How Could You? Hall of Shame-Jenica Randazzo 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 New Port Richey, Florida,from February 2015, kinship foster child Jenica Randazzo,9, was killed by her uncle Jason Rios.”There were no signs that her life was in danger before Feb. 5, the day her uncle, Jason Rios, is accused of attacking and killing the 9-year-old girl and her grandmother, Angela Rios, according to foster care records released this week.”

“The attack at the Catherine Street home where they lived was deemed “horrific” by Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco, who said the grisly crime scene would likely haunt even his most seasoned first responders. Jason Rios, 24, faces murder and attempted murder charges and is being held without bail in the Land O’ Lakes Jail.

The incident started before 8 a.m. and didn’t end for several hours, as Jason Rios barricaded himself in a nearby house after attacking his mother and nieces, and engaged in an hours-long standoff with the sheriff’s SWAT team, sheriff’s records show.

Before he was arrested, Jason Rios tried to kill himself by drilling through his torso, neck and head with a drill bit and auger, the sheriff’s office said. Rios’ family told authorities that he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia.

Officials with Eckerd Community Alternatives said in an email this week that “there were no indications that could have predicted this tragic outcome.” Eckerd is the lead agency for community-based child welfare and foster care services in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties.

“Documentation yielded no evidence that the case manager knew of erratic behavior, drug abuse or diagnosed mental illness on the part of Jason Rios,” Brian Bostick, executive director of Eckerd Community Alternatives, wrote in a memo accompanying the foster care records.

In fact, Bostick wrote, there were “positive reports” of Jason Rios bonding with the children cared for by his grandparents, including Jenica and La’nyla Heater, 8, who also was attacked Feb. 5, but survived with injuries related to blunt-force trauma, Dominic Putnam, 13, and Chancellor Rios, 4, Bostick wrote. The boys were not injured in the attack.

Reports of Jason Rios’ interaction with the children came from the county Child Protective Investigations unit as well as the children.

“Jason Rios did pass a background screening test and had no violent or drug offenses” that would prevent the children from staying under the same roof, Bostick wrote.

Records released this week do not paint a cheerful picture of Jenica’s short life.

Jenica and her three siblings were removed from the custody of her mother, Jessica Rios, in December 2011, because of her mother’s substance abuse issues, according to the records released by Eckerd Community Alternatives.

At the time, Jenica’s father, Eric Randazzo, was serving time in state prison on drug charges, state corrections records show. He was released in March 2012, but was arrested in Pasco in March 2013 on a charge of petty theft.

According to information from Eckerd, Ernesto and Angela Rios’ four grandchildren were placed with them in 2011, but “stressful factors strained the family and in September 2012, they were placed in foster care.”

The following September, the Rios’ began participating in family counseling and parenting classes through Bay Care’s Urgent Family Care program and also worked closely with Youth and Family Alternatives and Kinship Care to gain more skills and support in caring for their grandchildren, according to Bostick.

Eckerd case managers regularly made visits to the Rios home, as previous foster parents had expressed concerns of their ability to raise the four children.

After the most recent visit, an unannounced one on Jan. 6, a case worker wrote that risk to the children staying there was “currently low, as they appear comfortable and safe in the current placement, and the caregiver appears to be improving with ability to manage their behaviors and needs.”

After the Feb. 5 incident, the Rios’ neighbors said Ernesto was often seen pushing his wife up and down the street in her wheelchair.

“She had diabetes and had had her legs removed,” neighbor John Wirick said. “He was always walking her just to get her out of the house, because she was also starting to go blind.”

Keeping siblings together is important, and Jenica and her siblings felt close to one another and their grandparents, Bostick wrote, citing “a variety of professionals, as well as the children themselves.”

“While there is no fail-safe method to prevent every bad action and tragic circumstance from occurring, we remain dedicated to doing everything we can to protect children and ensure they receive the love and care they deserve,” Bostick wrote.

Five days after the attacks that killed Jenica and her grandmother, Dominic Putnam, 13, a grandson of the Rios’ who also lived at the house, was reported missing from the Runaway Alternatives Project in New Port Richey. He was found safe later that day.

On the morning of the attacks, Dominic told investigators that his grandfather woke him up before school. A short time later, the boy said he heard screaming and repeated “whacking” sounds from his grandparents’ bedroom.

When the boy entered his grandparents’ bedroom, he saw his uncle standing over his grandmother, holding a tire iron, a sheriff’s report said. Angela Rios had severe facial injuries and Dominic fled to the house of a neighbor, who called 911, the report said.

Jason Rios went to Jenica’s room next, then La’nyla’s, the report said.

Both girls were beaten about the head and face with the tire iron, and the attack didn’t stop until the intervention of Ernesto Rios, who was showering when the violence began, the sheriff’s office said.”

 

Agency: No signs Pasco girl faced danger before fatal attack[The Tampa Tribune 2/17/15 by Geoff Fox]

“The report released Tuesday, along with a recording from a 911 call reporting the incident, indicate Rios took the tire iron from his parents’ bedroom in the New Port Richey home he shared with them and four nieces and nephews.

Angela Rios was a double leg amputee who got around in a wheelchair.

On the morning of the attacks, according to the report, her husband, Ernesto Rios, got out of bed just before 8 a.m. to wake his four grandchildren for school. Ernesto told sheriff’s deputies he found Jason Rios pacing in the hallway. He said he got in the shower and minutes later heard screams from his 7-year-old granddaughter’s bedroom.

When he walked in the room, Ernesto told deputies, he found his son standing over the girl’s bed, hands raised, ready to strike her again with the metal bar. The girl, La’Nyla Heater, had injuries on her face.

Ernesto struggled with his son, the report says, finally forcing him out the door. He told Rios to go to a nearby home, where a family member lived. On his way, Rios dropped the tire iron in the family’s yard.

Sometime before Ernesto stopped Rios, his 13-year-old grandson tracked screams and a “whacking” sound to his grandparents’ bedroom, where he found his grandmother’s face bloodied and beaten. His uncle stood nearby holding the tire iron, the boy told deputies. The boy ran to the home of a neighbor, who called 911.

After an hourslong standoff, deputies arrested Jason Rios, who was hospitalized with self-inflicted injuries. He faces two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.

Jenica was hospitalized and died the next morning. Her grandmother was pronounced dead at the scene.

The boy who found his grandmother, Dominic Putnam, has since been placed in a foster home from which authorities have said he has twice run away.

All four children have spent much of their lives shuttling between the home of their maternal grandparents and foster care after their mother, Jessica Rios, lost custody of them.”

Deputies: Rios beat mother, niece to death with tire iron[Tampa Bay Times 2/17/15 by Katie Mettler]

“The brutal incident that shocked Tampa Bay on Feb. 5 ended only after Jason Rios, who had suffered for years from mental illness, had an hourslong standoff with deputies. Once in custody, he was hospitalized for a series of self-inflicted wounds to his neck and face from a power drill. His father, 55, considers them a suicide attempt.

Last month, a grand jury charged Jason Rios with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.

The family buried Jenica Randazzo, 9, and her grandmother, Angela Rios, 55.

It was an outcome neither the family nor the state’s child protection system say they saw coming. Tampa Bay Timesinterviews and a review of case files indicate Rios fell into a blind spot in both the state’s child protection and mental health systems.

Even though he lived in the home, Jason Rios never came under the same scrutiny by child protection officials as a potential adoptive or foster parent.”

“The night before the attack, family members say, Jason took his niece Jenica around the neighborhood to sell chocolate for a school fundraiser.

He had long played the role of the third guardian to her, her two half brothers and a half sister. For years, Jason’s parents, Ernesto and Angela, had fought to gain custody of the four children born to their troubled eldest daughter, Jessica. Jason frequently babysat.

Such a portrait is more of a snapshot than a defining narrative, public records of Jenica’s short life show.

Born in August 2005, she was the second of Jessica Rios’ four children, each with a different father. The mother, now 32, said last week that she has been off drugs for nearly three years and has been working toward regaining custody of her children.

But before that, Jessica’s life had been a tangle of trauma and mental health issues, illegal drug use, and a criminal record. She had a tendency to choose similarly troubled boyfriends. Among them was Eric Randazzo, 30, who appears to have fathered Jenica while on probation for a drug possession charge.

Starting in 2008, officials were called numerous times to check on Jenica and her siblings under Jessica’s care, case files show. In April 2009, Jessica’s oldest child witnessed an argument that ended with someone brandishing a knife. The next day, Jessica hit Jenica, then 3, in the stomach and arms after she had apparently roused her mother from sleep. Four months later, children were present when an abusive boyfriend dragged Jessica around an apartment by her hair.

By Dec. 20, 2011, Jessica’s drug addiction had spiraled, and the state removed all four children from her custody. Jenica went to her paternal grandmother’s house, where she suffered verbal abuse from her grandmother’s partner. By April 2012, she joined her half siblings at Ernesto’s and Angela’s home at 4720 Catherine Street.

But cramming four young children into the modest ranch home proved overwhelming for grandparents having their own troubles. Angela Rios suffered two strokes and spent the better part of the summer in the hospital. She was already a double amputee who used a wheelchair. That left Ernesto, a then-unemployed mechanic, caring for his wife and the four children.

By September, two Department of Children and Families investigators lodged concerns of unsafe conditions for young children, including a toddler: garbage bags on the floor, clothes piled high, food containers left open, a pool in the backyard that might not have been secure.

A day later, a caseworker with Eckerd Community Alternatives — contracted by DCF to oversee foster care in Pinellas and Pasco counties — noted Jason’s presence in the household. Ernesto was driving a grandchild to football practice and Jason was caring for an apparently still-recuperating Angela, who was babbling incoherently.

By Sept. 13, 2012, a judge ordered all four children from the house. They were placed in different foster homes.”

“In the about 18 months after she left Catherine Street, Jenica was shuttled between at least eight foster homes across three counties. She stayed in some for months and others for only days. Officials yanked her from one placement when her foster dad was caught using drugs; another after her foster mother slapped her.

At least some stops were safe havens.

In September 2013, her new foster parents said Jenica was begging them to adopt her and they wanted to. In the Nehman family’s home in Clearwater, Jenica excelled academically and was learning Greek and Spanish at a charter school. She sang and danced and read them stories. Jenica was bright and intuitive, foster mother Karan Brantley-Nehman, 44, said, and a fiercely protective big sister.

“She had an emotional depth about her that most kids that age don’t have,” she said. “If you hadn’t known her history, you’d never guess.”

Brantley-Nehman said caseworkers and therapists for the foster care agency led her to believe the grandparents would not qualify to adopt because of concerns about their ability to manage the children.

Case files confirm various members of Jenica’s protection team at Personal Enrichment through Mental Health Services — an agency hired by Eckerd to provide foster care services — had concerns about the Rios home.

Within weeks, the situation changed. Overnight, Jenica had a brand-new case manager and therapist under a new agency, Carlton Manor, because PEMHS had shut down its program.

Officials for Eckerd said the plan had always been to try to reunite the children with their grandparents. State law favors family reunification, and it grants grandparents who have cared for children for at least six months the same rights as parents.

Two years after their grandchildren had been removed due to unsafe conditions, Ernesto and Angela Rios passed the agency’s screening process and home inspection for adoption.

Among the factors in the Rios’ favor, Eckerd director Brian Bostick said, was that other adult family members were available to pitch in, including Jason Rios.

Ernesto and Angela Rios had to answer whether they took any medications or had any mental illness that might impact their ability to care for the children. But they weren’t asked outright if they had mental illness. State law does not allow discrimination based on mental illness unless it’s a clear risk to the child’s health or safety.

Jason had to pass a background check as a member of the household. But questions pertaining to mental health were never asked of Jason because he was not applying to adopt anyone.”

In Rios family tragedy, a deadly blind spot for child protection[Tampa Bay Times 3/20/15 by Josh Solomon, Katie Mettler and Zack Peterson]

“Currently, only potential adoptive caregivers are thoroughly assessed as a part of an adoption process,” the DCF report read. “Adult household members do undergo background screenings and are included in the Adoption Home Study; however, there is no policy guidance for how to thoroughly assess adult household members who will serve in a caregiving role.”

The report indicates DCF “has already begun to determine whether changes are needed regarding the Adoption Home Study process.”“[Ya think?]

State child welfare officials review adoption screening process after beating death of 9-year-old [Tampa Bay Times 4/24/15 by Josh Solomon, and Katie Mettler ]

A search of Pasco County court records shows that on 7/30/15, he has a pretrial conference.

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update:“A trial date for Jason Rios, a New Port Richey man accused of beating to death his mother and 9-year-old niece in February 2015, is scheduled to begin May 23.

But Rios’ attorney, Nicholas Dorsten, said he doubts the trial will start on time, because of delays in obtaining medical records.

“This is a very unusual delay to get medical records,” Dorsten said last week. “It took a whole lot of effort, and (the records) should have gotten to us two or three months ago.”

Rios’ family told investigators he has paranoid schizophrenia. Rios has pleaded not guilty and waived his right to a speedy trial.

Dorsten said his client also must be examined by a psychologist before trial.

“We have to show clear and convincing evidence, to a high standard, that he was basically incompetent,” Dorsten said.

The attack that killed 55-year-old Angela Rios, a double amputee who used a wheelchair, and Jenica Randazzo was characterized as “horrific” by Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco, who said his investigators likely always will remember the bloody scene.

Rios used a tire iron in the attack, authorities said.

Jason Rios also is accused of beating another niece, La’nyla Heater, who was 7 at the time, and fighting with his father, Ernesto Rios, who, authorities said, stopped him from harming two other children inside the family’s home at 4720 Catherine St., just west of U.S. 19.

The four children — including 13- and 4-year-old boys — lived with Angela and Ernesto Rios after they were removed from their mother’s care because of her substance abuse, according to records released by Eckerd Community Alternatives.

Pasco counties.

After the attack, Jason Rios barricaded himself inside a nearby vacant home for hours during a standoff with the sheriff’s SWAT team.

Inside the house, Jason Rios took a drill bit and auger to his head, neck and torso, seriously injuring himself, investigators said.

When he emerged from the house with his hands partially hidden, Rios headed directly toward armed SWAT team members, the sheriff’s office said.

No shots were fired, and Rios ran head-first into the long metal arm of a SWAT vehicle that had removed a wall from the house where he hid — knocking himself unconscious, the sheriff’s office said.

Rios, 25, is being held without bail at the Land O’ Lakes jail.

Dorsten said Rios’ father and sister have shown him support, but he did not elaborate.”

Rios murder trial set to begin May 23, but may be delayed [Tampa Bay Times 1/30/16 by Geoff Fox]