Category: United States

Groups the States

SCOTUS Rejects Texas v. Pennsylvania

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My podcast partner John Hoge says he is “not completely surprised, but disappointed” by the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the lawsuit filed by Texas (joined by 17 other states) which argued that changes to election procedures in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Georgia were unconstitutional. Jonathan Adler says the decision “should also put an end to the efforts by the Trump campaign and its allies to delegitimize or otherwise challenge the election results,” and further that the result “should not have been a surprise to anyone who was paying attention,” but adds: “There remains a serious legal question about the constitutionality of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision to extend the deadline for the receipt of absentee ballots beyond the statutory deadline.” As noted earlier this week (“How to Maintain Your Sanity”), because I am not a lawyer, I did not feel qualified to comment on all this, and worrying about it seemed a source of unnecessary stress.

Once a dispute becomes a matter for courts to decide, the law-abiding citizens of a republic are obligated to abide by the result. This is true, for example, in those cases that attract the attention of the “Black Lives Matter” movement — if a grand jury refuses to indict a police officer who shot a suspect, this is simply the rule of law in action. If you don’t like the law, you organize to pressure the legislature to change the law, rather than looting Target or burning down the courthouse.

If this legal battle is lost — and again, I am not a lawyer, so I can’t say what further remedies might be available — the political war will no doubt continue. We must not surrender to despair.

“Never take counsel of your fears,” as Stonewall Jackson said.

Oh, it’s not a coincidence I’m quoting a Confederate general. Just look at what Texas GOP chairman Allen West had to say Friday night:

“The Supreme Court, in tossing the Texas lawsuit that was joined by seventeen states and 106 US congressman, has decreed that a state can take unconstitutional actions and violate its own election law. Resulting in damaging effects on other states that abide by the law, while the guilty state suffers no consequences. This decision establishes a precedent that says states can violate the US constitution and not be held accountable. This decision will have far-reaching ramifications for the future of our constitutional republic. Perhaps law-abiding states should bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the constitution.”

Deo vindice.




 

Holiday News Down Home

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How’s your holiday shopping coming along? I’ve been keeping up with folks down home, reading the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and it seems there’s been a lot of festive holiday excitement:

One man is in custody after shooting a Walmart employee who confronted him about shoplifting Friday morning in East Point, police said.
The shooting occurred just before noon when a loss prevention officer at the Cleveland Avenue store approached 24-year-old Tyler Cortez Johnson about the alleged stolen merchandise, East Point police Capt. Allyn Glover said.
“The male then pulled a gun and shot the employee before fleeing out the front door,” he said.
Channel 2 Action News reported that the shooting occurred in front of customers, some of whom ran outside after hearing the gunshot.
A second employee taking a lunch break in his car saw Johnson running through the parking lot and followed him as he called 911 with the man’s location. Officers then “flooded” the area and took him into custody, Glover said.
“(He) was actually able to follow him and gave us a general direction of where he was headed,” Glover told the news station. “We were able to apprehend the shooter with the gun within a minute or two.”
The injured employee, who was shot in the side, was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital.

Just another happy holiday. And meanwhile there’s this festive news:

A man found dead on a southwest Atlanta road last week was identified as a suspect in a 75-mile police chase through Alabama, authorities said.
Matthew William Lloyd, 46, was a passenger in a vehicle that led officers on a multicounty chase on I-20 before he jumped out, fired at officers and disappeared Nov. 29 into a wooded area, according to police in Oxford, Alabama.
Five days later, his body was discovered shot multiple times on a stretch of Kimberly Road near Melvin Drive Park. Atlanta police are still investigating the circumstances surrounding that shooting and have released no updates as of Friday.
Oxford police Chief Bill Partridge confirmed that Lloyd was their suspect, AL.com reported. Investigators were in the process of taking out warrants against him when they learned he was dead, the chief told the news site Monday.
The driver in the chase, identified by police as 41-year-old Lazarus Glover of McDonough, was taken into custody when it ended in the Oxford area. According to AL.com, he is facing multiple charges in several Alabama jurisdictions, including two counts of attempted murder out of Hueytown and a third count of attempted murder out of Birmingham, where a pursuing female officer crashed.
The chase kicked off in Hueytown, a suburb of Birmingham located along I-20. Authorities said Glover and Lloyd tried to break into an auto auction business and shot at officers who responded, AL.com reported.
Several police vehicles were struck by the gunfire, but no officers were wounded, according to the news site. Police from multiple counties joined in the pursuit, which reached speeds of 115 mph.
It ended when authorities used a spike strip, and Lloyd allegedly took off running. A massive manhunt ensued, involving SWAT and police dogs.

I’m sure Atlanta police will make it a top priority to find whoever shot Matthew Lloyd and saved taxpayers the cost of incarcerating him.

Still more cause for holiday celebrations:

A man accused of attacking a mother outside a Gwinnett County gas station and stealing her car with her and her baby inside has been captured after months on the run.
Quinton Rogers, 42, was arrested Tuesday by U.S. marshals and Gwinnett County deputies, police announced Friday.
The harrowing carjacking occurred over the summer, prompting the woman to jump from the moving vehicle with her child, investigators said previously.
Rogers was identified as the suspect in October and faces four charges in connection with the incident, including two counts of kidnapping, hijacking a motor vehicle and a probation violation, online jail records show.
“Rogers was identified by analyzing physical evidence obtained by detectives,” Gwinnett police spokesman Cpl. Collin Flynn said in a news release. “The investigation has shown that this was a random attack and there was no prior relationship between Rogers and the victim.”
The mother, who was not identified by police, suffered minor injuries after escaping the moving car. Her baby was not injured, though its car seat was damaged.
The Aug. 18 carjacking was captured on security cameras at an Exxon gas station on Boggs Road in Lawrenceville, Gwinnett police said. Authorities said the mother stopped to eat dinner and was standing at the back of her car in the parking lot when Rogers approached her from behind.
The woman was visibly startled in the surveillance footage, Flynn said previously.
Rogers reached for what the woman thought was a gun and attacked her, she told investigators. After punching the mother in the face multiple times, Rogers told her to get in the back seat with the baby before driving away with two of the car’s doors still open, authorities said.
As he was driving, Rogers demanded money from the woman and threatened to kill her, police said. Afraid for her life, she grabbed the car seat and leapt from the moving vehicle. The car was found abandoned the next day in Duluth, according to police.
Rogers has been arrested at least nine other times in Gwinnett, records show. His previous charges include probation violation, drug possession, aggravated assault and obstruction of a law enforcement officer.

Glad this guy’s in jail. Hope they keep him there. Meanwhile, it won’t be a happy holiday for meth-heads in Georgia:

A drug trafficking suspect was arrested Thursday afternoon after authorities seized about $400,000 worth of methamphetamine from his Hall County home, deputies said.
The search was the result of a “short-term investigation” by several agencies, including the Hall County Multi-Agency Narcotics Squad, the GBI and the Department of Homeland Security, Hall County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Derreck Booth said in a news release. Police said they found about 4 kilograms of crystal meth inside the Otila Drive home.
Edwin Barrera, 30, was charged with one count of trafficking methamphetamine, jail records show. He remained held at the Hall County Jail without bond Friday evening.

Four kilos of meth — yeah, that would be a wild a Christmas party. Meanwhile, a car thief is recovering from a bad mistake:

A man was shot at a northwest Atlanta gas station Friday morning during a fight over a stolen car, police said.
The shooting occurred about 7:30 a.m. at the BP at the intersection of Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway and Bolton Road, according to investigators. Police arrived to find one man with a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
“Preliminary investigation indicates that another male, who was still at the scene, tracked a stolen car to the location,” Atlanta police spokesman Officer Steve Avery said. “The two men were involved in a confrontation over the stolen car and the confrontation escalated to gunfire.”
At least two guns were recovered from the scene, but it’s unclear who fired first or if the injured man is accused of stealing the car. The person shot was taken to the hospital and is stable, according to police.

Dude stole the wrong car, obviously. More good news from Atlanta:

A man who was on the Atlanta Police Department’s “Most Wanted List” for more than a year in connection with a fatal shooting at a convenience store was arrested Wednesday.
Eddie Laye, 35, was booked and charged with the murder of Dexter Willis on Westview Drive in November 2019, according to police.
On Wednesday around 5:20 a.m., an officer observed a vehicle run a red light while traveling east on Campbellton Road. After stopping the car, the driver immediately attempted to exit the vehicle after being told repeatedly to stay inside, according to police. Due to the odd behavior, officers decided to detain him.
Police said Laye provided several false names during questioning before he was eventually identified and booked into the Fulton County Jail, where he remains without bond.
He was wanted in the Nov. 2, 2019 shooting of Willis at Westview Grocery in the 1000 block of Westview Drive. When officers arrived on that scene, they found the victim with a gunshot wound to his chest. Willis was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital and pronounced dead.
Store surveillance video showed Willis and Laye arguing before the suspect pulled out a handgun, fired a single shot at Willis’ chest and fled the scene, according to the police report.
In addition to the murder charge, Laye is now charged with several other offenses, including driving under the influence and reckless driving.

These murder suspects really need to learn how to drive better. You get away with murder for a year, but get caught for running a red light.




 

Judge Releases Satan-Worshipping Murder Suspect, With Predictable Result

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This has become a pattern in Houston, Texas:

According to a victim’s advocate, Derrick Mike has become the 70th person in Harris County to be murdered by a suspect out on felony bond.
The suspect, 23-year-old Edward O’Neal IV, had been charged in the 2016 slaying of his friend Ryan Roberts in a case that drew international attention since O’Neal claimed to be a worshipper of Satan.
Records indicate O’Neal had confessed to several people including his mother that he had stabbed Roberts to death. Family members told police and media that they knew O’Neal worshipped the devil, and his mother stated that he had killed two family pets.
Robert’s family believed the killing was part of a satanic ritual and said the teen had been “hit” in the back and stabbed multiple times while he begged for his life.
O’Neal’s father told investigators his son had mental health issues and had been hospitalized after a suicide attempt following the discovery of Roberts’ body. He was ruled not competent to stand trial and later that year a judge ordered him committed for up to 120 days.
Court records indicate O’Neal was returned to competency in January of 2020, and his trial was reset repeatedly during the first quarter of this year. In June, however, a judge reduced his original bond by half to $25,000, and in August he was released.
On December 5, O’Neal was arrested and charged in the shooting death of Derrick Mike, reportedly his cousin’s boyfriend.
After being shot multiple times on November 28, Mike was able to describe the suspect to police before his death the following day. Police also say O’Neal confessed the shooting to his mother. . . .
Andy Kahan, Victim’s Advocate for Crime Stoppers Houston, has been tracking victims murdered by suspects out on either multiple felony bonds, bond forfeiture, personal recognizance (PR) bonds, or failure to revoke bond since 2018. Kahan lists Derrick Mike as the 70th victim and told The Texan he was shocked by the bond given O’Neal this year.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time and I’ve never seen a bond that low given for a murder charge,” said Kahan.
Kahan also pointed out that Mike is the second victim he has identified who has been killed by a suspect released with alleged mental health issues. Shortly after being released from custody at a psychiatric hospital, suspect Randy Lewis allegedly stabbed to death 80-year-old Rosalie Cook before being shot by police. Lewis had been arrested more than 70 times and had been out on two felony PR bonds at the time.

Have I mentioned lately that Crazy People Are Dangerous?

UPDATE: People have asked the judge’s name. It’s Mark Kent Ellis.




 

How to End Your Criminal Career

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When did Lakita Annette Davis begin her criminal career? We don’t know, although we do know that she was already familiar to police in Tennessee when she was arrested in Madison County in March 2016 for a string of thefts of fingernail polish from stores in Jackson, Tenn. This arrest did not end Davis’s criminal career, however, as she was jailed in Shelby County, Tenn., six months later on similar charges. Two years later, Davis was imprisoned in Jackson, Mississippi.

When was Davis released from prison? Again, we don’t know, but in October of this year she was in Jonesboro, Arkansas, evidently engaged in her accustomed modus operandi. Along with three accomplices — two of them teenagers — Davis was shoplifting at the Dollar General store. An employee called 911 and the suspects fled the scene with Davis behind the wheel of a silver 2018 Honda Civic. From the moment she drove away, the rest of her criminal life was measured in mere minutes.

Let me interrupt this narrative to tell you about the 1985 Supreme Court decision in Tennessee v. Garner. In 1974, two Memphis police officers responded to a burglary call, and the suspect, Edward Garner, was shot to death while attempting to flee. Garner was unarmed, but Memphis police department’s policy authorized officers to shoot a fleeing suspect, consistent with a Tennessee state law which provided that “if, after notice of the intention to arrest the defendant, he either flee or forcibly resist, the officer may use all the necessary means to effect the arrest.”

Laws differed from state to state, and department policies varied between jurisdictions, but in general prior to the Tennessee v. Garner decision, a suspect fleeing arrest was at risk of getting shot by cops. Obviously, this was a powerful incentive for suspects not to flee. But in a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court claimed to locate a “right” to flee from police in the Fourth Amendment. Dissenting from the majority’s opinion, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, joined by Chief Justice Warren Burger and Justice William Rehnquist, declared: “I cannot accept the majority’s creation of a constitutional right to flight for burglary suspects seeking to avoid capture at the scene of the crime.” Justice O’Connor noted that police must often make split-second decisions regarding use of force, and also noted that burglary is not a trivial crime, as it is not uncommon for burglars to assault, rape or murder residents of homes.

Nevertheless, Tennessee v. Garner became law of the land, and the “right to flee” has created dangers that were unimaginable prior to 1985. Whenever you see helicopter TV coverage of one of those endless police pursuits in Los Angeles, you are witnessing an unintended consequence of the Supreme Court’s folly in Tennessee v. Garner. If the fleeing criminals know the cops can’t shoot them, why stop for the blue lights?

Well, Lakita Davis didn’t intend to stop, but fate had other plans.

Davis and her accomplices had stolen only $30 worth of stuff from Dollar General, but the store employee who called 911 told the dispatcher it was a “robbery,” when it was actually just shoplifting. The word “robbery” implies the use or threat of force, usually with a weapon, and so this 911 call set in motion a fatal chain of events.

Probably because of her prior criminal record, Davis was desperate to escape. Getting caught even on a misdemeanor shoplifting charge would be a violation of her parole or probation, likely meaning a return to prison. Also, she had a .45-caliber Glock in the car, which would almost certainly be a felony for a convict like Davis. Jonesboro police soon spotted Davis’s car, and she took off at high speed. The confusion caused by the store employee’s 911 call meant that the cops thought they were chasing a dangerous robber, not someone who had shoplifted $30 worth of stuff. That’s where an Arkansas state trooper enters the story.

Trooper Tanner Middlecoff was at the Arkansas State Police barracks when he “overheard radio traffic from Jonesboro PD in reference to a robbery in progress at the Dollar General on Southwest Drive. Due to the close proximity of the call, I responded for assistance.”

Trooper Middlecoff was soon part of the pursuit, behind Jonesboro officers, as the fleeing Honda careened recklessly through traffic, running red lights, etc. “I turned south onto I-555 and advised Jonesboro dispatch to have officers allow me through so that I could perform a PIT on the vehicle to end the pursuit. I was then able to take lead in the pursuit as we were nearing the end of the construction area at mile marker 40.”

Only seven minutes elapsed from the time Trooper Middlecoff left state police headquarters until the time he hit Davis with the PIT maneuver.

If you are not an aficionado of police-chase videos, let me explain that the PIT maneuver (Precision Intervention Technique) involves a police vehicle striking the suspect vehicle on the rear side in such a way as to cause the vehicle to spin out of control. Performing a PIT correctly requires a lot of training and, as a matter of policy, most law-enforcement agencies only allow the PIT to be used at speeds under 45 mph.

Arkansas State Police, however, allow the PIT at any speed.

This no-limit PIT policy can be dangerous. In April, a guy named Justin Battenfield led police on a 20-mile chase before the Arkansas State Police supervisor authorized a PIT maneuver. Trooper Michael Shawn Ellis hit Battenfield’s truck while running 109 mph. Video of the resulting crash looks like a scene from a James Bond movie.

 

Trooper Ellis miraculously survived that crash. Battenfield died.

Here’s the thing about a high-speed chase — the fleeing suspect is a threat to public safety. Innocent people’s lives are at risk. Using the PIT maneuver to stop the pursuit is therefore justified, in defense of innocent lives. And the officer performing the PIT maneuver is also risking his own life, particularly in a high-speed PIT.

So, guess how fast Lakita Davis was driving when Trooper Tanner Middlecoff hit her with the PIT maneuver? Answer: 126 mph.

 

Davis’s Honda flew some 250 feet off the road, flipped over and smashed into a tree. The Honda Civic is a very safe car, and somehow Davis’s three passengers survived. Alas, it was the end of the road for Lakita Davis, who died like she lived — committing felonies.




 

‘Black Lives Matter’ Rioter Charged With Murder in N.C. Home Invasion

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On June 2, police in Charlotte, North Carolina, used tear gas to disperse a “Black Lives Matter” protest that turned into a riot:

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department says what started as “a lawful protest” took a turn shortly before 9 p.m., when CMPD says several officers became targets for protesters “bent on turning a lawful demonstration into a riot.”
In the span of around four hours, CMPD says there were at least 18 incidents where protesters threw objects at officers, nine dispersal orders were issued, 16 protesters were arrested, and three guns — including one assault rifle — were found.

Among those arrested June 2 was Jonathan Elijah Jones, 19, charged with assaulting a police officer and other offenses. Three months after that arrest, Jones was arrested again on Sept. 5 in Gastonia, charged with violating a domestic violence protective order, carrying a concealed weapon, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, and other offenses. You might have thought that two arrests in the span of three months would be enough to put Jones behind bars for a long time, but he was soon back on the streets, and his next arrest was for murder:

Four people have been arrested after a person died in a shooting during a breaking and entering in Cramerton Monday morning.
Brenton Edward McCaskill, from Clover, was shot and killed at a home on Fifteenth Avenue
Jonathan Elijah Jones and Ramon Luis Lopex Jr. have been charged with first-degree murder, first-degree burglary and felony conspiracy. They are both in the Gaston County Jail with their bond on hold.
Tyler Andrew Reno and Tyler Nathaniel Justice Leonhardt have been charged with accessory to murder after the fact. They are in the Gaston County Jail until a $500,000 bond.
Police said they responded to a possible breaking and entering in progress in the 400 block of Fifteenth Street in Cramerton just before 6 a.m. Monday.
Police found a person who had been shot. That person , who was identified as McCaskill, was taken to the hospital where he died, according to police.

The victim died defending his family from the invaders. “Brenton McCaskill is a hero,” his girlfriend Heidi McQueen told WCNC-TV. “He lived his life a hero, and he died a hero. He died protecting us.”




 

Her Name Is ‘Destiny’

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Destiny Allen, to be more precise. Whatever her mother had in mind when she bestowed this name on her, evidently her destiny was jail:

A McDonald’s employee is facing charges after police said she got into a fight with one coworker at the Atlanta fast-food restaurant and then hit a second coworker with her car while driving away.
Destiny Allen is charged with aggravated assault and criminal damage to property in connection with the incident, which happened at the McDonald’s on Northside Drive about 12:30 a.m., Atlanta police spokeswoman Officer TaSheena Brown said.
Investigators said Allen and another employee got into a physical altercation and a third employee tried to break it up.
When Allen walked out of the restaurant, both employees followed her to make sure she left the premises, Brown said. As she got into her car, Allen and the employee who had been involved in the fight continued to argue.
Allen then put her car into reverse and pressed the gas. In the process, she hit the employee who had tried to break up the fight, Brown said.
The woman was thrown into a window panel of the restaurant, investigators said. She was taken to a hospital with injuries to her legs but is stable, Brown said.
Allen was taken to the Fulton County Jail.

There is video of the fight:

 




 

Crazy People Are Dangerous: Woman in Viral Rant Blames QAnon, Mental Illness

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Melissa Rein Lively was a successful Phoenix businesswoman, CEO of her own marketing and public relations firm, The Brand Consortium. She “had developed a reputation for living a posh lifestyle and organizing red carpet events, business openings, fashion shows and charity events in Arizona.” But that was before she cracked up and “went viral” in July and recorded video of herself destroying a COVID-19 mask display at a Target store. In social-media posts, Lively claimed to be spokeswoman for QAnon. Eventually, her husband called 911 and she got hauled off for psychiatric treatment. “I was canceled. My business was gone overnight”:

“I got sucked into QAnon because I was desperate, lonely, scared, and searching for answers,” she said.
She says people around her, including close friends and the corporate clients she advised at several of the best crypto casinos, were telling her to “snap out of it,” but her obsession only grew deeper.
“It’s so crazy, this cult ideology it has. The more you read into it, the more you freak out. Somebody in my mental capacity, who was having a traumatic experience, it was the fuel to the fire and set the whole thing off,” Lively said.

She’s better now. She has been diagnosed with PTSD and bipolar disorder, but a diagnosis is just a fancy label for “crazy.”

And that’s OK. You can be crazy and functional. You’ve just got to learn how to keep the craziness under control. There are a lot of seemingly normal people out there barely hanging onto sanity, who may be just one bad day away from going completely bonkers. Plan accordingly.




 

Who Commits Crime?

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Her neck tattoo tells you everything you need to know about her.

Her name is Fantasia Shantal Rivera, and “Beautiful Disaster” is a rather comprehensive summary of her life. This was apparent in May 2019, when she was sentenced to five years in prison:

A woman present at several shootings and stabbings over the past decade was sentenced Thursday to five years in prison after pleading guilty to a handgun charge.
Washington County Circuit Court Judge Dana Moylan Wright sentenced 25-year-old Fantasia Shantal Rivera to 15 years, with 10 years suspended, after she pleaded guilty to possession of a handgun by a felon.
Five years is a mandatory minimum during which Rivera will not be eligible for parole. She will be on supervised probation for five years after her release.
Wright also gave Rivera a concurrent sentence of about two years for violating probation on a 2012 robbery conviction.
“Ironically, you’ve served most of that sentence” because of previous probation violations, Wright told Rivera.
That conviction was for a strong-arm robbery in which Rivera participated. Her original sentence was eight years, with all but two years suspended.
“Obviously, we are all familiar with Ms. Rivera,” Assistant State’s Attorney Christopher McCormack said during the hearing.
On the afternoon of Jan. 21, a woman told Hagerstown police Rivera, her upstairs neighbor at 201 E. Washington St., threatened her with a handgun, McCormack said.
Rivera was searched and had no weapon, but allowed police to search her apartment. A loaded .40-caliber Glock handgun was found in a closet underneath some clothing, McCormack said.
Defense attorney Loren Villa told Wright that Rivera has a 1-year-old child and is pregnant with a second child.
“The father of the child passed away,” Villa said, referring to Christopher Turner, 27, who disappeared in January and was found a few days later in West Virginia, shot dead and wrapped in an artificial Christmas tree bag.
Authorities charged several people in connection with Turner’s death and with removing drugs from his body and removing his body from the crime scene in a Hagerstown apartment.
“If she didn’t have bad luck, she’d have no luck at all,” Villa told Wright. Rivera’s connection to past violent crimes was sometimes incidental, she said.
“I was a witness to one of the shootings,” Villa said, referring to a man being wounded as he walked with Rivera outside the former Office of the Public Defender.
“Imagine the amount of trauma she’s seen,” said Villa. She asked that the probation violation sentence run concurrently with her other sentence.
“There’s nothing wrong with a boring life,” Wright said, warning Rivera to change her lifestyle for the sake of her children.
“If you’re going back to what you’ve been doing, just turn your kids over” to their grandparents, Wright said.
Members of Rivera’s and Turner’s families sat together during the hearing.
Rivera was present at a number of shootings and stabbings in the past, according to police reports, including:
• On Sept. 27, 2010, Rivera was present when a toddler was shot and paralyzed in a Little Elliott Drive apartment. The child apparently shot himself with a stolen handgun, which Rivera then hid in a playground.
• Wesley Colin Williams was shot and wounded on Jonathan Street on Oct. 17, 2011, as he was walking with Rivera, police said.
• On June 24, 2012, Antonio Joyner of Walkersville, Md., was fatally shot in a Guilford Avenue house. A male friend of Rivera’s was charged with murder, but the charges were later dropped. Hagerstown police said Rivera was present.
• Shakur Thornton, 17, was fatally stabbed in a fight on West Franklin Street on March 29, 2013. Rivera was present, police said.

If people have a remarkable habit of getting shot in your vicinity, consider the possibility that you’re hanging out with bad people. Or as an alternative possibility, consider maybe you are a bad person. But let’s talk about how the man who sired Rivera’s child died:

Three people have been arrested in connection with the homicide of a 27-year-old man who went missing last month, police said Monday.
Christopher Turner was reported missing January 23 at around 4 p.m. to Hagerstown police, and had last been heard from by family on January 20 and was known to be in the Hagerstown area.
His body was found in Berkeley County, West Virginia on January 30.
19-year-old Antonio Cane Arana of Jefferson, Md., was taken into custody in Frederick, Md. on February 17 at around 9 a.m.
19-year-old Dakota Daniel Paugh of Hagerstown, Md. was taken into custody in Washington, D.C. on February 17 at around 9:25 a.m.
21-year-old Erica Shatiena Earl of Hagerstown, Md. was taken into custody in Jacksonville, Florida on February 15 at around 12:30 p.m.

How did Fantasia Rivera’s baby-daddy meet his violent demise? He “was lured to an apartment in the 1000 block of West Washington Street with the promise of a sexual encounter with two women”:

Turner was shot dead in the apartment, and drugs were stolen from his body. His body was found Jan. 30 wrapped in the packaging for an artificial Christmas tree and dumped off a bridge into a ravine in Berkeley County, W.Va.

Let’s dig a little deeper into Fantasia Rivera’s past. Remember she was present at the 2011 shooting of Wesley Colin Williams? That was apparently in retaliation for the previous stabbing of Malik Anwar Scott. The man who shot Williams was Dennis S. Marshall Jr.:

Williams was charged with attempted murder, but later pleaded guilty to second-degree assault, court records said. Marshall pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted murder in the shooting of Williams, court records said.
In February 2012, Scott was charged with taking part in a home invasion robbery in Hagerstown, published reports said. Later that year, he pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge and was sentenced to eight years in prison with 6 1/2 years suspended, court records said.

In 2014, Scott was sentenced to five years in prison for possession with intent to distribute cocaine. If you think that getting stabbed and being sentenced to prison would cause Scott to change his ways, you might be an optimist. Or a fool. Because, of course not:

A report of shots fired on Saturday [July 22, 2019] resulted in a Hagerstown teenager being charged as an adult in the shooting, and the arrest of two of the alleged victims on warrants from a May armed robbery.
Anthony De’Jhen Byrd, 17, of Berger Avenue was charged with first-degree assault, using a handgun in a crime of violence, using a dangerous weapon with intent to injure and other offenses. . . .
The investigation also led to the arrests of two Hagerstown men, Malik Anwar Scott and Dennis Steven Marshall Jr., both 24, on warrants for a May 14 armed robbery at Motel 6 on Massey Boulevard. . . .
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office investigated the hotel robbery in which a woman, Courtney Ruppenthal, allegedly conspired with two or more men to rob the hotel room occupants. She was inside the room and opened the doors to the intruders, one of whom was armed with a semiautomatic rifle.
Scott is also charged in a May 12 assault in which three males — one armed with a handgun — approached a man in an automobile on Maryland Avenue, broke out a window and began beating him, court records said.

So, after getting out of prison for his previous crimes, Scott was soon wanted on a warrant for robbing the Motel 6, and had also been charged in an recent assault. It’s as if he never did anything else in his life except perpetrate crimes. And let’s talk about the Motel 6 case:

The last of three people involved in a 2019 robbery at Motel 6 pleaded guilty Tuesday [March 10, 2020] to conspiracy to commit robbery.
Washington County Circuit Court Judge Brett R. Wilson ordered a presentence investigation, which will delay the sentencing of Latrell Robert Taylor for several weeks.
Taylor was the third person to enter a plea agreement in the May 14, 2019, robbery at the motel on Massey Boulevard.
Courtney Miranda Ruppenthal was sentenced in January to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to robbery. In 2018, she had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery for her involvement in a pair of holdups in 2017.
She testified for the state against co-defendant Dennis Von Gundy in her previous case. Gundy is serving a 30-year sentence.
In February, Dennis Steven Marshall Jr. pleaded guilty to second-degree assault for his role in the robbery and was sentenced to five years in prison. However, Marshall was facing a parole retake for an attempted murder conviction for shooting a man in 2011.
Ruppenthal had been invited to the motel room by the two victims, according to charging documents. While there, she was texting someone and left the door ajar, allowing two men to barge into the room, one of them armed with a rifle.
The two victims were assaulted and their personal belongings were stolen, and Ruppenthal left with the two intruders, charging documents said.
Marshall and Taylor were later identified as the two robbers, and the weapon was recovered, Deputy State’s Attorney Gina Cirincion told Wilson.

On the same day Dennis Marshall was sentenced to prison, his buddy Malik Scott was also in court being sentenced for separate crimes:

Coincidentally, Scott was in the same courtroom earlier Thursday pleading guilty to second-degree assault.
Scott, 25, of Hagerstown, opted for a jury trial in the assault case, but over lunch accepted a plea offer from the state.
The assault was on May 12, 2019, when Scott and two other relatives were charged with assaulting the longtime boyfriend of Scott’s mother, according to court records.
The robbery was on May 9, 2019, when Scott was accused of taking part in holding up a man for $120 during a marijuana buy, according to court records.

How did police find the weapon used in the Motel 6 robbery?

On May 16, a deputy serving an arrest warrant in an unrelated case on Dejaniro A. Rivera at a home on the 900 block of Maryland Avenue found a rifle fitting the description of the weapon used in the robbery.
Rivera told an investigator he believed Ruppenthal brought the Hi-Point 9 mm weapon to the house and that she, Taylor and the second man committed the robbery.

Oh, that’s interesting — Dejaniro Rivera just happens to have the same surname as Fantasia Rivera. Maybe it’s only a coincidence. Meanwhile, however, Dejaniro Rivera made news last week:

Hagerstown police said they found 70 rounds of ammunition and an individual wanted in connection with a recent shooting when they searched a house Wednesday morning in the 200 block of Taylor Avenue off Frederick Street.
The wanted person was one of three adults arrested when a search and seizure warrant was executed at the house at about 4:40 a.m., according to the Hagerstown Police Department. . . .
City detectives obtained the warrant after an investigation into people living in the house, according to a news release from the police department.
Besides the ammunition, police also found drugs and related paraphernalia, according to the release.
Those arrested included:
• Dejaniro Armante Rivera, 23, who had two active arrest warrants. Rivera also was charged with illegal possession of ammunition, common nuisance, possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to deliver and possession of a controlled dangerous substance.
• Destiny Marie Frisby, 19, charged with illegal possession of ammunition, common nuisance, possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to deliver, possession of a controlled dangerous substance and charges related to harboring a fugitive.
• Marquis Armond Craig, 19, charged with illegal possession of ammunition, common nuisance, possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to deliver, possession of a controlled dangerous substance and charges related to harboring a fugitive.

Whether or not Dejaniro Rivera is related to Fantasia Rivera, the connection between them is nonetheless interesting: Dejaniro had possession of the weapon used in the Motel 6 robbery, perpetrated by Dennis Marshall and two accomplices. Marshall previously went to prison for shooting Wesley Williams, who was walking with Fantasia at the time. It’s like “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” except with a small clique of criminals in one town. My point is that the question in the headline — “Who Commits Crime?” — has a very simple answer: Criminals.

Everything from dope dealing to robbery to murder — the vast majority of crime in America is committed by a comparatively small group of habitual offenders who will perpetrate crimes almost constantly if they aren’t behind bars. In a relatively small place like Hagerstown, Maryland (population about 40,000), it seems all the criminals know each other, so that Hagerstown police seldom arrest anyone who is more than two degrees of separation from Fantasia Rivera, the “Beautiful Disaster.”

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!