Cleophus King.

On March 6, 2008, St. Louis County Counselor Luke Meiners agreed to take Ronald Johnson to the house of Cleophus King -- because Johnson said he needed to do his laundry there. Johnson and King, who were once lovers, had a different plan.

They had plotted to rob Meiners. When they arrived at King's home, a fight broke out and the two men tried to rob Meiners -- who struggled for more than fourteen minutes. He was beaten, stabbed, strangled and cut multiple times before he died.

This is the violent account that the St. Louis circuit attorney's office gives in its announcement that King has officially been sentenced to life in prison without parole -- an end to a very bizarre case in which King's accomplice confessed and testified against his former lover.

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Charles Smith, 28.

As a fifteen-year-old girl walked to her school bus stop, St. Louis resident Charles Smith grabbed her, forced her into his car with a box cutter -- and tried to rape her. She managed to escape half-clothed and flagged down a passing motorist for help.

This is the terrible incident of violence that St. Louis Circuit Attorney describes in her announcement that Smith, 28, has finally been sentenced.

On February 6, 2012, prosecutors say, the girl was walking with headphones on when the man grabbed her from behind. In fighting him off, she suffered scratches bruises and lost a chunk of hair -- and he got away with her cellphone and backpack until cops were able to track him down at his business.

How stiff is his sentence?

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via KTVI interview.

Assault victim.

Jevon Mallory, an eighteen-year-old St. Louis Community College-Meramec student, has been charged in the violent and random attack on a fellow student inside a campus bathroom.

The nineteen-year-old victim is now telling her story of a trip to the restroom last week that turned into a horrible nightmare.

"He was trying to kill me," she said in one interview. "I just started screaming. I was on the floor asking him to please stop."

Check out footage of an interview below and more details on the charges against Mallory.

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Byron Skalisius.

In 2009, Byron Skalisius, a 51-year-old Troy resident, put a date-rape drug into the drink of a former coworker, sexually assaulted her in her home -- and took photos and video of the unconscious woman.

Skalisius was found guilty of those charges last year and yesterday officially earned a nine-year prison sentence for his actions.

"I'm satisfied that our jurors worked through the evidence and returned a guilty verdict that will hopefully provided closure and peace to those who were harmed by this defendant," Madison County State's Attorney Tom Gibbons says in a statement. "This verdict also sends a strong message to the public that anyone who violates an incapacitated person will go to prison."

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Photo: Keegan Hamilton

In 2010 Darran Kelley blamed county officials for abandoning Kinloch.

Two years after its mayor was sentenced for embezzling funds, the fire chief for Kinloch now faces similar allegations.

Darran Kelley, the chief of the Kinloch Fire Protection District, was arrested yesterday and charged with three felony counts of wire fraud, one felony count of federal program theft and one felony count of making false statements.

According to prosecutors, the 47-year-old Kelley siphoned off $140,000 from the city to pay personal expenses and fund his gambling. He also stands accused of keeping his $15,000-a-year job as fire chief a secret from the federal government in order to continue receiving disability payments for a medical injury.

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Christopher Duffy, 22.

Is it safe to buy stuff on Craigslist?

Not if you're responding to the ads of Christopher Duffy, 22, and Devion Russell, 20, who police say twice plotted robberies via St. Louis Craigslist -- luring victims with promises of a used car and then robbing them at gunpoint.

Police have charged the two men in connection with the incident last Wednesday, in which a man was shot in the face when he went to check out a vehicle from Craigslist.

And that was the second armed robbery the two suspects orchestrated last week, police say.

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Rajesh Malhotra, 45.

A Missouri doctor is accused of inappropriately touching a female patient during an examination -- and then sending "sexually related text messages."

And police officials say that their investigation into Rajesh Malhotra, a 45-year-old Sikeston physician reveals that he might have a dozen more victims.

For now, the southeast Missouri doctor is not practicing and is instead in custody, facing charges of sexual assault and sexual misconduct.

And more charges are likely.

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Marcus O'Neal, 28.

Springfield resident Marcus O'Neal's jealousy erupted this month -- allegedly over a Facebook "like" of his girlfriend.

O'Neal, 28, is accused of shutting his windows so neighbors wouldn't hear the screams of his girlfriend -- or the cries of four children forced to watch as he attacked her.

And that is apparently not the worst part of the allegations against O'Neal, who is now facing three counts of domestic assault charges.

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James Gardner

James Arthur Gardner, a 44-year-old St. Louis man who was convicted and imprisoned for sodomizing a seven-year-old boy, has officially been found to be a "sexually violent predator," Attorney General Chris Koster announced yesterday.

That means Gardner will be committed to the Sex Offender Rehabilitation and Treatment Service in Farmington, officials say.

Koster highlights this St. Louis city jury ruling as a model of the criminal justice system keeping violent sexual predators off of the streets.

In part, because this is not Gardner's first horrific offense against a minor -- and his prior victim was even younger.

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Madison County Sheriff's Office

Matthew Barnett

Today in terrible parenting news, we bring you the case of Matthew Barnett, a 24-year-old Granite City father who, police say, badly injured his six-month-old child.

On Friday at around 1:40 a.m, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services alerted the Madison County Sheriff's Office to a child being treated for trauma at a St. Louis-area hospital. The infant had suffered multiple leg fractures and bruising to his body -- and an investigation, officials say, revealed the father was responsible.

Why'd he do it? Apparently the baby was crying.

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