Vallejo police offer reward in slaying of man, pregnant woman

Vallejo police announced a $10,000 reward Tuesday for information on last month's slayings of a Vallejo couple and the couple's unborn twins. "They have to be caught. They have to be found and punished to the fullest. ... They don't deserve to be walking around on this earth freely. They don't have that right," said Felecia Johnson, whose son Dashoun Ramon Jones, 31, and his fiancée Ashley Shari Mills, 28, were gunned down Sept. 6 in the 100 block of Atherton Street. Mills was six months pregnant with twins -- a boy and a girl -- when she was killed. They would have been born in December. "We're following up on every lead we have ... but we need more leads," Vallejo Police Lt. Jim O'Connell said Tuesday as he was flanked Ashley Mills, 28 (Lanz Christian Ba es) by members of Jones' and Mills' families at a press conference. Family members took turns describing the night of the shootings. Many appeared on the small Atherton Street block that night as word spread of the deaths. Jones' sister Ashley Johnson, 17, recalled getting a call from her father that her mother had been hospitalized after fainting in front of the crime scene. Then her father told her that Jones was "gone." "I didn't know what he meant by that. ... I was just screaming and crying and begging for it not to be true," the teenager said. Meanwhile, Mills' parents received their phone call as they drove on Interstate 80 toward their daughter's home. "She's a beautiful person. I miss her," father Wilson Mills said of his daughter, who was studying psychology at Solano Community College. While Mills doesn't believe in the death penalty, he hopes the person or people who killed his daughter and her family have a "miserable life in jail." "I know sooner or later, down in my heart, the police department will apprehend these people," Mills said. Two black men wearing hoodies were seen by witnesses running from the scene after shots were fired, police said. "These two people were targeted Deshoun Jones, 28 (Lanz Christian Banes / Times-Herald) in this crime. Very specifically they were targeted," O'Connell said. Family members said they don't know why the couple was attacked. Jones and Mills left behind three children. Jones' 12-year-old daughter is staying with her mother, while the Mills are caring for Ashley Mills' 8-year-old son and the 2-year-old son she and Jones had together. The reward money is being funded by the city. The quadruple homicide has been hard on the officers working the case as well, O'Connell said. "We're human. We have families ourselves. I have twins myself," O'Connell said. O'Connell declined to give too many specifics on the case, citing a sensitive investigation. Jones' mother appealed to the community to help quell the violence in Vallejo. "We all need to reach out to each other. The youth need to stop the killing. We need to come together as a community," Johnson said. Anyone with information on the case can call the Vallejo Police Department at 1 (800) 488-9383. Contact Lanz Christian Bañes at (707) 553-6833 or lbanes@timesheraldonline.com. Follow him on Twitter @LanzTimesH.

Dallas County DA to seek death penalty for man charged in slaying of teen he was accused of raping

Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins said this afternoon that he will seek a death sentence for a man charged with capital murder in the slaying of a 16-year-old girl he was accused of raping, according to a news release. Police say that in early September, Franklin Davis, who was indicted today, posed as another person on Facebook to make contact with Shania Gray, a sophomore at Hebron High in Carrollton. Gray was expected to testify against Davis, 30, at an upcoming trial. Davis was under indictment for four counts of sexual assault on Sept. 6 when he “took” Gray from her school to Sam Houston Trail Park in Irving, according to a news release from the DA’s office. Gray’s body was found two days later at the Elm Fork of the Trinity River. Gray was shot and strangled. Testimony is scheduled to begin April 15 before State District Judge Mike Snipes. Although trial dates often change. Prosecutors Russell Wilson, Brandon Birmingham and Jennifer Bennett are trying the case. Davis is represented by Karo Johnson, Phillip Hayes and Brady Wyatt, court records show

Dallas County death penalty trial underway for man accused of killing girlfriend and her teenage daughter

Dallas County First Assistant District Attorney Heath Harris told jurors in opening arguments that they should have no difficulty convicting Tyrone Cade of capital murder. “This case is not a complex mystery,” he said. Harris told jurors that Cade killed Mischell Fuller, 37, and her 18-year-old daughter, Desaree Hoskins because Cade was jealous. He had recorded Fuller having an intimate conversation on Skype with her exhusband, Carlton Hoskins, and was angry. Cade, Harris said, was a “wannabee ladies man.” Cade could “turn on the charm in the blink of an eye, turn on the tears in the blink of eye,” Harris said. “But he could also turn on the aggression in the blink of an eye.” Harris told jurors that the defense planned to prove Cade was not guilty by reason of insanity, meaning the defense believes Cade had a mental disease or defect at the time of the slayings that cause him not to know the difference between right and wrong. Defense attorneys Lalon “Clipper” Peale, John Tatum and Richard Franklin delayed making an opening statement, so no further details were provided to jurors before a lunch break. Irving Police Officer Aaron Shook testified that Cade turned himself in at the police station, saying that “he had killed a couple of people.” Shook told jurors that he grabbed a knife to question Fuller but then she screamed for her daughter and started kicking. He then stabbed them both to death. Shook said that Cade handed over three cell phones and one of them appeared to have blood on it. On a recording of 911 call made from the lobby of the police station before talking to officers, Cade appears to be crying as he says, “I killed two people … Yeah, I killed them … I stabbed them to death.” Cade says on the 911 call: “I just snapped.” He said that he wishes he could get the death penalty. He said he also tried to kill himself but he was “too punkish” to go through with it. Fuller’s mother, Elena Belcher, tearfully testified about her daughter and granddaughter, struggling to maintain her composure on the witness stand. She began sobbing when prosecutors showed her photos of her daughter and granddaughter. Belcher told jurors that her daughter was afraid of Cade because he threatened to burn the house down with her in it after Fuller asked Cade to move out. Fuller had wanted Cade to leave for some time after finding out he was a registered sex offender, according to testimony. About a week before their deaths, Fuller and her daughter went to Florida where they went to Disney World and saw Fuller’s ex-husband, who also the father of her children, according to testimony. Original post, 6:22 a.m.: This morning, a Dallas County jury will begin hearing testimony in the capital murder case of Tyrone Cade, who is accused of killing his girlfriend and her teenage daughter. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Cade, a registered sex offender, turned himself in to police at the Irving police department after the March 2011 stabbing deaths of Mischell Fuller, 37, and her 18-year-old daughter, Desaree Hoskins. “I killed some people,” he told officers. Fuller and Hoskins, were found dead about in the one-story home the three shared in the 1400 block of Ronne Drive, near Shady Grove Road and MacArthur Boulevard, police said. Irving police have said that Cade confronted Fuller about their relationship earlier in the day Sunday and that the argument escalated. Cade then took out a knife and attacked Fuller and Hoskins, police said.

Mother Sentenced in Daughter's Murder

Elizabeth Holloway, 9, once told her sister she thought she was going to die A woman who admitted to punching her 9-year-old daughter in the stomach and causing the child's death, was sentenced to prison Tuesday. Crystal Cardenas entered a guilty plea last month to second-degree murder in the death of her daughter Elizabeth Holloway. In January 2011, Holloway was rushed to the hospital after she was found not breathing and with a fixed look in her eyes at a Mountain View home. As the investigation unfolded, prosecutors shared a painful story of the abuse suffered by Holloway over 17 months after the child moved from the custody of her father in Los Angeles to live with her mother in San Diego. At various times, Holloway was strangled, punched, kicked, burned and thrown to the ground prosecutors said. In her final days, Holloway suffered a bruised pancreas from a punch in the stomach the medical examiner confirmed. She then suffered a slow and painful death over the next day according to investigators. “Elizabeth vomited a few times over these days. She described not being able to feel her legs and she told her 7-year-old half-sister that she thought she was going to die,” prosecutor Lindsey Krause said at a pre-trial hearing in February 2011. In court Tuesday, Cardenas was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.

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Man methodically strangled FOUR children to stop them testifying against him after he murdered their mother... then stacked their bodies in a bathtub

An Oklahoma man has pleaded guilty in the strangling deaths of his ex-girlfriend and her four young children. Joshua Durcho, 29, avoided the death penalty by his guilty plea on five counts of first-degree murder, entered on Friday in El Reno, Oklahoma, for the brutal slayings of his 25-year-old former lover and her family. Durcho had strangled Rust and then killed her children because he feared they could testify against him. He then stacked the children's bodies in a bathtub partially filled with water in Rust's apartment. Brutal: Summer Rust and her children - 3-year-old Evynn Garas, 4-year-old Teagin Rust and 7-year-old daughters Kirsten and Autumn Rust - were killed in the family's El Reno, Oklahoma apartment in January 2009 Durcho was charged with first-degree murder for the January 2009 strangling deaths of Rust, 25, and her children - 3-year-old Evynn Garas, 4-year-old Teagin Rust and 7-year-old daughters Kirsten and Autumn Rust. Prosecutors said Durcho also sexually abused the 7-year-old girls. Rust was killed after an argument with Durcho because she threatened to call police on him when he refused to leave her apartment. After he killed the mom, he feared the children could serve as witnesses against him, so he methodically killed the little ones and left their bodies in the apartment, where they were discovered on January 12, 2009. The victims' family appeared in court on Friday to hear the plea and offer their forgiveness to Durcho. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole, a deal that family members agreed to. 'The death penalty wouldn't have made me feel any better than him being locked up forever,' said Rhonda Rust, stepmother of Summer Rust, the woman who was killed. Crystal Franklin, the grandmother of 3-year-old Evynn, said the plea brings 'closure to part of my life. But I have the rest of my life to remember this terrible tragedy.' 'I never got to hear what she wanted to be when she grew up,' the grieving grandmother added. In court, Franklin spoke directly to Durcho, who was weeping and had trouble standing at times. 'I do forgive you and may God be with you,' she said. One of Durcho's defense attorneys, John Echols, said Durcho met with family members privately before the hearing. He said Durcho apologized to them, but said he does not remember much of what happened the day of the killings. He told police that on that fateful January night in 2009, he had blacked out with his hands around Rust's neck. 'Everyone in the victims' families felt this was a better resolution,' Echols said. Jury selection for Durcho's trial had been set to begin Monday and prosecutors had sought the death penalty. Last month, Dr. Shawn Roberson, a forensic psychologist with the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, testified that Durcho's mental functioning was 'at the low borderline range.' Nonetheless, a judge rejected claims that Durcho is mentally disabled and ineligible for the death penalty. Oklahoma law bars death sentences if a defendant meets the state definition of mental retardation, which includes an IQ of 70 or below and 'significant limitations in adaptive functioning,' the real-life communications, self-care and work and social skills people need to live independently and function safely and appropriately. In addition, the onset of mental retardation must occur before the age of 18. Roberson said Durcho has been administered four IQ tests since he was 11 years old and scored between 72 and 78 on the tests. The most recent tests were administered in 2009 and 2010, and Durcho scored 72 on both.