Crime News

Professor at TCU in Fort Worth charged with possession of child porn

Laptop on desk

Images were found on the professor's work computer.

Photo by Christopher Gower on Unsplash

A theology professor at Texas Christian University has been charged with possession of child pornographpy.

According to a release from the U.S. Department of Justice, Charles Kilby Bellinger, 62, a professor of theology and librarian at the Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University, allegedly stored pornographic images of children on his work computer.

Bellinger was charged via criminal complaint with possession of child pornography and arrested on October 4, said U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton.

The DOJ began a federal investigation after TCU’s IT staff reported they had detected pornographic images with concerning file names, including “infant” and “toddler,” on Bellinger’s work computer.

Investigators found multiple sexually explicit images of pre-pubescent minors on a hard drive and an SD card removed from Dr. Bellinger’s office.

At a detention hearing on Thursday, an agent testified that law enforcement also seized multiple encrypted devices from a locked safe in his office. Forensic investigation of those devices is ongoing.

A criminal complaint is merely an allegation of criminal conduct, not evidence. Like all defendants, Dr. Bellinger is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison.

The U.S. Secret Service and the Fort Worth Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Unit conducted the investigation with the TCU campus police. Assistant U.S. Attorney Aisha Saleem is prosecuting the case.

Death Penalty

Tarrant County man gets death for murder of convenience store owner

Christopher Turner

Tarrant County Sheriff's Office

Christopher Turner

A man received the death penalty for his 2020 cold-blooded execution of a convenience store owner.

According to a release from the office of Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Phil Sorrells, a Tarrant County jury sentenced Christopher Karon Turner, 48, to death on November 20 for executing convenience store owner Anwar Ali during a robbery. Tarrant County Assistant District Attorneys Charles Boulware and Allenna Bangs represented the state.

On March 27, 2020, at around 6:15 am, Turner, a convicted felon, wore a surgical mask and a glove and entered the Super Big Country Mart in an unincorporated area of Tarrant County south of Fort Worth. There, he held a gun to the back of Anwar Ali, the 62-year-old store owner, and walked him through the store.

Ali did everything Turner demanded, including opening the cash register to give him money. And yet Turner forced Ali into the bathroom and onto his knees, and shot him in the neck. Ali was discovered, dead in the bathroom, about an hour later.

Turner fled the store in Ali's Toyota minivan with the money from the register and Ali's wallet. In the van, he found more than $50,000 cash in a black bag. Over the next few days, Turner went on a shopping spree, buying cars, jewelry, drugs, clothes, and more. He and others used cash and a credit card that belonged to Ali.

Turner fled to Colorado where U.S. Marshals arrested him. On his body they found a firearm which was determined to be the murder weapon.

"This was a premeditated, cold-blooded murder," Boulware told the jury. "From the moment he was charged with this crime, he has tried to escape responsibility."

Bangs noted that before this trial began, Turner obtained the names of jurors and their telephone numbers, and gave them to an inmate charged with murder. At the trial on November 20, as Bangs addressed the jury, Turner tried to hold up a sign to the jury but was handcuffed by Sheriff's deputies who removed him from the courtroom, while he yelled out "she lied."

Ali came to the United States from Pakistan decades ago to pursue the American dream. Ali's son, Hussein, spoke in the courtroom after the death penalty was announced. "Thank you for giving us justice," Ali said. "I hope there are no more devils like this person."

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