Criminal Stupidity

Robert Aragon, 55, isn't a murderer, says his cousin, Kenneth Quintana. "There's no way he could have known this was going to happen," he added.

"My dad, he's a good father," says Aragon's surviving adult daughter, Lorraine Aragon.

As Judge Mark Ingram explained second-degree murder and felony injury to a child charges, Aragon pounded a table with his head and said, "Oh, my God!" Upon hearing his bond was set at $500,000, he said, "I think that's way too high."

Quintana, who was riding with Aragon and his two children, Sage and Bear, when Aragon stuck the car in an Idaho snowdrift Christmas morning, defended his cousin Bob during a telephone interview with a reporter.

"He didn't send those kids out there to die. He just wanted their mother to spend Christmas with them."

Mr. Quintana, if I was the prosecutor, I would have filed the same charges against you. One doesn't have to be too smart to know poorly-dressed, 11 and 12-year-old children may suffer extreme frostbite or die from hypothermia when walking 10 miles in sub-freezing temperatures and snow drifts past their knees.

Aragon and Quintana must have never heard of two legal terms, the reasonable person standard and criminal negligence. That is one of the tasks of defense attorneys--explain legal terms to the criminally stupid.

No coffee, a sad song, and a screwdriver: a killing combo

A 57-year-old Huffington Post writer, Carol Ann Burger gave her spouse, Jessica Kalish, 56, 222 puncture wounds with a Phillips-head screwdriver in their Boyton Beach, Fla., home nearly a week ago. Investigators said, however, that a blow to Kalish's neck probably killed her.

Burger discharged a firearm into her head before police could question her about Kalish's death.

Burger and Kalish, a prominent software designer, had shared the home since 2000. They were married in 2005 in Massachusetts. The housemates had ceased being lovers more than a year ago but continued to share the home because of financial reasons. Kalish had a new lover, who she dated via the Internet in her half of the house. Burger told friends of her growing isolation, depression and bitterness in e-mails she composed in the other half.

Burger had recently stopped drinking coffee, told friends Jackson Browne's For a Dancer was ideal to listen to when sad, and had refused anti-depressants. The police found Burger's shoe prints in Kalish's blood on the garage floor despite Burger's clean-up attempt. "She was obviously out of her mind," an investigator said.

She was obviously filled with hatred. Two-hundred-twenty-two acts of rage--yes, Burger was OffTheBus.

One can find The Huffington Post tribute to Burger here.

Bank that cash ... in a state senator's brassiere

Baby, what a big surprise!

Right before the FBI's video eyes, Bay State Senator Dianne Wilkerson allegedly negoiated a series of legislative influence-peddling deals. She allegedly padded her foundational undergarment with consideration of $1,000 last June. Wilkerson allegedly was teaching an apprentice, her granddaughter, The Art of a Deal: Boston Illegal, when taking delivery of another $1,000 at the Fill-A-Buster restaurant across the street from the Massachusetts state capitol.

Alaska Senator Ted Stevens was found guilty by a Washington, DC, jury. He had a lot of help remodeling a house and was gifted a massage chair and gas grill. Then he allegedly made a paperwork error when not reporting it. He will appeal. ... Allegedly.