Hard Boiled News

True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Man Robbed at Sword-Point After Letting Woman In to Use the Bathroom

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The suspect whipped out the sword after being let in to use the toilet

BUFFALO, New York — Is that a sword in your hands, or are you just happy to see me?

A Buffalo man was robbed at sword-point after letting a woman into his house to use the bathroom, police said.

The man told police that he didn’t know the woman, but let her in after she knocked on his door Saturday asking to use his bathroom, the Buffalo News reported.

After doing her business, she grabbed the weapon that was laying near the door to the man’s house and threatened to hurt him if he didn’t hand over his cash.

After he handed over his wallet, the woman knocked him to the ground and ran off with his cash, cops said.

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Man Charged in Brutal Slaying of ‘Full of Life’ 101-Year-Old Neighbor

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Gregory Jesmer is accused of brutally stabbing his 101-year-old neighbor

ROCHESTER, New York — A 101-year woman with “a lot of life left in her,” was brutally killed when her knife-wielding wacko upstairs neighbor stabbed her repeatedly in her own apartment.

Cops were called to Marcia Morrison’s home Tuesday morning when a senior transportation company came to pick her up, but she did not answer the door.

Inside, they found a gruesome scene, with the centenarian lying in a pool of blood after being stabbed repeatedly in the neck, throat and upper torso, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle reported.

“This is one of the most egregious crimes that we as a community have ever seen,” said prosecutor Monica O’Brien, head of the Monroe County District Attorney’s elder abuse bureau.

A short time later, cops arrested 54-year-old Gregory Jesmer, who lived above Morrison, after he got off a bus and began following a 13-year-old girl and offered her money to come home with him. A passing motorist intervened.

Investigators say that as they questioned Jesmer, certain evidence emerged that pinned him to the slaying of Morrison.

Jesmer has had previous arrests for grand larceny and driving while intoxicated.

Marcia Morrison

Morrison did not have children and her husband had died decades ago, but she was very active in the community. Neighbors said Morrison was a stalwart in the building where she lived and was a powerhouse despite her age.

“She had a lot of get-up-and-go in her,” neighbor Sandra Fields said. “She was like our grandmother.”

“She had a lot of life left in her, more than some young people,” Fields said.

She said she knew Jesmer and that he drank a lot, but that he didn’t seem violent or threatening. Fields said Jesmer sometimes asked neighbors for money and she thought Morrison had sometimes helped him out.

He has been charged with second-degree murder.

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Bystander Shot on Same Block She Was Hit by Stray Bullet 20 Years Ago

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Fran Williams has twice been the victim of a stray bullet shooting on the very same block

NEW YORK — What are the odds?

A New York woman is clinging to life after being hit in the face in a stray-bullet shooting on the same block where she was shot in a similar stray-bullet shooting 20 years earlier.

Fran Williams, 67, was shot Thursday while waiting for a bus on Jersey Street in Staten Island when a gang member opened fire following a brawl outside a nearby courthouse.

It was on the same block in 1998 were she was shot while doing her laundry, police said.

“What a shame. Here is an innocent lady getting shot 20 years apart,” a law enforcement official told the New York Post. “Even during the crack days, drug dealers didn’t have that bad of luck.”

This week’s shooting came after a scuffle outside the court which led to a group of five gang members stealing a van which they later crashed into a pedestrian, killing him.

About a half hour later, a gang member opened fire in what cops think was an attempt to retaliate for the van strike , but hit Williams instead, as she waited for the bus near her home.

Neighbors said Williams was known as “Ms. Franny,” and was a good-spirited animal lover.

“She’s a great person with a great heart,” a pal said. “She’s always in good spirits. She makes you laugh.”

 

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Teen Stabs Grandmother as She Sleeps, Steals $23 From Her Purse

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Brandon Foster is in deep trouble for stabbing his grandmother

ALBION, New York — What part about “love your grandmother,” didn’t he get?

An upstate New York teen has been charged with breaking into his grandmother’s house, stabbing and choking her, before stealing money from her purse.

Seventeen-year-old Brandon Foster’s attack on his grandmother, Rachael Spearance, early Sunday, triggered a massive manhunt that ended hours later when cops found the teen cowering in some bushes behind a Burger King.

Cops say that Foster forced his way into his grandmother’s house by climbing on a chair and forcing the window open. Once inside, he allegedly made his way to granny’s bedroom and attacked her with a knife as she slept.

Spearance began fighting back, so Foster placed her in a choke hold, cops said, according to the Batavia Daily News. But she managed to fight her way free and, despite bleeding profusely, drove to a local hospital.

The teen then stole $23 from her purse and fled the house, cops said.

Spearance  was taken by Mercy Flight to Erie County Medical Center and remains in serious but stable condition.

After searching for several hours, police dogs were able to track Foster, cornering him some bushed behind Burger King. He then surrendered peacefully.

Foster is charged with first-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault, first-degree burglary, criminal obstruction of breathing and petit larceny. He has been held in lieu of $50,000 bail.

 

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Cold Hearted Thief Steals Motorbike in Chaos After Rider Killed in Crash

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The cold hearted thief made off with a dirt bike from a crash scene after its rider was killed

NEW YORK — That’s cold.

A thief with a heart of stone made off with the dirt bike of a man who had just crashed and lay dying in the street, cops said.

Luimy Acosta-Collado, 27, was just half a block from his home when he crashed into a double parked car as he came around a turn in Brooklyn, police said.

Acosta-Collado was knocked to the ground and slid underneath a parked car, but the motor bike kept going and eventually crashed into a car parked further up the block.

As people rushed to help the fallen rider, someone quietly walked off with the bike.

“The guy was bleeding. A bunch of people were out here screaming, calling ambulances,” a man who identified himself as Wayne O., told the New York Daily News.

Another witness said Acosta-Collado was riding a friend’s dirt bike — which is illegal to drive on city streets — when he crashed, and that the “friend” retrieved it before police showed up, so it wouldn’t get seized.

“The cops can’t find the motorcycle. My guess is that the person who owns the motorcycle took it before it would get confiscated,” the man said. “Even for Brooklyn, that would be pretty s—ty.”

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Three U.S.-Based Mercenaries Convicted in Fatal Shooting in Philippines

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Joseph Hunter learned the hard way that being a mercenary isn’t what it used to be

NEW YORK — Two former U.S. soldiers and a professional weapons trainer who led second lives as mercenaries, have been convicted of gunning down a real estate agent in the Philippines in a murder-for-hire plot.

Ringleader Joseph Manuel Hunter, 52, was accused of hiring Adam Samia, 43, and Carl David Stillwell, 50, to gun down the woman in 2012 on behalf of global gun and drug runner.

According to prosecutors, Sami and Stillwell, both of North Carolina, posed as real estate customers and then shot the woman in the face as they drove through the countryside. They left her body on a pile of garbage where it was found days later. The motive for the killing has never been made entirely clear.

The men all face up to life in prison in the killing.

Hunter, a former first class sergeant in the U.S. Army,  had already pleaded guilty to a 2013 plot to kill a DEA agent in Thailand and has been serving a 20 year sentence.

He allegedly ran a private security and mercenary outfit called Echelon Associates for the smuggler, Paul Le Roux. Hunter arranged private security to businessman buying gold in Africa .

 

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Brooklyn Mobsters Threatened Doc to Write Scripts for 230K Oxycodone Pills

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The mobsters admitted capitalizing on the opioid epidemic

NEW YORK — Two mobsters strong-armed a Brooklyn doctor into writing prescriptions for hundreds of thousands of Oxycodone pills by threatening to put a bullet in his head if he stopped, federal prosecutors said.

Anthony Grado, a 54-year-old foot soldier in the Luchese family, was caught on tape telling the doctor that he would feed him “to the f**king lions” if he ever wrote prescriptions without the family’s permission, prosecutors said.

The shakedown came to light as Grado and his accomplice, Lawrence Tranese, 55, pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy to distribute Oxycodone in Brooklyn federal court.

The men admitted that they enlisted the help of other gangsters to fill the prescriptions and they would then sell them, the US Attorney’s office said. In all, they purloined 230,000 of the highly addictive pills through the scheme.

Grado used a mixture of threats and violence to keep the doctor in line.  At one point, Grado was recorded saying, “I’ll put a bullet right in your head,” if the doctor’s new prescription pads “go in anybody’s hands” but his.

Later, the doctor was stabbed by a Luchese associate on Grado’s orders, prosecutors said.

“Lucchese family member Grado imperiled our community, threatening a doctor to force him to write prescriptions for Oxycodone and then trafficking in the addictive drugs,” said Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue. “Violent threats to a doctor by Mafia defendants, combined with their trafficking of Oxycodone pills, posed an especially serious danger to our community.”

The defendants face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million when sentenced.

 

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NYC Man Celebrating Legal Win, Loses $96K Settlement in Romp With Prostitutes

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Cops say these three working girls were partying with the victim just before robbers stole his legal settlement cash

NEW YORK  — A man celebrating a $96,000 windfall from a legal settlement by frolicking with three prostitutes in a Bronx motel, lost it all when two armed, masked men barged in and stole the cash, police said.

Saul Mata Vellegas, 30, had the money with him in a suitcase at the Van Cortlandt Motel on Sunday night, when he called an escort service for some female companionship, cops said.

After partying with the women for a few hours, one of them suggested she call a friend to bring over some beer and cigarettes. But instead, two masked men brandishing guns showed up and snatched the cash.

“I am haunted by this,” Vellegas told the New York Post. “I keep playing it over in my mind. I was surprised they pulled a gun. I said ‘What is going on. I yelled help,help. I was depending on that money to move my family. I am nervous all the time now. I keep replaying it over and over. I see the weapon they used clearly over and over. I needed that money badly.”

Cops are hunting for both the suspected gunmen and the three women, who are wanted for questioning.

Police said Vellegas had received the cash as part of a settlement of a lawsuit involving a car accident.

 

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Woman Busted After Trying to Order Breakfast Sandwich at Jail Security Booth

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Lizabeth Ildefonso was busted after cops saw white powder on her nose while she tried to order a breakfast sandwich

RIVERHEAD, New York — Let me get a bacon, egg and cheese with a side of jail time.

Guards at a New York jail were stunned when a woman drove up to a security booth and tried to order a breakfast sandwich.

Suffolk County police say Lizabeth Ildefonso, 44, drove up to the Riverhead Correctional Facility Friday morning and attempted to place an order for a “bacon, egg and cheese.”

When told she was at the front gate of a jail, cops say Ildefonso insisted that she “really wanted a sandwich.”

The deputy manning the booth then noticed that Ildefonso’s eyes were dilated and glassy and that she allegedly had white powder residue on her left nostril.”

A further check revealed that she was also driving without a valid license. Ildefonso was arrested after failing to adequately perform a field sobriety test, and was charged with DWI.

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International Manhunt Launched For Suspect in Nursing Student Slay

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Nursing student Haley Anderson was found dead in her apartment on Friday

BINGHAMTON, New York — An international manhunt was launched for a former lover of an Upstate New York nursing student who was found murdered in her home, after police determined he had fled the country shortly before her body was found.

Haley Anderson, a 22-year-old nursing student at Binghamton University, was found dead in her off-campus apartment on Friday. On Saturday, police declared her death a homicide although they have yet to disclose how she died.

“This incident and the circumstances of the death was not a random act or involving the conduct of a stranger,” police said, according to the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin.

Police say one of her ex-boyfriends — a nursing student who has not yet been publicly named — is considered a person of interest in the case, but had left the country before police found Anderson’s body on Friday.

Police discovered Anderson’s body when asked to check on her by relatives after they hadn’t heard from her in a few days.

Anderson was expected to graduate in May

Anderson was a senior and was expected to graduate in May.

In a statement, the school said the “community is deeply saddened to learn of the death of senior nursing student Haley Anderson.”

“Our entire University community extends our deepest condolences to Haley’s family and friends, both here in Binghamton and in her hometown of Westbury, N.Y.,” the statement continued.

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