SEE ALSO: How Racism Created Poverty

According to reports, Issac stole keys to Delores Gillespie’s apartment and repeatedly jammed the locks every time she changed them.

Issac claims she owed him more than $2,100 for odd jobs he did in her apartment, but according to members of the victims family, Issac apparently snapped when she refused to pay him anything after she caught him stealing her belongings.

Maurice Gillespie, 37, Norris’ dad, said his mother “put tape on her door” to check if anyone had opened it while she was out, and “changed the locks every two weeks.”

RELATED:

Man Drives 225 Miles With Dead Wife

Brittany Murphy Killed By Mold?!

SEE ALSO: Man Stabbed At Airport, Gets On Flight Anyway

Tommie Caldwell, 63, was fatally shot when robbers entered the northwest Detroit home he shared with his wife.

Caldwell was forced back into his home by a gunman Wednesday morning as he exited to head to work.

According to reports, Caldwell struggled with the man and begged him not to hurt his wife before he was fatally wounded. His 64-year-old wife, Alberta Caldwell, was spared.

“He begged them not to hurt her because she’s in remission,” Alberta Caldwell’s sister Ethel Jackson said, explaining that Alberta has been battling breast cancer. “He told her that they were being robbed.”

Read more at the Detroit Free Press.

RELATED:

Pizza Delivery Heist?!

Hacker Steals A Half Million From Rich White Lady

See also: Ohio Craigslist Murders: Second Body Identified

See also: The Top 5 Unsolved Hip-Hop Murders

David Clarke, the ex-murder suspect released from Rikers Island in March after a jury overturned his 2007 murder conviction, was shot and killed in what his family described as a penny-ante neighborhood beef unrelated to his conviction.

“Four years in Rikers, to come here and die in eight months? Why would God do that? It’s not even fair,” cried his mother, Anne Smith. “He was 23 years old. How do you die at 23?”

Read more at the New York Daily News.

A jury in Newark found Lee Evans not guilty of 10 murder-related counts in the deaths of the teens.

Evans represented himself and denied killing the boys.

Prosecutors sought to prove that Evans planned to kill the teenagers as payback for breaking into his apartment and stealing a pound of marijuana a week before they vanished. Evans, who ran a handyman business, often hired the teens for odd jobs and paid them in marijuana, prosecutors said.

The case largely hinged on the prosecution’s star witness, Evans’ cousin Philander Hampton, who agreed to testify after pleading guilty in exchange for a 10-year prison sentence and $15,000 in relocation money. It was Hampton’s comments to authorities in 2008 that helped revive the long-dormant case.

Hampton testified that Evans was angry about the marijuana theft and was bent on retaliation. Hampton said he helped Evans lure the teens to a vacant Newark house after asking them to help move some boxes but then herded them into a closet and secured the door with a 6-inch nail. He said Evans poured gasoline around the perimeter, demanded that Hampton give him a match and set the house ablaze.

The bodies of 17-year-olds Melvin Pittman and Ernest Taylor and 16-year-olds Alvin Turner, Randy Johnson and Michael McDowell were never found. The boys were reported missing after the fire, and authorities at the time never connected the two events or examined the fire site as a crime scene.

The case, originally classified as a missing-persons case, went cold for decades until a pair of Newark detectives on the cusp of retirement decided to rework it as an unsolved homicide.

Several family members of the missing teenagers, many of whom attended every day of Evans’ trial, said they had long believed Evans had killed their loved ones.

Evans and the attorney assisting him, Bukie Adetula, said the scenario to which Hampton testified would have been impossible and pointed out Hampton’s criminal record and inconsistencies in his testimony.

Evans said he had lived and worked openly in the same community near Newark in the bordering city of Irvington, where many of the victims’ families lived, and emphasized that fact as proof that he had nothing to hide.

Here are five of numerous professional athletes charged with murder.

See Also:

See Also: Black Travel: How About Europe And A Stop In Barcelona

5. Robert Rozier

Robert Rozier was born in Alaska and played six games for the St. Louis Cardinals in the NFL as a defensive end. After leaving the NFL, Rozier would join Yahweh Ben Yahweh’s  ”The Brotherhood,” a Black supremacist cult. He would later admit to killing seven people and testify against leader, Ben Yahweh. Rozier was then placed in the witness protection program; and would later be convicted for writing bad checks and is currently in jail.

4. Mark Rogowski

Mark Rogowski was a professional skateboarder and child icon. In the early eighties, he and Tony Hawk helped popularize skateboarding as a sport. But in 1991, Rogowski became popular for something that isn’t looked upon in a positive manner. He admitted to raping and murdering a friend of his ex-girlfriend as an act of revenge against his ex.

He was sentenced to 31 years in prison.

3. Rubin “Hurricane” Carter

Rubin “Hurricane” Carter was a middleweight boxer who would be charged with murder in New Jersey for a shooting at a bar.

Despite questionable evidence and testimony, Carter was convicted of murder in 1967. After the conviction,  Muhammed Ali, Bob Dylan and several other activists, athletes and artists took up his cause and Carter was released from prison after a new trial in 1985.

His story was made into a movie starring Denzel Washington.

2. Rae Carruth

Rae Carruth was a wide receiver for the Carolina Panthers who would be charged and convicted of conspiracy to commit murder for setting up the killing of a pregnant girlfriend.

Carruth went on the run and attempted to escape the law, but would be captured hiding in the trunk of a car outside a motel in Tennessee.

1. O.J. Simpson

O.J. Simpson was charged with murdering his wife Nicole Brown Simpson in 1994. After a very high profile case, Simpson would be found not guilty in what many called “The Trial of the Century.”

Later, Simpson would be found liable for wrongful death in civil court, and was ordered to pay $33.5 million. After writing a book titled, “If I Did It,” Simpson would be convicted of armed robbery and kidnapping in a case involving his own memorabilia.

Police claim that Manigault was killed by his girlfriend’s ex lover, 22-year-old Marco Cardenas who had broken into their home.

Omarosa Wants To Tie The Knot With New Boyfriend Michael Clarke Duncan

Omarosa From “The Apprentice” Is Entering Seminary

Reuters reports:

Cardenas went past two juveniles who were in the home and entered the bedroom, where several shots were fired, police said. Manigault ran from the room and collapsed from a gunshot wound to his head, they said.

Vindy.com, a Youngstown news site, said Manigault’s 34-year-old girlfriend had told police that Cardenas hit her on the head with the gun and tried to shoot Manigault again before the two juveniles forced him out of the house.

Read More At Reuters

EMS responders were transporting 72-year-old Virginia Samuelson from her car to an ambulance to treat injuries she suffered from a fight with her son Shaun Samuelson, 45, when he intentionally ran her over with his truck.

They tried pulling the stretcher Samuelson was on, but were not able to in time. The car hit her before hitting a police car. Virginia Samuelson was pronounced dead at the scene.

Read more at kvue.com.

RELATED:

Mass. Police Kill Unarmed Grandfather In Police Raid

Father Threatens To Kill Black Students For Talking To Daughter

Blake was gunned down May 14, 2010, on Mack and St. Jean after arguing with Owens, 35, outside a party store.

Father of Aiyana Jones Charged with Murder: MyFoxDETROIT.com

Two days after the murder, Detroit police– accompanied by a reality TV camera crew– raided a home looking for Blake’s killer. Detroit Police Officer Joseph Weekly fired the shot that hit and killed Jones’ daughter. Owens made a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty to second degree murder in exchange for testifying against Jones.

“He’s innocent,” shouted Jones’ family and friends outside the courtroom Wednesday. “I believe Detroit Police are trying to cover something up… trying to justify the way they went into that home,”

Jones’ friend Monzure Rudolph tells Fox 2. Blake’s mother, Lavonne Cargill, was also in the courtroom. She believes police have the right man and wants people to remember that amid all the controversy, her son lost his life,

“I just want justice for my son. Justice served for my son, and I don’t want [anybody] to forget about my son because it started off with him.”

In addition to first degree murder charges, Jones is also facing weapons and habitual offender charges. He faces life in prison if convicted. He’s currently being held without bond and will be back in court in November.

By pleading guilty Friday, Brittany Smith, 24, admitted she hid the gun used in the shooting of Justin Cosby and helped three men involved in the killing elude authorities and flee to New York City.

Smart Black Girls, Dumb Thugs, Drugs, Guns And Murder

Jabrai Copney Sentenced To Life For Harvard Murder

Prosecutors said Cosby, 21, was shot during an attempted robbery by Smith’s former boyfriend, Jabrai Jordan Copney, and two other New York City men.

Under a plea agreement, Smith pleaded guilty to several charges including accessory after the fact to assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

As part of the deal, prosecutors agreed to drop a charge of accessory after the fact to murder.

Copney was convicted of first-degree murder in Cosby’s death and is serving a life sentence.

Prosecutors said Copney pretended to be a Harvard student who wanted to buy marijuana from Cosby.

They said Copney, along with friends Blayn Jiggetts and Jason Aquino, lured Cosby to the basement of the dorm, where Copney shot him when he refused to hand over the marijuana. None of the men attended Harvard.

Assistant District Attorney Daniel Bennett said that after the shooting, when the men returned to Smith’s dorm room, she hid the 9mm semiautomatic handgun used in the shooting, then hailed the men a cab to the bus station. Bennett said Smith bought bus tickets for all three men and herself, then took a bus to New York City with them.

Bennett said Smith lied to police and later a grand jury to protect her boyfriend, Copney.

“All she had to do was tell the truth. All she had to do was accept responsibility,” Bennett said.

“She hasn’t accepted responsibility at all at any time in this case.”

Justin Cosby’s mother, Denise Cosby, called Smith “the nucleus of this whole catastrophe” and asked Judge Kathe Tuttman to give her a stiff sentence.

“In my opinion, you are just as responsible for my son’s death as the shooter. The only thing you didn’t do was pull the trigger,” she said during a victim impact statement she made before sentencing.

Smith did not offer a statement or show any visible emotion during the sentencing hearing. Before the hearing, she kissed and said “I love you” to her family, seated in the front row of the courtroom.

Smith’s lawyer, John Osler, said Smith didn’t help plan the robbery and didn’t participate in Cosby’s murder.

“There is no act alleged in any one of these indictments against Miss Smith that bears any causal relationship to the death of Justin Cosby,” Osler said.

“This is a young woman who made some big mistakes beginning the moment her boyfriend walked back into that room with a gun in his hand,” he said.

Smith, who was also from New York City, was 22 and weeks away from graduating from Harvard when Cosby was killed. After the shooting, Smith was suspended and not allowed to graduate.

Prosecutors asked for a sentence of five to seven years while the defense asked for 18 months.

Tuttman sentenced Smith to three years to three years and a day, a sentence that effectively means she won’t be eligible for parole.

Studies of these crime trends always make for good news headlines because it always makes you wonder “How is this happening?!”

Here’s a list of 8 crime studies and facts that will baffle you.

1. Disney-Made Town Had No Murders For 14 Years

Celebration, Florida, coined “Town that Disney built,” was as perfect as its name for over a decade, until a 58 year-old man was strangled to death in his home over Thanksgiving weekend 2010. The murder went unsolved for almost a week until a 28-year-old homeless man was charged with the crime. Although the crime was a tragic event in this immaculate community’s history, I cannot deny that this incident reminded me of Disney’s children’s movie “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.”

2. The 2010 Super Bowl Was Predicted To Attract 10,000 Prostitutes

A study conducted by the Dallas Women’s Foundation about the commercial sexual exploitation of children caused authorities and the media to go into a frenzy about the dangers of human sex trafficking at the Super Bowl last year. Police, advocacy groups, and the media took this information and ran with it, some calling the Super Bowl “a hot bed of underage prostitution“  — but was that what the study exactly meant? After further investigation, many journalists found that there were few to no reports of child prostitution in the past at Super Bowl’s, and there wasn’t much data that could prove that prostitutes attended the Super Bowl.

3. Traffic Crashes Cost More Than Crime In Michigan

Traffic crashes in Michigan cost $9.1 billion — $4.7 billion more than the cost of all crimes in the state, according to a study of the comprehensive costs in 2009. This is mostly due to the fact that Michigan is a No-Fault State, meaning car insurance companies must pay most of the economic losses you suffer in an automobile accident, regardless of who was at fault.

4. Over $35 Million Were Taken During Bank Robberies Last Year

5. Alabama Judges Push For Death Penalties

7. 95% of Music Downloads Are Pirated

8. “Driving While Black” (DWB) Traffic-Stops Do Happen

According to a study released by the Illinois Department of Transportation, after a traffic stop, minority drivers are more likely to receive traffic tickets and have their vehicles searched by police. This study proved that some police do violate the law, and the “Driving while Black” notion does hold some truth.