Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Crime Alert 02.13.23

Episode Date: February 13, 2023

Grandmother beats child to death. Self-proclaimed "cop killer" exchanges gunfire twice in one night. For more crime and justice news go to crimeonline.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Alert, I'm Nancy Grace. Breaking crime news now. An eight-year-old girl rushed to a North Carolina ER with severe injuries to her head and body. The little girl dies. Cops speak to the girl's legal guardian, her grandmother, and five other children in the home, and they learn Grandma Patricia Ricks, 72, beat the little girl dead. Crime Online's John Limley. Nancy, Ricks was the primary caregiver of her grandchildren, including the child who died at her hands and her siblings. Police are still investigating what sparked the brutal attack

on the child, but Ricks is reportedly not cooperating with the investigation. Ricks is currently held without bond for the girl's death. The other children now taken into protective custody. Grandma Ricks charged with murder and child abuse. California cops see Noe Mendoza driving erratically, signal for him to pull over. He seems to comply, pulling into a gas station parking lot, but then he gets out and starts shooting at the patrol car. When officers shoot back, Mendoza takes off. He's later found at home where he shoots at cops yet again, injuring one. Mendoza was caught and arrested after the second shootout. Once detained, Nancy, Mendoza reportedly asked authorities several times if he had killed anyone. One officer was hit twice in the gunfire at Mendoza's home, but is recovering at home.

Police also learned that Mendoza had been stalking police officers for hours at three different locations with intentions to kill as many officers as possible. Mendoza, 34, tells cops he was on a, quote, quest to kill. Several counts of attempted murder of police officer have now been added to Mendoza's lengthy rap sheet. More crime and justice news after this. Now with the latest crime and justice breaking news, Crime Online's John Limley. The estranged husband of a New Jersey kindergarten teacher is now under arrest.

The body of 33-year-old Luz Hernandez was found Tuesday in Kearney, a day after she was reported missing. Hernandez's death was ruled a homicide after an autopsy revealed the New Jersey mother died of blunt force trauma to the head and compressions to the neck. Police say they found Hernandez buried in a shallow grave in a deserted industrial area. Investigators say Hernandez didn't show up to work at her school Monday, and welfare checks at her home led them to believe a crime had taken place. Shortly after, her body was discovered three and a half miles away.

The Hudson County Prosecutor's Office announced the arrest of Cesar Santana overnight. A Tesla driver accused of trying to kill his wife and two young children by driving off a northern California cliff has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and domestic violence. We hear more now from Sydney Sumner with Crime Online. A judge has ordered 41-year-old Dharmesh Patel of Pasadena held without bail. Patel was seriously injured January 2nd when the car plunged 250 feet off the cliff at Devil's Slide along the Pacific Coast Highway south of San Francisco. Firefighters were forced to cut the family, including Patel's 41-year-old wife and two children, a 7-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son, out of the wreckage. Both children were hospitalized with serious injuries. San Mateo County District

Attorney Steve Wagstaff says Patel also faces enhancement for great bodily injury. A man suspected of injuring two Maryland police officers with gunfire has been taken into custody after fleeing from the vehicle he had stolen from a detective he shot. Federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies surrounded the suspect in a wooded area near a shopping mall in Fauston after police used spike strips to disable the stolen vehicle. He was taken into custody about 5.45 a.m. on Friday. The suspect, earlier identified as 24-year-old David Linthicum wasn't injured during the arrest and charges were pending. He was also expected to be transferred to the custody of Baltimore County Police. A Southern California man has been charged with killing two women in 1981

after DNA evidence linked him to the crimes. Once again, Crime Online's Sidney Sumner. 68-year-old Tony Garcia of Oxnard appeared in court, but his arraignment was continued to February 23rd. Garcia, a Navy veteran and formal martial arts teacher, is accused of kidnapping, raping, and strangling 20-year-old Rachel Zendaya in Camarillo in January 1981 and strangling 21-year-old Lisa Gondek in Oxnard in December 1981. Zendaya was found in a carport in Camarillo and Gondek was found in a bathtub after a reported apartment fire in Oxnard. Garcia lived for decades only a few miles away from the crime scenes until he was finally linked to the killings. Masadachamps calls himself the pro-life Spider-Man. He climbs the outside of tall buildings to raise awareness for an organization raising

funds for struggling pregnant ladies. Deschamps' latest stunt has him using a three-foot-wide external ventilation shaft to scale the 483 foot Arizona skyscraper. Cops meet him at the top. The 22 year old arrested on trespass and criminal nuisance. For the latest crime and justice news go to crimeonline.com. With this crime alert I'm Nancy Grace. This is an iHeart podcast.