New York has been hit recently by a number of chilling crimes. One is the discovery of Nicole Flanagan, who was discovered inside a 55-gallon drum. One of those charged is Aquellio Parker, 29. While there was no sign of injury to Flanagan, the Bergen county prosecutors are awaiting further test results. However, I was struck by the charges brought against Parker whose mugshot could be seen as a reaction to the redundancy of criminal charges today. He is facing much greater potential problems however in this curious case.
According to media reports, Flanagan was a mother of three who reportedly worked as an escort and was listed as either 42 or 44 years of age. Security tapes show Flanagan arriving at a high-rise apartment building in lower Manhattan. Parker reportedly texted her “95 Wall Street” around 1:46 a.m. on Aug. 6. He added “Lmn when your (sic) approaching so I can grab you from the lobby, babe.” She was met by Parker when she got out of a ride-share and the affidavit states: “Additional surveillance video revealed the victim and Parker walked together into an elevator and traveled to a floor in the building where an apartment utilized by Parker was later discovered.”
She was later found in the drum. Parker is described as a gang member. There is also a report that the ex-con brought a large plastic barrel into the building at 95 Wall St. Police say that, one day later, Parker was spotted wheeling it to a U-Haul van with an unidentified man who parked the vehicle at the rear service entrance.
The prosecutor are clearly using the charges as placeholders for a murder charge if forensic and other tests come back with supporting evidence. For now, Parker is charged with being an accomplice to disturbing, moving and/or concealing human remains, being an accomplice to desecrating, damaging and/or destroying human remains and conspiring with a co-defendant to disturb, move, conceal and/or desecrate a deceased body.
We have previously discussed how prosecutors can count stack by bringing redundant charges, each slightly differently worded to cover the same alleged criminal conduct.
In the end, of course, none of these charges will matter if Parker finds himself in a homicide case. That however will depend on the test results given the lack of observable injuries. It also appears that Parker is protecting the other man since police have not been able to identify the driver. However, since this was a U-Haul there is presumably some record unless it was stolen.
This case is likely to unfold in the coming days as those tests and vehicle tracings efforts are completed.
What is most striking about the case is that it could be based entirely on those forensics and circumstantial evidence unless a witness comes forward. Parker is likely to be easily convicted on these secondary charges but the prosecutors are still short of a direct nexus or even theory for a murder. If they have enough to charge however a jury is likely to make some presumptions about a man who is seen walking into an apartment with a woman and then later allegedly carrying her out in a 55-gallon drum.
Jeffrey Dahmer did the same thing. Imagine if it were today and he was simply told, ‘Stop it!’, and released, because we can’t hurt his confusing gay feelings. Used to just be fringe progressives, but now most liberals are no longer playing with a full deck, pretty much period. Even if it’s just mendacity, that level of mendacity is NOT sane.
The rest of the charges will have to wait for COD from the autopsy.
A mother in her 40s hooking, and being discovered dead in a barrel, is sad.
I wonder if the DA stacked redundant charges just to keep him. It seems like criminals stroll out of jail or avoid getting charged for a great many crimes today. Redundant charges are not just. However, if she was murdered, I hope everyone involved will be held responsible.
Her kids are the ones who truly will suffer and pay for this crime.
Deep blue states have become very welcoming to criminals. Here in CA, serious offenders are getting early parole. You can steal up to $950 and only get a misdemeanor, although most of those aren’t charged. It’s a free for all. Businesses are leaving, and taking their jobs with them. People are not only migrating to other states, but doing so in bitterness.
What do we pay for, really, in these Deep Blue high tax states? Here in CA, the state oversaw the electric utilities train staff on diversity, and jacked up our electric bills to pay for “green energy” which doesn’t turn out to be affordable, reliable, or actually green, instead of updating its aging infrastructure. We have potholed streets, yet the state always seems to have money to throw at pork and pet projects, like the Slow Speed Rail boondoggle. We have a homeless Walking Dead lurching around, as if enabling someone to languish in the bushes, too high to eat, is somehow more humane than dragging them into rehab and making them get the help they are too addled to accept. Just this morning, there was a homeless man hanging out in front of the grocery store. His pants were falling so low that you could see just about all his pubic hair. He was maybe an inch away from showing his twig and berries. This was early in the morning, when the Moms bring their kids too young for school. 2 year olds were skipping past this guy to go shopping with Mom. Clearly he can’t make good decisions for his own welfare, and needs to go into care. Yet decade after decade passes, with no improvement on making people who are clearly out of their minds with mental illness and/or drugs to get care they reject. \
Then there’s the crime. The constant shoplifting. We see shoplifting on a regular basis.
We pay all this money, and for what? Nice weather, clogged with smoke 3 months every single year? You’d think we’d have bought at least one Super Scooper by now.
tl, as usual
Karen says:
“People are not only migrating to other states, but doing so in bitterness.”
What is keeping you from leaving California in bitterness?
Seriously, why do you stay?
Jeff:
If we could, we’d leave in a heartbeat.
We stay because both of our parents live here, and they are elderly. In addition, my husband is self employed. It would be very difficult to start over from scratch. But it might get to the point that we have no choice. CA is very antagonistic towards business owners. You get the feeling that if you’re an employer, and not a big donor to Democrats, that you’re an enemy of CA. You’d definitely get the feeling that the state doesn’t give two cents for business owners dealing with the homeless dystopia making working conditions so unhealthy and dangerous for businesses and their staff.
Just this morning, I encountered a homeless man hanging out in front of the grocery store. His pants were hanging down, and he didn’t have underwear. You could see ALL of his pubic hair, and he was about an inch away from showing the twig and berries. Meanwhile, toddlers skipped on by going shopping with their mommies.
There was a homeless guy in front of my husband’s work who used to throw bottles at anyone who made eye contact, man or woman. I remember when we naively thought they just needed help, and had representatives from every service and shelter around come offer help, only to be rebuffed. Most of the homeless are drug addicted and/or mentally ill. They cannot make good decisions. Many need care but are too addled to accept it. Leaving someone to languish in the bushes, high out of their minds, is not compassion. Perhaps the only way to save their lives, and save the community, is to force them to get care. Animals don’t live like this. We can’t just keep hoping they’ll accept help.
Unfortunately, people who haven’t directly experienced these issues, or who don’t have to wind their way around human feces to go to work, are in some kind of denial that there’s a problem. It’s so easy to think that those who complain lack compassion when they’re not the ones personally affected.
Sadly, it is all too common to resist understanding someone else’s point of view until and unless it directly affects them. It’s a very self centered world view.
Karen says:
“Perhaps the only way to save their lives, and save the community, is to force them to get care.”
Force them to get care? You are being sarcastic, correct? Trumpists are up in arms about forcing them to take the vaccine!!
Karen says:
“It’s so easy to think that those who complain lack compassion when they’re not the ones personally affected.”
I don’t think that those who complain lack compassion for the homeless. Not at all. They have compassion UNTIL they are asked to pay more in taxes to build affordable housing in order to mitigate the problem.
Jeff:
All we do is complain about the dismal states of mental health care, decade after decade, without actually doing anything about it. It went from being too easy to involuntarily commit someone, to too hard. The problem with community-based mental health care is that people don’t take their meds, they don’t keep their appointments, and they slide down until they’re homeless.
Then there are the drug addicts, who started out thinking it was fun, until they were hooked good and hard. They burned every bridge with family and friends and eventually found themselves homeless. In the grips of their addiction, they refuse all help because rehab seems impossible.
These people are incapable of making good decisions, because the decision making center of their brains are not working.
The vaccine issue involves adults of capacity, not those who are incapacitated. You can’t let someone mentally ill lurch around town with his pants down, sleeping in the bushes, and doing drugs. His brain isn’t working.
Don’t confuse disagreement over politics or healthcare with actual mental incapacity. It really demeans their plight.
We spend billions on homeless care. It’s only gotten worse. This is not a problem that simply needs more money thrown at it. No matter what service is offered, the homeless just decline it. Remember the part where representatives offered shelter, tiny houses, other housing, and all sorts of mental health and rehab to the homeless? They declined.
Los Angeles county ALONE spent $619 million in a single year to help the homeless. And you think MORE MONEY is the answer? https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-ln-homeless-housing-count-20190511-story.html
Only a fool keeps repeating the same experiment expecting a different result.
Karen says:
“These people are incapable of making good decisions, because the decision making center of their brains are not working.”
How presumptuous of you! According to Trumpists, every decision and opinion I make is no different than a drug-addled person. I have to presume that you suppose that the “center” of my brain is not working as well! No doubt, there will be at least one well-known contributor here who will confirm my suspicion.
Karen says:
“Don’t confuse disagreement over politics or healthcare with actual mental incapacity. It really demeans their plight.”
People who are mentally incapacitated have the same right of liberty as those who are not incapacitated as long as they are no threat to themselves or others. Thus, government cannot force them to take a mental health drug anymore than it can force a Trumpist to be vaccinated.
Ironically, a vaccinated mentally ill person is LESS of a threat to society than an unvaccinated and unmasked Trumpist.
Karen says:
“Los Angeles county ALONE spent $619 million in a single year to help the homeless. And you think MORE MONEY is the answer?”
Ok, then, what is? Forced institutionalization and forced injections of therapeutic medicine?
Jeff, you said, “How presumptuous of you! According to Trumpists, every decision and opinion I make is no different than a drug-addled person.” You need to work on your reading comprehension. I said no such thing. In fact, I said the exact opposite, not to misuse the issue of mental incapacity by weaponizing it in politics. But have fun arguing with a position I didn’t make, if it makes you feel better.
This is what I actually said:
“Don’t confuse disagreement over politics or healthcare with actual mental incapacity. It really demeans their plight.”
“Ironically, a vaccinated mentally ill person is LESS of a threat to society than an unvaccinated and unmasked Trumpist.” I assume this is hyperbole, because it has no basis in fact. Homeless mentally ill are more likely to commit crimes than non homeless mentally ill. Whether homelessness is the cause of the criminal behavior, or whether those mentally ill more prone to violence and crime would be more likely to be homeless was not the point of this study, but here are the statistics:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7641002/
“Mentally disordered defendants had 40 times the rate of homelessness found in the general population, and 21 times the rate in the population of mentally ill persons in the city. The overall rate of criminal offenses was 35 times higher in the homeless mentally ill population than in the domiciled mentally ill population. The rate of violent crimes was 40 times higher and the rate of nonviolent crimes 27 times higher in the homeless population. Homeless defendants were significantly more likely to have been charged with victimizing strangers.”
How about instead of complaining about our broken mental health system, decade after decade, that we fix it? There is a need to improve it, not return to One Flies Over The Cuckoos Nest.
Do you think if more money won’t solve the problem, then we’re helpless? Our current approach isn’t working. Simply doing more of it will still not work.
I’ve known of two cousins who became drug addicts after getting prescribed pain killers for injuries. One of them was in a horrific accident. They did the usual downward spiral into addiction and burning bridges. Some of the people from my high school became drug addicts. Years after graduation, one of them called me out of the blue from a crack house asking for a ride to rehab. I drove to an actual crack house, although I wouldn’t go inside, for a guy who wasn’t even a close friend. After all that he still wouldn’t go.
You hear of friends and relatives talking about their family members suffering from drug addiction. It’s like possession. They look like their loved one, but their loved one isn’t home. They describe feeling completely helpless. Rehab is incredibly expensive, yet for some drug addictions, it can take 27 different trips to rehab for it to finally stick.
They say forced rehab has an even lower success rate. Yet some recovered drug addicts have claimed that it was the threat of going to prison that made them finally agree to willingly choose rehab over prison. They said that was hitting their bottom. Now that it has become decriminalized, and homeless camps are enabled, what’s the incentive?
Karen,
When I said, “According to Trumpists, every decision and opinion I make is no different than a drug-addled person,” I was obviously being sarcastic!
When I said, “a vaccinated mentally ill person is LESS of a threat to society than an unvaccinated and unmasked Trumpist,” obviously I was referring to the law-abiding mentally ill. As far the non-law abiding mentally ill, I would rather be robbed by them than infected with the Delta type by a selfishly unvaccinated and unmasked Trumpist.
Jeff, what if being robbed by a homeless person involved punching your teeth out, while getting Covid from either another vaccinated person, or an unvaccinated person, would probably be milder symptoms if you are vaccinated.
Still sticking with your vehemence?
I’ve come to see the truth to the old saying that you convince someone against his will, he’s hold the same opinions still. One would think the homeless catastrophe would be one of the few remaining bridges between political teams, but apparently not.
Karen,
What if an unvaccinated person brings the Delta variant into his home and exposes his entire family who then must be hospitalized and become an unnecessary burden on the overtaxed ER nurses as well as driving up the insurance rates of the vaccinated by the insurance companies who need to recoup their losses for paying for free all this expensive treatment?
Jeff:
You do know that vaccinated people are getting Delta, right? Israel is to my knowledge the highest vaccinated country in the world, yet they have suffered a spike of infections and hospitalizations.
If you get Delta even though you are vaccinated, you are still contagious.
What if someone gets vaccinated, gets Delta, comes home, and brings it to his family?
I have asthma, so I’ve been as careful as possible about Covid. I’ve avoided people who traveled a lot. I scrupulously wore a mask, as did my husband and son. Respiratory infections are one of my worst asthma triggers, so I really don’t want to get this. It was crushing to learn that SARS-CoV2 was a highly mutable virus. Those variants mean that no vaccine will ever make it go extinct, not like Smallpox. It means we’ll have to keep chasing it, forever. Variants defeated by the immunity either naturally acquired from recovery from Covid, or from the vaccine, will be selected against. Variants which can sneak past our defenses will be selected for, whether everyone gets the vaccine or everyone gets Covid and recovers.
I agree with you to the point that we need to increase immunity as much as possible, with the hope that it will lessen the disease’s severity in those affected. However, immunity from recovering from Covid is equal to or greater than immunity through the vaccine. Therefore, I disagree with treating those with naturally acquired immunity as a lesser caste, with lesser access to public spaces. Immunity is immunity, regardless of how you get it. What matters is the titer.
Those who never got Covid AND never got the vaccine are at greatest risk. I sympathize with those who are fearful of the side effects of the vaccine. I experienced them, myself. However, my reasoning is that if I reacted that strongly to the vaccine, I assume I would have reacted even worse to the virus. After all, the vaccine only generates spike protein. Imagine if it was attached to a replicating virus.
The only way people can make the best choice is with prescience. But since this isn’t a science fiction movie, then all we have to go on are statistics. So far, the best protection we have against serious, debilitating disease is immunity. The only way to get that immunity without actually getting the disease, is through vaccination.
Medical researchers are working diligently to identify best practices for treatment regimens. May we excise the politics out of medicine and get to work, regardless of who likes what treatment. This is critical because now that we have a vaccine, the next step is to to identify the gold standard of treatment protocol.
Well said. The Golden State has become the abuse and crime state…no laws apply unless it has to do with controlling the law abiding populace but everyone else can do whatever they want. Civilization is rotting in many states but CA leads the pack.
I left newjerkistaniland almost 30 years ago because politicos of your stripe polluted the east coast. Now look at it…a truly rotten devoid of law high taxed cesspool of gimme gimme types and politics. The corruption is vast and deep on the rotten east and left coasts. The Cuomo & newscum types abound therein …all demoratzis , all corrupt running their enclaves like dictators from the elite class of “peeps” that emanate like sulphur tainted gasses from a dirty crack in the earth. Small wonder eh , why people are leaving blue pocked states for healthier red states. Even Joe Rogan ditched the failed kalifornika insanity for a cleaner more sane Texas…though where he is at in Austin has a liberal poisoned cancer mindset.
Let me guess- Alex Jones fan?
Uh, lack of choice maybe?
I’ll bet Egypt is ecstatic that the Israelite slaves were intellectually capable, with acumen and gumption, sufficient to see them out of Egypt before the ink was dry on their release papers.
Egypt hasn’t suffered for millennia, and doesn’t suffer now, a caterwauling, ineffectual, dependent and violent minority which is relentlessly begging for “free stuff,” in all its multitudinous forms, including compulsory free social acceptance, free money, free food, free housing, free matriculation, free grade inflation, free hiring, free mortgage assistance, free healthcare insurance, free immunity from culpability, etc.
The communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs) in America have made Karl Marx proud.
No freedom and self-reliance for them, simply class “untouchability,” dependence and entitlement, oh, and violence.
All I know is this is a classic case of systematic racism. Young black men just don’t commit these kinds of crimes. What is going on in this country! Why do you white people hate use blacks so much?????
And, of course, Americans enjoy the rights and freedoms of speech, thought, religion, belief, press, dissemination, assembly, segregation, privacy, private property and every other, conceivable, God-given and natural right, freedom, privilege and immunity per the 9th Amendment.
Americans also enjoy the freedom of discrimination, the freedom of making their own choices and decisions, the right to rent/sell to whom they choose, the right to hire whom they choose, and the right and freedom to hold opinions on race and any and all other subjects and matters.
It is government that is severely limited and restricted, per Article 1, Section 8.
In 1789, the People were determined to be the new Sovereign and the government, the Subject of that new Sovereign.
If Americans cannot discriminate, Americans cannot possibly be free.
If Americans are not free,
Americans are under communist (liberal, progressive, socialist, democrat, RINO) dictatorship.
He has the same eyes as AOC.
Allhysteria O’crazio Corkheads?
Why would Americans suffer the parasitism of a dependent foreign invader hyphenate?
Did the Greeks and Romans allow parasitic, dependent, foreign invader hyphenates to vote in their restricted-vote republics?
I don’t think the prosecution had much choice. The most important thing is to preserve evidence of the murder, and if Parker is at full liberty, he can do that. The “movement of remains” is a small violation, probably a misdemeanor. Parker can demand a speedy trial and, if he wins, can be free to destroy evidence then. But the risk of forever losing evidence of the murder is at cost to the public.
Jonathan: Featuring the mug shot of a black man charged with stuffing the remains of a white hooker in a 55-gallon drum has all the earmarks of a racist trope. A lot of crimes take place all over the country every day. Why choose this one since it doesn’t appear to involve any novel legal issues? You could have discussed Kyle Rittenhouse, the white guy charged with killing 2 and wounding another during the BLM protests last summer in Kenosha, Wis. (see my previous comment). Rittenhouse is in the news because prosecutors have filed a motion requesting the names of donors to the Rittenhouse defense fund. Prosecutors want the names because some could be potential jurors. Right-wing groups have portrayed Rittenhouse as an “American patriot” and have contributed millions to his defense. Rittenhouse’s attorney opposes the motion and raises important legal issues. Now I would think you would want to discuss the Rittenhouse case since it involves important criminal law questions. I guess not. You would rather use racial stereotypes to divert attention from the more serious crimes committed by white nationalists.
“Jonathan: Featuring the mug shot of a black man charged with stuffing the remains of a white hooker in a 55-gallon drum has all the earmarks of a racist trope.”
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Yeah because to the radical leftist, the truth is always racist. It blows up their world view, you see. Truth blowing up a world view? Says something about their world view, wouldn’t you say? BOOM.
“more serious” crimes? Really? What’s more serious than pre-meditated murder? Or maybe this crime isn’t serious to you because it was a white woman who was killed? Or maybe because she was a prostitute? You are shameless.
I agree that the case is an odd one and not what we typically read about on this blog.
To then leap to “it must be racist” is absurd.
RACISM: Anything with which the people who do my thinking for me disagree.
William:
“RACISM: Anything with which the people who do my thinking for me disagree.”
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I’m stealing that line!
Yeah, that’s a good line!
[Turley] would rather use racial stereotypes to divert attention from the more serious crimes committed by white nationalists. — Dennis McIntyre
So, you’ve already convicted Rittenhouse — let’s just hang him. Why? Race baiting.
Dennis,
I too was struck by Turley’s decision to post this photo which reinforces “the coon” as one of the most degrading and insulting of all anti-Black caricatures. Mantan Moreland, a black actor with the physical ability to make his eyes bulge out when acting scared, had many roles as the manservant in Charlie Chan films. Now, I’m sure it was not Turley’s intention to reinforce this anti-black stereotype. Still I would be shocked had the thought not occurred to him that some people on this blog regrettably might take it the wrong way and thus, perhaps, it would be better not to post it. I don’t see any advantage in publishing it. I don’t like it when ANY cable network finds the most unflattering photograph to use as a backdrop to portray a disliked figure in order to pander to its audience.
But your larger point is well-taken. Why post this inane item in the first place while ignoring a momentous Michigan district court decision that directly impacts the freedom of speech of attorneys? Protecting the freedom of speech is one of the primary concerns of Res Ipsa Loquitur, not the hardly surprising well-known prosecutorial trick to overcharge a criminal defendant.
There is no accounting for Turley’s silence in analyzing Judge Parker’s damning judgment of the Trumpist lawyers. I have suggested that it could be that Turley is not at liberty to comment upon it since he could be deposed or called as a witness in the defamation lawsuits brought against his employer, Fox News. Or it could be that he is working on an article which he expects to publish about this remarkable turn of events.
The hill.com reported on this blistering court decision. But, unless I am mistaken, over at Foxnews.com, this devastating decision was NOT reported. As Turley likes to say, when rightly shaming the MSM for its silence on certain newsworthy items, there were “crickets” at Fox News….
Dennis the menacetire You prove again your insufferable leftist kneejerk zeig heilism…again.
Hope he has a good lawyer
He’s a drumbeat away from murder one.
Photo shows a dork. Dork from NY.