Page 22 - Florida Sentinel 7-5-19

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Khalid Adkins Dies In The Dominican Republic After Getting Kicked Off Plane For Being ‘Super Sick’
Here’s another story of a tourist dying in the Domini- can Republic. The unfortu- nate victim is Khalid Adkins and was such a big fan of the island nation that he planned to retire there.
Perhaps the Denver father planned on spending his last days there, but we’re sure he didn’t envision going out like this.
Tragically, on Tuesday, Adkins, 46, passed away at a Santo Domingo hospital after suddenly falling ill on Sunday. His death now becomes the latest in a string of seemingly mysterious or unexpected deaths in that country in re-
KHALID ADKINS
cent months.
The story goes that he had
traveled to the town of Punta Cana with his daughter Mia Adkins last week to visit at least one property he was looking to buy, the NY Daily News reported on Thursday.
Mia Adkins told the news outlet that she returned from the Dominican Republic, but her father stayed behind to spend more time in the coun- try. Unfortunately, when he tried to return on Sunday, he fell sick on the plane, dripping in sweat and vomiting in the aircraft’s bathroom before de- parture, and was kicked off the flight, a family member said in a GoFundMe page this week.
Neo-Nazi Who Killed Charlottesville Protester Is Sentenced To Life In Prison
The man who drove his car into a crowd of anti-racist pro- testers in Charlottesville, Va., killing one person and injuring 35 has been sentenced to spending the rest of his life in prison.
A federal judge issued the sentence of life without the possibility of parole on Friday for self-proclaimed neo-Nazi James Fields, Jr., 22, of the Toledo, Ohio, area.
The judge's punishment, announced in a Charlottesville courtroom, came after numer- ous survivors delivered emo- tional testimony about the psychological and physical toll the attack caused.
After the hearing, prosecu- tors described the 2017 attack as heinous.
"It was cold-blooded. It was motivated by deep-seated racial animus," Thomas Cullen, U. S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia, told reporters. He said Fields' lethal car-plowing was calcu- lated, calling it "a hate-inspired
James Fields, Jr., who pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes, was sentenced on Fri- day to life in prison. Fields rammed his car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring dozens of others.
act of domestic terrorism." "Charlottesville is never going to be the same," Cullen said. "It will be with this com- munity, and the common- wealth of Virginia, and this
country, for a long time."
Man Who Spent 12 Years In Prison For A Crime He Didn't Commit, Shot Dead Two Blocks From His Home
Cedric Willis spent nearly 12 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. Since his exoneration in 2006, he worked as a motiva- tional speaker, helped regis- ter Mississippi residents to vote and visited schools talk- ing about his experience.
"He'd been working out, he was feeling good," says Emily Maw, his attorney with the Innocence Project New Orleans (IPNO). The two had become good friends and Maw says the last time she saw him three weeks ago, "things seemed to be going so well for him."
On June 24, Willis was shot and killed in his Jack- son, Mississippi, neighbor- hood, two blocks from his home.
The Jackson Police De- partment is investigating Willis' death as a homicide, spokesman Sgt. Roderick Holmes said. Police haven't made any arrests in the case, he said.
"Investigators have inter- viewed several individuals as it relates to information gath- ering, but no suspects have been identified," he said. Holmes also said the motive remains unclear.
His mother, Elayne Willis, said police visited last week and told her the in- cident is still under investiga- tion.
"The only thing I know for certain is my son is dead. He left home and he didn't come back," she told CNN. "I don't know what, why, I don't know anything."
Willis was failed by the country again and again,
Cedric Willis was impris- oned for more than a decade for a crime he didn't commit.
Maw says.
"America hurts black men
in so many ways. Two of the main ways it does that is through the criminal justice system and the utter failure to control guns. Cedric has been a victim of both and that's particularly tragic." DNA evidence,
mistaken eyewitnesses
In the summer of 1994, Willis was 19 and celebrat- ing the birth of his son, CJ, when he was arrested and ac- cused of the rape of a woman in one armed robbery and the murder of a man in another in Jackson.
The two robberies, and three others committed in Jackson at the time, had sim- ilar patterns and evidence showed the same gun had been used. Victims gave sim- ilar descriptions of the perpe- trator, IPNO said.
The suspect, victims said, had a gold tooth and no tat- toos, IPNO said, but Willis had no gold teeth and his arms were inked. He was also 70 pounds heavier than their descriptions, according to IPNO.
But victims from both robberies later identified
Willis as the perpetrator. Testing determined his DNA did not match the sam- ple found on the rape victim and prosecutors dropped those charges, but he was tried for the second robbery
and murder.
At trial, the jury did not
hear about the DNA testing that excluded Willis from one robbery and the rape.
“Eyewitnesses are so often wrong. If you’ve ex- cluded forensics that point in another direction from eye- witness identification, that’s an enormous red flag,” Maw said.
Willis was convicted of murder and armed robbery in 1997 and sentenced to life in prison plus 90 years, ac- cording to the Life After Ex- oneration Program (LAEP).
“They knew they had the wrong man and they prose- cuted him any way,” Maw said.
Willis was taken to the Mississippi State Peniten- tiary, where he was kept in solitary confinement for four years, according to the Na- tional Registry of Exonera- tions, which compiles information about exonera- tions.
“It took a while for him to trust that we were going to stick around and get this done,” she said.
In 2006, a judge found previous witness testimony inadmissible, according to the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, and the charges against Willis were dismissed.
On March 6, 2006, he be- came a free man.
Dad Shot After Witnessing Birth Of Twins Dies At Same Hospital
Tyrese Garvin, 20, shot on June 23 while walking home from the hospital after witness- ing the birth of his twins, has died, the Daily Mail reported Sunday.
Garvin was treated at Uni- versity Hospital in Louisville, Ky., where he spent several days in intensive care before he was taken off life support. His newborns, a boy and girl, were taken to see their father before he passed away, the report said.
The twins were born prema- turely and still remain at the hospital.
“He was very excited about becoming a father, and for something like this to happen and his children will never get to know him, that’s sad,” Kathleen Roberts, Garvin’s grandmother told WLKY.
“He did not deserve to be shot like he did. He’s going to never be able to see his chil- dren, and they’re never going to know their father,” Roberts continued.
The shooting was com- pletely random, police said. The incident was part of a spike in shootings in Louisville that left 12 dead last month and oth- ers injured, the Daily Mail notes.
Three juveniles between the ages on 14 and 17 were arrested
TYRESE GARVIN
in connection with the shooting death.
At a press conference on Thursday, Homicide Lt. Emily McKinley explained that over the past few weeks, the city has experienced an in- crease in drive-by shootings and related car thefts allegedly carried out by teenagers.
But the statement was no salve for Garvin’s grand- mother, who continues to struggle with the loss of her loved one.
“It’s just a hard impact for me because I know I’ll never see him walk through that door and act silly with me anymore, but this is just so senseless,” Roberts said.
Garvin’s family has now created a GoFundMe page to help pay for his medical and fu- neral costs. Their goal is 50,000 dollars, they’ve cur- rently raised almost 20,000 dollars.
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