In a disturbing scene, investigators in West Sacramento, California say that three children have been found murdered inside of an apartment last week on Wednesday night.
California Prosecutors say the suspect is their father after police received an emergency 911 call about a domestic violence incident in progress.
“Moments later, another call came in that there were possibly three children deceased,” said Sgt. Roger Kinney from the West Sacramento police department during a press conference. “It’s horrific and very difficult to deal with.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">3 children found dead inside an apartment complex in West Sac. Robert Hodges, the father, was arrested…here's the latest we know <a href="https://twitter.com/FOX40">@FOX40</a> <a href="https://t.co/5AbIA9xC4t">pic.twitter.com/5AbIA9xC4t</a></p>— Pedro Rivera (@PedroRiveraTV) <a href="https://twitter.com/PedroRiveraTV/status/908375264698048512">September 14, 2017</a></blockquote>
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At around midnight Police then arrested 33-year old Robert Hodges on three counts of premeditated first-degree murder, two counts of use of a deadly weapon, and one count of attempted murder of his wife
The three children, 11-year-old Kelvin, 9-year-old Julie, and 7-month-old Lucas were all reportedly killed by the hands of their father using a belt as a weapon.
“The mother is holding up the best she can considering her three children were murdered,” Kinney said. “She has a lot of family support.”
The children's mother, says she returned to her apartment just after 9 PM Wednesday after getting off from her job as a cashier at Thunder Valley Casino.
She walked inside her home to the unimaginable horror at the Timber Apartments where she then flew outside screaming for help.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">33 YO Robert Hodges has been arrested, accused of murdering 3 kids behind the door of apartment 44 at West Sacramento's Timbers Apartments. <a href="https://t.co/ZF8jS8vk2M">pic.twitter.com/ZF8jS8vk2M</a></p>— Brian Hickey (@kcraBrianHickey) <a href="https://twitter.com/kcraBrianHickey/status/908341729459240962">September 14, 2017</a></blockquote>
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"She came running out of the door, and she's screaming, 'Help me, help me,'" said the neighbor, who asked to only be identified as Latoya. "It sounded faint to me at first, I hadn't even realized what was happening."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Witnesses say accused killer Robert Hodges attacked his wife when she got home, then fled. Only later did she realize he killed the children <a href="https://t.co/GVOZBercb3">pic.twitter.com/GVOZBercb3</a></p>— Tom Miller (@KCRAMiller) <a href="https://twitter.com/KCRAMiller/status/908559534339252225">September 15, 2017</a></blockquote>
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The mother then told Latoya that her husband, identified as Robert Hodges attacked her just moments before and he had fled the apartment he shared with his wife and three children.
"I had asked her if her children were home, and she said, 'I haven't even had a chance to check yet,'" Latoya said. "And at that point, we both ran upstairs together and discovered them."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Waiting for press conference with Yolo DA to begin. New info expected on West Sac triple homicide suspect Robert Hodges. <a href="https://twitter.com/CBSSacramento">@CBSSacramento</a> <a href="https://t.co/ESh9kJPcuX">pic.twitter.com/ESh9kJPcuX</a></p>— Angela Musallam (@AngelaNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/AngelaNews/status/909843367659413506">September 18, 2017</a></blockquote>
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A day later and running on very little sleep, Latoya is still struggling to process what she witnessed.
"The devil doesn't come to you in red horns all the time, and I can testify to that," Latoya said. "It's difficult to close my eyes and sleep because all I can see are the children, specifically the infant because that is, just like I said, I gave birth to live myself, so I know how precious it is."
Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig says the crime is absolutely mind-boggling and grotesque, unlike anything he's ever witnessed.
“How a man can do this to his own children, it's just… It blows my mind. What kind of perverse and evil creature does this?” said Reisig.
Sergeant Kinney says that several of the emergency medical responders and officers are in shock and suffering emotionally traumatic experiences as a result of the scene themselves, so he can only imagine the pain the mother must feel.
“Something like this is very disturbing,” he said. “The officers are absolutely impacted, along with the firefighters, and certainly the family, the neighbors; this call is going to have quite a bit of emotion.”
“It’s horrific, and it’s very difficult to deal with,” he said. “This is going to take not hours, not days. It’s going to take a long time to come to grips with what happened there.”
Yolo County Sheriff Ed Prieto said at a press conference that it is the worst mass killing in the county since he took office back in 1999.
“It is absolutely devastating to a lot of us, even those of us not directly involved in the investigation,” Prieto said. “This is the first triple homicide that I’m aware of. But even a double or triple homicide of adults is a different issue. When you start talking about infants, it’s just so devastating.”
On Monday Hodges was arraigned in a courtroom on his charges where he entered a Plea of Not Guilty.
Reisig told reporters on Monday that it could “take months” to determine whether prosecutors would pursue an execution.
However, when prosecutors read the charges they said the special circumstances involving the heinous actions of Hodges are so despicable that they will indeed pursue the death penalty.
A court-appointed attorney was granted for the monster's defense and he's set to appear back in court on October 2nd.
He's being detained without bond due to the violent nature of his crimes against the innocent and precious lives he stole from existence.
Just a brutally tragic story and no amount of thoughts or prayers will heal the suffering and agony the mother must now be going through but we send them regardless during this time of grief.
Source:
http://people.com/crime/california-man-used-belt-murder-three-kids/
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