Inquirer.com – Zurich DR

Author: Vinny Vella

  • Chester woman convicted of abusing children she cared for but tortured for years

    Chester woman convicted of abusing children she cared for but tortured for years

    During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a home tucked away on West Eighth Street in Chester became the site of tortuous abuse for three sisters.

    The girls were beaten with bats and glassware, stabbed with knives and shattered pottery, and choked, sometimes to the point of unconsciousness. Their abuser, someone their parents trusted to care for them, carried out almost medieval punishments for perceived slights, prosecutors in Delaware County said.

    One of the victims said Anais Munoz, 22, held a curling iron to her genitals, warning her that she would only prolong the abuse if the girl screamed.

    The details of Munoz’s abuse were revealed during her two-week trial before Delaware County Court Judge John P. Capuzzi Sr., which ended late last month with her conviction for aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, and related crimes.

    The jurors acquitted Munoz of other counts of those crimes.

    The girl, who was 10 years old at the time, said she still bears scars from being burned with the curling iron. It was the night before Halloween in 2021, she said, and she remembers being in excruciating pain as she trick-or-treated in her neighborhood.

    To this day, wearing shorts or swimwear, she said, makes her anxious.

    “This scar wasn’t created by choice, this scar was created from a monster,” the girl, now 15, testified. “I didn’t ask for this, I didn’t ask for any of this, I didn’t ask to even be in this courtroom right now.”

    On other occasions, the girl said, Munoz would choke her with her father’s belt until her face turned blue.

    “I thought I was going to die,” she said. “I was begging her not to do it again, begging her with my everything. And she did it again.”

    Still, the girls said that, fearful of Munoz, they lied and hid the injuries from their parents. The 15-year-old girl said she wanted Munoz to like her, and compared herself to a “puppy dog” seeking affection.

    The victims’ injuries remained hidden until the fall of 2022, when Munoz burned the middle sister’s hand on a stove. Her teachers notified the county Department of Children and Youth, triggering an investigation, and Munoz was arrested months later.

    Her attorneys, James Funt and Brandi McLaughlin, cast doubt on the victims’ testimony, saying they were unreliable and had suffered psychological trauma from what they experienced.

    Funt suggested to jurors that the girls’ parents were the ones who abused them and that they were being manipulated into blaming Munoz.

    “The uncomfortable truth of this case is that everybody failed them,” the lawyer said in his closing arguments. “The teachers failed them, the CYS workers failed them, the police failed them, because clue after clue after clue revealed that what they were saying wasn’t true,” and their parents were the true culprits.

    Assistant District Attorney Danielle Gallaher rejected that assertion. She said all of the forensic evidence matches the girls’ description of abuse at the hands of Munoz.

    It was always clear, she said, who was responsible.

    “This case is about how the defendant took her anger and resentment out on children who could be manipulated and led to believe they would never been believed by anyone,” Gallaher said. “The defendant wants you to believe these kids are crazy.”

    The girl and her sisters testified that the abuse began shortly after Munoz came to live with them in 2020 and that it escalated in intensity in 2021. At the time, the girls were 7, 10, and 11.

    In addition to the physical and mental abuse, Munoz would engaged in sex acts with the children, they said.

    During some of the violent episodes, Munoz would tell the girls she was under the possession of a demon named “Jessica,” using that to explain her abusive behavior, the girls said.

    The oldest sister, now 16, said she lived in constant fear of Munoz, who sometimes would suffocate her with a pillow and body slam her into the ground.

    In one instance, she said, Munoz repeatedly struck her so hard that her body eventually went limp, and she felt as if she couldn’t move.

    Another witness, a boy who did not live in the house, said he observed some of this abuse while Munoz babysat him there. During one incident, he said, Munoz choked him until he “saw white” and bit him on his left forearm.

  • Chester saw one of its safest summers ever in 2025. No one died from gun violence.

    Chester saw one of its safest summers ever in 2025. No one died from gun violence.

    For five glorious Sundays this summer, there was peace in Chester.

    In places like the William Penn Homes and Chester Apartments, where children are often encouraged to stay indoors, shut away from the threat of gang violence, it was finally safe to play outside during the height of what is normally the most dangerous time of the year.

    Roving carnivals nicknamed “Sunday Fun Days” were organized and held in Delaware County’s lone city, in areas that had weathered a surge in violence in recent years. A few bounce houses, some water ice, and communities breathing sighs of relief were rewards for keeping the peace, and motivation to continue that trend.

    The parties, according to Geo Stockman, the lead gun violence interventionist with Making a Change Group, came during one of the safest summers on record in the city: Not a single fatal gunshot was fired in Chester during that time.

    It was a result that local police and county prosecutors say they have been working toward these last few years, through a combination of advocacy work and interventions by groups like Stockman’s.

    “This opened up the neighborhoods. It gave them a reason to say, ‘Let’s try something else, people are really looking out for us now, maybe we should put this down,’” Stockman said. “People are always telling people to stop doing something without offering them something in this place. So that’s what we did this summer. We offered them something in its place.”

    The block parties were a new addition to the programs offered by the Chester Partnership for Safe Neighborhoods (CPSN), an initiative launched by the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office in 2020.

    Gregory Cottman left, Gregory Graves, center, and Geo Stockman say the Sunday Fun Day block parties sponsored by the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office served as both a reward for neighborhoods that have curbed gun violence, and an incentive to continue that trend in the years to come.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer

    The program takes a holistic approach to combating gun violence, targeting teens and young adults at risk of committing crimes and offering them services, mediation, or counseling before they resort to violence.

    In its five years of operation, CPSN has seen a 65% reduction in shootings overall and a 74% reduction in fatal shootings. And since the summer, only two fatal shootings have been recorded in Chester, which prosecutors say still puts the city on pace for one of its most peaceful years on record.

    “Violence comes from a place of, of hopelessness, of despair. Just anger, resentment, and feeling like you’ve been left behind, like nobody cares,” Stockman said.

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    He spoke from experience, as a lifelong Chester resident who spent time in prison for mistakes made on the streets of his hometown.

    “That’s what makes what we do so effective. Most of us want to be stopped, but nobody stops us,” he said. “Nobody takes the time to say, ‘I’m gonna be the one to calm you down.’ It really only takes somebody with a clear mind that they understand to say, ‘Nah, that ain’t it.’”

    Stockman said he and his team have successfully mediated 130 disputes between rival neighborhoods in the last two years. They settled petty arguments, usually started on social media, that were clearly heading toward a violent conclusion.

    “This is a small community, so your reputation goes further than just the neighborhood you’re from,” said Gregory “G-Code” Graves, who works with Stockman.

    Graves said the anti-violence messaging works because it’s coming from people the intended audience can identify with.

    “We’ve been through the vetting process in all these neighborhoods, so even if it’s a little hesitation at first, it doesn’t take a great deal of persuasion to get them to come to us,” Graves said. “And we come in with meaningful things that’s going to help the situation.”

    Residents of the Chester Apartments line up for water ice at a “Sunday Fun Day” block party held this summer in Chester.Courtesy Delaware County District Attorney's Office

    For District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer, those results are exactly what he envisioned when he brought CPSN to the county five years ago, building it on models used successfully in other cities, including Boston.

    And he is confident that the program will continue to thrive without him, as he runs for a county judgeship in the Nov. 4 election.

    “People have bought into the strategy. They’ve seen it work now, and they just wanna keep it going,” he said.

    Stollsteimer said making Chester safe was one of his priorities when running for district attorney in 2019. Similar programs, he said, had failed before because of a lack of buy-in from officials.

    This time was different — Mayor Stefan Roots became a fixture at the Sunday Fun Day parties.

    Roots said the weekly parties presented a rare opportunity for residents to meet the people making decisions that affect their everyday lives. And, in turn, allowed him and other officials to have open, honest dialogue with people living in communities most affected by gun violence.

    The conversation flowed naturally, he said. No pressure. No pretense.

    “This is something that’s never, never happened before,” he said. “The relationship between the city and the county is really welcome. And the results are showing themselves.”

    Roots said he lost count of how many residents came up to him at the parties to talk about their own efforts to curb violence in their neighborhoods. People, he said, who told him that the block parties, and the gun violence interventions that preceded them, were a welcome sigh of relief.

    “They told me that, sometimes, they don’t want to be ‘the man with the cape.’ They want to go on and have a life, too,” Roots said.