Hesperia boy, 4, found slain in vehicle with father
http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_14363281
By Melissa Pinion-Whitt
Posted: 02/09/2010 06:55:44 AM PST
A Hesperia man shot his 4-year-old son and then turned the gun on himself Monday in the county's second shooting involving a father and son in less than two weeks.
Jesus Roman Fuentes Jr., 34, and his son were flown to a hospital, where the boy died of his wounds. Fuentes was in critical condition, San Bernardino County coroner's officials said.
Motorists found the pair at 6:11 p.m. after Fuentes intentionally crashed his car into a guard rail on Highway 138 north of the entrance to Lake Silverwood.
Paramedics discovered both occupants of the car had suffered gunshot wounds. Coroner's officials said Fuentes shot his son and then himself after crashing the vehicle.
San Bernardino County sheriff's homicide detectives are investigating the shooting.
The incident came nine days after a Pinon Hills man and his 9-month-old son were found dead in Twin Peaks. Sheriff's officials said Stephen Garcia, 25, took his son Wyatt Garcia, of Yucca Valley, during a court-ordered visitation. He threatened to kill the child and then commit suicide.
Their bodies were found Jan. 31 inside a vehicle in the 26000 block of Old Toll Road. Homicide detectives are investigating the apparent murder-suicide.
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Most scams, such as sub-prime mortgages and email scams, victimize adults. But custody scams victimize children. When government fails to protect children it throws open the doors to private contractors—lawyers and clinicians—who enrich themselves at the expense of children. (More about this child and the mother who tried to protect her appears below.)
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
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February
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- Dr. Amy Castillo tries to change Maryland law to "...
- Why judges and police must learn to connect the do...
- Children need court protection
- Father kills 18-month-old for crying
- This child should have been protected by the judge...
- Why do judges fail to protect children from forced...
- Dead baby beaten by father for being a girl
- King of his Castle: Custody murders in 2010
- Second father-son murder-suicide in two weeks
- When custody courts don't care about children
- When judges don't believe the violence
- Suicide-murder of infant son planned on Facebook
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About the mother and child pictured at the top
On February 21, 1992, Rhode Island Family Court's Chief Judge Jeremiah Jeremiah gave this two-year-old to the sole custody and possession of her father despite his history of domestic violence and failure to pay child support. The father, a police officer, brought false charges against his ex-wife, first saying she was a drug addict. (Twenty-two random tests proved she was not.) Then he had her arrested for bank fraud, then for filing a false report, then for sexual abuse, then for kidnapping. None of his charges stuck.
The child remained with her father and stepmother until 2003, when, at 14, she finally realized that her mother had not been a drug addict. The teenager persuaded Judge Stephen Capineri to let her return to her mother. There she began working on the painful issues of lifelong coercion and deception--a tangled knot of guilt and rage. Most painful has been her father’s continuing refusal to let her visit two dearly loved half-sisters, whom she has not seen since 2003.
She is one of countless children in Rhode Island subjected to severe emotional and physical trauma by Family Court when it helps abusive parents to maintain control over their families after divorce. When she turned 18 in 2007, she gave the Parenting Project permission to publish her picture on behalf of all children who have been held hostage by Rhode Island custody scams.
She is one of countless children in Rhode Island subjected to severe emotional and physical trauma by Family Court when it helps abusive parents to maintain control over their families after divorce. When she turned 18 in 2007, she gave the Parenting Project permission to publish her picture on behalf of all children who have been held hostage by Rhode Island custody scams.
We are using this blog to provide links to stories that will help concerned people, including government officials, become aware of this form of child abuse and legal abuse. We must work together to improve the courts' ability to recognize the signs of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in victims of domestic abuse who are trying to protect their children.
PLEASE NOTE: If you are looking for the story of the removal of "Molly and Sara," please visit http://LittleHostages.blogspot.com
More Parenting Project Blogs
About the Author and the Cause
Parenting Project is a volunteer community service begun in 1996 at Mathewson Street United Methodist Church, Providence, RI, to focus on the needs of children at risk in Family Court custody cases. Our goal is to make Rhode Island's child protective system more effective, transparent, and accountable.
The Parenting Project coordinator, Anne Grant, a retired minister and former executive director of Rhode Island's largest shelter for battered women and their children, researches and writes about official actions that endanger children and the parents who try to protect them. She wrote a chapter on Rhode Island in Domestic Violence, Abuse, and Child Custody: Legal Strategies and Policy Issues, ed. Mo Therese Hannah, PhD, and Barry Goldstein, JD (Civic Research Institute, 2010).
Comments and corrections on anything written here may be sent in an email with no attachments to parentingproject@verizon.net
Find out more about the crisis in custody courts here:
www.centerforjudicialexcellence.org/PhotoExhibit.htm
www.child-justice.org
www.leadershipcouncil.org
www.evawintl.org provides forensic resources to end violence against women
about domestic violence in hague custody cases:
www.haguedv.org
more about domestic violence in law enforcement:
http://behindthebluewall.blogspot.com/