Woman suspected of fraud kills 4 in eviction dispute

Submitted by mens_issues on Sun, 2014-02-23 17:27

This woman shot and killed 4 people at an Indian tribe headquarters last week after she and her son were evicted from the reservation. Warning: her mug shot is scary. Excerpt:

'CEDARVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Practically everyone in this tiny town in the high desert of northeastern California's Surprise Valley knew Cherie Lash Rhoades.

A leader of the Cedarville Rancheria, she worked in the tribe's gas station and convenience store and wore brightly colored tank tops that showed off her tattoos.

But it is tough to find anyone with a kind word to say about her.

"She bullied her way through life," said Sandra Parriott, a lifelong resident of Cedarville and owner of two downtown markets. "But I would never think she would start blowing people away in a meeting."

Police arrested Rhoades on suspicion that she did just that Thursday in Alturas, leaving four dead and two wounded in a gun and knife attack at a meeting on whether to evict Rhoades from one of the nine little houses on the rancheria.

Eviction from tribal housing is among the most serious punishments for American Indians. Though police have said they are still working on a motive, a nephew who lived with her, Jacob Penn, said she snapped under the pressure of her brother trying to evict her. The brother, Rurik Davis, who lived down the street on the Rancheria, had apparently taken over as tribal chairman and was among the dead.

Investigators had been looking into whether Rhoades took federal grant money meant for the rancheria she once led, a person familiar with the tribe's situation told The Associated Press. The person spoke only on condition of anonymity.

Alturas Police Chief Ken Barnes said they were looking into whether the embezzlement allegations spurred the tribe's efforts to evict Rhoades but they had not established any definitive motive.'

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I am not judging her on her looks as such or her choice of body decorations (i.e., tattoos), etc. It's more her facial expression. When someone has "lost it" for whatever reason and shot 4 ppl to death, they usually have something of a look of disturbance-- at least at the predicament they have landed themselves in. But not her. I don't think she gives a whit abt the ppl she has just murdered. I don't think she cares one iota abt any way she has treated others in life and I am sure she'll do *just fine* behind bars, undoubtedly to continue her pattern of terrorizing others there, too. I hope however she meets a bigger dawg than her and finds out what it's like to be on the losing end of the equation, if only for once in what's left of her pathetic existence, as I think it's quite possible she will get life without parole -- even though she's female. Not even having a vagina is not going to be enough to get this one off the hook, though who knows, stranger (i.e., more outrageous) things have happened. All of her victims may have been male; if that's true, heck, she may only see 1 year per man.

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Submitted by Matt on Mon, 2014-02-24 06:24