Hard Boiled News

True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Oregon Teens Busted for Trashing Cars In $30K Pumpkin-Smashing Spree

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Jacob Stephen Solomon (l) and Adrian Andres Ochoa have been charged with malicious pumpkin theft

GRANTS PASS, Oregon — Two dopey teens have been arrested after going on a weeks-long, drunken pumpkin-smashing spree that caused at least $30,000 in damages, police said.

Cops in Grants Pass, Oregon say Jacob Stephen Solomon and Adrian Andres Ochoa, both 19, had damaged at least 50 cars during the gourd-trashing fest that began Oct. 7 and ran until Oct. 23.

“It sounds like there was probably alcohol involved and just a bunch of stupid decisions,” Lt. Misty English told The Oregonian.

Police say Solomon and Ochoa would drive around town, often late at night, and snatch pumpkins from the outdoor Halloween displays of local supermarkets.

They would then hurl the ill-gotten gourds through car windows, pulverizing them and shattering the glass, cops said.

In all, the victims have reported up to $30,000 in damages, but police say that figure could go up.

English said the suspects were caught largely because they had been driving around in an easy to recognize gold Buick with a large dent in one side.

“That made it pretty easy to recognize,” English said.

The teens have been charged with multiple counts of criminal mischief.

 

Widow Sues Slain Hubby’s Lover for Not Hiding Affair From Murderous Ex

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Than Duy Kim blew his top when he caught his ex-wife having sex with her married lover at her Oregon nail salon

CORVALLIS, Oregon — An angry widow is suing her dead husband’s lover for $1 million, accusing her of negligently causing his death by not hiding their affair from her jealous ex, who beat the man to death when he caught them in the act.

In her suit, Lana Dong says nail salon owner Anh Tram Gia Phan should have known her ex-husband was extremely jealous of anyone she had a relationship with and was prone to extreme violence.

In December 2017, Phan’s ex, Than Duy Kim, caught her and Dong’s husband, 50-year-old Mitch Xuan Dong, having sex at her Corvallis, Oregon nail salon, the suit said.

Kim, 49, flew into a fight of rage and brutally beat Dong with a baseball bat and stabbed him several times. Dong died a week later from his injuries.

Even though Kim and Phan divorced in 2009, they continued to live together, and the suit claimed that she “knew or should have known” that her ex-husband was “extremely jealous” of any romantic relationships she had with other men, and had a predilection for “extreme violence.”

The suit also claims that Kim was involved in various criminal enterprises, including money laundering.

Lana Dong is seeking $1 million in damages for medical expenses and funeral costs — plus the loss of society, companionship and services to herself and the two children she had with her slain husband, with whom she had been married to for 30 years.

The suit also named Kim as a defendant. He is being held on $3 million bond in the Benton County jail as he awaits trial for murder.

 

Fugitive Eco-Terrorist Nabbed In Cuba After 12 Years On the Run

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Fugitive Joseph Mahmoud Dibee was last seen in the U.S. in 2005.

PORTLAND, Oregon  — One of the last remaining fugitive members of a dangerous eco-terrorist group behind a string of arson fires that caused millions of dollars in damage has been caught after more than a decade on the lam, the FBI said.

Joseph Mahmoud Dibee, 50, was apprehended after investigators got a tip he was traveling through Central America on his way to Russia with a planned stop in Cuba, according to court documents.

With the help of Cuban authorities, Dibee was arrested there before boarding a plane bound for Moscow and was then sent back to the United States to face justice.

Dibee was a member of “The Family,” a notorious band of environmental radicals who set more than 40 arson fires at development sites in the Western United States between1995 and 2001. The fires caused more than $45 million in damages, with a 1998 arson attack on a ski resort in Vail, Colorado its most brazen act. That blaze caused $26 million in damages.

A fire set by The Family at a Vail, Colorado ski resort in 1998

Dibee fled the U.S. in December 2005. The following year, he was indicted along with 11 co-conspirators and has been on the run since.

“The crimes they committed were serious and dangerous,” said Special Agent Tim Suttles, who has been working on the investigation since 2004. “Just because time passes doesn’t mean the FBI forgets. We are very gratified to have Dibee in custody.”

Dibee’s capture leaves one fugitive from the group still at large. Josephine Sunshine Overaker, a U.S. citizen believed to be either 43 or 46 years old, fled to Europe in late 2001 and hasn’t been seen since.

“She’s the last one,” Suttles said, explaining that Overaker faces 19 felony counts in Oregon, Colorado, and Washington State. “We will continue to pursue her and to run down every lead that comes to us. We’re not going to give up just because time has passed.”

Fugitive Child Rapists Caught After Nearly 20 Years on the Run

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Fugitive couple Victoria Michelle Cravitz (l) and Leon Henry Shaw had been on the run since 1999

PORTLAND, Oregon — A fugitive couple wanted in Oregon on numerous child rape charges who had been on the run for nearly 20 years were found in Mississippi after the man died and his common-law wife tried to arrange his funeral, officials said.

Authorities finally zeroed in on the couple after the woman gave an undertaker a known alias used by Leon Henry Shaw, and realized he was on the FBI’s most wanted list.

Federal agents then swooped in and arrested Victoria Michelle Cravitz, the Associated Press reported. She had been living under the name of Jennifer Larsen.

The arrest brings to an end a chilling tale that dates back to 1999 when people who said they had earlier been abused by Shaw and Cravitz as children, went to authorities and said they were worried that three other children still living with the couple would also be molested.

Investigators determined the abuse had gone on for at least a decade.

Shaw and Cravitz were charged with multiple counts of rape and sodomy for forcing two children under the age of 10 to have sex with each other, prosecutors said. One of the children was also raped by an adult, they said.

During the  investigation, prosecutors say another woman came forward to say she had been kidnapped by the couple at a young age and had given birth to a child with Shaw. The young woman later escaped but her son remained in the house, prosecutors said.

The FBI had searched for years for the fugitives, but there were few leads and no  breakthroughs, until now.

“They had been on the run for a long time. They always lived in rural areas,” Klamath County District Attorney Eve Costello said. “They didn’t have a lot of contact with people and they moved constantly.”

The couple apparently had been living south of Greenville, Mississippi, for about 15 years before Shaw, now 72, developed a serious infection and Cravitz took him to a Mississippi hospital, where he died of natural causes.

Cravitz used an alias while making his funeral arrangements, which triggered an FBI flag when the undertaker tried to prepare a death certificate.

Faith-Healing Parents Get 7 Years for Letting Newborn Daughter Die

By HardBoiledNews Staff

This couple refused to get medical help for their dying daughter on religious grounds

OREGON CITY, Oregon  — A mom and dad pair of followers of a faith-healing sect have been sentenced to nearly seven years in prison for letting their newborn daughter die without seeking medical help.

Travis Lee Mitchell, 22, and Sarah Elaine Mitchell, 25, both pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide and first-degree criminal mistreatment in the March 2017 death of one of their twin daughters.

The Mitchells were members of the Followers of Christ Church, a pentecostal sect, and others from the congregation were present for the births. The church is estimated to have around 1,500 followers in all.

Authorities say Sarah Mitchell gave birth to the twins at her parents’ home in Oregon City, but one of the babies was suffering from breathing complications and died. Afterwards, a church elder contacted the coroner but no one called 911.

The second baby also needed medical help but managed to survive only after authorities convinced the family to allow the child to be taken to a hospital.

The medical examiner determined that the cause of death was due to complications stemming from premature birth.

The Mitchells were each sentenced to six years and eight months in prison. They agreed to sign a letter stating, “We should have sought adequate medical care for our children and everyone in the church should always seek adequate medical care for our children.” The letter will be posted within church facilities, prosecutors said.

The little girl’s death marked the fourth time in recent years that prosecutors have brought charges against church followers for failing to get medical help for their children.

In 2011, Sarah Mitchell’s sister and her husband, Shannon and Dale Hickman, were convicted of manslaughter and sentences to six years for failing to get help for their severely premature daughter.

Three other families connected to the church have been convicted on similar charges since 2009.

 

Oregon Motorcyclist Killed After Colliding With Bear

By HardBoiledNews Staff

A bear, like this one, was also killed in the crash

WARM SPRINGS, Oregon — He met a grizzly fate.

An unlucky motorcyclist was killed after hitting a bear on an Oregon highway and then being thrown into the path  of an oncoming car, police said.

Authorities say 39-year-old Rhett Larsen was driving along Highway 26 in Warm Springs Saturday night, when he struck and killed a large bear that was in the roadway.

Larsen, a firefighter in Bend, Oregon, was thrown from his bike and into the opposite lane where he was hit by an oncoming SUV that was pulling a utility trailer.

The SUV, driven by 57-year-old Margaret Sweo, went off the road and rolled onto its side, cops said.

Larsen was declared dead at the scene, and Sweo was transported by a helicopter to a nearby hospital

15-Year-Old Girl Shoots 56-Year-Old Man She Met on Sugar Daddy Site

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Raelyn Domingo, 15, shot her sugar daddy

BEAVERTON, Oregon — She was perhaps a little too hot to trot.

A 15-year-old girl has been charged with shooting an Oregon man in the stomach after meeting him on a sugar daddy website, cops said.

Raelyn Domingo, had come to 56-year-old Thomas Licata’s home last week after they connected on the “Seeking Arrangement” website that connects young women with men willing to hand over cash and gifts in exchange for companionship.

But after getting high with Licata, cops say she went to use the bathroom and then came out and shot him in the stomach.

“From what we know, she shot him unprovoked,” Deputy Jeff Talbot, a Washington County Sheriff’s office spokesman told the Oregonian newspaper.

Domingo, who attended Heritage High School in Vancouver, had advertised on the site under the profile name “asianperssuasion.”

The two meet last week Friday and were hanging out in Licata’s music room, where he paid her $260 and gave her seltzer to drink, he told cops. The two them smoked cannabis out of a vape pen.

After Domingo shot Licata in the stomach, she demanded more cash, but he didn’t have any, so she fled. He was then rushed to an area hospital.

Cops say that hours later, Domingo and three masked men robbed two people at gunpoint in their home. Investigators finally caught up with her on Wednesday in Washington state, and placed her under arrest.

Oregon Man Angered by Noisy Kids Opens Fire on Family With AK-47

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Franklin Tomes apparently doesn’t like kids

NEWPORT, Oregon — A thin-skinned man irritated by noisy kids upstairs, blew his top and opened fire at his neighbors with an AK-47, wounding two men, cops said.

Franklin Tomes, 59, is accused of attempted murder in the shootings, which struck the two men, but also sprayed bullets into the apartment where the kids live.

According to the Newport police, Tomes was angry about the noise 20-year-old Jose Gaeta’s kids were making, and got into argument with the father in the apartment parking lot.

Tomes then grabbed the assault rifle from his car, and pointed the gun at Gaeta and his pal, Tristan Smith. Tomes opened fire as the two men ran away, police said.

Gaeta was hit in both legs and on one of his feet, and Smith was struck in the shoulder. Both men were taken to a hospital and are expected to survive, police said

After the shooting, Tomes barricaded himself in his apartment and remained there until he eventually surrendered about five hours later, police said.

The gun was found inside his apartment.

Tomes was also charged with first-degree assault, unlawful use of a weapon and reckless endangerment.

Oregon Thief Nabbed With More than $50,000 Worth of Stolen Lego

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Cops say they found a stunning amount of stolen Lego in Raji Afife Azar’d home

PORTLAND, Oregon — That’s a lot of Lego.

An Oregon man has been charged with running a theft operation that netted more than $50,000 worth of Lego and other items from Portland-area stores.

Portland police say Raji Afife Azar, 40, would enlist drug addicts to shoplift toys from shops like Fred Meyer. He would pay them a fraction of the retail cost and then sell the items for substantially more on sites like Craigslist and eBay.

Investigators began tracking Azar earlier this year when store detectives from Fred Meyer learned that he was running a fencing operation dealing in stolen merchandise.

Undercover Portland police detectives eventually made contact with Azar to purportedly sell him stolen goods, and then busted him on April 26 after making the exchange.

Raji Afife Azar

When they executed a search warrant on his family’s home,  they discovered a huge stash of stolen Lego and other merchandise. Cops estimated the value of the goods stolen from Fred Meyer alone at $50,000.

Investigators warn that items sold online as “new” or in unopened packages with prices that seem too good to be true, might be stolen.

 

Construction Worker Charged With Attempted Murder in Brutal Nail Gun Attack

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Jesus Ascencio Molina allegedly snapped and let his nail gun do the talking in a fight with a coworker

HAPPY VALLEY, Oregon — An out-of-control construction worker has been charged with attempted murder in a vicious nail gun attack that left a coworker riddled with wounds, police said.

Witnesses say Jesus Ascencio Molina, 24, “just snapped” and turned the pneumatic framing nail gun on his colleague on Friday as they were building a house in Oregon.

The victim was shot several times in the shoulder, back and neck and had to be airlifted to a nearby hospital, the Clackamas County Sheriff’s office said.

Another worker at the house told KGW-TV that they had just been wrapping up at the house and were preparing to move to another site, when Molina picked up the nail gun and started shooting.

The witness said the victim picked up a power saw and turned it on in an effort to defend himself, but it was too late.

Molina ran into the woods after the attack but was arrested a day later. He has been charged with attempted murder and was held on $250,000 bond.