Ralph Birdsong was sentenced to death by the State of Pennsylvania for the murders of two people. According to court documents Ralph Birdsong would shoot and kill two people and injure six more people during a drug related shooting inside of a Philadelphia home. Ralph Birdsong would flee to Florida however he was arrested two months later, convicted and sentenced to death
Ralph Birdsong 2021 Information
Parole Number: 6412M Age: 60 Date of Birth: 01/29/1961 Race/Ethnicity: BLACK Height: 5′ 11″ Gender: MALE Citizenship: USA Complexion: LIGHT Current Location: PHOENIX
Permanent Location: PHOENIX Committing County: PHILADELPHIA
Ralph Birdson More News
To the neighbors in the Davie trailer park where he lived, he was Edward Edmond, a standoffish man who paid his rent on time and kept to himself.
To CFT Construction, where he earned $8.50 an hour, he was Kenneth Cooper, a carpenter.
But to the FBI, he was Ralph Edward Birdsong, accused of killing two people and wounding six others in a drug-related Philadelphia shooting rampage.
Birdsong, who lived in Broward County for two months before he was arrested by the FBI, was ordered held without bail by a U.S. magistrate in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday. Magistrate Lurana Snow said that Birdsong should be turned over to state authorities, then extradited to Philadelphia to face charges.
Birdsong, 29, who was taken to federal court in shackles, wore gray sweat pants, work boots and a red shirt at the brief hearing.
He was arrested by the FBI on Monday, shortly after he returned from his job at CFT Construction. Birdsong said in court that he used a driver’s license- type card from Georgia as identification when he applied for the job.
CFT Construction officials could not be located for comment.
The arrest of Birdsong and his girlfriend, Jill St. Clair, 24, stunned Twin Lakes Travel Park residents, who said the two maintained a low profile and appeared to be just another young couple. They lived in a 1976 Winnebago at the park, and neighbors said both went to work daily.
Trailer park residents knew St. Clair as Mary Ann Edmond.
“They just came off the street,” the manager of the trailer park said. “When they first got here, they stayed one day, then left and went to the Keys, and then they came back and said they decided they wanted to stay on. He wasn’t mean looking or anything.
“They paid their $322 rent on time each month, and they were never, never a problem. He would come into the office every day to check his mail and pick up some milk or beer,” said the manager, who requested her name be withheld.
On Tuesday, St. Clair, who fled drug charges in Philadelphia, also was ordered held without bail by a federal magistrate. She was to be turned over to Pennsylvania authorities.
Irene Block, who lived next door to St. Clair and Birdsong, described the couple as “anti-social.”
“I said good morning to him twice. That was it,” Block said. “They never even came out for a cup of coffee.”
Birdsong is charged with killing the two people and attempting to kill another six in a Philadelphia house on July 17. Of the six people who survived the shooting spree, four were shot, one was severly beaten and another was beaten and raped, Philadelphia police said.
The shooting spree began, they said, when people in the house were freebasing cocaine and started a fire. The house was damaged and nine pounds of cocaine were destroyed.
“It’s the theory of the Philadelphia Police Department that this was (Birdsong’s) revenge” for the fire, FBI Agent Robert Risner testified in court.
In court testimony, Birdsong said he has four children and that he fully owns one house and several duplexes in Philadelphia. A federal public defender was appointed to represent him, however, because he said he has only about $200 in the bank.
Philadelphia police said authorities there have confiscated numerous cars and real estate from Birdsong.
The manager of Twin Lakes Travel Park said she suspected nothing when the two came to live there, but in the future will be more cautious.
“You can’t very well ask someone if they are wanted,” she said
Mauricio Eduardo Johnson just plead guilty to three counts of murder in a case that does not make a lot of sense. According to court documents Mauricio Eduardo Johnson was in bed with his sixteen year old girlfriend Shelly Autumn Mae Moon when her stepfather, Nikki Metcalf, walked into the room. Nikki attempted to throw Mauricio Eduardo Johnson out of the house however the teen killer responded by shooting and killing him and then killing Shelly Moon and her mother Margarett Moon. Mauricio Eduardo Johnson would plead guilty to three counts of murder and would be sentenced to 150 years to life in prison, however he is eligible for parole after 25 years.
Mauricio Eduardo Johnson 2023 Information
Mauricio Eduardo Johnson has yet to be transferred into the California Prison System
Mauricio Eduardo Johnson More News
A 19-year-old California man pleaded guilty to fatally shooting three people in the head, including a 16-year-old girl, after the girl’s stepfather caught the man and his stepdaughter getting intimate in her bedroom. Police said the man first shot the stepfather—who tried to throw him out—then killed the mother and the girl because he didn’t want to “have any witnesses.”
According to a press release from the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office, Mauricio Eduardo Johnson on Tuesday pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and admitted to three special allegations of using a firearm in the deaths of Nikki Metcalf and Margarett Moon, both 40, and 16-year-old Shelly Autumn Mae Moon.
County Superior Court Judge Timothy Canning sentenced Johnson to serve 150 years to life behind bars with an opportunity for parole after 25 years. The terms of the plea deal were first proposed by Johnson’s attorney, Andrea Sullivan and included dismissing the special allegations initially charged, the DA’s office said.
According to a search warrant affidavit obtained byMercury News, Shelly’s 13-year-old sister, identified in the document as Jane Doe-1, called the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Communications Center at 8:12 a.m. on Feb. 10 and told a dispatcher that “her mother, sister, and father were bleeding out” at their home on the Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria Reservation
In an interview with social workers, Jane Doe-1 reportedly said her older sister Shelly had some of her cousins and friends over on the evening of Feb. 9 and that the group engaged in underage drinking. Shelly’s mom reportedly caught the kids drinking at approximately 3 a.m. and was visibly upset. Most of the people left Shelly’s home soon after, but Johnson reportedly remained “with the permission of several of the minors in the home.”
Shortly after 4 a.m., Metcalf reportedly found Johnson and Shelly getting intimate in her room.
“The male subject [Johnson] was on top of [Shelly]. Nikki Metcalf hit the male,” the warrant reportedly states. “[Johnson] exited the room and walked into the living room pulling up his pants.”
Prosecutors said Johnson then grabbed a handgun from his backpack and shot Metcalf in the head, killing him.
A witness who reportedly spoke to Johnson after the shooting told investigators that “when the girl’s stepdad walked in, the stepfather started ‘getting tough’ with Mauricio Johnson so Mauricio Johnson pulled out his gun and shot him,” per the affidavit.
The sound of the gunshot reportedly woke Shelly’s mother, who came to her daughter’s bedroom to investigate.
“(Margarett Moon) walked into the room and Mauricio Johnson shot her. Mauricio Johnson then shot [Shelly] because he did not want to have any witnesses,” the warrant stated.
Prosecutors said Nikki and Shelly were pronounced dead at the scene while Margarett was taken to a local hospital and later pronounced braindead
Johnson then rushed home to get a vehicle and fled the state. He was picked up and arrested on Feb. 11 by troopers with the Utah Highway Patrol who spiked the tires of his SUV when he refused to pull over. He was later extradited to California to face the murder charges.
“Attorneys and victim advocates from the District Attorney’s Office spoke with many members of the victims’ families, friends, and additional members of the community,” the DA’s Office said in a statement. “Understandably, given the terrible harm done by the defendant, the people most affected by the murders expressed differing views on whether to accept the plea or proceed to trial.”
David Lynch was convicted of a double murder and sentenced to death by the State of North Carolina. According to court documents David Lynch would open fire on a group of people killing a twelve year old girl and her father while wounding five more people. No reason was given for why he opened fire. David Lynch would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
David Lynch 2021 Information
Offender Number:
0251740
Inmate Status:
ACTIVE
Gender:
MALE
Race:
WHITE
Ethnic Group:
UNKNOWN
Birth Date:
02/24/1960
Age:
61
Current Location:
CENTRAL PRISON
David Lynch More News
A loner who neighbors said regularly cursed at the children in his community was charged Monday with killing a 12-year-old girl and her father and wounding at least five other people in a morning-long siege.
David Clayton Lynch, 31, surrendered and was ordered held without bond in Gaston County Jail. A hearing was set for Tuesday.
In Lynch’s neat ranch house police found weapons in place at several windows and cases of ammunition. ″He’s got more guns than we had out here,″ Capt. Archie Huffstetler said.
Sporadic gunfire into the neighborhood of mostly single-family homes prevented rescuers from reaching some victims for several hours.
Anita Kiser, who lives across the street, said Lynch had a history of cursing, throwing rocks and ″generally terrorizing″ neighborhood children. ″He has never been a friendly neighbor,″ she told the Shelby Star during the ordeal. ″He is ugly to everyone.″
Lynch surrendered around midday, more than four hours after the siege began, said Ken Beach, assistant Gaston County police chief.
He was charged with first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, assaulting police and shooting into an empty vehicle.
Police said a minor traffic citation was their only record of Lynch.
Neighbors said India Anderson was shot to death while waiting for her school bus Monday morning in her yard across the street from Lynch. Her father, Bobby, was shot minutes later. Rescuers couldn’t get to either one until Lynch gave himself up.
The wounded included the girl’s mother, a father and son living next door to Lynch and two police officers.
″He’d been hollering at the kids and threatening to spit on them,″ said Donna Overman, 18, who lives in the area. Vivian Whitlock, whose back yard abuts the gunman’s property, said her granddaughter had just boarded the school bus when she heard gunfire. Ms. Whitlock said she fled by car with her 4-year-old grandson.
″I didn’t know what to do. I was scared to death,″ she said.
Before the standoff ended, the gunman fired four shots, apparently aiming at two helicopters circling overhead. Police were in one chopper, a television crew was in the other.
Warren Gregory was convicted and sentenced to death by the State of North Carolina for kidnapping, sexual assault and murder. According to court documents Warren Gregory and two other Marines were stationed at Camp LeJeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina. The three men went for a drive and came along the two victims and a man, Wesley Parrish, Bernadine Parrish, and Bobbie Jean Hartwig.
Warren Gregory would offer the group a ride however they refused. Warren Gregory would drive off however he would soon turn around and approached the group this time armed with a shotgun. Warren Gregory would fire his gun at the male and force the two females into the car. The women were brought to a remote location where they were sexually assaulted and murdered.
The State’s evidence tended to show that shortly after midnight on 24 August 1991, Wesley Parrish; his sister, Bernadine Parrish; and his girlfriend, Bobbie Jean Hartwig, were walking from where they lived in Grifton, North Carolina, to Ayden, North Carolina. The three lived in Grifton with Wesley’s mother, Geraldine, and Bernadine’s children. Wesley Parrish left a note for his mother telling her that the three had walked to Ayden to see an old boyfriend of Bernadine’s. Wesley and Bernadine were each carrying a beer, and Bernadine also was carrying a cigarette case containing an identification card and her driver’s license.
After walking several miles down Highway 11 towards Ayden, the three tried to catch a ride with a passing car. Three black men in a white four-door car stopped to pick them up.
The evidence tended to show that defendant and two friends, Kendrick Bradford and Richard Gonzales, were on their way from their barracks at Camp LeJeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina, to a club in Greenville, North Carolina. All three men had been drinking alcohol. Defendant, who was driving, passed by the victims, turned his car around, drove by them again, then turned his car around again, and stopped to pick up the victims. Wesley initially turned down the ride because he did not think everyone could fit in the car. The car drove off but stopped a short way down the road. Defendant got out of the car and called out to the victims that he would give them a ride anyway, and the three ran towards the car.
When they got to the car, Wesley noticed that the driver was holding a shotgun. Defendant told the victims to give him their money and their wallets. Wesley and Bernadine gave defendant their beer huggers, but Bobbie Jean did not have anything with her to give him. Defendant then ordered the victims to get into the backseat of the car with Bradford. Defendant ordered Wesley to walk away from the car and go into the woods. When Wesley reached the edge of the woods, defendant shot him three times with the shotgun. Defendant got into the car and drove away.
Wesley was able to crawl to the road and eventually flag down a passing motorist. He was transported to Pitt Memorial Hospital, where he remained for seven days before being released. At the hospital, doctors removed six inches of his small intestine, which was damaged as a result of the shooting.
Defendant drove the car into a field near Pitt Community College, where it got stuck in a ditch. The men tried to remove it from the ditch. Defendant ordered the two women to go into a wooded area and take off their clothes. Defendant then raped Bobbie Jean Hartwig, while Bradford raped Bernadine Parrish. Both defendant and Bradford were armed during this time. Defendant then pointed the shotgun at Gonzales and ordered him to rape Bobbie Jean Hartwig. Defendant kept the gun pointed at Gonzales during this rape, and then defendant raped Hartwig again. Defendant then raped Bernadine Parrish while Bradford raped Bobbie Jean Hartwig.
After defendant raped Bernadine Parrish, he tried to strangle her and snapped her head back sharply. Gonzales checked her for a pulse but could not find one. Bernadine Parrish then regained consciousness, *647 and defendant choked her and snapped her neck again. Bernadine Parrish lost control of her bodily functions and went silent. Defendant threw Bernadine’s body into a ditch. Gonzales asked defendant why he killed Bernadine Parrish, and defendant informed him that he choked her “so we would never have to go to prison.”
Defendant also tried to strangle Bobbie Jean and left her lying in the ditch. Defendant, Bradford, and Gonzales built a makeshift bridge out of ladders and a table top to get the car out of the ditch. They put the victims’ clothes under the tires for traction. While they were trying to get the car out of the ditch, the men heard a scream from one of the women, later identified as Bobbie Jean Hartwig. Defendant asked Bradford if “he was going to take care of business.” Bradford grabbed the pistol, but defendant told him not to take the pistol “because if you use the pistol you are going to have to shoot her three or four times.” Bradford then took the shotgun and shot Bobbie Jean Hartwig in the chest, getting blood on his clothes.
The men got the car out of the ditch and returned to Camp LeJeune. On the way back to Camp LeJeune, defendant was laughing; and someone made the comment, “What are we going to do to top this?” The next Monday, defendant approached Gonzales and threatened that if Gonzales ever “turned a trick” on Warren Gregory, Gonzales would be taken care of.
On 10 September 1991 the bodies of Bernadine Parrish and Bobbie Jean Hartwig were found by employees of Pitt County Community College in a ditch near a building site on campus. Both bodies were badly decomposed. Autopsies revealed that Bobbie Jean Hartwig died from a gunshot wound to the chest and Bernadine died from undetermined homicidal violence. The stage of decomposition was so advanced that it was impossible to tell from the physical evidence whether the women had been raped.
A liquor bottle found at the scene of the murders had been sold at an exchange store at Camp LeJeune. A key ring with five keys was dropped at the scene. This key ring was later identified as belonging to Bradford, who had to be let into his barracks room at Camp LeJeune the morning of 24 August 1991 because he was not in possession of his room key. Hair samples taken from the backseat of the car which defendant had been driving the night of the murders were consistent with the hair of Bobbie Jean Hartwig.
Agent Ronald Marrs with the State Bureau of Investigation determined that the shotgun wadding found at the scene where Wesley Parrish had been shot was consistent with the spent shells found at the murder scene. The twenty-nine lead pellets collected during the autopsy of Bobbie Jean Hartwig were the same type of shot that would be fired from the spent shells found at the scene where Wesley Parrish was shot.
The State’s evidence further tended to show that on 6 September 1991 Kendrick Bradford and Maurice Glover committed an armed robbery of a man who attempted to purchase drugs from them in downtown Greenville, North Carolina. Glover testified that while Warren Gregory was not a participant in the robbery, he saw defendant give the shotgun and pistol used in the robbery to Bradford. Defendant had hidden the shotgun in the ceiling in his barracks room at Camp LeJeune. Glover testified that defendant told him about committing the shooting of Wesley Parrish and the kidnapping, rape, and murder of both Bernadine Parrish and Bobbie Jean Hartwig.
On the night of 7 September 1991, Bradford and Warren Gregory were spending the night at a house in Jacksonville. Pursuant to a robbery investigation, the Jacksonville police obtained entry into the house and found a.25-caliber pistol and a 12-gauge shotgun. Evidence at trial tended to show that the shotgun shells that killed Bobbie Jean Hartwig were fired by the same class of shotgun as that retrieved at the time of defendant’s arrest.
While he was in Central Prison awaiting trial, Warren Gregory made a “fantasy confession” to Malik Shabazz, another inmate. In this “fantasy confession” defendant claimed that all of the information he gave Shabazz was merely fantasy and not true. In the statement defendant admitted shooting Wesley Parrish and leaving him for dead on the side *648 of the road. He confessed to having sex with both victims and then killing one by strangling her. He indicated that one of his friends shot the other woman and that the men returned to Camp LeJeune. Shabazz voluntarily came forward with this information because he had a sister who had been murdered under similar circumstances.
Warren Gregory put on no evidence during the guilt-innocence phase. At the close of all the evidence, defendant moved to have all the charges against him dismissed. The trial court denied this motion, and the jury found defendant guilty as charged on all counts.
Eugene Decastro was sentenced to death for a double murder that took place in 1992. According to court documents Eugene Decastro and brothers George and Chris Goode would stab to death a couple in a trailer park in North Carolina. All three men would be arrested and Eugene Decastro and George Goode would be convicted and sentenced to death. Chris Goode was sentenced to multiple life terms. George Goode would later be taken off of death row and resentenced to life in prison without parole.
Eugene Decastro 2021 Information
Offender Number:
0104984
Inmate Status:
ACTIVE
Probation/Parole/Post Release Status:
INACTIVE
Gender:
MALE
Race:
BLACK/AFRICAN AMERICAN
Ethnic Group:
UNKNOWN
Birth Date:
09/08/1964
Age:
57
Current Location:
CENTRAL PRISON
Eugene Decastro More News
: At approximately 5:20 p.m. on 29 February 1992, Eugene Decastro, George Goode, his brother Chris Goode, and Glenn Troublefield went for a ride together in George Goode’s automobile. In Smithfield they saw a man walking along the road, and George stopped the vehicle. Eugene Decastro, George, and Chris got out of the vehicle and assaulted and robbed the man. The three men then returned to the vehicle, and George drove away at a high speed. At this point Troublefield requested that he be taken home, but George refused.
George began playing “chicken” with other vehicles and eventually lost control of his vehicle and ran into a ditch. After freeing the vehicle, Eugene Decastro, George, and Chris went to a store and bought a bottle of wine. Troublefield again asked to be taken home. George’s reckless driving continued until he lost control of the vehicle again, stranding it in a ditch near the Dallas Mobile Home Park. After unsuccessfully attempting to remove the vehicle from the ditch, defendant, George, and Chris began walking toward the Dallas Mobile Home Park, where George and his wife rented a mobile home. Troublefield left the area.
About 6:35 p.m. a friend of George Goode’s wife saw George and several other men at the Goodes’ mobile home.
Earlier that day the owner of the Dallas Mobile Home Park, Leon Batten, had informed one of the Goodes’ neighbors that the Goodes’ mobile home was vacant and that he was seeking new tenants. Apparently, the Goodes had been delinquent in paying their rent. Between 6:30 and 7:30 p.m. this neighbor saw a strange man in the mobile home and went to inform Leon. Leon drove his truck to the Goodes’ mobile home. A few minutes later witnesses saw several black men standing over Leon in the Goodes’ yard, beating him. Some witnesses recalled seeing four men beating Leon, while others recalled seeing only three. A park resident drove to the Batten residence and informed Leon’s wife, Margaret, of the skirmish at the park, and Mrs. Batten drove to the Goodes’ mobile home. Other witnesses drove to the nearby home of a sheriff’s deputy and informed him of the trouble.
At approximately 7:30 p.m. a sheriff’s deputy arrived at the Goodes’ mobile home and saw three black males standing in the yard. At trial the deputy positively identified two of the men as defendant and George Goode. The men fled, and the deputy was unable to catch them. The deputy then discovered the bodies of Leon and Margaret Batten in the cargo bed of Leon’s truck. Multiple stab wounds were apparent on both victims, and neither victim had any vital signs.
Another deputy sheriff approaching the crime scene spotted George Goode two-tenths of a mile from the mobile home park, walking quickly away from the area. When taken into custody George was in possession of Leon’s wallet. Within an hour after George was taken into custody, his brother Chris Goode approached the crime scene asking for George. After noticing bloodstains on Chris’ clothes, officers placed him in custody and discovered Leon Batten’s partial dental plate in his pocket. Glenn Troublefield was picked up by a sheriff’s deputy as he walked down the road.
Investigators continued their search for a fourth suspect. At approximately 6:00 a.m. the next morning, investigators, with the aid of a State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) airplane equipped with an infrared tracking device, spotted Eugene Decastro walking along a dirt road in the area. Officials found defendant lying at the base of a tree, and he was then arrested.
Investigators later found three sets of human tracks leading from an area near the Goodes’ mobile home, which they were able to follow despite several gaps of up to two hundred yards. The tracks diverged, and *658 one set of tracks ended approximately fifty yards from where defendant was arrested.
A wine bottle was found in the passenger compartment of Leon’s truck. Defendant’s fingerprints matched one of two fingerprint lifts taken from the wine bottle. The inside portion of the truck tailgate was smeared with a blood-like substance and had a handprint impressed in it. The handprint matched defendant’s. In addition, blood taken from the camouflage jacket defendant was wearing when he was arrested was consistent with Leon’s blood.
An SBI agent and a sheriff’s detective testified regarding a statement made by Eugene Decastro while they were collecting defendant’s clothing at the jail. The officers took defendant’s clothing and told defendant to remove everything from his pockets and to place the items on a nearby bench. Defendant removed $13.00 from his pockets. After defendant had completely disrobed and the officers had collected all of his clothing, the detective asked the agent “if it was okay for [defendant] to keep the money.” The agent then turned back toward defendant and saw some money in defendant’s top pocket. Before the agent could say anything, defendant said, “I had some of my own money, too, now.”
The medical examiner who conducted the autopsies on both victims described the eight knife wounds to Margaret Batten’s head and neck and the fifteen stab wounds to her chest and abdomen as well as the numerous defensive wounds on the back of her hands. In addition to the external cuts, the autopsy revealed a variety of internal injuries, including six to seven broken ribs and cuts through the heart, lungs, esophagus, stomach, large intestine, spleen, kidney, and liver. Margaret died from the multiple stab wounds to her chest and abdomen. The medical examiner testified that Margaret did not die a quick and painless death because the wounds she suffered were not severe enough to be instantly fatal and that Margaret probably remained conscious during the five to ten minutes it took for her to die.
Regarding the autopsy of Leon Batten, the medical examiner testified that she observed several stab and puncture wounds on his body. The evidence also showed blunt trauma to the head and face, which could have resulted from traumatic blows with a human fist or kicking-type blows with a foot. Leon’s head and face were covered with abrasions, contusions, lacerations, bruises, and scrapes. In addition, Leon sustained several internal injuries, including broken ribs and puncture wounds of the chest. Leon also suffered damage to his hyoid bone, a horseshoe-shaped bone in the very uppermost part of the neck below the chin, which could have been caused by a severe blow to the neck with a human fist, a hard kick in the neck, or manual strangulation. Leon died as a result of a stab wound to the heart.
Eugene Decastro did not testify or offer any evidence during the guilt phase of the trial.
During the sentencing proceeding at defendant’s trial, the State offered testimony from the medical examiner regarding the painful nature of the victims’ deaths. The State also introduced evidence that in 1982, when defendant was seventeen years old, he was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and common law robbery. Defendant received a six-year sentence for these offenses.
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