Category: Crime

Still Another Aspiring Rapper Update

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Say hello to Kemandre King, 20, and Marlon King, 24, who are not aspiring rappers, so far as I know. Instead, they are associates of the late Desoni “Lil Theze” Gardner who, as we told you in November, made the mistake of attempting to carjack a retired police captain in Oakland, California. Ersie Joyner had risen through the ranks of the Oakland P.D. to become head of the homicide unit, had a concealed carry permit, and put enough shots on target to send “Lil Theze” to his eternal reward. Joyner was wounded six times in the carjacking attempt, but survived.

Ersie Joyner’s survival offers valuable lessons for every American. Your Second Amendment rights are about the First Law of Nature, and criminals preferred unarmed victims. There is less crime in places where law-abiding citizens exercise their rights, because criminals can never know which of their intended targets might be capable of doing to them what Ersie Joyner did to “Lil Theze.” Another lesson is one which the acquaintances of aspiring rappers ought to study well, namely the felony murder principle of law, whereby accomplices to a crime that results in homicide can also be charged with murder — even if it’s the death of one of their fellow criminals. This is why the King brothers, as well as accused getaway driver Joshua Hayles, 28, are now facing murder charges:

Three men have been charged following the attempted murder of Ersie Joyner, a former Oakland Police captain who shot a fourth suspect dead during an armed robbery at a gas station last month, with the charges including murder for the suspect’s death.
The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office announced charges [Nov. 23], a day after Oakland police said the three suspects had been arrested. The suspects were identified as 20-year-old Kemandre King, 24-year-old Marlon King, and 28-year-old Joshua Hayles.
Kemandre King and Marlon King were arrested last week in Elk Grove, while Hayles was arrested in Houston, Texas on Nov. 19 and was being extradited back to California. Both Kemandre King and Marlon King were arraigned Tuesday morning at the East County Hall of Justice in Dublin.
On October 21, Joyner was pumping gas at a Chevron station at 17th and Castro St. in Oakland when three suspects confronted him at gunpoint and proceeded to rob him. Joyner pulled out a handgun and fired, hitting the fourth suspect, identified as 20-year-old Desoni Gardner. One of the suspects fired back at Joyner, hitting him multiple times.
Gardner died at the scene while the two others fled in a Nissan sedan driven by Hayles, the DA’s office said. The vehicle was located Oct. 25 abandoned in Berkeley.
“Ersie Joyner was senselessly attacked and shot while being robbed,” said District Attorney Nancy O’Malley in a prepared statement. “We continue to pray for his full recovery. Our thoughts are with him and his family.”
All three defendants were charged with the murder of Gardner and second-degree robbery of Joyner, the DA’s office said. Marlon King and Kemandre King were also charged with one count each of assault with a semiautomatic firearm; Marlon King was also charged with the attempted murder of Joyner.

Because Desoni “Lil Theze” Gardner died during the commission of a robbery to which the King brothers and Hayles were accomplices, all three of them can be charged with felony murder so that, by shooting Gardner to death, not only did Joyner subtract “Lil Theze” from the criminal population of Oakland, but he also guaranteed that Gardner’s accomplices would face very serious felony charges.

The First Law of Nature is a thing of beauty.




 

Aspiring Rapper Update: ‘5050 Chuck’ and Girlfriends Charged in Murder

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Say hello to Charles Berltran, a/k/a “5050 Chuck,” 31, who is behind bars in Texas for the murder of Marisela Botello, 23. The Seattle woman had traveled to Dallas in October 2020 to visit a friend, then went out to a bar where police say she met Beltran. She went missing until March 2021, when hikers found her body in a wooded area. Dallas detectives say they tracked her cellphone signal, which showed that Botello had traveled to a home in the Dallas suburb of Mesquite where Beltran lived with two women, Nina Marano, 50, and Lisa Dykes, 58.

Police aren’t commenting on the nature of this domestic arrangement. Marano is a lawyer licensed to practice in New York and Florida, and Dykes, a paralegal, was listed as a business agent of a law firm that Marano founded. According to various news reports, Marano and Dykes were married to each other, but a source told one Spanish-language publication that the two women were in a polyamorous relationship with Beltran, who worked as a nightclub bouncer. Marano and Dykes were reportedly bankrolling Beltran’s rap career as “5050 Chuck.” This is a scene from a video for his song “Picture Me This”:

That house in the background? It’s where police say Marisela Botello was stabbed to death. And that car “5050 Chuck” is sitting on? That’s the aspiring rapper’s 2014 Audi A6, in the trunk of which police say they found a strand of the victim’s hair. You may be surprised (but not very surprised) to learn the aspiring rapper had spent time in prison:

Beltran was convicted of aggravated robbery in Travis County in 2007; authorities said he pistol-whipped a man after taking his wallet. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but a judge released him on probation after about four months. Beltran was found to have violated the terms of his probation in 2009 and was sentenced to 2½ years in prison.

Beltran claims that Dykes stabbed Botello, but it’s a death penalty case, and of course he’s going to blame his accomplices, who evidently helped dispose of the victim’s body. When police caught Beltran, he had fled to Utah, whereas Dykes and Marano fled to Florida, where they were captured in April. Somehow, a judge agreed to let Dykes and Marano out on bond, on house arrest with ankle monitors, but guess what? On Christmas Day, the two women apparently cut off their ankle monitors and disappeared, and the cops didn’t follow up until 10 days later. So the (alleged) killer lesbians are now fugitives, whereabouts unknown.

Is there a moral to this story? I don’t know. Generally speaking, avoid aspiring rappers. Nothing good ever seems to happen in the vicinity of aspiring rappers. It’s almost as if there’s a pattern or something.

PREVIOUSLY:




 

Welcome to New York City

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The pro-criminal/anti-police agenda seems to be working out great:

A vagrant slashed another man who confronted him for masturbating in front of his wife outside Penn Station late Wednesday, according to cops and police sources.
The unidentified 21-year-old suspect — who is listed as a “John Doe” in police records — was pleasuring himself near the married couple at the corner of West 34th Street and Seventh Avenue around 11:20 p.m., according to cops and police sources.
The husband, 31, told the homeless man to cut it out – prompting him to slash the man in the hand with a razor, authorities and the sources said.
The victim refused medical attention for a minor cut on his hand, cops said.
The suspect fled into Penn Station, where cops found him and took him into custody, police said.
He was charged with public lewdness and assault, authorities said.

Public masturbation and stabbing people are no longer against the law in New York, now that George Soros has installed Alvin Bragg as district attorney. The masturbating stabber has probably been released from jail already, and is back to his usual habits at Penn Station.




 

What ‘Social Justice’ Really Means

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New Yorkers are about to get what they voted for, and they deserve it:

Manhattan’s new liberal district attorney sent guidance to his staff this week saying he does not intend to prosecute several offenses, suggesting that “decriminalization” will help “make us safer,” according to reports.
Alvin Bragg, who was sworn in as Manhattan district attorney on January 1, sent a memo to his office on Monday calling for the “decriminalization/non prosecution” of crimes including marijuana possession, turnstile jumping, trespassing, resisting arrest, interfering with an arrest and prostitution.
The guidance calls for downgrading felony charges in cases including armed robberies and drug dealing.
The memo says the office will “not seek carceral sentence other than for homicide” or “class B violent felony in which a deadly weapon causes serious injury, domestic violence felonies” with few exceptions.
“This rule may be excepted only in extraordinary circumstances based on a holistic analysis of the facts, criminal history, victim’s input (particularly in cases of violence or trauma), and any other information available,” the memo reads.
Bragg suggested that “reserving incarceration for matters involving significant harm will make us safer.”
The office also does not plan to seek any sentences of life without parole, regardless of how heinous a crime is, and will only recommend pretrial detention in “very serious cases.”
“The data show that the overwhelming majority of those released pretrial do not commit a violent crime while at liberty,” the memo says. “Two studies show that even three days in jail can lead to a loss of housing, employment and strain family connections and increase the likelihood failure to appear in court.”
The move comes as the number of murders, robberies, felony assaults, burglaries, grand larcenies and grand larceny auto thefts surpassed 100,000 for the first time since 2016, according to data from the New York Police Department.
The New York Police Benevolent Association expressed “serious concerns” about the plan in a tweet on Tuesday.

(Hat-tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.)

One must admire the blandness of that phrase, “The data show,” by which Bragg asserts that most criminal suspects released on bail “do no commit a violent crime” while awaiting trial — certainly a fact, but one which offers no comfort to the law-abiding citizens whose safety is jeopardized by the catch-and-release policy that liberals advocate.

Suppose, arguendo, that a mere 5% of suspects out on bail commit violent crimes; 95% can be fairly described as an “overwhelming majority.” But (a) this is the situation under the existing system, rather than the “progressive” policy that Bragg intends to implement, and (b) that 5% can wreak serious havoc, when you’re talking about a city like New York with a criminal population numbered in the tens of thousands. And we might furthermore add (c) that the “data” to which Bragg refers is no doubt supplied by left-wing advocacy organizations which may not be entirely scrupulous in dealing with statistics.

We do not need any research to know that Bragg’s policy will produce disastrous results — common sense tells us so and, given what we’ve seen in other cities where funding from George Soros has elected “progressive” district attorneys like Bragg, we know that life in New York City will become nightmarish. Prostitutes and drug dealers will ply their trades without fear of prosecution, carjackings and burglaries will skyrocket, and the daily death toll from drive-by shootings will shock the nation.

“Social justice” requires this. It is unfair for some people to live in safe neighborhoods with nice cars; to make things equal, every neighborhood in New York City must become as lawless and chaotic as the worst slums of the Bronx. While “social justice” will not improve the quality of life of allegedly “oppressed” minorities — indeed, black and brown people will be victimized at much higher rates — it will help accomplish Bragg’s real goal, i.e., to make life worse for white people in New York.

You’re not supposed to say this out loud, of course, but this is the ultimate meaning of all that “Critical Race Theory” noise. The problem with law enforcement, according to the CRT perspective, is not merely the “disparate impact” of locking up black criminals. No, the real problem is that keeping criminals in jail allows white people to live in nice neighborhoods. It is wrong for white people to be safe from crime.

We know for a fact that 37% of criminals released from prison are re-arrested within a year. The reality of recidivism — the fact that most crime is committed by repeat offenders, who are more or less full-time criminals — is something that “progressives” wish to ignore, or bury beneath a lot of blah blah blah about “oppression.” The fact that about half the violent crime in America is committed by young black males is another fact that “progressives” seek to conceal or obscure. When calling attention to these facts, one must point out that the disproportionate amount of violent crime committed by young black males does not mean that most young black males are criminals. It is a minority of the minority, as it were, who are responsible for this misunderstanding, in the same way that a comparative handful of outspoken bigots can engender the false belief that most white people are racists. If we wish to protect the black community from stereotypes about criminality, locking up black criminals should be high on the list of priorities, since prison inmates are thereby quarantined from the public.

Instead, the “progressive” solution is to normalize criminality, to permit prostitution and drug dealing to flourish, and to effectively legalize theft (e.g., California). How can anyone possibly justify this madness? Simple — just shout “racist” at anyone who complains. One marvels at the childishness of such reasoning, but this mentality is now the dominant force in Democratic Party politics, and no one’s life or property is safe wherever Democrats are in power. Therefore, anyone who votes for Democrats — as did 78% of Manhattan voters in 2020 — is voting for violent anarchy. New York City deserves what comes next.




 

‘A Philadelphia Gentleman’s Club’

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These two Philadelphia gentlemen are suspects.

Euphemism alert:

Authorities have identified two suspects wanted in a double homicide that happened outside a Philadelphia gentlemen’s club on Tuesday.
Investigators say a 32-year-old man and a 42-year-old man suffered fatal gunshot wounds when an argument turned deadly in the parking lot of Club Risqué on Tacony Street around 2:30 a.m.

(Because where else would a Philadelphia gentleman be at 2:30 a.m.?)

Surveillance footage shared by the Philadelphia Police Department shows the suspected shooter and a female person of interest arriving at the club in a black Nissan about an hour before the shooting.

(A “female person of interest” is what they call a “lady” in Philadelphia.)

The suspect, who police say walks with a distinct limp, was wearing a blue coat and denim pants with dark-colored boots at the time of the shooting. The woman passenger labeled by police as a person of interest was wearing a white shirt with tan pants and white shoes.
Security footage from inside the vestibule of the club shows a second suspect also wearing a blue winter coat over a blue hooded sweatshirt.

These gentlemen of Philadelphia are part of a trend:

In 2014, after Philadelphia had recorded fewer than 250 homicides for the second consecutive year, then-Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey made a bold prediction.
“I don’t believe we’re as low as we can go,” he said, adding that the city might soon see fewer than 200 annual homicides.
Instead, seven years later, Philadelphia has recorded more killings than ever. The number of people slain this year — 557 as of Wednesday — has already doubled the 2014 total.
The reasons behind the surge — a spike in gun violence that began hitting historic levels last year and has also been seen in other cities — could take years to sort out, criminologists, police, and other experts say. There have been several once-in-a-lifetime events occurring simultaneously, each of which can cause the type of mass anxiety and distress behind a widespread rise in gun crime: a pandemic, economic upheaval, a nationwide reckoning over racial inequity, and social and political unrest.
The increase here has been intensely concentrated in communities of color where residents have long endured higher violence levels alongside other systemic issues, such as more poverty and lower life expectancy.

“The reasons . . . could take years to sort out,” say the experts.

Experts would not dare blame the Philadelphia gentlemen. Some may use other terms to describe the people causing this violence.




 

Crazy People Are Dangerous

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Say hello to Harrison Foster of Cape Girardeau, Missouri. This is a mugshot from 2008, after Foster was arrested for robbing pharmacies and the judge ordered a “mental evaluation” that sent him to “Fulton State Hospital’s maximum security lockdown.” Foster was 21 at the time, and I don’t know what the results of the “mental evaluation” were, but they didn’t keep him lockdown. Perhaps they should have, because somewhere along the line, Foster hooked up with Brittany Wilson.

The best relationships are built on common interests, and it appears that Foster and Wilson had a common interest in methamphetamine.

Which is how the couple decided to celebrate Christmas Eve:

A Missouri woman was pictured with a bright smile on her face after being charged with killing her fiance with a sword on Christmas Eve after the couple was high on meth.
Brittany Wilson, 32, was found outside the Cape Girardeau home she shared with 34-year-old Harrison Stephen Foster with blood on her clothing and a sword lying in the front yard.
Wilson had called police shortly after 11p.m. Friday to report that she had killed Foster with a sword, cops said.
She told investigators that she believed he had several other entities living in his body, and she was setting him free by stabbing him, police said
After officers arrested Wilson, they went inside the home and found Harris dead with several fresh stab wounds.
Wilson told police that she and Foster had taken methamphetamine earlier in the day at the home located about 115 miles south of St. Louis.
Officers say she claimed that Foster was harvesting body parts from individuals.
In the mug shot released Saturday, an orange jumpsuit-clad Wilson, who has two children, wore a wide smile. Foster isn’t believed to be the father of the two kids.

She seems nice. Be careful who you’re doing with meth with, and maybe it’s not a good idea to leave swords laying around while you’re out of your mind on meth. Remember: Crazy People Are Dangerous.




 

Denver Shooting Rampage Update: Gunman Identified as Tattoo Artist Lyndon McLeod, Was Known to Cops

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Before the identity of the Denver shooter was known, I’d predicted that we would “eventually be told the gunman ‘struggled with mental health issues,’” and sure enough, Lyndon James McLeod, 47, “had a history of psychiatric episodes,” according to “multiple law enforcement sources.” McLeod had twice been the subject of police investigations in the past two years, perhaps because of his habit of threatening to murder people.

The same “law enforcement sources” say that McLeod “harbored extremist views,” without being more specific.

And really, if you have “a history of psychiatric episodes,” how much do the details of your delusions matter? It appears that McLeod, a Texas native, was into some kind of ultra-macho “Alpha male” trip, and had self-published novels without much success.

I’m sure we’ll get the full story eventually, but apparently the immediate cause of his murder rampage was that his tattoo business was failing, and he seems to have targeted other local tattoo artists. So the motive was revenge, probably for imaginary wrongs. That is to say, the people McLeod murdered hadn’t actually done anything wrong to him, but in his mind they were villains, because they were successful and he was not. It’s the “grievance collector” motif in action:

A grievance collector will move from the passive assumption of deprivation and low expectancy common to most paranoid personalities to a more aggressive mode. He will not endure passively his deprived state; he will occupy himself with accumulating evidence of his misfortunes and locating the sources. . . .
Grievance collectors are distrustful and provocative, convinced they are always taken advantage of and given less than their fair share.

This type of thinking is common to mass murderers — they are obsessed with the idea that they have been cheated out of their “fair share” in life. Y’know, like Bernie Sanders voters. Except, instead of trying to get their revenge against society by voting for cranky Vermont senators, the grievance collector plots actual violence against the people who, in his mind, have done him wrong. As I say, these wrongs are usually imaginary, a product of the grievance collector’s antisocial mentality. He is an unhappy failure, and therefore is likely to view as a potential enemy anyone who is happy and successful. Combine that brooding victimhood mentality with the type of ultra-macho trip that Lyndon McLeod was on, and it’s a recipe for violent craziness. You can’t lock people up simply for being weird or scary, but making murder threats is a different matter.

What does it take to prosecute such a threat? I’m not a lawyer, but it appears cops missed a chance to lock this guy up when they had a chance. On the other hand, if we’re going to treat vandalism, looting and arson as “mostly peaceful protests,” then I guess we can’t get too draconian in enforcing other laws, which means that this particular kook was on the loose. And as you know, Crazy People Are Dangerous.




 

Denver Gunman Kills 4, Wounds 3

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Motive unknown:

A lone gunman shot four people to death and wounded three, including a police officer, on Monday in a Denver-area shooting spree that unfolded at several locations and ended with police killing the suspect, authorities said.
Investigators have yet to determine a motive for the rampage, which began around 5 p.m. when the gunman shot and killed two women and wounded a man near downtown Denver, Police Chief Paul Pazen said a news briefing.
The suspect then fled in a car and fatally shot a man in east Denver’s Cheesman Park neighborhood, before opening fire again in a west Denver community where no one was hit, Pazen said. According to Pazen, the suspect twice exchanged gunfire from his vehicle with Denver officers pursuing him, disabling a police cruiser.
From there, the gunman drove into the neighboring city of Lakewood, where he shot and killed a fourth person inside an unspecified business, according to Lakewood Police spokesman John Romero.
The gunman fled from Lakewood police when they attempted to pull him over and engaged in a running gun battle with officers before fleeing on foot and entering a hotel, where he shot and wounded a clerk, Romero said.
He then shot at police officers again, wounding one of them, before police shot him dead, Romero told reporters. Authorities did not publicly identify the suspect, and said circumstances leading to the shooting remained under investigation.

The fact that police have not yet named the suspect could lead people to speculate about his identity and motive, which is irresponsible. But I’m going to take a wild guess that we’ll eventually be told the gunman “struggled with mental health issues.” For some reason, we only hear about such struggles when the result is tragic. There must be people who are successful in their mental health struggles, but only the failures ever make national news. Once upon a time in this country, we kept people locked up in lunatic asylums while they “struggled with mental health issues,” but now the policy is to let the kooks roam around until they die in a shootout with cops. Or so it seems because, as I say, this is the only circumstance in which such “struggles” are deemed newsworthy.

Of course, what counts as a “mass murder” in Denver is just a typical weekend in Chicago, in terms of total body count. Is everybody in Chicago having a mental health crisis? They must be crazy to elect Lori Lightfoot as their mayor, but other than that — and the constant gunfire — there are few other symptoms of their struggles with mental health.

Crazy People Are Dangerous.

UPDATE: Denver Shooting Rampage Update: Gunman Identified as Tattoo Artist Lyndon McLeod, Was Known to Cops.