#8 - Rebekah Cheever
Police in Phoenix, Arizona, were dispatched to the residence of local McDonald’s franchise
operator Donald Mellon, whose wife had placed an incoherent 911 phone call, shortly before 10 pm
on July the 31st of 2012. Upon their arrival, officers found Mellon in critical condition
after having suffered an apparent gunshot wound to the head. He was taken to a nearby hospital,
where he was pronounced dead two hours later. The victim’s wife, an exotic dancer named Rebekah
Cheever, reportedly told detectives that she'd been intoxicated upon discovering her husband
lying on the living room floor with blood pouring out of his head, at which point she claimed to
have made the emergency call. When investigators reviewed the couple’s home security footage,
however, they discovered that Cheever had actually been the one responsible for her husband’s death.
In the moments leading up to the incident, Mellon had been leaving a voicemail for his daughter,
asking her to call him back. The recording was abruptly punctuated by a loud bang,
which, it would later emerge, was the sound of Cheever firing a gun directly at her husband’s
head. As the man bled out on the ground, Cheever casually sat down on the couch next to him and
smoked a cigarette for 23 minutes. After that, she called 9-1-1, by which time Mellon’s condition had
worsened to the extent that he was beyond saving. Cheever was subsequently charged with first-degree
murder and held in custody on a $1 million bond. During the case’s legal proceedings,
the woman argued that she’d shot Mellon in self-defense, and that his repeated instances
of spousal abuse had caused her to become paranoid that he might attempt to kill her.
Despite her attempts to justify the shooting with details of their troubled relationship,
Cheever ultimately agreed to a plea deal that sentenced her to 20 years in federal prison.
#7 - Danielle Robinson On October the 4th of 2021, an armed woman
wearing dark clothing stood near the entrance of a Whole Foods in Wichita, Kansas, indiscriminately
pointing her firearm at other customers. According to the testimony of several eyewitnesses,
Danielle Robinson had been asking people for rides and “acting very paranoid” for a number of hours,
which eventually prompted employees to contact the local police. When officers arrived at the scene,
Robinson immediately pointed her gun at them. They ordered her to drop the weapon, but she ignored
their commands, instead firing a number of rounds in their direction. Law enforcement returned fire
until Robinson was neutralized, after which she was reportedly taken to a nearby hospital
with what were described as “non-life-threatening injuries”. She was released the following day and
booked into the Sedgwick County Jail on several charges, including attempted first-degree murder,
as well as multiple counts of aggravated assault and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
#6 - Ashley Hurley
34-year-old Ashley Hurley, a resident of East Bernstadt, Kentucky, was taken into police
custody in May of 2021 after allegedly making multiple 9-1-1 hang-ups over the course of 2 days.
As indicated by subsequent reports on the matter, Laurel County sheriff’s deputies were dispatched
to Hurley’s house, in the early hours of May the 9th, after she claimed to have seen a prowler
on her property. The paranoid woman had contacted local authorities a reported 40 times in 48 hours,
with each 9-1-1 call either ending in a hang-up or an unfounded complaint of trespassing. Hurley
was ultimately charged with falsely reporting an incident, harassing communications, and public
intoxication – controlled substances. She was held in the Laurel County Correctional Center
to await the legal examination of her case. #5 - Darren M. Birman
Law enforcement in Lady Lake, Florida were called to a local residence after a neighbor
reported that a man named Darren M. Birman was making strange noises while hiding in the trees.
According to the arrest report created by the Lake County sheriff’s office on January the 6th
of 2018, Birman appeared to have been under the influence of unknown substances when officers
found him outside his home. Subsequent reports indicated that the police had been dispatched
to the man’s residence on 4 previous occasions after being alerted of similarly bizarre behavior
on his part. Birman’s girlfriend allegedly told the authorities that he’d been acting strangely
for some time and had been suffering from paranoid delusions as well as hallucinations.
Birman was ultimately taken into police custody on charges of breach of the peace
and misuse of 9-1-1, which reportedly stemmed from multiple instances in which he’d hung up on
emergency dispatchers. The 40-year-old man was held at the Lake County jail on a $1,500 bond.
#4 - Ricky Eloy Ramirez Minnesota police went to the Burnsville
Inn and Suites on July the 23rd of 2021, after receiving reports of shots fired on the premises.
Officers reportedly came upon the lifeless, bullet-riddled body of a male victim,
later identified as 37-year-old Sheldon Jeremy Williams, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
Law enforcement spoke with a man who was standing in the hall with a firearm at his feet,
close to where Williams’ body had been found. According to the resulting criminal complaint,
the man, named as Ricky Eloy Ramirez, confessed to shooting the victim
a total of 6 times, which was confirmed by the hotel’s video surveillance footage.
It subsequently emerged that Ramirez, a resident of Houston, Texas, had been visiting Minnesota
with his girlfriend and father. The latter two told the police that, the day before the shooting,
24-year-old Ramirez had begun acting strangely, making paranoid remarks about the other guests
in the hotel. Police records detailed how the man armed himself with a handgun after stating
that the “government was coming to get him” and that a guest on their floor had more than 100
rifles in their possession. The authorities found no evidence to support Ramirez’s paranoid claims,
however, and he was consequently arrested on a charge of second-degree murder in connection to
Williams’ death. In April of 2022, he was found not guilty of the charge by reason of insanity,
and a judge ordered that he be transferred to a secure mental health facility.
#3 - Juan Pliego and Helena Holmes Staff members at the America’s Best Value
Inn in Killeen, Texas, contacted the police in the late evening hours of June the 10th of 2022, after
a guest reported hearing a scuffle in the room above him. Officers were dispatched to the motel
to conduct a welfare check on room 227, which had reportedly been rented out to 51-year-old
Helena Holmes. The police eventually managed to gain access to the room, where they found Holmes
unresponsive on the floor and a man, named as 36-year-old Juan Pliego, on the other side of
the room. Although emergency medical services attempted to revive the unconscious woman, she was
ultimately pronounced dead a short time later. In his interviews with investigators, Pliego claimed
that he and the victim had been taking narcotics when she suddenly became hysterical and paranoid.
The man had attempted to calm Holmes down, but she allegedly bit down on his fingers,
to which he reacted by tightly grasping her neck with his right hand. According to the resulting
arrest affidavit, Pliego kept pressing his hand around the woman’s throat for roughly 3 minutes,
until she stopped breathing. The police used Pliego’s testimony to obtain a warrant for his
arrest, and he was subsequently booked into the Bell County Jail on a $1 million bond
after being formally charged with Holmes’ murder. Today's topic was requested by Aisha Dawson.
If you have any other topics you'd like to learn about subscribe & let us know
in the comments section below. #2 - Luke Dorsey
Law enforcement in Milwaukee, Wisconsin were called to a home near the intersection
of 21st Street and Wright Street, at about 4 am on February the 8th of 2020. Officers made their way
to the address where they found 2 women suffering from apparent gunshot wounds, one of whom was
pronounced dead at the scene, while the other was transported to a local hospital to undergo
emergency life-saving surgery. The perpetrator of the shooting was identified as 31-year-old Luke
Dorsey, a man previously diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. According to a criminal complaint,
Dorsey suggested to the police that he’d opened fire on the two victims because he believed
people were “out to get him”. An eyewitness later recounted to investigators how he’d been watching
television with Dorsey when he began acting paranoid, pacing back and forth before walking
into the dining room. The witness then heard the sound of gunfire, at which point he went into the
other room to render aid to the victims. Officers at the original crime scene reportedly found the
murder weapon and a plastic bag filled with drugs on Dorsey’s person. He was held at the Milwaukee
County Jail on a $75,000 bond pending the start of the legal proceedings associated with his case.
#1 - Michael Cook
At around 5 pm on June the 4th of 2022, a man walked into a Cricket Wireless store in Phoenix,
Arizona, and unleashed a brutal attack on the young woman who was working there alone
at the time. As was captured by the store’s surveillance cameras, he tackled employee
Maria Coronado to the ground and proceeded to punch and kick her repeatedly as she pleaded
with him to stop. The assailant, who was later identified as 33-year-old Michael Cook, then
got to his feet and forcefully stomped on Coronado multiple times. Once the victim was incapacitated,
he went to the back room and stole an undisclosed amount of cash as well as 3 cell phones. Coronado
subsequently ran to the business next door and the authorities were notified of the attack.
Upon the police’s arrival, Cook had already fled the scene, but he was ultimately tracked
down and arrested 3 days later. He faced several charges, including robbery, kidnapping, assault,
and criminal trespassing. It was reported that 22-year-old Coronado required stitches to mend
a severe laceration to her face, and had also suffered a broken nose during the violent assault.
In the violent robbery’s wake it was revealed Cook had previously been diagnosed with paranoid
schizophrenia, but his family claimed that he hadn’t been taking his prescribed medication
leading up to the incident. He reportedly told investigators
that there were voices in his head that had made him believe that Coronado intended to harm him.
Thanks for watching! Would you rather always feel like someone’s standing right behind you or
have an unscratchable itch in the middle of your back? Let us know in the comments section below!