DA GRENADIAN FREE-THINKER

The Attack on Black Theology

40 years after Dr. King’s assassination

Symbolism of King Kong

The Unrealized Dream: 40 Years After King's Assassination: If the United States makes progress in closing the black-white income gap at the same rate it has since King was assassinated, there will be income equality in 537 years. If the racial wealth divide closes at the same rate as it has since 1983, it will take 634 years before African-American families have the same wealth as whites.   

Source - www.baltimoresun.com/news

By Gus G. Sentementes | Sun reporter: August 14, 2008

Two women were ordered held without bail yesterday on charges that they participated in the starvation death of a child whom they considered a "demon" because he wouldn't say amen after his meals, according to police charging documents.  

 Baby Javon Thompson

Standing side by side in court, Queen Antoinette, 40, and Trevia Williams, 21, refused to be represented by city public defenders during their bail review at the Central Booking and Intake Center. Police say Antoinette was the leader of a cult and that Williams was one of her followers; each is charged with first-degree murder.

When asked by District Judge Charlotte M. Cooksey whether she wanted a preliminary hearing, Antoinette asked the judge to explain what happens during one - and then declined it.

"No, no, I don't want one," she said. Williams also declined a preliminary hearing. During such a hearing, prosecutors show the probable cause that led to an arrest.      
                                               

Ria Ramkissoon                        Trevia Williams                     Queen Antoinette 

Assistant State's Attorney David C. Chiu said in court that the group's members likely would follow Antoinette's lead in the case. "Chances are, the cult members are going to do what she tells them to do," he said.

Cooksey declined to set bail, noting the potential threat to public safety and their flight risk because they had traveled to several states in recent years.

Antoinette, whom police describe as the leader of 1 Mind Ministries, and Williams are among five people charged in the death of 15-month-old Javon Thompson, who died in a West Baltimore apartment in late 2006 or early 2007 after police say group members refused to feed the toddler.

Police say that members of the group placed the boy's remains in a suitcase and traveled to Philadelphia in February 2007. They left the suitcase containing the body with an elderly man they had befriended, and then several members eventually moved to Brooklyn, N.Y.

Philadelphia police - working with authorities in Baltimore and New York - found the suitcase and the boy's remains in April. Four of the group's members were arrested in May on outstanding warrants connected to another incident.

The boy's mother, Ria Ramkissoon, 21, who was also charged with murder this past weekend, is being held without bail. Others charged in the child's death include Marcus Cobbs, 21, and Steven Bynum, 42. Bynum is being sought by authorities in the New York area.

Woman charged in son's death appears in court

Ramkissoon ordered held without bail; 4 others linked to alleged cult accused in starvation death of boy, 2

By Gus G. Sentementes | Sun reporter:  August 12, 2008

Source - www.baltimoresun.com/news 

Seeta Khadan-Newton is the mother of Ria Ramkissoon, 21, who was recently charged with killing her 15-month-old son, Javon Thompson, while Ramkissoon was part of a religious group. Khadan-Newton had been fighting since April 2006 to extricate her daughter and grandson from the group. (Sun photo by Patrick Smith / August 12, 2008)

A woman charged with killing her child was ordered held without bail today during a court proceeding at the Central Booking and Intake Center.

Standing in court with her hands shackled behind her back, Ria Ramkissoon, 21, wore a purple jumpsuit, rocked nervously side to side, and shook her head slightly when Judge Theodore B. Oshrine read the charges against her.

She and four other members of a small group, 1 Mind Ministries, that police have called a religious cult, are accused of abusing and neglecting Ramkissoon's 21-month-old boy, Javon Thompson. In arguing for the judge to give Ramkissoon bail, her attorney, Steven D. Silverman, said in court today that the woman was being controlled by adults during the period when her son died.

"This is not a clear-cut case of one mother's cause and the effect of the death," Silverman said. "You have intervening circumstances. My client was not in control. ... I'm convinced in talking to her that she's been grossly over-charged" by Baltimore police detectives.
But Oshrine, citing the "very serious allegations" and noting that Ramkissoon may pose a flight risk, decided against allowing her to post bail. The group's leader, Queen Antoinette, 40, as well as Trevia Williams, 21, Marcus Cobbs, 21, and Steven Bynum, 42, all face charges in Thompson's death. Authorities are still seeking Bynum.

Antoinette and Williams were scheduled to have a bail review today, but they were not brought to court for reasons that were not specified. It was not clear when Cobbs would have his bail review.

City police say Javon died while the group was living in a West Baltimore apartment. After the child's death in early 2007, the group members placed his body in a green suitcase and, a short time later, traveled to Philadelphia, where they left the luggage with an unsuspecting man who let the group live with him for a week. The group next moved to New York, where they may have lived for several months.

Eventually, Baltimore police -- with the help of Philadelphia detectives and authorities in New York City -- tracked down the green suitcase and found the boy's remains. They arrested most of the group in New York and brought them to Baltimore to face murder charges.

Ramkissoon moved back to Baltimore earlier this year on her own and was living in an East Baltimore homeless shelter when she was arrested over the weekend.

Ramkissoon was being held at the city Women's Detention Center under psychiatric observation, according to a Monday court proceeding.

In court today, her attorney, Silverman, said Ramkissoon willingly returned to Baltimore earlier this year while she knew the homicide investigation into her son's death was progressing.

Ramkissoon hardly spoke in court, only saying "yes" to Oshrine when he asked if she had received a copy of the charging documents.