Austintown man found dead in fire at his home

8-19-2010 Ohio:

Police questioned him as suspect in sex

Police say a man questioned about a sex crime, alleged by a 15-year-old boy, apparently killed himself Tuesday night.

Detective Sgt. Ray Holmes said he’d questioned Keith A. Leonard, 51, that day about a sex offense alleged in mid-July. Holmes wouldn’t comment on that case, other than to say it is now closed.

Leonard was found dead Tuesday evening in the charred bathroom of his Woodmere Drive home.

He was “burned beyond recognition,” a police report said.

In July, according to a separate police report, Leonard propositioned a 15-year-old boy who was at the Woodmere Drive home doing landscaping work. The report said the boy was offered $500 to allow Leonard to perform a sex act on him.

Holmes said he questioned Leonard about this Tuesday morning.

Assistant Fire Chief Andy Frost Jr. said Leonard was found dead about 10 p.m. that day, after a neighbor heard his smoke alarm going off and called the Austintown Fire Department.

Frost said most of the damage, about $3,000 worth, was contained to the bathroom.

He said the fire department has been asked by the State Fire Marshal’s office not to comment further.

The fire’s cause is under investigation by the state, but Detective Sgt. Kathy Dina said a grill was found in the bathroom.

Though police are not sure how the fire started, Dina said bringing a grill indoors and lighting the charcoal is a known method of suicide. The burning coals produce carbon monoxide and deplete oxygen.

“At this time it looks like it was a suicide,” Dina said.

Police found a note in the living room warning those who entered the residence of “poisonous gases,” she said.

The fire department did not detect carbon monoxide but the state fire marshal took samples in the house and could have different results, Dina said.

“Until the coroner’s report comes back and tells me how he died, we won’t know for sure,” she said.

Leonard was an employee at Farmers National Bank in Austintown and a member of Austintown Kiwanis Club.

Rick Jamrozik, Mahoning County coroner investigator, said an autopsy is scheduled for today. ..Source.. by Elise Franco

Jail officials say Fulton inmate sets self ablaze

1-21-2010 Georgia:

ATLANTA -- Officials are investigating after an inmate at the Fulton County jail set himself on fire.

Spokeswoman Tracy Flanagan said Jeremy Moody, who is charged with the 2007 deaths of two teens, was rushed to Grady Memorial Hospital after the fire last week.

She said Moody set himself ablaze around 1:45 p.m. on Jan. 12.

Moody's family tells WSB-TV they don't believe the jail's report and want an external investigation.

College Park cousins 15-year-old Delarlonva "Del" Mattox Jr. and 13-year-old Chrisondra Sierra Kimble were found stabbed to death in April 2007.

Moody, who was 29 at the time, was charged with kidnapping, aggravated assault and rape in addition to the murder charges.

Investigators said Moody was a stranger to both teens and was likely trying to rob them. ..Source.. Ledger-Enquirer.com

OK- Convicted sex offender dies after setting himself on fire

This one is very disturbing because police sat there, doing nothing to stop him for 30 minutes, claiming they were afraid he was armed. Normally, police would stop a person -under any circumstances- from committing suicide, why were there no attempts here?

10-23-2009 Oklahoma:

A convicted sex offender burned to death when he set himself on fire as authorities served a warrant at his rural Tulsa County home Thursday.

Tulsa County sheriff’s deputies and state Pardon & Parole Board officers were sent to a house in the 14100 block of East Apache Street to contact Johnnie Joe Hobbs, 47, Capt. John Bowman said.

After finding the house empty, the squad peered into a cargo van that sat in the cluttered yard about 3 p.m. Hobbs, who was inside the van, reached out and slammed the door shut, Bowman said.

He then doused the van with gasoline and ignited it, Bowman said. Medics pronounced him dead at the scene.

Bowman said Hobbs had spent time in prison and had indicated that he would do anything to avoid capture.

“There are a lot of people that will do a lot of things to keep from going back to jail,” he said. “To use a flammable liquid to ignite where they are, I have not seen that before.”

Investigators from the Tulsa Fire Department searched through the charred van into the evening, working around piles of garbage that were scattered about the property on the northeastern edge of Tulsa County.

Bowman said that because of the volatile nature of the incident, firefighters didn’t immediately enter the van to douse the flames. There were concerns that Hobbs might have been armed, but no weapons were found after a preliminary search.

About 30 minutes after Hobbs set the vehicle ablaze, authorities entered it and discovered his body in the cab, Bowman said.

The deputies had intended to serve three protective orders on Hobbs, and the parole officers were sent to revoke his suspended sentence for a Muskogee County conviction, Bowman said.

A relative of Hobbs’ gave officials a key to the house, and two of his siblings were in the area as the van burned, Bowman said.

Hobbs was the subject of protective orders in both Tulsa and Rogers counties, court records indicate. He also had been convicted of showing obscene material to a child, lewd molestation and making lewd proposals to a child. ..Source.. by MATT BARNARD and NICOLE MARSHALL World Staff Writers

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Tulsan burns himself to death

10-23-2009 Oklahoma:

The convicted sex offender sets himself afire as authorities attempt to serve him with a warrant.

A convicted sex offender burned to death when he set himself on fire as authorities served a warrant at his rural Tulsa County home Thursday.

Tulsa County sheriff's deputies and state Pardon and Parole Board officers were sent to a house in the 14100 block of East Apache Street to contact Johnnie Joe Hobbs, 47, Capt. John Bowman said.

After finding the house empty, the squad peered into a cargo van that sat in the cluttered yard about 3 p.m. Hobbs, who was in the van, reached out and slammed the door shut, Bowman said.

He then doused the van with gasoline and ignited it, Bowman said. Medics pronounced him dead at the scene.

Bowman said Hobbs had spent time in prison and had indicated that he would do anything to avoid capture.

"There are a lot of people that will do a lot of things to keep from going back to jail," he said. "To use a flammable liquid to ignite where they are, I have not seen that before."

Investigators from the Tulsa Fire Department searched through the charred van into the evening, working around piles of garbage that were scattered about the property on the northeastern edge of Tulsa County.

Bowman said that because of the volatile nature of the incident, firefighters didn't immediately enter the van to douse the flames. There were concerns that Hobbs might have been armed, but no weapons were found after a preliminary search.

About 30 minutes after Hobbs set the vehicle ablaze, authorities entered it and discovered his body in the cab, Bowman said.

The deputies had intended to serve three protective orders on Hobbs, and the parole officers were sent to revoke his suspended sentence for a Muskogee County conviction, Bowman said.

A relative of Hobbs' gave officials a key to the house, and two of his siblings were in the area as the van burned, Bowman said.

Hobbs was the subject of protective orders in both Tulsa and Rogers counties, court records indicate.

He also had been convicted of showing obscene material to a child, lewd molestation and making lewd proposals to a child. ..Source.. by Matt Barnard 581-8408, Nicole Marshall 581-8459

PA- Death years ago ruled a suicide

3-7-2008 Pennsylvania:

Nearly five years to the day after a man was found on fire in Bethlehem's Nisky Hill Cemetery, the Lehigh County coroner's office has ruled his death a suicide.

A man walking his dog in the historic North Side cemetery the afternoon of March 11, 2003, saw a drift of smoke that he thought was a pile of leaves on fire and called police.

Instead, police and firefighters found a trembling man in a wooded area near the cemetery with severe burns on 98 percent of his body.

David Burkhardt, 58, was still conscious and told police he was jumped by three men who had set him on fire. He died eight hours later at Lehigh Valley Hospital's burn center.

On Thursday, Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim ruled Burkhardt's manner of death as suicide.

He said Burkhardt did not leave a suicide note, but some of his clothes were found neatly folded near a gravestone, an act unlikely to have been done by an attacker.

Grim said police also tracked down three people thought to be linked to Burkhardt's death, but determined they were not connected.

Burkhardt's brother, Thomas R. Burkhardt Jr. of Bethlehem, said Thursday he believed for years his brother had been attacked and killed while walking in the cemetery.

He said he was unsure what to think about the coroner's ruling.

''If that's what [Grim] said, I guess that's the way it is,'' Burkhardt said.

Burkhardt's death came about a year after police charged him with exposing himself and performing a sex act while standing in front of the window of his Center Street house dressed in a woman's wig and feather boa. A utility crew was working outside and reported the incident to police the following day, claiming Burkhardt's actions caused them ''severe distress.''

Police obtained a search warrant for the house, where they found several women's wigs, a white boa neck garment, several women's robes and Burkhardt hiding under the bed.

Police said that over the years, they had received similar complaints from delivery people and workers in the area, but no one was willing to testify against Burkhardt.

He agreed to plead guilty to indecent exposure and prosecutors dropped open lewdness and disorderly conduct charges. He was put on 23 months probation and ordered to attend sex offender counseling.

Family members were unsure what led Burkhardt to the incident at his living room window, but his life fell apart after the charges, said Joe Delaney, who is married to Tammy Delaney, Burkhardt's niece. She declined to comment.

''To us, it's like the system killed him,'' Joe Delaney of Bethlehem said. ''He had to sell everything, he lost his job, he was never the same. We never understood why he did that in the window.''

He said Burkhardt was a talented artist, cleaned houses and worked various home health care jobs. He said relatives were torn between believing Burkhardt had killed himself or someone had targeted him.

''Who would want to die like that?'' Delaney said. ''It's just awful.''

Nearly five years later, Delaney said there are still burn marks on a tree in the wooded area where Burkhardt was found.

''To us, he was the best person in the world that would do anything for you,'' Delaney said. ''We're proud to say we all stood by him and were there for him.'' ..more.. by Pamela Lehman

Morton man who burned himself ruled a suicide

6-30-2007 Illinois:

PEKIN - A Tazewell County Coroner's Jury ruled Thursday that the death of a man who doused himself in gasoline and set himself ablaze was a suicide.

Stuart C. Nelson, 47, of 379 E. Forestwood, Morton, went to the Travel Center on May 18 at 1801 N. Morton Ave., bought a gas can and $1.55 cents of gasoline, poured it over himself and lit himself on fire. He died at 1 a.m.

Witnesses said Nelson never uttered a sound the entire time - even when on fire.

Witnesses ran to his aid with fire extinguishers and put out the blaze.

Nelson was living at the Days Inn nearby. He had been forced to move from his parents' house because it was near a school and he was a sex offender.

He had just gotten out of jail.

But Nelson's father claims his son no longer was required to be registered as a sex offender.

Richard Nelson said his home actually is far enough from Grundy Grade School, but his son was not allowed to live there because he smokes.

Dealing with loss

“He was a great kid. It just tears you apart. You're not supposed to bury your children,” Richard Nelson said Thursday. “I want to remember him as my son, smiling and joking and having a good time.”

Nelson was a schizophrenic, said Morton Police Department Detective Sgt. Bill Roth.

“If he stayed on his meds - and that was his problem - and off alcohol he was a decent guy to talk to,” said Roth. “He was a whole different person when he was drinking.”

Witnesses reported Nelson had a “scary look” on his face. “He had a look in his eyes that people said he was wild, he was agitated,” Roth said during Thursday's inquest.

Roth said the inability to move back in with his parents may have been a contributing factor to his suicide.

An autopsy established the cause of death as inhalation of hot gases that caused spasms and edema to the larynx, said Tazewell County Coroner Dennis Conover.

A toxicology screen found no legal or illegal substances in his system. He was supposed to be on Thorazine, but there was none in his system, Conover said.

“With the closure of Zellers (Mental Health Center) I know there are more and more people on the streets who need help,” said Conover.

After starting the blaze, Nelson walked away from the pumps to the south side of the parking lot where he dropped to the ground.

Conover said that decision by Nelson saved lives. ..more.. by Sharon Woods Harris (Self-Immolation)