‘Pure Evil’: Craigslist Killer Jailed for 124 Years

March 12, 2011 From http://www.ten8.wordpress.com

Victim was targeted after advertising a diamond ring for sale on website

www.msnbc.com staff and news service reports

 TACOMA, Wash. — A 23-year-old man convicted in the Craigslist killing of a Tacoma-area man has been sentenced to 124 years in prison.

Tacoma’s News Tribune reported Kiyoshi Higashi was unrepentant in court Friday. He said no one but God could judge him and added: “I don’t care what sentence you give me.”

 Pierce County Superior Court jurors convicted Higashi earlier this week of murder, burglary, robbery and assault.

Detective John Jiminez, the case’s lead investigator, described Higashi as “pure evil.”

“He’s earned every second of every day he will spend in prison,” the News Tribune quoted Jiminez as saying.

Prosecutors argued Higashi was one of the main players in the April 28, 2010, home-invasion robbery of Jim Sanders and his family.

Higashi and three co-defendants targeted the family after Sanders advertised a diamond ring for sale on Craigslist.

Sanders was shot after he broke free of restraints and began to fight the robbers.

The other three are awaiting trial.

CMPD Asking for Public’s Help in Finding Two Suspects

By Meghan Cooke / Charlotte Observer of March 10, 2011

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police are asking the public’s help in finding two men wanted on unrelated charges.

Police say Tyrone Patterson, 30, cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet while he was out on bond and awaiting trial for charges related to a January residential burglary.

                Tyrone Patterson, 30

Patterson has been on the run, police say, since he cut off the bracelet Thursday evening on Rolling Hill Drive, off Sugar Creek Road.

Patterson has a lengthy criminal record with 13 arrests in Mecklenburg County and is wanted on outstanding warrants for interfering with an electronic monitoring device, breaking and entering, larceny after breaking and entering and felony possession of stolen goods.

Police say Patterson, who is 5-feet-7 and about 140 pounds, frequents the area around North Tryon Street and Sugar Creek Road.

Anyone with information on Patterson’s whereabouts is asked to call the Violent Criminal Apprehension Team at 704-336-VACT or call 911.

Police are also searching for Robert Lee Porter, 24, who is wanted on warrants that include auto theft, larceny from a vehicle and possession of stolen property.

Porter has been arrested several times in Mecklenburg County. In 2009, he was charged with felony assault by strangulation and communicating threats. Those charges are pending trial, according to court records.

Anyone with his information about Porter’s whereabouts is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600.

CMPD Reports First Month Without a Murder Since 1985

Contributed By Charlotte Observer Staff Writer Steve Harrison

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police say no one was killed in February 2011 – the first time officers didn’t investigate a homicide in the city for an entire month since 1985.

Police have generally seen declining homicide numbers since Chief Rodney Monroe took over in 2008.

In 2009, police recorded 56 homicides — the lowest number of killings since the 1980s. In 2010, 59 people were killed.

The announcement at Monday’s city council meeting was part of a presentation by Deputy Chief Kerr Putney on long-term crime trends, which the department says are the most accurate ways to measure police performance.

The statistics show that from 2007 to 2010, part one crimes – those the FBI records for statistical tracking purposes – declined 33 percent, from 57,204 incidents in 2007 to 38,466 crimes in 2010.

CMPD Investigates Fatal Shooting

By Cleve R. Wootson Jr. and Meghan Cooke / Charlotte Observer

One person was killed and another was in police custody after a shooting Tuesday afternoon in northern Charlotte.

Just before 5 p.m., police received a report of a shooting at a home on Hornet Drive, just off Beatties Ford Road. When officers arrived, they entered the home and found a man lying on the kitchen floor and suffering from a gunshot wound to the chest. Paramedics pronounced him dead at 5:12 p.m.

Witnesses at the home gave police a description of the shooter and said he ran away from the house after the shooting.

Police said they soon found the shooter and transported him to police headquarters for questioning. The weapon was also recovered, police said. Police also took witnesses to headquarters for questioning.

Homicide investigators could be seen walking down a gravel drive Tuesday evening toward a wooded area on Hornet Drive. An ambulance was parked nearby.

Police said the victim has not yet been positively identified, and they have not described a motive in the shooting, but they did say the victim and the shooter knew each other.

Observer news partner WCNC-TV reported there was a disagreement between two roommates, and one roommate shot the other.

Authorities have not yet classified the death as a homicide. If police identify the shooting as such, it will be the first homicide in Charlotte in more than a month, and only the second this year. Police say no one was killed in February – the first time officers hadn’t investigated a homicide in the city for an entire month since 1985.

Anyone with information is asked to call 704-432-TIPS or Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600.

Sketch Shows Man Accused of Attacking 72-Year-Old Clover, SC Woman

 By NewsChannel 36 Staff / www.wcnc.com

CLOVER, S.C. — York County investigators have released a sketch of a man who attacked a 72-year-old woman inside her home.

The attack happened on Feb. 21 inside the woman’s home off Crosslands Road near Clover.

According to investigators, the woman heard a knock at her door when she was in the shower. She jumped out and wrapped a towel around herself, thinking it was one of her grandchildren.

When the woman opened the door, a man forced his way inside and hit her in the face with a gun. The woman was knocked to the floor but was able to escape without being injured further.

The attacker was described as a black man with a light complexion, between 18 and 21 years old. Investigators say he may have left the area in a gold car, possibly a Mitsubishi, with clear or white taillights.

Anyone with information on the man should call York County Sheriff’s Office at 803-628-3059 or Crime Stoppers at1-877-409-4321.

Republican Scott Stone Announces Candidacy for Charlotte Mayor

By Jim Morrill / Charlotte Observer – March 7, 2011

Charlotte Republican Scott Stone today became the first announced candidate for mayor, saying “We need to turn our economy around.”

Stone hopes to face Democratic Mayor Anthony Foxx, who’s expected to announce his own re-election campaign at a Thursday fundraiser.

Stone, 42, is a vice president of Merrick & Co., a Colorado-based engineering and architectural firm.

Foxx won his first term in 2009 after beating Republican John Lassiter in Charlotte’s most expensive mayoral race.

Lincoln Co., NC Sheriff’s Office Investigating Home Invasion

By Joe DePriest / Charlotte Observer – March 7, 2011

Four people were bound with duct-tape while armed intruders ransacked their home over the weekend, Lincoln County authorities said today.

The home invasion occurred early Saturday at 4774 Dick Wilson Road.

According to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, one of the victims reported that two men kicked in the door to the home and held the occupants at gunpoint.

The suspects duct-taped the victims’ legs and hands and took a number of items and cash from the home, authorities said.

Also taken was a 1999 Dodge Durango. Authorities said the suspects told the owner to provide a cell phone number and they would call and tell where they’d left the vehicle.

No call was made and authorities located the vehicle about a half-mile from the residence in a new housing development.

The victims were not injured and told authorities they didn’t know the suspects.

The suspects were described as black males. One was 6 feet 2 inches tall, weighing around 150 pounds with a neat beard and slim build. The other was 5 feet 3 inches tall, about 160 pounds and had dread-locks.

Anyone with information should call the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office at 704-736-8864 or Crime Stoppers at 704-736-8909.

Federal Agents Charge 3 Men in Charlotte Heroin Sting

Suspect Was Delivering Drugs From Los Angeles, CA

By Meghan Cook and Maria David / Charlotte Observer – March 6, 2011

Three men have been charged with conspiracy to distribute heroin after a sting operation by federal agents in Charlotte.

On Wednesday, an officer stopped a speeding SUV in Kansas driven by Juan Ramon Rivera-Escobar, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday in U.S. District Court. When the officer searched the vehicle, he found a bag containing about 5 pounds of heroin, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Robert Smith said in the complaint.

Rivera-Escobar told police he received the heroin from someone in Los Angeles who instructed him to bring it to Charlotte, Smith said.

Federal agents transported Rivera-Escobar to Charlotte on Thursday and replaced most of the heroin with a substance resembling the drug. They listened in as Rivera-Escobar received instructions to meet someone to make a drug deal at an apartment off Sharon Amity Road. There, he met two men later identified as Cesar Lopez Hernandez and Alfredo Leon Alejo. One of the men gave Rivera-Escobar $6,000 before leaving in a car authorities stopped, court documents say.

CMPD Will Collect Old Prescription Medicines

Meghan Cooke / Charlotte Observer – March 6, 2011

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police will collect unwanted or expired prescription drugs later this month in an effort to help prevent drug abuse and protect the environment.

Police will collect the drugs 10a.m.-2 p.m. March 26 during CMPD’s Operation Medicine Drop at six Harris Teeter stores across Mecklenburg County. The drop-offs are a safe and secure way for people to dispose of unused prescriptions or over-the-counter medications, police say. Police will properly dispose of the drugs.

Officers will collect unwanted drugs in the parking lots of Harris Teeter stores at 6701 Morrison Boulevard in Charlotte, 7852 Rea Road in Charlotte, 5810 Prosperity Church Road in Charlotte, 13000 South Tryon Street in Charlotte, 9759 Sam Furr Road in Huntersville and 1811 Matthews Township Parkway in Matthews.

Charlotte Woman Punched in Face After Confronting Naked “Peeping Tom”

Incident is Latest In Brazen Acts of Violence Committed in Broad Daylight!

Information gathered from several Charlotte Area news sources.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A woman living in the Jordan’s Pond neighborhood just off of Valleydale Road in Northwest Charlotte saw a man peeping into the bedroom of her home and confronted the man outside her back door, was punched in the face according to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police.

Debbie Deal, 57, a retired Duke Energy worker, said she knew something was wrong and realized she wasn’t home alone when her normally calm black Labrador, Zeke, became very upset.

Deal said she walked into her bedroom, looked outside, and saw a man with his pants down looking in her window.

“I was scared,” Deal said. “This had never happened to us before.”

Deal said she then walked into the living room, opened the door to the back yard and was punched in the face by the stranger. The man punched Deal hard enough to knock her down and give her a black-eye.

“I really believe he meant to keep me from seeing his face,” Deal said.

Police said the peeping Tom is a predator who could return to the same neighborhood, which is off of Valleydale Road. Officers said the man is probably someone who recently moved to a nearby community.

“It’s such a well-established neighborhood, but it’s surrounded by some of our newer developments,” said CMPD Officer Chelsey Clausius-Padilla. “And we’ve got a lot of transient population. People are moving in and moving out.”

Police told her the peeping Tom likely would have tried to break in and rape her had she not inadvertently confronted him and scared him off.

Police have also warned her that this type of sexual predator often returns.

Police sent neighbors an e-mail alert about the attack, and they’ve increase patrols. Officers are also asking people to be on the look-out.

“It don’t make me feel too good knowing he’s still out here in the neighborhood maybe,” said Joan Johnson, a neighbor.

Deal said she’s already seen a therapist.

“I’ve lived here for 14 years and I’ve never been frightened to live here,” Deal said.

Police described the suspect as a white man, about 25 years old, 6 feet 2 inches tall, weighing about 180 pounds. The man had long, shaggy brown hair and was last seen wearing blue jeans and white sneakers.