Crime Time

Two arrested in restaurant robbery also suspected in other Fort Worth heists

Two masked men ran from the back of a restaurant early Thursday in southwest Fort Worth, gripping cash from the business and a gun, but police were there to intercept them.

The two men match the descriptions of robberies in more than a dozen similar robberies, police said in a news release.

Officers, at about 7 a.m., responded to a commercial hold up alarm at the Braum's Restaurant in the 7200 block of South Hulen Street.

"Upon arrival, officers observed two suspects fleeing from the rear of the restaurant," according to a news release from Fort Worth police.

There was a foot chase, but suspects Shaquille Hunte (above) and Kamron McGruder (left), both 19 of Fort Worth, were arrested.

Both men face charges of aggravated robbery, according to police reports.

"Detectives are investigating 14 similar robberies and additional charges are pending in those offenses," police said in the news release.

-- Bill Miller
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Businessman with shotgun peppers two suspected burglars in Grand Prairie

On Wednesday, we reported that a man was shot in the left leg as he ran from a would-be carjacker at a Grand Prairie apartment complex.

Gunfire sounded again Thursday in Grand Prairie when a business owner found two men outside his building.

He told police the two men were breaking into his vehicle, so he opened fire with a shotgun, sending both to the hospital.

The incident was reported 6:33 a.m. Thursday in the 2300 block of Fort Worth Street on the city’s northwest side. The area is southwest of the intersection of Interstate 30 and the President George Bush Turnpike.

"The first officers to arrive found two subjects that had gunshot wounds near a burglarized vehicle," said Detective Lyle Gensler, police spokesman, in a news release. "Those two suspects were immediately transported to Dallas Methodist Hospital with what appeared to be non-life-threatening injuries.

Gensler said the business owner said he had heard noises outside; he grabbed a shotgun and went to investigate.

"(He) walked outside to discover that his vehicle was being broken into," Gensler said.

That’s when he opened fire.

"The shooting, as well as the burglary, are currently still under investigation," Gensler said.

-- Bill Miller

 

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/02/27/4649413/dfw-briefs-man-is-shot-during.html#storylink=cpy

Man arrested outside Fort Worth school jailed for false ID, disorderly conduct

A man arrested Wednesday afternoon near a south Fort Worth elementary school after he was observed near the campus in a car outfitted with police gear has been identified as Geronimo Molina of Fort Worth, police and jail reports state.

Molina, 44, was still in the Manfield Jail Thursday night with bail set at $6,587.

Officer Sharron Neal, police spokeswoman, said the man would be charged with disorderly conduct for exposing himself in the car.

He also faces a charge of failure to identify (fugitive intent to give false information) in the incident. In addition, there was an arrest warrant on him for suspicion of assault causing bodily injury/family member and two other traffic warrants out of Arlington.

And jail records showed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement requested that a hold be placed on him because he is suspected of being in the U.S. illegally.

Officers were called at 3 p.m. to Hubbard Heights Elementary School, 1333 Spurgeon St., to investigate a report of a suspicious person. Police caught the man watching children from a black Ford Crown Victoria, similar to those used by police, officers said in their report.

The car was equipped with a video camera on a mirror and police lights on back. The vehicle had been "parked at (the) school for the past three days," the report states.

Authorities impounded the 2004 Ford Crown Victoria.

-- Bill Miller and Domingo Ramirez Jr.

Your Blotter: Jail cell hanging; intoxication manslaughter; trouble with lasers

Again, no shortage of crime news today in Fort Worth. Check out these headlines on the Crime and Safety Page on Star-Telegram.com.

Man found hanging in Bedford jail dies

The unidentified 31-year-old man had been arrested Thursday morning on warrants in Dallas and Tarrant counties.

Fort Worth man found guilty of intoxication manslaughter in crash that killed two friends

Arturo DeLaHoya faces a maximum 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine on each count.

Dallas man pleads guilty to pointing laser at helicopter

Kenneth Santodomingo, 22, entered his plea in a Dallas federal courtroom Thursday morning. He was arrest Jan. 28.

-- Compiled from the works of Mitch Mitchell, Domingo Ramirez Jr. and Bill Miller.

Autopsy results show how Fort Worth woman was strangled, beaten, raped

A Fort Worth woman found slain inside her Fort Worth apartment in December 2011 had been strangled with so much pressure "that it damaged everything all the way back to her spine."

That was the testimony Thursday by the doctor who performed the autopsy on Jo Beth Marchand.

Dr. Marc Krouse was testifying in the capital murder trial of the accused killer, James Wesley Brooks Jackson.

He also said Marchand suffered blunt trauma to the head, and there was evidence of her being sexually assaulted.

More details are in this report from Deanna Boyd.

Fort Worth man on trial for murder, rape of mentally challenged woman

Friends who looked out for Jo Beth Marchand described her as slightly mentally challenged but able to live on her own. When her mother died, they helped get an apartment, which she proudly kept tidy.

But in December 2011 they were alarmed when they couldn't reach her, so an apartment manager opened the apartment for them.

They found he body under a blanket, naked from the waste down.

These accounts marked the first day of testimony in the capital murder trial of James Wesley Brooks Jackson, accused of strangling Marchand in the course of sexually assaulting her and burglarizing her home.

The defendant was already known to police.

He was scheduled to go on trial on Nov. 14, 2011 on charges of robbery and attempted aggravated sexual assault but, on that day, charges were dismissed because the victim in the case, who had a history of mental illness, was in the hospital and was not competent to testify.

Deanna Boyd is covering the trial. Read her first-day report here.

-- Bill Miller

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/02/27/4648168/i-expected-she-was-dead-but-you.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/02/27/4648168/i-expected-she-was-dead-but-you.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/02/27/4648168/i-expected-she-was-dead-but-you.html#storylink=cpy

Guards accused in scheme to supply South Texas inmates with cell phones, smokes, dope

Guards at a South Texas prison are among those accused in a scheme that supplied inmates with illegal cellphones, tobacco and drugs.

The scheme was traced back to at least January 2005 and involved bribes of as much as $1,400 at a prison in Beeville, about 85 miles south of San Antonio, federal investigators allege.

Read the full report from The Associated Press.

-- Bill Miller

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/02/26/4646388/federal-indictment-names-32-in.html#storylink=cpy

Unfit for print: Man hurt in car wreck had nasty words written on him, police say

Here's a weird one: A motorist with serious injuries for a single-car wreck Tuesday night had derogatory words written on his body.

The man was hurt shortly after 11:30 p.m. Tuesday on Interstate 35W.

As for the writing on the man's body, "You would not be able to put the words in print or say them on TV," said police Sgt. Kelly Peel in an email on Wednesday.

Domingo Ramirez Jr. has the story.

-- Bill Miller

 

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/02/27/4647816/man-in-crash-had-derogatory-words.html#storylink=omni_popular#storylink=cpy

'Heroes' mandatory for police cadets; public invited to viewing Saturday

In the news business, we sometimes hear from people complaining about police misdeeds or arrogance. When cops get arrested we report those stories, so we know some police have faults.

But there is one facet of police work that some people tend to forget.

That is, there are few jobs in which a wife, for example, has in the back of her mind the possibility that her husband may not come home alive.

This reality is evident in Heroes Behind the Badge, a 90-minute documentary about cops hurt or killed on duty. It has become mandatory for all Texas police academy classes.

It's first Dallas/Fort Worth screening is Saturday at Harvest Church in Watauga, and the public is invited.

"Not even the most cynical cop or the most callused civilian can walk away without being moved by these stories," the film's producer said.

See a promo for the film (below), but also read a report about it by Domingo Ramirez Jr.

-- Bill Miller

 

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/02/27/4647541/documentary-honors-officers-who.html#storylink=cpy

 

DFW Scanner: 'Breaking the News Before the News'

The crackly drone of scanner traffic pulls at the imagination.

In an instant, the business-as-usual monotone voices of dispatchers can become wild cries of firefighters or officers shouting "flames showing" or "shots fired."

Jeff Hooper has been a scanner fan for 25 years, but the most memorable event he monitored happened the evening of Jan. 10, when firefighters in Haltom City pulled a woman and her three grandchildren, including an infant, from a house fire.

Hooper said that the firefighters' voices were muffled by their face masks, but that their distress was clear, even over the scanner, as they brought out each victim. All four victims died.

"I will never forget that," Hooper said.

Hooper is among a half dozen contributors to the "DFW Scanner" network, which includes a WordPress blog, Twitter and Facebook accounts and an app for Apple's iOS and Google's Android platforms.

It was created in 2010 by then-high school student John Burgdorf of Arlington. As of Friday, the network had more than 62,258 "likes" on Facebook and almost 15,000 Twitter followers.

Bill Miller's article tells more about how Burgdorf and company are "Breaking the News Before the News."

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/02/26/4646488/scanning-north-texas-for-news.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/02/26/4646488/scanning-north-texas-for-news.html#storylink=cpy

 

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/02/26/4646488/scanning-north-texas-for-news.html#storylink=cpy