Why was this guy even out????

[LuvBigRip]

CINCINNATI -- A convicted sex offender accused of killing a 13-year-old girl is being held on $5.3 million bond.

Sunday, the family of Esme Kenney confirmed that police had found her body after a search that ran into the early morning.

A family member released a statement saying, "Our hearts are broken by this tragic end to a wonderful young spirit. We would like to thank everyone for their support, and ask that donations be made in Esme Kenney’s name to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children."

Detectives arrested and charged Anthony Kirkland, 40, in connection with Kenney’s death. In court Monday, Kirkland pleaded not guilty.

News 5 has learned that Kirkland was wanted by police and had an open warrant in relation to a March 1 stabbing case in Avondale.

Police records also show that Kirkland is a Tier 1 sex offender. He was convicted of importuning in 2007 and sentenced to one year in prison.

Kirkland was also being sought for a March 5 incident where he threatened to kill an ex-girlfriend and her 3-year-old son. He was charged with abduction, domestic violence, aggravated menacing and violation of a protection order.

Winton Hills police said they located Kenney's body at about 3:30 a.m. in a wooded area near the 5900 block of Winton Road.

Kenney was last seen at about 3:45 p.m. Saturday jogging along Winton Ridge Lane.

Northbound Winton Road was closed between Dutch Colony Drive and North Bend Road as police conducted an investigation. Winton Ridge Lane was also closed between Dutch Colony and Winton Road.

Officers said they didn’t believe the girl was in any danger until they found Kirkland near the search area along Winton Road.

"Once we discovered this person of interest, we immediately went to a critical missing, and that's when we initiated the Amber Alert process," Lt. Mark Briede said.

Crime scene investigators are continuing to collect evidence to piece together what happened the afternoon Kenney disappeared.

Part of the reason the evidence collection is taking so long is because the crime scene with which they're dealing is about 30 yards off the road in thick underbrush.

Kenney was enrolled as a seventh-grader at the School for the Creative and Performing Arts. She was a dual major in vocal and instrumental music. She performed in the choir and was a cellist in the junior high orchestra.

Administrators said that they are devastated by the news. Counselors were on hand at the school Monday morning.

The district had also decided to delay testing for the Ohio Graduation Test, but found that it could not do that.

The principal at SCPA said that students who feel unable to take the test due to their grief will be given a waiver.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 513-569-8500.

http://www.wlwt.com/cnn-news/18879648/detail.html

[cabby92]

He was out because out legal system is so concerned with not violating the rights of criminals that they put innocent people in danger.

[LuvBigRip]

CINCINNATI — A registered sex offender pleaded not guilty Monday to a murder charge in the death of a 13-year-old Ohio girl and was ordered held on a $5.3 million bond.

Esme Kenney's body was found about 3:30 a.m. Sunday morning in a wooded area about a block from her home. Police say Kenney left her home Saturday afternoon to go jogging around a nearby reservoir.

Anthony Kirkland, 40, of Cincinnati, was arrested Sunday after police found him in nearby woods. Police searched for hours before finding Kenney's body.

Kirkland was being held in the Hamilton County jail. A message seeking comment from his attorney, John Keller, was left at Keller's office Monday.

Kenney was in the seventh grade at Cincinnati's School for Creative and Performing Arts, majoring in vocal and instrumental music. Grief counselors were at the school Monday, and many students and staff wore pink and red ribbons to honor Kenney, said Janet Walsh, a spokeswoman for Cincinnati Public Schools.

Students at the school started taking the Ohio Graduation Test on Monday, but anyone who did not feel up to taking the test in the wake of their classmate's death will be allowed to make up the test later, Walsh said.

Police have not released details of Kenney's death. Court records show Kirkland was convicted in March 2008 of soliciting sex from a 13-year-old girl and was jailed until Oct. 20, 2008. He was convicted of two counts of unlawful restraint in 2007.

Since 2005, he has been acquitted of charges of public indecency, inducing panic, endangering children, rape and aggravated burglary.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,506946,00.html

I hope every member of those juries cannot sleep tonight, I hope they are haunted by this little girl.

[dv8grl]

I hope every member of those juries cannot sleep tonight, I hope they are haunted by this little girl.

YUP! I would also bring a civil suit against any lawer, judge, etc.. anyone that took part in his many releaseS from jail.

And why isn't this a hate crime????? If a white man murdered a black girl, the NAACP would swoop right in & demand that it was race related & therefore a hate crime....

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1458/6785198/17706858/357594670.jpg Piece of Sh!t murderer

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1458/6785198/17706858/357594669.jpg Poor Esme... Rest In Peace!


A convicted sex offender, who now stands accused of a teen girl's murder, apparently spent time in prison for setting a deadly fire. Anthony Kirkland is held on five million dollars bond in the weekend death of 13 year old Esme Kenney.

Kenney died of strangulation. Local 12 has also learned Kirkland was convicted in October of 1987 of aggravated arson and voluntary manslaughter for a fire in which a woman died.


Kenney went jogging near her home Saturday afternoon. Family members say this is something she did often and that Kenney ran a particular route which took about a half an hour. They reported her missing when she did not return home.

Cincinnati Police units spotted 40 year old Anthony Kirkland in the area where Kenney disappeared around midnight Sunday. He was questioned, and that's when K9 units and helicopters were sent out to search the wooded reservoir off Winton Road, between Dutch Colony Drive and North Bend Road in Winton Hills. Kenney's body was found around 3 a.m. Sunday. Later in the day, 40 year old Anthony Kirkland was charged in Kenney's death.

Kirkland is a convicted sex offender who made it onto the Local 12 Wheel of Justice last week because he was wanted in connection with an aggravated burglary where he allegedly stabbed a man with a scissors.

Just this past Thursday, Kirkland allegedly jumped into woman's car and threatened her and three year old son with steak knife. He was also accused of failing to register his address as a sex offender. Kirkland was convicted in 2007 after trying to force a 13 year old girl to have sex. That same year, he was convicted of holding a grill fork to his 18 month old son's neck.

Kirkland got out of jail just a couple of months ago.

The Hamilton County Coroner has not yet released an exact cause of death. Police tell Local 12 there were obvious signs of trauma on the girl's body.

Kenney's family released a statement which reads, "Our hearts are broken by this tragic end to a wonderful young spirit. We would like to thank everyone for their support." Kenney was an instrumental and voice student at the School for the Creative and Performing Arts. Her classmates plan to wear her favorite colors, pink and red, to school today.

[LuvBigRip]

CINCINNATI -- City officials demanded the closure of a halfway house Tuesday after a former inmate was accused in the strangulation death of 13-year-old Esme Kenney.

Anthony Kirkland remains held on $5 million bond on murder and seven other charges in connection with the Winton Wood teen's death and three other crimes over a 10-day period.

The convicted killer and sex offender was evicted Feb. 27 from Pogue Rehabilitation Center after he fought with another inmate there, and city officials said his parole officer was not notified until three days afterward.

City Council members asked the state to shut down the Over-The-Rhine halfway house, which is operated by Volunteers of America, and launch an investigation into its operations, policies and procedures.

"Why was (Kirkland) expelled from the facility without immediately being placed into the custody of the Department of Corrections?" council members asked in a letter sent to Gov. Ted Strickland. "Who else is being 'treated' at the Pogue facility, where are they from and what were their crimes?"

Kirkland served 16 years in prison on aggravated arson and voluntary manslaughter in the 1987 slaying of Leola Douglass, and police suspect him in at least two other similar crimes.

While on parole for that slaying, Kirkland was arrested in 2007 after police said he solicited sex from a 13-year-old girl and was then sent to the Pogue facility on West McMicken Avenue after serving less than a year in prison on convictions for two counts of unlawful restraint.

"This story is tragic any way you cut it. It's particularly tragic because it could have been easily prevented,” Councilman Christ Bortz said.

After his expulsion from the halfway house, police said Kirkland broke into a man's home and stabbed him repeatedly with scissors and threatened the mother of his child with a knife.

“Like I said, ‘He was in a rage. Like he was out of his mind,’" stabbing victim Frederick Hughes said.

Officials said state guidelines should have prohibited the rehabilitation facility from accepting a person convicted of a violent sex crime or an arson that resulted in bodily harm.

"Why was this serial killer entrusted to the custody of Volunteers of America in violation of their own program guidelines?" Council members asked.

City officials also asked Strickland to limit the number of non-resident sex offenders the city had to accept for rehabilitation and to ensure that violent sex offenders serve longer sentences.

The governor's office has not yet issued a response to the letter, which was dated March 10.

Police arrested Kirkland near a park where Kenney's family reported her missing, and officers discovered her body nearby, burned and hidden in some underbrush.

Investigators said they found evidence of an attempted sexual assault and that the girl had been strangled with a rope or cloth

http://www.wlwt.com/cnn-news/18900155/detail.html

[SurferGirl]

I hope he never gets out of prison this time.
Why didn't the half way house have him arrested when he turned violent while there. I think they fail to meet their responsibility and unfortunately an innocent young girl was murdered. He should also be charged with a hate crime.