5 children, woman found dead in Fla. apartment

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By CHRISTINE ARMARIO, Associated Press Writer Christine Armario, Associated Press Writer – 17 mins ago

NAPLES, Fla. – The husband of a woman found dead in a Florida apartment along with her five young children boarded a flight for Haiti, and police said Sunday the couple had a history of domestic violence calls to their homes over the past decade.

Mesac Damas, 33, who has family in Haiti, left Miami International Airport on Friday, said Collier County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Michelle Batten. Sheriff's officials said they want to talk to Damas, who is a person of interest. They were not calling him a suspect.

The victims found Saturday were Guerline Damas, 32, and her children: Michzach, 9; Marven, 6; Maven, 5; Megan, 3; and 11-month-old Morgan. Batten would not say how they died.

Family members contacted authorities Friday saying they hadn't heard from the mother. A deputy went to the home and knocked on the front door, but got no answer, said Capt. Chris Roberts of the sheriff's special investigations division.

He did not look through any of the apartment's windows.

"With the information the deputy had, I think what he did was reasonable," Roberts said.

A missing person report was filed Saturday, and the sheriff's office later entered the home in a gated community in Naples in southwest Florida and found the bodies, Batten said.

"In no uncertain terms, this is the most horrific and violent event this community has ever experienced," Sheriff Kevin Rambosk said.

Roberts said the couple had been married two years but together for about 10. Police had been called a handful of times to their homes since 2000 for domestic disturbances, he said.

Damas on Thursday night left Miller's Ale House in Naples, where he worked as a cook. His car was found at the airport and investigators were checking it for evidence.

Roberts said the children attended school on Thursday but were absent Friday. Their mother works at a local Publix supermarket and did not show up on Friday either.

The sheriff's office has declined to release details of how the six were killed.

The man's father, Jean Damas Sr., told the Naples Daily News that his son had called his brother from Haiti. Roberts said local investigators were working with U.S. agencies that can assist them in Haiti. Any extradition would take time, Roberts said.

Damas Sr. also said his son and his wife have had domestic problems. A phone message left Sunday by The Associated Press for Damas Sr. was not immediately returned.

Collier County court records show Mesac Damas has prior charges for domestic violence against his wife. Roberts said that in January, Damas pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor battery charge against his wife.

Haitian police spokesman Frantz Lerebours could not immediately be reached for comment. A message was also left with the FBI.

Neighbors said they often saw the three older children at the bus stop in the morning. The oldest was protective of his two younger siblings, warning them to stay out of the street. They could also be seen playing in their yard and saying hello to neighbors in the community landscaped with palm trees and filled with light colored town homes, many of which have screened patios in the back.

Neighbor Vebi Shuaipi said the family was very nice and friendly.

He said he never saw the couple fighting, although the police were at their house all week because they had been yelling.

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Associated Press Writer Suzette Laboy contributed to this report from Miami.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090920/ap_on_re_us/us_family_slain_florida

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Man wanted in Florida slayings detained in Haiti
By JONATHAN M. KATZ, Associated Press Writer Jonathan M. Katz, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 21 mins ago

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Haitian police on Monday detained a man wanted for questioning in the Florida slaying of his wife and their five children, including an 11-month-old infant. Mesac Damas, wearing a blue suit over a white T-shirt, was seen standing in the back room of a police station near the Port-au-Prince airport with his hands restrained behind his back by plastic ties.

Two officers confirmed it was Damas. They spoke on condition of anonymity because his capture had not been publicly announced.

Damas, 33, boarded a flight to Haiti from Miami on Friday, one day before the bodies of his wife and their children, ages 9 years to 11 months, were found slain inside their apartment in Naples, Florida, according to police.

Georges Huguens Dieu, a brother of the slain woman, came to the police station with photographs of his sister after hearing that Damas was in custody.

Damas was captured Monday morning by police outside a hotel in Port-au-Prince, the Caribbean nation's capital, according to several officers.

Investigators with the Collier County Sheriff's Office in southwest Florida said they had been working with the FBI to locate Damas, who is a person of interest in the slayings.

The victims were identified as Guerline Damas, 32, and her children: Michzach, 9; Marven, 6; Maven, 5; Megan, 3; and 11-month-old Morgan. Police would not say how they died.

Family members in Florida say they had urged Guerline Damas, a Haitian immigrant, to leave her husband because he was violent. Mackindy Dieu told The Associated Press that Mesac Damas was physically and verbally abusive toward his sister, choking her once as she was holding their infant.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090921/ap_on_re_us/us_family_slain_florida

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Fla. mom slain with her 5 children endured abuse
By CHRISTINE ARMARIO and JONATHAN M. KATZ, Associated Press Writers Christine Armario And Jonathan M. Katz, Associated Press Writers – 1 hr 47 mins ago

TAMPA, Fla. – A Florida woman slain along with her five children endured regular abuse from her husband but seemed overwhelmed by trying to raise the kids herself and wanted him around as a father figure, Department of Children and Families records show.

Police in Haiti on Monday detained Mesac Damas, wanted for questioning in the slayings of his wife, Guerline Damas, and the couple's three boys and two girls in their Naples, Fla., apartment. A relative said detectives told them their throats had been slit.

Collier County Sheriff's deputies have called Mesac Damas a person of interest in the slayings. The 33-year-old boarded a flight to Haiti from Miami International Airport on Friday, a day before police found the bodies.

Mesac Damas told The Associated Press at the police station where he was being held in Port-au-Prince that he had planned to surrender and that he returned to his native Caribbean nation "to say goodbye to my family."

"I was going to turn myself in. You see I've got my suit on and everything," Demas said as police led him from a backroom where he was interrogated to a jail cell.

He did not respond when asked if he killed his wife.

Just days before he left the country, a Department of Children and Families caseworker assigned to the family had made an unannounced visit to the apartment and noted in a report that the children, ages 11 months to 9 years, seemed healthy and safe.

Mesac Damas was home and dinner was cooked. The toddler was wearing a sundress and playing with her doll while the older daughter, dressed in pink, asked the caseworker if she had brought her a pink book bag, because she was going to school next year. The boys were in T-shirts and shorts and the worker didn't see any bruises or marks.

Mesac Damas was due to finish a court-ordered battery intervention course in November.

"There is no safety concern," the file reads. "Children are doing fine."

But relatives of Guerline Damas, 32, said her husband was a "loose cannon" who would take away his wife's cell phone and be rude to her family.

"You'd never know what he'd do," said her younger brother, Mackindy Dieu, 23, who lived with the couple several years ago.

Dieu said his sister wasn't open about the details of her personal life and her family didn't know she was being abused until January, when Mesac Damas was arrested and charged with misdemeanor battery after he hit his wife as she held their baby daughter in her arms.

According to DCF records, he choked her and ripped her shirt off.

"As this is occurring, the child slipped out of the mother's hand and fell to the floor," the report states.

It was one of a handful of times that sheriff's deputies had been called about domestic disputes between the couple. But this one was different: Mesac Damas was taken into custody and a restraining order filed.

The other children had been outside playing and were terrified by what had happened, a caseworker noted. In interviews, two of the older boys described seeing their parents fight regularly. The oldest, 9-year-old Michzach, told the caseworker that he would try to take all the children in a bedroom when the abuse happened.

"If he tries to call 911, dad hits him on the hand or in the head," the file noted.

When it was especially bad, Guerline Damas would sleep in her car. She hadn't had an easy life — she immigrated to Florida from Haiti as a teenager after her father was murdered in their home. She went to high school and later found work in a Publix supermarket.

"What are you doing with this guy?" Dieu said the family told her when they learned about the abuse. "You need to leave."

The couple separated — for two months. Guerline Damas began counseling at a shelter for abused women. A caseworker noted she seemed overwhelmed at the thought of raising five children by herself. She started pushing for the restraining order to be lifted.

"She believes that a father should be with his children and she has faith in him, that he will not repeat domestic violence against his wife," records from a visit in late March state.

Mesac Damas pleaded no contest to the battery charge and was given 12 months probation and ordered to take parenting classes and enroll in a battery intervention program. Around April, he moved back in.

The family seemed to make progress. Mesac Damas said he was learning to control his anger and talk with the children more. The children said they had missed their father.

The caseworker described observing a "loving relationship" between the father and children.

"This clinician believes that this family will be a solid family unit once again," the file states.

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Associated Press writer Jonathan M. Katz reported from Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090922/ap_on_re_us/us_family_slain_florida

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Fla. man charged in slayings of wife, 5 kids
By CHRISTINE ARMARIO, Associated Press Writer Christine Armario, Associated Press Writer – 39 mins ago

TAMPA, Fla. – A southwest Florida man has been charged with six counts of first-degree murder in the slayings of his wife and five children, authorities said Tuesday.

Mesac Damas was being detained in his native Haiti and was turned over to U.S. custody, Haiti judiciary police director Frantz Termilus told The Associated Press. The station where he was being held is adjacent to Port-au-Prince's international airport, but a spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince declined comment on when he might be taken to the U.S.

The Collier County Sheriff's Office said Damas has been ordered held without bond upon his return. Florida investigators obtained a warrant for his arrest on the murder charges and were traveling to the Caribbean nation to interview him. A police spokeswoman said late Tuesday that no information was available on his status.

As Damas was being led out of jail in Haiti, he told a reporter from the Naples Daily News that he killed his family.

"I am going to be buried next to my family," Damas said as he was being led out of jail in Haiti. "Yes, I killed them."

On Monday, he told the AP that he had returned to say goodbye to his family, but did not respond when asked if he killed his wife.

The 33-year-old boarded a flight from Miami International Airport to Haiti on Friday. The following evening, deputies found his wife, Guerline Damas, and their five children slain in a Naples town house.

In an interview at the police station where he was being held in Port-au-Prince, Mesac Damas told The Associated Press that he had planned to surrender and that he returned to Haiti to say goodbye to his family. Damas did not respond when asked if he killed his wife.

He was captured by police outside a hotel in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, and the Florida sheriff's office said its information does not support Damas' contention that he intended to surrender.

"He missed an awful lot of opportunities to turn himself in," Collier County Capt. Chris Roberts said at a press conference in Naples on Tuesday.

Sheriff Kevin Rambosk said his agency has asked Haitian authorities to extradite Damas, and that they have two ways to proceed: through the normal extradition process under a treaty in place between the two countries since 1904, or by deporting Damas, since he is a U.S. citizen.

"We certainly don't know what the Haitian authorities will do," he said.

The family was discovered Saturday after a relative filed a missing persons report. The sheriff's office has not said how Guerline Damas and her children were killed, but a relative said detectives told the family their throats had been slit.

Rambosk said investigators are still awaiting the autopsy results.

Authorities have said there was a history of domestic abuse between Guerline and Mesac Damas, who had been married for two years and together for 10. Mesac Damas was charged with misdemeanor battery in January after he struck Guerline Damas, 32, while she held their youngest child, a baby girl, in her arms.

He pleaded no contest and was given 12 months probation and ordered to attend parenting classes and a battery intervention program. The state Department of Children and Families had been monitoring the family and visited their home just three days before the killings. The caseworker found nothing amiss.

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Associated Press Writer Jonathan M. Katz contributed to this report from Port-Au-Prince, Haiti


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090923/ap_on_re_us/us_family_slain_florida

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Fla. man arraigned in throat slashings of family

NAPLES, Fla. – A Florida man accused of slashing the throats of his wife and five children has pleaded not guilty.

Mesac Damas did not appear in court in Naples on Monday for the brief arraignment on six counts of first-degree murder. A prosecutor said the 33-year-old grill cook had already entered a not-guilty plea.

Damas is charged with killing his 32-year-old wife, Guerline, and their children who ranged in age from 19 months to 9 years old. Their bodies were discovered Sept. 19 in the family's town house.

Authorities say Damas then flew to his native Haiti, where he was eventually arrested.

He admitted to a reporter that he committed the slayings, and he told investigators that "bad spirits" made him do it.

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Information from: Naples Daily News, http://www.naplesnews.com


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091026/ap_on_re_us/fl_family_slain_florida