Crime Time

Couple kept grandson, 9, imprisoned in closet, sheriff says

A couple in Arizona have been arrested on charges that they kept their 9-year-old grandson in a foul-smelling closet and rarely let him come out.

Pima County Sheriff's officials said the 48-pound boy did not go to school and could not read or write.

His 8-year-old brother also is in protective custody, but apparently he was allowed to go to school and lived a more normal life, officials said.

Arrested were Becky Lee Tortellet, 50, and Larry Alan Tortellet, 52.

-- Lance Murray

Woman offered 3 kids to man for sex, police say

A 33-year-old Katy woman has been arrested on charges that she arranged for a Missouri man to have sex with three young children.

The woman was arrested Wednesday after federal agents in Independence, Mo., said they discovered that she had arranged for Missouri resident Michael Stratton to visit Texas and engage in sex acts with the children, according to reports. The arrangements were made over the Internet, investigators said.

Police say they found child pornography on the woman's computers during a search of her home.

The woman faces one count of possession of child pornography and one count of performance of a child, officials said. Bail on each is $50,000.

-- Lance Murray

Jury gives 'Booger Red' life in Mineola Swinger's Club case

"Booger Red" gets life.

Patrick "Booger Red" Kelly was given that sentence Thursday in Tyler after he was convicted of forcing children as young as 5 to perform sex shows at the so-called Mineola Swinger's Club.

Jurors deliberated for about two hours before delivering their sentence.

-- Lance Murray

4 girls padlocked inside filthy, hot trailer; mother arrested

Here's another case of kids being locked inside a trailer home. What is going on?

Deputies arrested a mother in Canutillo, Texas, after four girls, including a 2-month-old daughter, were found padlocked inside the hot, filthy home. The stench of dirty diapers and garbage filled the home, deputies said. Canutillo is near El Paso.

"The children were sweating, the infant was crying, and the oldest one was 9 years old. She would not alone be old enough to take care of the 2-year-old, let alone (care for) the 2-month-old," said El Paso County sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jesse Tovar.

Arrested was Ivonne Adriana Vasquez, 28. She was arrested on four counts of abandoning and endangering a child. Vasquez is the mother of three of the girls, while the 9-year-old is a niece.

"She left them (the girls) in circumstances that would have exposed them to danger," Tovar told the El Paso Times.

-- Lance Murray

Grandma busted for driving with granddaughter on car roof

Grandparents usually love to play with their grandchildren, but police in Florida say this grandma went too far with her fun.

Police arrested the 54-year-old woman for driving around a grocery store parking lot with her 3-year-old granddaughter on the roof her car. She's facing child abuse charges.

The woman told police she'd never hurt her grandchildren, telling officers she was driving at "snail speed" and that she was holding on to the girl's leg. She wanted to give the child some air and some fun, the woman told officers.

She was released 15 hours after her arrest. Some fun, all right!

-- Lance Murray

Woman lets newborn drown in toilet, gets prison time

A Lakewood, Colo., woman was sentenced to 19 years in prison for giving birth in a toilet and then letting the baby drown, the Denver Post is reporting.

Cheri Kostur, 30, was sentenced under a plea agreement on a charge of child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury after a jury was deadlocked in June on a charge of child abuse resulting in death.

"I miss my daughter very much." Kostur told the court, the Post reported, "and if I could do it over, I would help her."

She also was sentenced for methamphetamine use, but jurors did not hear about Kostur's drug use before the birth.

-- Lance Murray

Dad arrested for slamming daughter's head into Roman monument

Police in Rome, Italy, have arrested a French tourist who they say repeatedly slammed the head of his 4-year-old daughter against the stone base of a Roman monument.

"He was like a furious beast," said Anna Esposito, a Rome police traffic officer who had confronted Julien Monnet, 37, moments earlier.

The girl is comatose in a Rome children's hospital. Police say Monnet struck his daughter's head against the base of towering Altar of the Nation, a monument to Italy's war victims.

The girl is in stable but very critical condition, a hospital spokesman said.

The father was arrested for investigation of causing grave injury. He is in Rome's Regina Coeli jail.

-- Lance Murray

Police rescue toddler from midst of vicious dog fight

It was a deadly double dose of Cujo, but luckily police in Friendswood, Texas, were able to rescue a 13-month-old girl trapped in a bedroom as two large dogs engaged in a vicious, bloody fight, the Houston Chronicle reported.

A couple was arrested on charges of child endangerment in the case, but police had not released their relationship to the toddler.

Police said when they arrived at the home in response to a neighbor's 911 call, they found blood in the kitchen and could hear a child crying. They found an American bulldog and a French bull mastiff engaged in mortal combat inside a bedroom with the baby trapped in her crib.

American bulldogs can weigh more than 100 pounds and bull mastiffs can exceed 140 pounds in weight.

One dog was Tasered and the other was hit with a bean bag projectile. One dog died at the house and other was seized by animal control officers. The dogs smashed a window during their ferocious battle.

The baby had blood on her but otherwise was not injured, police said.

-- Lance Murray

Police say couple nearly starved 2-year-old son

A couple in Holden, Mass., are facing charges because they nearly starved their 2-year-old son to death, officials said.

Kellie and Joshua Therialt face misdemeanor reckless endangerment charges, officials said.

Their son weighed just 17 pounds when police went to their house after an anonymous caller reported the boy had bruises on his face.

-- Lance Murray

Man duct-taped stepdaughter to tree, police say

Wise County sheriff David Walker said police were called after oil-field workers saw a man taping a young girl to a tree.

The Wise County man, Glenn Castille, has been arrested on suspicion of injury to a child, according to a statement from Walker.

Child Protective Services told the sheriff's department that they'd been to the house on a similar call before, according to the sheriff's statement.

The sheriff is expected to release more information about the case Wednesday.

--Andrew Chavez