News of Doom 2.0

An attorney for David and Laurie Parks filed the lawsuit in Superior Court in Morristown, claiming Jonathan and James Zarate were negligent in not stopping the other from committing the brutal murder in their father's home.

The lawsuit claims the boys' parents, John Zarate and Flora Mari, failed to adequately supervise them, knowing they both had bullied 16-year-old Jennifer prior to the July 30, 2005 murder.

A couple who admitted locking a 7-year-old boy in his room with a bucket for a toilet while they watched Packers games at a casino received jail sentences Monday. Circuit Judge Jeffrey Wagner called the couple's actions "abhorrent" and ordered them to undergo psychological screening.

Scott Scherer, 39, and Melanie Hardrath, 30, admitted locking Hardrath's son in his room with a loaf of bread, peanut butter and jelly, and a bucket that he would have to clean when they returned.

They had enough money to hire a baby sitter, said Assistant District Attorney Chris Liege, who showed the judge photographs of the couple's extensive collection of Packers memorabilia.

Judge Wagner sentenced Hardrath to seven months in a county jail and Scherer to nine months. Both will serve four years of probation, with a stayed sentence of two years in prison and more extended supervision.

The couple also can't have contact with each other in the presence of the boy, now 8. He is staying with relatives.

The couple's defense attorney, Richard Johnson, said he couldn't explain their behavior.

"What do you do?" he asked the judge. "Maybe this coming football season, lock them in a room with a bucket and make them watch Bears games."

A man broke into a Prichard home early Tuesday morning and made a woman and her 14-year-old daughter remove their clothes and perform sexual acts on each other before raping them both, police said.

Authorities said the man jimmied a bedroom window open so quietly that the victims didn't know there was a prowler until he was already inside at 3:30 a.m.

Police said the man did not brandish a weapon but threatened the mother and daughter with bodily harm.

The victims' names were being withheld to protect their identity.

Three other children were in the house at the time, but they were not harmed and didn't witness the crime, Prichard police Maj. Pat Mitchell said.

Police had not identified the assailant as of Tuesday evening.

They described him as a middle-aged black male with a dark complexion and a burn scar on the right side of his face, near his eye. Police said he stood about 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighed about 140 pounds.

Mitchell said investigators do not believe the victims knew their attacker.

"All information suggests that it was a random act," he said.

State Attorney Barry Krischer has called the crime the worst he has seen in 35 years, and instructed prosecutors "not to negotiate with the defense and proceed to trial and seek the highest possible sentence," Krischer spokesman Michael Edmondson said.

TEXAS CITY, Texas â?? A woman accused of sexually assaulting her infant daughter and videotaping her husband performing sex acts on two children has pleaded guilty to three counts of child sex assault.

Julie Lynn Hinds, 35, pleaded guilty Tuesday to aggravated sexual assault of a child, sexual performance by a child and promotion of child pornography. She faces punishment ranging from probation to life in prison.

An investigation began in December 2005 when a Texas City woman found the videotape in the kitchen cupboard of her apartment, where the Hinds formerly lived.

The tape showed Hinds' husband, Darryl Hinds, performing sex acts with an infant and instructing a 4-year-old to do the same. The tape also showed Julie Hinds sexually assaulting the infant.

Darryl Hinds was sentenced to a 24-year prison term in November after being convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child, promotion of child pornography and sexual performance by a child.

MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- A man who had been released from prison early for good behavior was convicted Tuesday of trying to kill a young mother and leaving her 5-year-old daughter to be eaten alive by alligators in the Everglades.

Harrel Franklin Braddy had befriended Shandelle Maycock and her daughter Quatisha. Maycock testified that Braddy went to her home in November 1998 and grew enraged when she asked him to leave.

He choked Maycock until she was unconscious and then forced her and Quatisha into his car, the woman testified. At one point, Maycock gained consciousness, grabbed the child and jumped out of the moving vehicle.

Braddy stopped, choked the woman again and put her in the trunk, she testified. Maycock never saw her daughter again. Prosecutors said Braddy then drove to a section of Interstate 75 in the Everglades known as Alligator Alley and dropped Quatisha in the water beside the road.

She was alive when alligators bit her on the head and stomach, a medical examiner said.

Authorities found the girl's body two days later, her left arm missing and her skull crushed, prosecutors said. Maycock woke up bleeding and disoriented in a cane field miles from her Miami-Dade County home.

Braddy was convicted of seven counts including first-degree murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, burglary and escape. He faces the death penalty.

CONROE, Texas -- A woman died late Sunday after her boyfriend allegedly set her on fire, KPRC Local 2 reported

Conroe police said John Marshall Dodd, 42, beat Terry Lee and doused her with gasoline at her home on Fay Street near Toby Lane at about 11:10 p.m. Saturday.

Lee, 44, was found on the kitchen floor. She suffered burns over 90 percent of her body. She was transported to Memorial Hermann Hospital, where she died shortly before 11 p.m. Sunday.

Police said they went to the house after a fire alarm went off. Dodd was still at the home and confessed to pouring gasoline over Lee and lighting her with a match, investigators said.

Detectives said Dodd told them he and Lee had an argument.

Investigators said Dodd's story keeps changing, and he has not yet said why he did it.

Police said there were signs of a struggle inside the home. A TV screen was cracked, a mirror was shattered and a glass-top table was broken.

Garcia said Lee met Dodd, a personal trainer, at a gym and the couple had been dating for about three months.

Friends said Lee never mentioned being afraid of Dodd and did not know he had a criminal record.

In 1993, Dodd served prison time for breaking into a woman's home with the intent to rape.

Lee worked for Child Protective Services for more than 20 years. She was named caseworker of the year in Texas in 2005.

Lee also volunteered at a shelter for abused women.

Lee's 15-year-old daughter was out of town at cheerleading camp when the attack occurred.

Fingerprints in the woman's house linked 15-year-old Jakaris Sansay Taylor to the June 18 attack, West Palm Beach police spokesman Ted White said.

The state attorney's office will be seeking a grand jury indictment for all defendants in the case to ensure they are charged as adults, spokesman Mike Edmondson said.

Taylor was arrested on charges of home invasion robbery with a firearm, wearing a mask while committing an offense, sexual battery and armed sexual battery with multiple perpetrators. He will be transferred to a juvenile detention center once investigators finish questioning him, police said.