GUILTY FL - Milagro Cunningham for kidnap, rape of 8yo girl, Lake Worth, 2005

Fla. Child-Rape Suspect in U.S. Illegally

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - A teenager charged with raping an 8-year-old girl and leaving her for dead at an abandoned landfill is in the United States illegally - status that escaped notice despite three arrests, officials said.

Milagro Cunningham became illegal after arriving from the Bahamas on a visitor's visa in 2003 and overstaying the short-term limit, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Manny Van Pelt said.

Cunningham, 17, had three burglary arrests last year but escaped the notice of immigration authorities because his cases were handled in the juvenile justice system, said Art Bullock, Border Patrol chief in West Palm Beach.

"If he had been booked into the main jail, he would have been checked," Bullock said.


http://start.earthlink.net/article/nat?guid=20050527/42969b40_3421_1334520050527-1725490208

SewingDeb said:

I'll bet they did. Nancy Grace was wondering if he is actually only 17. IMO, he looks to be in his twenties.

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I thought the same thing when I first saw his picture...now learning that he's not a US citizen and is here illegally I wonder if he really is 17

Cunningham arrived in 2003 on a visitor's visa from the Bahamas and overstayed the short-term limit, said immigration spokesman Manny Van Pelt.

His juvenile court records are sealed, but acquaintances say he was on probation when he was arrested Sunday, the AP reported.

Prosecutors are charging Cunningham, 17, as an adult on six felony counts: attempted first-degree murder, attempted felony murder, sexual battery on a person under 12 years old, aggravated child abuse, kidnapping, and lewd and lascivious molestation. He faces up to life in prison if convicted.
Cunningham lived a disjointed life after leaving the Bahamas to live with an aunt and uncle in Lake Worth, according to acquaintances. He slept in parks, an apartment complex laundry room and on neighbors' couches during multiple spats with his aunt and uncle.

One person who offered him shelter was the girl's godmother. She lives near Cunningham's aunt and uncle and was introduced to Cunningham by her teenage son.

"You don't put a 16 year-old-child out on the street," the godmother said. "To me, he was normal. He would play video games, hang out with kids up and down the streets, play football. He didn't do anything that was out of the normal."

He "was like two people," a friend said.

"He used to get in a lot of fights," said the friend, a teenage girl who is also connected to the victim. "If somebody else was in a fight, he'd tell them `Don't fight,' you know. `You shouldn't fight.' ... He was like two people. It was, like, weird."

Cunningham had lived with the woman for about three or four months, she said, including celebrating his 17th birthday there in March.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/lo...ay27,0,3942950.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

It's a very sad story, isn't it?

It seems so far like the 8 year old victim is doing REMARKABLY well. I mean really, almost unscathed, bless her sweet heart. She seems mature beyond her years.

This boy Milagro seems to be a boat completely without a rudder, and when you read snippets of stories, it's kind of unbelievable the trust that was placed in him considering he really had a checkered past.

Apparently he shared a bedroom with a one year old baby boy that was the son of a teenage girl that lived in the home. Why wasn't the baby sleeping in the teenage mother's room, or the old woman's room? It seems almost unbelivable that the baby was in Milagro's room, and everyone went to sleep including the 8 year old god daughter while the teenage mother and a friend were out roller skating all night.

"He used to get in fights all the time". Don't put your baby in his room.

Police reports detail girl's attack before she was left in landfill


LAKE WORTH - An 8-year-old girl who was raped and tossed in a trash bin was near death as officers pulled her out from under chunks of concrete weighing 72 pounds, according to police reports released Thursday.

The documents detail the girl's abduction and sexual assault, allegedly by a teenager staying in the same house she was visiting.

Police discovered the Delray Beach girl in the trash bin at a Lake Worth landfill May 22 about seven hours after she was reported missing from her godmother's home. She was found partially clothed, with what appeared to be the impression of a footprint on her back, according to the reports.


http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/11976711.htm

It really is a miracle that this little girl is alive. I hope she makes a wonderful recovery with little emotional pain due to what happened to her.

From November 2014:

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/palm-beach/fl-milagro-cunningham-new-sentences-20141107-story.html

Now 18, the victim testified in a Palm Beach County courtroom Friday against her attacker, Milagro Cunningham, 26, before his resentencing to 70 years in prison on kidnapping, sexual assault and other charges...

The victim recalled the terrible attack: "He threw me in a dumpster and put rocks on top of me to kill me. I had to fake my death, because he was choking me."

But the young woman also told the judge she was at peace. "I forgive him," she said. "I leave it in God's hands."

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