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Lavion was to young to have the concept of fear and especially fear of one of his caretakers.  Robert Long, however, has been charged with the six month old’s murder.

Lavion was found dead Wednesday of multiple blunt-force injuries, said Jim Wesley, a deputy Jefferson County coroner. His death was ruled a homicide.

Long, who is Lavion’s father, has been charged with murder, menacing, tampering with physical evidence and abuse of a corpse. He is being held at Metro Corrections.

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Leslie Gamble, Lavion’s mother, left the infant in his father’s care while she went to work her night shift job.  She had checked in with Leon around 10 pm and assured the baby was asleep and fine.  When she got in the next morning, Long and Lavion were gone, but the diaper bag had been left behind.  At that point Gamble become concerned about her son’s whereabouts.

Police became involved and were on the verge of issuing an Amber Alert when in SUV that had gone missing at the same time as Lavion and Long, was found outside the residence of his current girlfriend.  Inside the vehicle was the body of the infant.  Long himself was found inside the house asleep.  He was arrested and charged with murder, menacing, tampering with physical evidence and abuse of a corpse.

The death of Lavion is tragic enough but this is not the first time Long has murder his child.  In 1991, he was the caregiver when his son Robert Leon Long also died.  Long gave conflicting stories about what happened to the five week-old but was brought to trial for murder.

Long was tried twice for that son’s death.During the first trial, in November 1991, Long claimed that police coerced his confession, in which he said that he’d beaten the baby and let him fall off the bed.

In a 26-minute taped statement to police, Long said that the baby would not stop crying and he tried to comfort him. But he said nothing worked — not a bottle, pacifier or a new diaper.“Something just came over me, and I hit him,” Long said in the statement, according to newspaper accounts of the trial. He told police that he struck the child three times and “just went blank. I could see myself doing things to him and it was like, one side of me, it was like, stop, and the other side was like, no. …”

But during his testimony at the first trial, Long claimed that police forced him to make that confession when, in fact, he’d lost control of his son when he started to squirm. Long said his son accidentally fell down the stairs.

Although the first trial ended in a mistrial, jurors on the second trial found Long guilty and sentenced him to 35 years.  He was released under supervised probation after twelve years.  A year later a woman obtained a restraining order against him claiming that he was violent.

n the complaint, the woman said she had lived with Long for about eight months. She said she ended the relationship because of Long’s “violent ways.”

He tried to run her off the road while her children were in the car, attempted to choke her and threw her up against the wall, her complaint said. She said he stalked and threatened her.

“I am afraid of him,” she wrote. “I want him to stay away.”

Despite this, Long’s probation was not revoked and the family of his mother, Leslie Gamble, said they did not know about his violent past.  Instead they blame police for not taking the missing infant seriously assuming it was a custody issue.  There appears to be enough blame to go around in Lavion’s death.

Tags: Lavion R. Gamble

Tiffany was taken immediately away from her mother, Felicia Banks , when she was born and would have only supervised visits with and her biological father, Thomas Cross, for the next year and a half.  At that point, the biological parent’s rights were terminated and Tiffany went to live in a new foster family.

It was in the household of William and Bonnie Pattinson that the toddler would die from what  appeared initially to be natural causes.  Further investigation, however, showed that Tiffany died of asphyxiation caused by blunt force trauma.  Additionally, upon arrival at the hospital,  Tiffany’s body showed evidence of bruising that was not the result of any resuscitation measures performed on her.  Although the details of exactly what happened to Tiffany are sketchy, what was determined was enough to cause Bonnie Pattinson, 31, to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

Tiffany’s biological family was in court when Pattinson was sentenced to nine years in prison, and is often the case, the family of the victim was not satisfied that justice was served.

“I never want you around kids again,” said Bonnie Edwards, Tiffany’s birth aunt. “You are a very evil person, and I really hope you die in jail.”

Tiffany’s birth grandmother, Loretta Banks, agreed, saying they don’t understand how anyone could have hurt the young child.

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Tags: Tiffany Sue Banks Cross

When six year-old Stormy’s father sent her on an errand, no one ever guessed that his request was the last one any would make of her.

What Richard D. Peters, 42, asked his daughter to do was to retrieve was his 45 Colt Double Eagle .  At least that was one story.  According to , Stormy’s mother, Krystina, it was she who went upstairs to the nightstand in the master bedroom and brought back the pistol.  Despite the confusion of  how the gun got into the hands of Peters, what happened next is crystal clear.

Grasping to explain what happened, Peters said he had unloaded the weapon’s magazine but that somehow the gun fired, police said. He told a detective that he “must have” pulled the trigger.

The 6-year-old was knocked to the ground. She instantly turned blue, according to court documents.

About 20 minutes after the shooting, major crimes detectives with the Sheriff’s Office went to Peters’ home and arrested him.

In an interview with a detective, Peters said he had been drinking “double vodkas” while he and his wife were cleaning guns.

Peters, who has a concealed-weapons permit, said he didn’t notice whether the hammer was cocked when the gun was fired. He told police that the gun has a double action, and had a “hair trigger,” according to court documents.

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Stormy was transported to a local hospital following the shooting and later airlifted to Children’s Hospital in Seattle where she died the next day from her wound.

Police removed several guns from the residence including the one that killed Stormy and her eight and three year-old siblings were also taken into protective custody.

Originally charged with manslaughter, prosecutors later upgraded the charge against  Peters to murder.  Prosecutors alleged that a drunk Peters intentionally pointed what he thought was an unloaded gun at the girl  in an attempt to scare Stormy.  In his trial that ended recently, a jury found him guilty of the lesser charge, first degree-manslaughter, and he faces up to 13 years in prison.

Despite Peter’s lawful license to carry a gun, there is evidence to suggest that he was careless on more than one occasion with firearms.  Following Halloween, he was at a shooting event where pumpkins become a three dimensional target where he accidentally fired a shot gun which he thought to be unloaded.

In the end, alcohol and guns are a formula for disaster, especially more so in this case when the victim was an innocent child remembered for her sweet disposition.

Shawna Feiock said she has known the family for about five years and lives just across the street. She said the girl was happy and outgoing.”She’s just the sweetest little thing. Just precious; always wanted to help and talk and be available to help get the mail,” Feiock said.

Tags: Stormy Peters