Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/03/08/suspected-serial-killer-caught.html
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“We treated this as if they were our own family members who were killed,” [Officer] Walsh said.
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Well sure…who wouldn’t take a hammer to a mannequin given the opportunity?
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Well, that will work once. Still, smart thinking on the cops’ part. One less serial killer, provided the jury doesn’t swallow his load of horseshit.
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Don’t be so certain. Criminals are not generally known to be the smartest members of society. And not all of them read the news (or BB).
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It isn’t a crime to bash in the skull of a homeless mannequin. That won’t keep him off the street for very long.
However, now the cops have him, and the hammer. If they can tie the hammer to the real murders, if they can die other evidence from him to the real murders, they can charge him for those, and put him away for a long time.
It won’t matter if he knew that this homeless sleeper was a decoy. He’d have to explain why he thought the other two homeless sleepers were decoys.
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Some people just can’t resist kicking a guy when he’s down. I will never understand.
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Only if it’s the same murder weapon, then it’s circumstantial evidence. But i really do hope that they’re able to get whatever evidence they need and build enough of a case to put this monster away. Homeless people don’t deserve the violence and cruelty they already have to face on a regular basis.
Also this is in Vegas. Having lived there i can’t say i’m surprised, plenty of unstable people out there. A friend of mine would bike or take a scooter to get around and many many times had people purposefully run her off the road and was hit a couple of times on purpose as well.
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Yeah but with a suspect, you can search their house, test all their blunt instruments, check their clothes and shoes for blood/DNA, compare any evidence found on the bodies to the suspect, all sorts of things.
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How many indigenticidal maniacs did they have to find?
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I am definitely hoping they can find something. They caught him red handed and would hate to see him walk because of lack of evidence.
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I’m glad somebody stopped him before he repealed medicaid.
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Amazing. Can he train all the cops, everywhere?
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They will lose this case. They will never be able to prove he didn’t know it was a mannequin. Just like you can put all sorts of shit in your pockets in a store, but unless you leave the store with it, they can’t prove you were going to steal it. The law is specific.
“concealed weapon” - I just read a thread on another site where it was advised for those who keep a baseball bat or other such items in their car for protection, to also have a glove and ball, so you have a reason for the bat being there other than it being a weapon.
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Winning this case isn’t the goal here. Nobody cares about nailing the guy for carrying a hammer.
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These days? I’d guess more than a few.
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Agreed. Their goal was to produce a lead, and now they have one, even if they can’t make these charges stick. Situation is vastly improved.
Also, someone who is unhinged enough to go around hammering homeless to death is likely to strike again, even though the police are on to him.
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I think they could possibly nail (sorry) him for attempted murder.
“In the United States, thirty-seven states have ruled out factual impossibility as a defense to the crime of attempt.”
“An impossibility occurs when, at the time of the attempt, the facts make the intended crime impossible to commit although the defendant is unaware of this when the attempt is made.[3] In People v. Lee Kong, 95 Cal. 666, 30 P. 800 (1892), the defendant was found guilty for attempted murder for shooting at a hole in the roof, believing his victim to be there, and indeed, where his victim had been only moments before but was not at the time of the shooting.[3] Another case involving the defense of factual impossibility is Commonwealth v. Johnson,[4] in which a wife intended to put arsenic in her husband’s coffee but by mistake added the customary sugar instead. Later she felt repentant and confessed her acts to the police. She was arrested, tried, and convicted of attempted murder.[3] In United States v. Thomas[5] the court held that men who believed they were raping a drunken, unconscious woman were guilty of attempted rape, even though the woman was actually dead at the time sexual intercourse took place.”
Also, I think you can be arrested for unlawful concealment if you put things in your pocket while inside a store in most states.
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Presumably, now that they’ve caught him (and have what is also presumably the murder weapon), it makes it a lot easier to find the forensic evidence they need to build the case for the killings. Charging him for a concealed weapon is just a pretext to get him in the system/keep him in custody long enough to do that.
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