Latest news with #secondDegreeMurder
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
Suspect in Columbia infant death apparently released from custody
Mitchell Kaminski COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) — A Fayette woman charged with second-degree murder in the 2021 death of an 8-month-old girl is the subject of an active arrest warrant. But two days after the warrant was issued, court and prison records indicate she still isn't in custody. Jennifer Johnson was scheduled to appear in court at 9 a.m. Monday, July 14 for charges including second-degree felony murder and first-degree endangering the welfare of a child. She is accused in the death of Hannah Kent. A Tuesday court filing shows that she was sent to the Arkansas Department of Corrections. However, Arkansas DOC spokesperson Rand Champion told ABC 17 News in an email that a Jennifer Johnson was put on parole on June 16 and no one with that name is in custody. The spokesperson said a middle name was not available in their system. According to the Missouri Department of Corrections, Johnson was released Monday. She had previously been incarcerated in Missouri from April 27-May 19, 2022, and again from May 23, 2022-June 16, 2025, despite the Boone County Jail having her listed on a no-bond hold. Boone County courts issued a warrant for her arrest on Tuesday. Prosecutor Roger Johnson declined to comment on Thursday. Court records list Johnson's address in the 2001 block of Holly Avenue. But when ABC 17 News visited the property, the home appeared abandoned, and the lot surrounding it was under construction. Columbia police arrested Johnson in April 2021, after being called to a home in the 1000 block of Elleta Boulevard in north Columbia. According to court documents, police were dispatched to the Women's and Children's Hospital in Columbia on the morning of April 18, 2021, where they were informed that an 8-month-old, Hannah Kent, who was under Johnson's care, had died. Court documents indicate the parents left Kent and other children in Johnson's care beginning around 5 p.m. the previous day. The mother found the child around 8:30 a.m. unresponsive and cool to the touch after returning home and immediately noticed bruising, court documents indicate. The parents then took the child to Women's and Children's Hospital, where the infant was pronounced dead at 8:45 am. Johnson allegedly told police that she last saw the infant alive at 2:15 a.m. after giving a bottle to the child, the probable cause statement says. According to court documents, Johnson took a call from the parents saying the baby had died and the parents wanted to see Johnson. Two people who knew Johnson brought items that Johnson had at the home to the Columbia police, court documents say. Investigators allegedly found baby formula on Johnson's clothes, and a swab of the same shirt tested positive for blood. Johnson was previously charged with two counts of assault in Howard County in 2019. The complaint in the case states she strangled and bit another woman. Kent's family declined to comment. DOC041921_04192021170840Download Click here to follow the original article.
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
Suspect in Columbia infant death apparently released from custody
Mitchell Kaminski COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) — A Fayette woman charged with second-degree murder in the 2021 death of an 8-month-old girl is the subject of an active arrest warrant. But two days after the warrant was issued, court and prison records indicate she still isn't in custody. Jennifer Johnson was scheduled to appear in court at 9 a.m. Monday, July 14 for charges including second-degree felony murder and first-degree endangering the welfare of a child. She is accused in the death of Hannah Kent. A Tuesday court filing shows that she was sent to the Arkansas Department of Corrections. However, Arkansas DOC spokesperson Rand Champion told ABC 17 News in an email that a Jennifer Johnson was put on parole on June 16 and no one with that name is in custody. The spokesperson said a middle name was not available in their system. According to the Missouri Department of Corrections, Johnson was released Monday. She had previously been incarcerated in Missouri from April 27-May 19, 2022, and again from May 23, 2022-June 16, 2025, despite the Boone County Jail having her listed on a no-bond hold. Boone County courts issued a warrant for her arrest on Tuesday. Prosecutor Roger Johnson declined to comment on Thursday. Court records list Johnson's address in the 2001 block of Holly Avenue. But when ABC 17 News visited the property, the home appeared abandoned, and the lot surrounding it was under construction. Columbia police arrested Johnson in April 2021, after being called to a home in the 1000 block of Elleta Boulevard in north Columbia. According to court documents, police were dispatched to the Women's and Children's Hospital in Columbia on the morning of April 18, 2021, where they were informed that an 8-month-old, Hannah Kent, who was under Johnson's care, had died. Court documents indicate the parents left Kent and other children in Johnson's care beginning around 5 p.m. the previous day. The mother found the child around 8:30 a.m. unresponsive and cool to the touch after returning home and immediately noticed bruising, court documents indicate. The parents then took the child to Women's and Children's Hospital, where the infant was pronounced dead at 8:45 am. Johnson allegedly told police that she last saw the infant alive at 2:15 a.m. after giving a bottle to the child, the probable cause statement says. According to court documents, Johnson took a call from the parents saying the baby had died and the parents wanted to see Johnson. Two people who knew Johnson brought items that Johnson had at the home to the Columbia police, court documents say. Investigators allegedly found baby formula on Johnson's clothes, and a swab of the same shirt tested positive for blood. Johnson was previously charged with two counts of assault in Howard County in 2019. The complaint in the case states she strangled and bit another woman. Kent's family declined to comment. DOC041921_04192021170840Download Click here to follow the original article.
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Yahoo
'The noise is gone': Family of murdered teen describes 379 days of grief at sentencing hearing
It's been 379 days since Ruth Visser held onto her 16-year-old son's bare foot at the end of his hospital bed as doctors and nurses worked frantically to save him after he was stabbed by a boy he'd never met. "That was the last time I touched my son," she wrote in a victim impact statement. "I held his foot as if to say, 'You're going too fast, wait for me.' "And then, time stopped." Dean Visser died from his injuries on June 6, 2024. A 17-year-old who can't be identified because he was a youth at the time of the stabbing pleaded guilty to second-degree murder last month. CBC News is identifying him as SK. On Friday, prosecutor Darren Maloney and defence lawyer Rebecca Snukal asked Court of King's Bench Justice Lisa Silver to impose the maximum sentence for a youth convicted of second-degree murder: four years in jail followed by three years under community supervision. The sentence will be handed down later this year. "Seven years for a life? Seven years for Dean?" Ruth questioned in her victim impact statement. "How do lawyers and judges balance a mother's broken heart against a number?" Details of the killing were outlined in an agreed statement of facts as part of SK's plea in May. Justice Lisa Silver heard that in 2024, Dean and SK "harboured animosity" toward each other because of a heated exchange of messages on Instagram. On June 24, Dean was walking with his girlfriend in southeast Calgary when he was spotted by SK, who began to follow the couple. At the time, the victim was carrying a hooded sweatshirt from the brand Bathing Ape, known as a BAPE. Dean's father said he was headed to a friend's house to return the hoodie. With his hood pulled up, SK ran up behind the couple and stabbed Dean. He shouted, "Give me that BAPE." Dean handed the sweatshirt over and SK ran away. When police arrested SK, he told them that when he spotted Dean on the street, he ran up and stabbed him out of "rage" because of their online feud. Dean's mother says she still sets a place for him at the dinner table. The void, she says, has left a silence in the home. "No more of his laugh, a laugh that split rooms open with light and settled in the floorboards like it belonged there," wrote Ruth. "Now that silence settles in its place. It lingers after dinner, it follows me into his room where nothing dares move." It's the little things, the idiosyncrasies of teenage boyhood, that hit the grieving mother the hardest, she wrote. "No more mid-day texts about a Timmy's order … no more late night pings asking for a ride home, no more wheelies on his dirt bike, no more doughnuts in the dust while we camped, the air full of grit and joy. "The noise is gone. Dean's chaos is gone. But the ache... the ache is ever present." Family dynamics, wrote Ruth, are forever changed as well, including her marriage. "Grief pushes and pulls us, shaping us differently. Some days we hold each other. Some days we can't even talk." Dean's father and sister both wrote victim impact statements Elizabeth Visser was 19 years old when her little brother was killed. "The house smells better and I hate it," she said. "It no longer smells like teen boys or locker rooms. What a dumb thing to miss." Elizabeth was about to turn 20 when Dean was killed. He'd bought her a gift that he never got to give her. It was a 1,500-piece puzzle. A homage to the hours spent "sitting at the coffee table in uncomfortable positions, doing jigsaw puzzles together." In his statement, Kevin Visser told the judge that his son was the type of person who "looked out for people." "He came home one day and made a meal for a homeless person he met on his travels around the neighbourhood," wrote Kevin. The relationship between Dean and Kevin was developing beyond father/son, into a friendship. "I lost more than a son, I lost a close friend."
CTV News
3 days ago
- CTV News
Adam Drake found guilty of second-degree murder in Pat Stay's death
A 12-person jury has found Adam Drake guilty of second-degree murder in the death of Dartmouth battle rapper Pat Stay. It took the jury less than 12 hours to reach the verdict. Stay was fatally stabbed at the Yacht Club Social in Halifax at about 12:35 a.m. on Sept. 4, 2022, after walking to the VIP area in the back of the club. Drake was arrested on Sept. 10, 2022. He was initially charged with first-degree murder, but the charge was later changed to second-degree murder. More to come... For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
CBC
4 days ago
- CBC
Fate of man accused of killing battle rapper Pat Stay now in hands of a jury
The fate of the man accused of killing Dartmouth battle rapper Pat Stay in 2022 is now in the hands of a jury. On Tuesday, Justice Scott Norton delivered his instructions to the jurors who have been hearing the second-degree murder trial of Adam Drake, 34, since May 12 in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Dartmouth. Drake was charged in Stay's death after the 36-year-old was stabbed in a downtown Halifax nightclub in the early morning hours of Sept. 4, 2022, and died shortly after in a Halifax hospital. Norton, who started his instruction by thanking the jury for their service over the past several weeks, told the jurors they have three options. He said they can find Drake guilty of second-degree murder, guilty of manslaughter or not guilty. In the case of manslaughter, the jury would have to decide that Drake did kill Stay but that he was in a state of mind such that he didn't believe his actions would actually lead to Stay's death. The judge summed up for the jury the cases presented by both the Crown and the defence. The key piece of evidence in the case is the surveillance video captured from inside the Yacht Club Social the night of Stay's death. At one point, the grainy black and white video shows Stay — with his back to the camera — having an altercation with someone. As he turns around, he brushes what appears to be blood from the left side of his chest. He's then punched from behind and falls to the floor. He gets back on his feet and walks out of the camera's view. Norton wrapped up his instruction to the jury shortly after 2 p.m. It's unclear when a verdict might be returned but Norton reminded jurors on Monday to bring an overnight bag in the event that they were unable to reach a verdict by 6 p.m. Tuesday.
