Crime Spree

MAYS LANDING, N.J. - The case against Craig Arno and Jessica Kisby, the Atlantic County couple charged in a crime spree that includes murder, kidnapping, and arson, is shaping up as a tale of the tapes - surveillance tapes. Lawyers for the jailed couple, charged with killing a patron abducted from the parking lot of the Trump Taj Mahal Hotel Casino in May 2010, said they have to review 49 disks containing evidence, much of it surveillance video from the casino, an ATM machine, a gas station, and several other locations.

Two Philadelphians, one a juvenile, have been charged in connection with a seven-hour crime spree involving robberies and a carjacking in communities across Camden County, authorities said. The pair robbed and shot a woman, tried to carjack another, stole a Mercury Cougar at gunpoint, then tried to rob another woman, police said. The series of crimes began late Sunday in Cherry Hill and spread to Lawnside and Mount Ephraim by early Monday. Philadelphia police caught a break Tuesday when they stopped the stolen Cougar.

For 12 days last summer, Amos Clay shed his image as a Millersville University basketball star and went on a tear, threatening, burglarizing and robbing people in three suburban counties, prosecutors said. Clay, 23, of the Strawberry Mansion section of Philadelphia, had no criminal record and says he still does not know why he did it. But the crime spree has resulted in prison time for Clay, who would have been a college senior this year. Yesterday, Clay was sentenced in Chester County Court to 1 1/2 to 7 years in state prison for threatening a 72-year-old woman and her grandsons with a kitchen knife, locking them in a bathroom, and robbing their Caln Township home on July 14. The sentence brings Clay's prison time, including a sentence for similar crimes in Delaware County, to 4 1/2 to 17 years.

Two Pennsauken brothers accused of using a toy pistol to begin a 10-week crime spree in East Camden and using the profits from their loot to buy a real gun and drugs have been arrested in connection with 17 armed robberies, three shootings and six sexual assaults. Michael Wayne Leary, 18, and David Steven Leary, 16, both of the 4600 block of Woodland Avenue, were arrested by Camden police Monday. Michael Leary was being held at Camden County Jail after failing to post $100,000 bond.

Ralph Birdsong, a murder and drug suspect who has been in hiding since a July shooting rampage in Philadelphia, was captured yesterday in Florida as he returned home to a trailer park from his job as a hospital carpenter, authorities said. Two FBI agents were waiting inside Birdsong's mobile home at the Twin Lakes Trailer Park, near Fort Lauderdale, about 5 p.m. when he opened the door, officials said. Four other agents were waiting nearby. "We wanted to take him by surprise because we considered him armed and extremely dangerous," said Special Agent Paul Miller, a spokesman for the Miami FBI. "He was not armed," Miller said.

A 19-year-old Lindenwold man admitted yesterday that he had participated in a six-day crime spree that culminated in placing a fake bomb on the roof of Overbrook Senior High School last winter. In Superior Court, Kevin Matthews said he and his friends stole four cars from a used-car dealership, burned three of them, and used a pipe bomb to blow up a car in Gloucester Township before calling in a bomb threat at the school on Feb. 17. Matthews pleaded guilty to aggravated arson, conspiracy to commit aggravated arson, unlawful possession of a pipe bomb, and creating a false public alarm.

A former New York City man pleaded guilty in Montgomery County Court on Thursday to ordering numerous violent crimes in 2010 as he sought to create a chapter of the Bloods street gang in Norristown. Augustus A. Simmons, 23, of Brooklyn, was immediately sentenced to 25 to 50 years by Judge Thomas C. Branca and taken to Graterford Prison. "I've been doing this a long time, and it's the stiffest sentence I've ever been involved with in which no one was killed," said Assistant District Attorney John N. Gradel.

In a month-and-a-half crime spree, Antonio Carl Dorman broke into 10 Delaware County homes, threatened residents with a gun, stole money and jewelry and raped a woman. Yesterday, the 22-year-old Sharon Hill man was sentenced to 18 to 40 years in prison for his crimes. He had pleaded guilty before Judge Anthony R. Semeraro to rape, burglary and related charges. The sentence was part of a negotiated plea reached with the District Attorney's Office. Dorman accepted the plea on the advice of his attorney, public defender Spiros E. Angelos, who said his client could have faced a much stiffer jail sentence if convicted of the charges against him. After being arrested Feb. 12 outside Academy Park High School in Sharon Hill, Dorman gave police a detailed confession, admitting to a series of crimes in January and February in Sharon Hill, Folcroft, Glenolden and Upper Darby.

The seven bus-stop robbery victims were terrorized by two men, but most could not identify the pair. However, at least one nailed Gerald Birch, 20, of Albanus Street near 2nd, as one of the bandits who robbed her and another woman at Ogontz and Andrews avenues at 6:15 a.m. on Jan. 30, 1998. Yesterday, a jury convicted Birch of robbery, plus conspiracy to commit other holdups and weapons offenses. He was also found guilty of possessing marijuana. Common Pleas Judge Ricardo C. Jackson revoked bail and deferred sentencing.

  A wildlife camera helped to capture a serial burglar whose three-month crime spree victimized 13 homeowners in three Chester County townships, District Attorney Tom Hogan said Tuesday. Larry Samuel, also known as Elijah Samuel, 32, of Coatesville, is accused of committing the crimes in East Fallowfield, Valley, and Sadsbury Townships from Oct. 27 through Feb. 1, Hogan said. The stolen items were electronics, jewelry, and 10 firearms, including semiautomatic weapons. "He targeted homes around where he lived," Hogan said.

A former New York City man pleaded guilty in Montgomery County Court on Thursday to ordering numerous violent crimes in 2010 as he sought to create a chapter of the Bloods street gang in Norristown. Augustus A. Simmons, 23, of Brooklyn, was immediately sentenced to 25 to 50 years by Judge Thomas C. Branca and taken to Graterford Prison. "I've been doing this a long time, and it's the stiffest sentence I've ever been involved with in which no one was killed," said Assistant District Attorney John N. Gradel.

MAYS LANDING, N.J. - Bonnie has turned on Clyde. And the horrific story she's telling could seal the fate of her former boyfriend and alleged partner in crime. Jessica Kisby, 26, who pleaded guilty Tuesday in a carjacking-murder case that began in the garage of Atlantic City's Trump Taj Mahal Hotel Casino, has moved from being a co-defendant to the star witness. Her testimony, part of a plea deal that includes a 30-year prison sentence, is expected to strenghten the prosecution's case against her alleged accomplice, Craig Arno, 46. The couple are accused of the May 2010 abduction and slaying of Martin Caballero, a North Jersey grocer who planned to spend a Friday night with family at the Taj Mahal and ended up stabbed to death, his body dumped along a dirt road.

SALT LAKE CITY - A man and a woman were arrested yesterday in the killing of an elderly Utah couple and the shooting of a Nevada woman after a rancher surveying his cattle from the air spotted them walking in a desolate area. Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Jim Phelps told the Associated Press that Logan Welles McFarland, 24, and Angela Atwood, 25, were found yesterday afternoon near Interstate 80 about 35 miles west of the Utah border, not far from where they ditched police in a high-speed chase Saturday.

"I'm not really the heroic type. I was beat up by Quakers. " - Woody Allen as Miles Monroe in "Sleeper" Quakers aren't part of the American Anabaptist tradition. Other than a shared predisposition toward nonviolence, they have nothing in common with the Amish. Still, Allen's quip helps us think realistically about groups with reputations for fierce peacefulness. Recently, seven members of a breakaway sect were arrested in Ohio for chopping off the beards of their fellow Amish for refusing to tolerate their bad behavior.

Phoenixville police believe a rock-throwing burglar has stolen cash from at least six businesses this month during early-morning hours, and they are seeking the public's help to end the crime spree. Police responded to four commercial burglaries in the Acme Shopping Center at 785 Starr Street on Nov. 10. In addition, a fifth business was burglarized on the unit block of Bridge Street the same day, police said. A sixth break-in occurred at a business in the 400 block of High Street on Nov. 16, police said.

MAYS LANDING, N.J. - The case against Craig Arno and Jessica Kisby, the Atlantic County couple charged in a crime spree that includes murder, kidnapping, and arson, is shaping up as a tale of the tapes - surveillance tapes. Lawyers for the jailed couple, charged with killing a patron abducted from the parking lot of the Trump Taj Mahal Hotel Casino in May 2010, said they have to review 49 disks containing evidence, much of it surveillance video from the casino, an ATM machine, a gas station, and several other locations.

PUEBLO, COLO. - A woman caught with her two brothers after a nationwide manhunt told Colorado authorities that she "deserved to get shot," according to an arrest affidavit. Lee Grace Dougherty, 29; Dylan Dougherty Stanley, 26, and Ryan Edward Dougherty, 21, were being held in Pueblo County jail, on bonds of $1.25 million each. The three had a court hearing yesterday, appearing by video from jail. None made any statement during the brief hearing. They face charges of attempted murder of a peace officer and assault on a peace officer.

PUEBLO, Colo. - Three fugitive siblings wanted in a crime rampage in Florida and Georgia were captured yesterday in Colorado after firing shots at officers during a high-speed chase and crashing their car into a highway barrier, authorities said. Ryan Edward Dougherty, 21; Dylan Dougherty Stanley, 26; and Lee Grace Dougherty, 29, were targets of a nationwide search after being accused of shooting at a police car during a chase last week in Florida and robbing a Georgia bank with assault weapons.

ONE YEAR AGO this month, Siegfried Moore, a burly man from North Philadelphia, went on a crime spree that resulted in two murders in the city's Logan section. Yesterday he was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in state prison. Moore, 52, dabbed his eyes with tissue as his relatives wept two rows behind him while Common Pleas Judge Benjamin Lerner read the sentence. Moore previously had pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing DeVaughn Smith, 19, on Aug. 4, 2010, during a robbery, and Huangiong Mo, 59, seven days later while robbing her family's laundry.