| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Tink" |
| Date: |
11 Jan 2008 03:42:19 PM |
| Object: |
From the Washinton Post and The Washington Times. |
Yep, more of that vaunted x-tian morality...
From the post.
SE Woman Says Four Daughters Were 'Possessed'
Girls Might Have Died in May
By Allison Klein, Keith L. Alexander and Sue Anne Pressley Montes
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, January 11, 2008; A01
A Southeast Washington woman accused of killing her four daughters told
police that they were "possessed by demons" and that they had been dead
for at least four months before marshals found their bodies, according
to police and charging papers filed yesterday.
Authorities said they believe the girls, ages 5, 6, 11 and 17, could
have been killed as early as May, noting that the bodies were in an
advanced stage of decomposition when discovered Wednesday by marshals
serving eviction papers at the two-story brick rowhouse. The mother,
Banita Jacks, lived a hermitic existence with the bodies upstairs, in a
house that had its electricity cut off in September.
Authorities said that Jacks has denied killing the children and said
they died in their sleep. Prosecutors said evidence shows otherwise.
Brittany Jacks, 17, had three puncture wounds consistent with a
stabbing near the neck, they said. Tatianna Jacks, 11, and N'Kiah
Fogle, 6, had marks suggesting they were strangled. Aja Fogle, 5, had
less-pronounced marks consistent with strangling and signs of
blunt-force trauma to the back of her head, prosecutors said.
Jacks, 33, was charged yesterday with murder. While she was being
ordered jailed without bond by a judge in D.C. Superior Court, city
officials were investigating how government agencies failed to identify
a family in trouble. Among the questions: How could Jacks's children
disappear for so long without school officials, police or social
workers noticing and stepping in to help? Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D)
promised some answers today.
Some who knew the family said that troubles spiraled in February when
Nathaniel Fogle Jr., the father of two of the girls, died of cancer.
Soon after his death, Jacks cleared the first floor of furniture, and
she grew increasingly distant, they said. At one point, she put an Xbox
game system in the front yard of the home, in the 4200 block of Sixth
Street SE, and invited neighbors to take it.
Several relatives stopped by the house to visit or to deliver child
support checks, but Jacks didn't answer the door. Jacks sometimes
telephoned after the visits and reported that everything was under
control, they said.
"Sometimes she wouldn't answer the door," recalled Tywana Richardson,
godmother to the two youngest girls, who said she tried to stay in
touch with the family after Fogle's death. "No one would answer the
door. That happened a lot. . . . When I kept going and she wasn't
there, I figured she had upped and moved."
The last time Richardson saw Jacks was sometime in July, she said. She
handed her the mail through the door; Jacks did not invite her in.
"They could have been dead while I was over there; I don't know,"
Richardson said.
D.C. Child and Family Services received a report about the family in
April, but officials have not divulged the nature of the notice. Mindy
Good, an agency spokeswoman, said yesterday that investigators went to
the residence three times, once accompanied by D.C. police. Good said
D.C. police also went to the home once on their own. But no one was
able to locate the family.
In June, D.C. officials contacted their counterparts in Charles County,
where Jacks has relatives, saying they had information that the family
was moving there. But Charles social service workers were unable to
find them, officials said.
School officials apparently detected no problems. The oldest girl, a
student at Booker T. Washington Public Charter School, stopped
attending classes months ago. The other girls attended Meridian Public
Charter School in Northwest Washington until March, when Jacks withdrew
them, saying she planned to home-school them.
Nona Mitchell Richardson, spokeswoman for the D.C. Public Charter
School Board, said it has no policy governing what should happen when a
charter school student is withdrawn for home schooling. She said
neither the board nor the schools tracked the students after the mother
pulled them out of school.
"If parents opt to home-school a student, there "is no way of
following" them, she said.
Neighbors were unsure exactly when the family moved into the home. The
eviction came after a mortgage loan company bought the home through a
foreclosure sale. No one responded to notices to move, and a judge
ordered the evictions in October. Three marshals showed up at the home
at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday to clear out the house.
Once inside, marshals found religious writings on the walls,
authorities said. Prosecutors said that Jacks sat on the steps and
initially blocked their path upstairs. She was taken into custody once
the bodies were found and was then interviewed by homicide
investigators.
According to charging documents, Jacks told police that her oldest
daughter, Brittany, died in her sleep.
"She said that the children began dying in their sleep, one at a time,
all within a seven- to 10-day period," the charging documents stated.
"She said that as the first three younger children died, she placed
them side by side in the room in which they died."
Prosecutors also quoted Jacks as saying that she had not fed the
children for a substantial period of time before they died.
Jacks, who attended the hearing in D.C. Superior Court wearing a white
prison jumpsuit, did not speak other than to give her name. Family
members filled three rows of the courtroom behind her but declined to
comment after the proceedings.
Her attorney, Peter Krauthamer, a public defender, argued at the
hearing that nothing connected the children's deaths to Jacks. She has
previous arrests for traffic offenses but no criminal history.
According to Krauthamer, she should be released while awaiting trial
because she posed no threat to anyone.
Prosecutor Deborah Sines countered: "How many bodies do you need?"
Magistrate Judge Karen Howze agreed that evidence warranted keeping
Jacks locked up, pending a hearing Feb. 11.
Outside the courthouse, Tawana Crump, 45, who said she spent the day
with Jacks in a cellblock area, told reporters that other prisoners
asked Jacks if she had killed the children, and she told them yes.
"She kept talking about her kids had demons in them," said Crump, who
was locked up on a drug charge but let go after authorities declined to
prosecute her. She said Jacks "smelled like death," an odor so strong
that Crump and other prisoners asked for masks.
"The woman is crazy," Crump said.
City officials, and those who knew the family, view the situation as
much more complex.
Fenty and other D.C. government leaders were looking to see whether
they missed opportunities to help. City Administrator Dan Tangherlini
and acting Attorney General Peter Nickles met yesterday with the heads
of several city agencies, including the public schools, to review the
government's interaction with the family and determine whether the city
failed to properly see to the children's well-being.
D.C. Council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), chair of the Committee on
Human Services, is holding a hearing Tuesday to figure out what went
wrong and which city agencies could have done more to prevent the
deaths.
Family members and friends were looking for answers, too. Richardson,
the godmother, who was close friends with Fogle, said that Jacks
depended heavily on him and was devastated when he died.
"He was more of a breadwinner in the house. He made sure they had food
on their table and clothes on their backs. He did home improvement. He
worked at McDonald's. Any job he could get to support his family, he
did," Richardson said. "I think she couldn't handle things without him.
She couldn't accept the fact that he was gone. I don't think she could
get it together after he passed."
Richardson's thoughts turned to the children. Her godchildren, N'Kiah
and Aja, were "full of energy," she said, adding, "They would just
cling to you."
Tatiana was "full of joy" and enjoyed playing with the two young girls,
Richardson said. She described Brittany, 17, as "a normal teenager. She
hung out with her friends."
Richardson said that Fogle wanted her to help look after the family and
that she tried. She said she repeatedly told Jacks to contact her if
she needed help. But Jacks always insisted she was doing all right.
"I just wish as I was coming over to give her her mail, I just wish she
had opened up to me and just talked, because I believe those girls
would be alive," Richardson said.
Staff writers Paul Duggan, Petula Dvorak, Megan Greenwell, V. Dion
Haynes, Theola Labb¿, Dan Morse, David Nakamura and Debbi Wilgoren and
staff researchers Eddy Palanzo, Magda Jean-Louis and Rena Kirsch
contributed to this report.
From the Times.
Mother of dead girls held without bail
January 11, 2008
By David C. Lipscomb - A Southeast woman charged with killing her four
daughters and leaving their decomposing bodies in her house for weeks
was ordered held without bail yesterday by a Superior Court judge.
Banita Jacks, 33, told investigators that she did not kill the girls
but that they were "possessed by demons," according to an affidavit
filed in support of the charges by Detective Darryl Richmond.
Miss Jacks, who wore a white jumpsuit and sandals, showed no emotion as
she was arraigned on four counts of cruelty to children and felony
murder in connection with the deaths of Brittany Jacks, 17; Tatianna
Jacks, 11; N"Kiah Fogle, 6; and Aja Fogle, 5.
Miss Jacks, who was represented by a lawyer with the public defender's
office, stated her name for the record but otherwise did not speak
during the hearing. After about 20 minutes, Magistrate Judge Karen
Howze briefly recessed to consider a defense request that Miss Jacks be
released to the custody of a male blood relative living in the District.
Prosecutors objected to the request.
"I don't know how many bodies you need before we have to demonstrate
that she is a danger to the community," said prosecutor Deborah Fines.
The judge denied the request, saying that Miss Jacks' belief that her
children were possessed posed questions about her mental state. Judge
Howze scheduled a detention hearing for Feb. 11.
A group of more than a dozen persons were in the courtroom to support
Miss Jacks. The group stayed quiet throughout the hearing and declined
to talk to reporters afterward.
If convicted, Miss Jacks could receive a maximum sentence of life in prison.
According to the affidavit, Miss Jacks waived her rights and was
interviewed Wednesday night after U.S. marshals serving an eviction
notice found the bodies at her house in the 4200 block of Sixth Street
Southeast.
Detective Richmond said in the affidavit supporting the charges that
Miss Jacks tried to stop the marshals from going upstairs to the rooms
where she had left her daughters' bodies.
The affidavit said that the bodies of the three youngest girls were
laid out facedown, side by side on the floor in one room, while
Brittany's body was on the floor in a different room. A large knife was
nearby and what appeared to be blood was found on the floor. A white
T-shirt partially covered the girl's body, and another was near her
head.
Miss Jacks told detectives that Brittany was the last to die.
According to court papers, a witness told investigators that Miss Jacks
sometimes treated Brittany more harshly than the other children,
depriving her of food while the others ate.
The witness said Miss Jacks once drove Brittany to her mother's house
in Waldorf in July 2006. When her mother wasn't home, Miss Jacks left
the girl on the doorstep unattended for more than 10 hours.
She told investigators that no one had been inside her house since May
and that the children died before the electricity in the house was cut
off, which prosecutors said occurred on Sept. 5.
Miss Jacks told investigators that she had not fed her children for a
"substantial period of time prior to their deaths" and that the
children "began dying in their sleep one at a time, all within a seven-
to 10-day period."
The affidavit says Miss Jacks said that she did not call police or fire
officials because "she did not trust either agency" and that calling
emergency personnel would "cause her more problems."
D.C. Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Marie-Lydie Y. Pierre-Louis said at a
press conference yesterday morning that a preliminary investigation
suggested that the children had been dead for more than 15 days.
She said that Brittany's body showed signs of a possible stab wound to
the abdomen and that the other three children may have been asphyxiated
or poisoned.
"We have very limited material to work with," Dr. Pierre-Louis said.
"The bodies were very desiccated."
D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty said a cross-agency investigation will be
conducted to determine what contact the school system, police and the
Child and Family Services Agency had with Miss Jacks or the children.
"I don't think anyone in the city can remember a case involving this
many young people who have died in such a tragic way," Mr. Fenty said.
Court records in Charles County, Md., show that Miss Jacks filed
paternity suits against three men, two of which were successful. In one
case, Norman C. Penn Jr., whose most recent address is in Glen Burnie,
is named the father of Brittany. In another case, Kevin J. Stoddard,
whose most recent address is listed in Prince George's County,
acknowledged that he is the father of Tatianna.
The county court records indicated that both men failed to pay required
child support. Mr. Penn was convicted of criminal contempt and received
a suspended jail sentence. Records also show that in 2004, lenders
foreclosed on a Waldorf town home that Miss Jacks had purchased three
years earlier.
Nona Richardson, a spokeswoman for the D.C. Public Charter School
Board, said Miss Jacks' three younger daughters attended the Meridian
Public Charter School in the District consistently until March.
When they stopped showing up, Miss Richardson said the school tried to
contact the mother by mail and telephone. Officials finally went to the
woman's home, and the woman told a school official that she wanted to
withdraw the children and home-school them. They were officially
withdrawn in mid-March.
Miss Richardson said D.C. education officials were notified about the
withdrawal at the end of the school year, in accordance with procedures.
A child at Miss Jacks' address also had attended Stuart-Hobson
Elementary School but withdrew in 2006 as a fifth-grader, public school
officials said.
The D.C. Child and Family Services agency attempted last year to
investigate a complaint about the family. But investigators could not
make face-to-face contact with family members and thought they had
moved to Maryland, agency spokeswoman Mindy Good said.
Norris West, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of Human
Resources, said D.C. officials in June asked social-services officials
in Charles County to open a case for the family. However, county
officials were not able to locate the family, and it is not clear
whether they had actually moved to Charles County, Mr. West said.
According to D.C. Superior Court records, Miss Jacks was arrested and
charged last January with driving an unregistered vehicle. In February,
she paid a $175 fine and the case was dismissed.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
--
--
Skydivers don't knock on death's door; they ring the bell and run
away... It really pisses him off.
The World Famous Tink. (I never heard of you either!!)
AA #2069 ASA#33 POPS# 8808
EAC Chairman, Division of Skydiving and Sushi consumption.
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| User: "Perfect Islam" |
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| Title: Re: From the Washinton Post and The Washington Times. |
11 Jan 2008 06:59:56 PM |
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Tink wrote:
Yep, more of that vaunted x-tian morality...
Um, isn't that a bit silly? The woman is obviously quite unbalanced, and
would be regardless of any religion.
--
Perfect Islam
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| User: "JESUS WAS A COCKSUCKER!" |
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| Title: Re: From the Washinton Post and The Washington Times. |
12 Jan 2008 09:21:38 AM |
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"Perfect Islam" <perfectIslam@notreal.org> wrote in message
news:47881158$0$10983$4c368faf@roadrunner.com...
Tink wrote:
Yep, more of that vaunted x-tian morality...
Um, isn't that a bit silly? The woman is obviously quite unbalanced, and
would be regardless of any religion.
--
Perfect Islam
hey stupid-ALL RELIGIONS ARE SILLY!
grow the ***** up.
.
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| User: "Perfect Islam" |
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| Title: Re: From the Washinton Post and The Washington Times. |
12 Jan 2008 01:32:43 PM |
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JESUS WAS A *****! wrote:
"Perfect Islam" <perfectIslam@notreal.org> wrote in message
Tink wrote:
Yep, more of that vaunted x-tian morality...
Um, isn't that a bit silly? The woman is obviously quite unbalanced, and
would be regardless of any religion.
hey stupid-ALL RELIGIONS ARE SILLY!
? Just which part of my comment was "stupid"?
Pointing to an obviously unhinged woman who killed her children and saying
calling it "x-tian morality" is just plain silly, regardless of the
silliness of any religiousness she might possess. Those kind of comments
and attitudes are embarrassing to me.
grow the ***** up.
The ***** is quite grown up already, thank you.
--
Perfect Islam
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| User: "Don Martin" |
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| Title: Re: From the Washinton Post and The Washington Times. |
12 Jan 2008 04:30:14 PM |
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On Sat, 12 Jan 2008 13:32:43 -0600, Perfect Islam <perfectIslam@notreal.org>
wrote:
JESUS WAS A *****! wrote:
"Perfect Islam" <perfectIslam@notreal.org> wrote in message
Tink wrote:
Yep, more of that vaunted x-tian morality...
Um, isn't that a bit silly? The woman is obviously quite unbalanced, and
would be regardless of any religion.
hey stupid-ALL RELIGIONS ARE SILLY!
? Just which part of my comment was "stupid"?
Pointing to an obviously unhinged woman who killed her children and saying
calling it "x-tian morality" is just plain silly, regardless of the
silliness of any religiousness she might possess. Those kind of comments
and attitudes are embarrassing to me.
When her obvious unhingment takes the form of "I killed the kids because they
were possessed by demons" you do not see any connection with belief in
supernatural beings? The ***** got her demons from christianity, but your
mileage may vary according to your preferred brand of religious *****.
#2278 If you can't be a dirty old man, what is the point of being an old man?
Through a jaundiced eye darkly--rheum with a view.
The Squeeky Wheel http://home.comcast.net/~drdonmartin/
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| User: "Michael Gray" |
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| Title: Re: From the Washinton Post and The Washington Times. |
12 Jan 2008 11:27:45 PM |
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On Sat, 12 Jan 2008 10:21:38 -0500, "JESUS WAS A *****!"
<christainssuck@bigdick.org> wrote:
"Perfect Islam" <perfectIslam@notreal.org> wrote in message
news:47881158$0$10983$4c368faf@roadrunner.com...
Tink wrote:
Yep, more of that vaunted x-tian morality...
Um, isn't that a bit silly? The woman is obviously quite unbalanced, and
would be regardless of any religion.
--
Perfect Islam
hey stupid-ALL RELIGIONS ARE SILLY!
grow the ***** up.
Not all of them.
Sol worship is fairly sensible.
.
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| User: "Apostate" |
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| Title: Re: From the Washinton Post and The Washington Times. |
13 Jan 2008 12:42:01 AM |
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On Sun, 13 Jan 2008 15:57:45 +1030, Michael Gray <mikegray@newsguy.com> wrote:
On Sat, 12 Jan 2008 10:21:38 -0500, "JESUS WAS A *****!"
<christainssuck@bigdick.org> wrote:
"Perfect Islam" <perfectIslam@notreal.org> wrote in message
news:47881158$0$10983$4c368faf@roadrunner.com...
Tink wrote:
Yep, more of that vaunted x-tian morality...
Um, isn't that a bit silly? The woman is obviously quite unbalanced, and
would be regardless of any religion.
--
Perfect Islam
hey stupid-ALL RELIGIONS ARE SILLY!
grow the ***** up.
Not all of them.
Sol worship is fairly sensible.
In fact, it confers a miracle as an outward sign of membership: painting the skin.
--
Apostate a.a. #1931
..sig currently undergoing maintenance
--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com
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