New Jersey
Life term imposed in murder of toddler and false kidnapping report
BRIDGETON, N.J. (AP) — A woman convicted of killing her toddler son four years ago and telling police he had been kidnapped before his remains were found buried in the yard of her New Jersey home has been sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.
Jurors in Cumberland County last month convicted 28-year-old Nakira Griner of Bridgeton of charges of first-degree murder, desecration of remains, evidence-tampering and false public alarm in the February 2019 death of 23-month-old Daniel Griner Jr.
Family members tearfully expressed their grief in last week’s sentencing hearing and a judge delivered a blistering assessment of her actions before imposing the life-without-parole term and concurrent terms for desecration and false public alarm, NJ.com reported.
Authorities said Griner initially told police in February 2019 that she had been attacked on the street and 23-month-old Daniel Griner Jr. had been abducted. An intensive search began but the child’s burnt remains were found the next day in the yard of her home, and an autopsy concluded that he had been beaten to death, authorities said.
Prosecutors said that Griner later told police that the child accidentally fell down a flight of stairs in the family home, but she said in phone calls from jail that she “did what she did to him” to cover up bruising on his body.
Defense attorney Jill Cohen acknowledged that her client dismembered and burned the child’s body but argued that prosecutors couldn’t prove she was directly responsible for his death and therefore could be convicted of nothing more than manslaughter. Cohen has said she intends to appeal the verdict.
Family members attending the sentencing hearing wore buttons bearing a picture of the happy little boy, and several addressed the court, calling the defendant selfish and uncaring. Griner didn’t look up and declined to speak when given the chance to address the court.
“He was my precious grandson … such a sweet child and you stole him away from me,” said Patricia Uhland, Daniel’s paternal grandmother. “You had no thought of how your actions would destroy our entire world. You’re a monster.”
“Our family has lost so much that we will never get back,” Daniel’s cousin, Gabrielle Nutt, said tearfully. “Strangers have wept for our Daniel, but not his own mother. Not one tear.”
Superior Court Judge George Gangloff Jr. called her crimes “beyond comprehension.”
“You shattered his skull into dozens of pieces, you fractured his ribs, then after his death you put his remains in an oven and cooked, baked or incinerated him,” Gangloff said. “Whatever verb you choose, they’re all equally horrible.”
He told the aspiring YouTube personality who posted about fashion and other topics that she knew one day she would get the attention that she wanted “but you didn’t think it was going to be like this.”
Ohio
Former neighbor sentenced in slayings of couple
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A former neighbor has been sentenced to decades in prison in the slayings of a couple during an attempted robbery at the victims’ home.
A Franklin County judge on Friday sentenced Kelly Dale Vokas, 43, to 37 years to life in the deaths of John Blanc, 77, and Susan Castore, 75, in October 2020, the Columbus Dispatch reported.
Vokas pleaded guilty in December to murder, involuntary manslaughter and aggravated burglary in an agreement with county prosecutors who withdrew other charges including two counts of aggravated murder. The sentence imposed by Judge Michael Holbrook was the maximum possible on the charges.
A sheriff’s deputy testifying at the sentencing hearing said authorities called to the Prairie Township home after a 911 hang-up call saw the defendant shoving items in her purse and then trying to flee out the back door. In her purse they found the victims’ ID cards, a checkbook and a bag of coins, he said.
Entering the home, deputies found Blanc unresponsive in the first-floor bathroom with six stab wounds to his head and neck and Castore unresponsive in the basement with stab wounds and a rope tied around her head, neck and body, he said.
Vokas, who cried throughout the hearing, apologized to the victims’ families, saying she was not in her “right state of mind.” Defense attorney Francisco Luttecke said his client had an abusive childhood and was dealing with mental health issues and using drugs.
Julie Blanc, John Blanc’s daughter, called the couple an inspiration who lived their lives helping others.
“How can a human being been so cruel and take such evil actions towards an elderly couple that at many times had showed you kindness,” she said through tears.
Missouri
Prosecutor to seek death penalty in killings of mother, son
A Missouri prosecutor plans to seek the death penalty against a man charged with fatally stabbing his girlfriend and her 13-year-old son in a New Year’s Eve 2020 attack that left two other children injured.
Greene County Prosecutor Dan Patterson said in a legal filing that he intends to prove that 31-year-old Brandon King killed to avoid arrest, that the crimes targeted potential witnesses and were particularly brutal. All are factors that would allow the case to qualify for the death penalty under Missouri law.
Court documents say King told police he killed 32-year-old Stephanie Plumb and her son, Dylan Moore, because he was planning to flee the state to avoid prosecution in a forgery case and wanted to eliminate potential witnesses, the Springfield News-Leader reports.
Besides facing two counts of first-degree murder, King also is charged with assault and child abuse because Plumb’s then 7- and 14-year-old daughters were stabbed but survived the attack in the family’s west Springfield home.
King’s court-appointed attorney James Hayes declined to comment Friday about the state’s recent filing. But he noted during the preliminary hearing in 2021 that King’s medication had changed on the day of the killings.
New York
Judge orders ex-jail union boss to be freed in bribery case
NEW YORK (AP) — A powerful New York jail union boss-turned-prison inmate is poised to go free less than halfway through his sentence in a corruption case, after a judge decided this week that the nearly five-year term should be reduced.
Norman Seabrook originally was sentenced to 58 months in prison on his federal conviction for taking bribes to put $20 million in union pension money into a risky hedge fund. The union lost $19 million.
But U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein said Seabrook’s sentence is now unfair — because a co-defendant appealed and got his own prison term reduced to just over a year.
“There is now an unjust disparity” between the defendants’ sentences, Hellerstein wrote in an opinion Thursday. Hellerstein himself originally sentenced both defendants.
Seabrook, 63, has served about 21 months. He remains in custody for now, as Hellerstein put the ruling on hold for 10 days while prosecutors decide whether to appeal.
Prosecutors declined to comment Saturday. A message was sent to Seabrook’s attorney.
As head of the New York City Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association for two decades, Seabrook became a political powerbroker and held huge influence over how the city’s Rikers Island jail complex operated. He made as much as $300,000 per year.
Prosecutors said he accepted a $60,000 kickback — delivered in a luxury Ferragamo handbag — in exchange for getting the union to invest in the hedge fund. Seabrook maintained that he did nothing wrong, and that the union simply made a bad investment.
After a 2017 mistrial, Seabrook wasconvicted the next year, though he ultimately didn’t have to report to prison until May 2021.
Meanwhile, co-defendant Murray Huberfeld, a principal in the hedge fund, pleaded guilty to arranging the payoff.
Hellerstein sentenced Huberfeld to 30 months, aiming for “approximate equivalence” between his and Seabrook’s punishment, as the judge explained in Thursday’s ruling.
Then Huberfeld successfully appealed his sentence, which was trimmed to 13 months.
In light of that development, Hellerstein concluded that releasing Seabrook now “reflects the seriousness of Seabrook’s crime and lack of timely acceptance of responsibility, while also remedying what would otherwise be an unjust sentencing disparity” between the defendants.
Colorado
DA drops felony charge against officer in train crash case
DENVER (AP) — Prosecutors have dismissed the most serious charge against a Colorado police officer who locked a handcuffed woman in a parked police car that was hit by a freight train, leaving her with serious injuries.
The Weld County District Attorney’s office dismissed the second-degree felony assault charge against Officer Jordan Steinke on Thursday, according to court documents. Steinke and another officer still face less serious charges in connection with the Sept. 16, 2022 incident.
The collision occurred after multiple law enforcement agencies responded to a report of a road rage incident in Fort Lupton, Colorado. A Platteville police officer stopped Yareni Rios’ car just past a set of railroad tracks and parked the patrol vehicle on the crossing. Another officer handcuffed Rios and placed her in the back of the police vehicle, which was hit by the train as officers were searching her car.
The 21-year-old Rios survived with serious injuries, and later filed a lawsuit accusing three officers of asking recklessly and failing in their duty to take care of her while she was in their custody. In the lawsuit, Rios alleges the train tracks were “plainly visible” to Steinke as she put Rios in the back seat of the patrol car belonging to Platteville Sgt. Pablo Vazquez.
Court records do not reveal why prosecutors dropped the assault charge against Steinke. Krista Henery, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office, said she could not comment because of pending litigation.
Steinke still faces other less serious charges in connection with the incident, including felony attempted reckless manslaughter and misdemeanor reckless endangerment. Steinke was placed on administrative leave after the collision and remains on leave, according to the police department.
Steinke’s attorney, Mallory Revel, said in a statement Friday that dismissing the assault charge was the “right thing” for the district attorney’s office to do, and contended the remaining charges should also be dismissed.
Vazquez is charged with five misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment and is scheduled for a pretrial conference in March. Vazquez was fired from the police department in December, Platteville police Chief Carl Dwyer said Friday. A phone number for Vazquez could not be found.
