As Charla Nash continues her remarkable recovery from the brutal, life-threatening attack at the hands of Travis the Chimp - who ripped off her lips, nose, eyes and fingers - the State of Connecticut has decided that no criminal charges will be filed against the owner of the Chimp, Sandra Herold.
For the complete background story click here and here
"Sandra Herold did not act criminally" said State Attorney David Cohen, who also added that the decision not to prosecute Sandra Herold "does not in any way minimize the horror that we all feel with what occurred and with the horrendous injuries suffered by Ms. Nash. Our prayers go out to her and her family."
Charla Nash's family said they understood the decision and are "at peace" with it. They said it does not affect the civil lawsuits that are pending. The family is suing Sandra Herold for $50 million and plan to sue the state of Connecticut for $150 million.
"A criminal prosecution could not undo what happened to Charla nor would it provide any measure of relief or assistance to her," the family said in a statement issued through their attorney, Matt Newman. "The family remains focused on what is most important, and that is the continued care and rehabilitation of Charla."
Charla Nash, whowas severely crippled by the attack of the 200-pound Travis the Chimp, is blind and drinks her meals “with a straw through a small hole where her mouth used to be.” She has a large scar near the bottom of her face and a large piece of skin where her nose had been. The chimpanzee ripped off Nash’s hands, nose, lips and eyelids. She recently revealed her heavily disfigured face on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and NBC's "TODAY" show and remains in stable condition at the Cleveland Clinic.
Maurice Clemmons, 37 - the cop-killer who gunned down four police officers at a Forza coffee shop near Takoma, Wa. on Sunday, Nov. 29th - was shot and killed by a lone Seattle police officer, investigating a stolen car in Seattle's Rainier Valley neighborhood, on Tuesday, Dec. 1st. It brought an end to a massive two-day search for the killer who assassinated:
Sgt. Mark Renninger, 39, Officer Tina Griswold, 40, Officer Ronald Owen, 37, Officer Greg Richards, 42
Sergeant Mark Renninger, age 39 with thirteen years of law enforcement experience. He is survived by a wife and three children.
Officer Ronald Owen, age 37 with twelve years of law enforcement experience. He is survived by a former wife and a daughter.
Officer Tina Griswold, age 40 with fourteen years of law enforcement experience. She is survived by her husband and two children.
Officer Greg Richards, age 42 with eight years of law enforcement experience. He is survived by a wife and three children.
The officers who were all from the Lakewood police department, were in the coffee shop preparing for their upcoming shift. The news of Clemmons' death was summed up by Sylvester Dennis, 50, a truck driver who has lived in the area since he was 11:
"Sounds like he got what he deserved. Those were police officers, man. You just can't just go around killing people"
"When you help a criminal, you become a criminal."
Douglas Davis and his brother Eddie Davis both pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges of first-degree rendering criminal assistance. According to investigators, Douglas Davis helped Clemmons clean and treat the gunshot wound he suffered in a struggle with one of the officers. Douglas and his brother, Eddie Davis, apparently drove Clemmons around after the shooting while he was on the run. Judge Bryan Chushcoff set bail for Eddie Davis at $700,000 and bail for Douglas Davis at $500,000.
Rickey Hinton, Clemmons' half brother, is accused of letting Clemmons use his car while he was hiding, knowing full well what he had done. He has not been charged yet but has been booked into jail for investigation of rendering criminal assistance. Chushcoff set his bail at $2 million.
Darcus Allen is accused of driving the getaway truck for Clemmons after the shooting. Police believe Allen was waiting for Clemmons at a car wash near the coffee shop. He could be charged with murder.
"If he knew that he was driving there for the murder, absolutely. If he knew that this was going to happen and was waiting there, absolutely we will arrest him for murder," said Sheriff's Office spokesman Ed Troyer.
Letrecia Nelson, Clemmons' aunt, was picked up in Pacific. Quiana Williams, a friend of Clemmons, was arrested in Des Moines. It's not clear what role the two women played but both of them are booked on four counts of rendering criminal assistance.
Maurice Clemmons, 37, has been identified as a "person of interest" and is being actively sought by the Lakeland Police Dept. regarding to the execution-style killing of four police officers at the Forza coffee shop near Tacoma, Wa. on Sunday, Nov. 29, 2009 around 8:15 am.
He is said to have an extensive criminal record, including at least five felony convictions in Arkansas and at least eight felony charges in Washington state. He was released on $15,000 bond just six days ago on his latest charge -- second-degree rape of a child.
Clemmons lives in Tacoma, where he ran a landscaping and power-washing business. He has been known to behave erratically giving rise to concerns about his mental health.
Mark Renninger, Tina Griswold, Ronald Owens, Greg Richards
Sergeant Mark Renninger, age 39 with thirteen years of law enforcement experience. He is survived by a wife and three children.
Officer Tina Griswold, age 40 with fourteen years of law enforcement experience. She is survived by her husband and two children.
Officer Ronald Owen, age 37 with twelve years of law enforcement experience. He is survived by a former wife and a daughter.
Officer Greg Richards, age 42 with eight years of law enforcement experience. He is survived by a wife and three children.
The incident began around 8:15 on the morning of Sunday, Nov. 29, 2009. A gunman, believed to be Maurice Clemmons, entered the Forza coffee shop and approached the counter. The attendant asked for his order and the gunman opened his jacket, revealing a weapon. The employee fled. The gunman then turned his attention to four police officers who were sitting at a nearby table in the process of doing paperwork on their computers in preparation for their upcoming shift.
“Two of them were just flat executed, sitting writing reports,” Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office, said of the officers, who worked for the Police Department in Lakewood, just south of Tacoma. “One of them stood up and tried to go for the suspect and got shot. Then the fourth one fought his way out to the parking lot and fired off some rounds.”
It is believed that the fourth police officer, who had fought with the gunman, was able to fire his weapon, wounding the suspect, before he was killed.
“We hope that he hit him,” Mr. Troyer said of the officer, who fired at the suspect before dying from gunshot wounds. “If he’s hit, that means he’s injured somewhere with a gunshot wound. He’s going to have to get that taken care of sometime, someplace,” he said.
Authorities are offering a $120,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person involved in this morning's fatal shooting, described as a black man who is between 5-feet-7-inches and 5-feet-10-inches tall, and wearing a black coat and blue jeans in the Lakewood, Wash. area. Anybody with information is asked to call 253-591-5959 or 866-977-2362.
Maurice Clemmons' criminal history began when he was 17 years old in 1989. He was sentenced to a 48-year prison term on five felony convictions. The next year he was given an additional 60-year sentence for burglary and theft of property. Clemmons served 11 years before being released. He had his sentenced reduced by then Gov. Mike Huckabee, who cited his young age when he had committed those crimes.
After being released, and while on parole, Clemmons was again arrested, in 2001, for aggravated robbery and theft. Those charges were eventually dropped by the prosecution for "technical reasons". Clemmons then moved to Washington state in 2004 where he continued to get himself in trouble. Clemmons had been in jail in Pierce County for the past several months on a pending charge of second-degree rape of a child. He was released from custody - after posting $15,000 bail with a Chehalis company called Jail Sucks Bail Bonds - just six days before gunning down the four police officers.
15-year-old Alyssa Bustamante wondered: What does it feel like to kill someone? So she decided to find out.
This is not the story of a crime of passion; this was no accident; this was a premeditated, ruthless and well-thought plan - she even had a grave dug for her 9-year-old victim beforehand - to deprive another human being of the right to life. 15-year-old Alyssa Bustamante is a cold-blooded murderer.
Alyssa Bustamante was in court, on Nov. 18th, indicted on two felony charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the Oct. 21st death of 9-year-old Elizabeth Olten. Just hours before, a juvenile court judge had certified her to stand trial as an adult. Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce entered a plea of not guilty on the teen’s behalf and asked the public defender’s office to review whether she qualifies for representation. She was ordered to be held in jail without bail. If found guilty, she could be sentenced to life in prison.
As human beings we look for answers to horrific acts like this. What was the motive? Why would someone so young even contemplate doing this? Alyssa Bustamante went through psychiatric evaluations and the best answer seems to come from Alyssa herself: She did it because she wanted to know what it felt like to kill.
David Cook, a Cole County juvenile officer, testified yesterday that, after reading notes and analysis by Bustamante’s therapists, he is not much closer to figuring out a motive for the alleged crime. “There may not be a definite diagnosis,” he said yesterday in the juvenile hearing. “It may just be something the individual wanted to do. I don’t know that there will ever necessarily be an answer.”
In school, at Jefferson City High School, Alyssa was described as a good student with motivational problems. Like some other students she tended to wear dark eyeliner and black shirts printed with skull shapes but did not raise any alarms until in 2007 she tried to commit suicide. That prompted a 10-day stay at the Mid-Missouri Mental Health Center. She was treated for tendencies toward depression and self-mutilation but noone suspected that she had homicidal tendencies.
Her family life was difficult. Her father, Ceasar Bustamante, is serving a 10-year sentence for assault. Her mother, Michelle Bustamante, has had personal and legal problems, prompting a court to rule her unfit to care for her children.
Alyssa and her younger siblings have been living with their grandparents since 2002, who are said to be tough disciplinarians who don't hesitate to take away privileges. She had a twitter account where she posted, shortly before the October killing, the following:
“The world goes by my cage and never sees me.” Four days later she posted: “bad decisions make great stories.”
She also had a Youtube account where she posted a video showing her brothers and herself touching an electrified fence for fun:
Kurt Valentine, Bustamante's attorney, said the teenager had recently tried to harm herself while in custody by cutting herself with her fingernails. He had urged officials to be cautious with their judgments of the suspect.
"I would ask that they wait, that they listen to the facts as they come out and not judge quickly," Valentine said. "Learn about this person, learn about this child. You're dealing with a child."
Two 18-year-old boys, from Pulaski, Tn., William Charles Angel, Jr. and Matthew Wood, are sitting in the Giles County jail. They are both charged with 3 counts of first degree murder in the deaths of 38-year-old Desere Thornton and her two sons, 16-year-old Jerrod Thornton and nine-year-old Anthony Thornton. The two teens are also charged with arson, accused of burning down the home of the three murder victims.
One of the teens, Matthew Wood, was burned so badly while trying to set the house ablaze that his mother had to call 911 for emergency assistance. That call was what caused investigators - who had just received another 911 call about a house on fire - to zero in on the teens.
The first call came in at 1:34 a.m. from a neighbor, Robin Hernandez, of the Thornton's saying: “The house across the road from me is on fire, the woods are on fire.....and there was just some kind of explosion down there.”
The second call came in at 1:59 a.m. from Matthew Wood's mother, Janet Thomlin, saying: “My son just called me and said him and a friend of his was playing with fire and he is burnt really bad and he’s screaming and crying....he said him and a friend were playing with fire, with gasoline, and he got too close and it burnt all of his face.”
The authorities won't release any information on how the family was killed but said that the fire was an attempt to cover up the murders.
Apparently Wood and Angel went to the Thornton's house to look for the 16-year-old Jerrod. Wood was jealous and thought that Jerrod was involved with an ex-girlfriend of his. They all knew each other because they went to the same school, Richland High School. In fact Wood had asked Jerrod's girlfriend, Tessia Tibbs, about it just days before:
"It's a small county, almost everybody knows each other and it's just a shock that somebody would commit such a heinous crime....It's tough for the community and it's just going to take time to heal"
According to neighbors, the family had recently moved into the home. Desere Thornton owned a local gym and her two sons attended school just a few miles from the now charred home.
Wood and Angel will be back in Giles County court on December 8th.
Update on Monday, November 23, 2009 at 5:05AM by
shadmia
The search warrant used to arrest Matthew Wood and William Angel has been unsealed. It reveals more details surrounding the killing of 38-year-old Desere Thornton and her two sons, 16 year old Jerrod and 9 year old Anthony.
Aside from the two E-911 calls on the night when the two teens murdered their three victims at 342 Milky Way Road and burned the house down, interviews with William Angel and his mother, Jennifer Noller, seem to indicate that it was Matthew Wood who did the actual killing but William Angel was an active participant in helping him burn the house down in order to cover up the murders. Jennifer Noller may also have tried to help her son by hiding the knife used to kill the Thornton family.
Angel and his mother Jennifer Noller were later interviewed at the Giles County Sheriffs Department. Noller told investigators that she observed a bloody knife in the S-10 Blazer and placed the knife under the passenger seat. According to the warrant obtained by WKSR, Angel stated that both he and Wood broke into the residence on Milky Way Road and Wood killed the three occupants with a knife. Afterwards, Wood and Angel carried the bodies of two victims back inside the house from the front yard.
The two teens were also captured on video that night, at Richland Market, buying more gasoline they needed to burn down the Thornton house. It was while setting the house, and a vehicle outside, on fire that the two teens were burned, prompting the E-911 call for assistance.
Both men remain in jail and are awaiting a preliminary hearing. Woods hearing is scheduled for December 8th. Angel’s preliminary hearing will follow or be held the following day.
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Tuesday, December 8, 2009 at 2:48AM 
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