Daycare operator in Norfolk, Virginia has been charged for the murder of 2-year-old, Kaylee Thomas. The child was found unresponsive by 37-year-old Jessica Cherry. She was rushed to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Cherry would babysit children at her home in Norfolk, Virginia. According to WAVY-TV, the home had a large front yard and modern playground equipment, but prosecutors allege that the daycare was unlicensed.
Last September, Cherry was arrested with felony attempted malicious wounding, two counts of felony abuse and neglect of a child, and two counts of felony child endangerment.
The coroner office classified Thomas death as a homicide. Cherry was charged with one count of second-degree murder.
Authorities discovered a camera in Cherry home. The camera was turned towards the television but through the reflection from the dark screen they allegedly saw Cherry abusing multiple kids.
Prosecutors used the surveillance videoin court as evidence.
Cherry is being held without bond and has pleaded not guilty to the charges against her. Her attorney did not immediately return PEOPLE’s call for comment.
If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
Kionte Spencer was an 18 year-old senior in high school and resident of Roanoke County, VA. Kionte was shot and killed by Roanoke County Police on February 26, 2016 while walking by a busy street near where he lived.
According to Roanoke Police Department, Kionte Spencer, who had headphones in, was holding what appeared to be a pistol and did not drop it despite repeated commands to do so. After attempts to hit the teen with Tasers failed, two officers shot him. He died soon after. The object in Spencer hand turned out to be a broken BB gun.
The protests around the world are bringing renewed interest into some old police brutality cases. The family of Kionte Spencer is currently fighting to see the raw dash cam footage from the night of the shooting.
The family held a press conference on Monday to demand justice for Kionte Spencer. Kionte brother, Carl Spencer, revealed that the footage was edited. He says, ”Some pieces of the video show my brother as he was followed by police, then suddenly some frames of the video, my brother was just not visible.”
Carl has only seen blurry pictures and fragments of footage from various dashboard cameras are all he’s ever seen from the night his brother was gunned down by police officers, according to WDBJ7.
The U.S. attorney’s office in November 2016, says there was insufficient evidence to pursue federal criminal civil rights charges against the Roanoke County Police officers involved in the shooting, who were for only a brief time put on leave from the department.
A former Georgia deputy was sentenced to life in prison for murdering his married girlfriend because she insulted his penis size, The Independent reports.
Police say, Jason Cunningham, 48, shot Nicole Harrington, 37, in the back of the head in a parking garage elevator in Augusta, Georgia, in June 2020.
Cunningham became enraged after Harrington insulted “the size of his manhood,” according to Augusta District Attorney Jared Williams in a statement.
After an eight-hour standoff with Columbia County deputies at a boat ramp at Clarks Hill Lake, Cunningham was finally arrested.
Cunningham was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Monday after pleading guilty to murder and five years for possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
According to an affidavit obtained by WRDW, Cunningham claimed he went to meet Harrington to end their affair.
Cunningham resigned from the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office in 2018 after testing positive for an illegal substance while on duty, according to WFXG. He previously worked as a marketing manager for Forces United, a veterans support organization based in Georgia.
Harrington, of Florida, left behind three children.
After her husband died, the woman who wrote a children’s book about grief got accused of murdering him. Kouri Richins was arrested in Utah on Monday on suspicion of poisoning the man with fentanyl, according to Sky News.
The incident reportedly occurred on March 3, 2022. Kouri Richins’ husband, Eric Richins, died on March 4, 2022.
Kouri Richins allegedly told police that she made him a Moscow Mule in the kitchen and brought it to their bedroom for him to drink in bed to celebrate her business closing on a house.
She reportedly put one of her children to bed before returning to her room and passing out before celebrating with her husband. She awoke around 3 a.m. and noticed that Eric was cold to the touch, so she dialed 911.
Investigators disputed her claim that she left her phone plugged in in her bedroom while she was with her child because the phone’s records revealed that it had been locked and unlocked numerous times and was in use. Several messages were sent and received during this time period, but they were all deleted.
An autopsy revealed that Eric Richins had five times the fatal amount of fentanyl in his system when he died in their Utah home in March 2022.
According to the authorities, they were able to seize many of Kouri’s devices after obtaining a search warrant following Eric’s autopsy. Investigators allegedly discovered Kouri had made contact with someone to obtain prescription painkillers after examining those.
According to reports, Kouri contacted the same friend two weeks later and asked if she could get something stronger — “some of the Michael Jackson stuff,” Kouri reportedly said. Her request for fentanyl was very specific. The friend allegedly gave Kouri 15 to 20 fentanyl pills.
Following a Valentine’s Day meal, according to court documents obtained by ABC4 UTAH, Eric told a friend that he felt sick and believed Kouri was trying to poison him. After two weeks, Kouri allegedly requested more fentanyl pills. According to court documents, Eric was found dead six days later.
Kouri Richins published a children’s book to help kids cope with grief less than a year after her husband died. The book is about coping with the death of a loved one. She talked about it on Good Things Utah last month.
She got charged with three counts of drug distribution-related marijuana possession and aggravated murder. Her next hearing is scheduled for May 19th.
A 43-year-old Louisiana woman got arrested after allegedly killing her boyfriend’s 6-year-old daughter and stuffing the child’s body into a large plastic bucket, which she then dropped off on the victim’s mother’s front lawn with a wagon.
According to Fox 8 Live, Hannah Landon got taken into custody last Wednesday and charged with Bella Fontenelle’s first-degree murder.
Bella’s father discovered his daughter and girlfriend were missing from his home in Harahan, about 10 miles west of New Orleans, when he awoke on Wednesday morning, according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office. JPSO reported that an older male child was still present and unharmed.
At around 7:30 in the morning, the father went to the Harahan Police Station and reported the two missing. Officers started looking for the missing woman and child at the father’s house on Donelon Drive about 15 minutes after they arrived.
The investigation got moved to Bella’s biological mother’s house, which is just around the corner and less than two blocks from Bella’s father’s house, at around 8:20 in the morning.
According to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, “At the Sedgefield location, officers discovered the victim’s remains inside a large plastic bucket in the front yard.” The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to Sheriff Joseph Lopinto, who spoke at a press conference last Wednesday, the investigation into Bella’s death got turned over to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office’s Major Crimes Task Force.
The sheriff’s office described Landon as an Asian woman who also goes by the names “Bunnak Lim” and “Bunnak Landon,” and JPSO investigators claim that Landon got quickly identified as the case’s top suspect.
In an effort to find Landon, neighbors gave the sheriff’s office access to Ring doorbell surveillance footage, which they claim shows Landon late the night before “pulling a wagon containing a bucket down both Donelon and Sedgefield Drives.” Landon was on her way to Bella’s biological mother’s house.
Landon got seen idly strolling down the street with the wagon and bucket in tow at around 9:33 p.m. in the disturbing video, showing no signs of trying to hide the dead child, even as a white minivan drives right past her.
Following an autopsy last Wednesday afternoon, authorities concluded that Bella’s death was the result of a homicide.
The sheriff’s office states that the cause of death is getting withheld during the investigation; however, coroner Gerry Cvitanovich revealed that Bella died due to “manual strangulation along with blunt force injuries to the head.”
After an investigation and “extensive” interviews with Bella’s biological parents, authorities concluded that neither had anything to do with her death.
Detectives received word around 2:00 p.m. last Wednesday that Landon got admitted to a nearby hospital while the search for her continued. According to authorities, Landon entered the Harahan Police Department sometime after midnight on Wednesday and was “ultimately transported to the hospital for evaluation.”
Although the reason for Landon’s hospitalization was not immediately clear, Sheriff Lopinto stated that at this point in the investigation, he would withhold that information.
Landon was arrested last Wednesday afternoon on suspicion of first-degree murder and obstruction of justice. She got booked into the Jefferson Parish Correction Center after being released from the hospital.
The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office did not explain why Hannah Landon allegedly did this, but according to The New York Post, Bella’s mother, Jennifer Zeledon, and Hannah Landon have had multiple conflicts since 2021.
According to the publication, the two women got into a physical altercation during a children’s swim meet, and Bella’s father had to step in.
Bella Fontenelle’s aunt has set up a Go Fund Me page for anyone who wants to help the family during this difficult time.
