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Tag: child death

  • Jury reaches surprising verdict for accused killer of Fort Worth 5-year-old, teen

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    Rayshard Scott, 5, had just started kindergarten and loved “Sonic the Hedgehog.” He and his 17-year-old cousin, Jamarrien Monroe (right), were shot to death outside their home in northwest Fort Worth in 2022.

    Rayshard Scott, 5, had just started kindergarten and loved “Sonic the Hedgehog.” He and his 17-year-old cousin, Jamarrien Monroe (right), were shot to death outside their home in northwest Fort Worth in 2022.

    Contributed

    The diameter of the bullet that shredded through Rayshard Scott’s body was 7.62 millimeters. It took a path through two of his ribs, his kidneys, adrenal glands, vertebral bones and the edge of his liver.

    When he died, Rayshard, who was 5 years old, stood 3 feet 8 inches tall and weighed 40 pounds. He was in kindergarten, a Spider-Man fan.

    His 17-year-old cousin, Jamarrien Monroe, was with Rayshard in a garage that is attached to a house in a far northwest Fort Worth subdivision when Jamarrien, too, was shot in the torso.

    The teenager’s abdomen flooded with one and a half liters of blood before he died. His 18-month-old son, Jhacari Monroe, was grazed in the leg.

    Two other children, 14 and 8, were also in the garage, with its door mostly raised, in the Quarter Horse Estates neighborhood near Saginaw.

    The sun baked the driveway and street from which two shooters opened fire on a Sunday in August 2022.

    The assailants, prosecutors allege, arrived in a sport utility vehicle in which two other people sat. The shooters were in the parked Chevrolet Equinox for three minutes and 19 seconds before getting out, carrying rifles and with fabric obscuring their faces. They fired 17 rounds into the garage.

    Fort Worth Police Department homicide detectives arrested two suspects, Jay Nixon-Clark, whom a jury last year found guilty of capital murder, and Anthony Bell-Johnson, whose second trial has been underway this week after a defense mistrial motion was granted in July when a jury could not reach a verdict in his first trial.

    The detectives used surveillance video from the killing scene and from a house near where the stolen suspects’ vehicle with an unusual roof was dumped and a license plate reader to identify the suspects. The detectives used tower pings from Bell-Johnson’s cellphone service provider records and, after the mistrial, DNA from a McDonald’s straw found in the vehicle to connect Bell-Johnson to the killings.

    Bell-Johnson is known as One Leg and uses a prosthetic limb after losing his leg as a child in a train accident.

    Prosecutors argued the gait of a person who walks with a limp can be seen in one of the people in the surveillance video from the homicide scene and the site where the SUV was dumped. Five days after the killings, a police officer at a Walmart found a fob that operates the stolen Equinox in Bell-Johnson’s pocket.

    Nixon-Clark fired from a high-powered white Kriss Vector, a unique semiautomatic gun.

    Police do not have the second gun.

    “They’ve got nothing linking Anthony Bell-Johnson to any firearm on August 28, 2022,” defense attorney Gary Smart told the jury in his closing argument.

    Other evidence is immense, Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney Bill Vassar suggested on Friday in the state’s closing argument to the jury considering Bell-Johnson’s guilt or innocence.

    “What are the odds that we’ve got the wrong guy?” Vassar asked in his closing. Lower than winning a lottery, the prosecutor said.

    A McChicken wrapper, evidence of a pre-killing meal, was found in the suspects’ vehicle.

    “Because you can’t gun down kids in broad daylight unless you eat first,” Melinda Hogan, who is prosecuting the case with Vassar, facetiously noted in the state’s closing argument.

    On Friday in Criminal District Court No. 2, the jury found Bell-Johnson not guilty of capital murder and guilty of two counts of murder, as a lesser-included offense.

    Bell-Johnson was indicted on capital murder under a statute that alleges he intentionally or knowingly caused the death of multiple people during the same criminal transaction.

    In its verdict, the jury appears to have found Bell-Johnson intentionally or knowingly caused the deaths of both Rayshard and Jamarrien, but not at the same time.

    The verdict is confounding in some respects because the timing of the shooting and deaths was not in dispute at trial. The jury deliberated for about four hours and 45 minutes and asked for access to several video exhibits.

    Trial will continue Monday with sentencing phase

    The verdict’s implications for punishment are significant. Defendants found guilty of capital murder in cases in which the state has waived the death penalty and in which the defendant was older than 18 at the time of the crime are automatically sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    On Monday, the jury will hear evidence in the trial’s punishment phase and consider assessing a prison term of between five and 99 years, or life. Criminal law experts said it appears that a judge could not stack the punishment terms in the two murder counts in this case.

    There was confusion in the verdict’s delivery. The presiding juror at first signed a verdict form indicating both a guilty and not guilty verdict on one of the murder counts.

    Judge William Knight asked the presiding juror to clarify the panel’s intent, and the juror said he meant to sign the guilty line before submitting a second, corrected form.

    Defense attorneys Smart and Kevin Rosseau had argued the detectives’ investigation was marred by tunnel vision and that the investigators did not sufficiently explore other possible suspects, including a person who made a threat on Jamarrien Monroe’s life.

    “’It’s not a Whodunit.’ How many times did we hear that?” Rousseau asked in his closing, referring to testimony from Detective Jerry Cedillo on his certainty that Bell-Johnson was one of the shooters.

    Bell-Johnson was obstinate in an interview with detectives and made no admission. He elected not to testify during his trial.

    The state does not have a witness who can testify that they saw Bell-Johnson at the homicide scene on Steel Dust Drive. Neighbors whose surveillance cameras recorded the shooting at a distance have testified that they could not tell whether the people in the images were male or female.

    The homicides’ motive is nebulous, prosecutor Vassar suggested to the jury, and may be connected to a school beef, retaliation or a diss track.

    Evidence includes interview with one defendant

    In the Nixon-Clark trial, the law enforcement theory on motive was more definitive. According to Detective Cedillo’s testimony, Bell-Johnson and Nixon-Clark were at the house to shoot Jamarrien Monroe because the defendants believed that associates of Monroe had fired bullets at a house in which Bell-Johnson’s relatives lived.

    Nixon-Clark told Cedillo that he was carrying a Kriss Vector gun when he got out of the SUV at the crime scene. Nixon-Clark fired one round that was collected from a stairwell inside the house before the gun jammed, according to prosecutors. (In the final of several accounts he offered to detectives in an interview, Nixon-Clark admitted that, before it jammed, he fired one round when the gun was pointed toward the ground.)

    According to testimony, Bell-Johnson once held his artificial limb and pretended to fire it in a fashion similar to the way in which police allege he handled the Draco, an AK-style pistol known as a chopper, from which he fired 7.62 rounds into the house. Police found the ejected cartridge casings of 15 such rounds in the street.

    After he was shot in the abdomen, Jamarrien ran from the garage to the laundry room and kitchen before he collapsed near the front door. The round transected an artery and Jamarrien left a trail of his blood on the floor as he moved through the house.

    Rayshard fell to the garage floor near the door leading to the interior of the house.

    “You know how big a casket for a 5-year-old is?” Detective Cedillo would later ask Nixon-Clark in an interview, trying to jolt him into honesty. “It’s small.”

    On the day of the shooting, Nixon-Clark was 16 years and 9 months old, just shy of reaching legal status as an adult. Bell-Johnson was 21. Nixon-Clark was certified to be tried as an adult after the case was first filed in a juvenile court.

    Cedillo previously testified that a fingerprint on a door handle from the Chevrolet Equinox is among evidence that connects Tyreion Nixon-Clark, a brother of Jay Nixon-Clark, to the Steel Dust Drive scene. Bell-Johnson and Jay Nixon-Clark are the only suspects who law enforcement authorities allege fired shots in the case. Tyreion Nixon-Clark and the fourth vehicle occupant have not been indicted in connection with the shooting.

    Two days after Jamarrien Monroe and his 5-year-old cousin were killed, police arrested Tyreion Nixon-Clark in connection with an unrelated homicide motivated by robbery in which the suspect arranged a meeting that the victim thought was to be a rifle sale, authorities said. Tyreion Nixon-Clark was in May 2024 convicted of aggravated robbery in the homicide of 17-year-old Deadrick Mason.

    In the interview with Cedillo and the Steel Dust Drive case’s lead detective, Leah Dickerson, Jay Nixon-Clark first denied any involvement and suggested that Jamarrien Monroe was an acquaintance with whom he was on good terms.

    Cedillo, who was familiar with Jay Nixon-Clark because of his work on the homicide in which Nixon-Clark’s brother was a suspect, pressed for more.

    Finally Nixon-Clark admitted firing once after he had watched from the vehicle as a child tottered from the garage to the driveway in a diaper.

    Nixon-Clark was unable to clear his jammed weapon and could not fire again, he told police.

    Detective Dickerson received a telephone tip that Jay Nixon-Clark might be a suspect.

    Prosecutors Vassar and Hogan also introduced to the jury evidence of location data police extracted from his cellphone and suggested there was an absence of location data at the time of the killings because the defendant had placed his phone in airplane mode.

    Nine months after the homicides, a Fort Worth Police Department Gang Unit officer documented Nixon-Clark as a Crip gang member.

    Nixon-Clark and Bell-Johnson participated in a music video in which they pointed guns, referenced gang affiliations and threw gang signs, according to prosecutors. The video was uploaded to YouTube in June 2022.

    Related Stories from Fort Worth Star-Telegram

    Emerson Clarridge

    Fort Worth Star-Telegram

    Emerson Clarridge covers crime and other breaking news for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He works days and reports on law enforcement affairs in Tarrant County. He previously was a reporter at the Omaha World-Herald and the Observer-Dispatch in Utica, New York.

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    Emerson Clarridge

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  • Juvenile dies in middle of the night prompting police investigation, CMPD says

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    MEDIC ambulance was summoned to the 3400 block of Queen City Drive for a patient in cardiac arrest. The road is a strip of hotels along Interstate 85.

    MEDIC ambulance was summoned to the 3400 block of Queen City Drive for a patient in cardiac arrest. The road is a strip of hotels along Interstate 85.

    Street View image from Jan. 2025. © 2025 Google

    A juvenile’s death in a west Charlotte commercial strip is being investigated by homicide detectives, according to Charlotte-Mecklenburg police.

    The juvenile’s identity has not been released, and CMPD stopped short of calling it a homicide in a Dec. 26 news release.

    Officers were summoned around 1:20 a.m. Friday, Dec. 26, to the 3400 block of Queen City Drive, and the initial call to MEDIC reported someone in cardiac arrest, CMPD says.

    “Upon arrival, officers discovered a juvenile patient who was not breathing. The patient was transported by MEDIC to a local hospital where they were pronounced deceased,” police said.

    A cause of death was not released, but MEDIC reports the patient has visible “life-threatening injuries.”

    The 3400 block of Queen City Drive is lined with hotels. It is just north of the intersection of Interstate 85 and Billy Graham Parkway in west Charlotte.

    Mark Price

    The Charlotte Observer

    Mark Price is a National Reporter for McClatchy News. He joined the network of newspapers in 1991 at The Charlotte Observer, covering beats including schools, crime, immigration, LGBTQ issues, homelessness and nonprofits. He graduated from the University of Memphis with majors in journalism and art history, and a minor in geology.

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  • Large Russian drone and missile attack on Kyiv kills 4 and wounds at least 10

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    Russia unleashed a barrage of drones and missiles on Ukraine overnight into Sunday, killing at least four people, with the capital city of Kyiv suffering the heaviest assault.This is the first major bombardment since an air attack on Kyiv left at least 21 people dead last month.Kyiv bears the brunt of the attackTymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Administration, confirmed Sunday’s casualties via Telegram and said 10 others were wounded in the attack that targeted civilian areas across the city. A 12-year-old girl was among the dead. Thick black smoke could be seen rising from a blast near the city center.“The Russians have restarted the child death counter,” Tkachenko wrote on Telegram.Russia fired a total of 595 exploding drones and decoys and 48 missiles, Ukraine’s air force said Sunday. Of those, air defenses shot down or jammed 566 drones and 45 missiles.Besides Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the bombardment targeted the regions of Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi, Sumy, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv, and Odesa. Zelenskyy wrote on X that at least 40 people were wounded across the country. Later, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry stated the number of the wounded rose to 70, with over a hundred civilian objects damaged.Zaporizhzhia’s regional head, Ivan Fedorov, said three children were among the 27 wounded in the region, adding that over two dozen buildings were damaged in the capital that bears the same name.“This vile attack came virtually (at) the close of UN General Assembly week, and this is exactly how Russia declares its true position. Moscow wants to keep fighting and killing, and it deserves the toughest pressure from the world,” Zelenskyy wrote.Speaking at the U.N. General Assembly, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov insisted to world leaders Saturday that his nation doesn’t intend to attack Europe but will mount a “decisive response” to any aggression.Residents shakenThe strikes that began overnight and continued after dawn on Sunday also targeted residential buildings, civilian infrastructure, a medical facility and a kindergarten, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, who also said damage was reported at more than 20 locations across the capital.At Kyiv’s central train station, passengers arrived to the crackle of anti-aircraft gunfire and the low buzz of attack drones. Mostly women, they waited quietly in a platform underpass until the air raid alert ended. Parents checked the news on their phones while children played online games.“The sky has turned black again,” said one woman at the station, who gave only her first name, Erika. “It’s happening a lot.”Ilona Kovalenko, a 38-year-old resident of a five-story building struck in Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district, told The Associated Press she woke up because of the explosion, which shattered windows.“A neighbor kept knocking on our door. She was completely covered in blood and shouting, ‘help, save my daughter,’” said Kovalenko, who fled the building with her grandmother after the strike.Oleksandra, the neighbor’s daughter, was the 12-year-old killed in the attack.“Sadly, she died on the spot,” Kovalenko said. “We are in shock, to be honest.”Another multi-story residential building was heavily damaged by the attack. Emergency services personnel used power saws to clear the debris. Piles of glass littered nearby sidewalks as building residents, some looking shaken, sat on benches.Russian officials did not immediately comment on the attacks.Polish military responses triggeredThe assault also triggered military responses in neighboring Poland, where fighter jets were deployed early Sunday morning as Russia struck targets in western Ukraine, according to the Polish armed forces.Polish military officials characterized these defensive measures as “preventative.”International concerns have mounted recently that the fighting could spread beyond Ukraine’s borders as European countries rebuked Russia for what they said were provocations. The incidents have included Russian drones landing on Polish soil and Russian fighter aircraft entering Estonian airspace.Russia denied its planes entered Estonian airspace and said none of its drones targeted Poland.The latest bombardment follows President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s announcement Saturday of what he called a “mega deal” for weapons purchases from the United States. The $90 billion package includes both the major arms agreement and a separate “drone deal” for Ukrainian-made drones that the U.S. will purchase directly.Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down 41 Ukrainian drones overnight into Sunday. Morton reported from London.

    KYIV —

    Russia unleashed a barrage of drones and missiles on Ukraine overnight into Sunday, killing at least four people, with the capital city of Kyiv suffering the heaviest assault.

    This is the first major bombardment since an air attack on Kyiv left at least 21 people dead last month.

    Kyiv bears the brunt of the attack

    Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Administration, confirmed Sunday’s casualties via Telegram and said 10 others were wounded in the attack that targeted civilian areas across the city. A 12-year-old girl was among the dead. Thick black smoke could be seen rising from a blast near the city center.

    “The Russians have restarted the child death counter,” Tkachenko wrote on Telegram.

    Russia fired a total of 595 exploding drones and decoys and 48 missiles, Ukraine’s air force said Sunday. Of those, air defenses shot down or jammed 566 drones and 45 missiles.

    Besides Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the bombardment targeted the regions of Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi, Sumy, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv, and Odesa. Zelenskyy wrote on X that at least 40 people were wounded across the country. Later, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry stated the number of the wounded rose to 70, with over a hundred civilian objects damaged.

    Zaporizhzhia’s regional head, Ivan Fedorov, said three children were among the 27 wounded in the region, adding that over two dozen buildings were damaged in the capital that bears the same name.

    “This vile attack came virtually (at) the close of UN General Assembly week, and this is exactly how Russia declares its true position. Moscow wants to keep fighting and killing, and it deserves the toughest pressure from the world,” Zelenskyy wrote.

    Speaking at the U.N. General Assembly, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov insisted to world leaders Saturday that his nation doesn’t intend to attack Europe but will mount a “decisive response” to any aggression.

    Residents shaken

    The strikes that began overnight and continued after dawn on Sunday also targeted residential buildings, civilian infrastructure, a medical facility and a kindergarten, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, who also said damage was reported at more than 20 locations across the capital.

    At Kyiv’s central train station, passengers arrived to the crackle of anti-aircraft gunfire and the low buzz of attack drones. Mostly women, they waited quietly in a platform underpass until the air raid alert ended. Parents checked the news on their phones while children played online games.

    “The sky has turned black again,” said one woman at the station, who gave only her first name, Erika. “It’s happening a lot.”

    Ilona Kovalenko, a 38-year-old resident of a five-story building struck in Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district, told The Associated Press she woke up because of the explosion, which shattered windows.

    “A neighbor kept knocking on our door. She was completely covered in blood and shouting, ‘help, save my daughter,’” said Kovalenko, who fled the building with her grandmother after the strike.

    Oleksandra, the neighbor’s daughter, was the 12-year-old killed in the attack.

    “Sadly, she died on the spot,” Kovalenko said. “We are in shock, to be honest.”

    Another multi-story residential building was heavily damaged by the attack. Emergency services personnel used power saws to clear the debris. Piles of glass littered nearby sidewalks as building residents, some looking shaken, sat on benches.

    Russian officials did not immediately comment on the attacks.

    Polish military responses triggered

    The assault also triggered military responses in neighboring Poland, where fighter jets were deployed early Sunday morning as Russia struck targets in western Ukraine, according to the Polish armed forces.

    Polish military officials characterized these defensive measures as “preventative.”

    International concerns have mounted recently that the fighting could spread beyond Ukraine’s borders as European countries rebuked Russia for what they said were provocations. The incidents have included Russian drones landing on Polish soil and Russian fighter aircraft entering Estonian airspace.

    Russia denied its planes entered Estonian airspace and said none of its drones targeted Poland.

    The latest bombardment follows President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s announcement Saturday of what he called a “mega deal” for weapons purchases from the United States. The $90 billion package includes both the major arms agreement and a separate “drone deal” for Ukrainian-made drones that the U.S. will purchase directly.

    Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down 41 Ukrainian drones overnight into Sunday.

    Morton reported from London.


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  • Mother cut her infant son’s neck to send him to ‘Jesus and God:’ DOJ

    Mother cut her infant son’s neck to send him to ‘Jesus and God:’ DOJ

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    A U.S. Army wife has been charged with murder after she killed her 11-month-old son at their home on a Georgia military base, saying she wanted to send the baby to “be with Jesus and God,” authorities said.

    April Evalyn Short, 30, of Fort Eisenhower, Georgia, has been charged by federal complaint with murder, with an aggravating circumstance of the alleged crime occurring during an act of child abuse, according to a statement by Jill E. Steinberg, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.

    Officials at Fort Eisenhower said in an online statement that the victim was the son of April Short and her husband, Staff Sergeant James Short. The couple’s two other children, ages 6 and 11, were home when their little brother was killed on Wednesday, authorities said.

    April Short used a knife to cut the neck of her 11-month-old baby, who was rushed to Eisenhower Army Medical Center but unable to be saved, according to Steinberg.

    April Evalyn Short, 30, of Fort Eisenhower, Georgia, is charged with murder after authorities said she cut her 11-month-old son’s neck, according to Jill E. Steinberg, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.
    Jefferson County Detention Center

    Newsweek reached out via phone on Saturday night to representatives for Fort Eisenhower and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for comment. It was unclear at the time of publication if April Short had an attorney who could speak on her behalf.

    Around 8 a.m. on Wednesday, James Short was on duty when he received a text message from his wife that caused him to become worried for the well-being of his children, according to the criminal complaint obtained by local media outlets The Augusta Press and WJBF.

    The concerning message made references to God and said, “The days of darkness are upon us,” prompting him to call his wife who did not pick up, the criminal complaint states.

    James Short returned home and found his wife barricaded in their primary bedroom with the baby and two other children. When he was unable to get into the adjoining primary bathroom, he called 911.

    Officers with the Military Police and Department of the Army Civilian Police (DACP) arrived and were able to coax April Short out of the house but as police tried to detain her, she initially attempted to flee, the court documents state.

    Authorities did not say if the two other children had suffered any injuries, but the criminal complaint states that April Short threatened to cut the 6-year-old girl if she didn’t stop crying.

    When April Short was apprehended, James Short realized that his wife did not have their infant son with her, according to the criminal complaint. Around 9 a.m., he found the baby boy wrapped in a plastic shower curtain in the bathroom where he was bleeding from apparent neck wounds.

    When FBI agents interviewed the older children, the 6-year-old said that her mother got knives and said she “was going to help” her little brother “be with Jesus and God.” April Short also told the children, “Don’t come into the bathroom because it might be really scary,” according to the court documents.

    During an interview with investigators, April Short admitted to wrapping the infant in a shower curtain inside the bathtub and using a knife to cut his neck, saying that she knew what she did was “wrong” and “evil.”

    While April Short made an initial court appearance on Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Brian K. Epps, she has not yet entered a plea, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

    She’s been ordered by the court to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

    “There is reasonable cause to believe [April Short] may suffer from a mental disease or defect rendering her mentally incompetent to the extent she is unable to understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings against her or to assist properly in her defense,” the court order states.

    April Short is currently in the custody of U.S. Marshals and is being held at Jefferson County Detention Center to await further proceedings.

    The case is being investigated by the Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division with assistance from the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Henry W. Syms Jr. and Patricia G. Rhodes.