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Jacob or Jakeob McKnight
#1
Jakeob McKnight: His parents reported him missing July 21, 1991, after he failed to return from playing with his brother and two friends at a swimming hole near the family home. Two days later, police found the body of Jakeob near an uprooted tree in the tall grass of the Bear Creek Greenbelt in metro Denver, about a mile from his family's south Lakewood home.
Police investigators targeted John Ramsey "Felix" Chinn immediately after the murder. Chinn reportedly admitted that he spent time with Jakeob and other boys in the greenbelt area, including swimming with them for 45 minutes. Following intense scrutiny of Chinn's background, though, he was never charged with the murder.

The 10-year-old was stabbed more than a dozen times in the attack. Jakeob was going to enter the fifth grade at Bear Creek Elementary. He had a passion for fishing.
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#2
   
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#3
September 10, 2012 news

LITTLETON, Colo. (CBS4) – A suspect in a murder more than 20 years ago is now in jail.

John Ramsey Chinn is accused of sexually assaulting a child.

Chinn was in the news 20 years ago after a murder in Lakewood. He was a suspect in the murder of 10-year-old Jakeob McKnight, whose body was found with stab wounds in a greenbelt in the Bear Creek area.

At the time Chinn was a person of interest but was never charged despite witnesses and friends saying Chinn and McKnight had been seen together the day of his disappearance.

Chinn’s neighbors say he’s been living with his parents in their Littleton home. When CBS4 knocked on the door of that home the residents declined to discuss the situation.

One mother said that she’s kept a closer watch on her kids since she discovered Chinn was living nearby.

“There have just been rumors of possible child molestation, possible murder,” a neighbor of Chinn’s parents said. “It’s a little disturbing.”

Some neighbors of Chinn said they were too frightened to go on camera.

“I’ve never lived that close to a suspect in a cold case murder, and then you go back and you look at that little boy’s face and it breaks your heart,” one woman said.

According to the affidavit from Arapahoe County, Chinn is linked to illegal drugs and child pornography. Detectives said they found diaries in which Chinn allegedly talks about sleeping with young boys as well as photographs of naked young boys. They also found eight videos with possible evidence of sexual exploitation.

Chinn is being held on $50,000 bond at the Arapahoe County Jail.

McKnight’s family has asked for privacy. His parents say they are still grief-stricken over the death of their son.
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#4
   
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#5
Zchick names two suspect in a post on the Internet.

"I would like some help in solving this horrid murder for my family. He was 10 at the time of his murder and was stabbed over 25 times.
There was two suspects, John Ramsey"Felix"Chinn and Tom Judge, Chinn is still a suspect from what I have gathered and Judge has since passed away from H.I.V"
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#6
Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO) January 2, 1998 »


SUSPECT IN BOY'S SLAYING DIES POLICE PLAN TO CONTINUE PROBE INTO 1991 DEATH OF LAKEWOOD 10-YEAR-OLD.(Local)
Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)


Byline: Carla Crowder Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

A man who was once a key suspect in the brutal stabbing death of Jakeob McKnight has died without shedding new light on the 1991 killing.

Tom Judge died a month ago in Philadephia, KCNC-Channel 4 reported Thursday night.

Judge was never charged in the 10-year-old Lakewood boy's murder. But Lakewood police named him and his friend John ``Felix'' Chinn as suspects, and the case has never been closed.

Judge matched the description of a man seen leaving the greenbelt area where Jakeob was swimming before he was killed. And Chinn admitted playing with Jakeob shortly before the boy was stabbed 24 times
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#7
At the time Chinn, then 22, was facing a molestation charge involving a 9-year-old Denver boy, but the charge was later dropped after the victim’s mother didn’t want her son to testify.

Chinn reportedly admitted that he spent time with Jakeob and other boys in the greenbelt area, including swimming with them for 45 minutes.

A judge had ordered Chinn not to spend time with children alone without another adult present. Chinn said he was with a friend, Tom Judge, at the time of the crime.
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#8
Some important info from poster "alittlebirdie":

The Lakewood Police Department has an eye witness that places both Chinn and Judge there at the park, covered in blood, with the murder weapon, fleeing the scene just after the brutal murder. But, for some unknown reason, they seem unwilling or reluctant to use that witness to bring this all to an end. Judge is already dead (from HIV '98) but Chinn still has yet to be brought to justice. In fact not only has he gone unpunished for destroying the McKnight family, he has had time to screw up his son as well. His son is currently being charged in Washington State for child molestation! Yet another family destroyed! I'm not sure what the cops are waiting for or why they don't use this witness; but, hopefully, Lakewood PD Chief Kevin Paletta or Detective Jameson will do everything in their power to end this whole mess, and give Jakeob's family closure.


Lakewood Police Department Cold Case hotline at (303) 987-7474
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#9
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NewsBank, inc. – The Rocky Mountain News – 1991 – Article with Citation
-----------------------------------------------------------

Headline: A CHRONOLOGY OF MURDER

Date: September 11, 1991 Section: LOCAL
Page: 32 Edition: FINAL
Word Count: 742
Author: COMPILED BY MARY OLIVER
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS LIBRARY

Index Terms: CHRONOLOGY
MURDER
STABBING
INVESTIGATION
PROFILE

Text:
* July 20 – John Ramsey Chinn meets 12-year-old Joshaua McKnight and his friends at a swimming hole in the Bear Creek Greenbelt. Jakeob McKnight is not present. Chinn and the boys agree to meet there again the next day.

• July 21 – 3:30 p.m. Chinn returns and goes swimming with Jakeob and Joshaua McKnight. Chinn remarks that Jakeob has the “prettiest eyes” he’s ever seen and agrees to meet the youngsters three days later so he can photograph them.
• July 21 – Evening. After Jakeob fails to return from the greenbelt, his parents report him missing. The search begins. Meanwhile, Chinn and his friends Tom Judge, Stephen Goldman and Laurie Linz are at Goldman’s home, having dinner, they say later.
• July 21 – 9:30 p.m. – A clerk at a 7-Eleven store near the greenbelt reports seeing Jakeob with an unidentified man. The gathering of Chinn, Judge, Goldmn and Linz breaks up about 10:30 p.m. and Chinn goes home, they say later.
• July 22 – Jakeob’s body is found near Bear Creek; he had been stabbed 24 times.
• July 23- Chinn becomes the focus of the murder investigation. He resembles the description provided by Jakeob’s brother, the boys’ friends and the 7-Eleven clerk.
• July 25 – Littleton police arrest Chinn on a Denver warrant charging him with violationg the terms of an unrelated $5,000 bond. Lakewood investigators say they have no evidence to connect Chinn to Jakeob’s death.
• July 26 – More than 50 volunteers scour the murder site for clues.
• July 29 – Subpoenas are served to four of Chinn’s friends who already have been questioned by police
• July 31 – The four are scheduled to testify before a grand juryin the evening, but their lawyers argue that they weren’t given copies of the statements the four had made to police. A Jefferson County district judge throws out the subpoenas.
• Aug. 1 – Jefferson County prosecutors say they won’t give grand jury witnesses copies of their police statements without first knowing whether the witnesses will testify.
• Aug. 9 – Chinn is ordered to stand trial on charges that he violated conditions of his bond in the unrelated case.
• Aug. 14 – Grand jury meets. Two witnesses, Linz and Chinn’s father, Hiram “Digg” Chinn, are granted immunity in exchange for their testimony.
• Aug. 15 – Lakewood police stop Judge at gunpoint, detain him for an hour, take a sample of his hair and release him.
• Aug. 16 – Results of tests of evidence are returned from the state crime lab and are considered “inconclusive.”
• Aug. 19 – Judge and Goldman refuse to testify as alibi witnesses for Chinn’s bond-revocation hearing. Attorneys for the witnesses assert their clitents’ Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, citing threats by Lakewood police and the possibility that the witnesses also are under criminal investigation.
• Aug. 21 – The grand jury hears testimony from Chinn’s mother and from his friend Kenny Parks after both are granted immunity from prosecution for their testimony.
• Aug. 22 – Lakewood police tack up dozens of handbills showing the face of Judge, who has neither been charged with a crime nor identified as a suspect. In the notices, Lakewood residents are asked to call police if they rememmber seeing Judge in the vicinity of the Bear Creek Grenbelt.
• Aug. 23 – Chinn is released from Denver County Jail on $50,000 bond in the unrelated case.
• Aug. 24 – A memorial bench dedicated to Jekeob is erected near where his body was found.
• Judge is briefly jailed for failing to appear in court on an unrelated misdemeanor.
• Aug.29 – Members of the Jefferson County business community post a $25,00 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Jekeob’s killer.
• Aug. 28 – Judge’s lawyer, David Lane, files suit in Denver U.S. District Court, claiming that police violated his client’s constitutional rights when they stopped him to obtain hair samples. Lane also asks a Jefferson County district judge to order the hair samples destroyed because no arrest has resulted.
• Aug. 31 – Pollice search the home of Sheila Goldman, where Judge and Goldman’s son, Stephen, live.
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#10
Poster called Bradley wrote the following:

I honestly think that "a little birdie" is some crackpot trying to elevate his reputation here (for all that's worth) by claiming to have knowledge that nobody else here has.

I sent him a PM several months ago, asking him to document his claims. He has not responded, either by PM or on this board. Make of this what you will; I personally suspect that his claims are pure nonsense. I doubt he'll be back.

I hope that the above chronology will answer your question. (I post only information from documented sources.)

According to the Rocky Mountain News summary above, Felix Chinn and Tom Judge claimed to have been having dinner at the home of a friend, Shiela Goldman, at the time of Jakeob's murder. While there were numerous people who "corroborated" this alibi, the fact remains that all were Chinn's friends.

From my secondary-source research into newspaper articles of the time, it appears that the Lakewood police ceased their investigation into Chinn and Judge because their lawyers threatened to sue the Lakewood Police Department (!) and not because Chinn's alibi was, as he claimed, "ironclad."

I could find no evidence of any witnesses who saw Chinn and Judge running from the murder site covered in blood, as "little birdie" claimed. Neither could I find any evidence to support his claim that Chinn's son, Ashes, has been arrested for child molestation. That is not to say, conclusively, that these claims are false - but I personally suspect, strongly, that they are mere fabrications. "Little Birdie" has had ample time to provide documentation of either or both of these claims and has declined to do so. Anyone else who can substantiate these claims is welcome to do so as well.

What bothers me so much about Jakeob's murder is that I believe that there is someone, somewhere, who knows something about the events of the day Jakeob died. I fervently hope that this person or these people will eventually come forward and share what they KNOW.

Jakeob's case is horrible and tragic; let's not make false claims or say that we know something we don't.
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