Homeless Man Set Ablaze

This is the kind of story that makes you wonder why there is so much evil in the world. The respect for human life (regardless of social status) should be so ingrained into our belief systems, that to willfully cause the death of a helpless individual should be anathema to every living soul.

The burning death of a homeless man for no apparent reason, other than the "pleasure" of doing it, should impress upon us the realization that there are some truly evil people living amongst us. This is the story of how "John" a homeless man, who by all accounts never bothered anyone, met his untimely death at the hands evil incarnate.

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Police and Firefighters responded to a call about 9:40 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 9th on 3rd Street between Berendo Street and New Hampshire Avenue in the Mid-Wilshire area of Los Angeles. They found a homeless man who had been doused with a flammable liquid and set on fire. The man, who paramedics thought was about 50 years old, had burns over 90 percent of his body. The victim, who was taken to hospital, was later pronounced dead, authorities said.

"This is one of cruelest crimes you can imagine," said Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz, who oversees LAPD's Rampart Division. "Pouring gasoline on a human being and setting them on fire. As an officer who has responded to many murders over the years, this is amongst the most horrific."

"To murder somebody who's probably suffering from mental illness issues and not bothering anyone — just a poor wretch on the street — you've got to be a soulless nitwit to do something like this," he said.

The police were canvasing the area, talking to people and looking for clues. A man in his 20s was seen throwing gasoline on the man, chasing him, throwing more on him and running from the scene, said Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz. Scorch marks stained a wall where the man was burned.

Capt. Dennis Cremins said police were looking for at least one man who was seen running from the scene. He was described as a Latino in his 20s, with short brown hair and a large black T-shirt. Cremins said police believe the man may have bought gasoline in the neighborhood and used it in the attack. A red plastic gas container was found at the scene.

Jose Antonio Gonzalez, who owns a vitamin shop near where the man was found, said some longtime residents called the man Johnny and believed he had fought in the Vietnam War and had a wealthy family somewhere. Gonzalez didn't know whether the stories were true.

Shopkeepers said the man was a fixture in the dense residential neighborhood at the northern edge of Koreatown, and residents were shocked to hear about his violent death. The homeless man, who some called "John" and described him as Buddha-like and unassuming, had been in the area for at least 20 years but never bothered anyone or begged for money, said Young Kim, who owns a nearby dry cleaner. People gave him food, clothes and spare change.

"His priorities were cigarettes, Dr Pepper, hot Cheetos and, once a week, he would buy C batteries" for his radio, said Asit Bhowmick, the Bangledeshi owner of the Bengal Liquor store.

Regulars at the California Donut shop bought him coffee and doughnuts in the mornings, a couple of Asian men took him for showers and a haircut, and poor Central American and Mexican immigrants would give him spare change or food.

"He didn't seem to have mental problems. He understood and spoke well. I don't know why he lived on the street," Kim said.

About 9:30 p.m. Thursday, Jorge Garcia, owner of La Morenita Oaxaquena restaurant, said he was at work when a woman ran inside the restaurant, screaming for a fire extinguisher. He ran outside to find the man lying on his back in a nearby parking lot, his body still ablaze.

The man's clothes had been burned off, his face blackened and swollen, the tips of his clenched fingers sloughed off. The smell of gasoline hung in the air.

"There's no name for what they did to him," Garcia said.

On Friday, some of the homeless man's belongings remained at the scene, including a bag of food from McDonald's, a yellow pear and a gray sweat shirt and shorts. A charred jacket lay on a white cardboard box nearby. "This is one of the jackets that someone used to try to put the flames out," said Dinora Morales, 30, a baker at the doughnut shop.

Andy Bales, chief executive of the Union Rescue Mission on downtown's Skid Row, said the incident was "part of a long history of people attacking vulnerable homeless individuals in Los Angeles."

"They think the person is less than human because they happen to be homeless. I don't know how you could do that to another human being," Bales said.

Luis Ortega, who works in the neighborhood, looked along the street full of botanical shops, ethnic restaurants and cigar shops. He said justice would prevail.

"Karma is coming," Ortega said. "Karma is going to come and get whoever did this."

5-Year-Old Boy Tortured and Abused

Starkeisha Brown's 5-year-old son, who suffered "unbearable psychological and physical abuse" demonstrates the strength of the human spirit in the face of adversity. His will to live after enduring the  horrible torture at the hands of his own mother and her live-in girlfriend, Krystal Matthews, 21, is truly amazing. His name has not been released.

"I've never seen anyone with these kinds of injuries who has lived," Assistant Police Chief James McDonnell told reporters last week. "This kid must have a tremendous will to live, to be able to still hang on despite what he's been through."

In his 5 short years:

• He was hung by his hands and wrists from a door jamb and beaten
  


• He was routinely denied food and water.
  


• He was burned with cigarettes all over his body, including his genitals.
  


• He was left to sit in his own urine and feces.
  


• His hands were held to a hot stove that may leave them permanently disfigured.

The boy's physical appearance was also striking. He had a pot belly suggestive of severe malnutrition, burns across his body in various stages of healing, old scars, bruises, and badly damaged and burned hands, he also had a broken tooth with the nerve end exposed. Lt. Vincent Neglia of the LAPD's Abused Child Unit, said the abuse was obviously continuous and prolonged.

"This wasn't just one big beating," Neglia said. "You can tell by the different stages of injuries that this was prolonged."

The boy remains in hospital, after suffering kidney failure due to malnutrition. Authorities describe him as withdrawn and shy but plays with people he trusts. He has a healthy appetite and began walking over the weekend with a slight limp. His burnt hand is healing well and regaining its range of motion.

The mother, Starkeisha Brown, 24, and Krystal Matthews, 21, who lived together at a South Los Angeles apartment near 110th and Figueroa streets, were charged with one count each of torture, child abuse, corporal injury to a child, dissuading a witness, and two counts each of conspiracy. A district attorney's office statement identified Matthews as the live-in girlfriend of Brown. A baby sitter, La Tanya Monikue Jones, 26, was added to the case. Prosecutors charged her with child abuse, corporal injury to a child, conspiracy and conspiracy to dissuade a witness. Jones allegedly burned the 5-year-old's hand over a stove at one point while baby-sitting, according to prosecutors.

Brown and Matthews appeared in Superior Court in Compton but their arraignment was postponed to June 25. Brown was held on $1.1 million bail. Matthews was remanded to custody without bail because of a probation violation. Both face up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted. Jones is being held on $180,000 bail. She faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

The boy was finally rescued from his abusers after an anonymous tip from a stranger. On June 4th a woman called the abuse hotline saying that the little boy told her at a train station that his mother had burned his hand on top of a hot stove. That call prompted the Department of Children and Family Services to set up an appointment with Starkeisha Brown and Krystal Matthews on Monday, June 9th, to discuss the allegation.

Knowing that she could not attend the meeting with her son, who showed obvious signs of abuse, Brown concocted a scheme to fool the authorities. She "borrowed" the healthy 4-year-old son of La Tanya Monikue Jones and his 6-year-old sister. She planned to pass off the 4-year-old as her own son. Brown and her girlfriend then asked a complete stranger to watch her 5-year-old son while they went to the meeting.

While the women were being interviewed, the stranger who had been asked to watch the boy started asking people in the neighborhood what he should do with the 5-year-old, who looked sickly and injured. Eventually someone called authorities. Officials got word of the boy's condition as they were interviewing Brown and Matthews and began asking more pointed questions and challenging the pair's story. Halfway through the interview the two women sprinted from the office, abandoning the 4-year-old and his sister at the office, police said. The children are now in the care of the authorities.

"They realize that no one is buying their ruse," said Lt. Vincent Neglia of the LAPD's Abused Child Unit, and "they bug out."

Capt. Fabian Lizarraga said it was fortunate that the stranger sought help. He "had the sense that something was not right, that the situation he had been placed in was not right," the captain said.

Authorities launched a hunt for Brown and Matthews while authorities took the 5-year-old child to a hospital. Matthews was arrested Friday and Brown turned herself in to police on Saturday. Both women have accounts on the popular MySpace website. See Starkreisha Brown here and Krystal Matthews' is here. Both women also have criminal records.

Brown is a known gang member who as a minor served time in the California Youth Authority for battery. She also served a total of two and a half years in prison for two separate convictions: one for felony robbery of an elderly woman in 2003 and later for petty theft, when she and another woman stole a bracelet and other items from a Macy's department store.

Most recently, Brown was incarcerated from March 2006 to January 2007. During that period, the boy was in the custody of his grandmother, authorities said. Brown regained custody of her son when she left prison in January 2007. But that March, a judge issued an arrest warrant for her in connection with parole violations. It is unclear why officials could not locate her.

Matthews also has a criminal history, including convictions for assault with a deadly weapon and forgery. In May, Matthews got into a fight with her younger brother, slashing him in the face with a box-cutter. She was arrested and eventually pleaded guilty. She was sentenced to 3 years probation.

Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is investigating why no one followed up an initial case review after a tip in November 2005 that the boy was neglected and at risk while in the care of his grandmother, who took the boy in after his mother was arrested for shoplifting.

An array of other agencies missed their chance to intervene, said Gloria Molina, a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, including the state Department of Corrections and the county's Department of Probation, Department of Mental Health and foster care agencies that had case files for Brown and the two other women charged in the case. Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky blamed a "silo" mentality of agencies that do not reflexively alert one another to potential risks posed by cases.

"Why was there no intervention? It shouldn't have to be from the hotline," Molina said.

Friends and family say they suspected that Starkeisha Brown beat her 5-year-old son but nobody called authorities. Such problems are particularly present in neighborhoods like the one where the Browns lived, where distrust of police and child-protection workers is high and residents worry that calling authorities could make problems worse.

"I don't think it is that they are colluding with the abuser," said Carole Shauffer, executive director of the Youth Law Center, a San Francisco-based public interest law firm. "For the most part, it's fear of what's going to happen, fear of nothing happening, fear of collateral consequences, and denial, that 'it's none of my business, and it can't be as bad as it seems to me.' "

The boy's great-grandmother, Barbara Moreno, said she noticed cuts, scratches and bumps on him, but dropped the subject when he told her the injuries were caused by a fall and a dog attack.

"Sometimes you turn your head," said Vivian Daniels, a family friend who about a month ago finally asked Brown about the bruises and scratches on her son's body. She said she didn't call police or the Department of Children and Family Services because she feared it would make things worse for the boy and perhaps even for her and her children.

"It's tit-for-tat," Daniels said. "In South-Central, we don't do that. I'm just telling you how it is."

"We have seen time and time again that people say, 'I've seen child abuse, I've heard it, I've heard screams, but I do nothing,' " said Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable. "People are so reluctant to speak out on it."

Hutchinson and others said suspicion and fear of authorities runs deep in parts of South L.A. and that extends beyond the police to social service agencies and other public providers. They said some people are afraid that calling authorities could end up making the family situation worse -- particularly if the child is taken into foster care. Others fear authorities might end up checking on them.

In response to the case, community activists on Friday canvassed the neighborhood around 110th and Figueroa streets, where Brown recently lived with the boy, with fliers that read: "Break the Silence on Child Abuse in South L.A.! Help Make Sure a Starkeisha Brown Torture Case Never Happens Again."