National Roundup

New Jersey
Man gets 18 years in beating death of man dumped with mattress

JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in the beating death of another man whose body was found under a mattress weighted down by cinder blocks.

Mark Browne, of Newark, was sentenced Thursday after he was earlier found guilty of reckless manslaughter in the 2012 death of 24-year-old Darryl Williams. Browne was found not guilty of murder and aggravated manslaughter charges.

He had faced up to a decade in prison on the reckless manslaughter conviction, The Jersey Journal reported, but qualified for an extended sentence of up to 20 years because of his criminal history.

“I turned my head,” Browne said in a statement. “I should have done more.”

Browne, 46, was among six people involved in what authorities described as torture. Williams was gagged, taped, hooded, bound with electrical cord and shot with a BB gun inside a Newark apartment, prosecutors said. He also was beaten with a table leg and another object before he was driven away and thrown on the ground on the mattress behind a North Bergen gas station.

“It is probably, in my years as an attorney and a judge, the most horrific conduct I have ever seen put on another human being,” Hudson County Superior Court Judge John Young told Browne.

Daeshawn Jennings was sentenced to 18 years in state prison for aggravated manslaughter in the killing. Kathleen Jones also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a dozen years in prison.

Qudeera Adams, Nydia Mozee, and Latoya Mozee, all of Newark, were also charged in Williams’ death.

Adams, who awaits trial, testified that Browne said he was going to knock Williams out and “teach him not to hit girls.”

Latoya Mozee pleaded guilty to endangering an injured victim and Nydia Mozee pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, according to the transcripts of the plea hearings.

Wisconsin
Lawyers want confession in Slender Man case thrown out

WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) — The lawyers for a Wisconsin girl accused of trying to kill a classmate to please a fictional horror character called Slender Man are challenging her confession.

Fifteen-year-old Anissa Weier and 14-year-old Morgan Geyser have pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease to attempted homicide charges in adult court. Both girls were 12 when prosecutors say they stabbed classmate Payton Leutner 19 times in a Waukesha park in 2014.

Weier’s lawyers say she was too young to understand her Miranda rights to remain silent and to have an attorney present.

During the hearing Thursday, William Weier testified he never discussed Miranda rights with his daughter. Anthony Jurek, a forensic psychologist, testified Weier didn’t have an adequate understanding of Miranda rights.

A judge will rule in February.

New York
Police: Man killed girlfriend,  then called 911

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — Authorities say a New York man killed his Canadian girlfriend by beating her with a brick and strangling her in a hotel room, then called police to report the slaying.

Police in Syracuse say 38-year-old David Schmidinger called 911 around 11 a.m. Thurs­day from a street in the city, told a dispatcher he had killed his girlfriend and was waiting for police.

Police Chief Frank Fowler says when officers arrived, Schmidinger directed them to the nearby Hampton Inn, where police found the body of 44-year-old Michelle Paterson, of Brampton, Ontario. Police say she was visiting Schmidinger and had arrived in Syracuse Tuesday.

Police say Schmidinger, from nearby Baldwinsville, had a long off-and-on-again relationship with Paterson.

Schmidinger pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder Friday. A judge granted his lawyer’s request for psychiatric evaluations for Schmidinger.

Washington
Inmate: Marshals left before sex assault in cell

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Washington D.C. inmate identified by authorities as the victim of a sex assault in a court holding cell says three U.S. marshals left the area shortly before the incident.

In an interview with The Washington Post through the D.C. jail’s video visitation system, the 27-year-old man recounted his experience in the D.C. Superior Court cell. Court papers say security cameras captured part of the 12-minute attack. The Associated Press generally doesn’t identify victims of sexual attacks.

“This happened in what is supposed to be one of the safest places. In the courthouse. Where marshals are supposed to protect everyone. Just steps away from a judge,” the inmate said. “You would think you would be safer there.”

The man said he heard one marshal say, “It’s lunchtime,” shortly before the three left and he didn’t see or hear any other marshals. Officials from the U.S. Marshals Service and the court declined to comment on what happened on Veterans Day as the inmates waited to be taken back to the D.C. jail. The Marshals Service also would not discuss the staffing at the time, or how often marshals are required to check on inmates.

The inmate, who is accused of attacking a man with a box cutter at a liquor store, was at court that day for a judge-ordered psychological evaluation following his arrest last month. After a hearing, he was ushered into a holding cell. Jerome Holliway, 36, who had been arrested for violating his parole in a previous simple assault and obstruction of justice case, was already in the cell, according to court records.

Holliway asked the younger inmate several times why he was arrested, but he ignored the questions. After Holliway told him “I need to make sure you’re not a cop,” the younger inmate said Holliway threw him to the floor, then dragged him across the floor by the shackles around his ankles to a small area behind a metal divider where the toilet is located. Holliway choked, punched and bit him and then sexually assaulted him.

“He almost killed me. I thought I was going to die. I tried to fight back,” the man said. “I tried to scream for help. I was panicked,” he said. He said his assailant repeatedly told him to “shut up.”

When marshals arrived five minutes after the attack ended they found the naked inmate curled into a fetal position with his orange jumpsuit around his ankles, according to court documents. Holliway, fully clothed, was sitting on a bench. Holliway told authorities the sex was consensual, according to the documents.

The younger inmate fell unconscious during the attack and was hospitalized for two days, he said. The assault left him physically and emotionally scarred.
Holliway is charged with first-degree sexual abuse. A spokes­woman for the D.C. Public Defender Service, which represents Holliway, declined to comment.