CT Stripper Murder (triggering)

[oneangrygirl]

Man Charged In Dancer's Death
Ellington Businessman Faces Murder, Evidence Tampering Charges
May 16, 2007
By DAN UHLINGER, Courant Staff Writer

An Ellington businessman suspected of killing a strip club dancer and trying to cover it up by cremating her body was arrested Tuesday at Bradley International Airport with his passport, more than $10,000 in cash and foreign currency and his toothbrush.

East Hartford police charged Kenneth J. Otto Sr., 56, of 21 Windmill Road, with one count of murder and two counts of tampering with evidence in connection with the killing of Shamaia Smith, 22, of East Hartford, who worked at Kahoots, a strip club in Vernon.

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Officer Hugo Benettieri, police spokesman, said investigators who were following Otto took him into custody after learning that a Superior Court judge had just signed a warrant for his arrest.

Benettieri would not comment on why Otto was at the airport.

"For the record, when he was booked he had over $10,000 in cash and foreign currency, his passport, toiletries, including his toothbrush, and several pill bottles containing medicine," Benettieri said.

Richard Brown, a lawyer for Otto, said Otto knew he was being followed by police and went to the airport to pick up a business associate for a meeting later in the day in Middletown.

"He had no large amounts of money with him, knew police were following him and had no airline ticket," Brown said. "He had ample time to flee [before Tuesday], if he wanted to."

Brown said he would ask for Otto's release at his arraignment today in Superior Court in Manchester.

Brown said Otto, whom he described as a successful engineer and family man with no reason to harm anyone, would enter a not-guilty plea and seek a jury trial.

Otto is the eastern district manager for Bodycote Thermal Processing, a global company that provides metallurgical services to aerospace, automotive and other industries. Otto has an office at a company plant in South Windsor.

Police said Otto killed Smith, of 35 Indian Hill Road, East Hartford, and then tried to cremate her body on a 75-acre wooded tract he owns on Route 190, also known as Chestnut Hill Road, in Stafford. The property has been used for hunting.

Town police, assisted by state police, searched the tract for four days in mid-April and said they found Smith's remains and gun shell casings in a fire pit. The remains included teeth, her left foot and bone fragments from her legs, arms, back, pelvis and skull, police said.

DNA tests on the remains confirmed that they were those of Smith, Benettieri said Tuesday. The DNA tests were concluded Monday and given to investigators.

Benettieri said the investigation of Smith's killing is continuing and police have not determined a motive.

Otto, the only suspect in the killing, and Smith had a "dating relationship," characterized by a sharing of telephone numbers and an occasional rendezvous that began in February, police said.

Police began searching for Smith March 15, the day after she failed to show up for work at Kahoots, where Otto was a customer.

In their investigation, police checked Smith's cellphone and found several calls made to Otto. Investigators then interviewed Otto.

Police said Otto was the last person to see Smith before she disappeared. He told police he drove her to another Kahoots strip club in East Hartford on March 14. Smith's co-workers at Kahoots in Vernon said she never showed up for work that day.

Police said Otto told them that after he drove Smith to the East Hartford Kahoots he watched her enter the club.

But police said Otto was lying because they studied footage from a hidden surveillance camera at the club and Smith was not seen on the recording. Police also interviewed employees at the club and no one had seen Smith, Benettieri said.

According to police, Smith had visited Otto's Stafford property where he had a camper trailer with a kitchen and bedroom. Police searched the property with Otto's consent the first week of April, but Otto grew nervous and revoked his consent.

Police later obtained a search warrant and found that the camper trailer was set on fire. Police said Smith's remains also were found at the time and her blood was on a mop.

Otto gave Smith money, including $500 because she said she needed it to obtain her high school diploma, police said. Smith also asked for $1,000 to buy a car, but it was not known whether she received the money.

During the investigation, Otto, a collector of guns, turned over 27 firearms - only one was registered - to investigators, police said.

[elfeminista]

OAG- i am thinking about your post after having just read this on Jill Brennerman's pro-prostitution blog.

"Sex work is work, not "harm": Sex work (itself) is not inherently harmful. The reasons why people engage in sex work vary widely, as do the reasons why people chose a variety of other jobs. Many sex worker health and rights organizations incorporate a harm reduction framework when they address the needs of sex workers who use drugs. Other sex worker health and rights organizations have a less comfortable relationship with a harm reduction because "harm" is sometimes defined as sex work or sex workers (themselves). For sex worker rights advocates, the "harm" associated with sex work results from repressive environments in which sex work is not recognized as work and sex workers lack basic human rights and access to appropriate health services."

In other words, "guns don't kill people bullets fired from guns kill people'

Funny thing.... Otto was a big gun collector, too.
94% of gun deaths are the result of guns fired by males.Shamaia Smith was killed by Otto with a gun.

"Sex work itself is not (inherently) harmful",
Jill Brennerman writes. That would probably be true
if there were no MEN involved.

[manxome]

"He had no large amounts of money with him, knew police were following him and had no airline ticket," (Otto's lawyer Richard) Brown said. "He had ample time to flee [before Tuesday], if he wanted to."

'Scuse me.

So the fuck what?! So, if he knew they were following him and coulda fled sooner if he wanted to, why, it's just like how men know illegal guns and rape and murder are wrong therefore they never, ever... oh, wait.

Brown said Otto, whom he described as a successful engineer and family man with no reason to harm anyone, would enter a not-guilty plea and seek a jury trial.

Y'know, nothing says "not guilty" like knowing you're being investigated (because I never recall being investigated beyond a govt security clearance check, I therefore know I could be guilty of just about anything... except govt security breaches!), like being "successful" at a career (because we all know being poor is a crime in itself), like having a wife and kids (because single and/or childfree persons are assumed to hate people and therefore commit all crimes against other persons), and therefore, of course, he has no reason to harm anyone, never ever nuh-uh.

And really, all I was gonna do was go off on how "no reason" makes me go off, and I haven't even gotten that far yet.

"No reason". This whole thing, with it's neat "no reason" summarization, says loads about his guilt. No "he has an alibi" or anything relevant like that! Just "no reason", as if there ever is any "reason" (justification) to rape and maim and kill another human being. Of course there's no justification, but men still do it! So GAWD, can we drop this shit already and stop using "no reason" as some kind of dumbass defense? There is no defense!



manxome,
with apologies for the overuse of style tags