Police were called to a hotel in uptown Tampa a few hours before sunrise, having received reports of a shooting at the address. NBC News reports upon arriving at the scene, they found two vehicles that had been shot at in the parking lot.

One person, now identified as Jones, was pronounced dead, according to the Tampa Police Department. Three additional victims are in stable condition and being treated at the hospital.

Police said officers are still investigating the motive for the shooting and working to identify individuals involved.

Jones was celebrating his birthday the night of his fatal shooting, according to footage he posted on his Instagram story. The 26-year-old rapper, who had 1 million followers on the platform, shared a video advertising a pool party Saturday evening. He told his followers to direct-message him for the address.

Later that night, he posted that police had “shut us down and kicked us out” of their Airbnb.

His lawyer Lewis Fusco wrote in a statement that Jones then relocated to a Holiday Inn, where he was reportedly ambushed in the parking lot.

“Best birthday everrrr 🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞 appreciate everybody who pulled up we turnt up till we couldn’t nomo,” Jones wrote in another Instagram story just a few hours before the shooting. “We otw to the show now yall pull-up.”

God thank you for allowing me to see another Year & To celebrate another birthday 🥳🤞✊💕 appreciate all the birthday wishes so far 🤝

— ESPN 98💔 (@Espn_Foolio) June 21, 2024

In April, when announcing the release of his latest album, “Resurrection,” Jones also posted that he had already survived “MULTIPLE ATTEMPTS ON MY LIFE.”

Jones, who had nearly 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify at the time of his shooting, had been making music since 2015.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

• Biden campaign lays out debate week strategy in new memo
• Chicago’s iconic ‘Bean’ sculpture reopens to tourists after nearly a year of construction
• A slew of new weight loss drugs are in development. Here’s how they work.

Officers responded to a 911 call about a slashing at Queens Plaza subway station around 8:20 a.m., according to an NYPD spokesperson. Two people were found with a slash wound on the face by 43 Avenue and 27 Street.

A third victim with a slash wound on the side of the face was also found inside the station, police said.

All the victims are expected to recover from their injuries, according to the NYPD. The victims did not know each other, police said.

No other information was immediately available.

The Post and Courier reported that Aric Hutchinson will receive about $863,300 from Folly Beach bars The Drop In Bar & Deli, the Crab Shack and Snapper Jacks; Progressive auto insurance; and Enterprise Rent-A-Car, according to a settlement approved earlier this week by Charleston County Circuit Court Judge Roger Young.

Hutchinson sued the businesses after driver Jamie Lee Komoroski crashed a rented vehicle into a golf cart carrying him and his new bride, 34-year-old Samantha Miller, away from their wedding reception on April 28, 2023.

South Carolina Aug 2, 2023

Judge denies bond for South Carolina woman accused of killing a bride in DUI golf cart crash

South Carolina Aug 1, 2023

Mom of bride killed on wedding day in crash confronts suspect in court

The golf cart was thrown 100 yards (91.44 meters). Miller died at the scene, still wearing her wedding dress. Hutchinson survived with a brain injury and multiple broken bones. Komoroski was driving 65 mph on a 25 mph road, the newspaper reported.

Hutchinson charged in the wrongful death lawsuit that Komoroski “slurred and staggered” across several bars around Folly Beach before speeding in her Toyota Camry with a blood-alcohol concentration more than three times the legal limit.

The settlements amount to $1.3 million but will total less than that after attorney and legal fees are paid.

Komoroski is out on bond as her case makes its way through the court system. In September, she was charged with felony driving under the influence resulting in death, reckless homicide and two counts of felony driving under the influence resulting in great bodily injury.

“Twenty-three years after you began destroying my life, I am still dealing with the pain and damage you caused,” Cindy Clemishire, 35 at the time, wrote to Morris on Sept. 20, 2005, according to partially redacted emails provided to NBC News by her attorney.

“I want some type of restitution. Pray about it and call me.”

Morris responded two weeks later.

“Debbie and I really do care for you and we sincerely want God’s best for you,” he wrote, referring to his wife, Debbie Morris, according to the emails. Robert Morris wrote that he’d long ago confessed his sins to Clemishire’s father and believed that he’d “obtained your forgiveness as well as your family’s.” 

Morris ended his reply with a legal warning.

“My attorney advises that if I pay you any money under a threat of exposure, you could be criminally prosecuted and Debbie and I do not want that,” he wrote. “If you need more information, have your attorney contact mine.”

Morris’ email was the final exchange in a series of messages that year between Clemishire, Morris and a former Gateway elder, Clemishire said. The emails, spanning from April to October 2005, appear to reveal Clemishire’s attempts to get Morris — who later rose to become a leading evangelical figure who served on former President Donald Trump’s spiritual advisory panel — to compensate her for the trauma she says he inflicted on her as a child.

“Men that have over 100 counts of child molestation go to prison,” Clemishire wrote to Morris in one of the messages. “Men who pastor churches that have over 100 counts of child molestation go to prison and pay punitive damages. You have not had to do either.”

At the urging of a retired pastor, Clemishire went public with her allegations against Morris last week in a post published by The Wartburg Watch, a website focused on exposing abuse in churches. In the post and in a subsequent interview with NBC News, Clemishire accused Morris of molesting her for years beginning at her home in Oklahoma on Christmas night in 1982, when she was 12. 

Morris hasn’t been charged with a crime. He didn’t respond to a request for comment. 

Last weekend, Morris and Gateway’s elders initially responded to Clemishire’s allegations by acknowledging in statements that Morris had several sexual encounters with a “young lady” when he was in his 20s and saying he had been transparent about his sin and had repented. On Tuesday, following days of backlash from church members and elected officials, Gateway’s board of elders announced it had accepted Morris’ resignation. 

“The elders’ prior understanding was that Morris’s extramarital relationship, which he had discussed many times throughout his ministry, was with ‘a young lady’ and not abuse of a 12-year-old child,” the church leaders said in their statement.

Clemishire and her lawyer, Boz Tchividjian, contend that Gateway elders should have long ago investigated Morris’ account of a consensual relationship. 

Gateway officials did not immediately respond to a message requesting comment. The board of elders announced this week it had hired a law firm to investigate the matter.

The 2005 emails reveal that at least one Gateway Church elder, Tom Lane, was aware that Clemishire had been in touch with Morris and seeking compensation. The emails do not indicate, however, whether Lane, who has since left the church, was aware that Clemishire was accusing Morris of child sexual abuse. The initial email Clemishire sent is missing from the chain shared with NBC News; Clemishire’s lawyer said she could not locate it. 

In a statement to NBC News on Friday, Lane said that, until Clemishire went public with her story last week, he “did not fully understand the severity and specifics of the sexual abuse she experienced, nor did I know she was 12 years old when the abuse began.”

Lane’s spokesperson, Richard Harmer, said in an email that Lane was under the impression that Clemishire was under 18, but old enough to consent to a sexual relationship with Morris, who would have been in his early 20s. (The age of consent in Oklahoma, where the abuse is alleged to have occurred, is 16.)

“I am deeply saddened by the pain Cindy Clemishire has endured and the recent revelations regarding Pastor Robert Morris,” Lane said in his statement. “My deepest sympathies go out to Cindy, and I pray her suffering is fully recognized and validated.”

In April 2005, Lane wrote to Clemishire on behalf of Morris, after Clemishire initially reached out in the email that NBC News has not seen. Lane asked to speak with her, and Clemishire replied that she wanted to address the matter with Morris directly. 

Lane then wrote that he and the other Gateway elders wanted Clemishire to “find help and healing.” 

Lane told Clemishire that Morris had been “completely open with the Elders of Gateway Church about his past and specifically about his indiscretion with you.” He said Morris and his wife had treated Clemishire with “caring concern but their responses apparently have not brought the healing you seek.”

“The ‘Blessed Life’ that Robert writes about in his book and you refer to in your email, is not one of perfection but one of submission and obedience to God, something that he has made diligent effort to walk in, both in failure and success, for more than twenty years,” Lane wrote to Clemishire. “Robert and Debbie have done what they can to help you heal. Our church believes in healing, forgiveness, and restoration of all individuals. We would like to help you find that healing for your life.”

The emails shared by Clemishire’s lawyer do not include a response from her to Lane’s message. 

In a statement, Tchividjian, Clemishire’s lawyer, questioned why Lane and other Gateway elders didn’t investigate Morris’ claims.

“It seems as if it was preferable for them to simply accept his vague narrative instead of seeking the truth regarding a sexual offense perpetrated upon a minor,” Tchividjian said. “The leaders at Gateway had the responsibility to find out what happened and not to blindly accept his words.”

Five months after Lane’s message, on Sept. 9, 2005, Clemishire wrote again directly to Morris.

“I am giving you one last chance to call me,” she wrote. “You really have no idea how devastating it will be if you don’t. I don’t want Tom or anyone els to contact me. This is your issue not his.”

A week later, Morris wrote to say he was praying about how to respond, and he followed up several days after that to ask what Clemishire wanted.

Clemishire wrote back less than two hours later: “I have suffered almost my entire life from the emotional damage you inflicted on me. If you want to know what I want, call me.”

Morris never called, Clemishire said, although she said she did speak briefly with his attorney to discuss setting up a meeting with Morris but never followed up.

In his final reply included in the messages shared by Clemishire, Morris told her she was wrong to believe that he’d benefited from keeping secret what happened between them.

“You see the blessings God has poured out on my life and conclude that it is because I have hidden my past,” Morris wrote. 

“God does not work that way. He will not be mocked by deceit.”

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

• Death of 12-year-old girl in Texas fuels Trump-Biden debate on immigration
• A deadly tornado and a rare feat for storm chasers
• U.S. to resume avocados and mangoes inspection from Mexican state

While she did disappear, the rest of Sherri Papini’s story turned out to be a fabrication. 

Sherri Papini pleaded guilty in 2022 to faking her own disappearance and lying to the FBI about it. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison and was released in 2023. 

The case is back in the news thanks to Hulu’s three-part documentary “Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini.”

Sherri Papini did not participate in the Hulu docuseries. The series ends with the words, “The filmmakers made several attempts to contact Sherri Papini but never received a response.” 

But who was Sherri Papini before the events of 2016? What happened to her after she came home? And where is she today? Read on.

What happened to Sherri Papini? Was she really kidnapped?

Sherri Papini, then 34, was reported missing in November of 2016. She’d been living in Redding, California with her husband Keith and their two young children, and reportedly vanished while out jogging near her home.  

On Thanksgiving Day, she turned up 146 miles south of where she’d vanished, per a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. She still had restraints on her body and was covered in injuries — including a brand on her shoulder, bruises on her face, a swollen nose and rashes. She claimed two women had kidnapped her at gunpoint, held her, and beat her.

Sherri Papini persisted in her story for nearly six years of investigation.

Shasta County Sheriff Sergeant Kyle Wallace and Captain Brian Jackson, who worked on the case, told NBC News’ Dateline in an interview she was “dedicated” to her story.

“A lot of the lies that she told us had a lot of truth to it. So it’s really hard to decipher,” Wallace said.

When interviewed by the FBI and a detective from the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office in 2020, Sherri Papini was warned against making false statements to federal agents, and she continued to support her story, per the complaint. Meanwhile, she was also collecting compensation from the California Victim Compensation Board and the Social Security Administration.

Ultimately, DNA on her clothing led investigators to James Reyes, an ex-boyfriend of Papini’s, per the complaint.  

Sherri Papini had told Reynolds — whom she hadn’t dated in 15 years — that she needed to escape her husband. He did everything he could to help, including driving hundreds of miles to pick her up. He also arranged a room for her to stay in, according to Dateline’s interview with Wallace and Jackson. He also branded her. Reyes was not charged with a crime.

Papini was charged in 2022 and sentenced to prison

On April 12, 2022, Sherri Papini was charged with 34 counts of mail fraud and one count of making false statements, per the Department of Justice. The mail fraud came from receiving over $30,000 from the Victim Compensation Board between 2017 and 2021.

A few days later, Keith Papini filed for divorce and requested sole custody of their children, according to court records obtained by NBC News.

Sherri Papini pleaded guilty to a single count of mail fraud and one count of making false statements, NBC News reported. As part of her plea agreement, Sherri Papini was required to pay $300,000 in restitution to multiple government agencies including about $127,000 to the Social Security administration and about $148,000  to the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office.  

At her sentencing in September 2022, she was given 18 months in prison, after which she’d have 36 months of supervised release. 

Where is Sherri Papini now?

Sherri Papini was released from prison in August 2023 and was sent to community confinement in Sacramento County. Her full release date was Oct. 29, 2023.

She was due in court in October 2023 for a preliminary trial readiness conference regarding her divorce, but she failed to appear. 

She had been released from community confinement a few days earlier, and her lawyer said he didn’t know her whereabouts, according to local news station KRCR.

Sherri Papini has yet to pay the approximately $310,000 owed, per an application for writ of garnishment filed in March 2024 by the Eastern District of California’s D.A. office. The amount has now gone up to $340,000 due to a 10%  litigation surcharge. The government issued a writ of garnishment against Sherri Papini’s law firm Kinney & Kinney believing she has property that could help pay off the debt. 

TODAY.com reached out to Kinney & Kinney for comment.

Is Sherri Papini in touch with her family?

Keith Papini said, in a June 2024 interview with the TV Insider, that the couple’s children — a son, 11 and a daughter, 9 — speak to Sherri Papini.

“They speak to her on the phone once a month or every other week. Shortly, it’ll be every week, so let me just say they speak to her every week, and they see her in a professionally supervised visitation once a month,” he said.

 Keith Papini, who is featured in the Hulu documentary, confirmed he no longer speaks to his ex-wife.

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from Today:

• Target is selling ‘baby’ Stanley cups and TikTokers are loving them
• Jason and Kylie Kelce attend their first ‘Eras Tour’ concert in London
• Mark Ruffalo’s 23-year-old son could be his dad’s clone in new photos

The wounded included two law enforcement officers who exchanged fire with the shooter, state police said. The shooting occurred about 11:30 a.m. at the Mad Butcher grocery store in Fordyce, a city of about 3,200 people located 65 miles (104 kilometers) south of Little Rock.

“It’s tragic, our hearts are broken,” Col. Mike Hagar, director of State Police and public safety secretary, told reporters Friday.

Police identified the suspected shooter as 44-year-old Travis Eugene Posey of New Edinburg. He was taken to jail and charged with three counts of capital murder, while other charges are still pending. No court date had been set, according to the inmate roster.

A state police spokesperson did not know if the shooter had an attorney, and the Ouachita County Sheriff’s Office said it had no information.

Neither the officers’ nor the shooter’s injuries were life threatening. The remaining injuries ranged from “not life-threatening to extremely critical,” Hagar said.

It’s the latest mass shooting where a grocery store is its backdrop. A white supremacist in 2022 killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket. That shooting came a little more than a year after one at a Boulder, Colorado, supermarket, where 10 people were killed.

Police did not immediately say whether the shooting occurred inside or outside the store. Police did not identify the suspected shooter or the victims, but said they expected to release more information Friday night.

Roderick Rogers, a member of the city council, said he called the county sheriff when employees at his restaurant nearby notified him of the shooting.

Rogers said when he got there, he saw people running for cover in every direction, even one running to the hospital nearby.

“People were just jumping into cars to get to safety,” Rogers said.

Video posted on social media showed at least one person lying in the parking lot, while another captured multiple gunshots ringing out.

Amiya Doherty said she was in her mother’s car in the grocery store’s parking lot when she heard what she was thought was fireworks. When she saw a man holding a gun and firing, she said she ducked out of view.

“I held my sister’s hand and I told her I love her,” Doherty told Little Rock television station KATV.

Images from reporters on the scene showed a slew of bullet holes in the grocery store’s window, and spent shell casings strewn throughout the parking lot. In video footage, local and state agencies could be seen responding to the scene, with at least one medical helicopter landing nearby.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she had been briefed on the shooting.

“I am thankful to law enforcement and first responders for their quick and heroic action to save lives,” Sanders posted on the social media platform X. “My prayers are with the victims and all those impacted by this.”

The White House said President Joe Biden has been briefed on the shooting and his team will continue to keep him updated.

David Rodriguez, 58, had stopped at his local gas station in Fordyce to fill up his car when he heard what he thought were fireworks from a nearby vendor’s stand.

“We heard a few little pops,” he said.

He then saw people running from the Mad Butcher grocery store into the parking lot, and one person lying on the ground. He began recording video with his phone before the gunfire escalated.

“The police started to show up, and then there was massive gunfire and ambulances pulling up,” he said. “The bullets were just flying.”

___

Associated Press reporters Beatrice Dupuy in New York and Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

Morrilton police and Arkansas State Police found and arrested Stacy Lee Drake, 50, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.

Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, Sheriff’s Capt. Jack Kennedy told reporters Thursday: “If you look at his criminal history, he was continuously escalating his violent behavior. So he is now at least responsible for three, possibly four homicides that we know about in the last two months,” according to NBC News.

“So I would not be surprised if there’s other homicides out there that are unsolved in other jurisdictions,” Kennedy said, “because of his lifestyle, using false names, having no fixed address, no employment records, changing and altering his appearance and then immediately fleeing in multiple, multiple, multiple states away from the scenes of his crimes.”

Arkansas State Police had warned residents in and around Morrilton, which is about 50 miles northwest of Little Rock, to keep their eyes open for Drake.

Kennedy said he appeared to be transient, with previous addresses in Oklahoma and Arizona.

He’d spent several recent days in Sequoyah County, Oklahoma, where a man and a woman were killed at a propane gas store and a car was stolen Tuesday night, local and state officials said. The slayings happened about 120 miles west of Morrilton.

In Tuscaloosa County, he has been accused of killing Russell Andrews, 62, a well-liked Alcoholics Anonymous counselor, on or about May 14, officials there said.

Investigators knew Drake’s name in about 24 hours, but they didn’t make it public, banking that they’d have an upper hand if he believed detectives didn’t know his name, Kennedy said.

Andrews was shot to death, stunning the community.

“I don’t know anybody that disliked my dad. My dad was a very likable guy,” Russell Andrews Jr., his son, said Thursday. “He was very much of a giver … and always wanted to lend an ear. A man with no clock is how I would describe Dad.”

The slain man was eager to help anyone in need, his son said.

“He would sit there for hours and talk to people and just help them with whether it was an alcohol abuse, a drug addiction, whatever the case may be,” Russell Andrews Jr. said. “Dad enjoyed helping people in that way. And I didn’t understand why anybody would murder Dad and had no clue who it was.”

Drake has also been called a “person of interest” in the death of Phillip Emerson, 56, in El Reno, Oklahoma, El Reno Assistant Police Chief Kirk Dickerson said Thursday.

Police had been investigating an “unattended death” Friday before they concluded that Emerson “had suffered fatal injuries consistent with homicide,” Dickerson said.

Drake is also wanted by federal authorities who say he has violated the terms of his release, Kennedy said. Drake has federal convictions for carjacking and illegal transport of firearms.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

• Supreme Court upholds domestic violence gun restriction
• Homebuying costs continue to rise: ‘Incredibly unaffordable’
• Climate change made killer heat wave in Southwest even warmer and 35 times more likely

At 4 feet, 11 inches tall, she was perched on a plastic crate at the Genesee County jail in Flint, Michigan, positioning herself in front of a screen built into the wall. She shared with NBC News that it was the only way she could wish her daughter a happy fourth birthday face to face.

But the call failed to connect. “It kept saying that the system was down,” the 31-year-old mother recounted. “I cried all day because I was expecting to at least see her and tell her I love her.”

Like thousands of people accused of a crime in counties across America, Harris-Dudley couldn’t see her daughter because Genesee County had abolished in-person visitation in favor of “video visits,” in which families often have to pay for expensive — and critics say, frequently glitchy — video calls.

Harris-Dudley’s frustration is not an isolated incident — it reflects a nationwide trend. In recent years, hundreds of jurisdictions around the United States have eliminated in-person visits, making a video screen the only way detainees can see their loved ones.

The financial allure of video visitation was clear to local officials when the technology was first introduced in Genesee County a decade ago. At the time, one county official predicted, “video visitation is going to work. … A lot of people will swipe that Mastercard.”

Private telecommunications companies such as Securus Technologies and ViaPath (formerly Global Tel*Link) operate the systems, and county governments pocket a portion of the proceeds, according to contracts reviewed by NBC News. Jail administrators across the country saw a benefit to taxpayers, and revenue soared from the calls after in-person visitation was eliminated.

Genesee County’s first video call provider was Securus. In 2018, the county signed a new contract with ViaPath. The ViaPath contract gives the county a minimum annual commission of $180,000 for phone and video rights, plus a $60,000 tech grant and a 20% cut from each video call’s revenue.

An internal email from a county jail administrator involved in negotiating the deal includes his approving remarks about the $60,000 “gift” and “a set guaranteed commission that is more than the average monthly commission we currently get.” 

In an interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt, civil rights lawyer Alec Karakatsanis said, “The theory behind these contracts seems to be if you stop kids from visiting their parents in person, these desperate families will be forced to spend more money on phone and video calls.”

Eliminating in-person visits

In February, according to court records, Harris-Dudley was arrested and charged after she allegedly retaliated violently against her son’s father, who she said was abusing her. More than 90 days later, she was still locked up on her daughter’s birthday because she couldn’t afford bail.

In Genesee County, video calls are free — if the “visitor” travels to the jail and uses a screen there. Detainees are given one longer or two shorter at-home calls for free per week. Otherwise, the at-home calls cost $10 for 25 minutes.

Harris-Dudley said the challenge of staying connected with her three children has been emotionally devastating: “It’s very hard for my children to open up over a phone compared to in person.”

Her parents, Brenda and Phillip Dudley, have been looking after her children. Brenda Dudley said that her daughter’s eldest son, now 10, has been particularly affected by the separation. She said he constantly asks about his mother’s return.

“Every day, ‘Where’s Mama? When’s she coming home?’” said Brenda. “It’s hard because they’ll hug me, and I’m not her.”

Although no national database tracks jail visitation policies, a 2015 Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) report shows a significant trend: 74% of jails that implemented video calls also banned in-person visits, like in Michigan where the majority of county jails follow this model.

PPI’s 2015 report — the last major nationwide study of for-profit visitation in correctional facilities — said jail administrators cited increased security as a benefit of eliminating in-person visits, specifically cutting off the flow of contraband from reaching the jail, an argument officials still use today.

But Wanda Bertram, a spokesperson for PPI, noted that jails and prisons use visitation rights as leverage for good behavior. “From a security point of view,” she said, “it’s kind of a terrible idea to remove options for seeing your loved ones.” 

Research has shown that visitors are not the primary source of contraband making its way into prisons and jails. One case study at Travis County Jail in Texas found that after officials eliminated in-person visitation in 2013, disciplinary cases regarding smuggled contraband actually increased. 

And replacing direct contact with digital communication takes a human toll, experts and advocates say.

Worth Rises, a national criminal justice organization, has long fought to lower the cost of calls from behind bars, and is pushing for legislation to make phone calls free for detainees everywhere in the U.S. “Studies show that people who maintain strong family and community ties find it easier to re-enter society,” said its founder and executive director, Bianca Tylek.

Julie Poehlmann, a professor of human development and family studies from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, has studied the impact of incarceration on families and children for 25 years. 

“One hug is worth a thousand video visits,” she said. “Young kids, they need that form of comfort and connection in order to have a deep connection with that parent or family member.” 

Poehlmann said that for young children especially, connecting with an incarcerated parent solely through a video call can be a struggle and harmful.

But it is against the law?

The lawsuit

Alec Karakatsanis is now challenging the video-only visitation policy in court, calling it unconstitutional, “painfully inadequate,” and dangerous for society.

 In March, Karakatsanis filed two lawsuits against Michigan counties, including Genesee, alleging that the video-only policy violated the civil rights of families. In his filings, he argued that kids have a “right to hug” their parents, and called the abolition of contact visits “akin to torture.”

“Family bonds are absolutely vital to keeping people out of jail once they’re released,” said Karakatsanis, who is suing both the counties and their service providers. “Cutting off the contact that people have with their children and their loved ones makes them more likely to come back into the system later after they leave because it disrupts those family bonds.”

Poehlmann is serving as an expert witness in both lawsuits.

The lawsuit alleges that the visitation policy was strategically implemented the same year paid video calls were introduced, aiming to “maximize revenue” for both the jails and their corporate partners.

In a statement to NBC News, ViaPath emphasized that its technology is not meant to replace in-person visits and that the company did not require any correctional facility to eliminate those visits. “Video visits offer more options for contact with the support networks of incarcerated individuals, including more frequent visits, more visitors per visit, and often extended visitation times. Limitations on any type of communication are at the discretion of the facility.” 

A spokesperson for Genesee County’s original contract holder, Securus, said the county is responsible for its visitation policy. “Correctional facilities are responsible for their policies, including the visitation policy that is in the best interest of their security and community needs. Securus then contracts to provide the products and services that support those policies.”

Among Genesee County’s leading proponents of using video visits to raise revenue was Chris Swanson, who at the time was undersheriff and is personally named in the lawsuit.

In 2012, during a meeting with county officials and a Securus representative, Swanson said the system needed to be “a revenue generating machine.”

But in a recent interview with Holt, Swanson — who became the county’s sheriff in 2019 — said he now thinks that his past stance was wrong.

“The person I am today is not the same person I was in 2012, 2014,” Swanson told Holt.

He said George Floyd’s murder began to shift his outlook.

“It was a moment that was pivotal in my life not just as the sheriff, as Chris Swanson.”

In 2020, as people took to the streets across the nation, a video of Swanson went viral as he addressed the protesters. “I want to make this a parade, not a protest,” he told the crowd, and then marched with them.

Since then, said Swanson — who was elected to a full term as sheriff in 2020 and is running for re-election this fall — his perspective has focused more on helping people, instead of just jailing them.

He said the lawsuit has reinforced his new point of view. He said he has come to view the revenue from the video visits as money that comes not from the detainees, but “from their families. And so you’re penalizing people. And I see that now.”

Even though Genesee County lawyers are fighting to have the suit dismissed, Swanson told Holt that he is reintroducing in-person visits starting this summer, calling it “Operation Restoration.” The first Saturday of each month will be for children under 12, and by August a different Saturday will be for people 13 and older.

A judge will now decide whether the case against him and the county will move forward. Whatever the court decides, Swanson said, his mind is already made up.

“This initiative is about restoring families, breaking generational cycles of incarceration and poverty, and instilling hope,” he asserts. “We’re finally aligning with what’s right.”

Attorneys for Genesee County did not respond to a request for comment. In court filings, they have argued that family members do not have a constitutional right to in-person visits with people incarcerated in jail, and that the county implemented the ban to increase security and safety at the jail by preventing visitors from entering with contraband. They have also pointed out that certain detainees are currently able to visit with their families under special circumstances, such as during non-profit led parenting classes.

Lifting the ban, the filings say, would have a “significant impact” on jail staff and resources, and disregards the “adequate” means of communication family members have through video and phone calls.

An attorney for St. Clair County, the other Michigan county Karakatsanis is suing, defended the Securus video visitation system it uses as an “easier and more reliable means of conducting free onsite visits than the old system of visits previously conducted through a glass partition. Also, under the old system, visits were limited to one visit per week supervised by a jail visitation officer. The new technology now allows an unlimited number of remote visits, for a fee, where visitors can conduct the visits literally from anywhere.”

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

• In ‘Black Barbie,’ the 44-year-old doll reclaims her spotlight
• Police arrest Republican lawmaker amid gunshot reports in middle of night in Lansing
• Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center set to open honoring historic LGBTQ uprising

The 24-page filing said Judge Engoron should step aside in light of a state judicial conduct investigation launched last month. Sources familiar with the investigation said the probe is examining whether Engoron engaged in an improper conversation about the case with an expert real estate lawyer three weeks before issuing his $454 million penalty ruling.

That lawyer is Adam Leitman Bailey, who unexpectedly revealed his alleged interaction with the judge during two taped TV interviews with NBC New York in February.

“I wanted him to know what I think and why…I really want him to get it right,” Bailey said, repeating that it had been his intention to advise Engoron about the law in the Trump case and why harsh penalties would be bad for business in New York. Bailey later said he and the judge “never mentioned the word Donald Trump,” but when asked if it had been clear which case they had been discussing, Bailey responded “Well obviously we weren’t talking about the Mets.”

In their motion, the Trump legal team said WNBC’s reporting on Bailey’s public statements raises questions about outside influence on the judge.

“Where, as here, this Court’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned under the circumstances, it must recuse. Indeed, there is no other means of dispelling the shadow that now looms over this Court’s impartiality,” the filing states.

Read the full filing below:

When reached for comment, court spokesman Al Baker said “we have no further comment on this matter.” WNBC also reached out to Bailey for a response but has not yet heard back.

Bailey is a high-profile attorney who has coedited textbooks on New York real estate law. His law license was once suspended in part for cursing at opposing litigants. Bailey told News 4 he had a longstanding professional relationship with Engoron, so he approached him in the courthouse to explain to him that a fraud statute at issue in the case was not intended to be used to shut down a major company, especially in a case without clear victims.

“I know he respects my real estate knowledge,” Bailey said. “So I gave it to him. I gave him everything I knew. He had a lot of questions, you know about certain cases. We went over it.”

A statement from a court spokesman in February did not deny that a conversation had taken place between the judge and the lawyer, but implied the interaction was insignificant.

“No ex parte conversation concerning this matter occurred between Justice Engoron and Mr. Bailey or any other person. The decision Justice Engoron issued February 16 was his alone, was deeply considered, and was wholly uninfluenced by this individual,” said Al Baker, a spokesman for the New York State’s Office of Court Administration, in a written statement.

After Bailey’s on-camera claims to WNBC and the judge’s broad, written denial, the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct (NYSCJC) opened an investigation last month, according to sources familiar with the matter.

And within weeks, the commission questioned Bailey under oath about his claims. In a statement, NYSCJC Administrator Robert Tembeckjian said “The Commission on Judicial Conduct is constrained by a strict confidentiality statute and has no comment on this matter.”

The commission is collecting evidence to determine whether Engoron violated ethics rules, the sources said. These rules generally prohibit judges from discussing pending cases with outside parties, or accepting any expert advice unless it is disclosed to the parties in the case who must be given a chance to respond.

Ethics experts point out that the rules do not prohibit abstract discussions of the law, and that judges are afforded discretion in deciding which contacts must be disclosed.

In their filing, the Trump team said Engoron had “failed to notify” them of Bailey’s alleged input, accusing the judge of three months of “obfuscation.”

Trump’s motion requests a separate evidentiary hearing before a different judge to call witnesses — including Bailey — if Engoron does not agree to recuse himself. Trump’s attorney Christopher Kise said they are also issuing their own civil subpoenas seeking communications between Bailey and Engoron.

Sources familiar with the Judicial Conduct investigation say the Commission already asked Bailey to turn over any emails and texts he may have exchanged with Judge Engoron.

Bailey suggested he was texting Engoron seeking intel on his penalty ruling, hours before it was due to be released.

“What’s he thinking?” Bailey asked, as he appeared to type on his phone during his on camera interview with WNBC.
“I should text him….He’s probably getting bombarded…I’ll text him. I wanna get this decision.”

The court spokesman declined to tell NBC New York whether Engoron received texts from Bailey inquiring about his Trump ruling before it was issued that day.

Since February, the court spokesman has not responded to any of WNBC’s specific additional questions about the duration and nature of the interaction between Engoron and Bailey. For instance, did the judge engage with Bailey or did he try to shut the conversation down?

According to Trump’s motion, a judge’s responsibility to avoid any appearance of impropriety is heightened “in a case that has commanded worldwide attention.”

Several ethics experts and former judges contacted by News 4 say it will likely be the judge’s decision whether to recuse himself from the Trump civil case. But they note the existence of a Judicial Conduct investigation does not itself necessitate a recusal.

Former President Trump has repeatedly accused Engoron, a Democrat, of bias. The Trump team unsuccessfully demanded a mistrial in November and has criticized the judge’s decisions which are currently on appeal.

Under a lawyer’s rules of professional conduct, a lawyer should not “state or imply an ability” to improperly influence a judge, nor assist a judge in violating their own rules. But Bailey emailed WNBC several hours after Engoron issued his penalty ruling on February 16:

“I guess I convinced the judge to change his mind and reverse his ruling on the certificates and selling DT’s (Donald Trump’s) NY assets. Crazy,” Bailey wrote, without offering evidence.

But by the time Bailey approached the judge, there were other forces in play. An appeals court had already put Engoron’s initial ruling to revoke Trump’s business certificates on hold.

It’s not clear why Bailey would disclose in a television interview an effort to advise a judge that could land himself in trouble, according to legal ethics experts consulted for this report. When NBC New York pressed Bailey about the ethics of the conversation he had described, he said he had done nothing improper. So far it is unclear if Bailey is facing any sort of ethics probe for his alleged actions.

Bailey stopped responding to News 4 in February after learning his interaction with the judge might become the subject of our story. In his last email to WNBC in February, he wrote:

“If you do a story about my conversation about the law with the judge, you will harm my reputation with the judge and others. Why is this news?”

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

Around 4 p.m. on Tuesday, shortly after the doors of his family-owned and -operated studio opened for evening classes, An and his father, mother, older sister and younger brother heard shrieks coming from a neighboring business.

The family of five, each with a fourth-degree black belt, run the Yong-in Taekwondo dojo in Katy, Texas, outside Houston. They initially ignored the sounds, assuming they came from employees playing around in their break room. But then a piercing “final scream” prompted the An family into action, An said.

His family ran to the store and opened a door that had been shut. There they found a man on top of a young woman with his hands “in appropriate places” as she attempted to fend him off, An said. 

An’s father, Hong, yanked the attacker away by his shirt and pinned him to the ground. An’s sister, Hannah, grabbed the girl and rushed her out of the room while An and his brother helped subdue the attacker. 

“It just happened so sudden,” said An, who has been practicing taekwondo for 16 years. “It was all self defense. The intruder was trying to run away — scratching, biting, anything he could do.”

But An’s dad, a taekwondo grand master, held down the attacker for 10 minutes until law enforcement arrived, he said. 

“My dad is strong. He expected us to protect him,” An said. “He had a lot of trust in us.”

The Harris County Sheriff’s Department has credited An and his family with saving the young woman from an attempted sexual assault. 

“By utilizing their training and discipline, they managed to stop the assault and hold him,” sheriff Ed Gonzalez said in a series of posts on X.

The attacker has been charged with attempted sexual assault and unlawful detention, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Department.

“Thank you to the Yong-In dojo for your quick action in protecting others,” the sheriff wrote.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

• Man allegedly sexually assaulting woman in Las Vegas is fatally stabbed after group of citizens intervene
• Collecting sex-crazed zombie cicadas on speed: Scientists track a bug-controlling fungus
• Louisiana law requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

Gensel Soler Avila was indicted Tuesday on four counts each of first- and second-degree assault as well as weapon possession, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said. The charges stem from attacks on the night of Dec. 4 in Huntington Station.

Avila, 21, got into a fight with another man at a bar, and when the other man tried to run off, Avila chased him into the intersection of Pulaski Road and New York Avenue, an investigation found. After knocking the victim to the ground, Avila allegedly beat his face and body with a sharp object, stabbing him repeatedly, including in the eye.

The victim was left bleeding heavily and eventually passed out in the middle of the street. He was still unconscious when police found him later on, according to the investigation.

While Avila, a reputed member of the MS-13 gang, was walking away from the first victim, he attacked another man, the DA said. He punched the man repeatedly while holding a sharp object, and caused a stab wound from the victim’s forehead down to his eye, leading it to bleed heavily.

Both victims were taken to Huntington Hospital and later transferred to North Shore University Hospital to get specialized surgery. Each man suffered permanent loss of vision in one of their eyes in addition to other injuries, including cuts to the face and chest, Tierney said. The first victim needed a prosthetic skull to be inserted and more than 50 staples to his head.

These alleged brutal acts which resulted in the permanent loss of vision for the victims, are a stark reminder of the senseless violence that torments our communities,” said District Attorney Tierney. “The allegations against this individual, including that he is an MS-13 gang member, are deeply troubling.”

Avila was arraigned and held on $1 million bond. He is due back in court on July 24. Avila is being represented by attorney Joseph Hanshe.

The victim, a 77-year-old woman, got a phone call around 3 p.m. on May 20 from someone who claimed to be working for the New York City-based bank, police said. The person on the phone told her she had been hacked and the bank needed money from her in order fix the account.

The individual then took a cab to the woman’s home in Great Kills and collected about $15,500 from her before getting back in the taxi and taking off on Lindenwood Road, according to police.

The suspect, a woman, was seen on a doorbell camera and was described as having a heavy build with glasses, hair in a ponytail and wearing a surgical facemask. She was last seen wearing a black sweatshirt with gold letters and black jeans.

The victim was not injured.

Rodlin Gravesande was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the Dec. 2022 incident which left the victim with second- and third-degree burns to the left side of her face. Gravesande had been convicted of first- and second-degree assault in May.

The attack occurred after the victim, a 21-year-old woman, was riding to work at Kings County Hospital on a southbound No. 2 train just before 1 a.m. on Dec. 2, 2022, according to Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. As she was on the train, Gravesande started to yell, threaten and push passengers aboard the subway for several minutes, before turning her attention to the victim.

The train soon after stopped at the Winthrop Street Station in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, where the victim got off — followed by Gravesande. The two traded words on the platform, the DA said, before the victim tried to walk away. But Gravesande punched her in the head, and when she walked toward the stairs, Gravesande followed her.

She then took out a vial of sulfuric acid and threw it in the victim’s face, the investigation found. Gravesande, 34, ran from the station immediately after.

The victim ran from the station to the hospital where she worked. She was transferred to the burn unit at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx for treatment.

Since the attack, the victim has had a nose and lip reconstruction, in addition to multiple skin grafts. As a result of the burns she suffered, the victim has permanent facial scarring.

Gravesande fled to Atlanta but was extradited back to Brooklyn in Jan. 2023. Attorney information for her was not immediately available.

Staff Sgt. Gordon Black, 34, flew to the Pacific port city to see his girlfriend and was arrested last month after she accused him of stealing from her, according to U.S. officials and Russian authorities.

Russia’s state news agencies Tass and RIA Novosti reported that the judge in Pervomaisky District Court in Vladivostok also ordered Black to pay 10,000 rubles ($115) in damages. Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of four years and eight months in prison.

Black’s case occurs amid tensions over Russia’s arrests of American journalists and other U.S. nationals as the fighting in Ukraine continues.

Russia has jailed a number of Americans, including corporate security executive Paul Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. The U.S. government has designated both men as wrongfully detained and has been trying to negotiate their release.

Others detained include Travis Leake, a musician who has been living in Russia for years and was arrested last year on drug-related charges; Marc Fogel, a teacher in Moscow who was sentenced to 14 years in prison, also on drug charges; and dual nationals Alsu Kurmasheva and Ksenia Khavana.

The U.S. State Department strongly advises American citizens not to go to Russia.

Russia May 16

US soldier admits guilt in theft case, Russia says

Russia May 9

Mom of captured US soldier Gordon Black says girlfriend ‘lured' him to Russia

Black was on leave and in the process of returning to his home base at Fort Cavazos, Texas, from South Korea, where he had been stationed at Camp Humphreys with the Eighth Army.

Cynthia Smith, an Army spokesperson, said Black signed out for his move back home and, “instead of returning to the continental United States, Black flew from Incheon, Republic of Korea, through China to Vladivostok, Russia, for personal reasons.”

Under Pentagon policy, service members must get clearance for any international travel from a security manager or commander.

The U.S. Army said last month that Black hadn’t sought such travel clearance and it wasn’t authorized by the Defense Department. Given the hostilities in Ukraine and threats to the U.S. and its military, it is extremely unlikely he would have been granted approval.

Black’s girlfriend, Alexandra Vashchuk, told reporters earlier this month that “it was a simple domestic dispute,” during which Black “became aggressive and attacked” her.

“He then stole money from my wallet and I didn’t give him permission to do it,” Vashchuk said.

On Wednesday, she told Russian news outlet Gazeta.ru that she considers the sentence “quite humane” and described Black as “violent and unable to control himself.”

U.S. officials have said that Black, who is married, met Vashchuk in South Korea.

According to U.S. officials, she had lived in South Korea, and last fall she and Black got into some type of domestic dispute or altercation. After that, she left South Korea. It isn’t clear if she was forced to leave or what, if any, role South Korean authorities had in the matter.

Aurora Agapov, 19, filed a suit against her roommate Kaitlyn Fung and Fung’s mother, accusing the 18-year-old of concocting a scheme to steal Agapov’s pricey belongings and sell some of the items on an online luxury resale marketplace.

Agapov’s father is Andre Agapov, a Russian-American mining magnate and CEO of a gold mining company.

The suit alleges that Aurora Agapov discovered in May that some of her things had gone missing from their room in Founders’ Hall. She also found a receipt written to Fung from the online consignment shop The RealReal that listed the missing items, according to the lawsuit.

According to the suit, Agapov had Fung open her account on The RealReal, which allegedly showed several items Fung was in the process of selling including an 18-karat ring worth nearly $24,000, a $3,300 Celine tote, and a $4,000 Chanel handbag.

Items that had already been sold included a Bvlgari necklace sold for $2,485 and a Chanel bracelet sold for $175. The lawsuit says that both items were sold for substantially less than their true market value. The bracelet had a value of $2,000 and the necklace had a value of about $13,000, the suit says.

Other stolen items such as a Gucci handbag, Christian Louboutin shoes, and a Celine handbag had been sold but returned to Fung, according to the lawsuit.

Fung, of Old Tappan, New Jersey, was arrested on May 2 after Agapov reported the incident to the police. She’s been charged with grand larceny, a police spokesperson said.

The suit says that Agapov went to The RealReal’s location in New York City and was informed by an employee that Fung’s mother had allegedly instructed them to send the unsold items to her home.

Fung, whose LinkedIn says that she’s studying politics and criminology, and her mother could not be reached Tuesday at phone numbers listed for them. Attorney information for them was not listed in court documents.

Agapov says in the lawsuit that Fung and her mother “have failed and refused” to return the stolen items to her.

A representative for The RealReal said that none of the allegedly stolen items are in their possession anymore and the company is working with law enforcement.

All consignors are required to sign an agreement confirming they have the right to sell the items and that they are not stolen, the representative said in a statement.

“If we receive any information that items might be stolen, we act fast by removing the items from the site and starting an investigation,” the statement said.

A spokesperson for NYU said they cannot comment on the specific incident but said stealing from roommates is rare at the school and is a “lousy thing to do.” If a student is found to have stolen from a roommate, the student would most likely be immediately removed from the dorm and face serious consequences such as suspension.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

• Woman who accused ex-Trump adviser of molesting her says he shouldn’t lead a church
• Buster Murdaugh sues Netflix, Warner Bros., saying he was falsely accused of murder in death of high school classmate
• Trump says business executives should be ‘fired for incompetence’ if they don’t support him

Prosecutors nevertheless highlighted the importance of Anderson Lee Aldrich finally being forced to take responsibility for the hatred toward LGBTQ+ people that they say motivated the mass shooting. As part of the plea agreement, the shooter repeatedly admitted on Tuesday to evidence of hatred.

“The admission that these were hate crimes is important to the government, and it’s important to the community of Club Q,” said prosecutor Alison Connaughty.

The gunman attacked a place that was much more than a bar, according to Connaughty, who described Club Q as a safe space for people in the LGBTQ+ community.

“We met people who said ‘this venue saved my life and I was able to feel normal again,'” she said. The sentence against the shooter “sends a message that acts of hate will be met with severe consequences.”

The gunman, 24, is already serving life in prison after pleading guilty to state charges last year. Federal prosecutors focused on proving that the Nov. 19, 2022, attack at the haven for LGBTQ+ people was premeditated and fueled by bias.

U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney, the first openly gay federal judge in Colorado, heard heart-wrenching testimony from victims before accepting the agreement, which also includes a total of 190 years on gun charges and other counts.

Several of the survivors said they wanted the death penalty. However, Sweeney explained that capital punishment had not been sought by prosecutors and would need to have been imposed by a jury. Instead, the life sentences will mean no drawn-out appeals and no more hearings where a hate crime defendant might become a symbol. She said the shooter will never get out of prison and will face “a miserable future, with a miserable end.”

The survivors delivered harrowing accounts of the shooting and the fear and anguish they’ve lived with since. Several called for the shooter’s execution. The father of one victim said the gunman “should be shot like a dog.”

Adriana Vance, whose son Raymond Green Vance was killed, said she wakes up screaming.

“All I have left of his now is the urn that I speak to every night,” she said. The shooter “knows nothing but hate” and deserves death, she said.

One survivor — who had been celebrating a birthday and performing as a drag queen that night — expressed forgiveness for the shooter, and focused on the community’s capacity to find joy despite the pain.

“I’ve had to look at my partner in a casket, attend funerals of my friends and deal with unspeakable trauma,” said Wyatt Kent. “I see this person as a hurt person, created by failures of systems around them designed to help. I forgive you. We, the queer community, we are the resilient ones.”

The gunman, appearing in an orange prison uniform with head shaved and wrists handcuffed, faced the victims as they spoke but declined to make their own statement when given the chance. Defense attorney David Kraut made no explicit mention of hate or bias in his comments.

Kraut said there was no singular explanation for what motivated the mass shooting, but mentioned childhood trauma, an abusive mother, online extremism, drug use and access to guns as factors that increased the risk his client would engage in extreme violence.

Defense attorneys in the state case had pushed back against hate charges, arguing the shooter was drugged with cocaine and medication. In phone calls from jail with The Associated Press last year, the shooter didn’t answer directly when asked whether the attack was motivated by hate, saying only, that’s “completely off base.” The gunman previously pleaded no contest to state hate crime charges without admitting guilt.

Connaughty said evidence of the shooter’s hate for the LGBTQ+ community included two websites created by the shooter to post hate-related content, a target found inside the defendant’s house with a rainbow ring that had bullets in it and the defendant’s sharing of recordings of 911 calls from the 2016 killing of 49 people at the gay-friendly Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

The gunman also studied other mass shootings, accumulated weapons, shared an online manifesto from a mass shooter who referred to being transgender as a “disease,” and coordinated a spam email campaign against a former work supervisor who is gay, the prosecutor said.

Prosecutors said the gunman spent over $9,000 on weapons-related purchases from dozens of vendors between September 2020 and the attack. A hand drawn map of Club Q with an entry and exit point marked was found inside the gunman’s apartment, along with a black binder of training material entitled “How to handle an active shooter.”

Defense attorneys in the state case said the shooter is nonbinary, and uses they/them pronouns. A state prosecutor called that an effort to avoid responsibility for hate crimes.

Ashtin Gamblin, who worked the front door of Club Q and was shot nine times, told The AP that a true member of the LGBTQ+ community would know about the discrimination and mental health challenges its members face and wouldn’t attack such a sanctuary.

The gunman visited the club at least eight times before returning in a tactical vest and carrying an AR-15 style rifle, first killing a person in the entryway and then shooting at bartenders and customers before targeting people on the dance floor.

“The defendant was prepared to inflict the maximum amount of damage in the minimum amount of time,” Connaughty said, adding that the gunman fired 60 rounds in less than a minute.

A Navy officer grabbed the rifle barrel, burning his hand, and an Army veteran helped subdue the shooter until police arrived.

There had been a chance to prevent such violence: the gunman was arrested in June 2021, accused of threatening their grandparents and vowing to become “the next mass killer ″ while stockpiling weapons, body armor and bomb-making materials. But the gunman’s mother and grandparents refused to cooperate, and prosecutors failed to serve subpoenas to family members that could have kept the case alive, so the charges were eventually dismissed.

The shooter was sentenced Tuesday under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which expanded federal law in 2009 to include crimes motivated by sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

“I’m sure the shooter thinks he took our spirit that night,” said Ed Sanders, who was shot in the back and leg. “You cannot destroy our community by killing individuals. You can’t kill our love and spirit.”

Hadi Matar, 26, sat silently in Chautauqua County Court as lawyers outlined a proposal they said was worked out between state and federal prosecutors and agreed to by Rushdie over the past several months.

The agreement would have Matar plead guilty in Chautauqua County to attempted murder in exchange for a maximum state prison sentence of 20 years, down from 25 years. He would then also plead guilty to a yet-to-be-filed federal charge of attempting to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization, which could result in an additional 20 years, attorneys said.

New York Oct 11, 2023

Salman Rushdie announces memoir about being stabbed on NY stage

Books and literature Feb 7, 2023

6 Months After Stabbing, Salman Rushdie Is Back, and He Doesn't Want Your Pity

New York Aug 12, 2022

Who Is Hadi Matar? NJ Man Charged With Attempted Murder in Salman Rushdie Attack

Matar, who has pleaded not guilty, has been held without bail since his 2022 arrest after prosecutors say he attacked Rushdie as the acclaimed writer was about to address an audience at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York. Rushdie was blinded in one eye. Moderator Henry Reese was also wounded.

Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said Rushdie, who was stabbed more than a dozen times and detailed the near-fatal attack and painful recovery in a memoir, “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder,” favors the “global resolution” proposed in the case, which otherwise could mean two separate trials.

“His preference was to see this matter come to an end,” said Schmidt. Without Rushdie’s approval, Schmidt said he would have opposed reducing the maximum state prison term, given the nature of the attack.

“He came into Chautauqua County and then committed this crime, which is not just a crime against a person, but it’s also a crime against a concept of freedom of speech,” Schmidt said.

Matar’s attorney, Nathaniel Barone, said Matar wants to take his chances at trial.

“He’s saying, `What have I got to lose?,” Barone said after the hearing.

Judge David Foley instructed Matar to discuss the offer with Barone and to provide a definitive answer at his next appearance, on July 2.

Rushdie, who turns 77 on Wednesday, spent years in hiding after the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, in 1989 calling for his death due to his novel “The Satanic Verses,” which some Muslims consider blasphemous. Rushdie slowly began to re-emerge into public life in the late 1990s, and he has traveled freely over the past two decades.

After the on-stage attack, investigators said they were trying to determine whether Matar, who was born nearly a decade after “The Satanic Verses” came out, acted alone. The federal charge that prosecutors are reportedly considering points to the possibility that he did not.

“The approach is that it was a terrorist organization supported by countries in the Middle East, and that’s how they’re handling it,” Barone said.

“The federal government is taking the position that there was support before it happened,” he said. “I think in order for them to indict or obtain a conviction on any terrorist-related type of charges, they’re going to have to demonstrate that there was support beforehand as part of a conspiracy.”

Barbara Burns, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office, declined to comment on the potential terrorism charge, explaining that the office doesn’t confirm or deny investigations.

Matar was born in the U.S. but holds dual citizenship in Lebanon, where his parents were born. His mother has said that her son changed, becoming withdrawn and moody, after visiting his father in Lebanon in 2018. Schmidt has said that Matar got an advance pass to the event where the author was speaking and arrived from New Jersey a day early bearing a fake ID.

Rushdie, whose works also include “Midnight’s Children” and “Victory City,” wrote in his memoir that he saw a man running toward him in the amphitheater, where he was about to speak about the importance of keeping writers safe from harm.

The author is on the witness list, should Matar’s trial go forward as scheduled for September in Chautauqua County.

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

Benjamin Brown was arrested Monday on a charge of manslaughter by culpable negligence, which is a second-degree felony. He was released from the Santa Rosa County Jail after posting a $50,000 bond.

His defense attorney said Tuesday that Benjamin Brown intended to plead not guilty. An arraignment was scheduled for next month.

“Dr. Brown intends to plead not guilty and vigorously fight the allegations against him in court,” defense attorney Barry Beroset said in a phone call.

Brown’s wife, Hillary Brown, went into cardiac arrest in November while her husband was performing procedures on her at his clinic in the Pensacola area, according to the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office. She was taken to a hospital and died a week later, the sheriff’s office said.

Last month, the Florida Department of Health filed an administrative complaint before the state Board of Medicine, seeking penalties against Brown up to the revocation or suspension of his license. The complaint involved his wife’s case and other cases.

Unsupervised by her husband or any other health care practitioner, Hillary Brown prepared her own local anesthesia and filled intravenous bags for the procedures which included arm liposuction, lip injections and an ear adjustment, according to the Department of Health complaint.

She also ingested several pills, including a sedative, pain killer and antibiotic, before falling into a sedated state, though the consumption of those pills wasn’t documented, the complaint said.

“The minimum prevailing professional standard of care requires that physicians not permit a patient to prepare medication for use in their own surgery,” the complaint said.

During the procedures, Hillary Brown’s feet began twitching and she told her husband that her vision was starting to blur and that she saw “orange.” Benjamin Brown injected more lidocaine, an anesthetic, into her face. The Department of Health said she became unresponsive and had a seizure.

A medical assistant asked Benjamin Brown if they should call 911, and he said “no,” according to the complaint. Over the next 10 or 20 minutes, the medical assistant repeated her question about whether they should call for paramedics, and he said, “no” or “wait,” the complaint said.

When Hillary Brown’s breathing became shallow and her pulse and blood oxygen levels became low, after about 10 to 20 minutes, Benjamin Brown told his assistants to call 911 and he began performing resuscitation efforts on her, the complaint said.

However, a medical assistant told a sheriff’s office investigator that she made the decision to call 911, not Benjamin Brown. Emergency room doctors at the hospital where Hillary Brown was transported later told the investigator that they treated her for lidocaine toxicity, according to a sheriff’s office report.

Also last month, the Department of Health issued an emergency order restricting Benjamin Brown’s license to perform procedures only at a hospital under the supervision of another physician. His wife had given injections and performed laser treatment on patients even though she wasn’t a licensed health care practitioner, the order said.

Addressing the procedures involving his wife last November, the order noted that muscle twitches and blurred vision are early signs of lidocaine toxicity. The order described Benjamin Brown’s treatment of his wife as “careless and haphazard.”

“The level of disregard that Dr. Brown paid to patient safety, even when the patient was his wife, indicates that Dr. Brown is unwilling or incapable of providing the appropriate level of care his future patients,” the order said.

A McDonald’s employee was arrested in Lakeland, Florida, after a drive-thru dispute turned violent on Friday.

An argument began when the customers reportedly felt their order was incorrect, police said. Video captured the employee, identified as 22-year-old Chassidy Gardner, arguing with those customers before allegedly throwing a drink at them as they were attempting to leave.

Two of the customers were then seen opening the drive-thru window to throw drinks back at Gardner.

Video shows Gardner arm herself with a handgun before the customers drove to another part of the business.

A second video from outside the business showed Gardner walk outside with her gun before firing her weapon as the customers’ vehicle exited the parking lot.

The victims’ vehicle was struck at least one time, according to police. It’s unclear if there were any injuries.

Gardner was later arrested on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Bishop Lamor Miller-Whitehead, 46, was convicted in March of wire fraud, attempted wire fraud, attempted extortion and making false statements to federal law enforcement agents, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

Miller-Whitehead, a bishop at the Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries church in Canarsie, made headlines in July 2022 when armed assailants robbed him and his wife of $1 million worth of jewelry during a livestreamed service, police said.

The bishop was called a “con man” by U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.

“Lamor Whitehead is a con man who stole millions of dollars in a string of financial frauds and even stole from one of his own parishioners,” Williams said. “He lied to federal agents, and again to the Court at his trial. Today’s sentence puts an end to Whitehead’s various schemes and reflects this Office’s commitment to bring accountability to those who abuse their positions of trust.”

Miller-Whitehead was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $85,000 in restitution and forfeit $95,000, prosecutors said.

Attorney Dawn Florio said in a Monday statement Miller-Whitehead is innocent and vowed his legal fight is not over.

“As today’s sentencing was not what we had hoped for, we are deeply saddened by the outcome. Despite this setback, we remain steadfast in our belief in Bishop Lamor Miller Whitehead’s innocence and are committed to continuing the fight,” Florio said.

“We will explore all available legal avenues to ensure that justice is served. Our dedication to proving Bishop Whitehead’s innocence is unwavering, and we will immediately begin the appeal process.”

During the 2022 robbery incident armed assailants “displayed firearms and demanded property” from the bishop and his wife, then 38, police said.

Brooklyn Mar 11

Brooklyn preacher known for flashy lifestyle convicted of wire fraud, attempted extortion

Crime and Courts Sep 28, 2022

Suspects Arrested Months After NY Bishop and Wife Robbed of Around $1M in Jewelry During Livestreamed Service

The preacher embraced his flashy lifestyle. He was known for driving around in a Rolls Royce and records show he lived in a $1.6 million home in Paramus, New Jersey. He also owned apartment buildings in Hartford, Connecticut.

A number listed on the leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries Facebook page was not in service on Monday afternoon.

Miller-Whitehead convinced one of his parishioners to invest about $90,000 from her retirement savings with him by promising he would help buy her a home, prosecutors said. He spent that money on luxury goods and personal expenses and didn’t pay her back when she asked, prosecutors said.

He also extorted a businessman of $5,000, prosecutors said, and tried to convince the same man to lend him $500,000 and stake in real estate transactions in return for favorable actions from the mayor of New York City, prosecutors said.

Miller-Whitehead could not deliver on the promises he made, prosecutors said.

He also submitted a fraudulent application for a $250,000 business loan that included doctored bank statements that claimed he had millions of dollars in the bank and earned hundreds of thousands of dollars in monthly revenue.

“He submitted similar fraudulent applications to various other financial institutions, stealing millions of dollars in the process,” prosecutors said.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

• New Jersey’s attorney general charges influential Democratic power broker with racketeering
• Maryland governor announces pardons of more than 175,000 marijuana convictions
• Sen. Durbin raises alarm about sexually explicit deepfakes on Google

New Jersey’s attorney general has charged influential Democratic power broker George Norcross with racketeering and other charges in connection with government issued tax credits, according to an indictment unsealed Monday.

Norcross, a former Democratic National Committee member and one-time head of the Camden County Democratic Party, has been an influential figure in state politics. The indictment alleges that Norcross and others got property rights along the Camden waterfront and collected millions of dollars in state-backed tax credits.

At a news conferenced in Trenton, New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin accused Norcross of leading a criminal enterprise, obtaining millions in tax credits and property rights along the Delaware River waterfront in Camden.

Platkin said Norcross told a developer that he had to relinquish his property rights or he would retaliate and make it impossible for the developer to do business in Camden if he refused.

Members of the alleged conspiracy also got a government development agency to help them get leverage in private negotiations, Platkin said.

Norcross sat in the front row during the news conference, steadily watching the attorney general as he detailed the criminal counts against him. Asked what he made of Norcross’ presence in the room Monday, Platkin said he had no comment.

Michael Critchley, Norcross’ attorney, stood to try to ask the attorney general a question, but Platkin left before Critchley could ask anything. The Associated Press left a message seeking comment from Critchley.

The indictment alleges that Norcross and his associates “used their political influence to tailor New Jersey economic development legislation to their preferences. After the legislation was enacted in September 2013, members and associates of the Norcross Enterprise conspired to, and did, extort and coerce others to obtain — for certain individuals and business entities — properties and property rights on the Camden, New Jersey waterfront and associated tax incentive credits.”

Sean McKinnon, wearing shackles, was hugged by both of his attorneys after U.S. District Judge Thomas Kleeh agreed with prosecutors’ recommendation that he be given credit for serving 22 months in custody after his indictment.

McKinnon was accused along with two other inmates in the 2018 killing at a troubled West Virginia prison. Fotios “Freddy” Geas and Paul J. DeCologero, are accused of repeatedly hitting Bulger in the head within hours of Bulger being transferred to the prison.

Plea deals for the three were disclosed May 13. Plea hearings and sentencings are set for Aug. 1 for DeCologero and Sept. 6 for Geas.

McKinnon was released from USP Hazelton in 2022 after completing a sentence for stealing guns from a firearms dealer. He was on federal supervised release when the indictment was handed down just weeks later in August 2022.

McKinnon was set to be flown back to Florida later Monday.

“We’re delighted that he’s being released,” defense attorney Katie Cimono said.

Bulger, who ran the largely Irish mob in Boston in the 1970s and ’80s, became one of the nation’s most wanted fugitives after fleeing Boston in 1994. He was captured at age 81 after more than 16 years on the run and convicted in 2013 in a string of 11 killings and dozens of other gangland crimes.

More on Whitey Bulger's death

Crime and Courts May 13

3 men charged in Whitey Bulger's 2018 prison killing have plea deals, prosecutors say

Jul 12, 2023

Prosecutors won't seek death penalty in Whitey Bulger's prison killing

Dec 7, 2022

Prison Officials Made Series of Missteps Before Notorious Mobster Whitey Bulger's Killing, New Report Finds

According to the Metro Nashville Police Department, 33-year-old Sean Herman was fired last month after detectives with the Specialized Investigations Divisions discovered the video and identified him while wearing his MNPD uniform. Herman was arrested Thursday at his Sumner County home.

Officials say Herman can be seen taking part in a mock traffic stop in the video that was posted on OnlyFans, a site where fans pay creators for their photos and videos. The skit allegedly included Herman groping the female driver.

A MNPD news release says that the video was made April 26 in a warehouse parking lot while Herman was on duty as a patrol officer.

“Chief Drake directed that the investigation continue after Herman was fired, resulting in his indictment,” the news release states. “A Criminal Court judge set Herman’s bond at $3,000.”

U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger’s revelation in testimony that will continue on Thursday represented the second time in the five-week-old Manhattan federal court trial that a top law enforcement figure has said Menendez sought to speak about a criminal case affecting a New Jersey businessman.

Last week, a former New Jersey attorney general testified that Menendez twice confronted him about a pending criminal case affecting a New Jersey businessman, and both times the attorney general refused to discuss the subject.

news Jun 11

Menendez attorneys grill star witness in bribery trial about alleged payoffs

Bob Menendez Jun 10

New Jersey businessman testifies that bribes paid off with Sen. Bob Menendez

Bob Menendez Jun 7

NJ businessman admits he gave a Mercedes for Sen. Bob Menendez to use his ‘power and influence'

Prosecutors say trying to intervene in criminal cases was one way Menendez, 70, tried to reward businessmen who paid him and his wife bribes of gold bars, tens of thousands of dollars in cash and a car.

When prosecutors charged Menendez, his wife and three businessmen last fall, they said in court papers that Menendez recommended Sellinger as U.S. attorney because he believed he could influence Sellinger to protect Fred Daibes, a prominent New Jersey real estate developer and longtime friend who faced federal criminal charges.

Daibes is standing trial with Menendez, along with another businessman, Wael Hana. All three have pleaded not guilty. A third businessman, Jose Uribe, completed four days on the witness stand on Wednesday after pleading guilty and agreeing to testify against the others.

A trial for Nadine Menendez was postponed on Wednesday until at least August, depending on the pace of her recovery from surgery for breast cancer. She too has pleaded not guilty.

Sellinger, who has held New Jersey’s top federal law enforcement post since December 2021, is not accused of any wrongdoing. He testified that he had been friends with Menendez since the early 2000s when he began contributing to his campaigns for Congress and held political fundraisers for him.

The relationship grew over time as they increasingly had dinners together and played golf with their sons, and Sellinger came to believe that Menendez would nominate him to be New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor if Hillary Clinton won the 2016 presidential race, he said.

When Menendez got married in the fall of 2020, Sellinger attended the wedding, where he also had seen Daibes, Sellinger testified.

After Joe Biden won the 2020 election for president, Sellinger said he met with Menendez in his Washington office to talk about the U.S. attorney post. He said he shared his vision for the office.

Then, he said, Menendez mentioned that Daibes had a criminal case and that the senator believed he “was being treated unfairly.”

“And he said he hoped that if I became U.S. attorney, I would look at it carefully,” Sellinger recalled.

Sellinger said he told Menendez that he didn’t know anything about it and that he planned to look at all cases in his office carefully.

The following day, Sellinger said, he called Menendez after recalling that he had dealt with a lawsuit that was adverse to Daibes while he was in private practice and that the Justice Department might decide to recuse him from anything involving Daibes as a result.

Sellinger recalled that Menendez said he understood, but days later, the senator told him that the White House wanted several potential candidates to be offered for nomination and he had decided he would no longer recommend Sellinger for the post.

When Sellinger learned a few months later that the person in line to get the job was no longer going to get it, he said he reached out to Menendez to remind him that he was still interested.

He said he then received a call from a political consultant who had formerly been director of Menendez’s New Jersey office and was asked about his plans for the U.S. attorney’s office if he got the job.

Sellinger said he repeated what he had told Menendez, including that he expected he might be recused from the Daibes case as a result of his work on the lawsuit affecting him. Even so, though, Sellinger said Menendez told him in the spring that he was recommending he be nominated for the job.

After he was sworn in, Sellinger said, he referred his potential conflict of interest regarding Daibes to the Justice Department in Washington on his first day as U.S. attorney and was told the following week that he must have nothing to do with the case.

Three months later, he said, the political consultant asked to meet him for lunch and, after general conversation about the job, said he wanted to ask him a question.

“I said: ‘Let me stop you there,’ ” Sellinger testified. “As U.S. attorney, I’m not allowed to have any conversations about the official business of the office with any elected federal officials or their representatives.”

Sellinger said he called Menendez in spring 2022 to invite him to speak at a public ceremony celebrating Sellinger’s appointment as U.S. attorney.

“He said: ‘I’m going to pass,’ ” Sellinger recalled.

Sellinger said the senator then said: “The only thing worse than not having a relationship with the United States attorney is people thinking you have a relationship with the United States attorney and you don’t.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Pomerantz asked him what he understood Menendez to be saying.

“We no longer had a relationship,” Sellinger said.

On cross-examination that will continue Thursday morning, defense attorney Avi Weitzman asked Sellinger if Menendez in the past 20 years had ever asked him to do anything improper.

“I never believed him to be asking me to do anything improper or unethical,” Sellinger answered.

Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that Jaden Stephens, 21, was sentenced Tuesday to 12 years to life in prison. Stephens initially pleaded guilty June 1 to two counts of Predatory Sexual Assault and was sentenced to 12 years to life for each count, to run concurrently.

According to the investigation, on May 1, 2022, at around 11:30 p.m., on Eastchester Road Stephens stole a 19-year-old man’s phone at knifepoint and then performed oral sex on him without his consent. He attempted to force the man to perform a sex act on him, and when the victim refused, he punched him in the face and ran away.

Two weeks later, on May 14, 2022, at around 4:10 p.m. Stephens followed a 14-year-old boy inside the Edenwald Houses and at knifepoint Stephens told him to go to the roof and to give him his cellphone, according to the investigation. He then performed oral sex on the victim and recorded it on his own cellphone and threatened to post the video online if the boy reported it to the authorities.

“The defendant forced himself on the victims at knifepoint and even recorded one of the assaults,” Clark said. “We are thankful the victims came forward and courageously spoke out against their attacker, so we could bring them justice.”

“The cowards who did this are way over the line into antisemitism, harming the cause they claim to care about, and making everyone less safe,” Lander said in a post on X Wednesday.

It wasn’t immediately clear who was responsible for the vandalism.

Lander shared photos of a banner hanging outside the graffitied home of what appeared to be Brooklyn Museum Director Anne Pasternak, in Brooklyn Heights.

The building’s superintendent says surveillance video shows 5 people wearing masks and in head-to-toe black defacing the courtyard and hoisting a banner with the director’s name and an antisemitic message. On the ground, stencil graffiti read “Blood on Your Hands.”

About a mile away, the family home of another Brooklyn Museum executive was also vandalized.

According to the NYPD, the department is investigating multiple incidents throughout the city where red paint has been thrown or spray-painted onto homes. The pattern hasn’t been limited to any particular borough, they say.

Senior police sources say they’re looking for about 15 people. The group was last seen at East 65th Street and Park Avenue in a white U-Haul truck, where police said the suspects splattered red paint over two other homes linked to museum board members, according to the city’s comptroller, bringing the total number of homes hit to four.

No injuries have been reported.

A spokesperson for the Brooklyn Museum confirmed it had notified the NYPD of the acts of vandalism.

“We are deeply troubled by these horrible acts,” the spokesperson said.

It comes after a recently released report found antisemitic incidents in New York and New Jersey more than doubled last year, as such reports skyrocketed to record levels across the country in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. 

In a social post on X, Mayor Eric Adams said, “This is not peaceful protest or free speech. This is a crime, and it’s overt, unacceptable antisemitism. These actions will never be tolerated in New York City for any reason. I’m sorry to Anne Pasternak and members of @brooklynmuseum’s board who woke up to hatred like this. I spoke to Anne this morning and committed that this hate will not stand in our city. The NYPD is investigating and will bring the criminals responsible here to justice.”

On May 31, 34 pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested at the Brooklyn Museum after storming the museum and setting up tents in the lobby.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.

Surveillance cameras captured the chain of events, starting with a shirtless man stumbling into Milo Coffee Shop on Amsterdam Avenue around 6 p.m. Tuesday, and heading toward the back. Someone appearing to have been chasing him stops at the door. A short time later, a group of males enters the store and one of them stabs him in the neck.

Ultimately, he was stabbed several times. Witnesses reported multiple young people with knives at the scene.

Dramatic surveillance footage shows workers and a customer trying to fight them off, wielding chairs and fists as they push one male with a knife out of the shop. Two women working at the store hopped the counter, where a small child hid, in an apparent bid to get help from a nearby business. Ultimately, workers forced the group out of the shop.

The 39-year-old victim was initially taken to a hospital in critical condition and was later upgraded to stable condition. There was no immediate update on his status available Wednesday.

No arrests have been made in the case.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.

Cops responding to a 911 call of an assault in progress on West 40th Street, outside the transit hub, found the 22-year-old victim stabbed in the chest. She was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Her name has not been released.

No arrests have been made, and police haven’t released a description of the suspect. It’s not clear what prompted the dispute.

Anyone with information on the deadly attack is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.

Police in Fort Worth, Texas, have arrested a woman who allegedly stole a mortuary van with a body inside.

Police have identified the woman as 36-year-old Valerie Traglor-Ellis of Azle.

The Fort Worth Police Department said they were called to John Peter Smith Hospital, located at 1500 South Main, about a stolen car around 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

Police said when officers arrived, they learned that the incident began when an employee of a mortuary service arrived at the hospital with a transport van to get a body from the hospital.

The driver for the mortuary left the vehicle, which already had the body of another person inside, and went into the hospital.

While the driver of the van was in the hospital, police say, the suspect went into the van and drove away from the parking lot.

Police said they found the stolen corpse and the vehicle in the 2600 block of Park Place Avenue, about two miles from the original scene.

Police found the suspect a short time later and arrested her. Traglor-Ellis was charged with auto theft and abuse of a corpse.

The vehicle and the deceased person being transported were released to the driver of the mortuary service.

Check back and refresh this page for the latest update. As developments unfold, elements of this story may change.

King County prosecutors charged Aaron Brown Myers on Monday in the death of Hazrat Ali Rohani outside a Big 5 Sporting Goods Store in Renton, Washington. Myers, 51, also faces a second-degree assault charge after authorities say he held another teen at gunpoint.

Rohani and two other teens were headed into the store at about 7:30 p.m. on June 5 to return a malfunctioning airsoft gun, Rohani’s friends told police. They walked in front of Myers, who was sitting in his vehicle waiting to pick up his son from a martial arts class.

Myers told police that he noticed one teen carrying what he believed was a Glock handgun, and thought he saw another teen put a firearm into his waistband. Thinking he needed to stop an armed robbery, Myers told police that he didn’t have time to call 911, and instead got out of the car and pointed his gun pointed at the teens.

As Myers approached, one of the teens moved to the side and the other two stopped, raised their hands and one placed the airsoft gun on the sidewalk, telling Myers numerous times that it was a “BB gun,” not a firearm.

Myers then pushed one of the boys onto the sidewalk and straddled him, according to the probable cause document filed by Renton police. Myers continued to point his firearm at Rohani as he held his hands out in front of him, showing Myers that they were empty, police said. Rohani started to back away and Myers opened fire, hitting the teen once in the right side and six times in the back.

Video shows Rohani clutching his abdomen as he falls to the ground, calling out for his mother. The other teen ran for cover and called 911.

Rohani died at the scene and police immediately took Myers into custody.

Myers’ lawyer, Michelle Scudder, said in an email that Myers sincerely believed he was witnessing the beginning of a violent crime and wanted to stop it before anyone got hurt.

“Mr. Myers and his family are devastated by this tragedy and the fact that it resulted in the loss of a young man’s life,” Scudder said. “We are confident that over the course of this investigation the evidence will show that Mr. Myers’ only intent that day was to protect himself and others from serious harm or death.”

Myers said he had a “duty to intervene,” prosecutors said.

“The defendant failed to take the obvious step of securing the toy gun, rather than assaulting the teen who had carried it,” King County Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Lauren Burke said in a court filing.

Myers was being held in King County jail on $2 million bail. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for June 24 in Kent, Washington.

“Only a high bail, electronic home detention, and surrender of all firearms will protect the community from an untrained civilian who believes he has a duty to shoot people who have not hurt anyone,” Burke said.

It’s unclear where Myers works as a security guard.

Myers had tried to intervene in what he thought was a crime in March 2022, police said. He called 911 and told police that he saw a person on a bicycle pointing a gun at people, police said. He followed the person to a store until police arrived. Officers determined the person did not have a gun and posed no threat, police said.

“In this case the defendant attacked three teenagers who had not committed any crime and at every stage of the interaction chose to escalate with more and more violence, until it culminated in the defendant taking the life of” Rohani, Burke said.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the white supremacist went online and sold ghost gun parts, unknowingly to the undercover officer, all while he was locked up in a federal prison a thousand miles away in Louisiana.

“We see this sad and tragic combination far too often. The intersection of gun violence and gun trafficking and hate and extremism,” said Bragg.

An encrypted messaging app that had once been used by a racist mass shooter who killed 10 people (all African-American) at a Buffalo grocery store led investigators to the man who was selling the ghost gun parts from his prison cell.

“Things that are happening in chatrooms today can be in our streets tomorrow,” said Bragg.

Police said 24-year-old Hayden Espinosa was a moderator of a white supremacist channel that featured “vile rhetoric, neo-Nazi iconography,” according to Rebecca Weiner, the NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Counterterrorism.

Espinosa was advertising and selling 3-D printed ghost gun parts through cellphones smuggled into prison, prosecutors allege. His operation came crashing down, investigators said, when he sold gun parts to an undercover NYPD officer.

“He attempted to sell a Glock-19 handgun and finally sold, we allege, two silencers,” Bragg said.

In 2023, the NYPD confiscated nearly 6,500 illegal guns from New York City streets, and the department is on track to hit the same number again in 2024.

Investigators said the indictment highlights how easy it is for criminals to use 3-D printers to make and sell these deadly switch inserts, which can transform pistols into machine guns.

“Devices such as these are a danger in our community and that’s why we are working on cases like this with our partners,” said Special Agent Bryan Miller, of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Two months ago, DA Bragg called on YouTube to take down videos that teaches users how to make ghost guns and to stop suggesting videos about guns to minors. In response, YouTube set stricter rules around gun videos and set age restrictions on videos about ghost guns.

Espinoza was released from federal prison in Louisiana last week only to be arrested again for allegedly selling ghost gun parts. He is set to be extradited to New York and will face a judge in Lower Manhattan on June 24. Attorney information for Espinoza was not immediately available.

Milan Edward Jurkovic, 36, was convicted in December of abusive sexual contact following a three-day jury trial, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington.

Court documents show Jurkovic had pleaded not guilty.

At the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik said the assault “shouldn’t have happened,” prosecutors said.

“The flight back should have been nothing less than the end of a joyous trip and instead she is the victim of a crime,” Lasnik said of the girl.

Jurkovic assaulted the girl on July 3, 2022, on an Air France flight from Paris to Seattle, prosecutors said. The teen was traveling with a school group at the time, U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman said in the statement.

“Trapped in an aircraft cabin, these assaults are particularly traumatic for vulnerable young people who trust the adults around them to behave appropriately,” Gorman said. “In this case the defendant groped a teenager traveling with a school group. She bravely spoke up. As I noted a year ago, we have a zero-tolerance policy for these aircraft sexual assaults. Predators will be prosecuted.”

Jurkovic’s attorney listed in court records could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.

The teen victim, who sat next to Jurkovic for hours on the flight, was with a school group from western Washington returning from a class trip abroad, prosecutors said.

Roughly three hours into the flight, Jurkovic reached under a blanket, prosecutors said, and began groping the victim’s thigh.

“The victim was shocked and frozen with fear,” prosecutors said. Jurkovic continued to rub her thigh for an “extended period of time” and touched her inner thigh, according to prosecutors.

The girl sought help from a classmate and then her chaperone. The chaperone traded places with her for the rest of the flight, prosecutors said.

Port of Seattle Police met the flight upon landing at the Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, prosecutors said, and law enforcement interviewed the girl.

Jurkovic told inconsistent stories to different people, prosecutors said.

“He told the chaperone he had been rubbing his leg due to bad circulation, suggesting that he inadvertently touched the victim,” according to prosecutors. He later told police he did not hurt anyone and volunteered that he had an itch on his leg, prosecutors said.

The case was investigated by the FBI and the Port of Seattle Police, authorities said.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

• Hunter Biden’s guilty verdict upends a top Trump talking point
• Missouri inmate convicted of killing couple is executed despite innocence claim
• Biden administration moves to ban medical debt from credit reports

Leonard Darnell George was charged last year along with several others with conspiring to bring drugs and undocumented migrants into the United States. A San Diego federal jury convicted George on Monday afternoon of four counts, including receiving bribes by a public official. He is set to be sentenced in September.

Prosecutors say that in late 2021, George was assigned to the primary inspection booth at the San Ysidro Port of Entry when he met two people who were part of a drug-trafficking organization.

Following that encounter, George began taking cash to let vehicles carrying drugs and migrants through when he was on duty, earning him the nickname “The Goalie” from traffickers, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“The defendant intentionally failed to conduct proper inspections of these vehicles or request proper identification,” prosecutors wrote in a trial brief.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office estimates that George was paid between $300,000 and $400,000 during the time he worked with traffickers. Among the purchases George made with the bribe money include cars, motorcycles, and jewelry, prosecutors said.

Several co-defendants in the case pleaded guilty prior to George’s trial.

Petito in the letter, part of more than 350 pages of documents released by the FBI, tells Brian Laundrie that they are supposed to be a team.

“Just please stop crying and stop calling me names because we’re a team and I’m here with you,” Petito, who was 22 years old when Laundrie killed her and left her body in Wyoming, said in the handwritten letter. A date for the letter was not evident.

Laundrie, Petito’s fiancé, killed her while the two were on a cross-country trip in the summer of 2021, which she documented on YouTube and Instagram.

Attorneys who represented the Petito and Laundrie families in the past could not immediately be reached for comment early Tuesday morning on the documents released by the FBI.

A search and the mystery of what happened to her received widespread attention after Laundrie returned to his Florida home with the van they were in — without her.Petito’s remains were found in September of that year in Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area in Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming.

A month earlier, on Aug. 12, police in Moab, Utah, responded to what a later review found should have been treated as a domestic violence call involving the couple. A person reported an “odd text” on Aug. 27 was the last contact anyone had with her, the documents show.

Laundrie later died by suicide and admitted he was responsible for Petito’s death in written statements that were found in a notebook near his body in a Florida nature reserve. He fatally shot himself, the medical examiner ruled. Petito had been strangled, a Wyoming coroner determined.

Other documents in the FBI file, some of which are redacted, include evidence logs and photos of banal items like books, sneakers and backpacks.

Some documents detail reports from people who thought they had seen Petito at gas stations in Utah.

Feb 22

Settlement reached between Gabby Petito and Laundrie families

Dec 4, 2023

Brian Laundrie allegedly told his parents Gabby Petito was ‘gone' 13 days before she was reported missing

Petito’s disappearance got intense media coverage. There was also criticism over the sheer volume of coverage and attention given to a young missing white woman, compared to other missing people.

Petito’s parents recently said they want to encourage the public to give more attention to other missing people, whose families also want their loved ones returned.

“There wasn’t a demographic or race or country for that matter that didn’t help us and so we are going to try to do the same and give that back,” Petito’s father, Joe Petito, told NBC affiliate WFLA of Tampa.

The family is sharing information about other missing people on their website, and are hopeful more awareness is given to others who are missing.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

• Martha’s Vineyard is about to run out of pot. That’s led to a lawsuit and a scramble by regulators.
• A brew of ancient coca is Bolivia’s buzzy new beer. But it’s unclear if the world will buy in.
• Trump’s endorsement power will be put to the test in Tuesday’s primaries

The woman was walking near Vireo Avenue and East 235th Street around 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 25, when cops say a man put her in a chokehold. The man forced her to the ground and wrestled with the woman for a time, video shows. She was eventually able to fight him off by screaming for help.

The suspect, later identified as Miguel Rivera, was last seen riding off in a blue scooter.

The victim suffered cuts and bruises and refused medical attention at the scene.

Police released surveillance images of Rivera (above).

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.

Authorities said Rebecca Grossman, wife of a prominent Los Angeles burn doctor, fatally struck Mark Iskander, 11, and brother Jacob, 8, while speeding.

A Los Angeles jury in February found Rebecca Grossman guilty on all counts: Two felony counts each of second-degree murder and gross vehicular manslaughter, and one felony count of hit-and-run driving resulting in death.

Superior Court Judge Joseph Brandolino sentenced her to two concurrent 15-years-to-life sentences, plus three years for fleeing the scene of the fatal crash that would run concurrently with the two other sentences, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The judge called Grossman’s actions “reckless and unquestionably negligent.”

The deadly crash occurred on the evening of Sept. 29, 2020, in Westlake Village, a city on the western edge of Los Angeles County.

Prosecutors presented evidence that the data recorder in Grossman’s white Mercedes showed she was speeding at up to 81 mph (130 kph) and tapped her brakes, slowing to 73 mph (117 kph), less than two seconds before a collision that set off her airbags.

At the time, Jose Uribe said in Manhattan federal court, he assumed that Menendez knew he had made a $15,000 down payment and was making monthly payments on a Mercedes-Benz for Menendez’s girlfriend, who married Menendez a year later.

Prosecutors contend that the car, along with gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash found in the couple’s Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, home, were bribes paid by three businessmen, including Uribe, to get the senator to use his influence to serve their purposes and earn them money from 2018 to 2023.

Bob Menendez Jun 7

NJ businessman admits he gave a Mercedes for Sen. Bob Menendez to use his ‘power and influence'

Bob Menendez Jun 6

Ex-NJ attorney general testifies Sen. Bob Menendez confronted him twice over a pending criminal case

Bob Menendez Jun 6

Sen. Bob Menendez's wife is excused from court after cancer surgery

Defense lawyers for Menendez have argued that the meeting with Uribe and other evidence cited by prosecutors is nothing more than a senator meeting with constituents and doing what he can to help his state in his role as one of its representatives in Congress.

Menendez, 70, has resisted calls to step down as New Jersey’s senior senator, though he was forced out of his powerful post as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee after charges were unveiled last fall.

During Uribe’s two days of testimony, he has described meeting Menendez at a fundraiser he staged that raised $50,000 for the senator’s 2018 campaign, but he said he did not bring up the issue of investigations there or at several other meetings, including a dinner.

He said he thought the issue had already been raised with Menendez by his friend, Wael Hana, a businessman who told him in 2018 that the senator could be enlisted to help his legal troubles go away, but it would cost between $200,000 and $250,000.

Hana and a third businessman, Fred Daibes, are on trial with Menendez. Like Menendez, they have pleaded not guilty. Awaiting trial is Nadine Menendez, who is recovering from surgery. She has pleaded not guilty.

Uribe said he brought up the subject of investigations directly with the senator at an Aug. 7, 2019, dinner with Bob Menendez and Nadine Menendez, the senator’s girlfriend at the time. They married in 2020.

He said he told Bob Menendez that he was concerned that a probe of a friend’s trucking business was causing investigators to look at his insurance business and the senator said he would look into it.

“I asked him to help get peace for me and my family,” Uribe said.

A month later, Uribe said, he was invited to meet with Menendez again at their home, where he sat in the backyard with Menendez and provided facts about his company and a key employee because the senator was meeting with New Jersey officials in his office the next day.

After Menendez’s meeting with officials, Uribe said the senator told him in a brief meeting at a New Jersey apartment building: “That thing that you asked me about, it doesn’t seem to be anything there.”

In late Oct. 2019, Uribe said he got a surprise telephone call from Menendez from a Washington D.C. phone number and was told: “That thing that you asked me about, there’s nothing there. I give you your peace.”

Uribe said he sent a text to Menendez’s girlfriend, saying: “I just got a call and I am a very happy person. God bless you and him forever.”

Uribe also recalled having dinner in Aug. 2020 with Menendez, who boasted that he had saved him not once, but twice, involving the probes of the trucking business and the threat the investigation would spread to his insurance business.

Speaking in Spanish, Menendez said at the dinner: “I didn’t have to do much. I relayed to these people that what is this prosecution against hardworking Latinos,” Uribe testified.

Last week, former New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal testified that he cut off the senator on a phone call and in an early September 2019 meeting when Menendez tried to raise the subject of a criminal probe.

Grewal said it was his policy to always instruct people to have their defense lawyers contact trial-level prosecutors working the case or the judge if they have complaints with how a case is handled.

Grewal said the senator had complained about the treatment of Hispanics in the trucking industry as well.

After the brief meeting, Grewal said, a top official in his office who he brought alone for the meeting said: “Whoa, that was gross.”

Uribe said that without his cooperation deal and the leniency expected to come with it, he could face up to 95 years in prison for his crimes.

A former New York suburban police officer turned drug dealer was given four life sentences by the judge after being found guilty in the strangulation death of one man and the execution-style murders of three others in 2016.

Nicholas Tartaglione, a retired police officer who served in Briarcliff Manor, Mount Vernon and Yonkers, will serve the sentences consecutively for his role in the murders of four men, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Monday. During the sentencing, the judge in the case described Tartaglione as a “monster.”

The 56-year-old was convicted in July 2023, nearly four years after he briefly was a cellmate of Jeffrey Epstein, the notorious sexual predator and New York City financier. Tartaglione had been found guilty on all counts of the murder, kidnapping and drug conspiracy charges he faced.

The bodies were recovered in December 2016, about eight months after the four men — Martin Luna, Miguel Luna, Urbano Santiago and Hector Gutierrez — were killed in Otisville, about 70 miles north of Manhattan.

“Nicholas Tartaglione brutally and senselessly murdered Martin Luna over money, and then ruthlessly executed Urbano Santiago, Miguel Luna, and Hector Gutierrez simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.  He tried to cover up his crimes by burying all four victims in a shallow grave on his property,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. “Today’s sentence of four consecutive life terms justly reflects the pain and suffering each victim underwent at Tartaglione’s hands. I hope that this outcome brings some measure of closure to the victims’ families and to their community.”

After Tartaglione was found guilty, Williams said that the former cop masterminded the killings after suspecting Martin Luna had stolen money from him.

Prosecutors had said Tartaglione lured Luna into meeting him in a bar in what became a “deadly trap” for the man, two of his nephews and a family friend he brought with him. Prosecutors said in court papers that Tartaglione drove Luna’s body to his Otisville ranch, while his co-conspirators brought the other three men “alive and bound” to the same place.

“What occurred next could only be described as pure terror, as Tartaglione tortured Martin, then forced one of his nephews to watch as Tartaglione strangled Martin to death with a zip tie,” Williams said previously.

The prosecutor said Tartaglione and two associates then transported the three other men to a remote wooded location, forcing them to kneel before shooting each of them in the back of the head and burying all four in a mass grave. Prosecutors said Tartaglione shot one of the remaining three men himself.

“Tartaglione’s heinous acts represent a broader betrayal, as he was a former police officer who once swore to protect the very community he devastated,” Williams said.

At trial, defense attorneys had argued that Tartaglione had nothing to do with the killings and was being used by the government as a convenient fall guy. Tartaglione’s attorneys could not immediately be reached for comment after the sentencing.

In July 2019, Tartaglione shared a Manhattan jail cell with Epstein when the wealthy financier was placed on suicide watch after being discovered with bruises on his neck. Epstein hanged himself weeks later while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

Sorah Tyner, of Toms River, is also accused of child endangerment, assault by auto, hindering and obstruction in the 5 p.m. crash on May 30 near Cleveland Court and East Veterans Highway in Jackson Township.

According to investigators, Tyner was driving west on East Veterans Highway when she allegedly failed to negotiate a left-hand curve and crossed into the eastbound lane, striking an SUV driven by Carolina Bonilla-Hernandez, of Jackson Township. Bonilla-Hernandez, 36, was pronounced dead at a hospital a short time later.

Also pronounced dead at a hospital: one of the children in Tyner’s SUV. That child was wearing a seatbelt, though should have been in a rear/front-facing child car seat given his age and weight, investigators say. His age was not released. A second child in the car was in an appropriate car seat.

That child remains hospitalized in stable condition, as of the latest update.

Tyner was treated for her injuries and released from the hospital. Her relationship to the children who were in her vehicle at the time of the accident wasn’t immediately clear.

Detectives determined Tyner’s vehicle was in the oncoming lane for some distance prior to impact, and she allegedly didn’t take corrective actions to avoid the crash. A court-authorized search warrant to extract data from her phone revealed she was allegedly using her cellphone at the time. She also allegedly made inconsistent statements.

Tyner was arrested Thursday at her home. She was taken to Ocean County Jail, where she was lodged Friday pending a detention hearing. Attorney information for her wasn’t immediately available.

The (Johnstown) Tribune-Democrat reports that 48-year-old Brian Giles lived with Nancy Giles in an apartment in the Johnstown house before she went missing in October 2018. Her remains were found in May 2019 in a shallow grave near a trail on the Inclined Plane hillside in downtown Johnstown.

Jurors in Cambria County deliberated for about an hour Thursday before convicting Brian Giles of first-degree murder and aggravated assault in the death of Nancy Giles, the newspaper reported. As he was led from the courtroom, Giles said he wanted people to know he is innocent. Defense attorney Timothy Burns, who had cited his client’s report of mental health struggles, called the outcome “disappointing” and said the defense would explore its options.

On Friday, authorities searched Giles’ former residence in the city’s Kernville section after a report of a possible body. Coroner Jeffrey Lees confirmed that human remains were found in the basement, calling the death “highly suspicious” and vowing a lengthy and methodical investigation.

Lees said after an autopsy Saturday that the remains would be taken to Mercyhurst University in Erie on Monday for more forensic investigation, and after receiving those results and other information he would make a ruling on the cause and manner of death. Identification of the remains would be a top priority, he said.

Authorities have said that Jilly Todaro, Giles’ girlfriend after the disappearance of his wife, also lived at the apartment and disappeared in December 2020. Todaro remains missing and officials would not confirm whether the search is related to that case, in which no charges have been filed.

A message seeking comment was sent Sunday to Burns, who represented Giles in the trial over the death of Nancy Giles.

Israel Garcia was given life plus five years for the Oct. 2010 murder of Alfonso “Joey” McClinton, said Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. The sentencing came less than a year after Garcia, 33, was found guilty on a slew of offenses including multiple murder and narcotics charges, as well as witness tampering and weapon possession.

“Israel Garcia, a former high school dean who could have had a positive impact on our community, will now spend the rest of his life in prison for the brutal murder of Joey McClinton,” said Williams.

Garcia, also known as “Shorty Rock,” was formerly the leader of the Get Money Gunnaz, which is part of the larger Young Gunnaz street gang, prosecutors said. Garcia led the group for more than a decade, during which time he was in control of the distribution of drugs in the area of East 184th Street and Morris Avenue in Fordham Heights, according to court documents.

The armed gang members would allegedly engage in back-and-forth gunfights with rival crews in the area. During one of the shootouts, on Oct. 11, 2010, 21-year-old McClinton was shot and killed.

Soon after, gang member Joseph “Juice” Johnson was arrested and later convicted in the killing, prosecutors said, but ballistics and video evidence revealed there was another gunman responsible for McClinton’s death. Based on the evidence and witness testimony, Garcia was determined to be the second shooter.

Williams said the gang that Garcia led had been “warring with Joey McClinton’s family over drug territory” in the Bronx, and the killing helped cement his position as leader and solidify their hold on drug trafficking in the area.

“For the next decade, Garcia led the GMG YGz’s reign of terror over the neighborhood, recruiting children and others into a drug trafficking enterprise that poisoned the community with crack cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl, and protecting his drug turf with firearms and violence. Over time, Garcia attempted to create the façade of a law-abiding citizen, becoming the dean of a local high school in order to mask that he was still running the GMG YGz’s violence and drug trafficking,” said Williams. “Yesterday, a unanimous jury held Garcia accountable for his brutal killing of Joey McClinton and for ruining countless other lives.”

In addition to the murder charges he faced, Garcia was also accused of taking steps to prevent Johnson from identifying him as the other gunman after he became concerned that Johnson might cooperate with police.

Attorney information for Garcia was not immediately available.

Two people suspected in the organized retail thefts of LEGO toys from several Southern California stores were taken into custody after a six-month investigation, the LAPD said Thursday.

Richard Siegel, a 71-year-old Long Beach man, was arrested Wednesday night on suspicion of organized retail theft. Blanca Gudino, a 39-year-old Lawndale woman, was arrested Thursday morning on suspicion of grand theft, police said.

The arrests stemmed from a series of theft cases that began in December when LEGO products were stolen from a store in the 1700 block of North Gaffey Street in San Pedro. Loss prevention staff at the store identified Gudino as the suspect.

She also stole items from Torrance and Lakewood locations of the same business on Tuesday, police said.

The products were taken to Siegel’s residence in Long Beach, police said. Detectives searched the home Wednesday and seized more than 2,800 boxes of Lego products, ranging in retail price from $20 to $1,000, according to authorities.

During the investigation at the home, potential buyers showed up, responding to online ads for the products, police said. Photos released by the LAPD showed LEGO toy boxes stacked floor to ceiling.

LAPD News: NR24167dc – LAPD Harbor Division Busts LEGO Theft Ring pic.twitter.com/8JnmV4P6gn

— LAPD PIO (@LAPDPIO) June 7, 2024

It was not immediately clear whether the suspects have attorneys.

Anyone with information regarding the Los Angeles-area organized retail thefts of Legos was urged to contact the LAPD Harbor Area detectives at 310-726-7900. Calls during non-business hours or weekends should be directed to 877-527-3247. Tipsters who prefer to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477 or visit lacrimestoppers.org.

At least six businesses that sell collectible Lego products were burglarized in the past two months. Shop owners told NBCLA Monday that they believe the same man may have been behind all the recent cases.

Security camera video from the Bricks and Minifigs in Whittier captured an early morning burglary from May 3. It showed a man wearing a headlamp smashing the front glass window and entering the business with a trash bag.

About 30 miles away, another Bricks and Minifigs in Ontario was targeted in a similar crime. The Ontario shop owner said a man broke in through a window April 12 and grabbed the priciest items within minutes.

Gurbir Grewal was called as a witness by prosecutors to support their claim that Menendez tried to interfere in a criminal case at the request of one of three New Jersey businessmen who were allegedly paying him bribes including gold bars, hundreds of thousands of dollars and a luxury car.

Menendez, 70, is on trial in Manhattan federal court with two of the businessmen. The three have pleaded not guilty. The third businessman has pleaded guilty and is expected to testify.

Decision 2024 Jun 6

Republican Curtis Bashaw's nomination fueling GOP hope in deeply Democratic New Jersey

Bob Menendez Jun 6

Sen. Bob Menendez's wife is excused from court after cancer surgery

New Jersey Jun 4

New Jersey Rep. Rob Menendez, son of indicted senator, wins Democratic primary

Grewal, now head of enforcement for the Securities and Exchange Commission, recalled Menendez first reaching out to him in early 2019, shortly after he’d taken the job as New Jersey’s top law enforcement officer.

He testified that a cousin who was close friends with Menendez asked if she could pass along Grewal’s personal cellphone number to Menendez and he agreed.

Menendez called late one afternoon, interrupting a meeting, but Grewal said he stepped outside the office to take the call.

After some small talk, Menendez expressed a concern that some state investigators were treating Hispanics in the trucking industry different than workers who were not Hispanic, Grewal said.

Grewal said he asked Menendez if the concern arose from a criminal matter and when he was told that it did, he followed his policy and directed Menendez to have a defense lawyer contact the prosecutors or the judge about any relevant matter.

He said the 5- to 6-minute phone call ended shortly thereafter without the senator saying any more about it. Grewal said he did not mention it to any prosecutors in his office because he didn’t want anyone working the case to feel pressure or intimidated. He said he wanted them to make any decisions about their cases “free from anything from the outside.”

The following September, Grewal testified, Menendez requested a meeting in his Newark, New Jersey, office and Grewal went, bringing along another top official, his deputy attorney general.

Grewal said he thought the senator wanted to talk about the policies of his office, but Menendez instead again brought up his complaint about the treatment of Hispanics after seeming surprised that he brought someone with him, which Grewal said he commonly did when meeting with lawmakers.

Grewal said he asked if his complaint again pertained to the criminal case he’d referenced in the phone call earlier in the year and Menendez said that it did. Grewal said he repeated his earlier instruction to have the defense lawyers deal with any issues with the judge or prosecutors handling the case.

“The impression I got was that he did not like how the matter was being handled, but he didn’t say how it should be handled,” Grewal testified.

Grewal said the conversation ended soon after he told Menendez: “I cannot talk to you about this.”

After leaving the meeting, he and the deputy attorney general who accompanied him were standing by the car that would carry them away when his colleague said: “Whoa, that was gross,” Grewal recalled.

On cross-examination, Menendez defense attorney Avi Weitzman elicited from Grewal that the senator was “extremely polite and respectful in all of our interactions.” When Weitzman asked him if Menendez asked him to look into the matter or threatened to “haul you before Congress,” Grewal chuckled and said no such conversation occurred.

“I wasn’t afraid of retribution,” Grewal said, adding that Menendez “just moved on” with small talk when the attorney general shut down the inquiry. “He did not pressure me.”

Still, Grewal said a lawmaker reaching out about a particular ongoing criminal case was “pretty unprecedented in my experience.”

Weitzman elicited from Grewal that a state legislator and the governor’s chief of staff had sought to speak about a case while he was attorney general.

As Menendez left the courthouse Thursday, he told a reporter in Spanish: “Advocating for human rights is not a crime.”

Suk Min Choi, who goes by the name Alex Choi on social media, was charged with causing the placement of an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft. The charges stem from a video Choi posted around July 4, 2023, titled “Destroying a Lamborghini With Fireworks,” according to a federal criminal affidavit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

NFL Jun 6

NFL Sunday Ticket lawsuit: Details, timeline and background

Federal authorities said Choi did not obtain the required approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to film the video and he did not have an explosives license or permit from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

In the nearly 11-minute video, Choi presses a “fire missiles” button, and two women in a moving helicopter shoot fireworks toward the luxury sports vehicle in the desert of San Bernardino County, the affidavit says.

“After shooting what appears to be a live-action version of a fictionalized video game scene, the video transitions to a behind-the-scenes look at how Choi shot the first third of the video,” the court document states.

Choi, who has nearly 1 million subscribers on his YouTube channel, could not immediately be reached for comment on Thursday. It appears the video has since been taken down.

It’s not clear if Choi has obtained an attorney.

In December, an inspector with the FAA notified the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Transportation that Choi’s video was being investigated.

The affidavit details how Choi planned the video shoot and traveled to Las Vegas to purchase the fireworks “as they are illegal in California.”

“Choi wrote his idea was to make a short, one minute video of an ‘attack helicopter shooting missiles (mortar style fireworks) at the car, while the car is trying to run away and dodge the missiles using flares (roman candle fireworks attached to the back of the car,'” the document states, citing an email written by Choi.

The affidavit also details text messages between Choi and the camera company he used for the shoot. In one message to Choi, the sender wrote an idea about cameras capturing “insane 360-degree bumpers shot with firecrackers.”

In response, Choi allegedly wrote that he could “get my friend with a helicopter out and attach cameras on the helicopter while he chases me.”

“I can even have someone sitting in the helicopter and have them shoot fireworks back at me,” he said in another text, according to the affidavit.

Federal authorities said radar data from the day of the video shoot showed that the helicopter left an airport in Pacoima, California, around 1:53 p.m. and turned toward El Mirage Lake, a dry lake in California, where the video was filmed.

The helicopter’s transponder was then turned off, according to the affidavit. The helicopter reappeared on the radar and flew back to the airport just before 9 p.m., the document says.

The pilot initially told an FAA inspector that he did not know anything about the El Mirage video, according to the affidavit. In a follow-up call, he told inspectors that he did not want Choi to know he was speaking with them and said “Choi was doing unsafe activities involving cars and aircraft.”

In January, the FAA issued an emergency order revoking the pilot’s private pilot certification, the affidavit says.

The FAA also interviewed a drone operator who stated he had concerns about the video shoot and “tried to stay away and behind the helicopter” during filming. The drone operator said he did not remember any first responders on site.

A second drone operator said that before filming began there was a “safety talk that he described as spontaneous where Choi did the talking,” according to the affidavit.

The incident comes months after another YouTuber was sentenced to six months in federal prison after he intentionally crashed a small aircraft to boost video views as part of a sponsorship deal.

Trevor Jacob, of Lompoc pleaded guilty last year to one count of destruction and concealment with the intent to obstruct a federal investigation. Prosecutors said that Jacob lied to investigators and a Federal Aviation Administration safety inspector about why he ejected from his Taylorcraft BL-65 before it crashed in November 2021.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington granted the Justice Department’s request to make Bannon begin his prison term after a federal appeals court panel last month upheld his contempt of Congress conviction.

Bannon is expected to seek a stay of the judge’s order, which could delay his surrender date.

“I’ve got great lawyers, and we’re going to go all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to,” Bannon told reporters outside the courthouse. He added: “There’s not a prison built or jail built that will ever shut me up.”

In a social media post Thursday, Trump accused prosecutors of being “desperate” to jail Bannon. Trump repeated his claim that Republicans are being persecuted by a politically motivated justice system — rhetoric that has escalated in the wake of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s conviction last week on 34 felony charges in his New York hush money trial.

Nichols, the judge who ordered Bannon to report to prison, was nominated to the bench by Trump in 2018.

Bannon was convicted nearly two years ago of two counts of contempt of Congress: one for refusing to sit for a deposition with the Jan. 6 House Committee and the other for refusing to provide documents related to his involvement in Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Nichols had initially allowed him to remain free while he fought his conviction because the judge believed the case raised substantial legal questions. But during a hearing in Washington’s federal court, Nichols said the calculus changed after the appeals court panel said all of Bannon’s challenges lack merit.

“I do not believe the original basis for my stay exists any longer,” Nichols said.

Bannon can appeal his conviction to the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court. Prosecutor John Crabb told the judge it was “very unlikely” Bannon would succeed in getting his conviction thrown out.

Bannon’s lawyer at trial argued that the former adviser didn’t ignore the subpoena but was still engaged in good-faith negotiations with the congressional committee when he was charged.

The defense has said Bannon had been acting on the advice of his attorney at the time, who told him that the subpoena was invalid because the committee would not allow a Trump lawyer in the room and that Bannon could not determine what documents or testimony he could provide because Trump has asserted executive privilege.

Defense lawyer David Schoen told the judge it would be unfair to send Bannon to prison now because he would complete his entire sentence before he exhausted his appeals. Schoen said the case raises “serious constitutional issues” that need to be examined by the Supreme Court.

Capitol Riot Apr 19

Proud Boys group leader sentenced to over 5 years in prison for attacking police during Capitol riot

Capitol Riot Jun 5

Jan. 6 rioter caught in a woman's Bumble dating app sting sentenced to prison

Donald Trump Jun 5

Trump Georgia election case halted pending outcome of challenge to D.A.

“In this country, we don’t send anyone to prison if they believe that they were doing something that complied with the law,” he told reporters.

A second Trump aide, trade adviser Peter Navarro, was also convicted of contempt of Congress. He reported to prison in March to serve his four-month sentence.

Navarro, too, had maintained that he couldn’t cooperate with the committee because Trump had invoked executive privilege. But courts have rejected that argument, finding Navarro couldn’t prove Trump had actually invoked it.

The House Jan. 6 committee’s final report asserted that Trump criminally engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 election and failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol, concluding an extraordinary 18-month investigation into the former president and the violent insurrection.

Bannon is also facing criminal charges in New York state court alleging he duped donors who gave money to build a wall along the U.S. southern border. Bannon has pleaded not guilty to money laundering, conspiracy, fraud and other charges, and that trial has been postponed until at least the end of September.

Sandra Costilla, 28, was allegedly murdered by Rex Heuermann in the fall of 1993, investigators say. She was a native of Trinidad and Tobago but had been living in New York when she disappeared around November. Two hunters found Costilla’s body in a wooded area of Southampton, the bail application detailed. She had not been named until Thursday but she would have been the earliest known victim of the alleged serial killer.

The court document detailed how a female hair found on Costilla’s mutilated body “share a common base at all compared positions” to a witness who once lived at Heuermann’s residence in Massapequa.

The other alleged victim of the 59-year-old is Jessica Taylor. Parts of her remains were found in the vicinity of Mill Road in July 2003 and again in March 2011.

Following Heuermann’s arrest, investigators searched his residence numerous times and discovered over 350 electronic devices that contained a “significant collection” of violent pornography dating back to 1994, according to the bail application. The obscene images allegedly accessed by Heuermann notably coincided with how the remains of Costilla, Taylor and another young woman, Valerie Mack, were discovered.

Heuermann has not been charged with Mack’s murder. So far, he’s accused of killing six women, including Maureen Brainard-Barnes in 2007, Melissa Barthelemy in 2009, Megan Waterman in 2010 and Amber Costello in 2010. See the timeline of the investigation here.

Among electronic data being combed through by investigators, they found a Word Document apparently dated back to the year 2000. It appears to be the alleged serial killer’s planning document that listed “PROBLEMS” he is expected to run into, “SUPPLIES” to commit the murders, and a “DS” column that listed Mill Road as a possible dumpster site.

Read the full bail application below:

The New York City architect arrested last year in connection with a string of cold case bodies found on Long Island’s Gilgo Beach has been charged with murder in the deaths of two more victims, including one whose name hadn’t been publicly associated with the investigation prior to Thursday, according to a superseding bail application.

Accused serial killer Rex Heuermann pleaded not guilty to the new charges, his lawyer said. They include the killings of Jessica Taylor, whose hands and forearm were found along Ocean Parkway years after her torso turned up in the Manorville woods; and Sandra Costilla, who allegedly died a violent death by his hands in November 1993.

He is suspected of killing a seventh woman, Valerie Mack, prosecutors said; no charges have been filed in that case.

A superseding indictment unsealed Thursday adds second-degree murder charges involving Taylor and Costilla to a list already accusing Heuermann of murdering four other women more than a decade ago.

“His intent was to locate these victims, hunt them down bring them under his control and kill them,” Suffolk District Attorney Raymond Tierney said during a press conference.

The DA also revealed for the first time that it was possible Heuermann allegedly committed some of the murders inside of his Massapequa Park home he shared with his wife and kids.

The 60-year-old was first arrested in July 2023 in the deaths of three of the so-called “Gilgo Four,” whose remains were found in burlap sacks along a remote stretch of Ocean Parkway in 2010. Heuermann was later charged with the fourth.

The bodies of Maureen Brainard-Barnes Amber Lynn Costello, Melissa Barthelemy and Megan Waterman were discovered during a search for a missing escort, Shannan Gilbert, who later was found dead in a marsh. Her case was ruled an accidental drowning, though attorneys for her family maintained the autopsy was inconclusive.

Investigators say Gilbert’s case is not tied to the others.

Additional sets of remains turned up in that search for Gilbert, too. Jessica Taylor was an escort like the others.

The new charges come after two recent searches tied to the case, which baffled investigators for more than a decade. Investigators returned to Heuermann’s single-family Massapequa Park home not long after they scoured a wooded area in Manorville in connection with the case. A lawyer for Heuermann’s wife said investigators focused primarily on the basement when they returned to the home with a search warrant last month.

According to the bail application, that’s where they found a hard drive. They had to make the data on it accessible (after Heuermann allegedly tried to delete it) and once they did, they discovered a document to “plan out” kills. The discovery of that document, viewable in the court filing above, is what prompted the new search of the woods last month, according to the bail application. Read the full bail application.

The all-caps document, which prosecutors described as Heuerman’s “blueprint” for murder, was allegedly written between 2000 and 2002. It reads like a grocery list with disturbing tasks to complete before, during and after killings. One chilling note reads, “more sleep and noise control equals more play time.”

Under the heading “things to remember,” it reads “gets sleep before hunt” and “consider a hit to the face or neck next time.” A “body prep” checklist includes a note to “remove ID marks [like] tattoos” and “remove head and hands.” Another section lists potential “problems,” citing things like DNA, tire marks, finger prints, possible witnesses and “hair.”

Nothing was found in that April 2024 search, leading investigators to believe the “kill plan” had been intended for Taylor, according to the bail application.

Suffolk DA Tierney said at a news conference Thursday that he hoped the families had received some measure of justice. He thanked multiple agencies at various levels of government for their collaboration and said the investigation, with some deaths still unsolved, would be ongoing.

“Every person that was tragically murdered in Suffolk County is in play,” Tierney said. “We can’t stop. We owe it to the victims.”

Heuermann’s attorney, Michael Brown, said outside court that he couldn’t immediately discuss the new charges.

“Heuermann’s attorney, Michael Brown, entered a not-guilty plea on behalf of his client. Outside of court, Brown said he could not immediately discuss the new charges, but said Heuermann is “obviously in a bad place in terms of the new charges.”

“It’s hard for me to comment without looking at documents and without speaking to my client and looking into the evidence,” Brown told reporters. “It wouldn’t be fair for me to comment at this point in time…You’ve already made that assumption that he’s the one who drafted it, he’s the one who put it out. I don’t know that.”

Heuermann has been held without bail since his initial arrest and was remanded after his arraignment Thursday. No trial date has been set.

Who is new Gilgo victim Sandra Costilla?

In late November 1993, two people out hunting in a wooded area of Southampton, near Old Fish Cove Road and North Sea, found the remains of Sandra Costilla. The victim, who was 28 at the time, was lying on her back with her arms outstretched over her head. There were indications of sexual assault. She also had multiple sharp-force injuries.

A Trinidad and Tobago native, Costilla had been living in New York prior to her disappearance and death.

Three hairs, including a male hair, were recovered from her body during the investigation. After excluding another local now-convicted murderer, John Bittrolff, via DNA evidence, investigators used DNA evidence generated from Costilla’s case in 2014 and compared it to DNA evidence associated with the Gilgo case.

The lab determined that 99.96% of the North American population could be excluded as a contributor of the male hair on Costilla. Heuermann wasn’t in that group, the bail application says.

Another lab independently confirmed the findings.

As in the other cases, the alleged killing happened while Heuermann’s family was away, giving him “unfettered time to execute his plans for each victim” without fear of being caught by his wife or kids, according to prosecutors.

If the charges are true, Costilla is the first known victim.

Costilla’s family couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Long Island Jun 3

Alleged Gilgo Beach killer facing new murder charge, sources say

Gilgo Beach May 24

Police search Gilgo Beach serial killing suspect's home on Long Island for 5th straight day

Long Island Apr 26

Police search on Long Island expands to area where body was found in unsolved murder from 1990s

What happened to Jessica Taylor?

Jessica Taylor, 20, vanished in July 2003 while working as an escort in midtown Manhattan. Her mother reported her missing when she didn’t show up for a planned get-together in Poughkeepsie. A woman walking her dog in the Manorville woods found some of Taylor’s remains that same year. Her head, hands and forearm were missing.

In 2011, eight years later, Taylor’s missing body parts were found along Ocean Parkway just east of Gilgo Beach, on the same side of the road and less than a mile from where the “Gilgo Four” were found several months earlier, in December 2010. All five of the bodies were dumped within 50 feet of the edge of the parkway, according to the bail application.

Taylor had been decapitated, and someone tried to mutilate one of her tattoos. Investigators allege Heuermann was trying to conceal her identity in the event of facial recognition, fingerprints or tattoo identification. They say he worked in the same area where Taylor was known to “street walk” at the time. Records show Heuermann was also in midtown Manhattan on July 25, 2023, the day Taylor disappeared, according to the bail application.

Court papers indicate he would have been in possession of a vehicle matching the description of one a witness reported at the scene, by the dump site, that July night. Once Taylor’s body was found, Heuermann allegedly tried to cover up an internet search for a new pick-up truck, despite the fact his vehicle was barely over a year.

A male human hair was recovered on Taylor — on a surgical sheet her torso had been on. At the time, in 2003, all investigators knew was that it likely belonged to a white man. Last year, investigators tested that hair against Heuermann’s. As in the Costilla case, 99.96% of the North American population can be excluded. Heuermann, however, cannot be excluded, the bail application says. His family was out of state at the time Taylor disappeared.

Taylor’s family was in attendance for Tierney’s press conference on Thursday. They are being represented by Gloria Allred.

“This year has been 21 years since she was taken from us, longer than the chance that she got to be alive. I can’t express what this day means after waiting and hoping for answers,” said Jasmine Robinson, a cousin of Jessica Taylor.

Heuermann’s two adult children had said, through an attorney, that they were awaiting word on Thursday’s development. They say they stand by their father. They had no immediate comment after Thursday’s hearing.

The attorney for Heuermann’s wife Asa Ellerup said that the latest indictment “further illustrates that [she] has no involvement in any of the alleged crimes that her estranged husband” has been accused of.

“Ms. Ellerup married Rex Heuermann in 1996. She was not residing with Rex Heuermann in the Massapequa Park domicile in 1993, the year Ms. Costilla was murdered,” attorney Robert Macedonio wrote in a written statement. “At the time of the death of Ms. Taylor, Ms. Ellerup was, once again, not in the jurisdiction. As we have previously stated, if Mr. Heuermann committed these homicides, he was living a double life that Ms. Ellerup was unaware of.”

The attorney noted that his client still maintains Heuermann “is not capable of committing these heinous acts.”

Accused serial killer Rex Heuermann is scheduled for a 9:30 a.m. arraignment on the new charges. The names of the victims were not specified.

The indictment is sealed but an NBC News source described Thursday’s arraignment and planned press conference at 11 a.m. by Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney as “huge” and “game-changing” in the ongoing case against the 60-year-old former architect.

When asked on Monday if Heuermann’s upcoming court date is the result of two recent searches, Tierney said, “It’s the result of those and other investigative steps.” However, the district attorney would not confirm any new charges.

“There were a number of investigative steps that were taken…Thursday you will see the fruits of that investigation,” said Tierney.

News of the additional charges was first reported by Newsday.

Long Island Jun 3

Alleged Gilgo Beach killer facing new murder charge, sources say

Gilgo Beach May 24

Police search Gilgo Beach serial killing suspect's home on Long Island for 5th straight day

Long Island Apr 26

Police search on Long Island expands to area where body was found in unsolved murder from 1990s

NBC New York previously reported earlier in the week that Heuermann would face an additional murder charge Thursday. Now it appears there will be at least two additional murders he will be connected to, two sources with knowledge of the investigation told News 4.

Earlier in the week, the Suffolk district attorney’s office confirmed the court date but declined to specify the reasoning behind the new hearing or when it would occur.

Heuermann’s attorney, Michael Brown, has said his client maintains his innocence. Earlier in the week, he declined to comment on the nature of Thursday’s hearing.

The new court date comes two weeks after investigators returned to Heuermann’s single-story home in Massapequa Park, where they had recovered a cache of weapons during an initial search following his arrest last summer. A date for Heuermann’s trial has not yet been set.

During the most recent search, which lasted several days, investigators placed paint chips and other materials into evidence bags and removed a large rectangular object covered in a blue cloth.

“Just like the rest of us, we’re waiting to hear what the district attorney has to say,” Vess Mitev, the lawyer representing Heuermann’s two adult children, previously told NBC New York. “My clients, again, they’re going to take it day-by-day, minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour as the landscape shifts around them.”

Mitev earlier this week told NBC New York his clients have yet to return to their home after the latest police search there and says they stand by their father.

“If it’s one or 100, they are allegations and they are eager have the legal process play itself out. Not in the court of public opinion, but in the courtroom in front of a jury, in front of a judge,” Mitev said. “These are allegations. They’re horrible allegations, horrific allegations and they’re dealing with an everyday process of trying to wrap their heads around it, the fact of allegations against their father. But they’re allegations nonetheless.”

The 60-year-old Heuermann was first arrested in July 2023 in the deaths of four women whose remains were found in burlap sacks along a remote stretch of Ocean Parkway more than a decade ago. The bodies of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Amber Lynn Costello, Melissa Barthelemy and Megan Waterman, were found during a search for a missing escort, Shannan Gilbert, who later was found dead in a marsh. Her case was inconclusive; it has not been linked to the others.

As officers searched for her, they found at least six additional sets of remains in addition to the four women’s bodies. Not all of those people have been positively identified. At least two were believed to be escorts who fit the victim profile.

Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Word of the new charges comes weeks after investigators returned to Heuermann’s home with a search warrant. It wasn’t clear what, if anything, they found, but that search came shortly after another unspecified search connected to the Gilgo investigation, this time in a wooded area in Manorville.

Some of the remains discovered in Manorville years ago, when the investigation started, were linked to the body parts of Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack discovered along Ocean Parkway. No arrests have been made in those cases.

Robert Macedonio, a lawyer for Heuermann’s estranged wife, said the most recent search of the Massapequa Park home was primarily focused on the basement. He said the family was out of state when the search was conducted. Macedonio declined to say what was taken from the home and said the family has not yet received the search warrant affidavit that would spell out their reasons for conducting the search.

During the initial search of the home in July 2023, authorities tore up a wooden deck and used an excavator to dig up the backyard, which they scanned for buried objects using specialized equipment. The most recent search was far less disruptive, according to Macedonio.

Jake Offenhartz and Philip Marcelo of The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A 30-year-old New York City man was sentenced to 15 years in prison for causing the death of his girlfriend’s 4-year-old son in 2021 after causing him numerous injuries from battered child syndrome, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday.

Jerimiah Johnson, 30, of East New York, Brooklyn, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree manslaughter on April 17 in the death of Jayce Eubanks, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said.

According to Gonzalez, who cited the investigation, on Sept. 12, 2021, at around 5:30 a.m., inside the Gowanus Houses, in Brooklyn, Johnson, who was holding Jayce in his arms, woke up the child’s mother, Rickia Delvalle, and told her that the boy said he could not breathe and had collapsed to the floor. The mother saw that the child was not breathing and appeared completely unresponsive. Jayce was subsequently taken to Brooklyn Hospital Center where he was pronounced dead at 6:54 a.m.

An autopsy performed by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined that Jayce had both old and new injuries to his body, including his limbs, back, chest and abdomen. The child also had a healing skull fracture, multiple healing and recent rib fractures on both sides, and trauma to the stomach that caused it to perforate and provoke bleeding into the gastrointestinal tract and abdominal cavity. The cause of death was determined as battered child syndrome with recent blunt force injuries of the torso.

“The autopsy of this innocent child revealed that he suffered unthinkable and repeated abuse in his short life and ultimately died at the hands of this defendant,” Gonzalez said.

The court found that Knox had wrongly accused an innocent man, the Congolese owner of the bar where she worked part time, of the killing. But she will not serve any more jail time, given the three-year sentence counts as time already served.

Knox returned to Italy for only the second time since she was freed in 2011 to participate in the trial.

She had written on social media ahead of the hearing that she hoped to “clear my name once and for all of the false charges against me. Wish me luck.”

The slaying of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher in the idyllic hilltop town of Perugia fueled global headlines as suspicion fell on Knox, a 20-year-old exchange student from Seattle, and her new Italian boyfriend of just a week, Raffaele Sollecito.

Flip-flop verdicts over nearly eight years of legal proceedings polarized trial watchers on both sides of the Atlantic as the case was vociferously argued on social media, still in its infancy.

Knox’s retrial was set by a European court ruling that Italy violated her human rights during a long night of questioning days after Kercher’s murder, deprived of both a lawyer and a competent translator.

Earlier in the hearing, Knox had asked the eight Italian judges and civil jury members to clear her of the slander charge.

In a soft and sometimes breaking voice, Knox had told the court that she wrongly accused Patrick Lumumba under intense police pressure.

“I am very sorry that I was not strong enough to resist the pressure of police,” Knox told the panel in a 9-minute prepared statement, sitting alongside them on the jury bench. She told them: ”I didn’t know who the murderer was. I had no way to know.”

The case continues to draw intense media attention, with photographers massing around Knox, her husband Christopher Robinson and their legal team as they entered the courtroom about an hour before the hearing. A camera knocked her on the left temple, her lawyer Luca Luparia Donati said. Knox’s husband examined a small bump on her head as they sat in the front row of the court.

Despite Knox’s exoneration and the conviction of an Ivorian man whose footprints and DNA were found at the scene, doubts about her role persist, particularly in Italy. That is largely due to the accusation she made against Patrick Lumumba, an accusation that led to the slander conviction.

Knox, now a 36-year-old mother of two small children, returned to Italy for only the second time since she was freed in October 2011, after four years in jail, by a Perugia appeals court that overturned the initial guilty verdict in the murder case against both Knox and Sollecito.

She remained in the United States through two more flip-flop verdicts before Italy’s highest court definitively exonerated the pair of the murder in March 2015, stating flatly that they had not committed the crime.

In the fall, Italy’s highest Cassation Court threw out the slander conviction that had withstood five trials, ordering a new trial, thanks to a 2022 Italian judicial reform allowing cases that have reached a definitive verdict to be reopened if human rights violations are found.

This time, the court has been ordered to disregard two damaging statements typed by police and signed by Knox at 1:45 a.m. and 5:45 a.m. as she was held for questioning overnight into the small hours of Nov. 6, 2007. In the statements, Knox said she remembered hearing Kercher scream, and pointed to Lumumba for the killing.

Hours later, still in custody at about 1 p.m., she asked for pen and paper and wrote her own statement in English, questioning the version that she had signed.

“In regards to this ‘confession’ that I made last night, I want to make clear that I’m very doubtful of the verity of my statements because they were made under the pressure of stress, shock and extreme exhaustion,” she wrote.