This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Crime

  • Daniel Barrett Swecker; repeat DWI offender gets 6 months for killing vet

    Bert sends us a link to Fox News which tells how Daniel Barrett Swecker, who had been convicted of DWI offenses twice before, struck and murdered Afghanistan veteran Nelson Marvin Canada.

    When Swecker struck Canada with his car, Canada was launched 120 feet from the site of the impact. Swecker left the scene on foot and called his wife from a pay phone despite the fact that he had a cell phone in his pocket.

    Oh, by the way, he should have been jail from his last conviction when he was driving drunk at 80 miles an hour and at double the legal BAC.

    Court records show Swecker had two previous DUI arrests.

    A judge originally sentenced Swecker to six years in prison but he appealed his case and remained free. The appeal allowed for the six-year prison sentence to be reconsidered, a decision criticized by District Attorney George Brauchler.

    “I respect the court and the process the court employed, but I respectfully and strongly disagree with the decision,” he said in a news release. “He ran over and killed an active-duty soldier, one who had survived a deployment to Afghanistan only to be run over by a repeat drunk driver.”

    The judge sentenced Swecker to six months for his murder of a veteran and his third conviction for Driving While Intoxicated. He blew a blood alcohol level of 0.118, more than double the legal limit.

  • “Swatting” in San Jose

    KTUE reports on the latest incident of “Swatting” which happened in San Jose, California. Officers responded to a 9-1-1 call that claimed a home had been the target of a home invasion conducted by armed thieves.

    But the call ended up being bogus. It’s part of a new fad called “Swatting.” San Jose police units converge at a house in the 200-block of North 11th Street, shortly before 5 p.m. Officers quickly deploy and duck behind cars and trees for cover, with one wearing tactical gear and pointing the business end of an AR-15 at a target. The 911 call that brought them claimed a home invasion and robbery by armed men.. But it wasn’t true, it was a hoax.

    “We just got swatted. I didn’t think that would happen. But that’s the reality I’m dealing with,” said Matt Stillman, the target of the prank call to police.

    He says he was inside writing code with friends when police called, asked if armed men were holding them hostage, then ordered all five people out with their hands behind their backs.

    This incident didn’t end like the one in Wichita where Andrew Finch was shot to death by an anxious police officer. Stillman thinks a disgruntled neighbor called in the bogus incident.

    “Cause he’s a hater. And he tried to run me over with his car a couple of months ago. Wanna be a gang-banger who can’t do anything with his life,” said Stillman.

    I guess it’s all part of the new normal.

  • Stanley Raass pleads guilty

    Stanley Raass pleads guilty

    Wendell sends us a link to the story of Stanley Raass who used his father, a 100% disabled veteran, to get government contracts for his Utah construction company called RWT. Raass claimed that his father ran day-to-day operations of the company;

    To meet the requirements for these particular contracts, a service-disabled veteran must own 51 percent of the business and must manage the daily operations of the business, according to the charges.

    The felony information filed against Raass, who never served in the miliary, says Raass controlled the managerial and daily business operations of RWT.

    “Between Sept. 19, 2009, and Aug. 26, 2013, Raass, through RWT, obtained 11 contracts set aside for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses totaling $16,517,912 in payments from the government,” according to a statement from U.S. Attorney for Utah John Huber’s office.

    Stan pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering. He’ll be sentenced in May and he’s expected to spend two years in prison and pay $640,000 for his $16 million fraud – it’s good work if you can get it.

    The picture is from when he played linebacker for BYU more than twenty years ago.

  • School shooting in Broward County

    School shooting in Broward County

    A nineteen-year-old discipline problem went into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County, Florida yesterday armed with an AR-style rifle and several magazines of ammunition. According to witnesses, he pulled the fire alarm and opened fire as students headed for the exits, killing at least 17, including Aaron Feis, the football coach/security guard (pictured above), who, according to students, shielded potential victims from bullets with his own body. He leaves behind a wife and daughter.

    The cowardly shooter then blended in with students as they exited the school and he was arrested a few blocks away.

    His lawyer, Jim Lewis, says that the gunman owned the gun, according to Fox News. The gunman had previously been in a mental treatment facility, but somehow he was able to buy a firearm without popping hot on the NICS background check.

    His adoptive mother, Lynda Cruz, died recently and he was living with another family;

    “I know she had been having some issues with them, especially the older one. He was being a problem. I know he did have some issues and he may have been taking medication. (He) did have some kind of emotional or difficulties,” [Barbara] Kumbatovich told the newspaper. “(Lynda) kept a really close handle on both boys. They were not major issues, as far as I know, just things teenagers do like not coming home on time, maybe being disrespectful.”

    From another Fox News link;

    [The shooter] was also described as having an “obsessive interest in weapons,” according to the Miami Herald. One teacher said [the shooter] was banned from entering campus with a backpack, the newspaper reported.

    “All he would talk about is guns, knives and hunting,” Joshua Charo, 16, a former classmate, told the Herald. “I can’t say I was shocked. From past experiences, he seemed like the kind of kid who would do something like this.”

    Another unidentified student told WJXT-TV that “everyone predicted” the shooting.

    “Honestly, a lot of people were saying it was gonna be him,” the unnamed student told the news station. He said kids joked around that the student would be the one to “shoot up the school.”

    Of course, gun grabbers were quick to take advantage of the shooting to advance their gun control agenda, as if murder and bringing firearms in school property aren’t illegal already.

  • Homeless man steals Humvee to join the Army

    Homeless man steals Humvee to join the Army

    According to KOMONews, an unnamed 24-year-old homeless man in Washington State stole a Humvee from the Washington Army National Guard armory in Pasco. Then he drove it to the Army’s Yakima Training Center. He admitted his crime to gate guards and informed them that he wanted to join the Army;

    The man was arrested for investigation of burglary, auto theft and malicious mischief.

    He had been staying at the Tri-City Union Gospel Mission before the incident. He has now landed in the Franklin County Corrections Center.

    I guess the recruiters were all closed. They really missed the boat on this recruit.

    Thanks to Jim for the link.

  • Khalil Lawal identified as Philly driver

    Khalil Lawal identified as Philly driver

    The Patch reports that Khalil Lawal, a 31-year-old from Arlington, Virginia driving a Honda registered in Maryland attempted to mow down pedestrians in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania the other day.

    After Lawal struck one person, a Good Samaritan blocked Lawal with his SUV, while an off-duty Philly detective confronted Lawal. During the physical altercation that followed, the detective shot Lawal in the face, legs, and torso. He was DOT (dead over there) at the hospital.

    The pedestrian was treated and released at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for abrasions and contusions to his head and legs, according to police.

    The officer was treated and released from Methodist Hospital for abrasions and contusions to his head and shoulder, police said.

    No one else was injured in the incident, according to police.

    Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross has some concerns about the shooting, according to CBS News;

    “During the struggle, several shots were fired. The male was hit several times and later pronounced dead at Presbyterian Hospital,” said Ross.

    Ross added, “I do have some concerns about the shooting. In particular, whether all the shots were necessary.”

    Yeah, well, if he was still alive when he got to the hospital, the detective fired one less shot than he should have, Mr Police Commissioner.

  • Doyle Mullins sentenced for scamming the VA

    Andy11M sends us a link from the Miami Herald about 71-year-old Vietnam veteran Doyle Mullins who was sentenced to nine months of home detention and five years of probation for pretending to be blind. His take over twenty years was $583,485.74;

    The payments came in lumps of thousands of dollars per month and included medical benefits payments for his wife and grants from the VA for a car and adaptive housing.

    Investigators said they began surveillance of Mullins and watched him engage in activities such as driving, running errands and mowing his lawn.

    From THV11;

    Mullins served in the Vietnam War. Years later, authorities say he was able to lie and receive disability payments, grants for a car and medical payments for his wife.

    Law enforcement found during the course of their investigation Mullins was actually doing OK; he was seen driving, moving his lawn and running errands.

  • Colton Delaughter and William Stockstill get 40 years for kidnapping sailors

    Colton Delaughter and William Stockstill get 40 years for kidnapping sailors

    Stars & Stripes reports that Colton Delaughter, 27, and William Stockstill, 24, members of the Simon City Royals street gang, were sentenced Monday for kidnapping two Pensacola sailors who were on vacation in Biloxi, Mississippi.

    One of the sailors had the presence of mind to alert a convenience store clerk to their dilemma;

    Delaughter and Stockstill have admitted they forced the two at gunpoint into their Chevrolet Cruz rental car as they were getting their luggage out of the vehicle at the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino parking garage, Smith said. They took the victims’ cellphones so they couldn’t call for help.

    Delaughter and Stockstill drove the men to a gas station in Pass Christian, forcing them to withdraw cash from an ATM.

    Delaughter forced the two to buy snacks and drinks. One of the victims wrote “help me” and “gun” as he signed his name on his credit card receipt and handed it to the cashier, Smith said.

    When they were finally released, the sailors were able to describe their assailants’ tattoos which led to their quick arrests the following day.

    Circuit Judge Lisa Dodson sentenced the pair to 40 years in prison.