OGDEN, Utah — The trial began Wednesday against a Utah man who authorities say injected his 16-year-old baby sitter with a fatal dose of heroin and methamphetamine, and then took his infant daughter along as he and his wife dumped the teen’s body in a ditch. Prosecutors opened their case by saying Eric Millerberg, 38, and his wife, Dea, 40, had a drug-fueled, sexual relationship with Alexis Rasmussen that led to the girl’s death in 2011. The North Ogden man has pleaded not guilty to felony child abuse homicide and unlawful sex charges. He faces life in prison.

The U.S Supreme Court on Wednesday night paved the way for the execution of Juan Carlos Chavez, the South Miami-Dade farmhand who raped and murdered 9-year-old Jimmy Ryce in 1995. The execution, originally scheduled for 6 p.m., had been delayed for more than an hour as the nation’s high court considered Chavez’s last-ditch effort to postpone the lethal injection. The court’s order was released about 7:20 p.m. The murder of Jimmy, who disappeared from his school bus stop in the Redland, shocked South Florida and spurred legislation allowing the state to indefinitely detain sexual predators.

WHEELERSBURG, Ohio – Three people in Scioto County are being accused of chaining children to beds for weeks at a time, rarely giving them food, and beating them with belts and paddles. Sheriff Mary Donini says the investigation started when one of the children emailed a teacher at an online school and asked her to call 911. A deputy and representatives from children’s services then responded to a location on Collingswood Avenue in Wheelersburg on January 30. Four children were removed from the home.

HOUSTON — Houston police have arrested two suspects for the vicious murder of a 15-year-old Clear Lake girl, whose body was found in an apartment that police say had evidence of “occult activity.” The body of Corriann Cervantes was found in a vacant apartment unit in the 16000 block of El Camino Real early Saturday morning. Houston police say there was evidence of occult activity in the apartment and on the victim’s body. Seventeen-year-old Jose E. Reyes has been charged with capital murder and a 16-year-old suspect has been referred to the Harris County Juvenile Probation Authority on charges of capital murder.

PUTNAM COUNTY, Florida —A 2-year-old Sanford girl was found buried in a shallow grave in Putnam County on Tuesday morning, police announced. Investigators from the Sanford Police Department, along with the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement were following up on leads on the disappearance of Tariji Gordon after the child’s mother, Rachel Fryer, 32, turned herself in Monday.

Accused rapist and attempted murder suspect Kevin Briggs escaped from the Justice Center in Bozeman, Montana last weekend and is believed to be in Seattle where he planned on staying in homeless shelters. Biggs was convicted of raping a 14 year old girl, but was still allowed to enroll in Montana State University. He was detained after a sexual assault on campus, but walked out of the Law & Justice Center while still wearing handcuffs and leg shackles.

Graco is recalling nearly 3.8 million car safety seats because children can get trapped by buckles that may not unlatch. But the company has drawn the ire of federal safety regulators who say the recall should include another 1.8 million rear-facing car seats designed for infants. The recall covers 11 models sold from 2009 through 2013 by Graco Children’s Products Inc. of Atlanta. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration warned that the problem could make it “difficult to remove the child from the restraint, increasing the risk of injury in the event of a vehicle crash, fire or other emergency.”

Roger Alan Giese is wanted for his alleged involvement in sexual activity with a 13-year-old boy in Buena Park, California. In 1998, when Giese was a choir director, he met the victim and befriended his family. Giese was able to move into the victim’s home and the sex acts allegedly took place until 2002. Giese was arrested in 2002, but he was released on bond pending trial. From 2002 until 2007, Giese appeared in court as scheduled. However, Giese failed to appear for his pre-trial motions hearing on March 12, 2007, and the next day, he failed to appear for jury selection.

Kadyn Hancock’s aunt said she repeatedly tried to warn state officials that the 13-month-old’s mother might hurt him. But no one heeded her pleas, and Kadyn’s mother killed her baby in 2010. Last summer, child advocates questioned why social workers did not remove 3-month-old Chase Gideika from his troubled home before he was brutally killed, allegedly by his mother’s boyfriend. Now the disappearance of 5-year-old Jeremiah Oliver — missing and feared dead after social workers allegedly failed to check on him for months — is once again raising alarms that the state is unable to protect some of Massachusetts’ most vulnerable residents.

During his arrest last summer, Michael John Shaw told police he was acting like a “full-blooded pedophile” when he molested an 11-year-old boy and downloaded thousands of child pornography images. A judge treated him like one Thursday and sent him to federal prison for 15 years. Shaw, 39, of 234 Bennett St., Luzerne, previously pleaded guilty to a federal count of sexual exploitation of minors for receiving and distributing child porn from 2012 through June 2013.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Police say a baby’s life is hanging by a thread tonight. The person who was supposed to be taking of care of her is now facing charges. The baby is only four months old and police are trying to determine how long she was abused as well as who all was involved. The mother’s boyfriend is now charged for child rape, and abuse. Warning: this case is disturbing – and we have chosen to not share all the details.

TACOMA — A 24-year-old female math teacher at Lincoln High School in Tacoma was arrested Thursday on suspicion of child rape and communicating with two minors for immoral purposes, an official for the Tacoma schools said. The woman is being held in a Pierce County Jail. Q13 FOX News is not naming her until she’s been officially charged.

An Ohio man who told kids he was Santa Claus, seen here being arrested in July, was sentenced this week to 20 years in prison. His girlfriend, a former preschool teacher, is already behind bars for raping two children. An overweight, white-bearded man who told neighborhood children he was jolly old St. Nick was sentenced to 20 years behind bars for having a trove of child pornography on his computer. Trumball County prosecutor Gabe Wildman said William Brock told investigators he watched young girls in the community playing softball while having sexual fantasies about them.

A 2-year-old boy who police suspect was beaten by his mother’s boyfriend in late January remains in is in critical condition, according to a report by Beacon Journal news partner WEWS in Cleveland. Kurtis Mathes, 23, of Johnston Court, has been charged with child neglect and assault in the incident, according to police. He is being held in the Summit County Jail.