Crime Time

Fort Worth police to step up teen curfew enforcement

Fort Worth police will step up their enforcement of the juvenile curfew ordinance now that students are out of school.

The curfew ordinance calls for residents 16 and under to be inside after 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday and after midnight on Friday and Saturday.

Exceptions will be made for youth coming home from church or school events, going to or from work or who are accompanied by a parent.

“Teen curfew enforcement reduces juvenile crime and opportunities for crime to occur,” said Lt. Paul Henderson, Fort Worth police.  “It is an extremely valuable tool and has helped keep our city and our families safe.”

The ordinance has been in force since 1994. Those found guilty of violating the ordinance can be fined $367. More juvenile curfew information is available on the Fort Worth Police Department’s web site at www.fortworthpd.com.

Driver in Dallas crashes twice, undresses, dies

In today's bizarre news item, The Dallas Morning News reports that a Carrollton driver crashed his car, climbed out and undressed, then crashed again, this time fatally.

 

Florida deputy accused of uploading video of her spanking naked children

The Polk County sheriff is apparently well-known in Florida for his crackdown on sexual predators, and now he's caught one of his own, according to The Orlando Sentinel.

Seems one of Sheriff Grady Judd's deputies is accused of shooting video with her cell phone as she strapped down naked young children and spanked them with sex toys.

Then she uploaded the video so her online boyfriend could watch. The boyfriend? She met him on a fetish website.

-- Kathy Vetter

Report: Crime rates down across Texas in 2010, but murders up in Arlington, Fort Worth

Crime rates in Texas were down in 2010. That’s the good news revealed this week by the Department of Public Safety’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

For the first time since 2000, the state saw decreases last year in the rates of seven index crimes analyzed in the UCR program:

* Murder decreased 9.4%

* Rape was down 9.2%

* Robbery plunged 14.9%

* Aggravated assault fell 4.9%

* Burglary dropped 5.9%

* Larceny/Theft decreased 4.9%

* Motor vehicle theft declined 12.3%

Also down in 2010 were the number of juvenile arrests (dropped 9.3 percent from 2009) and adult arrests (dropped 4.6%).

Locally, Arlington mirrored the statewide decline with the exception of murder, which rose from 12 slayings in 2009 to 16 in 2010.

(At right is Kimberly Carter, one of three people, including a police officer, killed in a domestic incident in Arlington at year's end.)

Fort Worth saw increases in the number of murders and aggravated assaults.

The state's full report, which includes crimes reported by smaller cities as well as those over 100,000 such as Fort Worth and Arlington, is below.

-- Deanna Boyd

Crime in Texas 2010 report

 

Accused killer of Dallas gang officer scheduled for trial this week

At least one member of the Dallas police gang unit will always be on hand this week during the trial of a man accused of fatally shooting Sr. Cpl. Norm Smith in 2009, The Dallas Morning News reports. 

Smith, 42, was killed while trying to serve a warrant at a drug house in Oak Cliff. His wife, Lt. Regina Smith worked for then-Police Chief David Kunkle at the time, which drew additional attention to the killing.

Charles Patrick Payne faces the death penalty in the trial, which is scheduled to begin Wednesday in Dallas.

-- Kathy Vetter

California carjacking suspect arrested after car ran out of gas

In another sign that gas prices have been rising through the roof, a man in California accused in a carjacking was arrested when he was found sitting in the car after it ran out of gas.

The Associated Press reports that Stephan Allen, 20, was found in the car about eight miles away from the scene of the carjacking in the parking lot of a pizza joint in Belmont.

A woman in the car was apparently waiting for her husband to come back with a pizza when she got out with her 5-year-old daughter.

Califnornia Highway Patrol troopers arrested Allen about two hours after the carjacking when the Civic went kaput on a highway overpass in nearby Burlingame, California.

Allen, who remains in the San Meteo County jail, has pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of carjacking.

-Chance Welch

Daughter of slain Fort Worth officer picks up the check for officers' dinner

Usually, police officers use the computer in their patrol cars to communicate with each other about their jobs.

On Monday night, three officers used it to share with colleagues an especially touching encounter.

“We were just in IHOP having dinner and getting ready to pay when our waitress told us that someone took care of our check,” the message read. “We asked her who so we could thank them and she pointed to a young girl who couldn’t have been more than 15 years old. When we left we stopped to talk to her. She introduced herself as KayLeigh Nava, Hank’s daughter. She thanked us with tears in her eyes for what we do. Just thought everybody should know that.”

Hank Nava died Dec. 1, 2005, two days after being shot during a gun battle inside a northwest Fort Worth trailer with an ex-convict wanted on a parole violation warrant.

- Deanna Boyd

Woman accused of trying to smother baby in hospital room among those on trial this week

If you don't see many judges, prosecutors or defense attorneys watching the golf tournament at Fort Worth's Colonial Country Club this week, there's a good chance you'll find them in the courtroom.

There are several interesting trials under way at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center.

In state District Judge Scott Wisch’s court, a jury is deciding the fate of a teenage mother accused of trying to smother her 4-month-old baby in a Fort Worth hospital room.

Police have said that Shantaniqua Scott, 18, tried to kill her baby “because she wanted to make her life easier.”

On the fifth floor, in state District Judge Louis Sturns' court, jurors are hearing a cold-case capital murder trial. In that trial, Marcus Lee Bell, 55, is accused of raping and strangling Ruel Evonne Brown, who was found dead in May 1997 in a vacant house in east Fort Worth.

Bell was arrested in 2009 after, police say, DNA linked him to the 12-year-old slaying.

And in state District Judge Mike Thomas' eighth-floor courtroom, Jairo Hernandez, 25, a Honduran national, is accused of sexually abusing his girlfriend’s daughter.

Officials have said the allegations were made after the woman awoke to find her boyfriend hiding in her 13-year-old daughter’s closet. On Wednesday, jurors convicted Hernandez of the crime and later sentenced him to 40 years in prison.

So, if the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial isn’t your thing, remember that there's plenty of action inside Tarrant County's courtrooms, which are open to the public, air-conditioned -- and free.

And check back here later in the week and we might have some updates for you.

-- Melody McDonald

Man who struck and killed Granbury woman with monster truck outside Dallas strip club indicted

A Dallas man who struck and killed a Granbury woman outside the Spearmint Rhino in Dallas in the early morning hours of March 17 has been indicted.

Eric Brent Crutchfield, 27, was behind the wheel of a 2003 For F-250 that was pulling out of its parking space when it ran over Kasey McKenzie, 23, walking out of the club with some friends after a party. She died at the scene.

Crutchfield was arrested on suspicion of intoxication manslaughter and his alcohol level was revealed to be twice the legal limit.

The Dallas Morning News reports that Crutchfield was indicted sometime in April on a second-degree felony manslaughter charge. (The story is behind a paywall, so you have to be a subscriber to the DMN to see the full story.)

This is not the same charge for which he was arrested but the Dallas Morning News report stated that it carries the same level of punishment.

Since the McKenzie's death, her family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit claiming that the club was negligent in serving Crutchfield too much alcohol. Crutchfield is also named as a defendent in the suit.

-Chance Welch

Illinois man faces federal charges after allegedly trying to open passenger plane door

An Illinois man faces federal charges of interfering with a flight crew after he allegedly tried to open the door of a passenger jet to kill himself.

The Associated Press reports that Reynel Alcaide, 34, was on a Continental Airlines flight from Houston to Chicago on May 8 when he allegedly tried to open the jet's door.

Alcaide was subdued and the flight was diverted to St. Louis, Missouri.

Prosecutors in the case said that Alcaide had tried to kill himself before.

-Chance Welch