Man kills mom trying to protect 10-year-old daughter from rape

Published Tuesday, July 23, 2013

An upstate New York man who cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet, then raped a 10-year-old girl and killed her mother pleaded guilty Wednesday to murder and sex charges.

David Renz admitted in county court that he carjacked the two on March 14, stabbing and strangling the mother to death as she tried to stop him from raping her daughter.

David Renz

Renz had been under federal monitoring after a child pornography charge and a federal judge was sharply critical of the way probation officers failed to keep track of him.

Renz, 29, pleaded guilty to state charges of first-degree murder and sexual assault against a child. He was expected to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, but the plea bargain can be withdrawn if the federal government seeks the death penalty.

His lawyer did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Authorities say Renz attacked the woman, a school librarian, and her daughter after they left a gymnastics class at a mall in the Syracuse suburb of Clay. Police said he used an air pistol to force the woman to driver he car to a remote section of the mall's parking lot, where he bound both of them and raped the girl.

Prosecutors say Renz was trying to use cable ties to bind the woman to a headrest in her car when she fought back and shouted for the girl to bolt from the vehicle. As the girl ran off and was rescued by a passing motorist, her mother was strangled and repeatedly stabbed in the head and chest, officials said. Renz was captured by police shortly after.

The Associated Press generally does not identify victims of sex crimes and has not identified the woman to protect the identity of girl.

Hours before the attack, Renz removed and quickly reassembled an electronic bracelet so monitors didn't immediately realize he'd taken it off, authorities said. He was ordered to wear the device as a condition for being released from jail after his arrest in January on federal child pornography charges.

Weeks after the attack, a report by a federal judge found that the officers failed to do monthly checks on Renz that would have included inspection of the bracelet. Federal probation officers Syracuse who were monitoring Renz were fired or demoted.

Bride killed on honeymoon in crash

Police have charged a man with drunk driving after he crashed into a car driven by a Minnesota couple on their honeymoon in New England, killing the bride and seriously injuring the groom.

Killed in the accident Saturday afternoon on Route 4 in Rollinsford, N.H., was 30-year-old Leah Fonda of St. Paul. Her husband, 30-year-old Brian Preiss of St. Paul, was hospitalized at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was listed in fair condition Monday.

Police said the driver, 43-year-old Matthew Tsopas of Somersworth, N.H., fled after the crash and was found in Dover, where he was hospitalized. He was arrested at the hospital on charges of negligent homicide, felony driving under the influence of alcohol and felony conduct after an accident. It wasn’t immediately known if he had a lawyer.

Preiss’s uncle, Chuck Czech of St. Joseph, Minn., said the couple worked at the theme park at the Mall of America. They were friends for a long time and recently became engaged. They got married on July 12 in Bloomington, a few blocks from the mall, and took off for their road trip shortly after that.

“Brian, he’s kind of famous for road trips,” Czech said Monday. “As a child he would study maps of the United States, and when he got his license, he and his brother would just hop in the car and go to these places. And so Leah became part of that, and so that’s how they fashioned their honeymoon.”

The couple had planned to go to Boston and then on to Niagara Falls, Czech said. AP

(Home page image courtesy Shutterstock)

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