Earlier this year, Kayson Pearson and Troy Hendrix tried to escape, stabbed a defense attorney, and attempted to take a court officer's gun while on trial for the rape and murder of Romona Moore. Even though they were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison for the brutal murder of Moore a few months later, Pearson and Hendrix are standing trial for their attempted escape. Justice Albert Tomei (yes, uncle of Marisa) testified about the experience. When Pearson pulled out a Plexiglass shiv to stab his lawyer, Hendrix tried to jump across the table to get a court officer's gun. Tomei said, "There was a lot of screaming going on. There were jurors trapped and they were screaming and yelling," and that Hendrix "looked like Superman" while leaping towards the bench. more ›

If you wondered how much you should emphasize cats over humans, let's take a look at what Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes did. He honored a bunch of people at his "16TH ANNUAL LAW ENFORCEMENT APPRECIATION AWARDS," but the one honoree who got the most attention was Fred the crimefighting cat. Now, Gothamist LOVES Detective Fred, the kitty who helped bring down a phony vet, but compared to the various court officers, police officers, fire marshals - even the actual undercover detective who worked with Fred, Fred just acted like a cat. We supposed DA Hynes knows that when you get a cat involved in anything, more people are interested. more ›

The tragic story of Romona Moore finally saw some justice yesterday as the two men who kidnapped, raped, tortured, sodomized and eventually killed the 21-year-old Hunter College student were both found guilty. Troy Hendrix, 22, and Kayson Pearson, 24, now face maximum penalities of life in prison without parole. more ›

The trial of Romona Moore's accused murderers took a strange turn when one of the defendants, Kayson Pearson, testified. Since Pearson, along with co-defendent, Troy Hendrix, tried to stab a defense lawyer with a knife and take on other court officers during their first trial (it ended in mistrial), Pearson had to be shackled while on the witness stand, wearing black foam mittens. He was also ordered not to make any outbursts and not to show the jury his cuffs by the judge, who said that if Pearson attempted to cause a mistrial again, it wouldn't happen. Pearson denied that he killed Moore and instead claimed he hugged her good-bye, saying that his statement to the police about dumping Moore's body was the product of "creativity." Of course, a former friend of Pearson and Hendrix testified earlier that he saw Moore, a 23 year old Hunter College student, chained and beaten up in Pearson's basement. more ›

One of the most depraved crimes in recent memory is being relived at a murder trial in Brooklyn. Raymondo Jack, witness for the Brooklyn DA, testified to seeing Hunter College student Romona Moore tortured and chained in a Brooklyn basement in 2003. Jack had been visiting his friends Troy Hendrix and Kayson Pearson when they showed him Moore. Hendrix and Pearson had kidnapped the 23 year old as she was walking to a Burger King in East Flatbush, and subjected her to beatings, cuttings, cigarette burns and rape. Though Jack questioned the pair why they did this (and remembering they had smirks on their faces), Jack never told the police, simply leaving the apartment to go to a baby shower. Jack did tell his fiancee and fiancee's uncle, and suspects that the uncle called police, who only found Moore dead, dumped near a an ice cream truck. In a defense tactic, Pearson's lawyer tried to paint Jack as a criminal for not reporting the crime, "Did you understand that what you say you saw at that time was inhuman?" more ›

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The trial of Kayson Pearson and Troy Hendrix, accused of torturing a woman over days and then murdering her, got crazy yesterday when Pearson stabbed his attorney as Hendrix tried to grab a gun from a court officer. Pearson used a shiv to stab Mitchell Dinnerstein in the chin when he was being taken out of the court, and the Daily News says that was the diversion for Hendrix to jump across the table and go for Sgt. James Gorra's gun. The murder victim's mother, Elle Carmichael, had testified earlier and reportedly said, "No! No! No! They're animals. They should have been killed! Why didn't the police shoot them?" Her daughter, Ramona Moore, was a student at Hunter and had been missing for weeks; Moore's body was found, disfigured from being "bashed and mangled by a hammer, saw, barbell and knife." more ›

Some murder cases that became high profile stories because of their utter inhumanity and depravity of the crimes are now in the courts. A Brooklyn court is hearing about murder of Ramona Moore, a Hunter college student who was raped and attacked with a knife, saw and barbell while chained in a basement by two men in 2003. Kayson Pearson and Troy Hendrix are charged with Moore's murder, and burn marks found on her disfigured face indicated they were in the Bloods. The prosecution's witness is someone who Pearon and Hendrix bragged to about "having a girl" - they showed him the tortured figure of Moore. The Daily News writes, "[Witness Raymondo] Jack never called the police, and Moore's body was found weeks later after an anonymous caller tipped the family - responding to desperate posters seeking info on their missing loved one." more ›