Cops in Sunrise, Fla. say the the father, Emanuel Lawrence, 30, was responsible for looking after the girl while her mother was at work. Unfortunately, after finishing a marathon game session at 6 a.m. he lay her on the bed beside him, rolled over in his sleep, and bad things commenced thereafter. Authorities accuse Lawrence of taking the baby to her crib and claiming she died in her sleep there to cover up the crime.

The police report says he smoked weed the previous afternoon which, if that lasts long enough to make a man oblivious to smothering his own daughter more than 12 hours later, holy cow. But it's not like "No, really, I was just tired from playing video games," is going to make him more sympathetic.

He's looking at aggravated manslaughter charges. It's all very sad.

Sunrise Man Arrested in Daughter's Suffocation Death [Miami Herald via Hot Blooded Gaming]

The Naples, Fla. teen says two guys in a white pickup truck blocked his car as he tried to enter a gated community where his friend lives. Two guys, one with an assault rifle, the other with a pistol, jumped out, drove him to his stepfather's home in another gated community to steal some jewelry. Then it was off to Walmart with stepdad's credit card.

There, the victim says one of his captors demanded he buy him a shotgun. But it being past 8:30, the gun counter was closed. So the bandits said they'd settle for a PS3 Slim, which the victim bought. They then set him free, and he went running to the law.

Yeah, there's been one arrest, and it sounds like there's surveillance footage, but let's show a little skepticism here. If this is true, two dudes just went to a hell of a lot of trouble and are facing a whale of a stay in the joint to pull off the heist of a lifetime - a PS3 - before turning loose their rich captive. Kidnapping, plus a gun crime doesn't just get pled down to loud muffler and disorderly conduct because you netted $300 in merch. Plus there's the matter of the suspect's fingerprints not being found inside the house.

That doesn't stop WBBH-TV. Be sure to watch that video. I don't know East Naples or Immokalee from Muncie, Indiana but it sounds like the reporter's reminding us both places are the H-double-O-D hood. And remember, "Jane," (if that's your real name) you're not safe anywhere, even behind rich people gates. Another shining example of local news teaching you to hate and fear your world.

Teen Accused of Kidnapping Teen at Gunpoint, Forces Him to Buy Playstation 3 [Naples Daily News via Hot Blooded Gaming]

All of them, whose names aren't being published because they were working undercover, got nastygrams and retraining. Nobody lost their job, which probably is fair. It was embarrassing as hell to the Polk County (Fla.) Drug Task Force but, despite the pleading of the kingpin's lawyer-mans, their conduct did not invalidate the search.

Caught in the blast: six detectives, a deputy, and four sergeants. The detectives got "a letter of retraining" (i.e.: Don't do that again, dammit) and "two hours of retraining." The supervising sergeants got a "letter of guidance" (i.e. Please, dammit, don't do that again) and "four hours of retraining." Retraining? Like what, how to put better spin on the Wiimote?

The Lakeland Ledger has the full story at the link.

Polk Officers Disciplined in Wii Bowling Incident [Lakeland, Fla. Ledger]

Because shoplifting is just textbook How-to-Lay-Low, just a shade less subtle than what the Duke boys usually did after getting sprung from the Hazzard County Jail. Larson, 32, has a heroin habit, and tried to rip off about $120 worth of DS games because, I don't know, GameStop's offering 20 percent store credit toward the purchase of smack? He might have been able to get out of the county jail using a fake ID (yes, really), but get past a Walmart loss prevention officer? Sorry, Lee Co. law enforcement, the big boys are on the case now.

Then again, maybe the cops were the smart ones, figuring they could just wait until Mr. No. 1 Fugitive Man went and did something dumb.

There was no word on what games Larson put in his pants.

Lee County's Most Wanted Fugitive Arrested Trying to Steal Video Games, Police Say [Fort Myers News-Press]

As you can imagine, Michael Difalco's lawyer-mans is probably looking for a way to invalidate the search on account of the game-playing. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd scoffed at that, but he's not too happy about the game playing.

That is not appropriate conduct at a search warrant. But I am less pleased with the supervision that didn't walk in and say, turn that off. That's what supervision should have done.

Instead, a sheriff's detective assigned to catalog the goods repeatedly bowled frames - and when she nailed strikes on two in a row, she raised her arms triumphantly, jumping and kicking.

Chiefs of police in three other jurisdictions forming the task force that performed the raid likewise bemoaned the bad publicity. But it could get much worse than that.

A Tampa-area defense attorney, not the one representing the alleged dealer, offers this argument for chucking out the cops' search.

The real question here is have they seized property that wasn't described in the search warrant? Clearly if they're using it, they've seized it and for totally improper purposes, because it's for entertainment. Investigations are not for entertainment.

Tampa's WFLA-TV has the raw video. I haven't viewed it all yet, but someone please tell me that they took time to make some Miis.

Polk Undercover Drug Investigators Play Wii During Raid [Tampa Bay Online, thanks Jon A.]

According to a Jacksonville cop report. a robber went into a Gamestop on Monday night, pretended like he wanted a 360, and then produced a firearm as his method of payment. He demanded copies of Madden NFL 10, and then any Xbox 360 games, presumably declining any NHL 2K10 pre-order solicitations.

Local TV news crusading truth avenger WJXT-TV said the robber made off with 23 games valued at $1,300 total, plus $600 and two 360s. Cash and prizes, the hood's $2,500 richer. But in doing that shoeleather reporting of the mood of the street, the quotes WJXT got sound a little worshipful, and fairly reek of viral marketing, except for the fact filing a false report is also a crime.

"I just heard it was good," video gamer Brian Fletcher said. "I mean, Madden's Madden. Come on. Everybody loves Madden. Can't beat it."

"It's very realistic, followed by you get to create your own teams and rosters and do all sorts of things," video gamer C.J. McCloud added.

Jax cops, however, said the circumstances mimic those of an earlier robbery elsewhere in the city.

Robber Demands Madden NFL Video Game [WJXT-TV via Evil Avatar]

According to the New Times of Broward-Palm Beach, the sheriff sent deputies to every game store in the county in October, telling them to get thumbprints from all used-game sellers. A GameStop manager breaks it down pretty succinctly when asked why he complied: "They have guns. I don't argue with people with guns." That's exactly what law enforcement wants to hear, son.

A sheriff's spokeswoman said the requirement is part of a state law passed in 2007. That law also requires sellers to put a 15-day hold on the items before they can resell them, but as you can guess, probably no one is complying with that. The GameStop manager said that most customers don't care about the requirement, although some have left the store without selling games.

Of course it's meant to cut down on people selling stolen merch, and games and game systems are top items in that category. It's also another way to make law abiding private citizens feel like they're criminals.

Sell Your Used Games, Get Thumbprinted [Sports Legends, thanks Madgame]

Jerone Hunter and Troy Victorino were both sentenced to death by electric chair or lethal injection in 2006, the third man received a life sentence without parole.

Hunter's attorney argued earlier this week that his client should be spared from execution because he was acting under the "domination" of Victorino, that he had no prior criminal record and suffers from schizophrenia.

The supreme court will make their decision at a later date, but I'd like to think that this is just the last desperate attempt of a vicious killer to escape his just punishment and that the court will be quick in crushing this man's last hopes.

For those of you who don't recall the case, Victorino was angry because one of the victims took his Xbox and clothing from her grandparents vacant home, where he had been squatting, so he crept into her home and bludgeoned her and five others to death with baseball bats as they lay sleeping in bed.

Supreme Court hears death sentence appeal in Xbox slayings [AP]

Two teenagers have been charged in the death of James Felton-Maitland, 17, who was hit by a truck in Miami and killed while running from the teens bent on stealing his Playstation Portable, Miami-Dade police said.

Police sayd that Jamila "Jam" Brown, 19, and Keith Lebrone Goa, 17, spotted Felton-Maitland as he walked from North Dade Regional Library on Dec. 27 with a PSP in his hand. The two knocked the teen to the ground and "beat him while attempted to take custody of the PSP," according to the arrest report. The teen managed to escape with his PSP and ran across a street where a truck slammed into him, causing severe head trauma.

He died Jan. 5.

Initially the Florida State Patrol ruled the death an accident, but the family hired a private detective and pamphleted the neighborhood with flier seeking witnesses. After tracking down the teens who allegedly tried to rob the boy, they handed their information over to the Miami-Dade Police Department.

The teens, one of which later confessed, were arrested on charged of second-degree felony murder and strong-arm robbery. In Florida, anyone who commits a violent felony that results in death can be charged with murder.

2 charged in teen's death over PlayStation [Miami Herald]

Damian Fernandez and his sister were at home by themselves when knocking at the front door turned into two men trying to pry the door open. After picking some jewelry, they headed into Deanne's room where she was hiding in the closet. The robber found an empty Playstation 3 box and darted out of the room where Deanne's brother, a brown belt in Karate, was waiting for him:

"Once I saw him take off running back, I jumped off my (bunk) bed and I grabbed my sword ... and I just waited for him," he said.

Damian said he lunged at him with his samurai sword, striking him in the chest. "He freaked out," Damian said.

The burgular ran out of the house, but was found by a K-9 police dog hiding behind a neighbor's palm tree. The second burgular hasn't been found. Even though nobody was hurt, the father of the two children was still concerned, saying, "If he would have had a gun, I could have lost one of my children". Kim Phu

Teen Scares Off Burglar With Samurai Sword [Local 10]

This is possibly the only reason to go to Florida.Kim Phu

Mario Kart: Arcade GP [Spencer Powers MySpace]

Otronicon is sure to satisfy every geek bone in your entire body. Not only is it 10 days of gaming and game related events, but it takes place in a science center!

Are you ready for the ultimate gaming experience? Explore the science, art and culture of videogames during 10 days of non-stop events. For all ages and skill levels, including: More than 100 gaming stations, including the Wii, PS3 and XBox360 Pro and amateur HALO 2 competition on the 8-story Cinedome Classic arcade games like Donkey Kong and Pac Man. Cyber-Triathlon, with DDR, Guitar Hero II and Gran Turismo 4 Real simulators rarely available to the public. Hands-on instruction from digital media pros.

Damn, that sounds like a pretty amazing event. If I can scrape the cash together, I'll definitely haul my can down to Orlando and check it out. The Halo 2 competition on the 8-story Cinedome alone would be worth the price. The 100+ gaming stations will include last and new generation consoles, plus there will be an area for handheld owners to challenge each other and play.

Otronicon well be held at the Orlando Science Center from Jan. 12 - 21st. Hours vary, but are mostly in the evenings except for the weekends. For a full listing of all the events, times and ticket information, check out the Otronicon Website. [Thanks, Khalil]

In the letter, written in the royal third-person, he claims that he is being persecuted for his beliefs about Bully and that now his First Amendement rights are being trampled.

Interesting. So I called him. First at his office and then on his cell.

Only to be hung up on twice, ranted at for a good three minutes, called a hypocrite and "curious" and told I had to "listen to him for a change."

We did chat for a few seconds before Jack went into rant mode. He said he was honored to speak with me. I laughed and accused him playfully of being sarcastic and he asked if I had played the game yet. I have, about 10 percent. Then he started down the familiar road of the hypocritcal media, the violence in Bully. Yada, yada, yada.

I did manage to ask him one question. What is the basis for the claims in this contempt charge.

To summerize, Jack says that the judge wants to hold him in contempt for appealing the case and that it has nothing to do with the rambling, and insulting letter he sent the judge after losing his bid to stop the sale of Bully in Florida.

Good luck with that argument, Jack. Make sure to smile for your booking mug. Brian Crecente

Ps. Hit the jump for Jack's letter.

Immediate News Release - October 25, 2006

Is Miami Attorney and Video Game Critic Going to Jail Today for Contempt?

Take-Two, the makers of Grand Theft Auto games and the Columbine simulation game Bully, are the great defenders of their "First Amendment right" to market and sell mature video games to children. Bully, for example, according to the world's leading authority on the harm caused by violent games to kids—Dr. David Walsh of the Institute on Media and the Family—has weighed in on Bully and stated, categorically, that this game has been incorrectly rated by the ESRB and should have been rated "Mature." As a result of this fraud, Bully is being sold to children as young as ten around the country. Walsh says this game clearly teaches kids to be violent in response to bullying. Columbine's Klebold and Harris would be proud.

Two weeks ago, Miami attorney Jack Thompson, the nation's leading critic of the sale of violent video games to children, sought an injunction in Florida courts preventing the sale of Bully under existing nuisance laws. It turns out, now that experts have played the game, that it is even more violent than Thompson knew. The game routinely rewards the use of explosives, slingshots point blank to the face, and the crushing of craniums with baseball bats and metal fire extinguishers. All of this rewarded violence is by the game's hero "Jimmy Hopkins." Take-Two has lied about what is in the game, and now the lies have been proven. Thompson will be back in court to secure the injunction he sought earlier, and he will now get it.

However, there is first something going on in a court room today. The Miami Judge who unleashed Bully on America's children is Ronald M. Friedman, who had promised and ordered a full review of the game to its conclusion. He violated that order. He allowed paid employees of Take-Two to take him on a guided tour of the game, with no cross-examination by Thompson, in which they falsely told the Judge how nonviolent the game was and that violence is uniformly punished in the game. All lies. Finally, the judge violated his own order by publicly and falsely describing the content of the game before its public release. The judge violated another order by refusing to conduct a hearing on all this, as he had promised on October 12.

As a result of the Judge's multiple errors and violations of his own orders, Thompson took an appeal of his flawed decision and explained to the appellate court and to the media what really happened. As a result, Take-Two has asked this same Judge Friedman to fine Thompson or throw him in jail for being "disrespectful" of this Judge.

This Judge is apparently delighted by the prospect of throwing into jail the party who blew the whistle on his judicial misconduct. Today, at 4pm, on the 13th floor of the Dade County Courthouse, Jack Thompson is being asked to explain to Judge Friedman why he should not be held in contempt and thrown into jail.

The Take-Two lawyers asking for this are the delightful folks at Blank Rome who are a) the registered lobbyists in the US Senate and House for Take-Two, and b) the largest bundlers of campaign cash contributions to President Bush. This is the same President Bush who invited Jack Thompson to his Presidential School Violence Summit two weeks ago because of Thompson's expertise on the link between violent games like Bully and school massacres.

What this Judge is doing violates 18 USC 241, which prohibits any state official from using his authority to infringe upon the Constitutional rights of a citizen.

Jack Thompson may be going to jail today upon the request of people who claim the First Amendment protects the sale of pornography to children but does not protect public debate about that distribution.

By the way, Bully contains homosexual activities between Jimmy Hopkins and other male students. Is this a great country or what?

Two of the attackers in the now infamous "xbox murders" were sentenced to death today for their involvement in the slaughter of six people in a Florida home in 2004.

A judge sentenced Troy Victorino, 29, and Jeone Hunter, 20, to death by electric chair or lethal injection. (It will be the last decisions of their lives.)

Victorino oranizad the attack with the help of three men, including Hunter, to retrieve an Xbox. The six victims were beaten to death with baseball bats as they lay sleeping in their home. Police found blood on the floor, walls and ceiling of the home during their investigaiton.

The defense used the, very typical, mental illness defense, but it didn't hold water for the jury who found them guilty and recommended the death sentence.

And yes, that is the actual chair used in Florida. Brian Crecente

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — A judge delivered death sentences Thursday to the
ringleader and a participant in the bloody beating deaths of six people over
an Xbox video game system.

Troy Victorino, 29, and Jerone Hunter, 20, were sentenced by Chief Circuit
Judge Bill Parsons after their convictions on first-degree murder for the
2004 slaughter of six people in a Deltona house.

Neither man showed emotion when the verdicts were read.

A jury recommended death for both Hunter and the 6-foot-7, 270-pound
Victorino, but the final decision of life in prison without parole or death
rested with Parsons.

The judge noted that blood was found on the floors, ceilings and walls of
the house where the six victims were found.

"The victims were not only killed, they were brutalized," Parsons said. "It
was a revenge killing by Hunter and Victorino. The murders were performed in
a cool, calm, calculated manner."

Victorino organized the attacks with Hunter and two other younger men to
retrieve the video game system and other belongings after he was kicked out
of a house in which he was squatting. Defense attorneys for the three other
men found guilty painted him as a manipulative, menacing figure that
threatened the others if they refused to participate.

The six victims suffered blows to the head causing severe skull fractures
and brain injury, a medical examiner determined. Several of the bodies were
also mutilated with stab wounds and cuts after death, and some victims were
missing most of their teeth.

The judge ignored previous arguments by Hunter's attorney Ed Mills, who had
argued his client should not receive the death penalty because he suffers
from schizophrenia.

Jeff Dowdy, Victorino's attorney, had asked Parsons to spare his client
because he has mental problems and was abused as a child.

First Assistant State Attorney David R. Smith said, "We are pleased and
grateful with the victory and the death sentence."

Michael Salas and Robert Anthony Cannon, both 20, were sentenced to life in
prison without the possibility of parole for their involvement. Cannon had
pleaded guilty and agreed to testify for the prosecution, but declared his
innocence at trial and refused to answer questions.

Killed were Erin Belanger, 22; Michelle Nathan, 19; Francisco Ayo-Roman, 30;
Anthony Vega, 34; Roberto Gonzalez, 28, and Jonathan Gleason, 17. Many of
the victims worked at a Burger King in Deltona.

About 30 family members of the victims attended the hearings, many hugging
each other as the sentences were read.

"I just never want them to walk the streets again, just to stay there
forever and ever so they can't be around to do this to other people,"
Nathan's mother, Kay Shukwit, said. "They're going to get what they
deserve."

Gleason's mother said she expected Hunter and Victorino to be sentenced to
death but she was frustrated that they would have the opportunity to file
appeals, possibly spending years on death row.

"I'm not satisfied because I feel my son died, but nothing is coming out of
it. This is just a step in the process," Patricia Gleason said. "Justice is
not swift. It's a total and absolute joke. Here is your punishment, but we
don't mean it."

Hunter's parents also attended his sentencing hearing, but declined to speak
with reporters as they left the courtroom.

Xbox Killers Sentenced [Thanks Cliff]

Olskoolninja answered my query for information regarding the Jay, Florida Pac Man graffiti, but his evocative reminisces serve only to deepen by curiosity. What do nudists, hurricane victims and the KKK have to do with Pac Man scrawlings?

I'm deeply fascinated now by what I imagine must be a very simple, and probably very boring story.

I grew up in Pensacola, Florida which is right down the road from Jay. I moved away from the area after Hurricane Ivan because my house got messed up really bad, but during high school we would travel to Jay for football games every season. Jay, along with the rest of the northwestern most tip of Florida's panhandle was hammered by Hurricane Ivan almost three years ago.

Traveling through the area, you'll see lots of small buildings that were boarded up prior to the storm, damaged during the storm, and never reopened after the storm due to exstinsive roof damage. I'm sure that this strip of storefronts fall into that category. If you notice in the photo, you can see a claw painted there as well, which is part of an artistic representation of the local high school's mascot. I'm pretty sure that building use to be an grease trap dinner, but I'm not 100% sure.

Jay itself has always been very small community. A majority of its citizens are members of a nudist commune near there. Everyone else are farmers and whatnot. The first season of Road Rules on MTV had the cast visit Jay and the nudist camp. Also, I think historically, Jay was a strong hold for the area's branch of the KKK.

Proving once again that video games are essentially racist.

I love this shit, don't you? Gives me a sort of false-nostalgic tingly feeling of strange places and curious happenings. Thanks, Olskool. Eliza Gauger

Previously on Kotaku: Only Pac Man Remains

In the fine Kotaku tradition of game-flavored graffiti, here's a spooky scrawl from the nearly-ghost town of Jay, Florida. If any Floridian Kotaku Scouts live nearby, perhaps they can enlighten me as to the significance of this work, if any.

According to the photographer, LiveJournaler peach_salsa, this was painted on a boarded-up store window. With BLOOD! Eliza Gauger

See original post here [LiveJournal, via Aeropause]

This is the stuff urban legends and horror movies are made of: four young hobos in Florida, one with a hilarious tanline, murdered a house full of defenseless people in order to recover an Xbox taken from their illegal squat:

That enraged Victorino and he enlisted the other three suspects to help him carry out the attacks, prosecutors say. A Wal-Mart clerk has told investigators the four men joked about bashing people to death while shopping for baseball bats two days before the slayings.

The victims were beaten to death and then stabbed, probably "just to make sure". Two small dogs at the house were also murdered. The worst part? It wasn't even a 360.

The trial has come to be known as "The Xbox Murders" and as Florida news site News4Jax reports, jurors are currently being chosen from a pool of 1,000.

The actual murders occurred two years ago, but I figured it was worth a mention because we may soon hear, particularly from the defense team, that "video games made them do it." It is notable that the news site I quoted says absolutely nothing about Xbox in this article except that it was the key item in the case. No damning, anti-games nonsense. Just clean reporting.

Thanks for the tip, Cliff.Eliza Gauger

Read more [News4Jax]