Phony Tombstones Used in Houston as Scarecrow for Vagrants

KTRK/ABC News(HOUSTON) -- A Houston property owner has installed headstones to help keep vagrants from loitering on his land.

Three headstones were installed about a year ago in a grassy lot of land that sits in the shadow of Houston’s skyscrapers, at the corner of Houston Avenue and North Memorial Way.  Fernando Villa, a tow truck driver, told ABC News affiliate KTRK-TV that he witnessed the installation of the phony headstones.

“I saw them putting a fence up, and about maybe two to three months later, the headstones are put up,” Davilla said.  “I knew what it was.  I didn’t see any burials or anything.  There were no bodies there.  But it’s to keep the vagrants out of here because they were always sleeping right there.”

But it turns out the headstones, which were rejects from a local monument company inscribed with “Johnny Mack Chappell,” “Dee Brown Hancock, 1922-1973,” and “Sandra Ruth Howen, 1939-1986″ -- were for real people.

The owner of the property, who spoke anonymously with KTRK, said that he was unaware that the tombstones were of real, deceased people.  He said that he regrets it.

Wayne Chappell, the brother of Johnny Mack Chappell, told ABC News that the remaining family members are tickled by the news of the fake tombstone.  He said his brother would get a kick out of the whole situation -- though Johnny Mack would likely befriend the vagrants.

“He would get his friends and have a beer party next to it or something,” Wayne Chappell said.

Johnny Mack, who his brother said died on Dec. 23, 1986, of hardening of the arteries, was a high school fullback who went on to coach.  The two grew up only three miles away from where Johnny Mack’s phony tombstone sits.

Wayne, who now lives near Fort Hood, Texas, said that he has noticed that his childhood neighborhood on the outskirts of downtown Houston, amidst the roping highways and interchanges heading out of town, has changed over the years since he and his brother grew up there.

Wayne said the only issue he does have with the tombstone is what it’s being used for.

“You’re kind of underneath the highway there.  That’s always been the hobo area,” he said.  “I can understand wanting to clean up your area.  I’m just curious what [the property owner] might have done to help the vagrants.”

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Fort Campbell Sexual Harassment Manager Arrested

Comstock/Thinkstock(FORT CAMPBELL, Ky.) -- An Army lieutenant colonel in charge of the sexual-assault prevention office at Fort Campbell, Ky., has been removed from his job after his arrest for allegations that he violated a protection order filed by his former wife.

It is the third high-profile incident in 10 days involving alleged misconduct by a military official charged with preventing sexual assaults.

A statement by the Fort Campbell Public Affairs Office confirmed that Lt. Col. Darin Haas was immediately removed from his position in charge of the post’s Fort Campbell Sexual Harassment and Assault Response Prevention/Equal Opportunity office.

Haas’s removal was prompted by an investigation by the Clarksville Police Department and the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office into alleged violations of a protection order requested by his former wife.

"From our understanding, Lt. Col. Haas is in a conflict with his ex-wife based on a contentious divorce, and both have mutual orders of protection against each other. The ongoing investigation is to determine whether or not he violated the actual provisions of the Order of Protection that applies to him,” Fort Campbell Public Affairs Office said in the statement.

Haas was to retire soon and his replacement will assume his duties immediately, the statement said. A telephone listing for Haas could not immediately be found.

“Because the investigation is being conducted by a civilian law enforcement agency, Fort Campbell is not the lead investigative agency for this case and will await the results of civilian court proceedings before taking action,” the statement read.

The development came just hours after President Obama met at the White House with top Pentagon officials to discuss sexual assault in the military.  Present for the meeting were Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the service secretaries and the senior enlisted advisers for each service.

Obama said there is “no silver bullet” to solving sexual assaults in the military, but vowed to leave “no stone unturned” in order to fix the problem.

The president said the senior military members he’d met with were upset by what Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey has recently labeled “a crisis.”

“They’re angry about it, and I heard directly from all of them that they’re ashamed by some of what’s happened,” Obama said.

Hagel Tuesday ordered the immediate retraining, recredentialing and rescreening of all sexual-assault prevention and response personnel and military recruiters after two high-profile incidents that sparked outrage on Capitol Hill.

A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation Thursday that would take the prosecution of sexual assaults in the military out of the chain of command and place it under the jurisdiction of military prosecutors.  It would also prevent military commanders from handling the cases of their subordinates.

“The issue of sexual violence is not new. It has been allowed to go in the shadows for far too long,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., the bill’s sponsor, said in a news conference Thursday.  “Enough is enough. It’s time to change this system that has been held over since George Washington that is simply not working today for the men and women who are serving.”

Survivors of sexual assault in the military have long advocated for such action because they believe the system prevents some from reporting their assaults out of fear of retaliation.

“When any single victim of sexual assault is forced to salute her attacker, clearly our system is broken,” Gillibrand said.

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Accused Kidnapper Ariel Castro Preyed on Daughters' Friends, Emily Castro Says

Bill Pugliano/Getty Images(CLEVELAND) -- Ariel Castro, the man accused of kidnapping three women and keeping them imprisoned in his home for a decade, stalked the neighborhood where his daughters lived and preyed on the girls' friends, his daughter says.

Two of his alleged victims, Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry, went to school with Castro's two daughters and the four girls all knew each other, his daughter Emily told a private investigator in a recorded jailhouse interview obtained by ABC News.

"It couldn't be coincidence," Emily Castro told private eye Chris Giannini of her father's decision to allegedly target two girls his daughters knew.

Emily Castro is serving a 25-year prison sentence for stabbing her own infant daughter in 2011.

At the time of her 2003 abduction, Berry lived just a few houses down the block from the home in which Castro's daughters lived with their mother and stepfather. And Emily's sister Arlene was the last person to see DeJesus before she disappeared.

Berry, now 26, and Emily, now 25, attended school together. "I went to Wilbur Wright [Middle School] with her," Emily Castro told Giannini.

She said she was bothered that her father allegedly "used" her and her sister to look for victims on their street where they lived and played.

"He would come to his own kids' neighborhood, not his own. I'm not saying he should have done it all. I'm saying he didn't consider anything about us being his kids. He didn't consider that he's not only doing [kidnapping children] but he's hurting us," Emily Castro said.

She said she had seen DeJesus, a close friend of her younger sister, "a couple times" and spoke to her on the phone on the night before she was abducted.

Arlene Castro was the last person to see DeJesus on the day in 2004 that she vanished. The two wanted to go home together after school, and DeJesus lent her friend 50 cents for a pay phone call to ask her mother for permission, which was denied. DeJesus would normally have used that money for the bus, but instead she walked. It was on that walk she was allegedly abducted by Castro.

"I didn't want to believe they were connected," Emily Castro said upon learning that both girls she knew growing up had been living in captivity in a home owned by her father.

She said her father was routinely abusive of her mother Grimilda Figueroa, even beating her once while her mother was recovering from brain surgery. During the incident Emily Castro said she jumped on her father's back, stabbing him with a pencil in an effort to get him to stop.

Ariel Castro was arrested following that incident, but the charges were later dropped.

Despite the violence Castro alleged aimed at her mother, Emily Castro said her father never abused her or her siblings. She said Ariel Castro doted on his daughters and was overprotective. He insisted the girls cover up in public, wearing shorts under their skirts, T-shirts over their bathing suits and never change in front of him.

Castro, she said, even insisted his daughters shower "with underwear on" when he was in the house.

Emily said she had no knowledge of her father's alleged crimes and would have called the police herself had she known anything.

"I didn't know, I didn't have any knowledge at all. It is unbelievable," she said.

Along with Berry and DeJesus, Castro allegedly kidnapped a third woman, Michelle Knight, in 2003. The three women escaped last week when a neighbor heard Berry screaming and helped kick in the home's front door.

Castro has been charged with kidnapping and rape. Additional charges are expected, including counts that could carry the death penalty. He has not entered a plea.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Arrests Made in New Orleans Mother's Day Parade Shooting

Photodisc/Digital Vision/Thinkstock(NEW ORLEANS) -- Two brothers are under arrest in connection with last Sunday's Mother's Day parade shooting in New Orleans that left 19 people wounded.

Shawn Scott, 24, was taken into custody on Thursday while his 19-year-old brother, Akein Scott, was apprehended late Wednesday.  Each faces 20 counts of attempted murder and both are being held on $10 million bond.

Meanwhile, four other people were arrested and charged with hiding the two suspects from police.

Police say the Scott brothers opened fire during a second-line parade that follows a brass band.  Approximately 400 people were taking part in the event when gun shots rang out, causing a stampede.

A video taken at the scene apparently showed Akein Scott fleeing the scene following the shooting.

Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas said Akein Scott has previous arrests on gun and drug charges and was already free on $15,000 bail when he allegedly opened fire on the parade.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Boston Bombing: FBI Questions Former Chechen Rebel in US

FBI(MANCHESTER, N.H.) -- The FBI has carried out a search warrant at the Manchester, N.H., home of a former Chechen militant who admits he met with dead bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev less than a month before the Boston Marathon bombing.

Musa Khadjimuradov, 35, told Voice of America that agents took his computer hard drive, and samples of his DNA and fingerprints.

Granted asylum to live in the United States in 2004, Khadjimuradov explained the FBI has said he was not a suspect in the case. He has denied any involvement in the bombing, but told VOA, "I believe that they thinking that he come here to New Hampshire and I try to help him or do something, like that." The FBI declined to comment on the search.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his younger brother Dzhokhar, 19, are accused of setting off a pair of bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon April 15, killing three and injuring over 260 others. Tamerlan was killed in a shootout with police days later, while Dzhokhar was injured and later taken into custody.

Wounded and hiding in a boat in Watertown, Mass., just before he was captured, the younger brother wrote phrases including "F*** America" and "Praise Allah" on a panel of the boat, police in Massachusetts told ABC News Thursday.

In an interview posted on the VOA website, Khadjimuradov said he had repeated contact with the elder Tsarnaev over several years. Khadjimuradov said he had met Tamerlan in 2006 at the annual gathering of the Chechen Society of Boston.

Khadjimuradov told VOA he was first interviewed by the FBI April 29, but it wasn't until Tuesday that federal agents showed up with a warrant to search his home. ABC News has been unable to reach Khadjimuradov for comment on this report.

Though officials said Dzhokhar told investigators he and his brother plotted the attack alone and learned how to make the bombs online, federal officials have investigated a trip Tamerlan took to Dagestan in 2012, where he allegedly met with suspected militants.

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Jodi Arias Hearing Awash in Tears as Travis Alexander's Family Speaks

ABC News(PHOENIX) -- Jodi Arias cried through the first day of her death penalty hearing Thursday as the siblings of her slain ex-boyfriend told the jury they didn't want to "see (their) brother's murderer anymore."

Travis Alexander's brother Stephen Alexander and sister Samantha Alexander gave statements to the jury on the first day of the death penalty phase of Arias' case.

Arias, 32, was convicted last week of murder for killing Alexander using a knife and a gun in 2008. If she is given the death penalty, she will be the third woman on Arizona's death row.

"I thought my brother was bulletproof. I thought he was stronger than anything, that he couldn't be cut down or knocked down," Stephen Alexander said. "He was unbreakable. Who would want to do this to him? For what reasons? Unfortunately I won't ever get the answers to most of my questions."

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Alexander's brother and sister were not allowed to petition directly to the jury for any particular sentence. They were allowed only to express how Alexander's murder has affected them and what type of person Alexander was. Stephen Alexander said that he suffered nightmares, became withdrawn and depressed, and separated from his wife after his brother's murder.

"I don't want these nightmares anymore. I don't want to have to see my brother's murderer anymore. I don't want to hear his name dragged through the mud," he said.

Both Stephen and Samantha Alexander had to pause frequently to compose themselves while addressing the court, and tears streamed down Arias' face, dripping off her chin and onto her black dress.

Arias will also have the opportunity to speak directly to the jury. Her attorneys will first present character witnesses on her behalf, including another ex-boyfriend, Darryl Brewer, to convince the jury that "mitigating factors" exist in the murder that should prompt the jury to spare Arias from the death penalty.

Attorney Kirk Nurmi told the jury Thursday that they would hear about Arias' clean criminal record and her lifelong attempts to better herself. They would also see examples of her artwork, he said.

The center of Thursday's drama was the testimony of siblings, who live in California but have attended the trial in Arizona since it began in January.

"We have been at this trial every day since it started," said Samantha Alexander. "We have heard every detail about the crime and the injuries Travis suffered. I am a police officer, and some of these photos are more gruesome than what I've seen in 11 years of law enforcement."

"Our family has bore the burden of extreme financial hardship and loss to be sure that Travis's life was not forgotten, not lost in vain," she said. "To have Travis taken so barbarically is beyond any words we can find to describe our horrific loss."

Earlier this week, Arias' attorneys petitioned the judge to be let off the case, a motion they've made at least once before during the five-month trial in Arizona.

Nurmi and Jennifer Willmott met with Judge Sherry Stephens on Tuesday morning and asked to withdraw, according to court minutes documenting the meeting.

The documents do not shed any light on why Nurmi and Willmott wanted to withdraw from the case.

The request came after Arias' conviction and a TV interview in which Arias said she would prefer death to life in prison. That created the irony of Nurmi and Willmott arguing on the next day for the jury to not sentence her to death.

Stephens denied their request and it was at least the second time she's denied Nurmi and Willmott the opportunity to walk away from Arias during the case. During the prior request, Arias and her mother wrote to the judge asking that Nurmi and Willmott be ordered to continue serving as her attorneys.

The attorneys have not publicly said why they want off the case. Nurmi made a half-joking comment during his closing argument about how unlikeable Arias seems. He conceded to jurors that they might not like Arias very much, and added, "Nine days out of ten I don't like her." Arias smiled at the comment.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Gold Shipment Vanishes in Mysterious Miami Airport Heist

Ablestock.com/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) – A $625,000 gold shipment vanished this week in a brazen heist at Miami International Airport after it arrived aboard a jet from Ecuador, police said.

As the FBI confirmed it was leading the hunt for the crooks, the pool of suspects narrowed to the few who had authorized access to the bulk cargo area, federal and police officials with knowledge of the case told ABC News on Thursday.

The gold was spread among six boxes unloaded from American Airlines Flight 902, which arrived at 4:42 a.m. Tuesday morning from Guayaquil, Ecuador, according to a Miami-Dade Police Department incident report.

Video surveillance tapes showed the boxes being unloaded from the plane onto a cart, which was then moved to the opposite side of the airliner at 5:15 a.m., where a small vehicle called a “tug” towed it away.

Police reported that despite the video, it was “unknown who drove the property around to the other side of the plane and left the property there,” where the tug then drove the cart off-camera.

The cart was found an hour later — empty.

Those allowed into the restricted bulk cargo area in the airport’s international arrivals section include cargo handlers and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers, but not federal Transportation Security Administration officers, a senior U.S. official said.

“It was an inbound international flight, so there was no TSA interaction at all,” the senior U.S. official said. “CBP and ramp workers would be the only ones that have contact.”

Five “subjects” who worked in the bulk cargo area that morning were interviewed by investigators, but their names were blacked out in the Miami-Dade Police Department’s incident report at the request of the FBI, a police official said.

The CBP is the Department of Homeland Security agency responsible for checking inbound cargo arriving from overseas.

CBP spokesmen told ABC News earlier Thursday they were not aware of the incident and referred all inquiries to the FBI.

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Parents of Children Allegedly Murdered by Nanny Are Expecting

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Nearly eight months after two of their children were stabbed to death, allegedly by their nanny, Marina and Kevin Krim announced Thursday they are expecting another child.

The couple made the announcement on the Facebook page for the Leo and Lulu Fund, a fund for arts education dedicated to the memory of their children. The Krim family also have a third child, 4-year-old Nessie, who was unharmed.

"We are very happy to let you know that Marina is expecting a baby in the fall," the family wrote in the post. "Nessie can't wait to welcome her new baby brother. We are filled with many emotions as we look to the future, but the most important one is hope."

In October Marina Krim returned home with her daughter Nessie to find the bodies of her son Leo, 2, and daughter Lulu, 6, in a bathtub. Their nanny Yoselyn Ortega, 50, is charged with their murder.

The family's Lulu and Leo Fund was created weeks after the death of their children. On the fund's Facebook page the couple have posted reminisces of their children and described different ways they've dealt with their grief.

Marina Krim wrote a post on Mother's Day recalling a family trip where her children picked up sand dollars to bring home. She also posted a picture of the sand dollars now mounted on her wall.

"Mounting [the sand dollars] on the wall this morning was therapeutic for me and a perfect way to connect with my angels this Mother's Day," Krim wrote.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Audit Finds 'Significant Deficiencies' in Witness Protection Program

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- As far back as the first World Trade Center bombing two decades ago, authorities have hidden cooperative witnesses in terror cases -- even those who were terrorists themselves.

But a U.S. Justice Department audit finds "significant deficiencies" that allowed terrorists in the witness protection program to get on planes, when their real identities were on the no-fly list.  

The audit finds that the government even at one point lost track of two terror suspects who were in the witness protection program.

The Justice Department insists that that flaw has been corrected, and stresses everyone in the program has first been helpful, and then thoroughly vetted.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

'F***' America,' Boston Bomb Suspect Wrote in Boat: Officials

FBI(NEW YORK) -- As police searched for him, and as he lay bleeding in his boat hideout, Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev wrote "F*** America" on the side panel of the boat, police in Massachusetts told ABC News.

Officers said they also discovered the phrase "Praise Allah" on the boat's side panels and several anti-American screeds, including references to Iraq, Afghanistan and "the infidels."

A Massachusetts official showed ABC News what he said was a cell phone picture of the phrase "Praise Allah," written in black ink, with a bullet hole above it, believed to have been written by Dzhokhar during the 18 hours he hid inside the boat in Watertown, Mass.

Also seen in the picture was the faintly written word "brother," which the official said was part of a reference by the younger Tsarnaev "that was something about his brother is lucky to be with Allah first."

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed hours earlier during a shootout with police several blocks away from the location of the boat.

Spokespeople for the Massachusetts State Police and the Watertown police had denied the existence of the writings when first asked about them by ABC News two weeks ago.

On Thursday, both departments referred reporters to the FBI. A federal law enforcement official confirmed reports first broadcast by CBS News that writings had been discovered inside the boat.

The discovery of writings intensified tensions between the FBI and local police when FBI agents believed some Boston officers and state police had taken cell phone pictures of the writing. Agents demanded the phones of all officers at the scene the night of the capture of Dzhokhar be confiscated to avoid the photos becoming public before being used as evidence at trial, according to two law enforcement officials.

An FBI spokesperson said agents cannot confiscate phones without a warrant and officials said none of the police approached would agree to turn over their phones to the FBI.

Dhzokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev are accused of setting off a pair of bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon April 15, killing three people, including an 8-year-old boy, and injuring more than 260 others. Tamerlan was killed in a shootout with police days after the attack, while Dhzokhar was wounded and later captured in a boat.

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