LA Man Charged with Raping, Killing 19-Day-Old Daughter

Matthew Warner: Accused baby killer was free due to ‘realignment’

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. — A Los Angeles-area man was charged Tuesday with sexually assaulting, torturing and killing his three-week-old daughter.

Matthew Brendan Warner, 30, of Santa Clarita was charged with the molestation and death of his 19-day-old daughter, Ellorah, who was found Saturday morning in the cab of a pickup truck about a half-mile from the Newhall condominium that Warner shared with his girlfriend, who is the infant’s mother, officials said.

The parents had reported the child missing Friday night but the next morning Warner led investigators to the truck, which was parked at an apartment building, City News Service reported.

The exact cause of the child’s death had not been determined.

Warner, who remained jailed, was charged with murder, assault on a child causing death, sexual assault of a child, torture and oral copulation or sexual penetration of a child.

He remained jailed and could face life in prison if convicted. His arraignment Tuesday was continued to Feb. 18.

A call to his public defender, Victor Gerson, was not immediately returned.

His girlfriend was not arrested. Her mother, Nan Allison, told KABC-TV that her daughter was “inconsolable.”

Warner had told her that their baby was missing, she said.

“The idea that a three-week-old child should have to worry about defending herself against her 30-year-old father is abhorrent to me,” Allison said. “I hope that every minute of the rest of his existence he is burdened with guilt over what he’s done.”

Allison told the Los Angeles Times on Saturday that her daughter had left the baby with Warner on Friday to go to her job as a daycare provider.

The couple went to a sheriff’s station Friday night to report the child was missing.

The criminal complaint listed “revenge” as a motive for the alleged attack, KABC-TV reported.

Warner’s mother, Victoria Law-Thompson, told the station that her son had a history of drug addiction but she did not believe he would have intentionally harmed his daughter.

“No, no, it’s not even conceivable,” she said. “Not him. I wouldn’t call it murder if it’s an accident. I don’t know what happened,”

Warner was on probation after a 2012 conviction for joyriding – his fourth such conviction since 2003, authorities said.

 

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Matthew Warner: Accused baby killer was free due to ‘realignment’

By Jim Holt

Matthew Brendan Warner — charged with torturing, sexually assaulting and murdering his 19-day-old daughter — would likely have been incarcerated at the time of the slaying if not for the state’s prison realignment program, which freed him on probation, officials with law enforcement, probation and corrections said this week.

“Warner, at the time of his latest arrest, was on post release community supervision stemming from a Nov. 14, 2012, conviction for unlawful driving or taking of a vehicle with three priors. The priors were from 2003, 2004 and 2005,” said Ricardo Santiago, spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office.

“From March of 2004 to April 2013, Warner was an inmate or a parolee,” said Bill Sessa, spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

“He has three convictions for vehicle theft and one for grand theft, was in and out on parole a couple of times,” Sessa said.

In April 2013, the Newhall man was released from prison and discharged to Los Angeles County for probation supervision, Sessa said.

The release came after Assembly Bill 109 — the so-called public-safety realignment bill — took effect Oct. 1, 2012.

AB 109 shifted responsibility for nonviolent convicted felons from the state prison system to county resources.

Because Warner’s convictions between March 2004 and April 2013 involved drug or property crimes, not violent crimes, he was considered a “non-non-non” and released on probation.

“We call them N-3s: non-violent, non-sexual, non-serious offenders,” said Margarita Perez, assistant chief probation officer assigned to the Adult/Juvenile Field Services and AB 109 Los Angeles County Probation Department.

“He (Warner) is your non-non-non coming out of state prison,” Perez said after checking the murder suspect’s probation record. “He came out of prison as an AB 109.”

Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 109 in April 2011, responding to a court ruling that California must drastically reduce its overcrowded prison population by some 33,000 inmates. Brown’s realignment plan involved shifting incarceration from state prison to county jails for the so-called “N-3s” and allowing probation as an alternative to incarceration. It also shifted parolee supervision from the state prison system to the county.

“He’s never had an offense against people,” said homicide Lt. Holly Francisco, the lead investigator in the case filed against Warner this week charging him with assault of a child causing death, torture, oral copulation or sexual penetration with a child under 10 years old, aggravated sexual assault of a child, and murder — all brought against him in the death of his 19-day-old daughter.

According to the criminal complaint filed against him, each of the crimes occurred last Friday, Jan. 23 — the day mother Tawni Wallis left baby Ellorah Rose Warner with her husband, reportedly to go to work.

The infant’s body was found Saturday morning in the cab of a pickup truck at a Newhall park-and-ride lot after Warner led deputies to the area.

Released on probation in 2013, Warner violated the terms of that probation three times last year. Due to provisions of AB 109, he was put back on probation after very short jail times.

Couple Pleads Guilty to Raping 1-Year-Old Girl, Videotaping Assault

Stevie Foehl appears for her preliminary hearing at Kent County District Court in Grand Rapids Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2013. The preliminary was waived and will be going to circuit court. Foehl and Michael Emory are accused of raping a 1-year-old girl. She is pictured near Emory’s attorney, Damian Nunzio. (Cory Morse | MLive.com)

By John Tunison | jtunison@mlive.com

GRAND RAPIDS, MI — A Comstock Park couple is expected to be sentenced to a minimum 25 years in prison after both admitted to sexually assaulting a baby girl while videotaping the assault.

Michael Justin Emory, 26, and Stevie Marie Foehl, 28, are to be sentenced Feb. 19 in Kent County Circuit Court.

Both were in a Grand Rapids courtroom Wednesday, Jan. 21, to enter pleas in a case that has lingered since August 2013.

Police say the baby, less then 1-year-old, was the child of a friend of the couple.

Emory and Foehl were living in an apartment at York Creek Apartments off Alpine Avenue.

Police allege they discovered videos and photographs of child porn that included the child.

Michael Emory, right, talks with his attorney, Damian Nunzio, during his preliminary hearing at Kent County District Court in Grand Rapids Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2013. The preliminary was waived and will be going to circuit court. Emory and Stevie Foehl are accused of raping a 1-year-old girl. (Cory Morse | MLive.com)

At points, each of the pair held the camera and recorded the other assaulting the child, police say. Emory allegedly committed at least three sexual acts with the baby.

Police found the videos and other evidence while investigating Emory for a possible assault of a teen babysitter.

Relatives of the baby were in court Tuesday to watch the plea proceedings.

Prosecutors made no plea bargains in the case.

Emory pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a person under 13, child sexually abusive activity and using a computer to commit a crime.

Foehl pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, child sexually abusive activity and using a computer to commit a crime.

The case was delayed, in part, because of psychiatric exams ordered for both Emory and Foehl.

 

“Incest Mom” Sentenced to 219 Year in Prison Over Alabama Sex Ring

• Wendy Holland must serve at least 50 years in prison before parole consideration, a court heard on Thursday
• She and 10 other family members and family friends are charged as part of an incestuous sex ring accused of molesting children over years
• Details about the group emerged after the disappearance in 2012 of 19-year-old Brittney Wood
• In a letter read in court, one of the group’s underage female victims said years of abuse had left her traumatized
• ‘I was a little girl being held down and raped,’ wrote the victim, who was in court
• Another member of the three-generation Alabama family
• sex ring, William Brownlee, received a 20-year prison sentence 

DAVID MCCORMACK FOR MAILONLINE

Wendy Holland, 35, showed no emotion as the judge sentenced her to 219 years in prison on Thursday for her role in an incestuous sex ring accused of molesting children for years (file photo from court date last month)

An Alabama woman has been sentenced to 219 years in prison for her role in an incestuous sex ring accused of molesting children for years.

Wendy Holland, 35, showed no emotion as the judge condemned her on Thursday to what amounts to a life sentence. She must serve at least 50 years in prison before parole consideration, a prosecutor said.

Jurors convicted the woman of sodomy, sexual abuse and other charges last month.

Another defendant, William Brownlee, got a 20-year prison sentence. Brownlee, 50, was convicted of sodomy and sexual abuse in the fall.

The two were among 11 people charged with sex crimes following the disappearance in 2012 of a suspected victim of the ring, 19-year-old Brittney Wood. She remains missing and is presumed dead.

Baldwin Council Circuit Judge Jody Bishop gave both Holland and Brownlee the maximum sentence and said each deserved more time. Each still faces additional charges involving other alleged victims.

In a letter read in court, the underage female victim in both cases said years of abuse left her traumatized. She has a hard time trusting anyone, gets angry easily and rarely feels safe.

‘I was a little girl being held down and raped,’ wrote the victim, who was in court.

Authorities said the two were part of a group of relatives and friends who sexually abused children and swapped their own kids for sex for years.

William Brownlee received a 20-year prison sentence on Thursday for his role in the three-generation Alabama family sex ring.

Holland is the widow of the alleged leader of the group, Donnie Holland, who was Brittney Wood’s uncle.

The teen went missing around the time Holland was found with a gunshot to the head; his death was later ruled a suicide.

Wendy and Donnie Holland’s 22-year-old son Donald Paul Holland Jr. — charged with incest, rape and sexual abuse as another alleged participant in the ring — appeared before the judge in a closed hearing after his mother’s sentencing.

Details about the group emerged following the disappearance in 2012 of a suspected victim of the ring, 19-year-old Brittney Wood, left. She remains missing and is presumed dead

He was seen being arrested and led away in handcuffs afterward, but the outcome of his case wasn’t made public because he was handled as a youthful offender following a request by the defense.

Even without Brittney Wood to testify, two of her uncles and an older brother already pleaded guilty to sex charges before juries convicted Wendy Holland and Brownlee.

In the letter read in court, the underage teen abused by both Holland, a relative, and Brownlee, a family friend, compared her youth to being lost in a maze.

Brittney Wood’s uncle Donnie Holland killed himself not long after her disappearance.

The teen said she felt like she was constantly looking into shadows around corners in fear of more sexual torture.

‘The people who were supposed to protect me were the ones hurting me,’ she wrote in the letter.

Last month a jury took just two hours to find Wendy Holland guilty of sodomy, sexual abuse, sexual torture and child endangerment.

Wendy and Donnie Holland’s 22-year-old son Donald Paul Holland Jr. has been charged with incest, rape and sexual abuse as another alleged participant in the ring

The trial gave no clue as to the whereabouts of the presumed dead family member Brittney Wood, but it did give voice to abuse victims who claimed the sexual torture started when kids were still in diapers and involved family six-ways.

A teenager testifying to being part of a family sex ring told jurors Tuesday that she was first molested while still in diapers.

The young woman, who is still a minor, said her earliest memories include having sex with adult relatives — one of whom was Holland. Despite that, the teen tearfully said she still loves Holland ‘with all my heart.’

Brittney Wood was last seen at Tillman’s Corner, Alabama, in May 2012. She is presumed dead

The state rested its case following a session during which the teen testified that her relatives often had group sex. She said it sometimes including Holland’s missing 19-year-old niece Brittney Wood.

‘We would be in a circle and we’d all switch up,’ the girl testified.

Prosecutor Teresa Heinz asked how often such things occurred.

‘It happened a bunch,’ she said. A male relative who pleaded guilty later testified he once had six-way sex with a group of relatives that included the girl and Holland.

Crying, the teen had to stand up to see over the judge’s desk to identify Holland as one of the people who abused her.

Holland dabbed at her eyes and looked at the girl only briefly.

ARRESTS AND CHARGES IN THE WOOD SEX RING CASE 

Chessie Wood, Brittney’s mother: Two counts of sodomy and sex abuse of a child less than 12.

Derek Wood, Brittney’s brother: Second degree rape and second degree sodomy.

Nelton ‘Butch’ Morgan: Rape and sex abuse of a child under 12.

Dustin Kent: Two counts of rape, sex abuse, sodomy and production of obscene material of a person under 17. He allegedly raped a 13-year-old while her father looked on

William ‘Billy’ Brownlee: Two counts of rape, sodomy and sex abuse.

Mendy Kent: Sodomy and sex abuse.

Wendy Holland: Sodomy, sex abuse and child torture.

James Cumbaa: Rape, sodomy, and sex abuse.

Randall Scott Wood: Second degree sodomy, enticing a child to enter and second degree rape.

Jennifer Moore: Production of pornography involving minors and second-degree child abuse.

Donald Holland Jr: Incest and second degree rape

 

Man Convicted of Raping 3-Year-Old Daughter Dodges Jail Because He “Will Not Fare Well”

by  Ashley Alman

A Delaware man convicted of raping his three-year-old daughter only faced probation after a state Superior Court judge ruled he “will not fare well” in prison.

In her decision, Judge Jan Jurden suggested Robert H. Richards IV would benefit more from treatment. Richards, who was charged with fourth-degree rape in 2009, is an unemployed heir living off his trust fund. The light sentence has only became public as the result of a subsequent lawsuit filed by his ex-wife, which charges that he penetrated his daughter with his fingers while masturbating, and subsequently assaulted his son as well.

Richards is the great grandson of du Pont family patriarch Irenee du Pont, a chemical baron.

According to the lawsuit filed by Richards’ ex-wife, he admitted to assaulting his infant son in addition to his daughter between 2005 and 2007. Richards was initially indicted on two counts of second-degree child rape, felonies that translate to a 10-year mandatory jail sentence per count. He was released on $60,000 bail while awaiting his charges.

Richards hired one of the state’s top law firms and was offered a plea deal of one count of fourth-degree rape charges — which carries no mandatory minimum prison sentencing. He accepted, and admitted to the assault.

In her sentence, Jurden said he would benefit from participating in a sex offenders rehabilitation program rather than serving prison time.

Delaware Public Defender Brendan J. O’Neill told The News Journal that it was “extremely rare” for an individual to fare well in prison. “Prison is to punish, to segregate the offender from society, and the notion that prison serves people well hasn’t proven to be true in most circumstances,” he said, adding that the light sentence for the member of the one percent raised questions about “how a person with great wealth may be treated by the system.” (Though perhaps it provides more answers than questions.)

According to the The News Journal, several attorneys claimed treatment over jail time was a deal more typically granted to drug addicts, not sex offenders.

Kendall Marlowe, executive director of the National Association for Counsel for Children, told The News Journal that sex offenders are jailed for the safety of the children they threaten.

“Child protection laws are there to safeguard children, and adults who knowingly harm children should be punished,” she said. “Our prisons should be more rehabilitative environments, but the prison system’s inadequacies are not a justification for letting a child molester off the hook.”

News of the lenient sentence for the confessed rapist comes as a new book, Thomas Piketty’s Capitalism In The 21st Century, has put new focus on the distorting role of inheritance in the free market economy.

Man Accused of Raping, Abusing 4-Month-Old Baby

Elijah Fernandez, right, takes questions from reporters Saturday morning after being arrested on charges of child abuse resulting in great bodily harm and aggravated rape. (Marla Brose/Albuquerque Journal)

A 19-year-old man was arrested Saturday after police said he raped and beat a 4-month-old girl, causing severe brain damage and requiring her to be placed on life support.

Albuquerque police arrived at an apartment in the 12000 block of Copper NE late Friday night to investigate reported injuries to a baby. Paramedics arrived soon after. The baby was rushed to the University of New Mexico Hospital, where doctors told police the baby was “completely unresponsive” and had suffered additional injuries that suggested she had been raped, according to a criminal complaint filed Saturday in Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court.

Elijah Fernandez, the boyfriend of the victim’s mother, was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center on Saturday on charges of child abuse resulting in great bodily harm and aggravated criminal sexual penetration. He is being held on a no-bond hold.

Detectives on Friday night questioned the baby’s mother, grandmother and grandmother’s boyfriend.

On Friday night, the grandmother’s boyfriend told police, Fernandez brought the baby to him to ask for help because the girl was not breathing and had bruises and red marks on her face. The victim’s mother told police that Fernandez was taking care of the girl while she did laundry.

Fernandez claimed that the baby fell from her bed while Fernandez changed her diaper, according to the complaint. The grandmother’s boyfriend added that Fernandez and his girlfriend regularly smoked “Spice,” an illegal drug synthesized to mimic the effects of marijuana.

Fernandez and his girlfriend were taken in for questioning, when Fernandez admitted striking the baby in the face twice because he was feeling stressed about not having money and was angry about the baby’s crying, according to the complaint.

However, the victim’s grandmother told police that she noticed bruises on the right side of the baby’s face two days before the alleged assault. The grandmother and mother discussed the bruises then, the victim’s grandmother told police, but the mother said she thought the bruises might have come when the baby slept against the side of her bed, according to the complaint.

Speaking to detectives, the baby’s mother initially denied that the girl had any bruises before Friday night, but later said that, four days ago, she was putting the baby to bed when a bar on the bed popped off and struck the infant in the face, according to the complaint.

But an APD officer said in the criminal complaint this version of events did not explain how the baby had fresh bruises Friday night.

When Fernandez was being questioned, officers noted that he was sweating profusely. The officer said it appeared that Fernandez was sweating “from drug abuse,” according to the complaint.

Medical staff trained in sexual assault examinations later contacted detectives and said that the infant had injuries consistent with rape, according to the complaint.

Medical staff had also alerted the state Children, Youth and Families Department three times about the infant and her 2-year-old sister, according to Albuquerque Police Department spokesman Simon Drobik, who was citing medical staff.

A state CYFD spokesman called the case an “absolute tragedy” but said that the referrals were not related to allegations of physical or sexual abuse. One referral came because the baby was born with a low level of THC, a chemical in marijuana, in her system, spokesman Henry Varela said. A second referral related to a medication that the mother received that impacted her ability to breast feed and the third came after the mother canceled a follow-up doctor’s appointment for the baby, Varela said.

She later rescheduled the appointment after CYFD’s intervention, Varela said. Also, Varela said CYFD never interacted with Fernandez or knew him to be a caregiver in the home.

“This case is an absolute tragedy and surpasses anybody’s ability to comprehend how someone can hurt a child in this manner,” Varela said in an emailed statement. “Our hearts are broken for this innocent 4-month-old child, and we are working with law enforcement to make sure the individual responsible for this crime is prosecuted and sent to prison.”

 

Mother Accused of Raping her 3 Children While Adults Paid to Watch

Natalie Lynn Webb, the 30-year-old Oklahoma mother is accused of sexually abusing three of her children in front of other adults who paid to watch her do so, from December 2012 to March 2013.

Natalie Webb, an Oklahoma mom, stands charged today with raping three of her own four children — and a police affidavit says other adults paid her for the privilege of watching. The fourth child escaped the abuse only by hiding in a dumpster, the affidavit says.

Authorities in Beckham County say they were alerted to accusations against Natalie Webb in August of 2013 when an Oklahoma Department of Human Services investigator reported that Natalie Webb was “selling sex” with children to other adults, according to KOKH TV News in Oklahoma City.

The DHS investigator said the allegation came from a boy under 9 years old, who said that Natalie Webb was abusing him and three other children. Webb denied to police that she had done anything to harm her children and asked to take a polygraph test, which she failed, The Huffington Post reported.

The police affidavit, obtained by The Huffington Post and viewable below, says an 8-year-old boy and his two 3-year-old sisters suffered the rapes at the hands of Natalie Webb, their own mother, while groups of adults looked on. The adults are believed to have paid Webb to watch her sexually abuse her children.

The affidavit is based largely on the statements of Natalie Webb’s oldest son, age nine, who told police he avoided being raped by his mother when he ran away and hid in an outdoor trash receptacle.

The 9-year-old said that he witnessed his brother being abused and heard screaming and crying from his toddler-aged sisters from inside the room where he believed the abuse to be occurring. One of the 3-year-olds also told investigators that she was abused, describing the feeling as “nasty.”

The older boy said that his mother used a foreign object of some kind in the rapes.

The Elk City mother denied the allegations to Beckham County Sheriff’s investigator Steve Bonds, saying, “Somebody hurt ‘em. I’m supposed to protect my kids.”

“Natalie, you didn’t,” Bonds replied, according to The Huffington Post.

Natalie Webb is also a methamphetamine user who would inject the drug, and who has admitted being under the influence while in the company of her children, according to the affidavit in which the boy attributed the sexual abuse to his mother’s drug use.

“When mom took the needles it would make her act different,” the affidavit refers to the boy as telling police. “She would act weird and… her arm would have little dots where it was bleeding.”

And as if allegations of sexual abuse weren’t bad enough, the kids also told authorities that they were routinely beaten, repeatedly thrown up against walls “over and over again,” and starved.

“[The 9-year-old] said his mom would not feed them and he would have to find stuff and cook it in the microwave or pop tarts and stuff,” the affidavit reads.

“If there was nothing [the children] would just scavenge the floor. On the floor they would find crumbs or cookies that were there from a week ago.”

Although Webb adamantly denied to police that she sexually molested her children, she failed a polygraph test when questioned about the rapes.

Natalie Lynn Webb has a history of previous felony convictions for child endangerment and drug possession, plus “misdemeanor convictions of unlawful possession of paraphernalia, bogus checks and unauthorized use of a credit card.”

Webb, whose four children now live with their grandparents, is being held on a $2 million bond.

Natalie Webb was charged with the sexual abuse of children under 12, and child neglect. No-one can explain why she’s smiling so eerily in her mugshot.

Natalie Lynn Webb Probable Cause Affidavit.