gonzales met with 20-year-old Reynaldo Galvan and 27-year-old Rosita Yanez at a Peter Piper Pizza in the 8200 block of Marbach Road.

The warrant says Galvan and Yanez went to a home in the 15000 block of Old Rosa Trail Saturday night and grabbed the child.

"Gonzales kept texting my sister weird things like, 'Where's Benny? Who's he with? Who is there at the house?' " Morales said.

Gonzales was desperate, investigators said. She had custody of a younger son she had with Morales, but she wanted custody of Junior, too.

Galvan and Yanez went into the unlocked house and took the boy. Another boy in the house alerted Morales who tried to chase after the kidnappers. Galvan fended off Morales with a bat and got away with the boy. The pair handed over the uninjured child to Gonzales at theTally Mart in the 6600 block of Old Tally Road.

On Sunday, police arrested Gonzales, Galvan, Yanez and Gonzales' aunt, 35-year-old Jeannette Noah. All four have been charged with agreement to abduct from custody. The child is back with the Morales.

Morales said Gonzales should never have put their child in danger. "When [Junior] was in the car, he was screaming his head off. And I was in a state of mind, 'I'm going to hurt somebody, that's my boy,' " Morales said.

Morales plans to go to court to gain custody of both children.

Kenneth Patrick Jeffries II

Stored child porn on his cellphone, which he lost and someone found. Someone who wasn't a pedophile.

Click HERE to read the story from the Columbus Dispatch.

A man who stored child pornography on his cell phone faces five to 20 years in federal prison.

Kenneth Patrick Jeffries II, 23, of Sharpsville, pleaded guilty to the child porn charge on Friday before a federal judge in Pittsburgh. Jeffries was charged after he lost his cell phone at a rib cook-off in Niles, Ohio, last July. The people who found the phone turned it on to try to locate Jeffries and discovered the images, which they reported to police.

Authorities said they found 168 images of nude children and adults on the phone. Jeffries confessed to making some of the images, and to storing others, authorities said.

Jeffries will be sentenced July 9.

Joseph Szlamnik

Puts zalepron (a potent sedative) and then Zanax in his date's drinks. Failed to succeed due to a perceptive waitress.

Click HERE - Link to the story from the San Francisco Chronicle

Darren Rose

Rapes a toddler after attempting to rape a 31 year-old woman who fought him off.

Click HERE to read the story from the South Wales Argus.

A "monster" carried out a sickening New Year's Day sex attack on a young girl just hours after another serious sex assault on a woman in the same Gwent town.

At Cardiff Crown Court today, Darren Rose, 21, of Duke Street, Abertillery, admitted committing the offences on a girl aged under six and on a 31-year-old woman.

Outside the court, the grandfather of the little girl branded Rose "a monster". He told the Argus: "It was an horrific attack on my granddaughter which has caused such pain and distress to her and to my family. "I hope they bang him up and throw away the key when he is sentenced." He said, "It has been horrendous ordeal for us all. We are hoping that because of her young age, she will be able to get over it."

But the grandfather said the attack had had a devastating effect on her: "She's very different to how she was. She has become withdrawn and she always used to come running to me. Now she won't do that. Sometimes, out of the blue, she will start talking about what happened to her. She has also been taking medication to sleep at night since it happened."

On New Year's Eve, the day before abusing the little girl, Rose pounced on a woman as she made her way home in the town during an early evening attack. A manhunt was launched and police issued an efit and an appeal for information was published in the Argus. They said the woman's ordeal could have been far worse had she not bravely fought back against her assailant by clawing at his face which forced him to flee. As a result of the woman fighting back Rose had scratch marks on his nose, cheek and forehead which were visible when he appeared in court just days later after his arrest for the attack on the little girl.

Rose pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the girl by penetration and sexual assault on the woman.

Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing

A very well-written, insightful examination of the nature of human cruelty. Buy this book, share it, then donate it to your local library.