Missouri
Man convicted in wife’s death pleads guilty to child abuse
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man convicted of killing his wife, burying her body and lying to authorities about her whereabouts pleaded guilty Tuesday to child abuse charges involving the couple’s young daughter.
Joseph Elledge had originally pleaded not guilty to child abuse, child endangerment and domestic assault, KMIZ-TV reported.
Elledge, 26, was convicted in November of killing his 28-year-old wife, Mengqi Ji, a Chinese woman he married while they were studying at the University of Missouri. He was sentenced in January to 28 years in prison.
A judge sentenced Elledge Tuesday to 10 more years on the child abuse charges, which he must serve after he completes his sentence on the murder charge. He will be given credit for the two years he has already served.
Boone County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Knight said as part of the plea agreement, the state will not charge Elledge with more felonies related to his wife’s death, such as abandonment of a corpse and tampering with evidence.
And prosecutors will not be allowed to charge Elledge with anything else if an appeal in his murder case is approved. Elledge’s lawyers filed an appeal of his murder conviction in January.
Elledge was charged with child abuse in October 2019, shortly after he reported his wife missing. In the probable cause statement supporting the charges, detectives said Elledge struck the toddler on the buttocks hard enough to cause severe bruising. Investigators found pictures and videos of the bruising on an iPad, according to the document.
Murder charges weren’t filed against Elledge until February 2020. His wife’s body was found in March 2021.
During the murder trial, Knight sought a first-degree murder conviction, calling Elledge a “stone cold killer.”
He said Elledge hid his wife’s body in the trunk of his car on Oct. 8, 2019, and didn’t call authorities for two days, after he had driven — with their child in the car — to Rock Bridge State Park about 5 miles (8 kilometers) south of Columbia and buried her.
Elledge’s attorneys argued that Ji’s death was accidental, saying she slipped and hit her head after he pushed her during an argument. Elledge admitted during testimony that he had buried his wife’s body because he panicked after he found her dead in bed and needed time to decide what to do.
Ji earned a master’s degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from the University of Missouri in December 2014. Elledge was a student at the university when his wife died.
Florida
Jury: Ex-cheerleader guilty in killings of 3 women
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A former criminal justice major and college cheerleader was convicted in the killings of three Florida women who were working prostitutes more than 15 years ago.
Jurors deliberated more than eight hours before returning the guilty verdict against Robert Hayes, who was linked by DNA evidence to the three victims after another killing in Palm Beach County, where he had been working as a chef until his arrest in 2019.
Hayes, 39, showed no reaction as the clerk read the jury’s verdict Tuesday evening, The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported. Prosecutors will seek the death penalty during the sentencing phase beginning next week.
Hayes graduated in 2006 from Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach. The victims were found slain in the city his senior year.
The body of Laquetta Gunther, 45, was found in a gap between an auto parts store and a mostly empty utility building around Christmas 2005. Julie Green, 34, was found Jan. 14, 2006, on a dirt road at a construction site. The body of 35-year-old Iwana Patton was found that Feb. 24 along a dirt road. All were nude, lying face down, shot in the head.
The deaths caused widespread panic among sex workers in the Daytona Beach area, resulting in some of them working with investigators to memorize license plates and vehicle descriptions.
Hayes also is accused in the killing of Rachel Bey, 32, a prostitute whose body was found, strangled and with her jaw and teeth broken, on March 7, 2016, near Jupiter in Palm Beach County. It took three more years before investigators said DNA recovered from all four killings led them to arrest Hayes at his home in West Palm Beach.
Years earlier, authorities investigating the Daytona Beach killings questioned Hayes twice, but didn’t arrest him, as they looked into everyone in the area who had recently purchased a .40-caliber handgun similar to the one used against the first three victims, the newspaper reported. Police said he bought the gun in 2005, shortly before the first victim was killed.
Missouri
Man pleads guilty to charges in 4-year-old’s death
WARSAW, Mo. (AP) — A man accused of participating in the killing of a 4-year-old Missouri girl in what law enforcement theorized was a religious act has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
Ethan Mast, 36, entered the plea Tuesday, admitting to his role in the death of Jessica Mast, television station KYTV reported.
The 4-year-old girl was found dead at her parents’ rural Benton County home on Dec. 20, 2020. Investigators said the girl had been severely beaten with a belt and dunked in an icy pond as part of what appeared to be a “religious-type episode,” Benton County Sheriff Eric Knox said.
Knox has said a 2-year-old child in the home also had been beaten, as had the girl’s parents. An infant son of the couple was unharmed. The surviving children were removed from the home after Jessica Mast’s death.
Three others are charged in her death, including the girl’s parents, James Mast and Mary Mast. Knox has said James Mast told investigators he and his wife observed the beating of their daughter but were told they would be beaten or shot if they tried to intervene.
Investigators said Ethan Mast and Kourtney Aumen were neighbors who carried out the attack. Officials have said Ethan Mast is not related to Jessica Mast.
All four were charged last year with first-degree murder. Prosecutors later amended the charge against Aumen to second-degree murder.
Ethan Mast faces up to life in prison when he’s sentenced at a later date.
Benton County, with about 19,000 residents, is 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Kansas City, Missouri.
California
Man guilty in 1980 killing of 79-year-old woman
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A New Mexico man was convicted Tuesday and raping and killing a 79-year-old woman in Southern California more than four decades ago.
Andre Lepere, 64, was convicted of first-degree murder with a sentencing enhancement because the crime was committed during a rape, the Orange County Register reported. He could face life in prison without the possibility of parole when he is sentenced next month.
Lepere was 22 years old and living in Southern California in 1980 when a neighbor of Viola Hagenkord discovered her body in her Anaheim apartment bedroom. There were signs of a struggle, authorities said.
Hagenkord had been sexually assaulted, had broken ribs and was gagged with a pillowcase that caused her to asphyxiate, prosecutors said.
Semen was collected in a rape kit, but DNA testing was in its infancy. The case went cold but last year, the evidence was reexamined and advanced testing last year tied Lepere to the DNA.
At his trial, Lepere testified that he had consensual sex with Hagenkord and denied attacking her — a claim that the prosecutor called ridiculous.
Deputy District Attorney Christopher Alex told jurors that Hagenkord, who was born in 1900, swore off men after divorcing her husband before the Great Depression, the Register reported.
Lepere later left California and lived in several places, including Washington, Wyoming and Arizona, before he was arrested last year in New Mexico.
Pennsylvania
Charges dismissed against former police officer brothers
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Philadelphia judge dismissed assault and other charges Tuesday against two former city police officers who are brothers, stemming from an off-duty encounter in which they allegedly injured a man they mistakenly thought was breaking into cars.
Prosecutors said James Smith, 53, and Patrick Smith, 54, physically confronted a 27-year-old pedestrian with Asperger’s syndrome in a shopping center parking lot in August 2020, leaving him with multiple injuries. The brothers allegedly lied about being part of a town watch.
Municipal Court Judge William Austin Meehan Jr. dismissed all charges against the two ex-cops, citing a lack of evidence.
Attorney Fortunato Perri, Jr., who represents James Smith and whose firm also represents Patrick Smith, said in a statement Tuesday that the charges were dismissed because prosecutors failed to prove a crime was committed. He said both men looked forward to continuing their careers in law enforcement, but it was unclear if either planned to challenge the disciplinary actions related to the charges and seek a return to their jobs.
Patrick Smith retired from the Philadelphia department shortly after the internal affairs investigation began and later went to work as an agent for the gun violence task force run by the district attorney’s office and the attorney general’s office. He was put on administrative duty with pay for the duration of the case.
Philadelphia Police said David Smith was suspended for 30 days with the department’s intention to fire him shortly after the charges were announced.
In a statement Tuesday, District Attorney Larry Krasner said there’s “a disturbing pattern” of judges dismissing charges against police officers during preliminary hearings.
Judges initially dismissed charges against two of the Philadelphia officers accused of excessive physical force during May 2020 protests following the murder by police of George Floyd in Minneapolis. In both those cases, prosecutors appealed to have the charges reinstated.
Krasner said Tuesday his office planned to pursue “all possible avenues for seeking justice” regarding the cases against Patrick and James Smith.
West Virginia
Man convicted of manslaughter in child’s death
RIPLEY, W.Va. (AP) — A West Virginia man has been convicted in the death of his young daughter.
A Jackson County jury found Jeffrey Hoskins of Ripley guilty Tuesday of involuntary manslaughter, child abuse by a parent causing death and strangulation, news outlets reported.
Hoskins could face a year on the manslaughter charge, one to five years for strangulation and 15 years to life for the abuse count. No sentencing date has been set.
Jurors heard closing arguments Tuesday morning. Prosecutors were seeking a conviction on a first-degree murder charge, but defense lawyer Mark Plants argued Hoskins was guilty only of involuntary manslaughter.
Hoskins was indicted in January 2020 after the girl died, more than a year after she was hospitalized for her injuries.
