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Thread: Christopher L. Whitaker - Ohio Death Row

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    Christopher L. Whitaker - Ohio Death Row



    Alianna DeFreeze





    Sex offender charged in slaying of Cleveland teen Alianna DeFreeze

    By Adam Ferrise
    cleveland.com

    CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The South Euclid man arrested Thursday in connection with the slaying of 14-year-old Alianna DeFreeze has been charged.

    Christopher Whitaker, 44,
    is charged with aggravated murder. He is expected to make his first court appearance on Saturday.

    Officials have not said
    how Whitaker killed Alianna. The Cuyahoga County Medical ruled that she died from "multiple injuries."

    DNA evidence collected by the medical examiner linked Whitaker to the crime, police said.

    Whitaker, a convicted sex offender, is accused of killing Alianna, who had mental disabilities, as she transferred buses on her way to E Prep and Village Prep Woodland Hills Campus on Jan. 26.

    She boarded a bus about 6:45 a.m. that day and surveillance video showed she got off the bus on East 93rd and Kinsman. She walked west toward a McDonald's but never went into the restaurant.

    She wasn't seen again until about 7:30 p.m. Sunday, when Cleveland police officers scoured the neighborhood trying to find her. They found her body in an abandoned building in the 9400 block of Fuller Avenue.

    The medical examiner, who believed the body belonged to Alianna, was unable to positively identify for three days until they matched up her dental records, the medical examiner said.

    In a Facebook post, Alianna's school remembered her as a "gentle, kind and beautiful person-- inside and out. She has a smile that can light up a room and a giggle that is contagious."

    Whitaker served four years in prison for a 2005 sexual battery and felonious assault conviction.

    He also has prior convictions dating to 1996 for aggravated theft, burglary and criminal trespassing.

    http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index...in_slayin.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Man charged in Alianna DeFreeze's death sexually assaulted woman, stabbed her with scissors in 2005

    By Adam Ferrise
    cleveland.com

    CLEVELAND, Ohio a The man accused of killing 14-year-old Alianna DeFreeze and leaving her body in an abandoned building was convicted in 2005 for sexually assaulting a woman, choking her unconscious and stabbing her in the neck with scissors.

    Christopher Whitaker, 44, is charged with aggravated murder in connection with Alianna's death. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance on Saturday.

    Officials have not said
    how Alianna died, but Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams called the crime "heinous" in a press conference announcing the arrest in the case. DNA evidence collected by the medical examiner linked Whitaker to the crime, police said.

    Whitaker is a registered sex offender stemming from the 2005 conviction.

    Whitaker on April 8, 2005 called a then-45-year-old woman several times throughout the night. He asked permission to use the restroom in her apartment at the Trinity Towers apartment complex on Rockside Road in Bedford Heights.

    The woman let him into the apartment. Whitaker went into the restroom and emerged with a pair of scissors. He choked the woman unconscious.

    He sexually assaulted while she was unconscious and stabbed her twice in the neck with the scissors.

    Whitaker left by the time she regained consciousness. She was treated at Hillcrest Hospital and Whitaker was arrested four days later.

    He was initially charged with attempted murder and rape, but pleaded guilty to sexual battery and felonious assault. He was sentenced to four years in prison on that case.

    Whitaker's most recent conviction stemmed from a 2013 burglary in in Bedford.

    In that case, Whitaker broke into his then 39-year-old ex-girlfriend's home on Ledgewood Drive, just south of Turney Road.

    Whitaker stole three televisions, a CD player, a fax machine, a computer, a washer and a cellphone. The woman also reported that Whitaker loaded the items into her car and used it to drive away from her home.

    Bedford police used touch DNA from a coffee mug in the woman's home to link Whitaker to the crime.

    Whitaker called the woman several days later and threatened to kill her, according to police reports. He told her he'd kill her unless she recanted her statement to police and told her: "When they find the DNA ain't mine, you will be sorry," police reports say.

    Whitaker pleaded guilty to grand theft and was initially sentenced to two years on probation. He violated probation by using drugs and was sentenced to six months in the county jail.

    When he was released, he continued threatening the woman, police reports say. He sent her Facebook messages on Dec. 23, 2015 that said he would harm her and her family, according to police.

    In 1999, he was convicted of breaking into a family member's home and stealing her car.

    In 1996, he was charged with burglary and later pleaded to criminal trespass for crawling through a man's window in Maple Heights in order to steal a television. The resident was home at the time and ran outside.

    http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index...rt_river_index
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    He only got four years for raping a woman and stabbing her in the neck with scissors? That makes me want to violate this forum's rules on swearing.

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    $3M bond set for accused Alianna DeFreeze killer Christopher Whitaker

    CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) – The 44-year-old man charged with aggravated murder in connection with the death of 14-year-old Alianna DeFreeze of Cleveland has an arraignment Saturday morning where a bond of $3 million was set.

    Christopher Whitaker, of South Euclid, was charged with aggravated murder in Alianna DeFreeze’s case. This isn’t the first time he’s faced criminal charges. Whitaker was charged with sexual battery and felonious assault of a 45-year-old woman in 2005.

    He had been listed as a sex offender.

    His next court appearance will be February 14.

    https://wzakcleveland.hellobeautiful...pher-whitaker/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Alianna DeFreeze went missing in Cleveland, and a new horror surfaces

    By Phillip Morris
    cleveland.com

    Cleveland has a recent history of girls and women violently disappearing.

    Anthony Sowell killed 11 women and stored or buried them in and around his Imperial Avenue home before his crimes were discovered in 2009. Ariel Castro kidnapped and sexually enslaved three young women for more than a decade before they courageously made their escape in 2013.

    Now it appears that this town will be forced to relive a another form of the nightmare. Law enforcement officials confirmed Tuesday evening that a body found Sunday in an abandoned East Side house is that of Alianna DeFreeze, a missing 14-year-old girl. Many questions remain unanswered, including cause of death, but police had previously called the fatality a homicide.

    Here's what we do know.

    Alianna DeFreeze, 14, boarded a Regional Transit Authority bus near her home early Friday morning, headed to the middle school she attends in the Union-Miles neighborhood. It's usually a 20-minute ride down Kinsman Avenue, then a transfer to another bus to complete her trip to E-Prep.

    The journey would take her past deteriorated neighborhoods, abandoned houses and the general despair of swaths of Cleveland that have long been left behind. At her transfer point, near East 93rd Street and Kinsman, there's a McDonald's -- a familiar neighborhood anchor in the midst of a palpable malaise.

    Footage from a security camera in the neighborhood shows her walking near the McDonald's just before 7 a.m. Thursday. But she didn't make her RTA transfer. She never made it to school. She didn't go back home. Alianna went missing.

    When the school told her family she was absent, a search for the missing teenager began in earnest. Friends and family members joined police in the search for a girl described as friendly and impressionable, and also said to suffer from a mental disability.

    "She's never been in any kind of trouble. There's no reason for her to run away from home so this is very, very unlike her -- the fact that she's been gone this long. It's never, never happened before," her aunt Ariel Bell told a television station during the search.

    However, the discovery of the still then unidentified body terrified Cleveland Councilman Zack Reed. He said he feared that the discovery signaled a trend.

    "This is the fifth body found near the 93rd Street corridor since 2012. Four of the bodies have been dumped in vacant lots or abandoned houses. Police tell me there's no obvious connection between the murders, but I'm not so sure. How do we know that we don't have another serial killer out here?" Reed told me Tuesday afternoon.

    The councilman has reason to be extraordinarily sensitive when it comes to the topic of missing women. Sowell operated in Reed's former ward with a shocking recklessness and sadistic arrogance until he was caught. Still, Cleveland somehow failed to detect a prolific serial killer until one of Sowell's intended victims managed to escape and report the monster.

    The same goes for the depravity of Castro, who drove a school bus and routinely played publicly in bands while holding his victims captive in a busy residential neighborhood.

    Meanwhile, the fate of Alianna is every parent or guardian's worst nightmare. We can only mourn and pray that justice and closure comes quickly.

    Cleveland authorities now treat missing-person reports with more urgency than they used to. That's the lesson learned from recent devastating losses, which now grow even more painful.

    Now this town must meet the challenge of identifying and capturing one or more sadistic criminals who delight in turning abandoned houses into mausoleums. The cost of an outcome any less clear will continue to be borne by Cleveland's most vulnerable residents.

    http://www.cleveland.com/morris/inde...t_missing.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Funeral arrangements set for Alianna DeFreeze

    By Adam Ferrise
    cleveland.com

    CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Alianna DeFreeze, the 14-year-old girl who was found killed in an abandoned building, will be laid to rest on Saturday.

    Her wake will be held from noon to 12:30 p.m. Saturday at the New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland Heights.

    The funeral service will immediately follow, according to a Facebook post by Alianna's mother.

    The family is asking anyone who attends to wear Alianna's favorite color, purple, in her honor.

    Alianna went missing Jan. 26 as she transferred buses on her way to school. She was found dead Jan. 29 in a building on Fuller Avenue near East 93rd Street.

    The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner has not said how Alianna was killed, but ruled her death a homicide from "multiple injuries."

    A 44-year-old sex offender, Christopher Whitaker, is charged with aggravated murder in connection with Alianna's death. He is being held in the Cleveland City Jail on $3 million bond.

    http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index...set_for_a.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Prosecutors will seek death penalty in murder of Alianna Defreeze

    More charges were filed against the man accused of killing 14-year-old Alianna Defreeze.

    Christopher Whitaker, 44, was originally charged with aggravated murder. Now, he faces an indictment for rape, kidnapping, offenses against a human corpse, burglary and tampering with evidence.

    The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office told FOX 8 News it will seek the death penalty in this case.

    Defreeze was last seen on Jan. 26 getting off of an RTA bus at East 93rd Street and Kinsman Avenue. Her mother reported her missing when she learned Alianna was not at school. Three days later, officers found her body in an abandoned house on Fuller Avenue.

    On Saturday, hundreds of people gathered at Imani Temple Ministries in Cleveland Heights for her funeral.

    Whitaker became a suspect through DNA evidence. U.S. Marshals arrested him without incident in Maple Heights. When he appeared in court on Feb. 4, Whitaker’s bond was set at $3 million.

    Authorities said he has an extensive criminal record, including charges of sexual battery and felonious assault. He is a registered sex offender in Cuyahoga County.

    http://fox8.com/2017/02/13/prosecuto...anna-defreeze/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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    Edited:

    Cleveland teen Alianna DeFreeze died of stab wounds, blunt force trauma


    By Cory Shaffer
    cleveland.com

    CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Alianna DeFreeze, the 14-year-old Cleveland girl whose body was found earlier this month in an vacant house days after she was reported missing, was beaten and stabbed to death, according to court records.

    Christopher Whitaker
    is accused of abducting DeFreeze, raping her and inflicting blunt-force injuries, stabbing and puncture wounds that killed her, Cleveland police detectives wrote in records filed in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court that were made public on Tuesday.

    The records do not say if investigators recovered a weapon.

    Whitaker, 44, is scheduled for an arraignment hearing Thursday after a grand jury handed up a capital indictment charging him with aggravated murder, rape, kidnapping, aggravated burglary, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence.

    Whitaker is the first defendant that Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley will seek to put to death since taking office in January.

    "The facts of this case together with his violent criminal history compels this Office to seek the death penalty," O'Malley said.

    Whitaker is being held on $3 million bond.

    The records made public after Whitaker's indictment offer the first official glimpse into as to how the girl may have died.

    Cleveland police have refused to say how they believe Whitaker killed the girl. An affidavit filed in Cleveland Municipal Court provided no details past naming Whitaker as a suspect in the death. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office has said

    Alianna died of "multiple injuries," and has refused to offer any details into her cause of death.

    Ryan Miday, a spokesman for O'Malley, would not comment Tuesday beyond what was in the court records.

    Whitaker was arrested Feb. 2 after the medical examiner identified him through DNA evidence collected during the investigation, police said.

    Alianna, who suffered from mental health issues, was reported missing last month after she did not show up to school on Jan. 26.

    http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index...a_defreez.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  9. #9
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    Judge denies bond for man accused of killing Cleveland teen Alianna DeFreeze

    By Cory Shaffer
    cleveland.com

    CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cuyahoga County judge has ordered the man accused of killing 14-year-old Alianna DeFreeze held in jail without bond.

    Common Pleas Judge Pamela Barker on Thursday gave 44-year-old Christopher Whitaker no chance to get out of jail as he awaits trial on aggravated murder, rape, kidnapping, aggravated burglary, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence charges.

    Whitaker pleaded not guilty to the charges Thursday. Barker assigned defense lawyers Thomas Shaughnessy and Fernando Mack to represent him.

    Whitaker faces the death penalty if convicted. He's accused of abducting, beating and raping Alianna before she died.

    A Cleveland Municipal Court Judge set Whitaker's bond at $3 million bond at his first appearance there earlier this month.

    Whitaker was arrested Feb. 2 after the medical examiner identified him using DNA evidence collected during the investigation, police said.

    Alianna, who suffered from mental health issues, was reported missing last month after she did not show up to school on Jan. 26.

    She got onto an RTA bus about 6:45 a.m. that day on East 149th Street north of Kinsman Avenue and got off the bus to switch lines at East 93rd and Kinsman Avenue, police said. She never made it onto the second bus.

    Police say Whitaker kidnapped her at East 93rd Street and Carton Avenue, then took her to a vacant house around the corner on Fuller Avenue. Police officers found her dead days later inside the home.

    Cleveland police have refused to say how they believe Whitaker killed the girl. An affidavit filed in Cleveland Municipal Court provided no details past naming Whitaker as a suspect in the death. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office has said Alianna died of "multiple injuries," and has refused to offer any details into her cause of death.

    Ryan Miday, a spokesman for O'Malley, would not comment Tuesday beyond what was in the court records.

    Hundreds of people attended Alianna's funeral on Saturday.

    Whitaker is a registered sex offender stemming from a 2005 guilty plea to sexual battery and felonious assault charges after police said he attacked a woman and stabbed her with scissors.

    He called a then-45-year-old woman several times throughout the night. He asked permission to use the restroom in her apartment at the Trinity Towers apartment complex on Rockside Road in Bedford Heights.

    The woman let him into the apartment. Whitaker went into the restroom and emerged with a pair of scissors. He choked the woman unconscious.

    He sexually assaulted her while she was unconscious and stabbed her twice in the neck with the scissors.

    Whitaker served four years in prison. He also has prior burglary convictions.

    http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index...of_clevel.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  10. #10
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    Related:

    'Alianna Alert' supporters plead their case to Ohio lawmakers


    By Cleveland 19 News Digital Team
    Cleveland 19 News

    CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) - Ohio Senator Sandra Williams and other supporters are in Columbus Wednesday helping convince senators to pass Senate Bill 82.

    Senate Bill 82 would require schools to call parents within one hour of the start of the school day, if their child has been marked absent. The purpose of the Alianna Alert is to take precautionary measures to ensure that every child is safe, specifically those students who are not transported by the school systems.

    Alianna's mother, Donesha Cooper, addressed lawmakers Wednesday.

    "How many kids have to suffer as my daughter did? How many parents have to go through what I went through? How many parents have to wait 10 hours," she said.

    Alianna DeFreeze
    was last seen on Jan. 26 around 6:30 a.m. boarding a RTA bus to go to school. DeFreeze's mother contacted police after being notified by the school that her daughter was not in attendance that day around 4:15 p.m.

    On Sunday, Jan. 29, officers were conducting sweeps near East 93rd Street and Kinsman Road in an effort to locate DeFreeze and found her body in an abandoned home on Fuller Avenue. An autopsy found that DeFreeze died of blunt force trauma and stab wounds.

    Christopher Whitaker
    , a 44-year-old convicted sex offender is accused of murdering the14-year-old. He was arrested Feb. 2 and has since been indicted on four counts of aggravated murder, two counts of kidnapping and one count each of rape, aggravated burglary, tampering with evidence and gross abuse of a corpse.

    Whitaker, who could face the death penalty if convicted.

    Currently, Ohio law is silent on school districts contacting parents when their child is absent.

    http://www.cleveland19.com/story/350...ohio-lawmakers
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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