Category: Crime

The Associated Press reports that 46-year-old Michael Christopher Estes planted a bomb fortified with nail shrapnel in the Asheville, North Carolina Airport in order to “fight a war on U.S. soil”, for some reason. He’d been out of prison eight days after serving only seven days of a 10-21 month sentence for an attempted assault earlier this year;

Cherokee Indian Police Department officers said in incident reports that Estes chased the man into his house trailer on July 31, 2015, with a 16-inch knife and hatchet, the newspaper reported. The victim reportedly suffered cuts to his right temple, one his left check from his mouth to his ear lobe, and his left tricep. He also suffered a puncture wound to his chest, according to the reports.

The attack came 17 days after Estes was arrested and charged with breaking and entering and larceny, Swain County Sheriff Curtis Cochran said.

Estes was caught on video surveillance of the airport while he planted his IED to detonate when the early morning crowd arrived at the airport;

The bomb contained ammonium nitrate, Sterno fuel, nails and a .410 gauge Winchester shotgun cartridge, authorities said. Estes waived his Miranda rights, answering questions and admitting to building and planting the device, the criminal complaint said.

From the Asheville Citizen-Times;

The device was a Mason-type jar with a lid locked down, the complaint states. It had prills, described as “pellets or solid globules of a substance formed by the congealing of a liquid during processing,” inside the jar and two plastic cups containing an unknown liquid substance authorities believe to be the fuel source.

Once ammonium nitrate forms into prills, it can absorb the fuel oil needed for an explosion, the complaint states. The clock within the device was set to go off at 6 a.m.

According to WWLP, Floridaman Brian Disario shot his mother’s friend because the friend was hitting on Disario’s imaginary girlfriend;

Deputies say he was known to have guns and had a history of mental illness.

Deputies said Disario believed that his mother’s friend was trying to hit on his girlfriend. Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco said Disario did not a have a girlfriend, but in his mind he did.

The suspect shot and killed the victim, David Armstrong, 56. Others in the home and Disario fled into Gulf Highlands Drive.

So, my questions are; “Who knew he had a mental illness” and “Who gave him a gun, if ‘he was known to have…a history of mental illness’?”

He unsuccessfully tried to shoot it out with the Pasco County deputies in the middle of the street and ended up in a pool of his own blood, when police sent a robot into his abode. According to the Tampa Bay Times, no deputies were injured in the gunfight.

Those who knew him said DiSario was stockpiling firearms.

“We knew he had long guns,” [Pasco Sheriff Chris] Nocco said. “We knew he had ammunition.”

But no one does anything until he kills someone and shoots it out with deputies.

Inside Edition reports that officers in Wooster County, Ohio pulled over a phony cop, Erik Brubaker and his pal, 20-year-old Caleb Barnhart, and discovered that the pair, dressed as cops, were actually sex offenders;

After Brubaker allegedly admitted he’d been fired from his security guard job, police say Barnhart told them separately that the men were on their way to confront a female rape case witness.

“It appeared that the reason he was wearing this uniform may have been to intimidate this young lady to answer his questions or perhaps to go away with him to some other location,” Hunter said.

From Fox8;

During questioning the driver, Erik Brubaker, 35, of Medina, first told them he was working as a security officer and was expected to be at work that afternoon.

He later recanted saying that he had been terminated from a security job.

Authorities also learned that Brubaker’s license had been suspended.

His passenger, Caleb Barnhart, 20, of Wadsworth was also carrying a metal police badge.

Ladies, it’s a jungle out there.

James Morales, a former Army Reservist, stole six M-4 carbines and 10 M-11 handguns from the Lincoln W. Stoddard U.S. Army Reserve Center in Worcester, Massachusetts in November 2015. He tried to use some of those guns to rob banks in Cambridge and Somerville, Massachusetts, after escaping from a facility in Rhode Island.

Morales was tied to the reserve center theft because, brilliant criminal that he is, he was wearing an ankle bracelet monitoring system – he was out on bail from a child rape beef.

Morales reached a plea deal with prosecutors, according to the Virginian-Pilot;

According to the plea deal, prosecutors agreed to recommend 14 years in prison for the charges stemming from the gun thefts and bank robbery attempts, and one additional year for the escape. The deal also calls for three years of probation. Morales faced up to 90 years in prison if convicted at trial of all the charges.

The judge isn’t bound by the prosecution’s recommendations.

Two people convicted of helping sell the stolen guns already have been sentenced. Tyrone James received nearly five years behind bars, while Ashley Bigsbee received a nearly 2-year sentence.

Maybe he can get the training he sorely needs while he’s behind bars and come out as better criminal after this little slap on his wrist.

Chief Tango sends us a link to the Postal Employee Network which reports that contractor for the USPS, Bronson Cobble, was sentenced for pilfering 33 packages of medication from the Veterans’ Affairs Department to patients. Of course, it was pain medications that he stole and Cobble consumed the meds himself;

Bronson Cobble, a U.S. Postal Service contractor, will spend the next three years on probation and must pay $1,154.98 in restitution after pleading guilty in June to stealing 33 packages containing narcotics that were meant for Veterans Affairs patients.

Another wrist slap from the judicial system.