What Do Joaquin Rams And Russel Morris Have In Common?

Slow investigations, multiple deaths, judicial harassment of victims and family members of victims, and perpetrators....whoever they may be....are left to repeat their crimes and continue to prey on others. That seems par for the course when a crime victim is too young to testify on his own behalf. A new angry troll has discovered this site, and has made his presence known because he did not like what I wrote about the untimely death of little Caleb Stewart, the baby who died in the home daycare of Tara Johnson, near Topeka, Kansas, this past February. Caleb was dropped off for daycare one morning, when Tara Johnson didn't feel like  providing daycare. She left Caleb with a male "friend" of hers, Russel Morris, after Caleb's mother went to work. Over the course of the day, and after conflictingly related events which have not been properly investigated, Caleb died. His parents have yet to hear the explanation. Chad Taylor, prosecutor of Topeka, Kansas, is not interested in the case. Caleb's mother works to provide for her family and needs daycare in order to work every day, and that puts her in a class that is obviously is not the type a Kansas prosecutor would even worry about. Right, Johnson-McNish? This case seems to compare to the Northern Virginia case of Joaquin Rams, who has been charged in the drowning death of his infant son, Prince.

Before I continue musing out loud about the two cases, let me just say that Joaquin Rams has not been found guilty, and Russel Morris has not been charged with anything and is not a suspect. The only reason he attracted my attention was his angry dialogue on my site, and his outrageous demeanor toward a mother who just lost her child.

Caleb's case already reminded me a bit of the case against Joaquin Rams in Northern Virginia, where
he awaits trial for the drowning death of his fifteen month old son, Prince. Prince's mom, Hera Mcleod, begged Judge Michael Algeo, of Montgomery County, Maryland, to keep Joaquin's visits with Prince supervised. Algeo didn't care. In fact, he demonized Hera. Joaquin lied about everything from his intentions to his financial situation. Prince mysteriously ended up drowning on the third unsupervised visit. Because Prince did not die immediately, but died later on, in a hospital, Joaquin got away with smoke-screening all the facts and circumstances and blaming Hera; creating as much confusion as possible in the hospital. He did not get charged with murder immediately, and it took over two months for Hera to even get a complete report from the medical examiner. The other day, when I heard that there was no actual cause of death reported by the medical examiner in Caleb's death, I was not surprised. But I was surprised to hear about another detail that has not been publicized: the boyfriend of Caleb's daycare provider, Russel Morris, had a death in his family the very day before little Caleb died. His former wife died, "mysteriously". Undetermined causes. No one thinks this warrants further investigation, and when the mother of Joaquin Rams's oldest son, (Prince's older brother) Shawn Mason, died in March of 2003, her death was not initially connected to Rams. His own mother's 2008 death was ruled a suicide. After Prince died, it took the medical examiner at least two months to rule on a cause of death and also determine that the death was an homicide, but after law enforcement determined that Rams had bought insurance on all three of the victims, the Commonwealth of Virginia took a closer look at the three deaths. Joaquin has now been formally charged in Shawn Mason's death, and in Prince Mcleod Rams's death, and awaits trial behind bars. What an unusual parallel!

Another trait these two men have in common is the use of bullying tactics and intimidation against family members of victims. Both men were obviously witnesses in the subsequent cases, and the family members initially only wanted answers. When Joaquin refused, Hera persisted. He not only lied about his son's cause of death, (a possible reason the medical examiner kept quiet) but trolled Hera on the internet, almost to the point of harassment, in an attempt to dissuade others from believing her or from encouraging her to seek justice for Prince, and in a pathetic attempt to make her feel as badly as possible. Russel Morris, has treated Misty Durham, Caleb's mother, in much the same way. He not only acts in a trollish manner online, but has appeared on television, specifically the Steve Wilkos show, forcefully trying his best to intimidate Misty and stop her from any further efforts to determine why her son died. He is also on a campaign to blurt out anything he can remember about Misty's past, in an ongoing effort to dissuade the general public from caring about what happened to Caleb. It's a little like what Joaquin Rams did to Hera Mcloed. Bullies often do this to keep their victims from snitching on them. This behavior is curious in Russel Morris's case, however; why is it so important to him that Misty hurry up and find closure and move on with her life? And why is he so ready to disparage Misty? Most of us do not express sympathy for grieving mothers by intimidating them or insulting them.