Girl, 14, charged in vicious group murders

[Whisper]

A 14-year-old Camden girl was charged with murder today in the grisly slayings of a man and a woman found buried last month in the backyard of a South Camden rowhouse.

The girl was among a group of at least 10 people who beat and strangled Muriah Ashley Huff, 22, of Cinnaminson on Feb. 22, authorities said.

Members of the same group also killed Huff's boyfriend, Michael Hawkins, 23, of Mount Holly.

Hawkins was bound and beaten for hours - until most of the bones in his face were broken - and then shot and stabbed repeatedly, said Jason Laughlin, spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office.

The couple were buried before dawn Feb. 23 in one grave, Laughlin said.

The girl, who was not identified because of her age, has been in custody since March 3 at the Camden County Youth Detention Center, Laughlin said.

Two other juveniles and an adult were also charged today in the slayings.

The juveniles, both 17-year-old males - one from Pennsauken, the other from Astoria, N.Y. - were each charged with two counts of murder and were being held at the county detention center, Laughlin said.

Lance Fulton, 19, of Camden, was charged with murder in connection with Hawkins death. Fulton was arrested Saturday by U.S. Marshals in North Carolina and is awaiting extradition to New Jersey, Laughlin said.

Another 19-year-old Camden man, Dennis Welch was charged with murder Friday. He was being held on $1 million bail in the Camden County Jail.

Investigators believe the group set upon Huff and Hawkins shortly after the couple arrived at a house on the 500 block of Berkley Street.

A witness said Welch and others assaulted and fatally shot Hawkins in the home, according to a statement of probable cause. He was stripped and then buried, Laughlin said.

Huff was in the home while Hawkins was being tortured, but it is unclear whether she knew what was happening to him, Laughlin said.

Police said a tip had led them to the remains about two days after they were buried. Camden detectives saw a snow-covered patch of ground at the house that had been recently dug up, the probable cause statement said.

Officials said members of the group tried to hide the killings by scrubbing the walls of the home with bleach and ripping up bloodstained carpets.

What objects, if any, were used in the beatings and murders was unclear

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20100308_Girl__14__charged_in_grisly_group_murders.html

 

[Dakota]

[...]
Investigators are searching for at least four more people in the killings.

And, said Jason Laughlin, a spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office: "If there are people who did not participate in the killings, but might have covered up the crime in any way, that would be part of our ongoing investigation."

Hawkins, of Mount Holly, and, Huff, of Cinnaminson, were killed in a dispute between factions of the Bloods and Crips street gangs, law enforcement sources involved in the investigation said yesterday. The sources asked not to be named since the investigations were active.

One of the suspects had been involved in a shooting with a Crips gang member two weeks before the murders, the sources said. Hawkins, a Crips member friendly with one of the suspects, was killed in retaliation, the sources said.
[...]

There has been a proliferation of gangs in Camden over the last few years, Thomson said, and a rise in networking with members in other cities.

The suspects were members of the Piru Bloods, originally a West Coast sect, sources said.
[...]

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20100309_Girl__14__others_also_charged_in_slayings.html

 

[DingDang]

Camden...what a shit hole. In fact, I'd be willing to bet my next paycheck that it's one of the top 10 shit holes in the country.

 

[Whisper]

Dennis Welch charged in Camden double homicide; 7 others sought

A Camden man was charged with murder today in the death of Michael Hawkins, who was beaten for hours - until most of the bones in his face were broken - and then shot and stabbed, officials said.

After Hawkins was dead, he was buried in the backyard of the home where he was killed.

"For Hawkins, it was a torturous death," said Jason Laughlin, spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office.

Dennis Welch, who was charged today, was among a group of people who bound, gagged, beat, and repeatedly shot and stabbed Hawkins shortly after he and his girlfriend arrived at the home in the 500 block of Berkley Street in the early afternoon of Feb. 22, officials said.

Hawkins' girlfriend, Muriah Ashley Huff, 18, also beaten, was strangled in the South Camden house. Authorities did not charge Welch, 19, in her death. Officials believe at least eight people were involved in the two killings.
[...]
"These people suffered for a length of time before they finally died," Laughlin said. "There is a cruelty and callousness in the way they died that's shocking."

Hawkins and Huff were buried before dawn Feb. 23 in one grave, Laughlin said.

Welch was arrested Thursday at the Moorestown Mall. He was being held on $1 million bail in the Camden County Jail.

A witness said Welch and others assaulted and fatally shot Hawkins in the home, according to a statement of probable cause. Hawkins, 23, was stripped and then buried, Laughlin said.

Police said a tip had led them to the remains about two days after they were buried. Camden detectives saw a snow-covered patch of ground at the house that had been recently dug up, the probable cause statement said.

Officials said Welch also took part in the effort to hide the killings, by scrubbing the walls of his home with bleach and ripping up the blood-stained carpets.

Welch and Hawkins, a Mount Holly resident, knew each other, Laughlin said. Huff did not know anyone in the rowhouse, Laughlin said.

Huff was in the home while Hawkins was being tortured, but it is unclear whether she knew what was happening to him, Laughlin said.
[...]
Richardson and another friend last saw Huff on the platform of the NJ Transit light rail Palmyra station around 4:30 p.m. Feb. 21.

Huff said she was heading to Camden to see Hawkins, her friends said.

The bubbly cosmetology student at the Burlington County Institute of Technology's Westampton campus wasn't in school Feb. 22, her friends said.

Huff, who wanted to own a salon and a line of hair products one day, met Hawkins through a mutual friend, her friends said.

The two had been dating for a year, her friends said.
[...]

Homeless, he survived by living mostly with friends and girlfriends, the mentor said.

"He was used to bouncing around and he did the same as an adult," she said recently.[...]

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20100305_Man_charged_in_Camden_double_homicide.html

 

[Sister Iroz]

A 14-year-old Camden girl told prosecutors she took part in the grisly torture murder of a 17-year-old Cinnaminson woman, according to court testimony.

But the young suspect, dressed in jeans and a purple tank top, acted more like a typical child at a brief hearing Thursday. The girl broke into tears as she was led from the courtroom and turned toward a woman seated behind her.

"I want to hug my mom," she said, her cries echoing back into the courtroom after bailiffs led her away.

The teen, who prosecutors want to try as an adult, admitted after her arrest to "striking and strangling" Muriah Huff, said Assistant Camden County Prosecutor Timothy Chatten.

...

At Thursday's session, a waiver hearing was scheduled for May 5.

At that time, a judge is to decide on whether the 14-year-old will be tried as a juvenile or an adult.

If convicted as an adult, the teen could face life in prison. As a juvenile, she would face a maximum term of 20 years.

The prosecutor's office is seeking to try all four of the juveniles charged in the killings as adults.

Also on Thursday, bail was set at $1 million for Keenan Wideman, 17, of Pennsauken. Wideman, charged with the murders of both Huff and Hawkins, agreed to a voluntary waiver from juvenile court to adult court on Wednesday.

...

http://www.courierpostonline.com/ar...-slaying--victims-found-half-buried-in-Camden

 

[AngelFire]

It's sad when you read about a crime this heinous committed by a child. So many lives wasted over what really? Absolutely nothing, and that makes it even more tragic. Fights over turfs that really don't belong to any of these home grown terrorist. From the Wilshire Division here in Los Angeles, to the meanest and toughest streets in the East Coast, not one of those streest is theirs, but they fight, and kill over the most stupidest crap.

 

[Dakota]

A 14-year-old girl pleaded guilty Tuesday to aggravated manslaughter, becoming the first person to admit in court a role in killing a suburban couple whose bodies were found buried in the backyard of a row home.

Nine other people , three of them minors, most of them suburbanites , have been charged in the case.

Shatara Shakira Carter was the youngest person charged in the Feb. 22 slayings of Muriah Ashley Huff, 18, and her boyfriend, Michael Hawkins, 23, who were found buried behind the Camden home. She originally was charged with murder in the death of Huff.

In a plea agreement, the charge was reduced to aggravated manslaughter. She pleaded guilty as an adult.

Prosecutors are recommending she be given 20 years in state prison when she's sentenced July 9.
[...]

She said that after Hawkins was killed, the group decided to kill Huff.

Carter said someone else hit the woman repeatedly with a chair, then ordered Carter and others to "finish her off."

She said she choked Huff with her hands and a rope and tried to stab her. She said the woman finally died when a plastic bag was tied over her head.

Trial dates haven't been set for the other defendants, all of whom are to be tried in adult court.

http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/..._teengirlpleadsguiltyincouplesnjkillings.html

 

[AngelFire]

disgusting

 

[Dakota]

Shatara "Feisty Ru" Carter

A 14-year-old girl was sentenced to 20 years in prison Thursday for her role in the brutal murder of a Cinnaminson teenager, whose body was found in late February buried in the backyard of a Camden row home, authorities said.

Shatara Carter will be required to serve 85 percent of the prison term before becoming eligible for parole under the sentence handed down by Superior Court Judge Irvin J. Snyder, said Jason Laughlin, spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/loc...ugust/20/14-year-old-sentenced-in-murder.html

[...]
No one came to say goodbye to Carter until her mother, fresh out of jail for allegedly hitting another teen daughter with an ashtray, hurried into the courtroom moments before a judge sentenced her daughter to the maximum 20 years for aggravated manslaughter.

"Mommy!" Carter sobbed, craning her neck to look at her mother. "That's my mommy!"

Superior Court Judge Irvin J. Snyder said no apologies, no psychiatric reports, and no claims of youthful ignorance could explain the hole in Carter's conscience during that hellish day. Snyder described the killing as "pure evil" and denied a defense request for a shorter sentence.

"I'm not taking one minute, one second, off this sentence," he said.
[...]

Carter's attorney, Kevin Lewis, said her troubled family was one reason the teen sought acceptance in a gang.

"If she had had that kind of family, she wouldn't be here today," Lewis said, motioning to Huff's family.

Neighbors on Berkley Street said that chaos reigned in the red-brick rowhouse for months before the murders and that Carter's mother, Arnetta "Peanut" Welch, let the home become a haven for young, violent gang members.

"She wanted to be their friend more than their mother," a neighbor who asked not to be identified said yesterday.
[...]

A law-enforcement source said Welch may have helped the defendants clean up the home and remove evidence. She has not been charged, however.

She was released from prison Wednesday, after pleading guilty to abuse and neglect in relation to a July 11 incident in which she allegedly punched and choked her 16-year-old daughter and hit the teen with an ashtray.

Nine others including Dennis Welch are charged in the Berkley Street murders and awaiting presentation to the grand jury.

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/loc...s_in_slayings__Camden_teen_wants__mommy_.html

 

[gee]

Looks like she gets what she deserves. No excuses for that shitty behavior

 

[ChaosKitty]

well wanted to add this jewel: an enabling mom helped to hide the evidence of the murders committed over a stolen bottle of booze and gang bullshit and got probation:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/28/mom-helps-hide-evidence_n_6566634.html?utm_hp_ref=crime
'
CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) — A woman admitted on Wednesday that she helped two of her children conceal evidence of a gang-related double slaying that occurred at her home, where the bodies were buried in a yard.

Arnetta Welch pleaded guilty to hindering apprehension, Camden County prosecutors said. The 42-year-old is expected to get a two-year probation term when she's sentenced in March.

Welch bought cleaning supplies and helped with the removal of evidence following the February 2010 killings of Michael Hawkins and his girlfriend, Muriah Huff, prosecutors said. The couple were tortured, beaten, shot and buried in the backyard of Welch's Camden home, prosecutors have said.

The bodies of Hawkins, of Mount Holly, and Huff, of Cinnaminson, weren't discovered for three days.

Hawkins, 23, was killed over a gang dispute and a stolen bottle of liquor, authorities say. Huff, 18, had accompanied Hawkins to the home and was killed to prevent her from identifying the attackers, they say.

Welch's children, 19-year-old Shatara Carter and 24-year-old Dennis Welch, were among 10 defendants who have been convicted or pleaded guilty for their roles in the slayings.

Dennis Welch pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter in 2013 and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Carter, who was 14 at the time of the killings, pleaded guilty as an adult to aggravated manslaughter last year and was sentenced to 22 years in prison.'

 

[JackBurton]

But the young suspect, dressed in jeans and a purple tank top

Stupid little bitch couldn't dress appropriately for court? I understand she's just some worthless Jersey hoodrat who will never amount to anything, but surely her mom forced her into church against her will at some point, surely she has a sunday dress from that pointless endeavor, surely she's shoplifted some nicer digs from the local sleazebag corner hoodrat boutique.

"Mommy!" Carter sobbed, craning her neck to look at her mother. "That's my mommy!"

hahahahahhahhahaha

Arnetta Welch pleaded guilty to hindering apprehension, Camden County prosecutors said. The 42-year-old is expected to get a two-year probation term when she's sentenced in March.

So they're hard on the 14 year old piece of shit, but let this piece of shit off the hook? New Jersey sucks so fucking bad. What a heap.