"Kyle", 16 yo Tracy, CA teen was chained in fireplace-UPDATED

[MuffyBee]

Detective: Shackled teen was chained in fireplace

By TERRY COLLINS – 2 hours ago

STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) — Three people appeared in court Monday on charges of kidnapping and torturing a 16-year-old boy who an investigator said had been kept chained in a fireplace, choked with a belt and denied food for days at a time during more than a year in captivity.

The emaciated boy fled a home in Tracy last week with a chain around his ankle and sought help at a local gym.

Michael Schumacher, 34, his wife, Kelly Layne Lau, 30, and the teen's one-time guardian, Caren Ramirez, 43, face torture, kidnapping and child abuse charges.

Ramirez was arraigned Monday in San Joaquin County Superior Court in Stockton, keeping her head down for most of the hearing. All three have yet to enter pleas and are due back in court Jan. 5. Each is being held in lieu of more than $2.2 million bail at the San Joaquin County jail.

Detective Nate Cogburn described in a sworn affidavit details of the alleged abuse that emerged during an interview with the boy.

The teen told investigators he had been seriously burned on his left arm when someone purposely lit a fire in the fireplace while he was chained there and sleeping. Authorities who later searched the home where the boy allegedly was held reported finding a blanket inside the fireplace, Cogburn said.

According to the affidavit, the three defendants had held the boy captive since mid-2007, beating him frequently, denying him food for days at a time and keeping him chained to the fireplace or a heavy table. The boy also recounted being choked with a belt until he lost consciousness.

"Though currently 16 years old, he appeared much younger due to malnourishment, and his body was predominantly covered with soot, sores and scars," Cogburn said.

The boy said he was regularly hit on the head with a baseball bat and was once cut with a knife, according to the detective. Cogburn said the boy had an injured ankle that seemed permanently indented from being chained.

The boy explained that the defendants also forced him to take unknown pills, drink alcoholic beverages and smoke marijuana to keep him lethargic, the detective said.

In court Monday, attorneys for the defendants requested that future affidavits be sealed from public view. Judge Cinda Fox did not rule on the request but extended an earlier gag order prohibiting both sides from discussing the case.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i8GiVzisI8jNCtCPxNVnVrLG-35gD94UTL2G0

[Nut44x4]

BLOCKED WEBSITE

http://newschomp.blogspot.com/2008/12/caren-ramirez-abused-other-children.html

the photo of this 'woman' is frightening!

[Nut44x4]

Excellent summaries>>
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/topics/?topic=Caren+Ramirez

[Nut44x4]

Suspect In Torture Case Doesn't Enter Plea
Anthony Waiters Held On Charges Related To Tracy Abuse Case

POSTED: 8:21 am PST December 12, 2008
UPDATED: 8:21 am PST December 12, 2008
STOCKTON, Calif. -- The fourth suspect in the case of a shackled teen appeared in court Thursday but did not make a plea.

Anthony Waiters, 29, walked into the San Joaquin County Superior Court wearing a red jumpsuit.

Superior Court Judge Cinda Fox read the nine charges he is facing, which include torture, mayhem, child beating, child endangerment and an enhancement for using a baseball bat.

His mother, aunt and two brothers were in the audience.

The bail for Waiters was raised to $1.9 million, up from $685,000.

Waiters' home on Tennis Lane was searched on Tuesday.

"If any other search warrants are returned, I will seal them until the next court date," Fox said. "The reason is the attorneys need to get them and have an opportunity to address whether they should be released to the public."

The defendant was once a volunteer coach for the Tracy Cougars, a youth football league. He has been suspended pending the outcome of the case.

Police say for more than a year, Waiters' neighbors, Michael Schumacher, 34, and Kelly Layne Lau, 30, held the boy against his will and, along with the teen's one-time guardian, Caren Ramirez, 43, beat him, denied him food and sometimes kept him chained to the fireplace or a heavy table.

Schumacher and Lau are being held on $2.2 million bail.

There is no bail allowed for Ramirez because of an outstanding warrant.

The 16-year-old boy ran away from the house last week by jumping over a backyard fence and finding help at a local fitness center. The boy was covered in soot, looked years younger than his age and was bleeding from where he was still shackled around his ankle.

The couple and Ramirez have been charged with more than a dozen abuse and related charges.

All four defendants are due back in court on Jan. 5.


Previous Stories:
December 9, 2008: Fourth Person Arrested In Shackled Teen Case
December 9, 2008: Baseball Bats Removed From Tracy Home
December 8, 2008: Arraignment In Shackled Teen Case Continued
December 8, 2008: Support Pours In For Shackled Teen
December 7, 2008: Docs: Woman Hit Teen With Martial Arts Sticks
December 6, 2008: Town Struggles To Understand Torture Case
December 5, 2008: Warrant: Teen Forced To Stay In Fireplace
December 4, 2008: Tracy Couple Charged With Torture, Abuse
December 4, 2008: Suspect Describes Alleged Torture Of Boy
December 3, 2008: Aunt Sought In Shackled Teen Case
December 3, 2008: Abused Teen Lived In Filth, Authorities Say
December 2, 2008: Shackled, Emaciated Teen Runs To Gym
http://www.ksbw.com/news/18264395/detail.html

[Tracygirl]

I tell you Monkeys  this young teen lived through hell. If you don't mind  my sharing this here. Kyle deserves to have his story told. He was a kidnapped victim and some how lived through horrible and unimaginable abuse at the hands of 4 cowards. The grand jury testimony was released today. It is very difficult to read, but as you do please remember how brave this young man was and how strong he was.

http://tracypress.com/pages/full_story?page_label=home&id=2716740-Tortured+teen+testimony+released&article-Tortured%20teen%20testimony%20released%20=&widget=push&instance=home_news_bullets&open=&#cb_post_comment_2716740

Tortured teen testimony released
by Jennifer Wadsworth/ TP staffJun 12, 2009 | 123 views | 1  | 1  |  |  A 16-year-old allegedly tortured for a year inside a Tracy home told a grand jury that he escaped because his captors talked about killing him and dumping his body in the Delta.

Afraid for his life, the boy — called Kyle in court papers — fled the Tennis Lane home on Dec. 1 by unlocking himself from the fireplace to which he was chained and using a trampoline to hop over the backyard wall. He then limped across an adjacent parking lot and into the lobby of a sports club, where employees called police for help.

After he heard his alleged captors talking on speakerphone about how they planned to cut off his fingers with a meat cleaver, Kyle said he knew then that he had to find a way out.

“I had to hurry up and leave or it was just going to be the end from there,” he said in a newly unsealed 928-page transcript of a grand jury hearing that led to a slew of indictments against the four adults accused of imprisoning Kyle.

Husband and wife Michael Schumacher and Kelly Lau were arrested in December along with next-door neighbor Anthony Waiters and a woman named Carén Ramirez who called herself Kyle’s mom. Police said they starved, drugged and beat the boy for as many as 18 months after he fled a Sacramento group home in spring 2007.

The four could spend life in prison if found guilty of the several charges of torture, kidnapping, false imprisonment, assault with caustic chemicals and other forms of abuse. All except Schumacher pleaded not guilty to all charges. He has yet to enter a plea. The four are due in court again on June 18.

Kyle told the grand jury that the abuse escalated from slapping and punching to slicing flesh and drawing blood for offenses as minor as forgetting to feed the dog or for taking food to slake his hunger.

Waiters once sliced Kyle’s arm with a steak knife, Kyle said. Ramirez held his arm down and Kyle screamed, the boy alleged. Kyle said that afterwards, the pair poured bleach on his cuts and doctored them with salt and butter before wrapping his arm in a paper towel.

Other times, Ramirez, Lau and Waiters would stick an aluminum baseball bat into the fireplace and brand Kyle’s back, the teen said.

“Carén and Kelly came up with the idea of, like, heating the bat up, and then I guess they started branding me with the bat,” Kyle said.

The boy said Schumacher would sometimes punch him in the face until he passed out. Kyle also said he was chained to the fireplace, where he was forced to sleep most nights.

Lau used a belt once to choke him until he lost consciousness, Kyle said. She allegedly strapped a belt around his neck and buckled it. He dropped to the fireplace hearth and his arm fell on the grate while the fire blazed, he said.

“When I first woke up, I didn’t know what happened or anything,” he said. “So then I immediately noticed my arm was, like, discolored and everything, and I was, like, really freaking out, and at first I didn’t feel anything.”

To treat the burn, Kyle said Ramirez would just pour bleach on it. His wounds scabbed over and became infected.

The boy said he never saw a physician and had been kept out of school since the eighth grade.

He said he hasn’t seen his mother, Susan Barnett, since he was about 8 years old, when Ramirez somehow obtained custody of him and his brother. Barnett has since died.

Kyle said Ramirez talked him into running away from a Sacramento foster home. He wound up living with her and a woman named Catherine Cockrell in Pleasanton. Cockrell introduced Ramirez to Lau and Schumacher, who opened up their home to the pair in July 2007.

From there, Kyle recounts horrific abuse. He said the family forced him to do all the chores and make him kneel for hours on the floor until his knees hurt. He said he was hit constantly and never got to shower. The family, he said, would rarely call him by his real name, and Ramirez, he added, would refer to him as “Iggit.”

Kyle was allegedly abused nearly every day until he bled, and that’s the only reason he ever got new clothes, he said.

Sometime in fall 2008, Lau poured him a cup of “Red Hot Damn,” a spicy cinnamon liquor, said Waiters’ niece, Chelsea Waiters, 16. She said Kyle drank it, got sick and vomited. Lau then screamed at him, Chelsea told grand jurors.

At other times, the adults would force him to chew marijuana and make him drink liquor, the boy said.

The four Schumacher children, ages 1 through 9, said they understood that what was happening to Kyle was “bad,” but they didn’t want to tell anyone. The oldest child said she actually liked that Kyle lived with her family because he would hang out with her and help her with homework.

Grand jurors also interviewed detectives, friends and family of both the victim and the suspects and neighbors.

• Contact Tracy Press reporter Jennifer Wadsworth at 830-4225 or jwadsworth@tracypress.com.

[Sister]

Transcripts Released in Case of Tortured Tracy Teen
Associated Press
June 12, 2009

TRACY - A teenage boy who allegedly was held captive in a Tracy home says he endured frequent beatings that worsened over the year he spent there.

The boy's testimony was made public Friday as part of 970 pages of transcripts from a grand jury hearing in March.

The boy was 16 when he escaped the house in December and stumbled into a nearby fitness center, nearly naked, emaciated and wearing a shackle on his ankle.

Homeowners Michael Schumacher and Kelly Layne Lau, the teen's one-time guardian Caren Ramirez and neighbor Anthony Waiters have pleaded not guilty to torture and other charges.

The boy told the grand jury that Ramirez and Lau would beat him most frequently for infractions such as forgetting to water the lawn or not cleaning the bathroom properly. He said they initially hit him with their hands, then escalated to belts, mallets and hammers.
Copyright © 2009, KTXL-TV

[pink angel]

BLOCKED WEBSITE

[pink angel]

Tracy Boy Had Skin Grafts, According To Grand Jury Transcripts


June 12, 2009


STOCKTON, Calif. -- Grand jury transcripts released Friday reveal that a Tracy boy who was allegedly held captive was burned with an aluminum bat and had skin grafts after he escaped.

Defendants Caren Ramirez, Michael Schumacher, Kelly Layne Lau and Anthony Waiters are charged with a number of offenses, including kidnapping, torture and child abuse.

San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Angela Hayes told jurors at the beginning of the eight-day grand jury hearing that there were no allegations of sexual abuse.

According to the transcripts, the teen suffered burns from an aluminum baseball bat and a caustic solution by his captors.

"It is substantial physical abuse, I need to prepare you for it … medical examiner had to perform skin grafts several days after the victim, Kyle, was found," according to the transcripts.



More at link:

http://www.kcra.com/news/19738298/detail.html

[pink angel]

(06-13) 04:00 PDT Stockton -- Four suspects beat, tortured and chained to a fireplace a 16-year-old boy and spoke openly about how to kill him before he escaped by vaulting over the wall of a Tracy home and seeking help, the teenager told a grand jury in testimony made public Friday.

The boy said he spent more than a year in captivity during which he often went without food and was branded and repeatedly beaten with a baseball bat, according to transcripts released in San Joaquin County Superior Court.

"I can't tell you why," the boy replied when prosecutor Angela Hayes asked him the explanation for the alleged abuse. "Most of the reasons I think were just bogus reasons."

Charged with abusing the boy are Michael Schumacher, 34; his wife, Kelly Layne Lau, 31; Caren Ramirez, 44, the boy's former guardian and a houseguest who stayed in the couple's home; and next-door neighbor Anthony Waiters, 30.

The boy told the grand jury that the defendants were angry at him for "bossing" the couple's children, speaking ill of Waiters' brother, forgetting to water the lawn, not cleaning the bathroom the way Lau liked it and not changing the diapers of the couple's youngest son properly.

The suspects even spoke of ways to kill him, the boy said.

"I remember they said they would try to, like, cut me up and everything and throw me in the delta," he said. Once, Schumacher asked his wife for a syringe "so he could, like, pump air into my veins and stuff like that," the teen testified.

The four defendants were indicted on charges of torture, aggravated mayhem, corporal injury to a child, child abuse, false imprisonment and criminal threats and could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted. Three have pleaded not guilty, and the fourth, Schumacher, is to enter a plea next week.

The couple's two daughters, police officers, social workers and neighbors were among 35 witnesses who testified before the grand jury over eight days in March.

The 930-page transcript details a horrific imprisonment in which a bath for the boy meant having hot water thrown on him in the yard, meals were nonexistent and the abuse included being cut with a knife, punched with boxing gloves, forced to drink hot cinnamon Schnapps liqueur, choked with a belt and hit or branded with a bat that had been heated in the fireplace. Bleach was put into his injuries to add to the pain, he said.

The couple's 5-year-old daughter testified that she had seen her parents and Ramirez hit the boy with the bat "lots of times."

"Like, with a baseball bat, hard," the girl said.

The boy testified that the girl "was always nice to me" and would secretly give him a cup of water or climb on top of the kitchen counter to sneak him Halloween candy.

"I had to eventually start, like I guess, stealing food because I was like, really hungry," he said.

Ramirez told Schumacher and Lau that the boy was the source of all her problems, the boy testified.

"Caren would rub it in and everything, just so she would seem like she is the perfect parent, and I would seem like I'm the person that caused her to lose her house," he said. "That was the story that she told the Schumachers, that she lost her house because of me, because I was a thief and everything and she had to pay all these bills off."

Lau's father, Terry Brown, told the grand jury that he had asked Schumacher why the boy was in the home.

"He says, 'Well, he has an attitude problem, a behavior problem, so we have to sort of watch him.' I said, 'Oh, OK.' "

The boy had been imprisoned for nearly a year and a half when he escaped his captors Dec. 1, police said.

Investigators say he found a key to his shackles while being driven by the defendants. When they got home, the boy unlocked his shackles, used a trampoline to jump over an 8-foot wall in the backyard of the home and limped into the In-Shape Sport fitness club.

The boy had a padlock and 3-foot chain on his right ankle, was covered with old and new scars, and was caked in soot, witnesses said.

E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/13/BAMI186D6T.DTL

Such a brave and strong young man to have lived through and survived such torture and abuse. Thank god he was able to get away and I hope the state is helping him and will make sure he gets all the treatment, medical attention and therapy he needs to help deal with all he has lived through so he is able to move forward and live a long and happy life.  God bless Kyle.

[Tracygirl]

I tell you, I wanted to bring this boy into our home and love and care for him. It breaks my heart beyond words, what he endured at the hands of these monsters. I pray they never are released from prison and never spend one day in protective custody.

The little girl who Kyle speaks about, what  a brave little one she was for helping this boy. She could have really been hurt if caught. She has a kind heart, hopefully that will be what saves her in life.

[Tracygirl]

Regarding Kyle, the Tracy teenager that escaped from a house of torture. 2 of the 4 defendants attorneys took up court time today in an attempt to get the more serious charges dropped.

http://www.tracypress.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Attorneys+dispute+charges+in+torture+case%20&id=4394679-Attorneys+dispute+charges+in+torture+case&instance=home_news_bullets

STOCKTON — Attorneys for two of the four people accused of allegedly torturing a boy in a Tracy house disputed some of the charges against their clients, claiming the evidence against them is unstable and that the acts were not done out of the traditional reasons for a torture.

Michael Schumacher and Anthony Waiters appeared in the Stockton courthouse this morning, along with Kelly Lau and Carén Ramirez, for a hearing where their attorneys pleaded with San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Terrence Van Oss to remove or reduce some of the counts against them.

All four are in custody at San Joaquin County Jail in French Camp on multiple charges including torture, aggravated mayhem and child abuse after they allegedly caused great bodily harm to “Kyle,” a runaway teenage boy at Schumacher and Lau’s home on Tennis Lane. If convicted, they could face life in prison.

John Casanave, representing Schumacher, said that based on the grand jury transcript his client did not torture Kyle out of the traditional motives such as extortion or revenge, so that charge should be reduced.

“You have to have cruel, extensive pain and you have to show purpose,” Casanave said.

Prosecutor Angela Hayes said her side looked at the big picture, studying the severity of Kyle’s injuries and determined that the intent was to cause extreme pain.

Casanave also tried to dispute the charge of aggravated mayhem, saying that the evidence of Kyle initially saying that Schumacher “never” beat him with a heated aluminum bat and then later saying that he “might have” isn’t stable enough.

In response to the felony charge of assault with a caustic chemical, where one or more of the defendants allegedly poured lighter fluid on Kyle, Casanave said Schumacher was just in the house for dinner at the time and did not take part in the assault.

Van Oss denied all three of Casanave’s motions, saying that Kyle’s abuse was “extraordinary.”

“We have Schumacher sitting here watching this take place and allegedly it’s his gasoline,” Van Oss said of Schumacher’s involvement. “He’s at least encouraging this activity and apparently condoning it under his roof.”

Waiters’ attorney, Allen Jose, said that the validity of the evidence against his client was his biggest problem. Jose said that statements Kyle provided were elicited improperly and were laced with hearsay and speculation regarding what Waiters allegedly did to him.

When Jose said that there were too many “speculative facts” that came out of the grand jury transcripts to secure a motive, Van Oss interjected and asked what reason Waiters would have for abusing the boy.

Jose said that no motive exists and it’s Hayes’ job to prove Waiters actively tortured Kyle.

Hayes said the evidence against Waiters and the other defendants is extensive, noting that Lau’s 5-year-old daughter even told the grand jury that Waiters repeatedly hit Kyle with a heated aluminum bat. Van Oss denied Jose’s motion to remove or reduce Waiters’ felony torture charge.

“He could’ve left at any time,” Hayes said of Waiters, noting that he had a job and other activities to do, but he kept going back to the Schumacher home.

Jose also told Van Oss that there is inadmissible evidence of death threats Waiters allegedly made to Kyle. He said there’s no concrete evidence in the grand jury transcripts that while Kyle was in captivity, he feared for his safety. Hayes countered, saying there was no question he was terrified.

Van Oss denied Jose’s motion to clear the charge of the threats after he read aloud statements from Kyle in the grand jury transcript.

“They always had these plans to basically kill me,” Van Oss read. “They would say it in front of me.”

The statement Van Oss read said that the defendants planned to cut Kyle up and throw him into the Delta, among other things, because he “didn’t deserve to live.”

Prior to the speeches of the attorneys, Van Oss said the enhancement charges of inflicting great bodily injury were dismissed for both Schumacher and Waiters. Van Oss also dropped a charge of personal use of a non-firearm weapon for Waiters.

Van Oss told the attorneys that there’s probably no way for the trial to begin in February, as previously planned. There will be another hearing at 8:30 a.m. Nov. 17 to reconsider scheduling, he said.

The hearing lasted about 45 minutes. Schumacher was the first to come into the courtroom, at about 9:15 a.m. today. He talked with Casanave, laughing occasionally and making a suggestive gesture.

The other three defendants were led in a few minutes later. Waiters read over court papers as he waited for the hearing to begin.

• Contact Tracy Press reporter Justin Lafferty at 830-4269 or jlafferty@tracypress.com.

[Nut44x4]

Charges to stand

A San Joaquin County judge has refused to throw out criminal charges against four people accused of torturing a teenager at a Tracy house.

Superior Court Judge Terrence Van Oss on Monday ruled the indictments will stand for Michael Schumacher, his wife, Kelly Lau, Caren Ramirez and Anthony Waiters.

The four were indicted by a grand jury in March on aggravated mayhem, torture and false imprisonment of a 16-year-old Kyle Ramirez. They could spend life in prison if convicted.

Attorneys representing Schumacher and Waiters argued that prosecutors did not prove the torture charge.

Authorities say Kyle escaped from the couple’s home in Tracy by unlocking an ankle chain and stumbling emaciated, half-naked and bruised into a health club in December.

http://www.santaynezvalleyjournal.com/archive/7/46/5465/

[Tracygirl]

Charges to stand

A San Joaquin County judge has refused to throw out criminal charges against four people accused of torturing a teenager at a Tracy house.

Superior Court Judge Terrence Van Oss on Monday ruled the indictments will stand for Michael Schumacher, his wife, Kelly Lau, Caren Ramirez and Anthony Waiters.

The four were indicted by a grand jury in March on aggravated mayhem, torture and false imprisonment of a 16-year-old Kyle Ramirez. They could spend life in prison if convicted.

Attorneys representing Schumacher and Waiters argued that prosecutors did not prove the torture charge.

Authorities say Kyle escaped from the couple’s home in Tracy by unlocking an ankle chain and stumbling emaciated, half-naked and bruised into a health club in December.

http://www.santaynezvalleyjournal.com/archive/7/46/5465/

Thank god the judge ruled this way. Now these 4 POS need to suck it up and plead guilty and save us tax dollars. 

[MuffyBee]

http://www.tracypress.com/view/full_story/11693424/article-Waiters-sentenced-to-life-in-prison?instance=home_most_popular
Waiters sentenced to life in prison
February 28, 2011

[MuffyBee]

http://www.news10.net/news/article.aspx?storyid=125454&provider=top&catid=188
Anthony Waiters sentenced to life in prison for teen's torture
February 28, 2011

[Nut44x4]

Thanks Muffy...shoulda'  been

[Sister]

Thanks Muffy...shoulda'  been

Agreed . . . life is not enough.  May prison be tortureous every day.