Volume 54 Issue 3 Article 8

February 2003 Stupidest Crimes in ISU History Ethos Magazine

Bethany Kohoutok Iowa State University

Dustin Kass Iowa State University

Tim Paluch Iowa State University

Sara Tennessen Iowa State University

See next page for additional authors

Follow this and additional works at: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ethos

Recommended Citation Ethos Magazine; Kohoutok, Bethany; Kass, Dustin; Paluch, Tim; Tennessen, Sara; and Kix, Paul (2003) "Stupidest Crimes in ISU History," Ethos: Vol. 2003 , Article 8. Available at: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ethos/vol2003/iss3/8

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Publications at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Ethos by an authorized editor of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Stupidest Crimes in ISU History

Authors Ethos Magazine, Bethany Kohoutok, Dustin Kass, Tim Paluch, Sara Tennessen, and Paul Kix

This article is available in Ethos: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ethos/vol2003/iss3/8 compiled by ethos staff

in isu history

il/ustratio11 by I CARMEN CERRA february 2003 I 11 Kenny Pratt as many gratuitous swear words as we You take your motherf*cking badge off can muster. But this transcript singed and your gun off now and see how After tossing back a few too many even our seasoned ears. Asterisks have tough your punk ass is now. What the brewskies one December day in 1996, been added for your protection.) f*ck, you try to grab me like I'm a ho? ISU star basketball player Kenny Pratt Officer: You want to talk to someone? Man, f*ck you all, man. F*ck you all. hopped behind the wheel (even though Pratt: Why don't you get me out of [Pratt later spits at an officer.] he had a suspended license at the time) here? Take these motherf*cking hand­ Pratt: F*ck you. F*ck you, pussy-ass and collided with another car. The inci­ cuffs off and put me in the ring with bitch, trying to sound like I'm drunk. dent wouldn't even have made this list if your punk ass then since you so tough, F*ck you all, man, can't believe this it had ended there, though. After the you bitch. F*ck you, too! You want shit, telling me I'm drunk, man. F*ck cops showed up, Pratt allegedly some? F*ck you. You know who I am? you all, man. I'm as cold as a harassed them, then kicked one officer F*ck you, you blind-ass nerd. Yeah, I motherf*cker in a flip-flop, and you in the head, knocking his tooth loose. called you a nerd, bitch. telling me I'm drunk. You pussy-ass But the real fun started when Pratt [More epithets ...] sh*t. You old crack-ass bitch. was taken back to the Ames Police Pratt: You take these handcuffs off me, Further investigation revealed that Department. A video monitor caught man- the hotshot forward was already on Pratt swearing and spitting at an officer. Officer: That's fine; that's fine. probation for disorderly conduct stem­ After the tape was released to the press, Pratt: -because I'm not going to be ming from a similar situation that had the Iowa State Daily printed the tran­ motherf*cking cooperative- happened only a month earlier. Pratt script in its entirety. We don't know Officer: That's fine. had cussed and shouted at police, call­ what's funnier - that Pratt actually Pratt: -like you motherf*cking want ing them 'pigs' when they tried to said these things, or that the Daily me to be. remove him from a bar, according to printed them on the front page. What Officer: That's fine. You just sit there Daily reports. follows are a few choice excerpts from for a while. Head basketball coach Tim Floyd Pratt's conversation. (We at ethos have Pratt: ... You're a pussy. You let me obviously took the situation very seri­ never been ones to shy away from using out, you laugh so motherf*cking much. ously. Pratt was suspended for one game. - Bethany Kohoutek

Rusty Sills

Lots of people have collections. Sports cards, dolls, shot glasses, bells, porce­ lain figures, rocks. Rusty Sills collected shoes - women's shoes. Unfortunately for Rusty, one person's collecting is another person's theft. In March of 1999, terror gripped ISU's Schilletter Village apartments as pair after pair of women's shoes disappeared. Police eventually discovered Sills was behind the terror. Turns out he would drive up from Des Moines to steal shoes. Sills claimed he had a foot fetish, and when officials searched his home, they found 185 pairs of women's shoes and 37 single shoes. They also found more than 100 homemade tapes showing women's feet. Sills was charged with two counts of 5th degree theft in connection with the Schilletter Village cases. He was sentenced to five days in jail.

12 I www.ethosrnagazine.com illustrations by I NATHAN THRAIL KILL stupidest cr1mes

Sills didn't wait long to begin expand­ his picture on it. Employees knew they ing his collection again. In August of were being robbed by the ISU basket­ 1999, he was charged with two counts of ball player, Sam Mack. - D.K. burglary and one count of theft after a series of apartment break-ins in West Des Moines. Sills was working as an The Deases brothers apartment building maintenance man and used master or duplicate keys to So you hate your roommate's girl­ enter women's apartments. Sills would friend. She's always over at your place. then steal shoes, as well as undergar­ You fight with her all the time. You just ments and magazines. West Des Moines can't take it anymore. What's the most police confiscated more than 500 pairs logical thing to do? You got it. Choke of women's shoes from his apartment. her to death, then decapitate her. Stuff Sills was sentenced to a ten-year jail the body in a box, and throw the head term and was released earlier this year out your car window. At least that's after serving two years and nine months. what brothers Ruben, 17, and Edward, Sills was previously convicted of bur­ 21 , Deases thought. (Read carefully. glary in Polk County in 1980 and 1983, This story's got more kinks than Pam after a series of incidents involving and Tommy Lee.) women's shoes. - Dustin Kass It was summer, 1989. After a particu­ larly heated argument in their Sheldon Avenue apartment with Jennifer Sam Mack Gardner, who was the girlfriend of their roommate and brother Eustaquio Another fine ISU athlete, the basket­ Deases, the two murdered her. ball team's starting forward Sam Mack, (Eustaquio, 22, a pre-business student ran into trouble in the spring of 1989 at Iowa State, was out of town at the when he and Levin White, a defensive time.) They tried to cram her body in a back for the football team, attempted to cardboard box, but it wouldn't quite fit, rob Burger King. so they chopped off her head to make Mack and White entered BK just room. One of the brothers reportedly before 11 p.m., announced that a rob­ had sex with the corpse. Later that life sentences without parole. Another bery was occurring, and herded employ­ night, they tried to sink the box in a brother, Johnny, who was 15 at the ees into a walk-in freezer. One employ­ nearby pond, where, unbeknownst to time, was the prosecution's star witness ee, however, was able to slip out the them, an off-duty police officer just hap­ in both of his brothers' trials. Turns out drive-thru window and run to the Ames pened to be stargazing. The head they his brothers had done away with police station. threw into a ditch two miles south of Gardner right in front of him. - B.K. So when Mack and White were leav­ Ames. ing the restaurant with their haul, they A few days later a jogger found the were greeted by the police and ordered head. Soon after the police officer Travis Spivey to drop their weapons. White pointed remembered the suspicious splash, con­ his .22-caliber rifle towards officers, nected it to the crime and led investiga­ Travis Spivey might have made this while Mack, carrying a knife, attempted tor's to the woman's body. list just for the time in December 1998 to dash back inside. Both men were Sound like the plot of a B-grade sus­ when he was charged with public intox­ shot and injured by Ames PD. pense flick? It gets better. ication and assault when a boozed-up Botched robberies happen all the At the time of the killing, big brother Spivey, a heralded transfer point guard time, so why does this make the list? Eustaquio was wanted for selling who was sitting out the year to comply Well, even if an employee had not alert­ cocaine in Ames. A few months later, he with eligibility transfer rules, yelled at ed the police, Mack and White would turned himself in, but while he was out and punched a Hardees employee in the not have been able to enjoy their combo on bail, he got busted in Kansas for chin. meals for long. During the course of the speeding. What did they find in his car? Not bad, Travis. Not bad at all. robbery, Mack stood right beside an More cocaine. Unfortunately for him, and fortunately Iowa State Men's Basketball poster with Both Ruben and Edward are serving for those of us who enjoy a good when-

february 2003 I 13 o~-----

Until a week later. The same three buddies were in the computer lab Joseph Viles when the Mystery Masturbator appeared again. This time, one of the His name: Joseph Viles. three first called DPS, then sent an His crime: neglecting ani­ email to a reporter at the Daily who mals. Often. He's been was covering the incident. The Daily charged over 30 times in printed portions of the email in its the last seven years, in fact. next-day story. The student wrote, The catch: He's a zoology " ... he's in here again!! He's about 6 professor. The stupidest [foot]. (I saw him walk in), long side­ part: He was charged most burns and a goatee. I know it's him recently after he left two of because he's got the same ball cap on, his Alaskan malamute dogs and he's gone straight to the porno chained together in his pages and 'pulling it' as I write." 1987 Dodge Colt Vista. In This time DPS questioned the stu­ the parking lot of the Story dent, who was identified as John County Courthouse in Shields, a freshman in liberal arts and Nevada. On an 85-degree sciences. Shields told officers that he July day. While he was was not, in fact, spanking his monkey. busy inside, taking care of Instead, he claimed, he was innocently charges he had incurred looking for the Sports Illustrated swim­ earlier for hitting another suit issue online when he became the of his dogs, Sweetheart. "I victim of all those naughty grown-up never hit the dog," Viles Web sites. You know, the ones that just testified during his trial. "I pop up and you can't seem to get off athletes-go-wild story every now and forced the puppy to submit and, of your screen? DPS charged him with again, the following year Mr. Spivey course, she screamed." In 1999, Viles indecent exposure. - B.K. managed to trump his earlier run-in was barred from keeping animals at with the fry boy. his home. In 2002, he was barred from Flash one month ahead to January, owning or handling animals in the DeAngelo X 1999. Now Coach Larry Eustachy is giv­ state of Iowa. ing this kid, this good, kindhearted kid a - Sara Tennessen DeAnglo Moore, or DeAnglo X as he second chance. A second chance at is known, first allegedly threatened his becoming a man. A second chance to history professor Christie Pope in 1993 become the next great floor general at John Shields with a jihad. The then-freshman was Iowa State. temporarily removed from the class. Then, in a plot twist Stevie Wonder One February evening in 1998, three In October, X and his 23-year old could have seen coming, Travis Spivey friends were working in the computer wife Cassandra Renee Moore stole was again swayed to the dark side, lab at Durham Center when they more than $900,000 worth of cashier's accused of raping two underage female noticed a student sitting in front of checks from Firstar Bank of Ames, runaways from an Ames shelter in his them looking at a Web site titled where the couple worked as janitors. duplex. Oh, Travis. Guess we hardly "Amputees and Midgets" and, from They then went to a Waterloo bank knew ya. what they could tell, fondling himself. and tried to open a business account This time, the athletic department was " ... he clicked on a picture, and both with checks totaling $523,557. Bank less than thrilled and axed him from the hands went under his desk and started said No way, so the Moores bought a team. Spivey pled guilty to statutory rape to move back and forth rapidly," one of $29,000 Chevy Blazer from a Waterloo and was later sentenced to five years pro­ the students later reported. Another of car dealer, using forged money orders. bation for having sex with one of the the students reported it to a DPS offi­ X was brought into custody the next girls. He never played a game with the cer, who couldn't do anything about it day. In 1996, he was sentenced to seven Cyclones, instead being granted another because he hadn't actually seen the guy and a half years in prison, followed by chance, a third chance, at the basketball in action. So the friends left Durham three years supervised release and a mecca that is ... Utah. - Tim Paluch and forgot about it. special assessment of $150.- Paul Kix

14 I www.ethosmagazine.com illustrations by I NATHAN THRAILKILL handgun and ordered to go with him. Johnson turned himself in after read­ Matthew Bergman She was then forced into a car where ing accounts of his crime in the news­ three other men were waiting. Robb said paper. Here was the plan: Matthew the four men took her to a wooded area, His Theta Xi fraternity brother, Bergman, a freshman in pre-architec­ sexually assaulted her, and then released Quincy Jones, was also charged with ture in 1997, would have his friend her. felony criminal mischief and theft. attack a girl Bergman wanted to Department of Public Safety officials Theta Xi has had a history of statue impress. Then, Bergman - da, dada soon saw through Robb's story, though. mishaps. Although no charges were DAAAH - would appear on the scene, Allegedly, the abduction had taken place filed, the fraternity has been held struggle with his buddy, and return the at around 11 a.m. at the bus stop in responsible for the theft of two other chick to safety. front of Gilman Hall. At 11 a.m. on any statues from homes in Ames and Problem was, his buddy shot weekday, there are only a couple hun­ Hamilton County in 1998. Bergman in the shoulder. Bergman dred students within a 50-foot radius of The head has had many adventures said getting shot was never a part of that bus stop. Surprisingly, though, no of its own. It has been stolen four the plan. The buddy - Timothy one could remember seeing a man wav­ times in the last six decades - so Hedden, who went to UNI at the time ing a handgun. often that the university moved the - said it was. They were sentenced to In addition to the outrage that a false original sculpture inside and put a two years probation and fined $750. In sexual assault charge would be levied, $40,000 replica in the original position addition, both guys were required to the identification of the assailants as in 1 991. - S. T. pay for any counseling the chick, Julie four black males angered many. Thanks Rens, then a junior in architecture, to the report's general description, which ••••••••••••••••••• received.- P.K. named the four assailants as "black males, one over 6 feet tall, the others about 6 feet tall," nearly every black Ziyi Dai male on campus fell onto the list of sus­ pects. This was the opening line from the In January of 2002, Robb was sen­ Des Moines Register story last February: tenced to 18 months probation, psychi­ "A former Iowa State University student atric evaluation and 100 hours of com­ who was jailed in December for alleged­ munity service for filing a false report. ly attacking his wife with a knife on At that time, Robb was a student at campus is accused of planning to kill Drake University, but her current where­ her from jail." Ziyi Dai, claimed his plan abouts are unknown.- D.K. to kill his wife from jail to be a fabrica­ tion. Regardless, in September of 2002 attempted murder charges inside and Nick Johnson outside the slammer were combined, and Dai was sentenced to 15 years in He said it himself: "I just made a stu­ prison.- P.K. pid mistake." That was Nick Johnson's apology to Iowa State officials after he was given Katie Robb a $37,000 fine, five-year probation, 200 hours of unpaid community service Most current students are familiar and a bill for the court costs. with the twisted tale of Katie Rob b. In In the fall of 2000, the senior in man­ August of 2001, Robb, then a sophomore agement information systems lopped at Iowa State, said she was kidnapped at off the head of the middle toddler in gunpoint and sexually assaulted by four Christian Petersen's "Ring of Life" black males. Days later, Robb admitted sculpture, in the Mackay Hall entry­ that she had made up everything. way. Five days later, a janitor found the According to Robb, she was head, which had been broken into in approached by a man brandishing a six pieces, in a trash can. ------o-0 stupidest cr1mes february 2003 I 1 S