Tragedy points to need for background checks
If Monalisa Barber had known that the man she hired as a personal care attendant had a criminal record - including a conviction for carrying a dangerous weapon on school grounds - she might be alive today.
But Barber, 44, the divorced mother of three grown children, who lived in the Powder Mill Village housing complex in Westfield, had no way of knowing that Michael Sobers, 20, of 82 Pelham St., Springfield, who is charged with her murder, had a criminal history. Read More