Christmas Gone Wrong: Dumb Criminals Part 5

I have missed learning about some of the many dumb criminals out there, so thought it was time to come back and do one more before the year was up.  Tragically, the vast amount of dumb criminals on a day to day basis would enable me to write these blogs for a very long time without running out of stories.  Today I decided to focus on dumb criminals that messed up celebratory occasions.

To start us off I want to talk about 34 year old Krysta James.  She was charged with stabbing her fiance' in a fight over the wedding color schematic.  Now I know that this can be a stressful time, but the worst person you can stab would be the man that is about to marry your crazy ass, pick someone less likely to mess up the rest of your life, such as the caterer ;)  Oh, and did I mention that this also happened on Christmas Day.  Merry Christmas to you haha.

You can read the full story at: Woman stabs man during domestic dispute

Decorating the tree with family should be a happy time...  but not if there is only an ornament with your brother's name and none with yours according to Lewis Atwood.  Atwood was charged with assaulting his mother while decorating the Christmas tree once he discovered that there was in fact NO ornament celebrating his name.  This caused him to punch his mother in the face four or five times.  Apparently he was intoxicated at the time and lead to a misdemeanor assault charge.  I have a feeling that one of his previous outbursts had caused his mother to long ago smash the ornament with his name on it....

The full story can be found here: Man attacked mother in Christmas ornament dispute

If you are a marijuana user, wouldn't you want some as a Christmas present.  Apparently Randy Jesus Valdiva thought this was a very clever way to smuggle marijuana, by placing it in Christmas presents.  This was no small operation however, he had 20 pounds worth of marijuana in large boxes that were wrapped to resemble Christmas presents.  He was stopped by police as they said that he had criminal indicators and he allowed them to search his van.  Inside the presents was enough marijuana for a street value of $160,000.  It could have been a great plan if he wouldn't have gotten stopped.

The full story: Man smuggling marijuana in Christmas presents

Christmas tree decorating can be dangerous business.  In South Carolina a huge fight ensued among three sisters over Christmas tree decorating as a result of two sisters starting to decorate while the third was still at work.  The women were aged 24, 61 and 76.  A male relative tried to calm the tensions, but things escalated from there.  As a result there was yelling and shoving by all, enough so that at some point the police were called.  No charges were brought but the incident still shows how important Christmas tree decorating can really be.

View the story and police report here: Christmas tree decoration fight

And last but most certainly not least is the most heinous of all: A South Carolina woman,Patty White,  who has confessed to killing a family friend and burying her under the Christmas presents...  Why might someone do such an awful thing?  Apparently over some money, she killed her and then stole some debit cards and tried to get cash out of her accounts.   The woman who was killed, Michele O'Dowd was letting White stay with her because she had fallen on some hard times.  What better way to say thank you for having such a kind heart, and a Merry Christmas to you.  :(

The story can be found here: Woman buried under Christmas presents


You can find the previous Dumb Criminal Articles here:

Social Networking Gone Wrong

Women on a Rampage

Robbers at their "Best"

Incriminating Themselves

Incriminating Themselves: Dumb Criminals Part 1

Many criminals end up self incriminating themselves.  The other day I read about a gang member that was caught due to the intricate detail of a tattoo on his own body about a murder he has committed that had been unsolved for years.  Now there is another man whose rap lyrics led to an arrest.... A girl who posted a YouTube video bragging about robbing a bank... Are these people too over-confident or too ignorant to keep from getting caught?  Or are they just ready to be caught?  Not that I don't want criminals to pay for their crimes, but these people are one short cry from the Darwin awards?  *The Darwin awards are presented each year about people who die or come close to death due to their own stupidity.

First I am going to go over the rap lyrics that lead to an arrest in an unsolved murder in Virginia.  Police were able to solve a double murder from 2007 due to rap lyrics, within these lyrics the rapper Twain Gotti aka Antwain Steward made a song describing the murder.  The song was called "Ride Out" and lyrics are as follows: “Listen, walk to your boy and I approached him, 12 midnight on his traphouse porch and everybody saw when I [expletive] smoked him, roped him, sharpened up the shank then I poked him, 357 Smith & Wesson [unintelligible] scoped him,” Police believe that this was a gang related killing and Mr. Steward was already considered a subject but until he incriminated himself in the song there was not enough evidence to tie him to the murder.   I also want to point out the fact that the gang he was affiliated with was called Wickzoo....  Need I say more?  For the full story you can follow the link: Rap lyrics lead to arrest in unsolved murder

 

News video featuring part of the song "Ride Out"

Now let's talk about stupid criminals and tattoos.  Recently a gang member was picked up on a minor offense and had his tattoos photographed for record.  He was apparently so proud and confident of his work in the unsolved murder that he had many details unreleased to the public graphically depicted within his tattoo.  Unfortunately for him a detective that had worked on the original unsolved case happened to now be working in the department that had photographed his tattoos and came across the incriminating evidence.   This man was in a Los-Angeles gang called Rivera-13(affiliated with MS-13?)  The murder occurred in 2004 at a liquor store and the tattoo graphically showed specific lighting around the store and depicted a peanut being killed (peanuts are routinely used to represent rival gang members).  The tattoo also shows a chopper gunning down the peanut.  The man Anthony Garcia went by the name Chopper in his gang. 

"Each key detail was right there: the Christmas lights that lined the roof of the liquor store where 23-year-old John Juarez was gunned down, the direction his body fell, the bowed street lamp across the way and the street sign — all under the chilling banner of RIVERA KILLS, a reference to the gang Rivera-13.
As if to seal the deal, below the collarbone of the gang member known by the alias "Chopper" was a miniature helicopter raining down bullets on the scene." Shortly after being picked up and taken to the police station he confessed to the killing.  For the full story you can see: gang tattoo leads to arrest or also los angeles gang member convicted on tattoo

Moving on to a Nebraska teen who was convicted of robbing a bank thanks to a YouTube video she uploaded about it.  She titled the video "Chick Bank Robbery."   In the video she brags about stealing a car as well as robbing the bank.  To further self incriminate herself she shows off the money that she got from the bank (over $6K) as well as showing her smoking a full bowl of weed in the video.  She must have made the video right away because apparently she is wearing the same clothes in the YouTube video that she wore when she robbed the bank.  The video is a written confession to the crime and claims to be a victim of the government.  In the written confession she decides to mention "fun facts" about herself including the facts that she is married, pregnant, and has AIDS. 
You can read the full story here: Chick Bank Robber

"Chick Bank Robber"