Woman Condemned

When soft, gentle soul Carol Kennedy met Steve DeMocker it was love at first site and the pair dubbed each other soul mates. Their two children, Katie and Charlotte soon followed and life was good. The pair made a wonderful couple for years, working together and building a substantial fortune. Steve was talented, charismatic, charming and conniving, He was such a successful businessman that he always managed to get his own way. He used his charming personality in all areas of his life and it wasn't long before Steven started having extramarital affairs, one after the other. Year after year, Carol would make excuses and cover up his embarrassing affairs but when he began to spend all their money as fast as they could spend it and was quickly running through their savings, she began to speak up. She filed for a divorce which left her financially bereft but feeling powerful and hopeful. Immediately after the divorce, Steven began to flirt with Carol again who was sti...

In the last century, only 40 women have received the death penalty in America — 14 since 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. In total, 1,343 prisoners have faced execution since then. Business Insider looked into the stories of the 14 women on death row since the mid-'70s, many of whom killed their lovers. 1.) Velma Barfield, a drug addict from North Carolina, forged her boyfriend's checks to fund her habit. Fearing he might find out about a $300 forged check, she poisoned his beer, the Associated Press reported. As the first woman sentenced to die in 22 years, Barfield eventually confessed to killing three others, including her own mother, The New York Times reported. She died by lethal injection in 1984. 2.) Karla Faye Tucker and an accomplice wanted to end three days of drug-induced shenanigans by stealing a motorcycle. So they killed the owner of the bike and his friend with a pickax in 1983, CNN reported. Sentenced to die for her crimes, Tuck...

For more than a decade police have been trying to put away the people responsible for the kidnapping, rape and murder of 15 year old Brenda Sierra. She was on her way to school one morning, taking a detour to a friends where she could catch a ride to Schurr High School in Montebello. Brenda was killed in 2002, all along authorities knew it was somehow gang related. Earlier in the year Brenda's mother and brother had witnessed a gang murder and testified against local gang members in court. Investigators believe the gang wanted to retaliate against the family and send a message to the neighborhood to show them what happens when you cooperate with the authorities. Brenda was 15 when two male gang members and a female gang member Rosemary Chavira also 15, abducted her from the intersection of Whittier Boulevard and Leonard Avenue, taken to a "gang hangout" and repeatedly sexually assaulted. When the rape and assault was through, they took her to an abandoned lot and blu...

This case is a cluster-fuck if I've ever heard of one. A love triangle gone wrong, mixed with a hate-filled father-daughter relationship and a gullible 18 year old boy comprise the major players in this twisted Shakespearean tragedy. Ann Anastasi, 42, and her husband, Anthony J. Anastasi Jr., 40, had both been carrying on a romantic relationship with Jacqueline Riggs, 25, according to police. Ann and Anthony's 18-year marriage was laden with conflict and domestic abuse, police said. Ann Anastasi recently had a falling out with both her husband and Riggs, who had moved into the basement of the family home. Many long term marriages have tried adding a third person to their marriage and it rarely works out. It seems like a great idea to add excitement and lust back into a marriage gone stale over the years. Ann recruited her 13 year old daughter and her 18 year old boyfriend, Gabriel Ezekiel Struss and the trio set about designing a plan to kill Anthony and Jacqueline. On O...

A teen convicted of murdering her father and trying to kill her mother in a knife attack at their St. Clair County home says she regrets everything and blames her actions on a “bad temper.” Tia Skinner, who is now 19-years-old, spoke to the Times Herald of Port Huron from the confines of the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti, where she’s been locked up since the Nov. 2010 attack. It was the first time the young woman has spoken out since her arrest. Skinner, Jonathan Kurtz and James Preston were convicted last year of first-degree murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to murder. Paul Skinner, 47, chased the masked assailants from the home before he collapsed and died from stab wounds. Mara, his wife, was critically injured after suffering more than 25 knife wounds inflicted by Kurtz and Preston. Police say Tia Skinner planned the murder because she was angry at her parents for taking away her cell phone and for forbidding her to see Kurtz, who was her ...

Dusti Byers lived in a trailer park in Orland, California with her dad Daniel Byers, 55, and her sister, Jennifer Byers, 16. Police say they were called out repeatedly for a variety of domestic issues and child neglect, abuse and abandonment. One night in July of 2015, she gunned down her dad and her sister and then shot herself in the head. At approximately 3 a.m. on July 5th, police received a call about an active shooter in the area of  710 Mill St. in Paradise. Police arrived on the scene to find the sister and father dead of gunshot wounds to the head. Dusti was found elsewhere on the property. Authorities say it was obvious she had shot herself. and it looked like some sort of family fight had taken place earlier. Dusti was taken to the hospital for a few days and then on to jail in Glen County. During her first court appearance her attorney showed concern about her mental state so the court ordered her to be evaluated. She was deemed to be able to appear in c...

Boston University’s Master of Criminal Justice online program

Linda Weston LINDA ANN WESTON, the alleged ringleader of a "family" of violent con artists accused of holding disabled people captive in a Tacony basement to bilk them out of their Social Security checks, was charged federally Wednesday and may face the death penalty, authorities announced. Weston, 52, looking confused and wearing a dark sweat suit, stumbled into court Wednesday to hear the charges against her, which are contained in a 196-count indictment. She is charged with two murders, two counts of sex trafficking, forced human labor and multiple counts of fraud, kidnapping, racketeering and several other offenses. Also in court were three of her four co-defendants - daughter Jean McIntosh, 33, boyfriend Gregory Thomas Sr., 49, and Eddie Wright, 52. Nicklaus Woodard, 26, was arrested Wednesday in West Palm Beach, Fla., and is being extradited, officials said. Weston's co-defendants were charged with many of the same crimes, but only she has been charged wit...

Michelle Byrom and I with the Snapped crew, her sister Renee and my assistant Michelle  Michelle Byrom, my bestie and a woman recently released from Mississippi death row, was recorded for an episode of Snapped on the Oxygen network. Michelle, her sister Renee and I were all interviewed on camera in a lawyers office in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. My assistant, Michelle, and I picked up the sisters at their brother's home in a Boro suburb and off we went to the lawyers office. It all started pretty quickly. I was amazed at how adept everyone was at their job. Michelle was very sure of herself and not nervous at all. I was so proud of her and so excited that she was finally able to let everyone know how Mississippi treated her. Someone should be held accountable for the terror she lived for those many years. I thought I would be nervous but I wasn't. They were so professional things seemed to just float by. Like having a conversation with a friend. I had to learn to rememb...