How Could You? Hall of Shame-Genelle Conway-Allen case-Child Death UPDATED

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Fairfield, California, an unnamed 13-year-old foster child was found naked and dead in Alan Witt Park on early Friday February 1, 2013 by a passerby who flagged down a policeman. She was reported missing at 5:45 p.m. on Thursday January 31, 2013 after she had left a foster home in nearby Suisun City. An autopsy has been performed, but the results have not been released.

The police say “No suspect or suspects have been identified, but detectives were canvassing  neighborhoods and checking video images from surveillance cameras as part of  their investigation.”

“Sacramento television station CBS13 reported the girl attended Green Valley  Middle School, which is about eight miles from the park.”
Missing 13-year-old girl found dead in California park

[Fox News 2/2/13 by Associated Press]

” [T]here were no obvious signs of trauma to the girl when she was found.

“I thought to myself, that looked like a mannequin, didn’t look like a human body,” the passerby, Eric May, told KTVU-TV.

The girl was reported missing around 5:45 p.m. Thursday by her guardian at a foster home in nearby Suisun City. That city’s police Cmdr. Tim Mattos told the Daily Republic that the guardian last saw her board a school bus. He said she was in class all day and was expected home around 4 p.m.”

Missing 13-year-old girl found dead in Calif. park

[ABC 2/3/13 by Associated Press]

“Eric May tells News 10 he found the girl’s body Friday morning. “The first thing I did is I yelled at her. I yelled at her. Wake up! What are you doing there? Wake Up! No response, and then I reached down and I touched her. She’s cold, cold! I knew there was no life left there,” explains May.

Saturday, friends of the girl laid flowers and candles in a memorial to honor her life.

“That 13-year-old girl was my friend,” says Kayla Silva.

“Silva tells News 10 the girl was a foster child and a 7th grader at Green Valley Middle School. She says she loved to sing.
“We practiced singing. We used to hang out. Talk about girl stuff, drama, friends. You know, girl stuff,” Silva explains.
Even those who didn’t know the girl were affected by the news and visited the teen’s memorial.
“[I came] to show her that we cared about her and she’s just not a lost soul. She’s someone that mattered,” says Olivia Griffin.
May is hoping the killer has a guilty conscience.
“Please turn yourself in, please.”

Autopsy performed on body of girl found dead in Fairfield park

[Sac & Co.net 2/3/13 by Dina Kupfer]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update: “A suspect has been arrested in connection to a 13-year-old girl found dead in  a California park.

Police have arrested Anthony Lamar Jones who was identified as a suspect  early on in the case and placed under surveillance, Fox40.com  reported.

Police believe he acted alone and say he was not a danger to the public while  under surveillance.

Genelle Conway-Allen had been reported missing Jan. 31. after she left a  foster home in nearby Suisan City.

The naked body of Conway-Allen was discovered by a passerby Feb.1 in the  city’s Alan Witt Park.

An autopsy was performed, but officials would only say there were no obvious  signs of trauma.

Investigators were trying to track the girl’s activities in the hours before  she ended up in Alan Witt Park.

Sacramento television station CBS13 reported the girl attended Green Valley  Middle School, which is about eight miles from the park.

School Principal Gregg Hubbs declined to comment on the girl’s death, and  Fairfield police couldn’t say if she had attended school on the day she was  reported missing.

Police are not looking for any other suspects.”

 

Suspect arrested in connection to California teen found dead in park

[Fox News 2/8/13 ]

Update 2/July 31,2014:

“New information has emerged about the man accused of killing a teenager in Fairfield.

The estranged wife of Anthony Lamar Jones requested a restraining just days before 13-year-old Genelle Allen-Conway was found dead. She claimed Jones was violent and capable of killing her.

The restraining order was given to Anthony Lamar Jones by just hours after Allen-Conway’s naked body was found in Allen Witt Park. A week later, he would be arrested for her murder. But even before Jones was accused of raping and murdering Conway-Allen and dumping her naked body in a park, Fairfield police were aware of his violent past.

Documents obtained by The Daily Republic newspaper show Jones’ estranged wife detailed his violent behavior. She says in January she was so terrified of him that she jumped from a moving car as they were on their way home.

“I believe that if I brought him back to the house he would kill me and then kill himself,” she wrote in the request for the temporary restraining order.

She said he told her, “I don’t want to scare you, but I have a knife and a gun, and I don’t want to die alone.”

The restraining order also states that Jones “told (his wife) about a woman he tried to date since our separation (in December). He felt the woman rejected him and no one thinks he is worthy of love.”

The order also says Jones threatened to burn down her house and ruin her credit

The restraining order was granted and served on Feb. 1, the same day Conway-Allen’s body was discovered.

Jones is due in court on Wednesday to answer to the murder charges.”

Man Accused Of Killing Suisin City Teen Allegedly Had Violent Past[CBS 2/11/13 by Anjali Hemphill]

“The defense team for Anthony L. Jones, the man accused of kidnapping, raping and killing 13-year-old Genelle Renee Conway-Allen, is trying to seal all “substantive” court records from the public now and for years into the future – until Jones exhausts all possible appeals for any crimes for which he might be convicted.

The same legal team also is trying to bar all radio, television and news photography at all future court hearings.

Judge E. Bradley Nelson is scheduled to consider the requests at an Aug. 14 hearing.

One of the legal motions filed by the defense team in anticipation of the hearing speaks repeatedly to the possibility of closing future hearings to the media and the public.

The defense team claims Jones’ right to a fair jury trial, unlikely to be held anytime soon, would be damaged by details about Jones and his alleged crimes if they were made public.

Jones, 32, of Fairfield, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He remains in custody without bail as criminal proceedings continue.

Conway-Allen’s naked body was found on the morning of Feb. 1 in Allan Witt Park. Jones was arrested a week later.

Jones’ case has moved relatively slowly compared to most other criminal cases. After seven months, a hearing about when a future probable cause hearing might be scheduled has not been scheduled.

A recent review of Jones’ court file reflects no damning information. Other than a request to return around $150 to Jones that was seized by police when he was arrested, there have been no filings made in the case since February other than the requests to seal court records and to bar electronic reporting at future hearings.

“The media has pervasively covered this case since it began on February 1, 2013,” the defense request states, omitting that the media coverage largely disappeared nearly six months ago – a few weeks after Jones’ arrest. “The media relentlessly associates the word “murder” with a photograph of Mr. Jones,” adding that, “The impact of the publicity has divided the community among racial lines and has cast Mr. Jones as the guilty perpetrator in the eyes of the public, and the jury pool.”

Included with the defense team requests are a thick sheaf of copies of Google search results for Jones’ and Conway-Allen’s names along with blogger comments on many websites from back in February.

“These blogs show the bitter divide among racial lines perpetuated by the media . . . (and) show the emotional impact the media is having on members of the public, and potential jury pool,” the defense teams states.

The defense team states the “law enforcement investigation in this case is ongoing” and claims the investigation along with the defense team investigation would be “frustrated by public outrage and condemnation due to the dissemination of details of this case.”

The Fairfield police investigation into Conway-Allen’s kidnap, rape and murder has concluded, according Lt. Greg Hurlbut, except as prosecutors may need additional investigation as the case goes forward.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Terry Ray, who is handling the case against Jones, did not know if her office would be responding to the defense team requests.

In addition to concerns about a fair trial, Jones’ defense team wants to restrict media coverage over concerns for safety in the courtroom and while Jones is in jail. Citing a case they concede is “relatively vague,” the defense team says further dissemination of Jones’ image in news media and the printed press will continue to put Jones’ safety at risk while he is locked up.

The defense team also raises concerns about information in the case embarrassing “all parties involved,” including Conway-Allen and potential underage witnesses.

The defense team equates Jones’ case to the 2005 Michael Jackson child molestation trial, saying that “While the defense does not contend that Mr. Jones has reached the status of celebrity, he has become a household name due to the publicity in the case.”

Jim Ewert, general counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association, expressed skepticism about Jones’ defense team’s assertions.

“(They are) certainly not giving the residents of Solano County a whole lot of credit for being able to draw their own conclusions,” Ewert said of the impact of media coverage of the case.

The defense team requests make no mention of seeking a gag order for the parties involved in the case or for a possible change of venue motion before the start of a future jury trial.”

Defense team seeks to restrict access in Fairfield homicide case[Daily Republic 8/7/13 by Jess Sullivan]

“An email has prompted defense lawyers to ask a judge to throw out the possible death penalty case of a Fairfield man accused of raping and strangling a 13-year-girl before dumping her nude body in Allan Witt Park in February 2013.

The email from Dr. Susan Hogan, who performed the autopsy on Genelle Renee Conway-Allen, was sent to the prosecutor who was handling the case at the time, Solano County Chief Deputy District Attorney Terry Ray, the day before Anthony L. Jones was arrested by Fairfield police after a weeklong investigation into Conway-Allen’s killing.

Jones, 33, is scheduled to next appear in court Feb. 10 in front of Judge E. Bradley Nelson. No dates for a probable cause hearing have been scheduled. Jones has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge with three special circumstances, making him eligible for the death penalty.

Hogan’s email mentions that the autopsy revealed no signs of trauma common in rape cases and suggested that Conway-Allen may have died during consensual sex.

The email was sent to Ray a week after Hogan’s autopsy, after prosecutors decided they wanted a second autopsy conducted by a pathologist in Santa Clara County.

Jones’ defense lawyers are calling for the case to be thrown out because they were not provided a copy of the email until September. The defense team claims the email shows there was no rape and that the killing was accidental. They also claim that not providing them a copy of the email was part of a deliberate scheme by Ray to mislead the public and the media and build animosity against Jones, who they say is the victim of unfounded charges.

Failure by prosecutors to disclose information to the defense about a case can be grounds for having a case dismissed.

Hogan left the Sheriff/Coroner’s Office in December and the Jones case has been reassigned to another prosecutor.

Solano County Deputy Public Defenders John Mendenhall and Melainee Collins, in a brief filed Monday, repeatedly label the delay in sharing the email as an act of “outrageous  government conduct” and the “intentional suppression” of evidence pointing to Jones’ innocence.

The defense team also claims the delay in revealing the email is part of a continuing pattern by prosecutors of collusion and a collaborative action with coroners. They revive the troubled history in the Sheriff/Coroner’s Office that includes the 2011 review of 27 homicide autopsies done after the checkered medical career of a previous pathologist came to light.

The defense team proposes alternative punishments for the prosecution if Nelson decides that throwing out the case against Jones is inappropriate. Mendenhall and Collins propose not letting prosecutors seek the death penalty, making them dismiss the special circumstances or require jurors at trial be told about “prosecution efforts to suppress evidence.”

Prosecutors will file a response to the defense team request before Jones’ next scheduled court appearance.

Jones remains in jail without bail.

Reach Jess Sullivan at 427-6919 or jsullivan@dailyrepublic.net. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jsullivandr.

Editor’s note: The information below contains profanity and sensitive details concerning the initial autopsy that was performed on Genelle Renee Conway-Allen.

The email in question

From: Susan Hogan
To: Terry Ray
Thursday, February 07, 2013 1:25 p.m.
Subject: 2nd autopsy

The 13-year-old is a very straight forward ligature strangling case. She had a ligature mark around her neck and petechial hemorrhages on her face proximate to the ligature.

She has no evidence of trauma to her genitals or her anus (this looks to me like she was having sex and someone put a ligature around her neck – what am I saying – just between you and me – is I think this may be an “Oh shit” during consensual sex).

The FBI had her out of the refrigerator for 8 hours on Tuesday so she is seriously starting to decompose – so she does not need a long unrefrigerated trip to Santa Clara – and why Santa Clara?

I am really starting to think Miss Michele is one of those pathologists whose agenda is “I am smarter than any other pathologist.”

Frankly – real pathologist are very reluctant to do second autopsies because so much information is lost in the performance of an autopsy.

Also she has a parous cervical os – which indicates she has given birth.

P.S. Eric Charm called into sheriff’s office in Vallejo after I waited an hour and a half to say that he didn’t need me today – so I have no idea when he does need me. Also Haroon Khan needs me tomorrow – the subpoena is for 10 but I asked him to give me a better approximation of when he needs me.

I wish I could drink at work !!!!!!

You know you can ask me about any case and discuss anything with me anytime.”

Lawyers for man accused in teen’s death seek dismissal of charges[Daily Republic 1/15/14 by Jess Sullivan]

“A Solano County judge on Tuesday ordered the disclosure of personnel records, including documents pertaining to an internal investigation related to the county’s former pathologist during a hearing for a Fairfield man accused of the slaying of a 13-year-old Suisun City girl little more than a year ago.

 

Attorneys in the case of Anthony Lemar Jones, 33, met in the Fairfield courtroom of Presiding Judge E. Bradley Nelson for a hearing related to the disclosure of Dr. Susan Hogan’s personnel records.

 

Hogan, former chief forensic pathologist for Solano County abruptly retired from the Solano County Sheriff’s Office in December, according to officials, however a more recent e-mail sent from Hogan and prosecutors indicates that she may been forced out of the job as Hogan described being escorted out of the building by Sheriff’s deputies with hands on their guns.

 

On Tuesday, Nelson ordered roughly 600 pages of documents related to Hogan’s employment be disclosed to attorneys in Jones’ case, under an order that they be kept out of the public eye.

 

Jones was arrested by Fairfield police a week after the Feb. 1, 2013, discovery of Genelle Conway-Allen, whose body was found unclothed in a Fairfield park. He has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge carrying special circumstance allegations that could make him eligible for the death penalty.

 

Defense attorneys for Jones recently attempted to have his case dismissed over an e-mail Hogan sent to prosecutors around the time she performed Genelle’s autopsy. Defense attorneys did not receive that e-mail until seven months after Jones had ben charged.

 

Hogan’s e-mail, according to a copy of the message included in the defense motion, suggests that the case is a “very straight forward ligature strangulation case…” Hogan also casually speculates in the e-mail that there may have been evidence of consensual sex.

 

Defense attorneys claim that Hogan’s opinions and conclusions were omitted from the official autopsy report, however, their motion to dismiss was ultimately denied.

 

Prosecutors responded in court documents that the e-mail was not immediately shared with defense attorneys due to an internal investigation of the pathologist.

 

It is in those documents that prosecutors state that sheriff’s officials informed them in February 2013, that they were conducting an internal investigation, “relating to Dr. Hogan’s suitability to remain as the primary forensic pathologist for the Solano County Sheriff’s Department.”

 

A second autopsy in the case was performed by a pathologist outside of the county, court documents revealed.

 

On Tuesday, Nelson shared that documents related to an internal investigation of Hogan were among those he was making available to both the office of the Solano County District Attorney and the Public Defender.

 

His order came on the heels of a similar order made last week by Judge Daniel J. Healy involving the murder case against Michael Anthony Daniels, 61, who’s accused of killing 37­year­old Jessica Brastow in a Vallejo motel room on Aug. 8, 2012.

 

The disclosure also includes five audio recordings of individual autopsies performed by Hogan, which both prosecutors and defense attorneys stated that they never knew existed.

 

The audio recordings concern the autopsies of Genelle Conway-Allen and Brastow, as well as that of 70-year-old market owner Ho Kim, who died following the June 28, 2011, robbery at Travis Dairy in Fairfield, as well as the unsolved shooting death of Vacaville resident Ernesto Castillo Jr, 19, whose 2012 death remains under investigation.

 

Jones’ defense counsel, Deputy Public Defender John Mendenhall, said that in 18 years as a defense attorney in Solano County he has never known that the coroner’s office kept dictation of autopsies.

 

Mendenhall claimed that it supported a “pattern” of withholding of evidence by prosecutors and could go toward a renewed motion to dismiss the charges against his client.

 

Attorneys for the sheriff s office said that it is a policy of the office to destroy audio tapes after an autopsy is completed, however, no explanation was given as to why dictation in these five cases remained.

 

Prosecutors have identified 37 cases that Hogan has been involved in where her employment records may become relevant.

 

Jones was ordered back to court at 1:30 p.m. on March 19 for the setting of a probable cause hearing. He remains in Solano County Jail custody without bail.”

Records released in yet another Solano County homicide case[The Record 2/26/14 by Ryan Chalk]

A search of the Solano County court records reveals that on November 3,2014 there is a preliminary Hearing Scheduled.

Update 3: “Defense attorneys for a Fairfield man accused of the 2013 slaying of a young Suisun City girl focused in on a kidnapping allegation during the third day of a probable cause hearing.

In what is shaping up to be a two week long preliminary hearing, attorneys for murder defendant Anthony Lemar Jones on Wednesday called several witnesses out of order to testify in Solano County Superior Court. Jones is accused of the 2013 slaying of 13-year-old Genelle Conway-Allen, whose lifeless body was discovered in Fairfield’s Alan Witt Park the morning of Feb. 1, 2013.

Jones’ attorneys on Wednesday focused in on the law enforcement investigation that occurred in the days following her death.

Genelle was reported missing on Jan. 31, 2013, by her foster mother after she failed to return home from school.

Fairfield police were able to piece together surveillance camera footage taken along the route she walked home that day.

Police were able to locate a student she was seen walking with, and on Wednesday, the student testified that a man in a vehicle stopped to talk to Genelle on their walk home.

The last time the student saw Genelle was as she got into the man’s car, which he testified sped away. The student further testified that it was Jones who he saw in the driver’s seat.

Jones is charged with murder with special circumstances including allegations of committing a murder in the course of kidnapping and rape in connection with Genelle’s death.

Prior testimony from a medical expert indicated that the young girl’s body showed injuries consistent with sodomy, and two hemorrhages under her scalp could be consistent with blunt force trauma prior to her death. It was noted that her neck had the impression of ligature marks, and her wrists had tape residue on them as if her hands had been bound.

Attorneys for Jones focused on the kidnapping allegation on Wednesday.

According to police testimony, investigators interviewed friends of Genelle in the wake of her death.

One friend, according to testimony, told police that Genelle would “get into any car if she was trying to run away.”

Prior testimony indicated she had run away once before.

Testimony in the case is expected to resume at 9:30 a.m. Friday in the Fairfield courtroom of Judge E. Bradley Nelson. The probable cause hearing, originally slated to last two days, is likely to stretch into next week.

Jones has pleaded not guilty and remains in Solano County Jail custody without bail.”

Attorneys for Fairfield man accused of teenage girl’s death focus on kidnapping allegation[The Reporter 11/5/14 by  Ryan Chalk]