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Title: Teen meant to kill girl, 8, police say
Source:
Palm Beach Post
URL Source: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localn ... 005/05/24/c1a_lwteen_0524.html
Published: May 24, 2005
Author: Andrew Marra
Post Date: 2005-05-24 13:24:39 by 1776
Keywords: police, meant, girl,
Views: 43
Comments: 3
A grand jury will decide whether the 17-year-old will be tried as an adult. LAKE WORTH — Milagro Cunningham thought he was a killer Sunday morning, police say. Only his carelessness proved him wrong. From the home of the latest woman to give him shelter, the teen took an 8-year-old girl out of bed early Sunday and led her to a nearby landfill. There, police say, he sexually attacked her, choked her and left her for dead in a trash bin, buried under a pile of rocks. The 17-year-old confessed he intended to strangle her, to bury the shame of what he had done, according to court records. Only she wasn't quite dead when police unearthed her hours later. Cunningham now waits at the juvenile detention center, facing charges of attempted murder, sexual battery and false imprisonment. A grand jury will decide Thursday whether he will be tried as an adult. It's the darkest turn yet for the boy no one seemed to want. Two years ago, Cunningham's mother shipped him here from the Bahamas, acquaintances said. Banished this year from the Lake Worth home of his fed-up aunt, Cunningham drifted to the house where the girl sometimes stayed. He claimed he didn't have the proper immigration paperwork to get a job or continue attending high school. With no work and no studies, he played video games and basketball, spending his nights on the sofa of a sympathetic neighbor. "He was basically just floating," said Lisa Taylor, who took pity on Cunningham and took him in. "I couldn't put him in school. He couldn't get a job." The horror of what he is accused of doing and the raw drama of his victim's rescue seized national attention Monday. Police came upon the 8-year-old girl's hand and foot jutting from the rock-filled trash bin Sunday morning and presumed her dead, until one saw a hand move ever so slightly. Before they knew it, the officers were being ushered onto CNN and ABC's Good Morning America to recount the rescue. Television cameras and out-of-town reporters crowded into a small courtroom to watch Cunningham's first court appearance, where a judge and two attorneys conducted the proceeding in a private, whispered huddle. Meanwhile, the girl was recovering at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach Monday evening, chatting and watching Rugrats and other cartoons with her mother beside her bed. But the real questions focused on Cunningham, as those who knew him probed their memories for warnings of Sunday's madness. He was born in the Bahamas and raised as one of his mother's 10 children, Taylor said. But his mother sent him to Lake Worth about two years ago to live with his aunt, claiming she no longer could look after him. Acquaintances said he was not especially prone to rage or violence, but he was no stranger to criminal mischief. In a one-month period last year, Cunningham was arrested three times by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office on burglary charges. A relative said he also had been arrested recently on a charge of throwing a rock through a car window. Cunningham attended John I. Leonard High in Greenacres this school year but dropped out after one of his arrests, acquaintances said. Although he could be friendly and polite, he was noticeably immature for his age, according to one former neighbor. "The guy is like 17 and he acted like he was 10 or 12," said Agatha Williams, who met him when he lived with his aunt and uncle on Kirk Road west of Lake Worth. With no one else to play with, Cunningham would stand outside and toss a football in the air, running to catch it himself over and over, Williams recalled. On Aug. 24, 2004, a sheriff's deputy arrested Cunningham after catching him breaking into Brock Motor Cars on Military Trail west of Lake Worth. When the deputy called his aunt, she said she couldn't come to the crime scene because she was taking care of small children, according to a sheriff's office report. About four months ago, acquaintances say, his aunt grew frustrated with his criminal activities and kicked him out of her home on Truman Street in southern Lake Worth. She could not be reached for comment Monday. Cunningham spent that weekend one street away at the home of a friend. It was Taylor's house, and when she learned from her son that Cunningham had nowhere else to go, she says she took pity and invited him to stay. Cunningham slept on the sofa and played video football on a Nintendo Game Cube day after day. He played basketball on the nearby courts, and at night he and Taylor's 16-year-old son would step out to party with friends. Taylor couldn't get him back in school or find him a regular job. She said Cunningham told her he didn't have a green card or a birth certificate because he had entered the United States illegally. But she says he did occasional odd jobs for money and was happy to help out with chores around the house. It was a tight squeeze in the small home. Taylor and her son shared the place with Taylor's 18-year-old daughter, the daughter's boyfriend and their young child. And on weekends, Taylor's 8-year-old goddaughter also would stay over while her mother worked. Acquaintances said nothing about Cunningham's relationship with the 8-year-old seemed particularly amiss. Danielle Holloman, Taylor's 18-year-old daughter, said he was even protective of her, ordering her back into her room once when older boys were hanging out in the living room. "He'd tell her to stay away from the boys," Holloman said. About 3:45 a.m. Sunday, Lake Worth police came to Taylor's house on Latona Court after Taylor learned the 8-year-old was missing. Cunningham had come up to the house in the dead of night, claiming he had seen men take the girl from the house and drive off. Police issued an Amber Alert and scoured the area. They soon grew skeptical of Cunningham's story, and at about 10:30 a.m., they found the girl buried in the city's old landfill. Pulled from under the rocks bruised and bloodied, the girl was able to speak. "M.J. (Cunningham) did it," she said, according to an arrest report. "He raped me, choked me and threw me in the Dumpster. He threw rocks on me and tried to kill me." Under questioning, Cunningham confessed he took the girl and sexually attacked her at the old landfill, according to the report. He feared she would tell others what he had done, so he choked her until she fell to the ground. Then he attempted to hide her body in the trash bin. So Cunningham is again unwanted. The events that unfolded since then have left those who knew him grasping for answers and wondering why they let him into their lives. Taylor, who invited Cunningham into her home, said she has spoken to the girl's mother but can't yet summon the strength to visit the girl at the hospital. "I can't bring myself to go and see her," she said. "I feel responsible."
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#1. To: All (#0)
Milagro Cunningham, 17, makes his first court appearance Monday, on charges of attempted murder, sexual battery and false imprisonment. Hal Turner remarks: Born in Bahamas, came here two years ago with no immigration paperwork.
Another piece of shit who deserves a bullet to the back of the head. This fucking piece of human trash raped and tried to murder a little girl. Yet another example of why I AM RIGHT WHEN I SAY RAPISTS AND PEDOPHILES SHOULD BE PUBLICLY EXECUTED.
Cry me a river. Hang him, shoot him...I'm not picky.
SAVAGE WHO RAPED 8 YEAR OLD FLORIDA GIRL IS
AN ILLEGAL ALIEN!!
Arrested at least 3 times previously; not deported!
Once again, an American citizen - this time an 8 year old girl - suffers violence because the federal government of the United States is misfeasant of its duties. The US Government is CRIMINALLY NEGLIGENT. The US Government perpetrates DEPRAVED INDIFFERENCE TO HUMAN LIFE. The US Government is a Racketeer Influenced, Corrupt Organization...
#2. To: 1776 (#1)
#3. To: 1776 (#0)
It's the darkest turn yet for the boy no one seemed to want.
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