After hearing 13 days of often-disturbing testimony about the murders of six men, women and children, a jury took just 90 minutes Monday to convict defendant Jessie Dotson on all counts and make him eligible for the death penalty. The Criminal Court jury of nine women and three men from Nashville returned their Lester Street verdicts — six counts of first-degree murder, three counts of attempted first-degree murder — in a packed courtroom that included a heavy presence of deputies, both in uniform and in plainclothes.

In the nearly four years before Natasha Whyte-Dell and four of her seven children were killed at the hands of her estranged husband on Monday, police came to her house 34 times. Ten times they came for domestic disturbances. Twice, Whyte-Dell said her husband, Patrick Alexander Dell, was breaking in. Once she reported an “older male” had stomped on her child’s face. Not once did the Riviera Beach Police Department arrest anyone. The revelation that police had visited Whyte-Dell’s house so many times comes from the department’s call logs, which were given to The Palm Beach Post in response to a public records request on Wednesday.

A mother and her children were turned away from women’s refuges because of a lack of space – days before the youngsters were murdered by their father. Morongoe Molemohi walked out on her husband Petros Williams, complaining of domestic abuse, and took her children to Manchester’s homeless families service. She was given temporary accommodation and assessed by a domestic violence adviser – but refuge space could not be found for the family. A week later, steroid-abuser Williams, 37, used an internet cable to strangle four-year-old daughter Yolanda and two-year-old son Theo at his Whalley Range home.

UPTOWN —Getting into the mind of a child molester. It’s disturbing, but exactly what law enforcement agents from across the area are training for at Children’s Hospital. ABC26 News Reporter Vanessa Bolano explains. They’re usually fighting crime, but on Monday agents are learning to become the “bad guy.” Agents are going inside the mind of a child molester to learn how they target, and lure children. Officers from Orleans, Jefferson, St. Tammany and Tangipahoa Parishes rubbed elbows with prosecutors and forensic interviewers for this one day training session.

Acclaimed Fox 5 reporter Charles Leaf was suspended Friday after he was accused of molesting a 4-year-girl inside his New Jersey home. The 40-year-old Leaf was arrested Thursday at his Wyckoff home on charges of aggravated sexual assault on a minor and endangering the welfare of children, authorities said. “Fox 5 management is aware of the matter and that Charles Leaf has been suspended pending further investigation,” said a station spokeswoman.

HOUSTON – When someone vanishes, time is the enemy. The Laura Recovery Center spends every day searching for missing people. Now, they’re making use of a new phone app to help get vital information out. That app is free, by the way. “Any time a flyer is posted, a person with a smart phone can walk up to it and aim it at our flyer and immediately help us distribute that information,” Bob Smither says. QR or “Quick Recovery” instantly links the phone to a webpage with information, even a photo. That information can then be passed along to others.

WESTBURY, N.Y. — Police say a man accused of repeatedly stabbing an 8-year-old boy at a New York restaurant had been hunting for a child to kill for weeks. Says Nassau County Police Sgt. Vincent Garcia: “His intent was to kill a child.” Evan Sachs of Merrick is due back in court Wednesday to face attempted murder charges. Police say Sachs crept up behind a child playing a video game Friday at a Dave and Buster’s restaurant on Long Island and plunged the 4-inch blade of a hunting knife into his back five times. The victim is expected to survive.

The fate of a registered sex offender accused of murdering a child he had abused is expected to be decided by a Suwannee County jury this week. Ronald Edward Kramer Jr., 28, of Live Oak, was indicted last year in the death of Olivia Rescigno. The baby girl was 18 months old when she was found dead in her crib in her Suwannee County home on March 14, 2008. Her face and legs were bruised and a bite wound was found on her thigh, according to an autopsy report.

A Huntsville man was taken to Limestone County Jail after being charged with sexually abusing a 3-year-old girl while he was babysitting her, said Capt. Floyd Johnson of Athens Police Department. Nathan Vincen Vossler, 34, of 2606 Rita Lane, was charged late Friday night with sexual abuse of a child under 12. Local agencies cooperated on the investigation. Athens Police Investigator Katrina Flanagan and Lt. Trevor Harris worked with the Limestone County Department of Human Resources and began an investigation Thursday afternoon after receiving a complaint from the girl’s mother, Johnson said.

MENTOR, Ohio — An Ohio woman has been charged with child abuse after her child has been tested positive for lead poisoning for the second time. Erin Hendrix, 28, has pleaded not guilty to allegedly poisoning her own child. Over 2 years ago, Hendrix’s child was five months old and was suffering from lead poisoning. Now the child is 3 years old, and is suffering from lead poisoning again.

“If this pace continues, there is a possibility we could have an estimated 600 children in the custody of Clermont County Children’s Protective Services (CPS) by the end of the year,” said CPS Foster Care Supervisor Erica Boller. “In the first three months of this year we had twice as many cases as we had in the first six months of last year!” Boller said that tensions linked to the tightening economy and the proliferation of heroin and other drugs can be linked to many of the cases. “Just about every week, we are called about another child born to a heroin-addicted mother,” added CPS Intake Department Supervisor Susan Grabowski. “This is a situation that is impacting counties and cities across the country.”

Gabriel Brian Solis, 29, and Elsa Solis, 30, who were legal guardians of the child, were booked into Oklahoma County jail Friday and later released on bail, jail records show. They have not been formally charged. A doctor at The Children’s Hospital at OU Medical Center called police about 11:05 p.m. Thursday and said the 1-year-old boy, whose name was not released, was taken to the hospital by paramedics after vomiting and having a five-minute seizure, according to a police report released today.

Orlando, FL – Authorities have reason to believe 13-year-old Michel Pollard has been trying to kill select members of her adoptive family for more than a year. The teen’s adoptive mother, 50-year-old Janet Ticono, made the accusations against the teen back in August, after her health deteriorated and doctors discovered traces of arsenic in her blood. Investigators say Pollard, who was adopted from Mexico about 8 years ago, recently confessed to adding a few extra “ingredients” to her mother’s food – ingredients that include bug spray, rat poison, hand soap and dog shit. Pollard reportedly told police she sprayed bug spray on her mother’s food, sometimes mixing it with dog shit, and admitted to putting hand soap in her drinking water.

Columbus, OH – Dominic Holt-Reid, 27, was jailed Wednesday after he allegedly pulled a gun on his pregnant girlfriend and forced her to drive to an abortion clinic, threatening to shoot her if she didn’t. The woman, 26-year-old Yolanda Burgess, told police she and Holt-Reid had just dropped their 4-year-old son off at nursery school and were heading to the clinic for an appointment when she decided she didn’t want to go through with the procedure. The change of heart apparently displeased the man. Burgess said Holt-Reid reached into the glove-box and pulled out a .45 and told her that she was going to make that appointment or he was going to shoot and cause her to miscarry.