March 2022 | Page 24 of 29 | My Crime Library

1 Dead 2 Injured In Shooting At East High School in Des Moines

One teenage boy is dead and two teenage girls are critically injured following a school shooting at East High School in Des Moines Iowa. According to reports a number of gunshots were heard outside of the East High School around 2:48 pm local time. Three students were critically injured with a teenage boy later dying at the hospital. Des Moines police say they have several people in custody who are being questioned regarding the East High School shooting however no charges have yet been filed. This story is still breaking.

East High School Shooting More News

Des Moines police said one person has died and two others hospitalized in a shooting outside of East High School on Monday afternoon that injured three people.

Police at the scene said there are “multiple shooting victims outside of the school.”

Three people, who appear to be teens, were hospitalized in critical condition, according to police. Police later said one victim was dead.

The shooting happened outside of the school but on school grounds just before 3 p.m. Police said the gunfire appears to have come from a passing vehicle.

The school was locked down Monday afternoon and residents were asked to stay clear. Streets around the school were shut down as well.

No other injuries have been reported and police said they do not believe there is a continued threat to the public.

Sgt. Paul Parizek said suspects have been detained in the case but no charges have been filed.

“We’ve got some potential suspects detained. That will be a piece that moves through the night that we’re going to have to be working on,” Parizek said. “The kids in that school are our community’s most precious cargo. So, the medics and the firefighters did an outstanding job getting up here. You know, it’s sad. We do train for this. We have to be prepared for it. And this is why.”

East High student Kaylie Shannon told KCCI she was outside of the school when she heard gunfire.

“I was just sitting in my friend’s car and then all of the sudden I heard 11 gunshots and some boys screaming,” Shannon said.

Des Moines police continue to investigate.

DMPS officers no longer in schools:

KCCI has been covering concerns over violence in Des Moines schools for much of this school year. This is the first school year since 1999 that the district has been without Des Moines police officers in schools.

Last year, the school board voted to end the school resource officer program. Members said the program disproportionately affected students of color.

Des Moines police said school resource officers are intended to build positive relationships with students.

https://www.kcci.com/article/shooting-reported-outside-des-moines-iowa-school/39359495#

East High School Shooting Other News

Six teenagers have been arrested on murder charges stemming from a drive-by shooting Monday outside a Des Moines, Iowa, high school that left a 15-year-old boy dead and critically injured two female students, police said on Tuesday.

The teenager who was fatally shot is believed to have been the intended target, the Des Moines Police Department said in a statement Tuesday.

Most of the suspects were arrested within an hour of the shooting and all were in custody in several hours, police said.

“While this incident occurred outside of a school, it could have occurred in any one of our neighborhoods. The school is where the suspects found their target,” police said in the statement.

The two wounded teenage girls remained in a hospital Tuesday with life-threatening injuries, police said.

The names of the suspects and the victims were not released.

In addition to first-degree murder, the suspects were charged with two counts each of attempted murder, authorities said.

Overnight, homicide detectives executed multiple residential and vehicle search warrants, and recovered multiple firearms, police said.

The shooting unfolded Monday afternoon outside East High School. The two injured girls were both students at the school, while the slain boy was not, police said.

The motive for the shooting remains under investigation.

“Unfortunately, what happened here … is just another pointless tragedy in our community, people using firearms to settle their differences,” Des Moines Police Chief Dana Wingert said Monday.

The high school was immediately on lockdown Monday afternoon, but Des Moines Public School District tweeted students were being dismissed on time after police and the school district gave an all-clear.

https://abc7news.com/6-teens-charged-with-murder-in-drive-by-shooting-outside-iowa-high-/11629856/

Jacob Wootton Sentenced In Death Of Son

Jacob Wootton has been sentenced to 52 years in prison for the death of his two year old son Ryder Wooton. According to court documents ambulance attendants went to the Wooton household after receiving a 911 call for an unresponsive child. Ryder Wooton would be rushed to the hospital however would die three days later. Jacob Wooton told police that the child had fallen in the bathtub and was unresponsive so he smacked him a couple of times and bit him on the face to revive him. An autopsy on Ryder Wooton reveal the cause of death as homicide caused by a blunt force trauma to the head. Jacob Wooton would be arrested along with his then wife Alyson Stephen and both would be charged with murder. Jacob Wooton be convicted of one count of neglect of a dependent resulting in death, and one count of being a habitual offender. Alyson Stephen has yet to go to trial.

Jacob Wooton More News

An Elwood man has entered a guilty plea to neglect of a dependent resulting in death, but he still faces a murder charge in the case.

Jacob Wootton, 29, pleaded guilty Monday in Madison Circuit Court Division 1 to the Level 1 felony charge in the 2019 death of 23-month-old Ryder Stephen.

Defense attorney Mark Nicholson said there is no plea agreement with the state on any charges, and that Wootton wants to plead guilty to the neglect charge and two misdemeanor charges of possession of marijuana and possession of paraphernalia.

Circuit Court 1 Judge Angela Warner Sims set sentencing on the guilty pleas for Feb. 18.

In a Nov. 30 email, Deputy Prosecutor Jesse Miller said Jacob Wootton could plead guilty to any of the charges, but there is no plea offer on the murder charge.

“My client can’t plead guilty to murder for something he didn’t do,” Nicholson said Monday.

He said he hoped that by pleading guilty to the neglect of a dependent, the state would dismiss the murder charge.

“There is no offer from the state,” Judge Sims reiterated.

She has not set a trial date for Jacob Wootton on the murder charge,

When Miller read the factual basis for the guilty plea on the neglect charge in court Monday, the cause of death was stated as multiple blunt force trauma.

Jacob Wootton denied the allegation of blunt force trauma, which is part of the murder charge.

Nicholson stated the child, Wootton’s stepson, died while in his client’s care. On Oct. 29, 2018, Wootton placed the boy in a bathtub. He left the bathroom, heard a noise and discovered the child had fallen.

Jacob Wooten testified that he was on drugs at the time and that if not for the drug use, he would not have left the child alone.

Miller said the coroner’s office determined the injuries Ryder suffered were not consistent with a fall.

When asked by Judge Sims, Wootton said Ryder suffered injuries before the fall.

Alyson Stephen, who was married to Wootton at the time, is charged with neglect of a dependent resulting in death. No trial date has been set for her.

The couple has since divorced.

Ryder was found unresponsive while in Wootton’s care, according to an affidavit of probable cause by Detective Ben Gosnell.

Alyson Stephen told police she put Ryder in the infant bathtub while she got ready for work and left him with Jacob Wootton when she went to work. She said she was at work when Ryder was taken to the hospital.

Elwood police officer Jerry Branson said the toddler was not breathing and was cold to the touch when he arrived at the residence.

Branson performed CPR on Ryder, who was taken to Ascension St. Vincent Mercy Hospital before being transported to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis.

Riley doctors pronounced the toddler dead three days later.

During Ryder’s autopsy, Dr. Chris Poulos, chief physical pathologist for the Marion County coroner, found multiple bruises on Ryder’s head and body, Detective Gosnell said in his affidavit.

https://www.heraldbulletin.com/news/local_news/elwood-man-pleads-guilty-to-neglect-of-a-dependent-resulting-in-death/article_8bb3b94e-61d7-11ec-b486-9f13bc092496.html

Jacob Wooton Other News

A Madison County judge has handed down a sentence in connection to the death of a toddler.

Jacob Wootton, 29, received a 52-year sentence after pleading guilty in December to charges of neglect of a dependent resulting in death and other various drug charges. An earlier murder charge against Wootton has been dismissed.

Jacob Wootton was 26 when his 2-year-old stepson died in his care in October of 2018.

Court documents show on October 26, 2018, Wootton told police he had forgot about the toddler in the tub. Wootton said he believed the boy had fell and hit his head while he was checking on two other kids in the house.

The child had multiple bruises on his body, and Wootton said at the time, he smacked the boy a few times and bit him on the face to try to get him to wake up. He also waited 20 minutes to call 911, according to prosecutors.

The toddler was pronounced dead at the hospital on Oct. 29. The coroner ruled the child died from blunt force trauma and also had a hemorrhage in an optic nerve.

During an interview with police, one of the boy’s siblings said, “Jake gives baths but also whoops us too.”

The boy’s mother, Alyson Stephen, was at work during the incident. She was also charged with neglect of a dependent resulting in death. No trial date has been set for her yet.

Stephen and Wootton have since divorced.

https://cbs4indy.com/indiana-news/man-sentenced-to-52-years-in-death-of-madison-county-toddler/

Jeannine Jaramillo Made Up Kidnapping Story In Fatal Crash

Jeannine Jaramillo is a woman from New Mexico who is in all sorts of trouble as she has been charged with two counts of murder following a police chase. According to police reports Jeannine Jaramillo would be involved in a police chase that started as an alleged kidnapping. The vehicle would wreck killing Santa Fe Police Officer Robert Duran, 43, and retired firefighter Frank Lovato, 62. Jeannine Jaramillo would tell police that she was being held hostage by her boyfriend who somehow escaped when the vehicle crashed. However when police reviewed security footage Jeannine Jaramillo was the only person in the car when it crashed. Jeannine Jaramillo now faces charges :

Two counts of First Degree Murder
Receiving or transferring a stolen motor vehicle
Aggravated fleeing a law enforcement officer
Tampering with evidence.

Jeannine Jaramillo More News

A New Mexico woman was arrested after authorities say she caused a crash that killed an officer and retired firefighter and then lied about having been kidnapped.

Jeannine Jaramillo, 46, faces charges including two counts of first-degree murder, authorities said in a news conference Saturday. After a pursuit, the Wednesday crash on Interstate 25 near Santa Fe killed Officer Robert Duran, 43, and Frank Lovato, 62. Lovato was a retired firefighter from the northern New Mexico city of Las Vegas who was driving a pickup truck and not involved with the pursuit.

Jaramillo had initially said she had been carjacked at knifepoint, according to authorities, and she was released after being treated at a hospital for injuries that were not life-threatening.

She was arrested Saturday, New Mexico State Police said, after evidence submitted to a lab Friday showed she was the sole driver of the stolen vehicle involved in the crash.

DNA found on the airbag belonged to Jaramillo and evidence showed there was only one person inside at the time of the crash, according to New Mexico State Police.

Search warrant affidavits filed to seek DNA and evidence from Jaramillo’s cellphone said a police officer saw a woman get out of Jaramillo’s car but no other person, news outlets reported Friday.

“She caused a senseless tragedy that has impacted the community of Santa Fe, Las Vegas, and all of New Mexico, and the pain her actions have caused will not be alleviated by this arrest alone. There will be lasting consequences,” New Mexico State Police Deputy Chief Carolyn Huynh said, KRQE-TV reports.

She also faces charges of reckless homicide by vehicle, receiving and transferring a stolen vehicle, and tampering with evidence, according to the Santa Fe District Attorney’s office.

“I believe the arrest of Jeannine Jaramillo has made our community safer,” said Tim Johnson, chief of the New Mexico State Police. “Her actions put the entire public in danger and took the lives of two dedicated public servants.”

Police had said after the crash they were searching for a suspect described by Jaramillo as a man she’d dated briefly and that he had abducted her from an apartment complex following an argument. But authorities said her story was “suspiciously similar” to her statement in a September 2021 case, when she reported that a man held her against her will with a knife to her neck and he hid on the floorboard.

She was charged at the time with receiving a stolen vehicle, aggravated fleeing and possession of methamphetamine, authorities said.

KOB-TV and other news outlets had reported that court documents said Jaramillo twice previously was involved in pursuits in Cibola County in September and October. She had told officers she had been carjacked but no other person was found.

Prosecutors dismissed both cases “pending further investigation.”

Jaramillo had told KOB-TV Friday that she was abducted, feared for her life and didn’t see the man get out of her crashed car because she blacked out briefly.

“I crawled out the driver side window, I fell to the ground and I looked up and there was the police, and I just ran for my life, and I was screaming, ‘help me,'” Jaramillo said. “I’m crying, I was hysterical, I was in shock.”

Jaramillo had said it was wrong to suggest she was alone in the car.

“I think people should understand that, when you are involved in a situation like that, I don’t think that it is right for them to say things that have their opinion, like that, until they are in a situation like that themselves,” Jaramillo said.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jeannine-jaramillo-arrested-deadly-crash-lied-kidnapping-new-mexico-police/

Ian Hasselwander Charged With Morgan Bates Murder

Ian Hasselwander has been charged with the murder of Morgan Bates. According to police records the body of Morgan Bates was found a week after she was reported missing, the twenty year old woman had been strangled and found in a State park. Shortly after Morgan Bates remains were found police would arrest Ian Hasselwander who has been charged with with second-degree murder, first-degree assault, first-degree strangulation, and concealment of a human corpse. Police are trying to determine whether or not Ian Hasselwander and Morgan Bates knew each other or whether it was a random attack.

Ian Hasselwander More News

As an outpouring of grief and remembrances took place to remember the life of a 20-year-old woman whose body was discovered a week ago in a state park in this town, police announced the arrest of a Petersburgh man in connection with her death.

Ian Hasselwander, 22, was arrested Friday night by Rensselaer County sheriff’s investigators looking into the death of Morgan Bates, 20, of Washington County. Her body was found in the 175-acre Cherry Plain State Park last Sunday near Black River Road.

Ian Hasselwander is charged with second-degree murder, first-degree assault, first-degree strangulation and concealment of a human corpse, all felonies, according to the sheriff’s department. He was arraigned and sent to the county jail without bail pending his next court date.

Authorities did not say how Bates and Hasselwander may have known each other and family members declined to comment. The Washington County sheriff’s office had previously put out a missing person’s report for Bates, of Eagle Bridge, after she was possibly last sighted last in Petersburgh, Rensselaer County, at 2 a.m. Feb. 22. Officials said soon after she was found that the death was suspicious in nature.

Other agencies working on the case included the District Attorney’s office, the State Police, the Washington County Sheriff’s Department, state forest rangers, the state Intelligence Center and the Capital Region Crime Analysis Center.

The arrest came the night before calling hours were to take place for Bates at the Mahar and Son Funeral Home in Bennington, Vermont. A celebration of her life was scheduled as well, according to the funeral home.

For the Bates family, the tragedy is compounded, as Morgan’s mother died in January. Through the funeral home, family members declined to speak to the press, but Morgan’s father William Bates posted a series of public Facebook messages about the situation, in one saying, “Morgan you are my world,my life and my rock. You will always be my angel.”

Bates also posted, “Now my main thing is now to get justice for my daughter. I will not give up on that.” He said the suspect is his daughter’s former boyfriend.

Morgan Bates’ obituary on the funeral home website says she was born in Bennington, and graduated from Cambridge Central High School in 2019. She worked at the Stewart’s Shop in Pownal, Vermont. It says she loved horses and also worked at stables in the area.

She is also being remembered by the Cambridge school district.

“Morgan always had a twinkle in her eye and was known for being spunky and having a big heart,” said Secondary Principal Caroline Goss in a post on the district web site. “As an educator, every student that we work with forever leaves an impression on our hearts. I had the privilege of having Morgan as a student and being her principal. I was proud to see her walk across the stage at graduation and looked forward to seeing her pursue her dreams working with horses. Morgan left a big impact with every educator in the district and she will be greatly missed.”

The school is offering support and counseling services for students and employees to deal with the loss.

On Facebook, friends posted messages remembering how special she was, as a friend and a beautiful soul.

In a statement, Rensselaer County Sheriff Patrick Russo said the agencies worked around the clock “which led to a timely arrest.”

“Law enforcement has worked around the clock on this case since Morgan Bates disappeared,” District Attorney Mary Pat Donnelly said in the statement. “This is certainly not the outcome we had hoped for. This arrest is the first step towards justice for Morgan and her family.”

https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/22-year-old-charged-with-murder-after-body-found-16979436.php

Karlie Mae Phelps Charged In Fatal Fire

Karlie Mae Phelps has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in a case regarding a fatal fire that left an infant dead. According to police reports firefighters arrived at the home to find it fully engulfed in flames. Unfortunately a young boy inside of the home could not be saved. The child’s father, Nicholas Ecker, was arrested soon after the fire and charged with first degree murder. Karlie Mae Phelps was arrested a couple of weeks later and charged with involuntary manslaughter along with a couple of drug charges. Nicholas Ecker is to appear in court at the end of March 2022.

Karlie Mae Phelps More News

Shawnee Police have arrested a woman listed as a resident of a home where a fire killed an infant earlier this month.

Johnson County Sheriff’s Office booking logs show Shawnee officers arrested Karlie Mae Phelps, 28, at about 4:30 p.m. Friday. Phelps was booked into the adult detention center on two felonies and a misdemeanor.

Johnson County court records show Phelps is charged with felony involuntary manslaughter involving a child under 6 and first felony possession of a controlled substance.

She’s also charged with a misdemeanor of endangering a child under the age of 18.

Neither police nor prosecutors have officially confirmed Phelps’s relationship to the infant that was killed.

Court records show the charges for involuntary manslaughter and endangering a child took place the same night as the deadly fire. The address listed in the booking log also matches the address of the house fire.

Phelps is scheduled to make her first court appearance before a Johnson County judge Monday afternoon.

Firefighters and police responded to the house at 10502 West 69th Terrace shortly before 1 a.m. on Sunday, February 13.

Police arrested a man at the scene, Nicholas Adam Ecker, who has been charged with first-degree murder and aggravated arson.

He remains in custody, and his next court appearance is set for March 31.