Buster

Compounding James Rosemond’s already formidable criminal troubles, prosecutors are planning to indict the rap music manager for his alleged role in the murder of a man who once assaulted his teenage son.

The looming homicide conspiracy charge could expose Rosemond, 47, to the federal death penalty, prosecutor Todd Kaminsky revealed today during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, where Rosemond (pictured at right) is under indictment for allegedly heading a nationwide cocaine trafficking ring.

As TSG previously reported, two Rosemond associates--Rodney Johnson and Brian McCleod--have already been charged with the ambush killing of Lowell Fletcher, an associate of the rapper 50 Cent. Fletcher was gunned down on a Bronx street in September 2009, two weeks after being paroled from a New York State prison.

Fletcher had spent two years in prison for a pair of separate crimes--narcotics dealing and assault. The victim in the latter offense was Rosemond’s son, who was attacked on a Manhattan street in early-2007 by Fletcher and 50 Cent sidekick Tony Yayo (real name: Marvin Bernard). The boy, then 14, was struck in the head after Fletcher noticed that he was wearing a t-shirt bearing the name of Rosemond’s management company.

At the time of the assault, the 50 Cent forces were involved in a rap world dispute with rapper The Game, a Rosemond client. Investigators believe that the murder of Fletcher (seen below) was retribution for the attack on Rosemond’s child.

In an indictment filed last May in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Johnson and McCleod were accused of involvement in a trafficking organization that shipped narcotics from Los Angeles to New York (Rosemond has been charged with leading the ring).

The duo was also charged with orchestrating Fletcher’s murder, which carries the possibility of the death sentence (Department of Justice officials are now weighing whether to pursue that possible penalty).

Johnson and McCleod are accused of hatching the Fletcher murder with “known and unknown” coconspirators. Prosecutors are expected to soon identify one of those alleged plotters--Rosemond--in a superseding indictment.

In the wake of last year’s shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords by accused gunman Jared Loughner, John Hinckley asked one of his therapists, “Wow. Is that how people see me?”

When asked by music therapist Verne Hyde if he thought that was, in fact, the public’s perception of him, Hinckley, who sought to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981, replied, “Yeah, I think that they do.”

Hinckley, 56, then began to vent his frustrations, according to a November 2011 forensic psychiatric report prepared in connection with Hinckley’s request for expanded privileges at St. Elizabeths Hospital, the Washington, D.C. psychiatric facility where he has lived for the past 30 years.

“It’s impossible for me to change that. I don’t have a microphone in my hand. I don’t have the video camera. So no one can hear my music. No one can see my art,” said Hinckley, who writes songs, plays guitar, and paints landscapes. “I have these other aspects of my life that no one knows about. I’m an artist. I’m a musician. Nobody knows that.”

Hinckley then told Hyde, “They just see me at the guy who tried to kill Reagan.”

A second November 2011 psychiatric evaluation notes that a keyword search on a computer in the hospital library (which was used by Hinckley and others) showed hits for Jodie Foster, Reagan, the movie “Taxi Driver,” variations on the word “assassinate,” and the 2011 film “The Beaver,” which was directed by Foster (with whom Hinckley claims he is no longer obsessed).

Additionally, searches were conducted for the names of several women with whom Hinckley has carried on romantic relationships with while hospitalized, three Beatles, the 2011 book “Rawhide Down,” which reconstructed the day Hinckley shot Reagan outside the Washington Hilton, and killers Ted Bundy and Charles Manson.

When questioned about the hits, Hinckley denied responsibility for the searches. “All I can tell you is I didn’t type in Ronald Reagan or Jodie Foster or any of these names,” he told a psychiatrist. Asked specifically about Bundy and Manson, Hinckley answered, “Hell no.” He added, “Give me a little more credit than that, please.”

The two psychiatric reports were filed this month in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., where a federal judge is expected to soon decide whether to expand the number of unsupervised visits Hinckley can make to his mother’s home in Williamsburg, Virginia. Federal prosecutors oppose any expansion of his release privileges.

FEBRUARY 21--An Ohio man beat his girlfriend so severely that one of the woman’s breast implants exploded during the weekend assault, police report.

Samuel Cole, 60, was arrested for felony assault after he allegedly punched and choked the victim during a confrontation Sunday morning. Cole, pictured in the adjacent mug shot, also allegedly stomped the woman so hard that hse/sites/default/files/asseter implant burst, according to cops.

Cole, who is being held in the Hamilton County jail in lieu of $50,000 bond, is also subject to a “stay away” order barring him from contacting the 52-year-old victim.

After allegedly beating the woman, Cole transported her to a local hospital for treatment and “threatened her not to tell staff about the assault.” Hospital workers contacted police about the attack and the woman’s injuries, according to a Colerain Township Police Department report.

Along with punching and trying to suffocate the woman, Cole “also stomped on the victim’s chest with his foot causing serious injury to her left breast,” noted investigators. (1 page)

A New York man was arrested today and charged with stealing a $6500 Rolex watch as he passed last month through a Transportation Security Agency checkpoint at a Fort Lauderdale airport.

Investigators released video (see above) of the brazen watch theft earlier this week, triggering an outpouring of calls to a Broward County Crime Stoppers hotline. The phone tips, investigators noted, confirmed that the Rolex was swiped by Igor Ramos, a 37-year-old businessman who travels between Florida and New York selling cars.

Pictured at right, Ramos was picked up today at his condo in Sunny Isles. Ramos was “wearing the prized Rolex watch on his wrist” when he opened the door for Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies, according to a news release.

A sheriff's spokesperson reported that when a deputy questioned him about the Rolex, Ramos replied, "It was a gift from God."

Ramos, who also maintains a residence on Long Island, was charged with the felony grand theft and transported to the county jail.

While surveillance video (and still photos) of the theft were broadcast/published nationwide, Ramos--“due to his heavy travel”--was apparently unaware that he was the subject of a manhunt.

7/26 UPDATE: Lombardo named in four-count child porn complaint

A singer-songwriter with an ardent and growing YouTube following is the target of a federal child pornography investigation focusing on his alleged exchange of naked photos with underage female fans, according to an FBI affidavit.

In late-December, agents raided the upstate New York home of Michael Lombardo, a 23-year-old musician whom the FBI described as having a “following of female fans ranging from middle-school aged children through college-age students.”

The federal probe was triggered after a Boston University student told agents that Lombardo, pictured at right, had arranged a New Year’s Eve sexual liaison with a 15-year-old girl who was planning to travel from her Indiana home to meet him.

In an FBI interview, the teenager said she “received nude pictures of Lombardo and had, at his direction, sent nude pictures of herself to him.” When agents examined the girl’s cell phone, they observed “multiple nude images of Lombardo” and “multiple explicit text messages” between her and Lombardo. The messages included “plans to meet as well as explicit discussions of specific sexual acts.”

According to the FBI affidavit sworn by Agent Frederick Bragg, two other female minors, both 17, have told agents that they recently exchanged naked photos with Lombardo and engaged in sexually explicit discussions with him via Skype. Additionally, one of the girls “reported that Lombardo masturbated on a web camera and instructed her to masturbate on camera as well.”

During a December 30 raid at Lombardo’s Rome residence, agents seized four computers, his cell phone, a Motorola tablet, and a variety of hard drives and computer storage devices, according to an FBI inventory. In seeking court authorization to search Lombardo’s home, Bragg noted that there was probable cause to believe that he had used the home to possess, produce, or distribute child pornography.

Lombardo, who has not been charged, did not reply to e-mail and phone messages. Mark Juda, who identified himself as Lombardo’s lawyer in a call to TSG, declined to answer questions about the FBI probe.

A Berklee College of Music graduate, Lombardo's YouTube channel is stocked with performance clips and videos shot while on tour. The pianist also maintains a Twitter account, where he notes, “I play songs on the internet. Some people listen to them.”

An active tweeter, Lombardo fell silent for ten days after the FBI showed up at his home just after midnight on December 30. “Hello all. Going off grid for a while… be safe and be well... we will talk soon. <3,” he wrote later that day.

Meet Taylor Burnham.

When Corpus Christi cops responded to a suspicious person call early Sunday, they spotted Burnham, 18, standing in an alleyway next to a Jeep Wrangler. The teenager was naked, except for a pair of cowboy boots.

After spotting cops, Burnham hopped in the Jeep and took off at around 3:10 AM.  She then led officers on a slow speed chase through a neighboring subdivision, where she drove on a sidewalk before coming to a stop, according to a police report.

Burnham appeared to be intoxicated, so she was subjected to field sobriety tests and two Breathalyzer tests, which recorded her blood alcohol content as more than twice the legal limit.

While officers noted that a female cop helped Burnham get reacquainted with her clothes, police reports offer no insight as to why she was driving while naked.

Along with a misdemeanor drunk driving count, Burnham was hit with an evading arrest in a vehicle charge, a felony. She was released from the Nueces County jail yesterday afternoon after posting $3500 bond.