Teen sentenced to 90 years for brutal attack

A 17-year-old suburban teen was sentenced Monday to 90 years in prison in the brutal attack of a Hispanic boy who was beaten, kicked, stomped, burned and sodomized with the plastic pole of a patio umbrella.

Keith Turner was the second teen convicted of aggravated sexual assault in the April attack at a house in Spring, north of Houston. David Henry Tuck, 18, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison on Nov. 16.

Turner was convicted late Friday after about 90 minutes of deliberations. The jury took about five hours over two days to reach the sentence of 90 years.

Turner will have to serve at least 30 years before becoming eligible for parole.

Although Turner was the younger of the assailants and didn’t have the history of racial attacks that colored Tuck’s past, it was his idea to use the patio umbrella pole in the attack.

Turner, Tuck, the victim and two other teens were partying at a house in Spring, drinking and taking cocaine and Xanax. Twelve-year-old Danielle Sons, who was at the party at her house, told the other boys that the victim had tried to kiss her, prompting the attack.

Tuck shouted racial slurs and “white power” as he and Turner kicked the then 17-year-old, cut him with a knife, sodomized him with a plastic pipe and poured bleach on him in an assault that lasted up to five hours. The victim was left bleeding in the backyard until dawn, when Sons and her brother, Gus, finally woke their mother, who slept through it.

During Turner’s trial, jurors saw a videotaped statement by Turner in which he admitted to being the first one to grab the umbrella pole and joking about using it to sodomize the victim.

Police Stun Gun Kills Teen With Bible

A teenager carrying a Bible and shouting "I want Jesus" was shot twice with a police stun gun and later died at a St. Louis hospital, authorities said.

In a statement obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, police in Jerseyville, about 40 miles north of St. Louis, said 17-year-old Roger Holyfield would not acknowledge officers who approached him and he continued yelling, "I want Jesus."

Police tried to calm the teen, but Holyfield became combative, according to the statement. Officers fired the stun gun at him after he ignored their warnings, then fired again when he continued struggling, police said.

Holyfield was flown to St. Louis' Cardinal Glennon Hospital after the confrontation Saturday; he died there Sunday, police said.

An autopsy was planned for Tuesday.

The statement expressed sympathy to Holyfield's family but said city and police officials would not discuss the matter further.

Calls Tuesday to Jerseyville Police Chief Brad Blackorby were not immediately returned. The department has been using stun guns for about five months, according to the statement.

In a report released in March, international human rights group Amnesty International said it had logged at least 156 deaths across the country in the previous five years related to police stun guns.

The rise in deaths accompanies a marked increase in the number of U.S. law enforcement agencies employing devices made by Taser International Inc. of Scottsdale, Ariz. About 1,000 of the nation's 18,000 police agencies used Tasers in 2001; more than 7,000 departments had them last year, according to a government study.

Police had used Tasers more than 70,000 times as of last year, Congress' Government Accountability Office said.

Amnesty International has urged police departments to suspend the use of Tasers pending more study. Taser International said the group's count was flawed and falsely linked deaths to Taser use when there has been no such official conclusion.

The city of St. Louis also drew unwanted attention for crime this week when it was named the most dangerous U.S. city by Morgan Quitno Press. The ranking looked only at crime within St. Louis city limits, not its metro area.

Teen Arrested for Raping His Mother

Albertville, Ala. -- Police say a Marshall County teen raped his mother to get revenge on his brother.

Police say 19-year-old Gary Helms, Jr., raped his 45-year-old mother this past weekend at Willow Terrace Trailer Park on Doyle Drive in Albertville.

It's a twisted crime that police say Helms admits.

"From what we understand the rape stemmed from an argument between him and his brother. And apparently they were arguing over a girlfriend. And the rape was some sort of retaliation towards his brother," said Sgt. Jamie Smith of the Albertville Police Department.

It was unusual retaliation on an unsuspecting victim.

Authorities say Helms' mother was apparently passed out drunk on the couch when the rape started.

"During the attack she did come to and recognize her attacker. (Reporter: As her son?) As her son," said Smith.

That's when, according to the police report, the mother "tried to get away, but he held her down until he was finished."

"It's totally sick is what it is," said Smith.

Helms was arrested and charged with the 1st degree rape of his own mother.

Smith says it's hard to wrap your mind around.

"Shocked, shocked would be more a better way to describe it. That somebody would dip to the lows to do something of this nature. It's just pretty much a shock to the conscience of the general public," said Smith.

Helms is being held in the Marshall County Jail on $100,000 bond.

Principal Shot at Wis. High School Dies

Sep 29, 5:50 PM (ET)

By TODD RICHMOND

CAZENOVIA, Wis. (AP) - A teenager brought two guns to his rural school and shot the principal to death Friday after a struggle with adults and other students, authorities said.

The 15-year-old was taken into custody and charged with first-degree intentional homicide, the district attorney said. No one else was hurt.

It was not clear why the student opened fire or if Weston Schools Principal John Klang was the intended target, Sheriff Randy Stammen said.

Witnesses said the student walked in with a shotgun before classes began. A custodian, teachers and students wrestled with him, but he broke through, took out a handgun and shot Klang three times, Stammen said.

The custodian said the teen was a special-education student who told him he was there to kill someone, but did not say who.

"He was calm, but he was on a mission," said Dave Thompson, 43, who also has two children at the school.

Sophomore Shelly Rupp, 16, described the boy as a freshman with few friends and said he was "just weird in the head."

"He always used to kid around about bringing things to school and hurting kids," she said at a gas station nearby where students and townspeople gathered.

Thompson said the student first pointed a shotgun in a teacher's face. Thompson grabbed away the gun, but the student then appeared to be reaching for another gun, so Thompson and the teacher took cover. Thompson then ran into a kitchen to call 911.

Junior Timmy Donovan said the student "pulled a .22 pistol out of his pants, and then started shooting the principal. And at that point, I guess the principal ran and tackled him to the ground."

Klang, 49, was shot in the head, chest and leg, authorities said. He died hours later at a hospital in Madison.

The student, identified as Eric Hainstock, could get life in prison if convicted, District Attorney Patricia Barrett said. Wisconsin does not have the death penalty.

Children from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade attend the small school near Cazenovia, a community of about 300 people about 60 miles northwest of Madison.

The shooting took place two days after a gunman took six students hostage in a Colorado high school and killed one of them before committing suicide.

Laurie Rhea, 42, said the principal spent last weekend at the gas station washing cars for a homecoming fundraiser.

"All the kids just loved him," she said.

The shooting happened as the school was preparing for homecoming weekend. The homecoming parade, football game and dance were canceled or postponed.

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Young Children Fight U.S. Troops in Iraq

Sep 19 3:07 PM US/Eastern

By ANTONIO CASTANEDA
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq

Shiite militias are encouraging children _ some as young as 6 or 7 _ to hurl stones and gasoline bombs at U.S. convoys, hoping to lure American troops into ambushes or provoke them into shooting back, U.S. soldiers say.

Gangs of up to 100 children assemble in Sadr City, stronghold of radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia, and in nearby neighborhoods, U.S. officers said in interviews this week.

American soldiers have seen young men, their faces covered by bandanas, talking with the children before the rock-throwing attacks begin _ and sometimes handing out slingshots so the volleys will be more accurate, the troops said.

"It's like a militia operation. They'll mass rocks on the last or second-to-last vehicle" in a U.S. patrol, said Capt. Chris L'Heureux, 30, of Woonsocket, R.I. "There's no doubt in my mind that they're utilizing these kids in a deliberate, thought-out way."

Al-Sadr's followers insist they are not organizing attacks by children.

"Such behavior by Iraqi children is spontaneous and the natural reaction from innocent children who are witnessing horrible deeds committed by the occupation forces in Iraq," Ali al-Yassiri, an aide to al-Sadr, told The Associated Press.

Militants have used children before. Marines in the volatile city of Ramadi say Sunni Arab insurgents often send children to check out U.S. defenses or warn of approaching patrols. And Israeli troops have long faced stone-throwing Palestinian kids.

But the increased use of children in the high-profile Baghdad battle poses a new challenge to American troops seeking to curb Iraqi militias. The tactic also shows the lengths to which militants will go in confronting U.S. troops in a high-stakes fight for control of the capital.

The incidents have seemed to increase since U.S. soldiers moved their security crackdown into Shiite neighborhoods surrounding eastern Baghdad's Sadr City. The U.S. crackdown in the capital is aimed at curbing the power of the Mahdi Army and other sectarian militias.

At one checkpoint, soldiers said hundreds of rocks rained down on their vehicles as they sealed off a neighborhood during a house-to- house search for weapons and militants.

U.S. officers believe the militias are trying to provoke American soldiers into firing on the children or chasing the soldiers into areas where snipers lie in wait.

"Right now the reason we're not (pursuing) is because it's a trap," 1st Lt. Bernard Gardner, 25, of Kinnear, Wyo., said as a group of children pelted his Stryker armored vehicle with rocks. "There's probably one or two snipers out there waiting for us to get in range."

The soldiers are also leery of firing even warning shots in return _ worried that could enflame sectarian passions and turn Shiite civilians against the Americans. Part of the offensive's aim is to bolster public confidence in coalition and Iraqi forces.

"If we point a gun at a kid and they take a photo of it, they'll make a zillion flyers out of it," Gardner said. "That's why we have to be so delicate with the rock throwers."

He said just one bullet fired near a group of children would be "like the shot heard 'round the world."

Most children, even in traditionally hostile areas, typically approach U.S. troops to ask for water or candy, not to ambush them. Even as unruly gangs roamed the areas near Sadr City on one recent day, soldiers kept playing with curious children on tamer blocks nearby.

Army intelligence officers say they predicted before the offensive began this summer that militants in Baghdad would make use of children. As expected, the harassment started with small groups of youngsters throwing stones, then escalated into bigger groups of children hurling larger rocks and even pieces of cement blocks.

Attackers are becoming even more brazen: Children recently have begun hurling bottles of oil and even a homemade firebomb at U.S. vehicles, soldiers say.

One child recently jumped on a passing convoy and untied the straps on a load of supplies. Another young boy ran alongside a moving Stryker vehicle before throwing a rock at a soldier.

No serious injuries have been reported in the attacks by children, although one platoon commander was hit in the face with a rock.

Since firing back is considered out of the question, U.S. soldiers have resorted to other methods to control the children.

On a major road leading into Shaab, a Shiite neighborhood in eastern Baghdad, U.S. soldiers stopped all civilian vehicles and pedestrians to pressure adults into dispersing a group of children that were attacking American vehicles.

"If you can't control your kids, you can't use this road," yelled Sgt. 1st Class Eric Sheehan, 33, of Jennerstown, Pa. One pedestrian responded: "But they're not from this neighborhood."

Some adults eventually persuaded the children to leave _ for at least a few hours.

"They're gone," Sheehan said. "For now."

Other Iraqi adults have been more helpful. After several rocks were thrown at passing U.S. vehicles in Shaab, soldiers followed one child home. When soldiers told his mother what had happened, she slapped her son across the face in front of them.

Soldiers are also using new tools, such as high-decibel speakers, to scare away children. Some youngsters scampered away this week as soon as a soldier pointed a hand-held speaker in their direction.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Montreal Gunman Liked 'Columbine' Game

Kimveer Gill

Sep 14, 10:39 AM (ET)

By PHIL COUVRETTE

MONTREAL (AP) - A man with a black trench coat whose shooting rampage in a Montreal college killed one person and wounded 19 others before he was slain by police said on a blog in his name that he liked to play a role-playing Internet game about the Columbine shootings.

The gunman who opened fire at Dawson College on Wednesday was Kimveer Gill, 25, of Laval, near Montreal, a police official said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity because authorities were not ready to announce it publicly yet.

Six victims remained in critical condition, including two in extremely critical condition.

The official said police had searched Gill's home.

In postings on a Web site called VampireFreaks.com, blogs in Gill's name show more than 50 photos depicting the young man in various poses holding a rifle and donning a long black trench coat and combat boots.

One photo has a tombstone with his name printed on it - below it the phrase: "Lived fast died young. Left a mangled corpse."

The last of six journal entries Wednesday was posted at 10:41 a.m, about two hours before the gunmen was shot to death at Dawson.

He said on the site that he was drinking whiskey in the morning and described his mood the night before as "crazy" and "postal."

He said on the site that he liked to play "Super Columbine Massacre," an Internet-based computer game that simulates the April 20, 1999, shootings at the Colorado high school by two of its students that left 13 people dead.

"His name is Trench. you will come to know him as the Angel of Death," he wrote on his vampirefreaks.com profile. "He is not a people person."

He wrote that he hates jocks, preppies, country music and hip-hop.

"Work sucks ... school sucks ... life sucks ... what else can I say? ... Life is a video game you've got to die sometime."

Below a picture of Gill aiming the barrel of a gun at the camera there's the inscription: "I think I have an obsession with guns ... muahahaha."

"Anger and hatred simmers within me," said another caption below a picture of Gill grimacing.

He wrote that he is 6-foot-1, was born in Montreal and is of Indian heritage. He said his weakness is laziness and that he fears nothing. Responding to the question, "How do you want to die?" Gill replied "like Romeo and Juliet - or in a hail of gunfire."

Gill wore a black trench coat during the shooting and opened fire in the cafeteria just as Columbine students Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris did in 1999. Gill also maintained an online blog, similar to Klebold and Harris, devoted to gothic culture, heavy metal music such as Marilyn Manson, guns and journal entries expressing hatred against authority figures and "society."

A phone call to the home of Gill's family was answered by a woman said she heard about it through the media late Wednesday night. Police showed up shortly after,

A neighbor who lives across the street from the home said Gill was a loner.

"There were never any friends," Louise Leykauf said. "He kept to himself. He always wore dark clothing."

Montreal Police Chief Yvan Delorme said the lessons learned from other mass shootings had taught police to try to stop such assaults as quickly as possible.

"Before our technique was to establish a perimeter around the place and wait for the SWAT team. Now the first police officers go right inside. The way they acted saved lives," he said.

Witnesses said Gill started shooting outside the college, then entered the second-floor cafeteria and opened fire without uttering a word. At times, he hid behind vending machines before emerging to take aim - at one point at a teenager who tried to photograph him with his cell phone.

Police dismissed suggestions that terrorism played a role in the lunch-hour attack.

The gunman opened fire haphazardly at no target in particular, until he saw the police and took aim at them, Delorme said.

Police hid behind a wall as they exchanged fire with the gunman, whose back was against a vending machine, said student Andrea Barone, who was in the cafeteria. He said the officers proceeded cautiously because many students were trapped around the assailant, who yelled "Get back! Get back!" every time an officer tried to move closer.

Eventually, Barone said, the gunman went down in a hail of gunfire.

Delorme said some officers were at the school on an unrelated matter when the shooting erupted. He said reinforcements rushed to the scene and took part in the shooting.

Scores of students fled into the streets after the shooting began. Some had clothes stained with blood; others cried and clung to each other. Two nearby shopping centers and a daycare center also were evacuated and subway service was disrupted.

"I was terrified. The guy was shooting at people randomly. He didn't care, he was just shooting at everybody," said student Devansh Smri Vastava. "There were cops firing. It was so crazy."

Police said the attacker had a rapid-fire rifle and two other weapons. They did not provide details.

Although police initially suggested the gunman had killed himself, Delorme later said at a news conference that "based on current information, the suspect was killed by police."

"Today we have witnessed a cowardly and senseless act of violence unfold at Montreal's Dawson College," Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said. "Our primary concern right now is to ensure the safety and recovery of all those who were injured during this tragedy."

The school was closed until Monday.

Canada's worst mass shooting took place in Montreal when gunman Marc Lepine, 25, killed 14 women at the Ecole Polytechnic on Dec. 6, 1989, before shooting himself.

That shooting spurred efforts for new gun laws achieved mainly as the results of efforts by survivors and relatives of Lepine's victims.

Dawson, with about 10,000 students, was the first English-language institution in Quebec's network of university preparatory colleges when it was founded in 1969.

---

Associated Press writer Rob Gillies contributed to this report from Toronto.

In the News: Teens die after logging into 'suicide chat rooms'

Vulnerable youngsters surf the net for advice and encouragement on ending their own lives

By Jonathan Owen
Published: 10 September 2006

Pro-suicide websites and chat rooms have been implicated in the deaths of at least 16 young people in the UK in the past few years.

One of the victims was Simon Kelly, an 18-year-old with no apparent problems, or so his parents thought. They returned home from a holiday to discover that their son had hanged himself. His father, Paul Kelly, has been campaigning since his son's death, five years ago, to close down pro-suicide chat rooms and websites.

Simon had left a website on his computer in which he thanked his friends from suicide chat rooms. "I had no idea that these sites existed before the death of my son. We were taken completely unawares because as far as we knew he was a perfectly normal, sociable and happy youngster. The people behind these sites appear to be totally cynical in their desire to encourage and enable people to kill themselves."

For victims such as Simon, it is too late. Mr Kelly is determined to help stop others suffering the same fate: "I'm looking to prevent future sorrows and tragedies. People will continue to die as the result of suicide chat rooms unless something is done."

Simon is one of many young people whose deaths have been linked to suicide websites in recent years ­ the most recent was a 13-year-old girl in Lytham St Anne's, Lancashire.

Grieving parents want websites and chat rooms that promote suicide to be banned. Their campaign is being led by Papyrus, a charity led by concerned and bereaved parents for the prevention of young suicide.

Under the Suicide Act 1961, assisting a suicide carries a prison sentence of up to 14 years. But suicide websites are not illegal.

The Government has ruled out changing the law and seems content to leave regulation to the industry. A spokesman for the Internet Services Providers' Association said: "It needs to be unlawful content for the industry to take action." But he added: "Suicide is something that needs to be tackled very sensitively and is something the industry is concerned about."

Some internet providers, such as AOL, Google and Microsoft, now prioritise suicide charities in web searches for certain words and phrases and have chat room moderators.

A web administrator on a pro-suicide website saidof critics of such sites: " They think death is an inherently bad thing, while I don't."

Suicide accounts for the deaths of more than 5,500 people a year in the UK, and is the most common cause of death among teenagers. In 2004, 635 young people aged between 15 and 24 took their own lives.

Additional reporting by Claire O'Boyle

A SCHOOLGIRL'S DEATH WISH

'Online, she was a completely different child'

Carina Stephenson was an apparently happy, normal teenager. The 17-year-old was described by her parents as "the perfect daughter".

What they didn't know, as she went off on a bike ride one day in May last year, was that she had made a secret pact with girls she had met in suicide chat rooms to take her own life.

Her body was found hanging in woods near her home in Branton, near Doncaster, four days later. Her family were devastated to discover that Carina, a student who was about to start her A-levels, had been leading a double life. "This was the hardest part of it. Going online it was just like getting to know a completely different child," said her mother, Liz Taylor.

She tracked down the girls that her daughter had made a pact with but does not feel any anger towards them. "I think they were shocked that Carina had actually done it. But the people behind the sites should be locked up," she said.

"I class it as assisted suicide. It is horrific and the pain of losing her will never, ever go. We need to stop these sick maniacs. I want all these sites shut down. There is no excuse for not doing anything about this."

Pro-suicide websites and chat rooms have been implicated in the deaths of at least 16 young people in the UK in the past few years.

One of the victims was Simon Kelly, an 18-year-old with no apparent problems, or so his parents thought. They returned home from a holiday to discover that their son had hanged himself. His father, Paul Kelly, has been campaigning since his son's death, five years ago, to close down pro-suicide chat rooms and websites.

Simon had left a website on his computer in which he thanked his friends from suicide chat rooms. "I had no idea that these sites existed before the death of my son. We were taken completely unawares because as far as we knew he was a perfectly normal, sociable and happy youngster. The people behind these sites appear to be totally cynical in their desire to encourage and enable people to kill themselves."

For victims such as Simon, it is too late. Mr Kelly is determined to help stop others suffering the same fate: "I'm looking to prevent future sorrows and tragedies. People will continue to die as the result of suicide chat rooms unless something is done."

Simon is one of many young people whose deaths have been linked to suicide websites in recent years ­ the most recent was a 13-year-old girl in Lytham St Anne's, Lancashire.

Grieving parents want websites and chat rooms that promote suicide to be banned. Their campaign is being led by Papyrus, a charity led by concerned and bereaved parents for the prevention of young suicide.

Under the Suicide Act 1961, assisting a suicide carries a prison sentence of up to 14 years. But suicide websites are not illegal.

The Government has ruled out changing the law and seems content to leave regulation to the industry. A spokesman for the Internet Services Providers' Association said: "It needs to be unlawful content for the industry to take action." But he added: "Suicide is something that needs to be tackled very sensitively and is something the industry is concerned about."

Some internet providers, such as AOL, Google and Microsoft, now prioritise suicide charities in web searches for certain words and phrases and have chat room moderators.

A web administrator on a pro-suicide website saidof critics of such sites: " They think death is an inherently bad thing, while I don't."

Suicide accounts for the deaths of more than 5,500 people a year in the UK, and is the most common cause of death among teenagers. In 2004, 635 young people aged between 15 and 24 took their own lives.

Additional reporting by Claire O'Boyle

A SCHOOLGIRL'S DEATH WISH

'Online, she was a completely different child'

Carina Stephenson was an apparently happy, normal teenager. The 17-year-old was described by her parents as "the perfect daughter".

What they didn't know, as she went off on a bike ride one day in May last year, was that she had made a secret pact with girls she had met in suicide chat rooms to take her own life.

Her body was found hanging in woods near her home in Branton, near Doncaster, four days later. Her family were devastated to discover that Carina, a student who was about to start her A-levels, had been leading a double life. "This was the hardest part of it. Going online it was just like getting to know a completely different child," said her mother, Liz Taylor.

She tracked down the girls that her daughter had made a pact with but does not feel any anger towards them. "I think they were shocked that Carina had actually done it. But the people behind the sites should be locked up," she said.

"I class it as assisted suicide. It is horrific and the pain of losing her will never, ever go. We need to stop these sick maniacs. I want all these sites shut down. There is no excuse for not doing anything about this."