Ex-Chicago cop sentenced to life in prison for grisly murder plot
Georgia deputy off duty as police investigate girlfriend’s bizarre shooting death while in bed together
Cop Previously Charged With Stalking Shoots and Kills Ex-Girlfriend
Ex-Chicago
cop sentenced to life in prison for grisly murder plot
By Jason Meisner Chicago
Tribunecontact the reporter
Ex-Chicago cop who planned to
extort businessman, then kill him, chop up his body gets life plus five years.
Ex-Chicago cop Steven Mandell
gets life plus five years in prison.
Steven Mandell delivers bizarre
remarks, including cheerfully wishing the judge a merry Christmas
After decades of drama in
Chicago, including a murder conviction, death sentence, shocking exoneration
and landmark lawsuit against the FBI, all Steven Mandell says he wanted to do
was quietly live out his golden years in Florida.
"I was happily retired,
living with my lovely wife in a golf course community in Naples," Mandell,
64, said Thursday as he delivered bizarre remarks at his sentencing in a packed
federal courtroom. "It was the perfect life."
Instead,he came out of
retirement in 2012 and returned to Chicago, where he was soon arrested in a
grisly plot to kidnap, murder and dismember a suburban businessman. Mandell
said he was once again framed by an untrustworthy informant, continuing his
"long FBI nightmare."
But U.S. District Judge Amy St.
Eve was unmoved by the melodrama. Moments after the former Chicago cop wrapped
up more than 30 minutes of mostly rambling remarks — including cheerfully
wishing the judge a merry Christmas — St. Eve sentenced him to life in prison
for kidnapping and extortion conspiracy and added a mandatory five-year
sentence for a gun conviction.
It was an emphatic end for
Mandell, a reputed underworld figure whom law enforcement has long considered a
dangerous killer and elusive target.8
Years ago Mandell — who then
went by the name Steven Manning — was sent to death row for the drug-related
1990 slaying of a trucking firm owner. After his murder conviction was
overturned on appeal, he won a landmark $6.5 million verdict in a lawsuit
against the FBI. A judge, however, later threw out the verdict, and Mandell
never collected a penny.
Mandell moved to Florida after
the ruling and vanished from the public eye. Several years later, he came back
to Chicago under his new name and soon was meeting with reputed mobsters at La
Scarola restaurant on Grand Avenue, according to court records.
Engel haned himself in his jail
cell shortly after he and Mandell were arrested, authorities said.In the videos
played at Mandell's February trial, he laughed when he described how victims
often come unglued before their deaths. He mimed a blindfolded prisoner, then
drew a hand across his throat to signify a killing. He seemed to have mirth in
his eyes as he made moaning sounds describing the carnage he could inflict.
"Uhhhh please ...
aaaaaaahhhh! It's pitiful," Mandell said in one recording.
Mandell's attorney, Francis
Lipuma, sought as few as 12 years in prison, saying Mandell should get credit
for the two decades he spent behind bars for a murder he didn't commit. Lipuma
noted that no one was actually harmed in the kidnapping plot and said if
Mandell were released in his 80s, he'd be at a point in his life "when
criminal activity would have concluded."
But in asking for a life
sentence, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu painted Mandell as a sadistic
narcissist who "actually takes pleasure from hurting people."
"He likes it. It arouses him!"
said Bhachu, pointing to the defense table at Mandell, who took a sip of water
from a Styrofoam cup.
In her ruling, St. Eve said
Mandell's actions showed a "complete disregard for human life."
"The pure delight that you
showed in those videos … it came through loud and clear," St. Eve said.
"The glee in your face was very apparent. It was, quite frankly,
chilling."
St. Eve said a life sentence
was necessary to keep Mandell from returning to a life of violence and crime.
When FBI agents raided Mandell's
Buffalo Grove home after his arrest, they found more than $16,000 in cash in
two separate stashes as well as thousands of dollars more in a safe-deposit box
at a nearby bank, recent court filings show. Mandell has asked for the money to
be returned to his 83-year-old wife, but prosecutors have objected in sealed
filings.
Georgia
deputy off duty as police investigate girlfriend’s bizarre shooting death while
in bed together
Walton County Deputy Dwight
Buchanan, 21, reportedly loaded a pistol and handed it to his girlfriend,
20-year-old Nikki Guined, early Dec. 10 after a night of drinking and a fight.
But the two had reconciled and were in bed at the Monroe home, getting
'intimate,' when the shooting happened, according to police documents.
BY SASHA GOLDSTEIN
A Georgia deputy is on paid
leave as police investigate the bizarre shooting death of the man’s girlfriend
“while they were intimate” in bed following a fight.
Police say 20-year-old Nikki
Guined shot herself in the head early Dec. 10 following a night of drinking and
a fight with boyfriend Dwight Buchanan, a 21-year-old Walton County sheriff’s
deputy, according to WSB-TV.
She even said she would be “leaving
him” later that morning, but the couple made up and headed to bed at the
Monroe, Ga., home along Brentwood Boulevard, according to a report obtained by
the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
As the couple was “intimate,”
according to the report, “Nikki asked Dwight for his pistol. “Dwight was
reluctant to do so, but gave Nikki his unloaded pistol,” the document reads.
“Nikki repeatedly asked Dwight, 'Don't you trust me?' She then asked him to
load the pistol. Dwight took the pistol from Nikki, loaded it with a magazine
and chambered a round. He then removed the magazine and gave it back to Nikki.
She then placed the muzzle of the gun under her right jaw and pulled the
trigger."
Three other people at the home
heard the gunshot but did not hear the argument, according to the report.
The Georgia Bureau of
Investigation has been called in to investigate the strange death and Buchanan
is off the job during the inquiry.
He was hired 13 months ago and
worked at the Walton County jail.
"I wanted to be as
transparent as possible so that there are no questions,” Walton County Sheriff
Joe Chapman told WSB. "We don't want to appear that we're hiding
anything.”
The 9-mm. Glock pistol was
apparently a gift for Guined, Chapman told the Journal Constitution.
The house was reportedly strewn
with beer cans and the report says Guined was drinking, but doesn’t mention if
Buchanan had consumed alcohol.
An Instagram photo of the
smiling couple was posted on Dec. 10, the morning Guined died, with the caption,
“Even when he’s drunk he’s the cutest guy I’ve ever met. #lovehimsomuch.”
Cop
Previously Charged With Stalking Shoots and Kills Ex-Girlfriend
Rebecca Rose
A Philadelphia area cop with a
history of stalking was arrested for shooting and killing his ex-girlfriend on
Monday.
According to police, Colwyn
Borough police officer Stephen Rozniakowski, 32, shot and killed his former
girlfriend Valerie Morrow on Monday night at her home in Delaware County.
During the attack the victim's husband Tom Morrow, himself a police officer,
was also wounded. Police said Rozniakowski also shot and injured Morrow's
teenage daughter. Via 6ABC:
Delaware County District
Attorney Jack Whalen explains, "Tom Morrow, at this point hearing the
commotion, hearing the gunfire, reached into his nightstand next to the bed,
pulled out a revolver and started returning fire."
When he ran out of bullets
Morrow jumped out of a second floor window, breaking his ankle.
Tom Morrow and his teenage
stepdaughter were released from an area hospital after being treated for their
injuries. According to 6ABC, the motivation behind the shooting is believed to
be jealousy—Valerie Morrow and Rozniakowski were previously romantically
involved.
The Morrows reportedly believed
Rozniakowski was responsible for scratching their new car last week, leading
Valerie Morrow file for a protective order against him on Monday. The order was
delivered to Rozniakowki's home, where he lives with his mother, on Monday
evening at 6 p.m., reports 6ABC. After receiving the restraining order
Rozniakowski reportedly called and resigned as a police officer and then went
to the Morrow residence to confront his ex. Via the Delaware County Times:
Authorities said Rozniakowski,
who telephoned Colwyn Police Chief Bryan Hills Monday to resign from his part
time police position, was served a PFA at his residence in Norwood at about 6
p.m.
It was shortly after 9 p.m.
when shots rang out in the Glenfield Avenue home, killing an unidentified woman
[now identified as Valerie Morrow] and wounding a teenage girl.
Just when you thought this
story couldn't get any worse, it turns out local news reports exposed
Rozniakowski's stalking history more than nine months before the shooting at
the Morrow home, yet local police continued to keep him on their payroll
because officials believed his alleged criminal behavior was harmless.
According to NBC 10,
Rozniakowski was a bona fide scary-ass stalker, who was already facing dozens
of harassment and stalking related charges:
NBC10 Investigator Harry
Hairston put a spotlight on Rozniakowski earlier this year when the officer was
placed on "administrative leave" after his former fiancee filed a
protection from abuse order against him. Plymouth Township Police arrested
Rozniakowski and charged him with 25 counts of stalking and 50 counts of
harassment for allegedly contacting his former fiancee by phone and text
repeatedly.
The Delaware County Daily Times
reports Rozniakowski was on $100,000 bail in the wake of those stalking
charges:
Rozniakowski is facing trial in
Montgomery County, where he is accused of harassing and stalking another woman,
a former fiancee'. He is currently free on $100,000 unsecured bail in that case
— which includes 75 counts of stalking to cause fear, repeated harassment in an
anonymous manner and harassment in a course of conduct with no legitimate
purpose.
Rozniakowski's lawyer offered a
half-assed apology of sorts for his clients terrifying stalking behavior back
in April. "As a police officer, he knows the bounds and what the
boundaries are and what the laws are," said Marty Mullaney, an attorney
for Rozniakowski. "I think his emotions got the best of him."
NBC10 reported in April that
Rozniakowski was placed on paid administrative leave and given office duty.
According to NBC10's original report on Rozniakowski in April, Colwyn Borough
Police Chief Bryan Hills said he believed what Rozniakowski had done was
harmless and opted to let him remain on the job, receiving pay for office duty.
Rozniakowski was charged with 75 counts of harassing/stalking, yet his police
officer crony boss thought it was "harmless."
Chief Hills isn't the only
Colwyn Borough official with an utterly bullshit response to Rozniakowski's
abusive history. Emphasis mine:
Colwyn Borough Manager Paula
Brown told ABC6, "He was taken out of uniform and off the street back in
March of 2014 when the other issue surfaced. And he is not a Colwyn police
officer anymore, he resigned yesterday, and everything was taken care of
yesterday prior to the incident."
"Everything was taken care
of yesterday." Jesus, this attempt to cover their tracks in the wake of a
hideous failure could not be anymore insulting. Kudos to you for allowing a
stalker to remain on your payroll and then conveniently resign moments before
he killed a woman. What color would you like the balloons in your ticker tape
parade? Look, you can grasp at all the straws you want, but I doubt they are
going to be enough to cover all of the asses of everyone who spectacularly
failed to keep a killer from seeking revenge on his stalking victim.
The Delaware County Times notes
Rozniakowski's police-issued firearm was taken away after the protective order
was filed and is reportedly not the weapon used in the shooting death of
Morrow. Whalen is reportedly contemplating seeking the death penalty against
Rozniakowski, who faces murder charges. Meanwhile, Rozniakowski remains in
critical but stable condition at Crozer Chester Medical Center, under police
guard.
