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twotap
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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Police have arrested a suspect in two fatal highway shootings in Mississippi that prompted warnings a fake officer might be pulling over victims.
Authorities said early Friday that the fears of an impostor turned out to be unfounded. Mississippi Department of Public Safety spokesman Warren Strain told The Associated Press that the suspect, James D. Willie, 28, had not been posing as a police officer in the shootings.
Willie was being held on charges of kidnapping, aggravated assault and rape and would be formally charged with two counts of capital murder, Strain said. He was being held at the Tunica County jail in north Mississippi.
Willie was arrested Tuesday morning when authorities responded to a disturbance at an apartment. Tunica police found Willie with a woman who claimed he had raped her, a news release said. When Willie was arrested, authorities found a 9mm Ruger in his possession. Ballistic testing later found that it was the same gun used in the two highway shootings, authorities said.
Strain said Willie is a convicted felon, but he did not have details about his previous arrests.
Thomas Schlender, 74, of Raymond, Neb., was found dead in his car on Interstate 55 in Panola County on May 8 around 1:30 a.m. Lori Anne Carswell, 48, of Hernando, Miss. was found dead near her car on Mississippi Highway 713 in nearby Tunica County about 2:15 a.m. on May 11.
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_________________
"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Fri May 18, 2012 8:42 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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| I DON'T SEE THE CONNECTION TO TRAYVON MARTIN. DON'T EXPECT ME TO REPRINT EVERY STORY OF A WHITE PERSON VICTIMIZING A BLACK PERSON. |
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Fri May 18, 2012 1:47 pm |
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twotap
F L I N T O I D
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You wont have to the liberal lamestreamers have you covered. By the way shouting dosent make your posts any more legit.  |
_________________
"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Fri May 18, 2012 8:17 pm |
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Crowfeeder
F L I N T O I D
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This case becomes more and more interesting.See what Prof Alan Durshowitz,not a fellow known for right wing pronouncements,has said about State Attorney Angela Corey and this case..
Could there be Abuse of Process ? Malicious Prosecution ? .How about the withholding of exculpatory evidence ? Was there cropped information fed to a gullible public by an agenda driven left leaning media ?
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Fri May 18, 2012 9:17 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Trayvon Martin Case: George Zimmerman Made Racist Remarks At Work
The Huffington Post | By Danielle Cadet Posted: 05/18/2012 4:46 pmithin a collection of evidence officially released by the State Attorney's Office on Thursday, was an audio recording of a 15-minute interview with George Zimmerman's former co-worker. During the interview, the man, whose name was not given, says that Zimmerman racially targeted him and bullied him at work, ThinkProgress.com reports.
According to the witness, Zimmerman singled him out because he was Middle Eastern, calling him a "very moron" and mocking him with the voice of "Achmed the terrorist." He said Zimmerman would also tell stories and make jokes about "bombing" and other "Middle Eastern stuff."
Zimmerman has been charged with shooting 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on the evening of Feb. 26 in a gated community in Sanford, Fla. Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer called 911 and told a police dispatcher that the teen, who was returning from a trip to a nearby convenience store, "looked suspicious." After an altercation, Zimmerman shot Martin in the chest, subsequently telling local police that he acted in self-defense.
In addition to the second-degree murder charge he's facing, Zimmerman could also face federal hate crime charges. If convicted of second-degree murder, Zimmerman could serve a maximum sentence of life in prison. However, if he is found guilty of a federal hate crime charge, he could face the death penalty.
The witness said that he never felt physically threatened by Zimmerman or had any violent interaction with him. He said that he complained to management about Zimmerman's behavior, and Zimmerman was eventually "fired for calling the HR hotline so many times."
Complaints about Zimmerman's behavior aren't new. In the past, his neighbors complained about his aggressive tactics as a neighborhood watchmen and public records show he was arrested in Orange County in 2005 on charges of resisting arrest with violence and battery on a law enforcement officer.
Since his arrest, Zimmerman has been released on bond. The case is expected to go to trial. |
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Sat May 19, 2012 9:38 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Danielle Cadet
Danielle.Cadet@huffingtonpost.com
New Evidence Released In Trayvon Martin Case May Complicate Public Debate (UPDATE)
Posted: 05/17/2012 7:38 pm Updated: 05/18/2012 1:46 pm
The debate about what happened the night of Trayvon Martin's death is becoming increasingly complex after details of the investigation, including new information about shooter George Zimmerman's injuries and the screaming heard on 911 recordings, were released Thursday.
The State Attorney's Office officially disclosed a hefty collection of court documents including 67 CDs of witness statements, 911 calls, non-emergency calls, photos and surveillance videos, WESH Orlando reports.
Zimmerman has been charged with killing an unarmed Martin the evening of Feb. 26 in the gated community where Martin's father's girlfriend lived in Sanford, Fla. Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer called 911 and told a police dispatcher that Martin, who was returning from a trip to a nearby convenience store, "looked suspicious." After an altercation, Zimmerman shot Martin in the chest, subsequently telling local police that he acted in self-defense.
Zimmerman has since been released on bond. The case is expected to go to trial.
The Associated Press reported the following details based on the newly released material:
•Autopsy results show Trayvon Martin had marijuana in his system and that he was shot through the heart at close range.
•George Zimmerman had a broken nose, bruises and bloody cuts on the back of his head. "Bleeding tenderness to his nose, and a small laceration to the back of his head. All injuries have minor bleeding," paramedic Michael Brandy wrote about Zimmerman's injuries in the report.
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The lead investigator called for Zimmerman's arrest in a report written March 13, a month before the actual arrest. The investigator, Christopher Serino, told prosecutors the fight could have been avoided if Zimmerman had stayed in his vehicle. He said Zimmerman could have identified himself to Martin, then talked to him, rather than confronting him. There is no evidence Martin was involved in any criminal activity, Serino said.
•Serino wrote in a report that he played a 911 call for Martin's father, Tracy, in which screams for help are heard multiple times. "I asked Mr. Martin if the voice calling for help was that of his son," the officer wrote. "Mr. Martin, clearly emotionally impacted by the recording, quietly responded 'no.'" Zimmerman's father also listened to the recording and told investigators on March 19 that it was his son yelling for help. "That is absolutely positively George Zimmerman," Robert Zimmerman said. "He was not just yelling, he sounded like he was screaming for his life."
•An unnamed woman told an investigator in a police interview that she stays away from Zimmerman because he's racist and because of things he's done to her in the past, but she didn't elaborate on what happened between them. "I don't at all know who this kid was or anything else. But I know George, and I know that he does not like black people. He would start something. He's very confrontational. It's in his blood. We'll just say that," the woman says in an audio recording.
•An unnamed man told investigators said he worked with Zimmerman in 2008 for a few months. The man, who described his heritage as "Middle Eastern," said Zimmerman bullied him at work. Zimmerman wanted to "get in" with the clique at work who did not like the man, so Zimmerman exaggerated a Middle Eastern accent, and made reference to terrorists and bombings when talking about him. "It was so immature," said the employee, who complained to management about Zimmerman. Zimmerman's parents say he wasn't racist. They said he mentored black students and had a black relative.
Whether the latest evidence will prove beneficial to the defense or the prosecution remains unclear.
According to details leaked from an autopsy report Wednesday and confirmed by the evidence Thursday, Martin's death was caused by a single gunshot wound to the chest, NBC News reported. One legal expert said the distance between Zimmerman and Martin at the time of the shooting will inevitably be key for both sides at trial.
"Time and space are often critical determinants in self-defense cases," Ronald Carlson, professor at University of Georgia Law told The Huffington Post Black Voices. "Defendants often are at an advantage by saying 'the attacker was very close to me, I was in imminent danger of death.'"
"If the [medical examiner] who will testify for the state comes toward the shorter range, that's not necessarily inconsistent with Zimmerman's account. But if we're out at 4 feet, then that's going to be very helpful to the prosecutor. If the evidence suggests that the person was not as close, then that puts the kibosh on the defendant's story."
Information from Martin's autopsy report was leaked just one day after medical records from Zimmerman's family physician, specifying his injuries following the attack were released. Those injuries also were confirmed Thursday.
Carlson said those details align with Zimmerman's account of the confrontation. "The damage to Zimmerman is clearly corroborated by the injuries, the location and the severity," he said. "Clearly, there was a big conflict going on."
But Benjamin Crump, an attorney for Martin’s family, said the Zimmerman medical reports raise more questions than answers.
“You have to take all of this in full context,” Crump told The Huffington Post this afternoon. “When someone leaks information they do it for a reason. Someone is trying to manipulate and bolster George Zimmerman’s self-defense claims.”
A number of points remain troubling, Crump said, including the fact that Zimmerman visited his family doctor the day after the shooting.
ABC News reported on Wednesday that Zimmerman sought an appointment with his family doctor to get legal clearance to return to work, which Crump said is a clear indication that Zimmerman was not as badly hurt as he claimed.
Leaked
details also revealed Zimmerman was taking the prescription drugs Adderall, which is prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and narcolepsy, and Temazepam, an insomnia medication, said Crump.
“He was on uppers and downers at the same time,” the attorney said. “These are medications that can cause side effects such as agitation, delusions and mood swings. That’s what he was on prior to the shooting. The question becomes, did those drugs have an effect on George Zimmerman the night he shot and killed Trayvon Martin?”
ABC News also reported that the teen had traces of the drug THC, which is found in marijuana, in his system the night of the shooting.
As for the trial itself, Carlson said it could be a challenge for the prosecution simply because Zimmerman is the only witness to Martin's death. "The story line is going to be set first and foremost by the surviving party," he said. "It's not insurmountable, but it certainly gives the edge in the opening stages to the defense."
UPDATE: (10:09) -- This story has been updated since it was originally published. |
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Sat May 19, 2012 9:47 am |
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Crowfeeder
F L I N T O I D
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Sat May 19, 2012 2:24 pm |
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twotap
F L I N T O I D
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Drop George Zimmerman’s murder charge
New evidence suggests Trayvon Martin's killer acted in self-defense
By Alan Dershowitz / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Friday, May 18, 2012, 3:55 AM
Updated: Friday, May 18, 2012, 3:55 AM
.A medical report by George Zimmerman’s doctor has disclosed that Zimmerman had a fractured nose, two black eyes, two lacerations on the back of his head and a back injury on the day after the fatal shooting. If this evidence turns out to be valid, the prosecutor will have no choice but to drop the second-degree murder charge against Zimmerman — if she wants to act ethically, lawfully and professionally.
There is, of course, no assurance that the special prosecutor handling the case, State Attorney Angela Corey, will do the right thing. Because until now, her actions have been anything but ethical, lawful and professional.
She was aware when she submitted an affidavit that it did not contain the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. She deliberately withheld evidence that supported Zimmerman’s claim of self-defense. The New York Times has reported that the police had “a full face picture” of Zimmerman, before paramedics treated him, that showed “a bloodied nose.” The prosecutor also had photographic evidence of bruises to the back of his head.
State Attorney's Office/AP
This Feb. 27, 2012 photo released by the State Attorney's Office shows George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer who shot Trayvon Martin, with blood on the back of his head. The photo and reports were among evidence released by prosecutors that also includes calls to police, video and numerous other documents. But none of this was included in any affidavit.
Now there is much more extensive medical evidence that would tend to support Zimmerman’s version of events. This version, if true, would establish self-defense even if Zimmerman had improperly followed, harassed and provoked Martin.
A defendant, under Florida law, loses his “stand your ground” defense if he provoked the encounter — but he retains traditional self-defense if he reasonably believed his life was in danger and his only recourse was to employ deadly force.
Thus, if Zimmerman verbally provoked Martin, but Martin then got on top of Zimmerman and banged his head into the ground, broke his nose, bloodied his eyes and persisted in attacking Zimmerman — and if Zimmerman couldn’t protect himself from further attack except by shooting Martin — he would have the right to do that. (The prosecution has already admitted that it has no evidence that Zimmerman started the actual fight.)
This is a fact-specific case, in which much turns on what the jury believes beyond a reasonable doubt. It must resolve all such doubts in favor of the defendant, because our system of justice insists that it is better for 10 guilty defendants to go free than for even one innocent to be wrongfully convicted.
You wouldn’t know that from listening to Corey, who announced that her jobs was “to do justice for Trayvon Martin” — not for George Zimmerman.
As many see it, her additional job is to prevent riots of the sort that followed the acquittal of the policemen who beat Rodney King.
Indeed, Mansfield Frazier, a columnist for the Daily Beast, has suggested that it is the responsibility of the legal system to “avert a large scale racial calamity.” He has urged Zimmerman’s defense lawyer to become a “savior” by brokering a deal to plead his client guilty to a crime that “has him back on the streets within this decade.”
But it is not the role of a defense lawyer to save the world or the country. His job — his only job — is to get the best result for his client, by all legal and ethical means.
RELATED: TRAYVON MARTIN HAD MARIJUANA IN HIS SYSTEM THE NIGHT HE WAS SHOT
Listen to the way a famous British barrister put it in 1820:
“An advocate, by the sacred duty which he owes his client, knows, in the discharge of that office, but one person in the world, that client and none other . . . Nay, separating even the duties of a patriot from those of an advocate, and casting them, if need be, to the wind, he must go on reckless of the consequences, if his fate it should unhappily be, to involve his country in confusion for his client’s protection.”
The prosecutor’s job is far broader: to do justice to the defendant as well as the alleged victim. As the Supreme Court has said: “The government wins . . . when justice is done.”
Zimmerman’s lawyer is doing his job. It’s about time for the prosecutor to start doing hers.
Dershowitz, a defense attorney, is a professor at Harvard Law School. |
_________________
"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Sun May 20, 2012 7:14 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Rep. Woodrow Stanley among Democrats seeking to repeal 'stand your ground' laws
Published: Friday, May 18, 2012, 12:01 PM
By Kristin Longley | klongley1@mlive.com
FLINT, MI -- A group of Democratic lawmakers have introduced legislation that would repeal Michigan's "stand your ground" self-defense laws after the shooting of Florida teen Trayvon Martin, according to a report by WNEM (Channel 5).
Among the lawmakers is state Rep. Woodrow Stanley, D-Flint, who said he would prefer the law revert back to a previous version, which required individuals considering the use of lethal force to retreat if possible.
"'This is a law that promotes violence, the whole notion that you should stand your ground, it sounds like a very aggressive statement. What we should be trying to do is get people to be more civil, get people to try to not promote violence,' said Stanley."
House Bill 5644 is pending in the House Judiciary Committee. Read the full text here. |
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Sun May 20, 2012 6:58 pm |
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twotap
F L I N T O I D
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"'This is a law that promotes violence, the whole notion that you should stand your ground, it sounds like a very aggressive statement."
Revert back to the old days where you can be sued if you shoot a punk who breaks into your house, or attempts to car jack you and your loved ones.
Why anyone would give airtime to Hoodrow Stanley is quite puzzling. Its time to revert these democrats from office. |
_________________
"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Sun May 20, 2012 7:39 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Trayvon Martin Case: Witnesses Change Accounts, Which Could Hurt Zimmerman
Posted: 05/23/2012 12:10 pm Updated: 05/23/2012 5:16 pm
Four Witnesses Change Their Stories in Trayvon Martin Case
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George Zimmerman's self-defense claim could be hurt by his own witnesses, who have changed their accounts since they were interviewed early on in the Trayvon Martin case.
The Orlando Sentinel reported that four witnesses' statements regarding the Feb. 26 shooting changed significantly when they were interviewed a second time in March. The statements are included in the collection of evidence officially released by the State Attorney's Office last week.
Here is an overview of the key changes in their accounts, as reported by the Sentinel.
Witness 2
A young woman who lives in the Retreat at Twin Lakes community, where Trayvon was shot, was interviewed twice by Sanford police and once by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
She told authorities that she had taken out her contact lenses just before the incident. In her first recorded interview with Sanford police four days after the shooting, she told lead Investigator Chris Serino, "I saw two guys running. Couldn't tell you who was in front, who was behind."
She stepped away from her window, and when she looked again, she "saw a fistfight. Just fists. I don't know who was hitting who."
A week later, she added a detail when talking again to Serino: During the chase, the two figures had been 10 feet apart.
That all changed when she was reinterviewed March 20 by an FDLE agent. That time, she recalled catching a glimpse of just one running figure, she told FDLE Investigator John Batchelor, and she heard the person more than saw him.
"I couldn't tell you if it was a man, a woman, a kid, black or white. I couldn't tell you because it was dark and because I didn't have my contacts on or glasses. … I just know I saw a person out there."
Witness 12 was interviewed on March 20, saying she "didn't know which one" was on top of the other during the scuffle. Six days later, she said she was sure it was Zimmerman on top, the Sentinel reported.
Witness 6 lived close to where the incident occurred. On the night of the shooting, he told investigators that Martin was on top, "just throwing down blows on the guy, MMA-style," the paper reported. He also noted that Zimmerman was calling for help. But three weeks later, the witness said he wasn't sure who was calling for help.
Witness 13 said he spotted Zimmerman with "blood on the back of his head," he told police. Zimmerman allegedly told the witness that Martin "was beating up on me, so I had to shoot him." In two interviews after that one a month later, the witness described Zimmerman's demeanor as nonchalant, "... More like, 'Just tell my wife I shot somebody' like it was nothing."
The witnesses are expected to be interviewed at least once more before Zimmerman's trial.
This week, security video was released showing Trayvon Martin at a Sanford, Fla. 7-Eleven the night he died. The teen purchased a bag of Skittles and an Arizona iced tea, a short time before he was killed.
The evidence from that night -- and the dialogue surrounding it -- has grown increasingly complex. Last week, it was revealed that Zimmerman really did sustain injuries to his face and head during the incident. In addition, information from Martin's autopsy report was leaked just one day after medical records from Zimmerman's family physician were released.
ABC News reported that the teen had traces of THC, the drug found in the marijuana plant, in his system the night of the shooting.
Zimmerman has been charged with shooting 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on the evening of Feb. 26 in a gated community in Sanford, Fla. Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer called 911 and told a police dispatcher that the teen, who was returning from a trip to a nearby convenience store, "looked suspicious." After an altercation, Zimmerman shot Martin in the chest, subsequently telling local police that he acted in self-defense.
Editor's note: a few details about the evidence and the February incident were added at the end of this story after it was published. |
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Wed May 23, 2012 5:48 pm |
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