Man admits strangling 4 y.o.neighbor girl to death,in NY
Joe1orbit
Hello,
Over in New York, 25 year old Mark Christie, a former security guard, has
pleaded guilty to murdering a four year old girl who lived only 100 yards from
his house. Mark was arrested in 1996, two YEARS after the little girl was
murdered, after he apparently confessed to his WIFE that he had indeed
slaughtered four year old Kali Ann Poulton. His wife then called police. Once
police arrived, Mark retracted his confession, but it was too late. Police
began an investigation and charged him with the murder.
Mark had only been married to his wife for three weeks when he proclaimed
that he was child murderer to her. Bad move, Mark. Very bad tactical move! Ya
just can't trust people. You can't trust ANY human being on planet earth with
facts that can be used against you criminally. Mark made a HUGE tactical error
here, and it appears VERY likely that he would NEVER have been arrested in the
case, if only he had kept his big, fat, mouth SHUT!
Mark has now pled guilty, and faces 25 years to Life at sentencing in a few
weeks. Because he was NOT the daddy or mommy of the child he killed, I would
suspect that he will receive a rather harsh sentence, of 50+ years.
Mark tells us that on May 23, 1994, little Kali Ann was riding her bicycle
through the neighborhood, and stopped outside of Mark's house, located only
100 yards from her own house. A short while later, he heard Kali Ann's mommy
calling out for her to come back home. At that point Mark says that he
"panicked", and strangled the little girl to death with his bare hands. He
explained in court that he was afraid that the mommy would be angry at him if
she found out that her 4 year old daughter had been inside his house, and
that's why he killed her. There is no evidence that he sexually molested or
assaulted her in any way, at least not according to this wire report, and a
few others I've read on this case.
After killing her, Mark took the girl's body to a factory where he worked,
and hid it there for a few days, before disposing of it in a more secure
location. He also took apart the bicycle that Kali Ann was riding on, broke it
into little pieces, and disposed of them, apparently driving right past police
roadblocks that had been set up in the area to try and catch the killer of
this 4 year old girl.
Anyway, the lesson to be learned for the criminally inclined is, as usual:
LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS! And the lesson for law enforcement is that in child
killing cases, the killer is sometimes NOT a "drifter" or a person who
carefully plotted the crime from a distance, but sometimes he lives right near
the victim, as was the case with Mark. Still, police MUST respect the
constitution and the laws concerning unreasonable search & seizure. There is
NO justification for police to search the HOMES of people who live right next
to or near the home from which a child has been kidnapped, unless there is
GENUINE PHYSICAL evidence or STRONG circumstancial evidence suggesting a
REASON why the neighbor MIGHT be a legitimate suspect. And that is how it
SHOULD be.
Take care, JOE
The following appears courtesy of today's Associated Press news wire:
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) - A former security guard pleaded guilty today to
strangling a 4-year-old neighbor girl who vanished while riding her tricycle
outside her home.
Mark Christie, 25, pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder and will
be sentenced Oct. 30 to 25 years to life in prison. He was arrested in August
1996 after confessing to his new bride about the killing more than two years
earlier. He led police to the body.
Kali Ann Poulton lived about 100 yards from Christie's home among a cluster of
town houses at the end of a road in Pittsford, a Rochester suburb. Christie
said she cycled over to his house the evening of May 23, 1994.
A short time later, ``I heard her mother calling, I panicked and I strangled
her with my hands,'' he told a judge in state Supreme Court, where jury
selection in his trial was in its eighth day.
Weeks before the killing, Kali had befriended Christie's 1-year-old son, Alex,
and Christie had made disquieting remarks to Kali's mother, Judy Gifford,
about the girl's good looks. Christie said that when he heard the mother
calling that night, he thought she would be angry that the girl was at his
house.
Police say Christie, who took part in a neighborhood search for the missing
girl, submerged the body in a water tank at a Rochester factory where he
worked as a security guard. Over the next few days, he smuggled Kali's
pink-and-white Big Wheel in small pieces past police roadblocks.
Nearly 27 months later, Christie blurted a confession during a quarrel with his
wife of three weeks, police said.
``I think Mark is a coward,'' Mrs. Gifford told reporters today. ``He could
have pleaded guilty a long time ago.''
She added, ``This is not a win-lose situation. We all lost. We will never get her back.''
AP-NY-10-15-97