The Sonoran News called Becky Parrett’s Desert Mountain Art Gallery a touch of class to downtown Carefree, AZ. “People who love fine art will appreciate having pieces like this in a gallery,” said Parrett. ( Sonoran News, June 1, 2005)
Becky Parrett making headlines again, April, 2008.
Attorney Greg Peterson is concerned for the safety of his “missing” client, Rebecca “Becky” Parrett.
“My desire is to make sure that she’s safe,” Peterson said. He admits his client was “very disappointed” about her conviction for 9-counts of conspiracy, securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering - which could send her to prison for 75 years - but said, “I believe that Becky understands her obligations to the court and she will fulfill those obligations.”
It doesn’t appear, though, that Becky is going to fulfill her obligations soon. She managed to pick up two months worth of prescription drugs before “disappearing“.
Becky’s son, Rob Parrett, says his mother told him she “wasn’t going to jail for something she didn’t do” and had said she would head for Costa Rica.
59 year-old Parrett is used to fame and recognition.
Named first on Franklin Heights High School’s list of distinguished alumni, Becky along with her ex-husband, Donald H. Ayers, co-founded the largest and fastest growing healthcare financial services organization in the country. National Century Financial Enterprises employed 300 and had more than $3 billion in assets National Century Financial Enterprises’ receivables-backed paper was rated AAA by Moody’s.
Born in West Virginia to parents who barely had a high school education, Parrett took a cushy executive lifestyle like a duck to water. She lived lavishly. Her 4,725-square-foot Arizona home with its five-car garage and indoor pool, features an exclusive art collection hanging over marbled floors. The main quarters, guest house and stable are a mix of the Southwest and expensive elegance.The $6 million valued estate which overlooks a mountain ridge, is appropriately named “Blaze of Glory Ranch”.
Parrett also owns an $89,000 home on the West Side of Columbus, where her mother lives. She owns a $700,000 Fountain Hills, Ariz., home that her only child, Rob Parrett, used for many years. She set up a trust fund in her son’s name to help him pay bills.
Parrett also helped the less fortunate. She ran a nonprofit agency called Be Our Best Inc. that caters to children and animals. She donated to the West Valley Children’s Crisis Center, in Glendale, Ariz., which cares for children in protective custody. She was on the advisory board of a new Scottsdale Health Care facility planned for North Scottsdale, and served on the board of the Foothills Community Foundation. From her spectacular Blaze of Glory Ranch Becky hosted upscale fundraisers for animal-rescue groups.
Despite being found guilty for her participation in what federal prosecutors called ”the largest corporate fraud case involving a privately held company, ever”, an Ohio federal judge overrode prosecutorial protests and allowed the white-collar criminal to return home to settle her affairs pending sentencing. She was released on her own recognizance, but ordered to wear an electronic monitoring device.
Only, Rebecca Parrett didn’t show up for a scheduled appointment to be fitted with the ankle bracelet.
The last person known to have seen Parrett (on March 16) was her sixth husband Gary Green, who claims he was in a motorcycle accident that day and “can’t remember a thing”.
THE SCAM
By the end of 2001, National Century Financial Enterprises was desperately trying to get receivables to put on the books. Any receivables.
Other companies are afraid of 180 - day - old receivables.
We have a name for them -
(lightweights.)
“Other companies will not commit to buying your receivables.
We have a name for them-
(wishy-washy)
“Other companies give you an 85% advance rate on your receivables.
We have a name for them-
(stingy)
N.C.F.E. was the nation’s largest purchaser of hospital, physician and other health-care receivables. It served as a middleman between insurance companies and health-care providers around the country, including 60 hospitals, nursing homes and others.
To avoid waiting months to be paid, those health-care providers sold their receivables for 97 cents on the dollar to N.C.F.E. National Century Financial Enterprises then collected payment from the patients’ insurance carriers, Medicare or Medicaid.
To get cash to advance to health-care providers, National Century sold bonds to investors — including some big pension funds, which were among those hit hardest by National Century’s collapse.
The pension fund for New York City police, firefighters and other workers began investing in National Century in 2000. The company’s bonds were attractive because of their life span — usually three years — and high bond rating, said New York lawyer Steve Fineman.
Fitch Investor Services and Standard & Poor’s gave National Century the highest rating — AAA.
“It showed it was a conservative investment,” Fineman said.
Between May 1998 and May 2001, the company sold $4.4 billion worth of notes to investors, pledging to use the capital to buy accounts receivable from hospitals and other healthcare providers. Instead, authorities say N.C.F.E. executives advanced money to companies owned by the executives themselves — without requiring the accounts receivable as collateral. Which amounted to the company having millions in unsecured loans. In 2001 and 2002, National Century advanced $700 million in loans to companies without purchasing the accounts receivable.
The executives then lied to investors and rating agencies in order to cover up their actions.
As reserves weakened, investors and Securities Exchange Commission officials were given false financial reports that said National Century’s two subsidiaries, NPF VI and NPF XII, were healthy. But money was being shifted between the two to make it appear they had adequate money in reserve, the indictment says.
The company declared bankruptcy in 2002 and shut down shortly after.
Officials brought in to salvage the Dublin, Ohio, company said they found National Century Financial Enterprises only had collateral for about $900 million of $3 billion in outstanding bonds.
New details also are emerging about the lavish salaries and perks the National Century principals gave themselves, including frequent use of the company jet, consulting fees and retirement income. Over 2001 alone, Rebecca Parrett and partners Donald H. Ayers and Lance K. Poulsen received about $5.5 million in compensation. In addition, Ayers and Parrett, who retired in the middle of 2001, gave themselves $7.55 million in loans in August 2001, one official said, and they later arranged for the company to forgive repayment.
Assistant U.S. attorneys say that the company’s collapse resulted from criminal decisions, not a failed business plan.
“Few men have the virtue to withstand the highest bidder.” said George Washington, first president of the United States. Rebecca Parrett was no exception. Despite her opportunities, it was greed, no, actually greed gone wild that brought her down.
Anyone with any information about Rebecca Parrett, please call AMW’s confidential hotline: 1 - 800- CRIME - TV.
Fed up with her math professor husband, Shayne Lovera did some calculations of her own and decided his insurance policy was worth more than a divorce settlement.
Shayne Lovera
Smart, pretty, and fun-loving Shayne Mills was the heiress of a local banking fortune in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. In 1985, while at college in Missouri, she met and married fellow student Kelly Lovera. Five years and two children later, she persuaded Kelly to move back to her hometown at the foot of the Smoky Mountains National Park. Shayne worked a series of jobs, while Kelly finished his Master’s degree and took a teaching job at a local college. The couple often hung out with neighbors at their apartment complex, holding barbecues and playing poker on weekends.
The fun came to an end the morning of November 6, 1994, when a park ranger found Kelly’s car crashed into a tree, and Kelly dead at the wheel. An autopsy revealed that Kelly hadn’t died from the crash — he’d been beaten to death. The Loveras’ neighbors quickly pointed police to Brett Rae, the son of a local newspaper publisher. Brett’s friends told police he had confided in them that he and Shayne were having an affair, and that Shayne had promised him more sex and a lot of money to get rid of her husband.
Using luminol, investigators found a trail of blood in the Loveras’ apartment. They also discovered Shayne had yet another lover. This lover told police Shayne had confided that Kelly was cramping her lifestyle, and had asked about undetectable poisons. Both Shayne and Brett were arrested and charged with first-degree murder. At trial, friends of both Shayne and Brett testified that both had admitted to beating Kelly to death with a baseball bat, then staging the car crash. On the stand, Shayne denied the accusations. She told the jury that Brett had a case of fatal attraction for her, and that she’d slept through the whole thing.
Shayne’s denials didn’t hold up for the jury, who convicted her of first-degree murder in March of 1996. Before her sentencing, to avoid life without parole, she pleaded guilty; in exchange, she was given life, but with the possibility of parole in 25 years.
Snapped Is All New On Sunday!
Oxygen’s Snapped chronicles the life of a woman who has been charged with murder. These shocking but true stories turn common assumptions about crime and criminals upside down, and prove that even the most unlikely suspects can be capable of murder.
August 9, 2007 Myra Morton turned herself in to Pennsylvania authorities. Friday, April 25, 2008 she pled guilty to murder.
PERHAPS Myra Morton became distraught when her husband took a second wife.
Or when her husband bought his “new” wife a house and gave the new wife money – taking it out of an $8 million medical malpractice settlement he and Myra had received due to the death of their daughter.
Or when Jerry Morton said he was to flying to Morocco to bed the new wife, who had told him she was ovulating.
Or when he purchased sexy panties (size small) as a gift for the second - and younger - wife.
On Sunday, August 5, 2007 at 3:30 AM, the Whitpain Township Police Department responded to a report of an interrupted burglary. The homeowner, Myra Morton, told Officer Scott Buchanan her husband had been shot. She said she’d screamed, “somebody help me”and “somebody shot my husband” and chased the intruder out their bedroom’s sliding glass door.
Officer Buchanan went to the master bedroom, where he saw the bloodied and obviously deceased body of 47-year-old Jereleigh “Jerry” Morton. Jerry was lying on the left side of the bed, his bare chest covered by blankets. He wore a CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) breathing mask as therapy for his chronic sleep apnea. His right arm was bent at the elbow with his right hand under his head. A large pool of blood had collected on the mattress and on the floor beneath the bed.
Nothing indicated Jerry had tried to defend himself from an attacker. To the contrary, detectives concluded the victim was shot in his bed as he slept. Blood spatter covered the wall behind the bed as well as Myra Morton’s side of the bed, including her pillow and sheets.
Police investigators specifically searched for broken glass, pry marks, scratched locks and any other signs of recent attempts at forced entry. There were none.
A tracking dog was brought in and ordered to begin tracking at the edge of the patio in the direction Myra said the assailant had run. The dog showed “no interest” in that area, meaning he didn’t detect a human scent.
According to Myra Morton, Jerry Morton was scheduled to leave for Morocco on business the day he was murdered.
That wasn’t true.
Police soon learned Jerry Morton was actually leaving for Morocco to try to “make a baby” with his “other” wife.
Jerry had met his new bride, Zahra Tourai, on Qiran.com, an internet “Muslim Marriage and Matrimonial” site, in December, 2006. By March, with Myra’s reluctant blessing – an Islamic requirement for second marriage – Jerry and Zahra tied the knot.
Myra was not happy.
She told one of her closest friends, Marguerite Griffin, “Zahra is trying to take away my husband by having his baby.” Myra could no longer conceive. She told other friends Jerry was changing and had stopped paying attention to her.
Myra took steps to keep Zahra from coming to the United States. She sent the federal government a “poison pen” letter suggesting her husband was involved with terrorists.
To the “Imigration Department of the USA”:…I am writing to inform you that I’ve just became a victim of polygamy. My husband in March 07 (see documents attached) married a Moroccaine woman, Zahra Toural. He is desperatley trying to bring her to our country. He is married to me and I’m a US citizen legally by our court system. He says he is telling her to come as a tourist and not mention me on the papers from immigration in her country.
I have spoke to an attorney who said USA does not allow polygamy.She have marriage papers from her country saying my husband is married to me also. She talks to him on computer, on Yahoo everyday or by phone about bombings in Casablanca. he know alot and about the lady who help Alquida that have a baby. She have newspapers to give to him when he comes back April 29. She knows a whole lot about the bombings and the people involved. I am afraid for my family sometime when he goes over there. He has been talking to her 3-4 months prior to there marriage. He sneaks around me and speaks real low when he talks to her.Please don’t let her come here—don’t let her in US.
PS: Please don’t send me response letter he will know.
Thank you.
Concerned that her husband might squander money on her new “co-wife” Myra Morton tried to talk Jerry into putting money into a separate bank account “for her” and to have certain property put “in her name.” Jerry Morton refused. The couple began fighting “inside and outside the home and frequently screaming and arguing.”
Jerry told his American wife, “If you don’t like polygamy, get a divorce.”
Myra came up with a different solution.
Monday morning Zahra Tourai was waiting to be reunited with her husband of five months. She waited. And she waited. She checked with Air France and was told Jerry had never gotten on the plane.
Desperate and worried, Zahra tried to call both Jerry and Myra. Nobody answered the phone.
“i feel something is happened tryed to call him many often i called myra. . . . and i called his home phone no one answer me,”
August 9, 2007, Myra Morton was charged with with first- and third-degree murder, possession of an instrument of crime and lying to and giving police false reports.
On March 13, Zahra Tourai sued Myra Morton for defamation and ruining her reputation. The case is pending.
All of the squabbled-over money is up for grabs. Though Myra’s and Jerry’s daughter and granddaughter could be heirs, so, arguably, could Zahra Tourai.
“We do intend to pursue this in Orphans Court in Montgomery County,” says Tourai’s lawyer, Jack Meyerson, referring to the estate questions.
On April 25, Myra Morton, for the first time, admitted no intruder had broken into her home or killed her husband. She pled guilty to third-degree murder. ”Morton faces from five to 20 years in prison”, said defense lawyer, Brian McMonagle.
I don’t think there’s any question in anybody’s mind that the act was intentional,” McMonagle said. “We have always maintained that it was based on a lot of passion. Myra was grieving from the death of her teenage daughter, hurt when her husband’s affections drifted to his new wife, and angry that money from an insurance settlement the Mortons received after their daughter’s death might be going to the new wife.”
The Mortons were married for 27 years and converted to Islam two decades ago. Polygamy is illegal in the United States, but it is practiced by some Muslims in other countries under a doctrine requiring the first wife’s approval.
Amanda Bulliner wanted her ex back. No matter what it took.
And she had a plan.
In early fall 2007, Amanda told Newport police she was getting calls from a man threatening to kill her and her children. The man was also calling her ex. Amanda recorded some of the calls for evidence and brought the recordings to the police.
But the threats continued.
Things escalated. In February, Amanda said a man forced his way into her house and beat up her and her children. The children’s faces had marks from being hit. Amanda’s 8 year-old son described the assailant for police. Poor Amanda lost consciousness while talking about her ordeal and had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital.
The police were stumped.
The calls seemed to be untraceable. Amanda’s caller ID and phone bills showed various phone numbers. But, police efforts to track them down went nowhere. In the meantime the same mysterious voice was repeatedly threatening Amanda, her children and her ex-husband.
Fortunately, Amanda’s stalker made a mistake.
He called the police station.
Police Chief, David Hoyt called the number back and a woman from another state answered. The woman told Chief Hoyt that shortly before “his” call a man had telephoned her and asked a lot of questions. The woman thought it was a prank and hung up. But Hoyt was stunned when the woman described her caller’s voice — it seemed to be the the same man who had called the station and left a threatening voice message for Amanda Bulliner
Hoyt called Verizon Security to find out if there was a way to change your phone so a different phone number shows up on the person-you-are-calling’s ”caller ID” display. Phone “spoofing” technology, he was told, allows you to do that. It also lets you to alter your voice.
Hoyt easily found phonespoofing.com online, spent $10 and obtained 60 minutes of phone time. He tried it out. Strangely, the male voice Hoyt chose for a ”disguise”, was the very same voice as Amanda’s alleged stalker’s.
“Amanda really messed up,” says Chief David Hoyt. The spoofing company’s records were subpoened. Amanda Bulliner turned up as one of their best customers.
Police say when Amanda was confronted, she admitted to making the many “spoof” calls. She has also admitted to pulling her children into her elaborate scheme by telling them ”what to say” to police — and to hitting her children in the face, deliberately leaving red marks, to make her story more credible.
Police say Amanda “did it” for love. She wanted to reconcile with her ex-husband and was pretending to be a victim to win his attention.
This week, Amanda Bulliner was arrested and charged with nine misdemeanors, including three counts of false reports to law enforcement; one count each of false public alarm and criminal threatening; and two counts each of harassment and endangering the welfare of a child.
She is out on bail pending arraignment on June, 17.
Oxygen’s Snapped chronicles the lives of women who have been charged with murder. These shocking but true stories turn common assumptions about crime and criminals upside down, and prove that even the most unlikely suspects can be capable of murder.
Who are these women and what drives them to kill? Did they really do it? And, if they did, why? Now in its 6th season, Snapped tries to answer these questions. Whether the motivation was revenge against a cheating husband, the promise of a hefty insurance payoff or putting an end to years of abuse, the reasons are as varied as the women themselves. From socialites to secretaries, female killers share one thing in common: at some point, they all “snapped.”
This week tune in for the story of Darlene Gentry — marriage and three kids didn’t stop Gentry from going out and having a good time. But when money trouble threatened to spoil her fun, she decided her husband was worth more to her dead than alive.
Kay and Beau exchanging vows at Fort Leonard Wood in 2004.
Melvin “Beau” Griesbauer was insured to the max.
Dead, the LPN/Army Reserve Specialist was worth $1.2 million.
Beau’s new wife, Elain “Kay” Young told friends her husband wanted to make sure she was “taken care of”. Beau was being deployed to Iraq almost before the ink on their marriage certificate had time to dry. Kay also said she was facing surgery and the outcome was questionable.
Beau survived the desert. But, on March 23, 2006, two years after Beau Griesbauer said “I do” and soon after his return from Iraq, the 43 year-old was found by his barn shot in the head. There was a 30-30 Winchester rifle lying parallel to the body.
Kay and a visiting ”friend”, Kathy Mock, said Beau had killed himself.
Law enforcement didn’t buy it.
Elaine “Kay” Young
A week after Beau’s death Kathy Mock was arrested for his murder. Last month, two years after the homicide, Kay Young was charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action. The 53 year-old widow is being held on a $2.5 million, cash only, bond.
Authorities are also questioning how Kay’s mother, Celia Hammons, died in 2000. Recently, Celia Hammon’s body was exhumed. Investigators may have the results of the autopsy before the end of this month.
Who would have thought?
Kay Young made donations to local 4-H clubs in “memory of her mother”. She was a school superintendent, a class sponsor and a beloved teacher. She fostered children and Christian causes. The town Kay lived in, Novinger, Missouri was founded and named after one of her grandfathers.
John C. Novinger would not allow the Union-Pacific railroad to run across his farm unless the depot was named after him.
When the original family homestead was given to Kay, in the months preceeding Celia’s death, Kay’s brother and sister were upset and said so. Which got the town talking. People said Kay poisoned her mother’s mind against her siblings during Celia’s “final days” and restricted their access to Celia.
People also said worse.
Some took their suspicions to law enforcement. According to Adair County deputy sheriff, Larry Logston, “several people in the community and confidential informants came forward with information”. Logston told Truman State University Index reporter Nathan Becker that “most people in Novinger, that knew Kay Young and had dealt with Kay Young,” believe she killed Beau Griesbauer.
There are obvious big questions. Like why would someone staging a suicide, who was familiar with guns, not know a rifle wasn’t a good suicide weapon choice? There are small questions, too. I, personally, wonder why Kay “Young” never became Kay “Griesbauer”. She used the names of her three previous husbands. Young was Kay’s first husband’s last name. Next Kay married a Neice and went by Young-Niece. When Kay married ”Mr. Crawford”, she was Kay Crawford. But, she never used Griesbauer.
Kay said she was head-over-heels in love with Beau. She claims he was the love of her life. Maybe that is the truth.
Or maybe, as one Novinger resident,who does not wish to be named, put it, “Kay didn’t use Beau’s last name because she knew they wouldn’t be married long.”
Kay Young will be arraigned Monday, May 5, 2008. Kathy Mock’s trial starts, Monday, July 14, 2008.
I am very much looking forward to the trials of both. There will be lots of interesting twists and turns. I promise.
But according to the Florida Department of Financial Fraud Division, the youth league baseball mother and former Lakeland real estate title agent wasn’t who she seemed. She has been accused of stealing more than $660,000 in client escrow funds to live a life of luxury.
Erica Daniels, 29, the former owner of Independent Title Agency LLC in Lakeland, was arrested March 14. She was charged with two counts of fraud and conversion of escrow over $100,000, one count each of fraud and conversion of escrow more than $20,000, scheming to defraud, money laundering and grand theft.
Daniels posted $110,000 bail and was released from the Polk County jail the day of her arrest.
“Independent Title Agency LLC’s” ad in Central Florida’s Home Shopper bragged, “Give us a try! We’ll make you a hero with your clients!” Independent Title Agency LLC’s online homepage stated: “You may notice that we perform slightly different than you may be accustomed to.”
That was not an exaggeration.
According to Mike Hennessy, the lead detective, ”Daniels basically used her day to day operating account for the business as her own personal checking account.” Some of the stolen money was used to purchase a BMW sedan, an in-ground swimming pool for her home and a personal watercraft,” he wrote in a probable cause affidavit.
Daniels also is accused of using the company’s operations bank account for personal items, including $27,748 in clothes, $52,602 in cash disbursements, $33,336 in home products, $18,764 for travel, $12,913 in medical bills, $13,158 for a camper-trailer, $7,005 in sporting goods, $6,579 at restaurants, $3,324 for groceries and $3,923 in jewelry.
On Tuesday, Daniels denied stealing any money and said reports from the FDFS are erroneous.”None of it was the truth,” Daniels said. “I am not saying anything. Anything that comes out of my mouth gets twisted.”
The investigation by the FDFS and state attorney’s office was sparked by a complaint filed by lawyers for Old Republic National Title Insurance Co., the parent company of Daniels’ firm. After learning of problems with the escrow accounts, Old Republic closed the accounts, which are funds set aside from clients to pay for title services, and has paid to cover losses to clients, according to the affidavit. The company pulled 2-year-old Independent Title Agency LLC’s license to sell title insurance. Their office at 3510 S. Florida Ave., Lakeland, closed in January 2007.
Indications of money laundering and fraud were initially discovered during a routine audit of the company’s financial records in January 2006, according to the affidavit filed by Hennessy. The company, through additional audits, continually pressed Daniels to update her escrow account reconciliations and to submit them to the company, but she refused and avoided contact with company officials.
As a result of the follow-up audit and review of the ITA escrow reconciliations submitted in December, additional severe escrow problems related to theft were discovered,” Hennessy wrote in the report. “Numerous attempts to contact Daniels were made but she avoided any contact with company officials”
When company officials finally met with Daniels and confronted her with the information they had discovered, Daniels admitted to Robin Cardella, vice president of Old Republic, that she had used escrow funds to buy a house in Lakeland and the BMW, according to the affidavit.
Old Republic, based in Minnesota, sued Daniels, her husband, Michael Daniels, and Independent Title Agency in February 2007, alleging breach of contract, fraud, conversion and theft. The company is seeking $700,000.
Davis, 32, was arrested last week for allegedly running a prostitute ring from two Manhattan East Side apartments. Police say Davis employed 15 “illicit entertainers” who charged up to $1,500 an hour. At the time of her arrest police seized $19,000 from Davis’ home and froze $500,000 in bank accounts linked to her.
Considered a flight risk because Davis was trying to move money out of the U.S., a judge set Davis’ bail at $2 million.
Michael Denoyer saw Sharee Miller on an episode of the Oxygen channel’s true-crime series, “Snapped” and felt an instant attraction.
“It was her eyes,” says Denoyer, “At the end of the show, where they said she was guilty, I saw something in her eyes that broke my heart,”
Denoyer wrote Miller a short note in July letting her know he was there if she needed a friend. The couple has been exchanging letters almost every day since. Denoyer proposed to Miller the day they met in November. They hope to be married within a month.
Sharee Miller, 36 is serving a life sentence at Robert Scott Correctional Facility in Plymouth, Michigan for enticing her Internet lover to kill her third husband, auto salvage magnate, 48-year-old Bruce Miller.
Sharee Miller’s story has been detailed in several true crime television shows. It also was the subject of a best-selling novel and a television movie starring Anne Heche.
EDITOR’S NOTE: I lived for a time in Odessa, Mo. I knew Sharee’s Internet lover.I knew his friends. My impression was that he was an honest and friendly man. I can’t imagine him driving to Michigan to kill Sharee’s husband. She must have cast quite a spell.
Bruce Miller’s family. They still miss Bruce and say he was a gentle and good person who never would hurt anyone
Monday, Florida circuit judge Allen Register sentenced Amanda Lewis, 28, to life in prison for drowning her seven-year-old daughter, Adrianna Hutto. Lewis was also sentenced to 30 years to run consecutively for the child abuse conviction
Before the sentencing there was a motion to dismiss the case. Lewis’ public defender, Walter Smith said the star witness was not credible. That star witness was Lewis’ own son, A.J. Hutto, now 7.
“What we have is a bold allegation that says I didn’t see it, I wasn’t there, and where I was I couldn’t have seen what I said, but my momma killed my sister.” said Smith.
In a pre-trial hearing Smith claimed a child psychologist, Dr. Charlie Madsen, had interviewed A.J. Hutto and found A.J. “minimally” competent to testify because the boy had some developmental problems
The defense claimed Adrianna’s death was an accident which happened as Adrianna tried to get bugs out of the water.
Lewis took the stand on the third day of her trial looking tired and haggard. She claimed she went outside and found her child in the water after her son said Adrianna had been playing by the above-ground pool.
”Not so,” said the prosecutors, calling witnesses who swore Adrianna was too terrified of water to go into the pool on her own. Several witness also testified to Lewis’ lack of love for her daughter.
“She told me she didn’t think she developed a relationship with her.” said the defendant’s mother, Brenda Burns.
She would say she never loved the child like she was suppose to but she didn’t know why,” ex-coworker, Bridget Sanders said on the stand.
Ex-supervisor Kim Smith recapped a day the defendant got really upset at her daughter, “She came in upset and she said she was going to kill her and I told her don’t say that.”
At the sentencing, Judge Register denied the defense motions to dismiss or retry the case. Register said the medical examiner’s opinion that the death was a homicide, based partly on the bruises, was enough to support A.J.’s version.
IN SESSION/tru-tv taped the entire trial and will be offering it to viewers soon. It is not a cut and dry, clear-cut case. A.J. Hutto and Amanda Lewis contradict themselves before, after and during the trial. Some family and friend evidence is contradictary; as is some testimoney from the experts.
Kristin Phillips, 33, who is facing life imprisonment or the death penalty if convicted of federal murder charges for starving her 11-month-old baby Alexis, had previously been arrested for the suspicious death of another one of her children.
According to Peoria Journal Star archives, when Phillips was 23, she lived in her parent’s basement with her two toddler-aged children. She was able to keep her pregnancy a secret from her parents, but in April, she gave birth at home. According to Kristin the baby was unresponsive and blue. She tried to revive him, but finally tied the umbilical cord with a pair of pantyhose, bundled the baby in a blanket and placed him in a box with a stuffed animal and carpet deodorizer.
Four months later, Kristin’s mother found the corpse while cleaning the basement. The police were immediately notified.
A pathologist who examined the corpse described it as “mummified” and “skeletonized,” having suffered from decay and infestation by insects.. It was impossible to determine whether the baby had been born alive or stillborn as Phillips described.
Phillips was found guilty at an April 30, 1999 trial in front of just a judge of a class A misdemeanor for failing to report the death.
She received in-patient psychological treatment after the death was reported and continued counseling as part of her sentence, but lost custody of one of her two surviving children in June 1999.
The father of the girl, then 3 years old, sued for sole custody after learning of the death of the baby boy, which was not his.
It’s unclear whether Phillips’s oldest child, a girl about 5 years old in early 1999, is the 14-year-old who was present when authorities responded to Phillips’s Fort Leonard Wood home in February.
Alexis would have been one-year-old yesterday. But instead she was found in her mother’s arms, starved to death.
It was February 21 when Emergency Services and Military Police received two frantic 911 calls. Upon arriving at the home, Alexsis was found in the master bedroom, lying in her mother’s arms. She was dead.
At first the mother appeared to be having siezures, but when disturbed became combative, screaming, “let me die”, “don’t touch me”, “I didn’t ask for your help”.
Alexia was pronouced dead at 10 p.m.
According to the arrest affidavit, the victim’s body appeared to have bruising around the neck, on the back of the head and possible immersion burns on her thighs, buttocks and back.
Three other children ages 2, 4 and 14 were found alive and healthy in a house that was strewn throughout with spoiled food, trash, and dirty clothes. The house smelled strongly of urine and feces. Another of Kristin’s babies had to be changed and cleaned before taking him to the hospital. The EMT said the diaper was filled with LAYERS of dried feces.
Kristin and her husband, who was deployed in Iraq when Alexsis died.
Two children told the military police their mother had locked herself in the bedroom. One child said she heard her mother screaming,” Oh, my God,” several times. The child said she was afraid her mother was killing Alexis.
But, Dr. Anderson, the forensic pathalogists that performed Alexis’ autopsy said the cause of death was dehydration, starvation, malnutrition and possible sepsis. What was previously thought to be immersion burns was determined to be a serious rash from laying in urine.
Alexis had been dead at least a day before emergency help was called.
Kristin Phillip’s 3 other children have been placed in the custody of the Missouri Department of Social Services.
What is a governor to do when work forces him out of town? Where does a lonely man find “companionship”?
Maybe online? In the escort classifieds?
Recently arrested, Elizabeth Harrison, also known as “Magical Lizzie” ran ads on at least 30 Maryland/DC area online escort sites. She also participated on message boards for “women in the business”. On the Independent Escort Forum “Magical Lizzy” gives a housewife advice (caution adult content advice) on how to keep a dog husband from straying. There are also sites where johns “rate their dates”. Yes, really. Discerning customers can get references.
The reviews I found for “Magical Lizzy” were positive.
35-year-old Elizabeth Harrison AKA “Magical Lizzie” is accused of running a brothel from her Maryland apartment.
This is the picture “Magical Lizzy” ran on escort sites. She was was rated in the top dozen on every site I found.
Magical Lizzie believed in advertising. She was creative, too.
In some ads she promotes her service as a form of communication: “I am most often described as mischievous, with the wit of an educated woman. My philosophy of intimacy is based a great deal on my spirituality. I believe that all intimacies are ways to communicate.” –from the Baltimore Buns, escort directory.
“My philosophy of intimacy is based a great deal on my spirituality. I believe that all intimacies are ways to communicate. When you visit me, I want to communicate to you..”.–from theIndepedent Entertainer Network.
“Magical Lizzy’s” customer gave her online ratings : “Stopped by to meet Lizzy after exchanging some emails. I have to say, she is one of the more intelligent providers i have met. Nothing unintelligent about the others, she is just quite smart. After a quick shower, and some small talk…” — ChicagoJohn25. (Cost of the date $600 for 2hrs.)
“Lizzy is one of the best!”TheSailor (cost $300 for 1 hr.)
Unfortunately for “Magical Lizzy” she was too much of a go-getter.
Her ads drew so much traffic to her apartment the neighbors called the cops. Which led to law enforcement finding “Magical Lizzy’s” ad on “Wiggle and Squirm”.. Then, according to Sgt. John Gilmer with the Anne Arundel Police Department, “Police were actually able to set up a situation where they were to meet one of these individuals.” Once inside the apartment, police conducted a search and seizure where they found condoms throughout the apartment.”
“Magical Lizzy” was busted.
“Magical Lizzy” was an entrepeneur. She was a hard worker. She was one heck of a promoter.
But, no more. The world’s newest technology put an end to the “world’s oldest profession” for “Magical Lizzy”.
More of Lizzy’s ads: (Caution:not all are safe for viewing at work.)
March 3, a Florida 911 dispatcher received a desperate call from a 13 year-old girl who was watching her father die out in her front yard. The girl said her father was down and her mother was bending over him.
“I don’t want my daddy to die.” the girl sobbed to the dispatcher. ” I want to go to my daddy.”
But, help arrived too late. Kevin Mark Jackson was dead from multiple gunshot wounds. There was a gun next to him. His coffee cup and lunch were also close by.
Kevin Jackson’s wife, Meloney, was wearing loose handcuffs and glue marks from a duct tape gag. She told Maclenney, FL. deputies that her husband had tied her up, sexually assaulted her and tried to kill her. According to Meloney, her husband changed his mind in the midst of the assault and instead shot himself…seven times.
Five of Kevin’s wounds were in his back.
Forsenic evidence, testimony from the daughter and the crime scene contradicts everything Meloney Jackson told law enforcement.
There is little doubt the crime was premeditated.
On February 17, Meloney Jackson logged into her MySpace profile. She said her mood was “scared”.
On February 28, Meloney tried really, really hard to buy a gun. She told the gundealer she was afraid of her husband and needed a gun then and there. “Right now!” she said.
The gundealer, Bill Krall, owner of Hole In The Wall Antiques Guns and Ammo, said he knew something was not right so he didn’t sell Meloney any kind of weapon. Instead he went directly to the sheriff’s office when Meloney left his store.
(Maybe a member of law enforcement should have followed up on Krall’s concerns?)
In the meantime, Meloney Jackson was looking for a gun. She ended up borrowing one from a neighbor the way most people would borrow a cup of sugar. She found bullets at the local Wal-Mart. Weeks before the murder it seems Meloney was setting the stage and her alibi by telling others Kevin was dangerous and she was afraid for her life.
But, according to friends and Kevin’s coworkers, Meloney did not want a divorce. Kevin was the one who had filed. Friends also said Meloney and Kevin’s daughter wanted to live with Kevin.
Which wouldn’t have fit with this woman’s dream of having a “picture perfect family”.
Kevin was not the love of Meloney’s life. On her Myspace profile Meloney says . ”I’ve only been in love completely and totally, once in my life and I let him walk away and never told him.”
But her ”picture perfect family” is a dream Meloney never gave up on. She wrote about it. She sang about it. The “Picture Perfect Family“ song is poignant and heartfelt. It could bring tears to the eyes.
Meloney writes on Myspace about spending time with her children and her dog Wilson. She says one of her favorite smells is her daughter’s hair.
Did Meloney’s romantic visions contribute to Kevin’s demise?
If Meloney couldn’t have her “picture perfect family”, how far would she go to make sure Kevin wouldn’t have it either?
Kevin Jackson was killed one day before their divorce would have been final.
“Picture Perfect Family” is the second song on Meloney’s MySpace playlist.
The lyrics to “PICTURE PERFECT FAMILY”:
Another peaceful evening
and quiet night
we won’t talk about it
and we won’t fight.
As we stare through the silence at the tv
our little angel sits at the table
busy as a bee.
She jumps down in a flash
climbs up in my lap
she says “Mommy do you like what I drew?
I colored it just for you.”
There’s the dog
there’s the cat
That’s me and daddy holdin’ your hand
under the apple tree.
That’s the sun
there’s a rainbow
not a single cloud in the clear, blue sky
her picture perfect family.
I held back the tears in my eyes
couldn’t rain on her perfect blue sky.
How could she know things are not what they seem?
The skys not that blue
the grass not that green.
She jumped down in a flash
climbed up in his lap
she said, “Daddy do you like what I drew?
MOMMY SAID I SHOULD SHOW IT TO YOU.
There’s the dog
there’s the cat
that’s me and mommy holdin’ your hand
under the apple tree.
That’s the sun
there’s a rainbow
not a single cloud in the clear, blue sky.
In my heart I wish HE could see
her picture perfect family.
IN MY HEART I PRAY HE’LL SEE
HER PICTURE PERFECT FAMILY .
UPDATE: An interview with Meloney Jackson’s son from a previous relationship reveals that weeks before Meloney’s husband was killed, she had talked about shooting him. According to Meloney’s son, his mother had even suggested he shoot Kevin Jackson if he got the chance. The Baker County Press
The Sonoran News called Becky Parrett’s Desert Mountain Art Gallery a touch of class to downtown Carefree, AZ. “People who love fine art will appreciate having pieces like this in a gallery,” said Parrett. ( Sonoran News, June 1, 2005)
