Tag Archives: #Crime&Punishment

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A Philadelphia Inquirer sob story about a poor, poor, misunderstood murderer.

The First Street Journal has twice noted the case of Derek Lee, convicted of second degree murder for the killing of Leonard Butler in Pittsburgh. Under Title 18 §2502(b), second degree murder is defined to be “A criminal homicide constitutes murder of the second degree when it is committed while defendant was engaged as a principal or an accomplice in the perpetration of a felony.” The penalty for second degree murder in the Keystone State is specified as life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. That’s pretty simple: the murderer is already committing a crime, so even if he wasn’t necessarily planning on killing someone, he was already on the scene, already planning on committing a crime, and prepared to kill if he thought it necessary, even if you were not the person who pulled the trigger.

Whether you’re the guy who fires the fatal shot or not, you’re still a really bad guy, and there’s no good reason for you to ever be put back out on the streets with decent people again.

Derek Lee and a gentleman named Paul Durham broke into Mr Butler’s home. I’ll let The Philadelphia Inquirer give you the details:

In 2014, Lee and Paul Durham pushed their way into a Pittsburgh home armed with a handgun and Taser. Police said they went at the request of the spurned ex-lover of the man living there, Leonard Butler, 44.

Inside, Lee and Durham forced Butler and his girlfriend into the basement. They ordered them to their knees. Lee struck Butler with the gun and used the Taser on him before going upstairs with Butler’s watch.

So, Mr Lee was not only committing a crime, but a violent crime, as he pistol-whipped Mr Butler. This wasn’t just a burglary where the homeowner surprised the criminals, but one in which the criminals were actively attacking the victim.

In the basement, Butler lunged for Durham’s weapon, and in the struggle, Butler was shot and killed.

Both criminals were packing heat that day.

Well, the newspaper is never content at just giving us the facts, but wants to weave a sob story about poor, poor Mr Lee:

Lee grew up in Pittsburgh, a small, wiry boy, the youngest of three children in a close-knit family. He played baseball and basketball, and worked as a youth camp counselor at his grandmother’s church.

His father later moved to Ashtabula, Ohio, splitting the family across state lines. Lee went back and forth between them.

In his teens, Lee’s life shifted. He drifted into street life and graduated high school “by my teeth,” he said.

At that point, at least in the online version of the story, the Inquirer gives us a photo of a smiling Mr Lee, in his graduation gown and holding his diploma.

Have your heartstrings not yet been pulled? Are you not feeling sorry for Mr Lee yet? But the newspaper continues:

When Lee was 18, he and another man shot at a group of basketball players outside a college party. Although five players were injured, none of the bullets from Lee’s gun struck anyone. Lee was convicted of attempted criminal homicide and sentenced to seven to 14 years in prison.

When he was released, Lee’s family welcomed him home with a celebration and his mother’s seven-cheese macaroni. He was 25. He found work as a dishwasher, but struggled to stabilize his life, Lee said.

So, young Mr Lee and his buddies, for whatever their reasons, were armed, and shot into a group of young men outside a party, firing indiscriminately, trying at the very least to shoot some people, and probably hoping to kill some of them. And thus, that good young man, who “worked as a youth camp counselor at his grandmother’s church,” and suffered as the son in a broken home found himself exactly where he belonged: behind bars.

Well, I’m from a broken home, too, but somehow, some way, I never tried to kill anybody due to that.

Mr Lee was then a convicted felon. And that means premeditation when Mr Durham and he broke into Mr Butler’s home, because just by carrying a firearm, Mr Lee was committing a second degree felony under Title 18 §6105.

Then came the burglary and the murder. Mr Lee was a previously convicted felon, in the process of committing more felonies. Apparently his first stint in prison did not teach him the lesson it should have, as the second group of crimes occurred less than a year after he was released from his previous time behind bars.

Why, I have to ask, would any decent people want someone like Mr Lee back out on the streets?

The Inquirer continued with their sob story:

In prison again, Lee said he reached a breaking point. “I just hit that rock-bottom place where I knew I had to do something,” he said.

He turned to religion. He entered a chaplain’s program, and trained service dogs. He also appealed his case himself, and began mentoring incarcerated men serving long or life sentences.

“Society throws away people like us,” Lee said. “It … judges them by one of the worst moments in their life. But I truly believe that people can be redeemed.”

No, Mr Lee, “society” didn’t throw you away: you did that! One of the “worst moments of (his) life”? Mr Leonard didn’t get any further moments in his life; he’s stone-cold graveyard dead because of what Messrs Durham and Lee did.

Naturally, Philadelphia’s George Soros-sponsored, criminal-loving and police-hating District Attorney, Larry Krasner, wants to see the murderers previously sentenced under the second degree murder stature given a break:

(Mr Krasner) was joined by several criminal justice advocates, including Saleem Holbrook, executive director of the Abolitionist Law Center, and John Pace, associate director of reentry and engagement at the Youth Sentencing and Re-entry Project. Both men had once been sentenced to life in prison and were later released after U.S. Supreme Court rulings barred mandatory life sentences for juveniles and made those decisions retroactive.

Holbrook stressed that the hundreds of men and women incarcerated under the former law were waiting for an opportunity to be released and show they could contribute meaningfully to their communities.

“(S)how they could contribute meaningfully to their communities”? Yeah, uh huh, right. I have a bridge you can buy, too.

So, what’s the outcome? Mr Lee will have to be resentenced, and his new sentence could still be life, even life without the possibility of parole. But the decision in his case could mean that others in the Keystone State sentenced automatically to life without parole could have their cases reopened for more lenient terms. Some could even be sentenced to time already served, letting actual killers back out on the streets.

The Abolitionist Law Center does not believe anyone should be incarcerated at all, and would if they could opposes all prison sentences, and would, if they could, free every murderer, every rapist, every drug dealer, and every assailant locked up in Pennsylvania’s prisons.

But there’s one person in Mr Lee’s case who cannot be resentenced, and that’s Mr Butler: he was sentenced to death, executed on the spot, and there is no appeal from that.

Despite the efforts of the newspaper to paint Mr Lee as a basically good kid who just made a couple of forgivable mistakes, I remain unmoved. He has already proven himself to be a cancer on civilized life, and should never be allowed to menace decent people again.

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Pennsylvania just became a little less safe

Well, of course.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat of course, opposes capital punishment, as do I, but the Governor of the Keystone State does not have arbitrary power to issue pardons or sentence commutations on his own. The most Mr Shapiro could do, as his predecessor Tom Wolf did before him, was to decline to sign any death warrants. But now, the Governor is happy that the state Supreme Court held that mandatory sentences of life without the possibility of parole for second-degree murder violate the state constitution.

We have previously noted this case.

Under Title 18§2502(b), murder of the second degree is a criminal homicide which is committed while defendant was engaged as a principal or accomplice in the perpetration of a felony. That’s pretty simple: the murderer is already committing a crime, so even if he wasn’t necessarily planning on killing someone, he was already on the scene, already planning on committing a crime, and prepared to kill if he thought it necessary.

Whether you’re the guy who fires the fatal shot or not, you’re still a really bad guy, and there’s no good reason for you to ever be put back out on the streets with decent people again.

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s story on the case can be found here. The opinion of the court can be found here. From the newspaper:

One of the lead lawyers in the case, Bret Grote of the Abolitionist Law Center, said the decision “will have profound ramifications” for the state’s criminal justice system, and that it “represents the culmination of decades of movement-building by incarcerated people and their families and communities.”

Ben Grote, huh? How unserious is Mr Grote? He couldn’t even be bothered to clean up his beta male beard before going before the state Supreme Court. But, alas! he won his case.

Image from main page of Abolitionist Law Center website, screencaptured on October 9, 2024.

Mr Grote works for the Abolitionist Law Center, which we have previously mentioned. What is not mentioned is that the Abolitionist Law Center is opposed to incarceration for anything, opposes all prison sentences, and would, if they could, free every murderer, every rapist, every drug dealer, and every assailant locked up in Pennsylvania’s prisons.

We challenge every point on the criminal punishment conveyor belt including policing, courts, jails and prisons, and various forms of legal supervision, as well as other aspects of the carceral machine.

Boldface in the original.

I might have ignored this story, especially since I was eating the very delicious lamb chops my wife made for supper, were it not for a very lovely lady on Twitter. Miss Long has in her Twitter bio a background illustration saying:

Roses are red,
No lives are blue,
Defund the Police,
Abolish ICE too.

Miss Long posted a series on Twitter, beginning here, praising the Abolitionist Law Center for its work. We already know that the Abolitionist Law Center wants to abolish prisons completely, to give dangerous predators some cockamamie “restorative justice” bovine feces.

Some people are beyond redemption, some people are simply evil and can never be trusted in society. Miss Long and the Abolitionist Law Center would see the gates of prisons thrown open and deranged killers like Wesley Cook let back out on the streets. They don’t even like, as noted above, “legal supervision,” which means probation and probation officers. Miss Long wants to see criminal illegal immigrants, some guilty of murder and rape, left free to terrorize innocent people.

I assume that Miss Long and the others believe that people are just innately good, and if the people we now see as bad guys are just left alone and shown sweetness and light, they’ll all be great people and credits to their communities.

Well, that’s just plain bovine feces. Some people simply need to be removed from society, for society to remain safe and secure for the people who are actually good citizens. I can’t even understand how some people can think differently.

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You in a heap o’ trouble, boy! Hold them accountable

One would have thought that Abdimahat Bille Mohamed would have been in a heap o’ trouble when he was arrested on charges of having raped a child and sexually assaulted another woman in Hennepin County, Minnesota, but if one would have thought that, one would have been wrong. From Minnesota Public Radio, on December 9, 2025:

Mohamed pleaded guilty in April to state charges of criminal sexual conduct for the rape of the child victim and the sexual assault of another woman in 2024, but he avoided prison as part of a plea deal with the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office. County prosecutors also pledged not to prosecute him for a 2018 rape in which he was suspected.

Emphasis mine.

What? Prosecutors gave him a sweetheart plea deal which allowed him to escape prosecution for the rape of a minor? How the Hell does that work?

Oh, wait, I know how it works: the same source tells readers that Mr Mohamed is not an American citizen, but a foreign national “is living in the country as a legal permanent resident.” As you might guess with this being Minneapolis, he is Somali.

The local prosecutor tried to make excuses. From the Minnesota Star-Tribune:

Attorneys on both sides of the plea deal rejected the notion that Mohamed avoided prison because Minnesota’s judicial system is too willing to give violent criminals a pass.

The Justice Department comments are “a clear attempt to politicize a sexual assault prosecution to inflict further harm on our entire Somali community,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement. “Those who actually prosecute sexual assault cases every day know there are significant evidentiary hurdles to obtaining a prison sentence.”

Moriarty pointed out that her office “overcame the loss of critical witnesses to secure felony convictions against Mr. Mohamed earlier this year. Because our case was substantially weakened, we could not get the prison sentence we wanted.”

Thomas Beito, Mohamed’s attorney who negotiated the earlier plea agreement, told the Minnesota Star Tribune that “the prosecution did not give us anything out of the goodness of their hearts.” He said there were “serious problems with the credibility of the [teenage] victim.”

In the second case under the plea deal, he said, “we had a great consent defense. … We turned up a video of the act itself showing that this was consensual. That’s why [prosecutors] gave him what they did.”

Except, of course, the state had actual DNA evidence! From the United States Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs:

Minor Victim 1 was forced—at gunpoint and in fear for her life—to perform oral sex on Mohamed. He then raped her vaginally. After the group sexually assaulted the girl, they let her out of the car. Minor Victim 1 ran, hid, and called the police. The police took Minor Victim 1 to the hospital, and she consented to a sexual assault exam. On September 17, 2024, after Mohamed’s DNA was taken in connection with another sexual assault, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) laboratory matched Mohamed’s DNA to the swabs taken from Minor Victim 1’s body, excluding more than 99.99% of the general population.

“Minor Victim 1” was 15 years old when she was raped. Under Minnesota state law, the age of sexual consent is 16, but persons between the ages of 14 and 15 can consent to sex with someone not more than 24 months older, the old “Romeo and Juliet” exception which exists because people do not want to send high school juniors to prison for f(ornicating) with their sophomore girlfriends. Mr Mohamed, now 28, would have been 19 in 2017, four years older than his victim, so Mr Beito’s claim that there had been consent in the latter case would not have held water in the rape of a minor girl.

Miss Moriarty? She’s openly queer and was the county’s chief public defender before becoming prosecutor. She has a soft spot in her heart for criminals, refusing to try as adults two 15 and 17 year old brothers guilty of murder, saying “Our goal is to treat kids like kids,” and “We know that kids that age are impressionable, they are impulsive, they’re easily manipulated and subjected to peer pressure.”

Now the federal Department of Justice has gotten involved.

In September 2025, Mohamed committed another kidnapping and rape. On September 15, 2025, Mohamed picked up an adult woman (Victim 5) in Mankato, Minnesota. Victim 5 met Mohamed that night and Mohamed was supposed to take Victim 5 to get food and then bring her back home. Instead, after Victim 5 was in Mohamed’s car, he kidnapped her. After Victim 5 asked Mohamed to bring her home, Mohamed kept driving and said, “you are not going home.” Mohamed drove Victim 5 approximately 70 miles to a hotel in Bloomington, where he kept her for nearly a week. When Victim 5 tried to leave on the first day, Mohamed grabbed her by the hair, slapped her face, and told her she could not leave. Mohamed raped Victim 5 twice. Mohamed choked Victim 5 while he raped her. Victim 5 was able to text her sister, that “I think I’m getting kidnapped” and needed help, but Mohamed took her phone away. Victim 5’s sister contacted the police, who worked to find Victim 5. On September 21, 2025, Victim 5 jumped out of Mohamed’s car and told a nearby man, “Can you help me? I am being kidnapped.” The man called 911 and police responded to the scene. Police took Victim 5 to the hospital, where she consented to a sexual assault exam. The DNA profile obtained from Victim 5 matched to Mohamed’s known sample.

But Miss Moriarty wanted to treat Mr Mohamed leniently, to not lock him in a cage, and possibly see him shipped back to his [insert slang term for feces here]hole country. This is what happens when leftists try to shield criminals from the consequences of their crimes: innocent people get punished instead as those criminals stay out on the streets committing even more crimes. According to the New York Post, the distinguished Mr Mohamed committed his last (known) rape after the state had already released him in his sweetheart deals. Whoever the unnamed rape victim was, she received the punishment, she paid the penalty for Mr Mohamed’s previous crimes.

I wonder how we can hold Miss Moriarty accountable, because she is just as responsible for the ‘extra’ rapes Mr Mohamed committed as he is. She could have at least tried to have him locked up, but didn’t.

As for the local media cited, the Star-Tribune and Minnesota Public Radio, they had long stories, but neither of them noted that the state, and now the federal government had the DNA evidence, irrefutable evidence, concerning Mr Mohamed’s crimes. I wonder why that is.

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You in a heap o’ trouble, boy!

Were I to write this the way my good friend Robert Stacy McCain would, I’d start by saying, “Say hello to Israel Flores Ortiz, and while you’re at it, say goodbye to him as well,” but, alas! if the Democrats in northern Virginia have their way, he’ll be back among decent people fairly soon. Young Mr Ortiz, just shy of his 19th birthday, is a junior at Fairfax High School who allegedly thinks it’s cool to sneak up behind the girls in his school and grope between their legs, but, just a few years removed from #MeToo, it seems that the Democrats don’t want this illegal immigrant shipped back to his native El Salvador, and would rather see him out on the streets, taking his particular kink to whatever other levels it goes.

From the New York Post:

‘Schoolboy’ charged with groping nine 11th grade classmates is exposed as adult illegal migrant released under Biden

By Adam Silverstein | Saturday, March 14, 2026 | 5:46 AM EDT

An 18-year-old illegal immigrant from El Salvador allegedly groped 12 female classmates at a Virginia high school — and was allowed into the US under the Biden administration.

Israel Flores Ortiz, who is almost 19 but a junior at Fairfax High School, has been charged with nine counts of assault and battery after he was accused of repeatedly creeping up behind the students in crowded hallways and grabbing them between the legs.

Ortiz, who entered the country illegally in 2024, was released under a federal government policy during the Biden administration, according to local outlet 7News.

I can understand how some of our good friends on the left have tremendous sympathy for the illegal immigrants who just came here for a better life, and have been working hard in our economy, trying to become good members of their communities. But surely such sympathies would not extend to someone who thinks he can molest teenaged girls, right?

Meanwhile, a Fairfax County judge denied Ortiz bail this week — even though prosecutors did not oppose his release — after reviewing surveillance video and determining the proposed conditions did not adequately protect the public.

ICE lodged a detainer seeking custody of Ortiz for deportation, but the agency said the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office failed to honor it.

“Unfortunately, sanctuary politicians like Gov. (Abigail) Spanberger are outlawing cooperation with ICE and choosing to RELEASE criminal illegal aliens from their jails back onto their communities to create more American victims,” an ICE spokesperson said.

“We are calling on Fairfax County to honor our detainer to ensure this violent criminal is removed from our country so he can never claim another victim again.”

Ortiz’s charges — misdemeanor assault and battery, not sexual assault — carry a maximum penalty of one year in jail.

I omitted much of the middle of the Post article, which details how there had been complaints about young Mr Ortiz for months, and how the school district tried to “diminish” what had happened. The article is not behind a paywall, so you can read it freely if you wish.

When I lived in Virginia, the Old Dominion was a reliably Republican state in presidential elections, but northern Virginia has seen such growth in the population of federal government employees that the Democratic presidential candidates can reliably count on Virginia’s electoral votes. Abigail Spanberger campaigned for Governor as a more moderate Democrat last year, but went hard left once she won.

Fairfax County borders Loudoun County, about which we have written several times in the past. Loudoun County was where the public schools protected a boy who frequently dressed in skirts who raped one girl in the girls’ bathroom, quietly transferred him to another school, where he did the same thing. The story only came to public knowledge when the victim’s father was demanding answers from the school board, and then dragged to the floor and arrested. It was all a big right-wing myth, the credentialed media told us:

The media’s defense of transgenderism fell apart quickly when the rapist was found guilty.

And now, here they go again, defending an (alleged) sexual assailant, throwing women and teenaged  girls under the Woke Bus, all to defend criminals, criminals! because it somehow goes against conservative policies, opposition to ‘transgenderism’ then and the enforcement of our immigration laws now. Thankfully, young Mr Ortiz hasn’t gone as far as rape, but who can know to what crimes he will graduate if he isn’t seriously punished for what he’s done and is then released back into unsuspecting communities?

Are the Democrats so adamantly opposed to President Trump that they’d rather let a predator loose than eventually deport a criminal?

I’ve reused my frequent title, “You in a heap o’ trouble, boy!” — this is the 51st time I’ve used it — for this article, but the fact is that the left do not want to see young Mr Ortiz in too much trouble, all because they hate Donald Trump so much. And if Mr Ortiz gets a slap on the wrist, and then released, what will they say if his sexual fetishes and assaults become more serious?

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You in a heap o’ trouble, boy!

It appears that having a father who is a well-paid, high-powered attorney, being a college athlete, and living in a $1.4 million home in Lower Gwynedd Township, Pennsylvania, doesn’t somehow protect you from being an absolute idiot. The trouble is that it has prevented him from paying much of a penalty for his previous crimes.

Lower Gwynedd man charged with attempted murder of a police officer

Officials say Dalton Lee Janiczek, 21, struck a Plymouth Township police officer with his car multiple times before fleeing the scene.

by Denali Sagner | Saturday, October 25, 2025 | 8:25 PM EDT

A Lower Gwynedd man has been charged with the attempted murder of a law enforcement officer after authorities say he struck a Plymouth Township police officer with his car multiple times before fleeing the scene.

Dalton Lee Janiczek, 21, faces multiple felony charges, including attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, aggravated assault, and fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer.

Around 10:19 a.m. on Friday, Janiczek fled in a white Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon from an attempted traffic stop by Springfield Township police officers, according to police. The officers did not pursue but instead broadcast information about the incident to neighboring police departments.

No, of course The Philadelphia Inquirer did not publish the mugshot of the accused; that’s from Patch.com’s Plymouth-Whitemarsh’s local site. But the story caught the attention of London’s Daily Mail as well.

Young Mr Janiczek has apparently racked up a bunch of previous charges.

The suspect lives with his parents, including his high-flying lawyer father Lee Janiczek, at their $1.4 million home in Ambler, Pennsylvania . His father is a partner at Lewis Brisbois LLC, representing corporations and insurance companies with their liability claims. He did not respond for comment when contacted by the Daily Mail. Janiczek is a student at Loyola Marymount University. He’s part of the college rowing team, and previously he was a member of La Salle College High School’s crew team all four years.

The seasoned athlete was named captain senior year, and won multiple awards for his sport during his time in school. Despite his sporting and academic successes, the 21-year-old has wracked up an incredible rap sheet, with 11 criminal charges since 2023. Nearly all of his arrests are connected to reckless driving, including speeding, driving an unregistered vehicle, misusing plate cards, careless driving, driving without a license, and parking illegally.

The Patch.com story stated that Mr Janiczek was driving a Mercedes G Wagon, a luxury vehicle retailing at around $148,000, but, according to the Daily Mail, can cost up to $186,000. The Inquirer story noted that the “Whitpain Township Police Department were ‘familiar with Janiczek’ and his SUV,” though there was no current warrant for his arrest.

Being known to the police is never a good thing, and one wonders how much his father’s money kept him from suffering more serious consequences in the past. Now Mr Janiczek is facing charges for the attempted murder of a police officer, and could wind up spending twenty years in the state penitentiary.

He won’t of course, because his father’s money means a top criminal defense attorney, and almost certainly some form of plea bargain. Fortunately, this is a Montgomery County case, so Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner can’t ‘negotiate’ a completely suspended sentence, but if he is convicted of the crimes for which he has been charged, several years as a guest of the Commonwealth need to be part of the sentence. If he does not do some hard time, young Mr Janiczek will learn the wrong lesson, that his daddy’s money means he will get away with anything.

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You in a heap o’ trouble, girl!

Precious Hamilton is only fifteen years old, but she just might spend the next couple of decades in prison. Her initial claims are that it was all an accident, but someone is still stone-cold graveyard dead.

15-year-old girl charged with third-degree murder in fatal shooting of Abington teen

Abington Township police arrested Precious Hamilton in a shooting that killed 17-year-old Baseem “Seyven” Baker

by Jesse Bunch | Tuesday, October 7, 2025 | 5:18 PM EDT

Precious Hamilton, mugshot via Fox 29 News.

Montgomery County prosecutors charged a 15-year-old girl with third-degree murder Tuesday in the shooting death of an Abington teenager in his family’s apartment on Monday afternoon.

Precious Hamilton, of Eddystone, was arrested that evening by Abington Township police in connection with a shooting that left 17-year-old Baseem “Seyven” Baker dead from a gunshot wound to the head, prosecutors said.

No, of course young Miss Hamilton’s mugshot was not published by The Philadelphia Inquirer, but a quick Google search found it for me, from more than one source.

Police arrived at Baker’s apartment on the 100 block of Old York Road to find the teen dead in his bedroom, authorities said.

Police said Hamilton had been staying at the apartment over the weekend and had shown Baker the gun, a small-caliber revolver, on Sunday when “dry firing” the weapon out of Baker’s window, according to videos and a photo recovered from Baker’s iPad.

Though the article does not state it explicitly, reporter Jesse Bunch’s article makes it appear that the gun was Miss Hamilton’s. The charges filed, including possession of a firearm by a minor and carrying a firearm without a license, support that reading. What, I have to ask, was a 15-year-old girl doing carrying a firearm?

Further down:

During an interview with Hamilton and her mother, police said, Hamilton told investigators she shot Baker accidentally after the gun was left in the cocked position from Sunday.

She told investigators she grabbed the revolver while going to pack her belongings, and that while grabbing the weapon in a “rapid fashion,” the gun discharged and struck Baker, who was on the bed and fell to the floor, according to the affidavit of probable cause for Hamilton’s arrest.

Hamilton told investigators she and Baker had previously dated, then maintained a friendship for about a year, according to the affidavit.

I’m surprised that Mr Bunch included that last paragraph. What he did not include in his article, though it ought to be obvious from the fact that the alleged killer’s name was released, is that Miss Hamilton has been charged as an adult.

Young Miss Hamilton has been charged with third-degree Murder, Title 18 §2502(c), which, under Title 18 §1102(d) carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison. She has also been charged with Involuntary Manslaughter, which, under Title 18 §2504(b) is a first degree misdemeanor, which under Title 30 §923(a)(7) carries a penalty of a fine of between $1,500 and $10,000, and the possibility of imprisonment for not more than five years.

Mr Bunch should have included that in his story, because there’s a huge difference between third degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. My guess is that young Miss Hamilton will be offered an involuntary manslaughter plea bargain, if there is no evidence that she was carrying a firearm because she was part of a gang. Since this was in Montgomery County, and not Philadelphia, District Attorney Larry Krasner can’t simply dismiss the charges. We are no longer surprised when we read about 15-year-old boys carrying firearms; perhaps we shouldn’t be as surprised as we are that some 15-year-old girls are now packing heat.

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You in a heap o’ trouble, boy! Yet another teacher in trouble over sex with minors

Another day, another teacher accused of sexual misconduct.

On Thursday morning, my good friend Matt Van Swol noted that that Jesse Cassino, 42, a former Teacher of the Year in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, has been arrested on multiple charges of sexual exploitation of minors over child pornography. And Thursday afternoon, The Philadelphia Inquirer had this story:

Paul Green will close rock schools, following accusations of sexual misconduct involving a teen student

Continue reading →

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You in a heap o’ trouble, boy! Has lenient treatment really done the bad guys any favors?

We have previously reported on the mass shooting in the Gray’s Ferry section of the City of Brotherly Love, and now The Philadelphia Inquirer has reported an arrest in the case.

One man has been arrested for his role in Grays Ferry mass shooting that left 12 shot

Terrell Frazier is among multiple gunmen who shot 12 people on the 1500 bock of South Etting Street, police said.

by Ellie Rushing | Thursday, August 7, 2025 | 10:10 AM EDT

Philadelphia police on Thursday said they have arrested one of the gunmen involved in a mass shooting in Grays Ferry that left three young men dead and nine others wounded. Continue reading →

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You in a heap o’ trouble, boy! I guess that previous lenient treatment didn't work all that well

When Steve Keeley of Fox 29 News tweeted out the surveillance photos of a sexual assault suspect in Center City Philadelphia, I naturally checked The Philadelphia Inquirer, and noted that their story didn’t include the photos. Well, to give credit where credit is due, the newspaper surprised me and updated that story to include the photos released by the Philadelphia Police Department.

Then, earlier on Hiroshima Day, the Police identified him, and Mr Keeley tweeted out that information, including a photo which was taken from his driver’s license records. It didn’t take too long after that for an atomic bomb exploded on the suspect, who was apprehended Wednesday afternoon:

A 37-year-old man was arrested for a string of sexual assaults in Center City, police said

Police said Dynel Walker was taken into custody in connection with six attacks in Center City and South Philadelphia in the past three weeks.

by Ellie Rushing | Wednesday, August 6, 2025 | 12:13 PM EDT | Updated: 5:19 PM EDT

A Northeast Philadelphia man was arrested Wednesday after police said he committed a string of sexual assaults in Center City over the last month, attacking women as they walked or entered their homes.

Dynel Walker, 37, of the 13000 block of Philmont Avenue in Somerton, was taken into custody in Montgomery County to face multiple counts of aggravated assault, indecent assault, and false imprisonment in connection with assaults on six women within three weeks in Center City and the Schuylkill section of South Philadelphia, police said.

Capt. Margo Alleyne-Parker of the Special Victims Unit said she believed Walker likely attacked additional women who had not yet come forward.

Walker’s arrest comes just days after police had asked for the public’s help in identifying a man responsible for a rash of assaults, and whose behavior was escalating. An anonymous tipster then told police that Walker resembled the photo officials had released of the suspect.

So, publishing photos of suspects does help in their identification and apprehension!

If you want to read the details of Mr Walker’s (alleged) crimes, you can get that at the inquirer’s original. This is the part that I see as important:

Court records show that Walker has been arrested multiple times over the last decade in Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs, albeit for relatively low-level crimes.

Between 2011 and 2016, he was in and out of jail in Philadelphia for charges including drug possession and improper use of a motor vehicle, according to the records.

In Bucks County in 2021, he was convicted of disorderly conduct. And most recently, in Montgomery County in 2023, he pleaded guilty to identity theft and receiving stolen property, and was sentenced to five years’ probation.

Mr Keeley noted that Mr Walker had 21 prior arrests, though none were for sexual assault. And that makes me wonder: why, in 2023, was he allowed to plead guilty in Montgomery County and receive five years probation? By that time, with his record, surely someone in the prosecutor’s office should have realized that Mr Walker is not a very nice guy. Under Pennsylvania Title 18 § 4120, Identity theft can be either a first-degree misdemeanor, if the value of the property stolen using identity theft is less than $2,000, (c)(1)(i), or a third-degree felony id valued at more than $2,000, (c)(1)(ii). Under Title 18 §106(b)(4), a third-degree felony has a maximum sentence of seven years in the state penitentiary. Both offenses were charged as third-degree felonies.

The media have not reported all of the particulars, but if Montgomery County had enough evidence, couldn’t the distinguished Mr Walker have been behind bars when the crimes with which he has been recently charged were committed? Shouldn’t a man with that many priors not be given a break? Shouldn’t a man with that many priors be locked up for as long as the law allows?

It’s simple: if Mr Walker is the man who committed the sexual assaults for which he has been charged, and if he had been behind bars at SCI Greene, those six sexual assaults would not have occurred!

If Mr Walker committed the sexual assaults with which he has been charged, one thing is obvious: five years probation neither punished him nor deterred him from committing other crimes. There comes a point at which the bad guys need to be locked up, and that point is long before 21 separate arrests.