Date: 10/29/2008 5:23 PM
By JUDI SHIMEL
Associated Press Writer
CHARLOTTE AMALIE, U.S. Virgin Islands (AP) _ A missing lawyer who had recently moved to the U.S. Virgin Islands and became a judge’s clerk was found slain Wednesday along a dirt path in St. Thomas following an apparent robbery. Two people were charged in his death.
Authorities recovered the body of Gabriel Lerner, a clerk for a Superior Court judge in the U.S. island territory, in the rural western part of the island, a day after he was reported missing and four days after he was last seen, Police Commissioner James McCall said.
“We accomplished a lot in a short period of time,” McCall told reporters. “Unfortunately, it didn’t end the way we wanted it to.”
The police spotted Lerner’s car Tuesday afternoon and started a chase that ended when the car crashed into a police cruiser. The suspects fled into the nearby forest but were captured two hours later by Superior Court marshals, police said.
The two suspects — Devon Frett, 22, and a 17-year-old whose name was not released — were being held on charges that included murder, robbery and kidnapping. They were held without bail.
Lerner, 27, a native of the Milwaukee area, was working as a clerk for Superior Court Judge Brenda Hollar. He was last seen alive on Saturday.
Family members said Lerner, a Georgetown University Law School graduate, moved to the St. Thomas in January to take a job with a law firm before becoming a clerk and was sworn into the territory’s bar last week.
“He was offered a job down there … and thought how can you pass up an opportunity to work down in paradise, instead of cold Wisconsin,” said his sister, Arielle Lerner of Milwaukee. “We were all very jealous.”
The family planned to bury him in St. Thomas, she said.
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Associated Press writer Carrie Antlfinger contributed to this report from Milwaukee.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Couple learns their tot died in foster home crib
Date: 10/8/2008 5:51 AM
By JAMES A. CARLSON
Associated Press Writer
MILWAUKEE (AP) _ A Milwaukee couple is still waiting for answers after their baby boy died in foster care last week — two days after being removed with three other children from their home.
“A week before he was taken from the home we had taken him to the doctor and he was as healthy as can be,” the boy’s father, Robert Whitman, said Tuesday night. “Today was supposed to be his 2-month checkup.”
The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office reported Oct. 2 that 2-month-old Robert R. Whitman was found dead earlier that day in the crib where he was sleeping at a foster home.
The report listed the cause of death as undetermined, pending an autopsy.
Whitman said Tuesday that he and the boy’s mother, Valissa Reynolds, have been told an autopsy was inconclusive on what caused the death. Officials were waiting for results of throat cultures because the youngest girl in the family had strep throat, “and they thought that might have something to do with it,” he said.
A worker from the Bureau of Child Welfare removed the four children Sept. 30 because of filthy conditions in the residence and bruises on one child, according to the medical examiner’s report.
Whitman said the bruises on the child’s legs probably happened while two of the children were jumping on the bed, something they love to do.
As for the disarray, Reynolds has said that she had been ill with a virus for two weeks, and her house otherwise would have been clean.
Whitman said he and Reynolds learned of the death at a disposition hearing Thursday, when they had expected to find out when the children would be returned to them.
The death has left friends and family members “completely shocked and stunned,” Whitman said. “Both grandmas on both sides of the family are completely mortified.”
Whitman said he and Reynolds, who aren’t married but live together, don’t know when the three children, ages 1½, 3 and 7, will be returned.
“Essentially if we can prove to them that we can keep our house clean, we can have them back,” he said.
The medical examiner’s report said details of the case were given to Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Kathy Kucharski, who did not return a message from The Associated Press seeking comment Tuesday night.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
By JAMES A. CARLSON
Associated Press Writer
MILWAUKEE (AP) _ A Milwaukee couple is still waiting for answers after their baby boy died in foster care last week — two days after being removed with three other children from their home.
“A week before he was taken from the home we had taken him to the doctor and he was as healthy as can be,” the boy’s father, Robert Whitman, said Tuesday night. “Today was supposed to be his 2-month checkup.”
The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office reported Oct. 2 that 2-month-old Robert R. Whitman was found dead earlier that day in the crib where he was sleeping at a foster home.
The report listed the cause of death as undetermined, pending an autopsy.
Whitman said Tuesday that he and the boy’s mother, Valissa Reynolds, have been told an autopsy was inconclusive on what caused the death. Officials were waiting for results of throat cultures because the youngest girl in the family had strep throat, “and they thought that might have something to do with it,” he said.
A worker from the Bureau of Child Welfare removed the four children Sept. 30 because of filthy conditions in the residence and bruises on one child, according to the medical examiner’s report.
Whitman said the bruises on the child’s legs probably happened while two of the children were jumping on the bed, something they love to do.
As for the disarray, Reynolds has said that she had been ill with a virus for two weeks, and her house otherwise would have been clean.
Whitman said he and Reynolds learned of the death at a disposition hearing Thursday, when they had expected to find out when the children would be returned to them.
The death has left friends and family members “completely shocked and stunned,” Whitman said. “Both grandmas on both sides of the family are completely mortified.”
Whitman said he and Reynolds, who aren’t married but live together, don’t know when the three children, ages 1½, 3 and 7, will be returned.
“Essentially if we can prove to them that we can keep our house clean, we can have them back,” he said.
The medical examiner’s report said details of the case were given to Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Kathy Kucharski, who did not return a message from The Associated Press seeking comment Tuesday night.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
