[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
Jeez. This is a horrific turn of events.
Perezcious readers might remember back on September 1 how Joe Cornelius Sr., 82, a former interim mayor of Minden, Louisiana, and his daughter Keisha Miles, 31, were found dead in his home. The next day, Keisha’s 11-year-old son confessed to the shootings and was arrested. It was a horrible tragedy… but now some allegations are coming out that shed new light on these deaths, and it is even worse than we could’ve imagined.
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On Wednesday, People obtained videos discovered by Keisha’s 17-year-old son Uriah Miles, in which she confronts her father about molesting her — and the former interim mayor seems to admit to it! Per the outlet, Uriah found the videos on his mother’s iCloud after the killings. He believes they were taken in 2021.
In the videos, Keisha questioned her father about how he’d allegedly buy her things in exchange for sexual activities over the years. She could be heard saying:
“When you do things for me, you expect something in return. Like when you got the furniture, like when you got that car for me, you always wanted something in return and what you wanted was something sexual …right?”
Jeez. Joe, who didn’t seem to be aware he was being recorded, was silent at first before replying:
“Whatever it is, you mostly enjoyed it.”
WTF!!!
His daughter responded:
“No, I never did Joe, because I felt like I had to, in order to survive.”
So, so awful. According to the outlet, she went on to describe the graphic details of the sexual activity, which is what she said her father “needed” from her in exchange for goods. At one point, she accused him of having “propositioned” her for sexual favors, but he argued:
“I ain’t never said nothing like that.”
But as she continued on with her allegations, he seemed to acknowledge that he did molest her:
“You said you didn’t tell nobody about this. But you have.”
She replied:
“You told me… you say… they will never believe you.”
The politician said:
“And nobody will.”
Terrible!
And it gets worse…
While Joe was respected in the community, his grandsons knew a very different version of him. They reportedly knew that he had sexually abused Keisha as a child — and that the abuse had never stoped!
The suspect’s lawyer Christopher Murell told the outlet that the 11-year-old was also physically abused by Cornelius. Keisha was also allegedly worried about Joe’s behavior around her children, especially fearing that he would sexual assault her 6-year-old daughter. Christopher and Uriah told People that the boys would be asked to keep an eye on their sister if their grandfather was around, the 17-year-old claimed:
“He was always looking at her. […] He would tell her [there is] something on the floor and [ask her] to pick it up or something like that. He [would] want her to sit on his lap.”
Minden Police Chief Jared McIver told the outlet that authorities had heard “rumors” about the old man’s behavior, including about the sexual abuse, but they had never found any “substantive evidence” to back it up. Right now, Uriah is hopeful his videos will do just that, as he told the publication:
“The proof is in the video so I’m not really worried about if they’ll believe me or not. ‘Cause he literally is saying with his own [words].”
The only problem? Police have NOT received the video and therefore can’t verify its authenticity. The Police Chief told KTLA:
“Nothing from that small clip confirms anything for us because, as you know, there’s a process. If that’s turned in as evidence, there’s a process in which we have to send that off and make sure that it’s not voice analysis or AI generated.”
He added that they have not received any reports of sexual abuse, either. The chief noted:
“This is nothing that we’ve received as evidence. It’s just a video that had two people talking. You know, a name is referenced, but it’s not evidence. It hasn’t been turned into our Police Department.”
According to KTLA, the teenager enlisted the help of a publicist, Chanel Hudson O’Connor, to get the videos out there. She told the outlet he “did not feel comfortable” going to the police with the videos, which have not been made public at this time. That said, police are already arguing the contents of the videos won’t do much to help the suspect’s case — if that was even the reason for releasing it, Jared added:
“If the person that did this (video) thought that it was going to exonerate the young man that murdered both the mother and the grandfather, or it would help his case to show why he did, it doesn’t help that case at all because both people were murdered.”
Hmm. It does seem to add some possible context for why the young boy may have harmed his grandfather — though it certainly doesn’t explain why his mother was also murdered. So, maybe it really wouldn’t help the case? Though it’s odd that it wouldn’t be handed over to the cops regardless! After all, putting the allegedly damning video into evidence would seem like a big deal, no?
Per the suspect’s lawyer via People, the 11-year-old is being tried as a juvenile and has entered a not guilty plea to two counts of first-degree murder, though police have previously alleged that he confessed to the murders. He is being held on a $500,000 bond. Obviously, it seems like there’s a lot more to this story than initially known. Maybe even more than is known at this point, too. Jeez…
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence and would like to learn more about resources, consider checking out https://www.rainn.org/resources. If you have sincere cause to suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org.
