No Bond For Man Who Shot Daughter’s Boyfriend

10-16-2009 Florida:

APOPKA, Fla. -- An Apopka man accused of shooting a teen that he caught having sex with his stepdaughter will not be allowed to bond out of jail. Wade Edwards is facing second-degree attempted murder charges after he caught the couple in the act.

The family of 18-year-old Julian Harp knows he's lucky to be alive.

“He could have told him to get out of his house instead of shooting him,” Harp’s brother Dmeric Collier said.

Thursday night, Wade Edwards arrived home to an unpleasant surprise. His 16-year-old stepdaughter daughter and Harp were having sex inside the family's Apopka home.

According to a police report, Edwards walked in on the two having sex. He left the girl's bedroom and Harp quickly threw on his clothes fearing something bad might happen.

Edwards walked into the room again, this time armed with .45-caliber handgun. Harp asked Edwards not to shoot, but police said he fired four times as he left the house.

Then Wade called 911 to report what he'd done (911 call).

"I saw someone.. someone was inside my house... with my daughter and I shot him, I feared for my life," Edwards told the operator.

“Is she a juvenile or teenager?” the operator asked.

“Yes.” He replied.

“And you walked in on them and they were there and he scared you?” asked the operator.

“Yes. I feared for my life, I didn't know what to do,” he said.

“But your daughter knows this gentleman?” asked the operator.

"I don't know ma'am, I don't know," he said.

Harp was hit in lower back, buttocks and twice in his left leg. Harp walked across the street and collapsed. A passer-by helped him until rescue crews arrived.

“It didn't take that many times to let him know something. Shot him four times,” Harp’s aunt Gloria Windom said.

Police arrested the stepdad and charged him with attempted second-degree murder. An Orange County judge denied Edwards bond so he will stay in jail.

Edwards’ criminal past includes weapons and assault charges in Saint Croix.

Apopka parent Bill Goff told Eyewitness News what he'd do if he found his child in bed with someone else.

“I think I would have been irate. I may have been physical and thrown the person out, but I don't think I would have shot him,” Goff said.

Harp's aunt Gloria Windom agrees.

“He could have popped him beside the head and said, ‘Get off the girl,’” she said.

His relatives said Harp and the girl have been dating for over one year and it is the first known time there's been a confrontation involving the stepfather.

Sex between a 16-year-old and an 18-year-old is legal in the state of Florida.

By law, an adult under 24 can legally have sex with a minor no younger than 16. That law is called the “close in age exemption."

However, if the adult is 24 or older, then sex with a 16-year-old becomes a second-degree felony. ..Source.. by WFTV.com

Deputies: Man Beaten Severely Is Found Alive

10-20-2009 Arkansas:

In a THV update, a man who escaped from a Little Rock apartment Monday night, after allegedly being held against his will and beaten, has been found alive.

Dylan Bradford was found Tuesday morning, and police say he's doing ok, but very afraid. Deputies say Bradford and a woman were both at an apartment building when Bradford got into an argument with Floyd Aaron.

According to police reports, Aaron beat Bradford and threatened to inject him with bleach. Then, the woman told police, Aaron sexually assaulted her.

Again, Bradford reportedly escaped, and the woman was eventually released, according to the Pulaski County Sheriff's Office.

Aaron has been arrested and is facing a rape charge. Today's THV is told that more arrests could come. ..Source.. by THV.com

Beaten man accused of molesting Davie boy moves from hospital to jail

10-27-2009 Florida:

DAVIE - Luke Petruschke was so badly beaten after allegedly molesting a 3-year-old boy that when he was booked into jail this morning, he could only open one eye fully for his booking photo.

After spending the weekend in a hospital, Petruschke was released today and immediately arrested on a molestation charge. He is being held without bail at the Broward County Jail. So is the the father of the boy he is accused of fondling.

Petruschke's booking photo shows extensive bruising of the face from the right cheek to the forehead. Over the weekend, doctors at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood placed him in a medically induced coma after Davie police said two men nearly beat him to death with a concrete block.

Krish Carter and Manuel Vega launched the attack Saturday after Vega's son told his father that Petruschke had fondled him, police said. Now the two men each face one count each of attempted murder.

Carter and his wife, Dawn Dwyer-Carter, met Luke Petruschke at a homeless shelter earlier this year. They became good friends, she said, and introduced him to their new neighbor, Vega, at a barbecue on Labor Day.

Petruschke, 38, spent Friday night at Vega's home in the 5100 block of Davie Road after having dinner with the family, police said. The three men had planned to go fishing the next day.

The next morning, after the boy made his allegation, a witness reported seeing neighbors Vega, 27, and Krish Carter, 43, smash Petruschke's car windows with concrete blocks, drag him out and beat him, police said.

Court records show Petruschke has been arrested twice before on sex-related charges, but never convicted. ..Source.. by Rachel Hatzipanagos, Alexia Campbell and Jon Burstein South Florida Sun Sentinel

Accused child molester stabbed in jail

11-6-2009 California:

RANCHO CUCAMONGA • The man accused of running a phony fire explorer program to molest children was stabbed while in jail, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department officials said on Friday.

Robert William Tell, 39, of Apple Valley was in a day-room area at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga on Monday afternoon when another inmate — Jimmy Dale Kelley, 41, of Yucca Valley — assaulted and stabbed Tell with a home-made weapon, said Cindy Beavers, spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Department.

Deputies were quickly on scene and Tell was taken to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton.

Tell’s injuries were not life-threatening. ..Source.. by VV DailtPress.com