U.S.! Fox Hollow Farm serial killer’s 10th victim identified, Ryan Hemphill tortured and raped at least six women, Blue-haired perv with long NYC rap sheet groped four women, Former Memphis officers on trial for murder of Tyre Nichols, Sicko accused of sexually violating dead body on NYC subway train is arrested, New England serial killer fears, Two men charged with shooting off-duty cop, Chicago man charged after child pornography, Florida mom indifferent, 1986 cold case murder of mom, Teens’ night of rock throwing, tortured helpless 10-year-old to death, Highland Park shooter Robert Crimo III sentenced to life in prison, Drug-fueled crime hits rural state hard, Moises Sandoval Mendoza executed by lethal injection, A woman hugs Patrick Crusius, scamming elderly Miami resident out of jewelry, ‘Doomsday mom’ Lori Vallow Daybell, El Paso Walmart shooter, Arkansas parents trap their 4 children in hot car, Oklahoma City bombing, FSU Shooting, A woman struggling with mental illness and her disabled son, Two Sioux Falls day care employees charged with child abuse, 30 years since the Oklahoma City Bombing, Uber driver killed in shooting targeting passenger, Burglars tunneled through concrete into LA jewelry store, brothers contributed to their deaths by cycling while impaired, postal worker killed in NY deli stabbing, 29-year-old woman’s stabbing death, corpse was sexually violated on NYC subway train, Cody Balmer faces domestic abuse charges, Teen charged with killing parents, ‘Slender Man’ stabber, Man arrested for robbing woman, Connecticut house of horrors stepmom 2025.4

A deranged blue-haired brute went on a sick crime spree in Manhattan this week, groping four women — one of them blind — and lighting another unsuspecting victim’s hair on fire, police and prosecutors said.

Edwin Page — a 28-year-old from Harlem with at least 10 prior arrests and more than a dozen mental health outbursts, according to sources — is now charged with sex abuse, forcible touching and assault as a hate crime in the rash of broad-daylight attacks across Chelsea and Midtown South.

“He stands before the court charged with five separate incidents involving five different strangers,” Assistant District Attorney Shara Safer said in Manhattan Criminal Court Wednesday, adding the incidents were captured on surveillance video.

The perv first horrifically targeted the 23-year-old blind woman on Friday morning at West 23rd Street near Seventh Avenue.

The victim was using a guide cane and waiting to enter a Flatiron service center around 8:10 a.m. when the creep came up to her and cruelly sneered, “Hey blind girl. I’m a detective. Can you see my badge? Of course not, you’re blind,” according to police.

He then grabbed her buttocks before walking off and returning a short time later, asking the victim, “Do you have the time?,” cops said.

Page allegedly continued his groping spree on Monday — randomly attacking four more women in just about two hours, according to police.

He first strolled up to a 27-year-old woman using her cellphone on West 32nd Street near Sixth Avenue around 12:10 p.m., authorities said.

“Do you want to know what it feels like to be my girlfriend?” the sicko allegedly asked, before pressing his genitals into her leg.

Just 15 minutes later, Page allegedly set his sights on a 37-year-old woman pushing a stroller near the same intersection, slapping her buttocks before running off, cops said.

He returned to Sixth Avenue and West 32nd Street around 12:50 p.m. and terrifyingly lit a woman’s hair on fire, cops said.

The woman was walking up the avenue when she smelled smoke and realized her locks were burning, according to police.

She managed to pat down her own hair and extinguish the flames before she was seriously hurt, cops said.

Page allegedly resurfaced around 2:15 p.m., barging into the QQ Nails and Spa on Sixth Avenue near West 26th Street, where he stormed up to a 29-year-old woman getting her nails done and grabbed her buttocks, cops said.

The unhinged vagrant was arrested Monday evening on a slew of charges in connection with the barrage of lewd and violent assaults, police said.

Most of Page’s prior busts are for domestic assaults in Queens, law enforcement sources said.

But his most recent arrest prior to this week was Feb. 26 in Midtown, when Page — who had orange hair at the time — was charged with third-degree assault for allegedly stalking a man and then attacking him in what prosecutors labeled a hate crime.

“Are you part of a Venezuelan gang?” Page asked the victim before throwing him to the ground on Eighth Avenue and choking him, the criminal complaint alleges.

He also has at least 18 previous incidents as an “emotionally disturbed person,” according to the sources.

Page — who was ordered held on $75,000 bail on Wednesday — was hauled to court sporting electric-blue-dyed hair and a black T-shirt depicting Al Pacino as Tony Montana in the 1983 film “Scarface” over a long-sleeved shirt the same color as his locks.

He replied “Good” when a photographer asked him how he’s doing, as an officer escorted him into the building.

But Page went off the rails during the hearing, griping that he was not busted at a homeless shelter, as prosecutors claimed.

“I was not apprehended at the shelter. I was not at the shelter when I was arrested,” he said. “Nobody believes anything I say. I’m being discriminated [against].”

State Assemblyman Tony Simone (D-Manhattan) said Page’s case was an example of the need for involuntary commitment mandates being discussed currently in Albany.

“These frightening and disgusting acts are the result of allowing severe mental illness to go untreated for far too long,” he said.

“Those who are a clear harm to themselves or others must be put into treatment, otherwise we will continue to see the same pattern.”

Curtis Sliwa, the Guardian Angels founder and presumptive Republican mayoral candidate, agreed.

“Edwin Page should have been committed long ago, but failed leadership and broken policies kept him on the streets,” he said.

Prosecutors allege Ryan Hemphill tortured and raped at least six women inside his midtown Manhattan apartment over five months.

In the years before prosecutors accused him of torturing and raping six women inside his midtown Manhattan apartment, Ryan Hemphill presented himself to the world as a success story.

Across his three personal websites and LinkedIn profile, Hemphill, 43, flashed a law degree, an MBA, ownership of a private equity firm, a nonprofit and a former role at the United Nations. On Thursday, New York prosecutors said he used that image of wealth and power “as both sword and shield” to prey on women, charging him with 116 counts of rape, strangulation, predatory sexual assault and bribery, among other charges.

“He told them that he had resources that made him untouchable, including purported deep connections in law enforcement and in organized crime,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said at a news conference. “He impressed upon them that going to the authorities would be futile and that he would never be held accountable.”

But upon closer examination, Hemphill’s projected image of affluence and influence appears to crumble.

Driving his supposed success appears to be two companies he says he founded: New York City-based private equity firm Madison Park Capital Advisors, Inc. and online car auction site the MB Market, according to his LinkedIn.

On one of his personal websites, he boasts of clients including an international men’s fashion label and “one of the largest residential real estate developers in the Midwest.”

However, the LinkedIn profile and official website of Madison Park Capital Advisors lists its location as Seattle, Washington, not New York City. The firm’s website does not list Hemphill as a founder or an employee. The “Madison Park Capital Advisors” listed on Hemphill’s LinkedIn profile also links out to the Seattle firm.

One of the firm’s principals, Chris Featherstone, said in an email that he does not know who Hemphill is.

“He is not related to us whatsoever,” Featherstone said, before declining to comment further.

NBC News couldn’t find records for another company under the name “Madison Park Capital Advisors” in New York or any other state. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission referred NBC News to its website, which did not list Hemphill or any companies associated with his name in a database for investment companies and registered investment advisers.

“When I saw the news report and it referred to the money and power, I certainly chuckled,” said a person who’s worked for Hemphill. “Either I was scammed or, otherwise, my sense is there’s not a lot of money and certainly not a lot of power there.”

The person, who spoke with NBC News on the condition of anonymity due to fear of being associated with the allegations against Hemphill, said Hemphill frequently complained about his finances.

Hemphill’s attorney, Caroline Ng — a public defender of the Legal Aid Society — and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office declined to comment. Hemphill pleaded not guilty to all charges against him.

Hemphill’s history with the other company he claims to have founded, the MB Market, is somewhat more verifiable.

A spokesperson for the MB Market said in a statement that Hemphill was an “early investor” in the auction site, which launched in 2020, but noted they “would not consider him to be an original founder.”

“He is no longer affiliated with the company and hasn’t been for quite some time,” the spokesperson wrote. “He entered into a private agreement with the company that prohibits the company from commenting further.”

On Jan. 31, 2024, Hemphill sued the founders of the MB Market for trying to sell the company without his prior knowledge that month, according to court records.

Hours after the sale of the company was announced, Hemphill sent threatening text messages to Ben Everest, one of the company’s co-founders, according the MB Market’s response to the suit. In the exchange, Hemphill insinuates that he knew the former head of the Federal Trade Commission and would use the connection to punish Everest and Blakley Leonard, the co-founder of the MB Market.

“I will spend every waking moment, and every g—— time I have to ensure that the rest of his life is nothing but suffering,” Hemphill wrote about Leonard, according to the documents.

“The amount of fire I have to burn in response to this exceeds anything they could potentially anticipate,” Hemphill wrote in another text, according to the documents. “I will do TIME to f— them up. Praise be to GOD.”

Everest and Leonard did not return multiple requests for comment. Hemphill, Everest and Leonard ended up settling, with Hemphill selling his share of the company, according to the documents.

In New York, prosecutors accuse Hemphill of similarly leveraging false connections to officials to intimidate women, including threatening he could get them arrested if they reported him to authorities.

“You prostitute,” he texted one of the women on Dec. 22, according to prosecutors. “Did you not notice all the police business cards on my f—— coffee table? I know half the precinct, you f––.

A man who is familiar with the business operations of the MB Market — and spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fear of association with the accusations against Hemphill — said Hemphill “couldn’t really answer any legal or business questions with any sort of certainty.”

When they began working together, the man said he was suspicious of Hemphill and confronted him about his business dealings.

“I asked him point blank, ‘have you ever done private equity?’ And he admitted it to me and said, ‘no,’” the man said.

Hemphill claims that before his supposed work in the private sector, he worked as a diplomatic adviser and a delegate for the United Nations throughout 2008 and 2009, according to his LinkedIn profile.

U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said the U.N. found “no record of him ever having been a U.N. staff member.” Dujarric cautioned that it was possible Hemphill worked as a consultant for the U.N. but cast doubt on it.

“The way I read his LinkedIn is that he was a delegate for an NGO for a meeting at the U.N., which then, often, then people tend to exaggerate ‘Oh, I was working at the U.N.,’ which is different,” Dujarric said.

NBC News confirmed with the New York State Unified Court System that Hemphill is a licensed attorney with a law degree from the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University. Hofstra confirmed Hemphill obtained his law degree there, in addition to having obtained his bachelor’s degree in drama and MBA at the university.

Other aspects of his resume remain unverified. The other previous employers he lists on his LinkedIn profile declined to comment or could not be reached for comment.

Building a strong online profile could have been useful for Hemphill.

Officials said that between October 2024 and March, Hemphill met several of the six women he’s accused of torturing and raping online, including on Seeking.com, SugarDaddy and SugarDaddyMeet, FetLife and Craigslist.

He allegedly offered the women large sums of money in exchange for sex and companionship, but often did not pay them on agreed-upon amounts or paid them with fake money, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors allege Hemphill recorded the sex acts and torture, during which he allegedly punched, waterboarded, urinated on and used shock collars and cattle prods to harm the women. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said on Thursday that prosecutors believe “there may be more survivors,” adding that “dozens, if not hundreds, of women are captured on that footage.”

“The defendant told these survivors that he was untouchable,” Bragg said. “The indictment makes clear that he was wrong.”

DNA analysis helps investigators identify Daniel Thomas Halloran decades after he disappeared

A 10th victim has been recovered from Fox Hollow Farm, where suspected serial killer Herb Baumeister lived in Indiana.

The Hamilton County Coroner’s Office said in a news release that the body found at Fox Hallow Farm in Westfield, Indiana, belongs to Daniel Thomas Halloran. According to Fox 59, Halloran was born in 1972, but officials aren’t sure when he died.

Halloran is the 10th identified victim from Fox Hollow Farm, but investigators have tied Baumeister to at least 25 victims overall. A spokesperson for the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office told Fox News Digital it still has three DNA profiles that haven’t yet been identified.

Halloran’s daughter, 32-year-old Coral Halloran, told WTHR that she didn’t know how to respond upon hearing that her father was an alleged victim of Baumeister. She said her father went missing in 1993, just one year after she was born.

“I feel kind of like I’m mourning,” Coral said. “All my life, I kind of expected my dad to be around and one day hoping he’d come try to find me.

“It makes me sick and weary to my stomach, having to know my dad was brutally murdered. It’s hard. And for all the other victims out there, their families, I’m with them. I’m praying hard for them.”

Police believe Baumeister lured gay men to his home between the 1980s and 1990s, where he would allegedly kill them and bury their bodies across his 18-acre property. Around 10,000 bone fragments and charred bones were found on the property.

Detectives believe Baumeister often went to gay bars in the Indianapolis area. During periods when his family was out of town, Baumeister lured men into his home where it’s believed he killed them. Baumeister owned the Sav-A-Lot shopping chain.

In 1996, Baumeister killed himself in a Canadian park shortly after bone fragments were discovered on his property, prompting an investigation to be opened.

“This identification is a significant development in our ongoing efforts to provide answers to the families of those who went missing,” Jeff Jellison, Hamilton County coroner, said after Halloran’s remains were identified. “We are grateful for the expertise of Othram and the advances in forensic science that made this possible.”

According to a recent documentary from ABC News Studios titled “The Fox Hollow Murders: Playground of a Serial Killer,” investigators believe Baumeister filmed his victims using a hidden camera placed in a basement air vent.

“Something to relive… the murders,” said retired Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office Det. Cary Milligan. “We’re looking through the bottom of the entertainment area… and we noticed this vent. … I was suspicious that if Herb was videotaping any activity that might have been going on. … That may have been a way that Herb could’ve gained power over the individuals that he was killing.”

“It’s not uncommon for serial killers to keep mementos or trinkets from victims,” Milligan added.

Jellison previously told Fox News Digital it’s unlikely the video recordings will be recovered.

The coroner’s office said forensic laboratory Othram Inc. played a critical role in identifying Halloran through DNA analysis. The Indiana State Police, University of Indianapolis, Human Identification Center and Marion County Coroner’s Office also assisted in identifying the remains.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Three former Memphis police officers were frustrated, angry and full of adrenaline when they fatally beat Tyre Nichols after he ran away from a traffic stop in 2023, a prosecutor said Monday during opening arguments in their trial on second-degree murder charges.

Prosecutor Paul Hagerman showed the jury video of the beating in the trial of Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith, who have pleaded not guilty to state charges. The three already face the prospect of years behind bars after they were convicted of federal charges last year.

A police pole camera captured the beating just steps from the home where Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, lived with his mother and stepfather. That footage led to national protests, raised the volume on calls for police reforms in the U.S. and directed intense scrutiny toward the police force in Memphis, a majority-Black city.

‘It doesn’t take monsters to kill a man,’ prosecutor says

Police video showed officers pepper-spraying Nichols and hitting him with a Taser before he ran away from the traffic stop on Jan. 7, 2023. The five officers, who are all Black, chased Nichols and caught him just steps from his home, and then beat him as he called out for his mother. The video showed the officers milling about, talking and laughing as Nichols struggled.

Hagerman said Nichols was being held by his arms by two of the officers as he was punched and kicked and hit with a police baton. After the beating, as a severely injured Nichols sat on the ground, officers failed to tell medical personnel that Nichols had been hit in the head, the prosecutor said.

Hagerman said the officers helped each other beat Nichols to death. An autopsy showed Nichols died three days after the beating of blunt force trauma.

He said the officers had a duty to stop the beating but none of them did so. They were “overcome by the moment,” the prosecutor said.

“Nobody is going to call them monsters,” Hagerman said. “It doesn’t take monsters to kill a man.”

A defense attorney says Nichols was resisting arrest

In his opening statement, Bean’s attorney said the officer responded to a call that police were looking for a man who had fled a traffic stop and had been pepper-sprayed and hit with a Taser. Bean, who was not at the initial stop, saw Nichols, turned on his body camera, and chased him down, said attorney John Keith Perry.

Perry said the situation became “high risk” when Nichols continued driving for about 2 miles (3.2 km) after one of the officers turned on his vehicle’s blue lights in an attempt to stop Nichols for speeding. Nichols then failed to follow orders to give officers his hands so that he could be handcuffed, Perry said.

“He was actually resisting arrest the whole time,” Perry said, adding that the officers just “wanted to do their job effectively.”

The jury for the state trial was chosen in Hamilton County, which includes Chattanooga, after Judge James Jones Jr. ordered the case be heard from people outside of Shelby County, which includes Memphis. Defense lawyers for the officers had argued that intense publicity made seating a fair jury difficult.

The officers are charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression.

Two others expected to change their not guilty pleas

Two other officers, Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills Jr., also have been charged but will not stand trial with their former colleagues. Martin and Mills are expected to change their not guilty pleas in state court, according to lawyers involved in the case. Sentencings for all five officers in the federal case is expected after the state trial.

After Nichols’ death, the five officers were fired, charged in state court and indicted by a federal grand jury on civil rights and witness tampering charges.

Martin and Mills pleaded guilty to the federal charges under deals with prosecutors. The other three officers were convicted in October of witness tampering related to the cover-up of the beating. Bean and Smith were acquitted of civil rights charges of using excessive force and being indifferent to Nichols’ serious injuries.

Haley was acquitted of violating Nichols’ civil rights causing death, but he was convicted of two lesser charges of violating his civil rights causing bodily injury.

On Monday, Martin Zummach, Smith’s lawyer, described Smith as a ”kind and gentle” person who always wanted to be a police officer. He pointed blame at Emmitt Martin, who punched Nichols multiple times and “crushed the brain” of Nichols.

Michael Stengel, Haley’s lawyer, told the jury that Haley kicked Nichols once in the upper arm, but he did not break police department policies in doing so. Haley engaged in policing that evening that was “ugly” and “dirty,” but he did not commit a crime, Stengel said.

Both Smith and Haley called for medical aid the night of the beating, their lawyers said.

In December, the U.S. Justice Department said a 17-month investigation showed the Memphis Police Department uses excessive force and discriminates against Black people.

The department is more than 50% Black and Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis is Black.

The five officers were part of a crime suppression team called the Scorpion Unit that since has been disbanded. The team targeted drugs, illegal guns and violent offenders with the goal of amassing arrests, while sometimes using force against unarmed people.

Two more bodies were discovered in Connecticut and Massachusetts

Two more dead bodies have been recovered by authorities in New England, as online concerns over a potential serial killer continue to grow.

On Friday, WLNE reported that a body was found in Taunton, Massachusetts. That person’s identity has not yet been released, and an investigation is ongoing.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Taunton Police Department and the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office.

On Sunday, another body was found in the Connecticut River in the town of Rocky Hill, according to that town’s police department.

“On Sunday, April 27, 2025 at 8:53 AM, the Rocky Hill Police Department received a report from a boater on the Connecticut River regarding a body in the water near the shoreline south of Ferry Park,” the department said on Facebook. “Upon arrival, responding officers and emergency personnel confirmed the presence of a deceased individual in the water. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner was notified and responded to the scene to assist with the investigation. At this time, the identity of the individual remains unknown and the cause of death is pending determination by the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office.”

Police said the circumstances of the death are under investigation. Fox News Digital reached out to the Rocky Hill Police Department.

The town of Rocky Hill rests on the I-91 corridor. Another body was found along that corridor in Springfield, Massachusetts, last week. I-91 runs through New Haven, Connecticut, where a third body was previously found.

Over the last two months, 10 bodies or sets of human remains have been located in New Haven, Norwalk, Groton, Killingly and now Rocky Hill, Connecticut; Foster, Rhode Island; and Framingham, Plymouth, Springfield, and now Taunton, Massachusetts.

Most of the bodies have been identified as female.

The string of findings has fueled online speculation that a serial killer may be roaming the Northeast, though authorities have not said the deaths are related. A Facebook group formerly called “New England Serial Killer,” which changed its name due to the social media company’s policies, now has more than 67,500 followers.

The Connecticut State Police told Fox News Digital last week that “there is no information at this time suggesting any connection to similar remains discoveries, and there is also no known threat to the public at this time,” regarding the deaths in Connecticut.

After the body was found in Springfield last week, authorities also said they had no reason to believe that the Massachusetts deaths are related and warned that unverified social media claims “can compromise active investigations and contribute to a sense of chaos that does not reflect the full picture.”

“We are actively working every lead and deploying every available resource,” Hampden County District Attorney Anthony Gulluni said. “At this time, there is no indication that these incidents are connected to each other or are they [are] part of a larger public safety threat.”

Authorities have arrested a man accused of killing a Florida mother nearly 40 years ago.

Jeffrey Taylor, 64, is accused of fatally shooting Shirley Brant during an attempted robbery at her North Miami Beach office on June 13, 1986, police said Friday.

Brant, a 49-year-old real estate broker, was on the phone with a client when two men entered the office. One of them ordered her to hang up, but she refused.

The man, now identified as Taylor, shot her in the face, officials said.

Brant was transported to a nearby hospital but didn’t survive. Medical examiners later confirmed she had been killed by a single gunshot to the head.

Fingerprints recovered from the scene were never entered into the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) because they didn’t meet “certain criteria at the time,” North Miami police said in a news release.

The case then went cold for nearly four decades.

In January 2023, however, a newly formed cold case unit began investigating unresolved homicides. Brant’s case regained momentum a year later, after two retired detectives returned to assist with the investigation, NBC South Florida reported at the time.

After fingerprints recovered from the scene were re-analyzed using forensic technology that wasn’t previously available, investigators were able to match them to Taylor, the Miami Herald reported, citing the arrest warrant.

Taylor was arrested Thursday and charged with second-degree murder with a firearm.

“Justice has finally caught up with a suspect in the 1986 murder of our victim,” North Miami Beach Police Chief Juan Pinillos said at a press conference on Friday, CBS Miami reported.

Investigators are still searching for the second suspect in the crime.

Joseph Koenig found guilty of first-degree murder in the 2023 death of driver Alexa Bartell after two others turn on him, get plea deal

GOLDEN, Colo. — Three Denver-area teens cheered each other during a night of throwing rocks at cars — until one of the stones crashed through a windshield and killed a woman, leading to a murder conviction Friday after the trio turned on one another.

Jurors found Joseph Koenig guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Alexa Bartell, 20, on April 19, 2023, after the other young men riding with him reached deals with prosecutors and testified against him. Koenig, now 20, was also convicted of attempted murder and other less serious crimes for rocks and other objects thrown at vehicles the night Bartell was killed and in previous weeks.

Bartell’s family and friends hugged and cried in court after the verdict.

Her mother, Kelly Bartell, said later that justice had been done but she had mixed feelings, expressing some sympathy for Koenig and the other two young men, who were all 18 when her daughter was killed.

“It’s hard to be happy or feel satisfied that justice was served today, because I feel one amazing life was lost and three others are also lost and impacted,” she said.

Jurors had to consider shifting and competing versions of the truth offered by Koenig’s former co-defendants during the two-week trial.

No one disputed that a 9-pound landscaping rock taken from a Walmart parking lot crashed through Bartell’s windshield, killing her instantly. The issue was who threw it. The only DNA found on the rock was Bartell’s, making the testimony from the other two, Zachary Kwak and Nicholas Karol-Chik, key to the prosecution.

Lawyers for Koenig said Kwak threw the rock that killed Bartell. But Kwak and Karol-Chik, whose plea agreements on lesser charges could lead to shorter prison sentences, said Koenig threw it. Although Karol-Chik said they each threw about 10 rocks that night, Kwak testified that he did not throw any.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Katharine Decker told jurors the damage to Bartell’s car was consistent with Koenig — who is left-handed and was driving — throwing the rock, shotput-style, out the driver’s-side window, as Karol-Chik testified. Even if jurors were unconvinced that Koenig threw it, she told them, they should still find him guilty of first-degree murder as a conspirator.

Koenig’s attorneys said he did not know anyone had been hurt until Bartell’s car went off the road. They also argued that he had borderline personality disorder, affecting his impulse control and judgment.

Defense lawyer Martin Stuart asked jurors to instead find Koenig guilty of manslaughter, the least serious charge he faced, saying he did not knowingly try to kill her. Jurors also had the option of finding him guilty of manslaughter as a conspirator.

After seeing Bartell’s car leave the road, the three friends circled back a few times to look again, according to testimony. Kwak took a photo as a memento, but no one checked on the driver or called for help, according to their testimony.

Bartell’s body would not be discovered until her girlfriend, Jenna Griggs, who was on a call with her when it abruptly cut out, tracked her phone to the field, she testified.

The three agreed not to talk to anyone about what happened, but Kwak, the newest to the group of friends, later told investigators that Koenig threw the rock. Karol-Chik, who said Koenig was like a “brother” to him, initially pointed the finger at Kwak before changing his story and blaming Koenig.

Karol-Chik testified that Koenig seemed “excited” as they drove by Bartell’s car and at one point made a “whoop” sound.

“It sounded like him celebrating,” said Karol-Chik, who admitted placing the rock next to Koenig so he could grab it and throw it.

Koenig’s lawyers tried to cast doubt on the reliability of the other men’s accounts but also stressed that none of the three intended to hurt anyone. The defense declined to comment on the conviction.

Kwak entered into a plea deal first, pleading guilty in May 2024 to first-degree assault. In doing so he acknowledged acting in a way that created a grave risk of death. He also pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and attempted second-degree assault for rocks that were thrown earlier in the night. He faces between 20 and 32 years in prison, according to prosecutors.

About a week later, Karol-Chik pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and committing a crime of violence. He also pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder for throwing rocks at a total of nine people that night and earlier in 2023. Under his agreement, Karol-Chik could be sent to prison for between 35 and 72 years when he is sentenced Thursday, a day before Kwak.

Koenig is to be sentenced June 3 and faces a mandatory life term for the murder conviction.

For beating 10-year-old Harlem boy to death, man gets 25 years to life

A judge sentenced Ryan Cato to 25 years to life in state prison Friday for brutally beating his girlfriend’s 10-year-old son to death, hitting the little boy so hard that his internal organs ruptured.

Cato was found guilty last month of murder in the March 6, 2021, death of Ayden Wolfe, who was found naked with bruises across his body, broken ribs and lacerations to his spleen, liver and kidneys.

“Isolated from teachers and other responsible adults because of the pandemic, 10-year-old Ayden Wolfe was enduring horrific violence at the hands of his mother’s boyfriend,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement. “Ryan Cato brutally abused him, eventually killing Ayden in his own apartment. While today’s sentencing will not bring back this innocent child, I hope it gives his loved ones a sense of comfort and closure in this abhorrent crime.”

The abuse started in January 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, shortly after Cato moved in with the boy’s mother at their W. 131st St. apartment in Harlem, prosecutors said during the trial. Cato would make Ayden hold weights above his head while Cato punched him, according to court documents.

The boy’s father, Darnell Wolfe, and neighbors and loved ones, speaking to the Daily News in 2021 after Ayden’s death, described him as a bright, tech-savvy child, wise beyond his years. He had been attending school remotely due to the pandemic and had not interacted with teachers, counselors or school nurses in months, jurors heard during the trial.

The jury heard from Ayden’s mother, Aquisha Johnson, who cooperated with the prosecution against Cato. She previously pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in connection to her son’s killing.

She admitted to sometimes hitting the boy with a belt and forcing him to hold weights as “discipline,” and said the abuse he suffered at her boyfriend’s hands became more severe over time, to the point Cato would “fight” the child as forcefully as he would hit a grown man, jurors heard.

Prosecutors told jurors that the beatings that ultimately killed little Ayden began the day before his death. A doctor from the city Medical Examiner’s Office said that a piece of the boy’s liver broke off inside his abdomen and the casing of his kidney had begun to come off, like the peel of an orange. The M.E. ruled that the boy had died from battered child syndrome.

The child had multiple injuries to his ribs in various states of healing, serving as further evidence of a prolonged period of abuse, Assistant D.A. Jonathon Junig said.

“It looks like he a was hit by a train, but this is from the defendant pummeling him over and over again,” the prosecutor said during the trial, pointing to disturbing photos taken during the boy’s autopsy. “If this isn’t depraved, what is?”

—

Sadistic fiend who tortured helpless 10-year-old to death in NYC house of horrors sentenced for murder

A sadistic fiend who bludgeoned his girlfriend’s helpless 10-year-old son to death in Harlem could spend his remaining years behind bars.

Ryan Cato, 38, was sentenced Friday to 25 years-to-life for killing Ayden Wolfe — who was subjected to unimaginable abuse while trapped inside his family’s apartment during the pandemic’s early days.

“Isolated from teachers and other responsible adults because of the pandemic, 10-year-old Ayden Wolfe was enduring horrific violence at the hands of his mother’s boyfriend,” said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in a statement.

“Ryan Cato brutally abused him, eventually killing Ayden in his own apartment.”

A Manhattan jury in March found Cato guilty of second-degree murder — nearly four years after first responders rushed into a West 131st Street apartment and found an unresponsive Wolfe, bruised and naked.

Prosecutors said Cato moved into his girlfriend’s Aquisha Johnson’s Harlem home in January 2021 and quickly began abusing Wolfe.

The vicious Cato made Wolfe hold weighs over his head while he repeatedly punched him — and filmed the abuse, sending the videos to his friends, prosecutors said.

The abuse apparently escalated March 5, 2021, when loud bangs were heard inside the apartment, as well as Cato threatening Johnson when she yelled at him to stop, officials said.

The bangs and thuds continued the next day, prosecutors said. Several hours after the ruckus, Johnson called 911, only to have Cato take the phone from her.

First responders arrived to find the naked Wolfe without a pulse, prosecutors said. They rushed him to Harlem Hospital, where doctors tried and failed to save his life.

Medical examiners ruled Wolfe’s cause of death to be battered child syndrome.

Wolfe had bruises over his body, broken ribs and a slew of internal injuries — a lacerated liver, kidney and renal vein — that caused hemorrhaging.

“Some injuries were old, but others were recent,” said then-NYPD Chief of Department Rodney Harrison shortly after Wolfe’s death.

Johnson, who had previously been investigated by the Administration for Children’s Services, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, officials said.

She can withdraw her plea to manslaughter as part of a cooperation agreement, according to the officials.

Cato was also investigated by ACS for an unrelated case in which he allegedly beat another woman in front of their children, police said.

Wolfe’s father gave a heartbreaking victim impact statement read in court by prosecutors during Cato’s sentencing.

He said young Ayden was a moral child who made a very big impact on everyone around him. Ayden had a future, which he has no more, he said.

One Maine police chief said 90% of crimes that his officers respond to “have a drug nexus”

Maine has become a “wholesale distribution hub” for drug dealers in the Northeast, bringing a slew of crime to the rural state, a police chief told Fox News Digital.

The New England state, typically known for its rugged coastline and beautiful fall foliage, has gradually become filled with illicit drugs as more gangs establish themselves in the area. Chris Martin, police chief of the Brewer Police Department in Maine, told Fox News Digital that his area has turned into a distribution hub for illegal drugs.

“What we’ve seen in the past, particularly four years, is that our area has turned into a wholesale distribution hub. So, we have kilo quantities available of fentanyl and methamphetamine and cocaine. And that’s a dramatic market shift that we hadn’t seen 10, 20 years ago. So the supply has increased readily,” Martin said.

Martin, who also serves as the town’s public safety director, said the rise in illegal drugs has also brought a rise in crime. Since it’s often costly to purchase street drugs, Martin said that individuals are turning to crime in order to fund their addiction.

“With that, we’re also seeing the presence of organized crime. Street gangs out of New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, they’re actually bringing the supply here,” Martin said. “Drug addiction cause crime. And if you have a one or 200 or $300 a day habit, especially if it’s an opioid like fentanyl, it doesn’t take a day off. If you don’t have the drug, you get sick. So how does anybody afford one, two, $300 day habits every day of the week? You invariably have to commit crimes.”

Martin said those crimes include theft, prostitution, human trafficking, burglary and drug sales. He added that about 90% of the crimes that his officers are responding to “have a drug nexus.”

“All of those things go hand in hand and the driving force is supplying this narco-economy, if you will,” Martin said of the rise of illicit drugs in Maine. “All these things kind of make a perfect storm.”

In Maine, implications are being felt throughout the state. On April 1, officials arrested two individuals in Dixfield who were allegedly in possession of “225 grams of cocaine and crack cocaine, 10 grams of fentanyl, assorted unidentified capsules and pills, three loaded firearms, and $ 4,350 in drug proceeds,” officials told News Center Maine.

“I have never seen anything like what we’re experiencing here in Maine.”
— Maine gubernatorial candidate Bobby Charles

In Bangor, Maine, 27-year-old Dylan Caruso was shot to death over $600 owed to another man for drugs in 2024, according to FOX 23.

According to the Connecticut Post, a convicted killer who was arrested in October 2024 in Maine was pulled over and allegedly found to be in possession of a loaded firearm and drugs. The individual, Cyrus Griffin, wasn’t allowed to leave the state of Connecticut.

Maine Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said in September 2023 that fentanyl is responsible for 80% of all drug deaths throughout the state.

State lawmakers are divided on how to attack the illicit drug epidemic.

Republican State Sen. Brad Farrin, who lost his 26-year-old daughter to a drug overdose, proposed a bill in 2023 that would have reclassified the trafficking of fentanyl to a Class A felony. The bill was voted down, primarily by Democrats.

Republican Bobby Charles, who is running for Maine governor and served in the former Bush administration as the Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, told Fox News Digital the state needs to get more serious about confronting this epidemic.

“I have never seen anything like what we’re experiencing here in Maine. This state, when I grew up in this state, might have had five overdoses in the entire state. Last year, this state had 10,000 overdoses, and many of them fatal,” Charles said. “I sit down beside people and they quietly lean over to me and say, this happened to me two days ago, I lost my daughter to fentanyl two years ago…Do you know what that devastation is like? It’s huge and it is inexcusable. It is immoral and it has to be stopped.”

Charles has placed the blame squarely on statewide Democrats and Mills, who, in his view, haven’t done much to reduce the flow of illegal drugs into Maine.

“The traffickers have come into this state, and because the Democrats have cut the guts out of law enforcement, they have, in my opinion, betrayed them. There isn’t a single situation in which a prosecutor feels like he has enough money or has the ability to prosecute these cases. They’ve been abandoned, OK?” Charles said.

“The bottom line is they’re trying to turn Maine into inner city Chicago or the Badlands of Philly. And I am not going to stand for it. Mainers are not going to stand for.”

Illinois judge describes Crimo as ‘irreparably corrupt and beyond any rehabilitation’

The mass shooter who killed seven people in the 2022 Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without the possibility of parole, with a judge describing him as “irreparably corrupt and beyond any rehabilitation.”

Robert E. Crimo III, 24, was given seven consecutive sentences of natural life in prison without the possibility of parole for the first-degree murder charges he pleaded guilty to last month.

“This court has absolutely no words that could adequately describe and capture the horror and pain that was inflicted on July 4th,” Lake County Judge Victoria Rossetti said as she announced the sentencing.

She described Crimo as having “a complete disregard for human life” and being someone who “is irretrievably depraved, permanently incorrigible, irreparably corrupt and beyond any rehabilitation,” according to the Associated Press.

Crimo refused to attend his sentencing hearing on Wednesday or Thursday despite Rossetti’s previous warnings that the case would proceed without him.

The attack also left 48 others injured.

Keely Roberts, whose 8-year-old son Cooper Roberts is paralyzed from the waist down, told the court that Crimo was “cowardly” for not attending his sentencing hearing.

“You will not hear my grief,” she said. “You are now irrelevant.”

Crimo allegedly climbed on a roof above the Fourth of July parade in downtown Highland Park, 30 miles north of Chicago, and opened fire on spectators with a legally purchased Smith & Wesson M&P 15 rifle.

The seven victims who died in the shooting are Jacki Sundheim, 63; Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, 78; Irina McCarthy, 35, and Kevin McCarthy, 37; Katherine Goldstein, 64; Stephen Straus, 88; and Edwardo Uvaldo, 69.

Crimo’s father, Robert Crimo Jr., a former mayoral candidate, was charged in connection with how his son obtained a gun license. He pleaded guilty in 2023 to seven misdemeanor counts of reckless conduct. He served less than two months in jail.

Their brief embrace — while Patrick Crusius was still shackled — was among many emotionally charged moments during two days of impact statements.

Speaking to the gunman who killed her brother and 22 other people, Yolanda Tinajero did not raise her voice or condemn him for his racist attack at a Walmart in 2019. Instead she told him Tuesday that she forgave him, and wished she could give him a hug.

The judge, in a surprising turn in an El Paso courtroom, allowed her to do just that.

Their brief embrace — while Patrick Crusius was still shackled — was among many emotionally charged moments during two days of impact statements given by victims’ family members and survivors.

Some described their pain and devastation while others assured him the community had met his hatred with love and unity. Later, another person also hugged the man who pleaded guilty in one of the deadliest mass shootings in the U.S.

Crusius, a white community college dropout, had posted online a screed about a Hispanic invasion of Texas before opening fire with an AK-style rifle at the store near the U.S.-Mexico border on Aug. 3, 2019. Crusius didn’t address the families and survivors at his plea hearing Monday. He will serve multiple life sentences after pleading guilty to capital murder and 22 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

“We would have opened our doors to you to share a meal, breakfast lunch or dinner, Mexican-style, so then your ugly thoughts of us that have been instilled in you would have turned around,” Tinajero told him.

‘Hug you very tight’
Tinajero said her brother, 60-year-old Arturo Benavides, was a “kind, sweet-hearted person,” whose wife of over 30 years is broken hearted over her loss.

“Now she lives alone in their home full of memories that she can’t forget,” she said.

“I feel in my heart, to hug you very tight so you could feel my forgiveness, especially my loss, but I know it’s not allowed,” Tinajero said. “I want you to see and feel all of us who have been impacted by your actions.”

Later, the judge asked her: “Ma’am, would it truly bring you peace and comfort if you could hug him?”

‘Yes,” she replied.

Her daughter, Melissa Tinajero, told reporters: “I don’t know how she was able to do it. I could not do that. But she showed him something he could not show his victims.”

‘A survivor, not a victim’
Stephanie Melendez told Crusius that she did not want to address him but rather read a letter to her father, 63-year-old David Johnson, who was killed when he shielded his wife and 9-year-old granddaughter from the gunfire.

Melendez thanked her father for making her study, giving her a curfew and telling her when she was 16 that she needed to get a job.

“You made me into the strong woman I am today,” she said.

Her daughter, Kaitlyn Melendez, now 14, told Crusius: “I am a survivor, not a victim.”

“I’m going to walk out these doors and move forward with my life and not let you haunt me anymore.”

‘A disgrace to humanity’
Dean Reckard, whose 63-year-old mother Margie Reckard was among those killed, expressed anger and forgiveness as he addressed Crusius.

“You’re a disgrace to humanity and to your family,” Reckard said, adding that he hopes Crusius wakes up each morning wishing he were dead.

But Reckard also said he forgave the gunman who will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

“In order to be forgiving, you have to forgive others,” he said. “That’s the only reason I forgive you. May God have mercy on your soul.”

Thousands of people attended Margie Reckard’s funeral after her partner of 22 years, Antonio Basco, invited the public to the service, saying he felt alone after her death.

‘Left me sad, bitter’
Liliana Munoz of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, said in court Monday that she was shopping for snacks when Crusius opened fire, forever changing her life physically, economically and emotionally.

In her statement, she said she used to be a “happy, dancing person,” but now is afraid every morning when she awakes. Since she was shot, she has had to use a cane to walk and wears a leg brace to keep her left foot from dragging.

“It left me sad, bitter,” said the 41-year-old mother.

She also granted Crusius forgiveness.

‘You brought us together’
Javier Rodriguez was 15 and starting his sophomore year in high school when he was shot and killed at a bank in Walmart.

On Tuesday his father Francisco Rodriguez shouted at Crusius: “Look at me, I’m talking to you.”

He told Crusius that he and his family have to go to the cemetery to commemorate his son’s birthday.

“I wish I could just get five minutes with you — me and you — and get all of this, get it over with,” he said.

But Rodriguez also referred to comments made about Crusius’ impact on El Paso during his sentencing.

“Like the judge said yesterday, you came down to El Paso with the intention of tearing us apart, but all you did, you brought us together,” he said.

Moises Sandoval Mendoza, 41, choked Rachelle O’Neil Tolleson before sexually assaulting her, stabbing her in the throat and setting her on fire in March 2004

A Texas man who was convicted of brutally killing a young mother and setting her body on fire just over two decades ago was executed by lethal injection late Wednesday.

Moises Sandoval Mendoza, 41, was pronounced dead at the Huntsville state penitentiary at 6:40 p.m., according to The Associated Press.

Mendoza was convicted in the March 2004 death of 20-year-old mother, Rachelle O’Neil Tolleson, and taking her body to a field behind his house, where he kept it for several days, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said.

Mendoza reportedly attended a party at Tolleson’s Farmersville home, where she and her 6-month-old daughter lived, a few days prior to the murder, according to the report.

On the day of the murder, he choked and sexually assaulted the young mother before dragging her into a field and stabbing her in the throat.

After being questioned by police, he drove Tolleson’s body to a dirt pit in rural Collin County, Texas, where he set her body on fire to destroy evidence and buried her under a brush pile.

Tolleson’s daughter was found the next day by the child’s grandmother, The AP reported.

Mendoza’s friend alerted police after they learned about the crime, and the body was found and matched to Tolleson using dental records.

He later confessed to the killing, though the motive remains unclear.

Prior to the murder, the Attorney General’s Office said Mendoza attacked female family members and sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl, according to The AP.

U.S. Supreme Court justices on Wednesday denied Mendoza’s request for a stay of execution and a petition for a writ of certiorari, finding a previous appeals attorney who represented him did not fail to provide effective counsel, as alleged, according to the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (TCADP).

Similarly, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday denied a request to commute his death sentence. The board previously declined to recommend clemency.

The TCADP, an advocacy organization aimed at ending the death penalty in Texas, claimed that over the last two decades behind bars, Mendoza “transformed from an impulsive, risk-taking, and self-centered late adolescent to an empathic man of faith who has a positive influence on those around him, including guards, chaplains, and wardens.”

He earned certificates in multiple self-improvement and faith-based programs and maintained meaningful relationships with his family, according to the TCADP.

Mendoza was the third person executed in Texas this year and the thirteenth person put to death nationwide.

Katherine Coromoto Angulo-Rivera, 27, is facing additional charges of organized fraud and exploitation of the elderly

A woman previously arrested for allegedly scamming elderly Miami residents out of jewelry has been arrested again after being accused of scamming another elderly resident out of tens of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry.

Katherine Coromoto Angulo-Rivera, 27, is facing additional charges of organized fraud and exploitation of the elderly.

She was previously arrested earlier in April on similar charges.

According to police, on March 3, an elderly victim was outside her home when she was approached by Angulo-Rivera who asked them if they had any old frames for eyeglasses she could also melt the frames down to costume jewelry.

An arrest report said Angulo-Rivera also told the victim she offered a jewelry cleaning service.

After speaking with the victim, she was invited into their home and offered to clean their jewelry, the report said.

Once inside the home, the report said, the victim gave Angulo-Rivera around $30,000 in jewelry so that it could be cleaned.

Angulo-Rivera then placed the jewelry in a container, poured a liquid solution and smoke began to emit, the report said.

She then asked the victim to get some paper towels and after getting some, Angulo-Rivera placed a paper towel over the container and told the victim not to remove it for an hour and then left, the report said.

After following Angulo-Rivera’s instructions, the report said, the victim removed the paper from the container and noticed her jewelry was missing and it was replaced with a rosary that was burned and melted down.

Angulo-Rivera would perform this scheme for several other elderly residents.

Weeks after their jewelry was stolen, the victim was watching NBC6 and recognized Angulo-Rivera and called the police, the report said.

Angulo-Rivera on Monday was identified in a Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office photographic lineup.

She was then apprehended by the City of Miami Police and was transferred into MDSO custody, the report said.

After being read her Miranda Rights and refusing to speak with deputies without her lawyer present, she was charged and transported to the Turner Night Guilford Correctional Center.

During her court appearance, a judge set Angulo-Rivera’s bond to $15,000 and ordered her to stay away from the victim.

Arizona jury finds ‘cult mom’ Lori Vallow guilty of conspiring to murder late husband
Lori Vallow Daybell gave her closing statement on Monday
Published April 22, 2025 7:12pm EDT

A jury in Arizona has found Lori Vallow Daybell guilty of conspiring to kill her late husband Charles Vallow after she was convicted in 2023 of killing two of her own children.

Prosecutors allege that Vallow Daybell worked with Alex Cox, her late brother, in order to murder her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, to receive money from a $1 million life insurance policy.

Vallow Daybell and Daybell were convicted for the 2019 murders of Vallow’s two children, 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan. The couple, who believe some people had dark spirits and shared apocalyptic religious beliefs, were also convicted of murdering Chad Daybell’s first wife, Tammy Daybell. They were sentenced to life in prison.

In a closing statement on Monday, Vallow Daybell, who’s representing herself, told jurors “only you get to decide.”

“The state put forth a bunch of evidence in this trial to make you dislike me – to try to attack my character so that you would just say guilty no matter what evidence they showed you,” Vallow Daybell said.

Vallow Daybell also argued that prosecutors failed to bring witnesses who had “knowledge of a conspiracy.”

“The state did not show you evidence of an agreement to commit murder. They showed you evidence of a family tragedy, and then they showed you the sad effects of a family torn apart because of that tragedy,” Vallow Daybell said.

Rather, Vallow Daybell argued that it was her brother who shot Charles Daybell. Vallow Daybell said her late brother and Charles Vallow got into a physical fight at the same time that herself and her daughter, Tylee, were both at home.

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‘Doomsday mom’ Lori Vallow Daybell is convicted in fourth husband’s death
Lori Vallow Daybell was previously convicted in the deaths of two of her children and her husband’s first wife.
April 23, 2025, 6:51 AM GMT+8 / Updated April 23, 2025, 8:35 AM GMT+8

“Doomsday mom” Lori Vallow Daybell was convicted Tuesday in Arizona of conspiring to kill her fourth husband, Charles Vallow.

A Maricopa County Superior Court jury found Vallow Daybell guilty of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the July 2019 fatal shooting.

Charles Vallow’s brother, Gerry Vallow, said afterward that the verdict brought him some solace.

“It was a relief, a long journey, and I’m just glad it’s over with,” he said. “Today’s a good day. We won.”

Sister Kay Woodcock, also speaking outside the Phoenix courthouse, said: “We gotcha. She’ll be rotting in prison where she deserves to be.”

Vallow Daybell, who represented herself at trial, told jurors that her brother, Alex Cox, shot Charles Vallow in self-defense following a family argument. Cox died later that year from a pulmonary embolism and was never charged.

According to Vallow Daybell, her husband got into an argument with her daughter, Tylee Ryan, and threatened the teen with a bat. Charles Vallow was at his estranged wife’s home in Chandler, Arizona, to take their son, Joshua “JJ” Vallow, to school.

Vallow Daybell, 51, was convicted in Idaho in 2023 of killing her two children and her husband’s first wife, Tammy Daybell. She’s already serving life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Prosecutors in the Arizona case dismissed Vallow Daybell’s self-defense claim, arguing that she had several reasons for wanting her husband dead, including her desire to start a life with another man.

“Lori Vallow wanted to be Lori Daybell, wife of Chad Daybell. And in July of 2019, Lori Vallow wanted to keep the same lifestyle that she had with Charles. And she could get all of this if Charles was dead,” prosecutor Treena Kay said in her opening statements.

Kay continued: “She could marry Chad Daybell and become Lori Daybell. She would get a million-dollar life insurance policy from Charles Vallow. She would get Social Security for herself and their son, JJ, as the child of a dead spouse. And all of this would be true if Charles Vallow was dead.”

The prosecutor added that Vallow Daybell labeled people who disagreed with her as “dark” or “possessed by evil spirits” and used religion to justify Charles Vallow’s death.

Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell, a doomsday author, married in November 2019.

In her closing argument on Monday, Vallow Daybell said prosecutors tried to “retrofit a crime that doesn’t exist.”

“Under Arizona law, I had the right to self-defense. Tylee had the right to self-defense. Alex had the right to self-defense. This event was not planned or expected. It was shocking,” she said. “This event was not a crime. It was a tragedy. Don’t let them turn my family tragedy into a crime.”

During Vallow Daybell’s trial, the jury heard from a medical examiner who testified that Charles Vallow could have been lying on a firm surface like a floor when he was shot. The fatal shot went through his heart, medical examiner Derek Bumgarner said.

Adam Cox told the court that he had “no doubt” his sister conspired with their brother to kill Charles Vallow. He testified that before the shooting, Vallow Daybell had been making odd religious comments and that he and Charles Vallow wanted to hold an intervention to address it.

Other testimony included that of Chandler Police Officer Cassandra Ynclan, who told the court that Vallow Daybell “seemed very kind of ordinary and kind of nonchalant” on the day of her husband’s death.

The state rested its case last week. Vallow Daybell rested without presenting any evidence or calling any witnesses.

Juror Victoria Lewis told NBC affiliate KPNX of Phoenix that lies from the defense were revealed as the trial went on, and that Vallow Daybell appeared unserious in her role has her own counsel — factors that weighed on Lewis’ decision.

“Many days she just was like smiling and laughing and didn’t seem to take anything very seriously,” Lewis said outside the courthouse.

Sentencing in criminal cases usually takes place about 30 days from the date of a verdict. KPNX reported that sentencing will be delayed until after a separate case against Vallow Daybell is completed.

In that case, Vallow Daybell is charged with conspiring to kill Brandon Boudreaux, her niece’s estranged husband, and the judge noted that could complicate the calendar. He ordered a status update for mid-May.

Vallow Daybell faces the possibility of life behind bars following Tuesday’s verdict.

El Paso Walmart shooter pleads guilty to state charges, sentenced to life in prison

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — Walmart mass shooter Patrick Crusius pleaded guilty to 22 counts of capital murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for the 2019 Walmart shooting and was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Monday morning.

The hearing took place at the County Commissioners Court under Judge Sam Medrano.

WATCH THE FULL PLEA AND SENTENCING:

The judge asked Crusius’ lawyers if their client was competent to enter the plea.

Attorney Joe Spencer said, “After numerous conversations with our client, we believe he is competent to proceed.”

The judge asked Crusius, “Where were you born?” to which he replied, “Dallas, Texas.”

The judge then asked Crusius how he pleaded for the charges of 22 counts of capital murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He replied, “Guilty.”

The judge then asked him, “Are you pleading guilty, because you are guilty and for no other reason?” to which he replied, “Yes, your honor.”

El Paso District Attorney James Montoya withdrew seeking the death penalty for Crusius last month.

The DA’s office extended an offer to Crusius to plead guilty to capital murder and a sentence of life in prison without parole in exchange for the office not seeking the death penalty.

Montoya then read the names of the 23 victims who died in the shooting.

Crusius’ attorney, Joe Spencer, gave a statement following the plea and sentencing.

“Crusius infected a wound in our community that may never fully heal. He brought violence and terror to a place of peace and forever changed the landscape of El Paso,” said Spencer.

He has accepted responsibility for this horrific action. In federal court, Patrick Crusius publicly expressed remorse for the first time when confronted by one of his victims. He will spend the rest of his natural life in prison. He will never again walk free,” said Spencer. “Patrick will leave prison only in a coffin on God’s time.
Spencer said health professionals have concluded that Crusius suffers from severe mental disease.

“This illness involves profound breaks from reality, including hallucinations and deep delusional thinking. He became consumed by extreme ideology found online,” said Spencer. “He latched onto hateful rhetoric, particularly the dangerous and false narratives surrounding immigration.”

“He also stated that the attack was a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas,” said Spencer. “He believed he was acting in response to the president at the time.”

“Let me be clear, this explanation of his illness does not in any way justify or excuse the horrific violence he committed,” said Spencer. “Patrick failed in his mission to solve the division because the bonds of this community are strong.”

Judge Sam Medrano then addressed Crusius.

You traveled nine hours to a city that would have welcomed you with open arms. You slaughtered fathers, mothers, sons and daughters. Your mission failed,” said Judge Medrano. “You did not divide this city, you strengthened it. You did not silence its voice, you made it louder. You did not install fear, you inspired unity. El Paso rose stronger and braver.
Montoya gave thanks to first responders and law enforcement to responded to the scene on Aug. 3, 2019.

Montoya also apologized for the misconduct of former DA Yvonne Rosales.

Following his plea and sentencing, victims and families of the victims gave impact statements:

Crusius was convicted last year on federal charges against him for the death of 23 people from the Aug. 3, 2019, shooting at a Walmart in Cielo Vista. He acknowledged targeting Hispanics after driving more than 700 miles to El Paso from his home near Dallas.

Crusius was sentenced to 90 life terms in 2023 in his federal trial after pleading guilty.

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Gunman in racist attack at a Texas Walmart pleads guilty and families confront him in court

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — Maribel Hernandez and her husband, Leonardo Campos, were shopping at a Walmart in a Texas border city in 2019 when a gunman who wanted to stop what he believed was a Hispanic invasion opened fire, killing them and 21 others.

On Monday, Hernandez’s daughter, Yvonne Loya Gonzalez, spoke directly to the gunman, Patrick Crusius, after he pleaded guilty to capital murder in the El Paso massacre: “Their absence in my life has left a deep void in my heart.”

The statements by victims’ relatives and survivors that began Monday afternoon could continue through Wednesday. Some, including Gonzalez, told Crusius he is forgiven.

“I have no more room for hate in my heart,” Gonzalez said.

Crusius, a white 26-year-old community college dropout, showed little emotion, kept his head up and eyes trained ahead on those who spoke. Many expressed hope he would reflect on his actions in prison.

Crusius, who wore a striped jumpsuit, shackles and a protective vest during the hearing, did not address the families when he accepted a plea deal, which he made after local prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table. He had already been sentenced to 90 consecutive life terms on federal hate crime charges.

‘What would be the point of forgiving what was easy to forgive?’
Liliana Munoz of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, said she had been shopping for snacks to resell across the border when Crusius opened fire, forever changing her life physically, economically and emotionally.

In her statement, which was read by someone sitting beside her in court, she said she used to be a “happy, dancing person,” but now she is afraid every morning when she awakes. She now uses a cane to walk and wears a leg brace to keep her left foot from dragging.

“It left me sad, bitter,” said the 41-year-old mother.

But she also granted Crusius forgiveness “because what would be the point of forgiving what was easy to forgive?”

‘El Paso rose, stronger and braver’
Crusius drove more than 700 miles (1,100 kilometers) from his home near Dallas to carry out the shooting on Aug. 3, 2019.

“You came to inflict terror, to take innocent lives and to shatter a community that had done nothing but stand for kindness, unity and love. You slaughtered fathers, mothers, sons and daughters,” State District Judge Sam Medrano said.

“Now as you begin the rest of your life locked away, remember this: your mission failed,” he continued. “You did not divide this city, you strengthened it. You did not silence its voice, you made it louder. You did not instill fear, you inspired unity. El Paso rose, stronger and braver.”

Medrano sentenced Crusius to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

While one of his lawyers, Joe Spencer, told the court, “We offer our deepest condolences,” Crusius did not explicitly apologize Monday for his actions.

Crusius also pleaded guilty Monday to 22 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, which were enhanced with violence and prejudice findings, in relation to the 22 people who were injured but survived the shooting. He was sentenced to 22 additional life sentences on those counts.

“Patrick will leave prison only in a coffin on God’s time,” Spencer said.

Racial hatred fueled the attack
In a posting to an online message board just before the massacre, Crusius said the shooting was “in response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.” He said Hispanics would take over the government and economy.

Crusius appears to have been consumed by the immigration debate, posting online in support of building a border wall and praising the hard-line border policies of President Donald Trump, who was in his first term at the time. After the shooting, Crusius told officers he had targeted Mexicans.

“He latched onto hateful rhetoric, particularly the dangerous and false narratives surrounding immigration being repeated in political discourse,” Spencer said.

The attorney said Crusius was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, which can be marked by hallucinations, delusions and mood swings. “His thinking became increasingly divorced from reality,” he said.

“We share this not as an excuse, but as part of the explanation for the inexplicable,” he said.

The people who were killed at Walmart ranged in age from a 15-year-old high school athlete to elderly grandparents. They included immigrants, a retired city bus driver, a teacher, tradesmen including a former iron worker, and several Mexican nationals who had crossed the U.S. border on routine shopping trips.

Adriana Zandri’s husband, Ivan Manzano, was killed after crossing into the U.S. from Mexico on a shopping run. She lamented that her husband lost the chance to teach his son to drive and shave or to give away his daughter’s hand in marriage.

“When all this happened, my daughter was 5 and my son was 9,” she said in her statement to the court. “The only thing that I wanted was for them to not grow up with hatred in their hearts.”

Two Arkansas parents were each handed a 70-year prison sentence for leaving their toddler to die in a hot car with three other children – in a case prosecutors labeled as one of the most “disturbing” they’ve seen.

The mother and father, Deja and Justin Rollins, learned their fate Friday after admitting they trapped their four children – ages 2, 4, 7, and 10 – inside a stifling car as they rushed their fifth child – a 3-year-old – to a Little Rock children’s hospital on July 7, 2024, the Pulsaki County Attorney’s Office announced.

Prosecutors said the 3-year-old died of severe malnutrition, prompting cops to investigate the state of the deranged couple’s other kids.

“This case is one of the most disturbing and heartbreaking our office has ever encountered,” prosecuting attorney Will Jones said in a statement.

“Protecting children is the top priority of this office. There is no greater responsibility, and we will continue to do everything in our power to ensure that those who harm a child are held fully accountable.”

Officials said Deja, 28, and Justin, 30, left their four kids locked inside the sweltering car parked at Arkansas Children’s Hospital as their 3-year-old received “urgent medical treatment.”

Police responded to the hospital after receiving a report of child abuse and neglect – resulting in them finding the car outside the facility, despite the disgraced couple failing to provide authorities with the vehicle’s location, according to the Jacksonville Police Department.

The kids were each treated for heat exhaustion at the hospital, where the youngest tot, Jay’Dien Rollins, died of fatal heat exhaustion and severe malnutrition the next day.

Another child, who survived the harrowing ordeal, was also found with physical injuries consistent with ongoing abuse, prosecutors said.

Police allegedly discovered a malnourished dog at the unhinged couple’s home. The animal was taken into the custody of Jacksonville Animal Services, cops said.

The disturbed pair each pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and first-degree domestic battery.

“Thanks to the coordinated efforts of these dedicated professionals, we were able to secure a resolution that reflects the gravity of these crimes and ensures these children will not be forgotten,” Jones said.

The 20-year-old suspect, an FSU student, was shot and taken into custody.

The Florida State University community is reeling and police are searching for a motive after a gunman opened fire on the Tallahassee campus on Thursday, killing two and injuring six.

Tallahassee police have laid out how the shooting unfolded.

The suspect, 20-year-old FSU student Phoenix Ikner, arrived at a campus parking garage at about 11 a.m. and stayed in the area for around an hour, moving in and out of his car, police said.

Ikner left the garage at 11:51 a.m., police said, and then between 11:56 and 11:57 a.m. he started firing a handgun, police said. The shooting was reported to 911 by 11:58 a.m., police said.

At noon, Ikner was shot by officers and taken into custody, police said. He’s expected to survive and remains hospitalized as of Saturday morning.

“When I heard what had happened, I was frantic — thought he might be the one hurt. And then when I found out it was him I just collapsed at work,” Ikner’s biological mother, Anne-Mari Eriksen, told ABC News on Friday in her first comments since the shooting. “There’s so much that needs to be said about this, but I just can’t talk without crying. We need time to process all this.”

One slain victim was identified as Tiru Chabba, a 45-year-old husband and father of two who was an employee of a campus vendor.

“Chabba’s family is going through the unimaginable now,” their family attorney Bakari Sellers said in a statement. “Instead of hiding Easter eggs and visiting with friends and family, they’re living a nightmare.”

The other victim was identified as Robert Morales.

Morales was formerly an assistant football coach at Leon High School, where he demonstrated “dedication, integrity, and a true passion for mentoring young athletes,” Leon High Athletics said in a statement.

“His commitment to the game and to shaping the lives of his players extended far beyond the field,” the statement said. “His legacy of leadership, compassion, and service will forever remain a part of the Leon Lions tradition.”

Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare officials said the hospital received six patients, all in good condition. One patient has been discharged, the hospital said Saturday.

All six are expected to make full recoveries and two of them may be released on Friday, officials said.

Officials revealed that the suspect’s stepmother, Jessica Ikner, is a current deputy with the local Leon County Sheriff’s Office. While authorities identified Jessica Ikner as the suspect’s mother, court documents indicate she is his stepmother.

Phoenix Ikner had access to one of his stepmother’s personal guns, which was one of the weapons found at the scene, Sheriff Walter McNeil said. He is still in the hospital and will not be charged or arraigned until he is discharged, police said. He’s also invoked his right to remain silent.

Jessica Ikner — who was on duty as a school resource officer at a middle school at the time of the shooting — has taken an indefinite personal leave of absence, the sheriff’s office said.

The sheriff’s office said it’s launched an internal investigation, but so far has not found any signs that the veteran deputy violated any policies.

In a statement to the Florida State University community, President Richard McCullough called the shooting a “tragic and senseless act of violence.”

FSU canceled classes and sporting events through the weekend, but said classes and business operations will resume Monday.

“Our hearts are heavy after the tragedy that took place April 17,” McCullough said in a statement Saturday. “We are grieving with the families and friends who lost someone they love. And we are with all those who were injured and are now recovering. This has shaken all of us, and I want you to know: We are here for you.”

The university said it was offering mental health support services and other counseling services for students and employees.

President Donald Trump said Thursday he has an “obligation to protect” the Second Amendment when asked by a reporter in the Oval Office if he sees anything “broken” with America’s current gun laws.

“Look, I’m a big advocate of the Second Amendment. I have been from the beginning. I protected it, and these things are terrible, but the gun doesn’t do the shooting. The people do. It’s a phrase that’s used probably too often,” Trump said.

“I will tell you that it’s a shame,” he said of the shooting.

A woman struggling with mental illness and her disabled son were found dead in a Bronx house of horrors Friday, with her 4-year-old daughter apparently trapped alone inside with the bug-covered corpses for days, subsisting on chocolate, according to authorities and relatives.

Lisa Cotton, 38, and her 8-year-old son, Nazir Millien, were declared dead at the tragic scene.

The woman’s 4-year-old daughter, Promise, was found covered in chocolate on her mom’s bed by an older sibling who came to check on the doomed family.

Neither body had signs of trauma.

Cotton, who had asthma, may have died of cardiac arrest, authorities told her dad, Hubert Cotton, while Nazir, who was born prematurely and had a feeding tube, might have tragically starved.

Promise was brought to a local hospital in stable condition, the family and cops said.

It’s unclear when the mom and her son died or how long the girl had been alone inside — but neighbors had been complaining of a foul odor that smelled like “death” for weeks.

Cops conducted a welfare check on the family Tuesday at the East 231st Street apartment in the Wakefield section after receiving an anonymous 911 call.

No one answered the door of the second-floor unit. Neighbors told the officers they hadn’t seen Cotton or her kids in two weeks, sources said.

But responding officers did not hear any noise or notice any odor, and had no reason to break down the door, police sources said.

“They said they’d be back in a few days,” a neighbor said of the cops. “One of the social workers said she was trying to get a court order to have the door broken in.”

The shocking discover was finally made Friday night after a concerned Hubert, 71, got a call from his daughter’s landlord asking if she’d moved out.

“I had been trying to call her for days and she never answered . . . I figured she didn’t answer me because she didn’t want me to talk to me,” Hubert told The Post Saturday.

He sent Cotton’s oldest daughter to the apartment to check on them.

“When she came in, [Nazir] was slumped over,” still in his chair, he said.

The young woman then looked for Cotton, and instead found Promise “feeding herself with chocolate” on her mother’s bed, he said.

“She picked her up and ran out and called the police,” the weeping father said.

According to a transcript of the young woman’s Friday night 911 call, the young woman had seen “bugs crawling on” Nazir’s body.

Nazir was “so small. I held him in my palm. Like a bird, like a young bird,” the devastated grandfather recalled.

He is now caring for Promise in his Bronx home.

The traumatized girl was curled up in a chair in her grandfather’s home Saturday, silently watching cartoons when The Post visited.

“She hasn’t said anything. She’s a baby. She looks at me sometimes, you know? Like she knows something,” Hubert said of the child. “We don’t know anything, we’re trying to find out.”

Hubert, who is originally from St. Kitts, said his daughter struggled with what may have been bipolar disorder.

He now wonders how he’ll lay her and his grandson to rest.

“I’m sorry. . . . Two of them,” he said through tears. “How am I going to get the money? To bury both of them?”

The horrific deaths “feel fake,” said Lisa Cotton’s brother, Raheem Smith.

“I don’t understand what happened,” he said.

Neighbors were also left with questions.

“The landlord hadn’t done wellness checks, people had called, neighbors called,” said Eric Perez, who lives upstairs from Lisa Cotton. “It just smells like rat infested . . . the exterminator said the same thing — the smell is similar to rats and even death.”

The mother had an Administration for Children’s Services case pending against her, police sources said.

She was arrested in June 2021 on child abandonment charges after she was caught acting erratically, swinging her then infant daughter around in a stroller and lighting a wig on fire in front of a commercial strip on White Plains Road, the sources said.

When cops arrived, they found her walking away from the child. The case was later sealed, authorities said.

The mom had “episodes,” claimed another neighbor who declined to give her name.

“One time she threw paint out the window and she has been talking about the devil,” the neighbor said, adding, “About a year ago, she was out here talking about the devil. . . . I didn’t know what was going on.”

The mom appeared to be suicidal, said another resident who claimed the mom had gone to the building’s rooftop a couple of years ago with her son with apparently deadly intent.

“She wanted to commit suicide with the boy,” the neighbor, who gave her name as Sharlene, said.

Another time, the mom proclaimed, “I am going to kill everybody on the block,” Sharlene, a home health aide, recalled.

“It hurts because it’s somebody who you know, somebody who you see, somebody who you were close to, and now it’s gonna be when you come outside, you see no one there and that’s gonna hurt,” she said. “I hope the little girl is going to be okay.”

An ACS spokesperson said the situation is now under investigation.

ACS should have done more for the kids, said another resident who gave his name as Mark.

“We called police and they took her away,” he said of the roof incident. “In a sense I blame ACS. They should have done more from the first.”

“Why leave the kids with her?” he added. “When they came to check on her, they shouldn’t have left. They should have been forceful.”

Oklahoma City bombing survivor was ‘getting ready to die’ after being trapped in 10 feet of rubble
Amy Downs recalls her rescue in the docuseries ‘Oklahoma City Bombing: One Day in America’

April 19, 1995, started off as a beautiful spring day for Amy Downs, a teller at a credit union inside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

“I remember the red buds were blooming,” Downs recalled to Fox News Digital. “I was so excited. I was getting ready to close my very first house. I don’t think I did any work in that first hour of the day. I was running around talking to all my friends about the house.

“And then I was looking at my watch, thinking, ‘Oh gosh, it’s almost nine o’clock. I’m going to get in trouble. I had better get back to my desk.’”

Downs flew past her boss. A co-worker who was six months pregnant sat beside her. Downs asked if she needed anything.

“I don’t know if the words even came out of my mouth or not, because that’s when the bomb went off and everything went black,” Downs said.

It was 30 years ago when a truck bomb detonated outside a federal building in America’s heartland, killing 168 people in the deadliest homegrown attack on U.S. soil. Downs and other survivors and witnesses are speaking out in a new National Geographic docuseries, “Oklahoma City Bombing: One Day in America.”

“I think it’s so important to remember what happened and the lessons that were learned,” Downs said of why she chose to come forward.

Downs was 28 years old when she found herself trapped upside down in her office chair. She had fallen three floors down and was buried under 10 feet of rubble. Whenever she gasped for air, it burned down to her chest. Her body was pierced with glass.

“I remember hearing roaring and screaming, and this powerful rushing sensation, like I was falling,” said Downs. “I found out I had fallen. … I couldn’t move. I couldn’t see. It was very hard to breathe. I had no idea what had happened. I just knew it was bad.”

Downs screamed for help, but no one replied. In the darkness, she heard silence. Suddenly, after what felt like an eternity, there was a sudden commotion of firefighters. One said, “Let’s split up. Let’s look for the daycare babies.”

They were referring to the children at the America’s Kids Daycare inside the building.

“I was confused,” said Downs. “I thought, ‘Why are they looking for the daycare babies here? The daycare is on the second floor, and we’re on the third floor.’ I had no idea that we were at the bottom of what was once this nine-story building.”

Fire Chief Mike Shannon heard Down’s cries for help. Just as he was about to go get her, his crew learned there was a possibility of another bomb that was about to go off. It forced them to immediately evacuate, leaving Downs behind.

Shannon was determined to stay with Downs, but fellow firefighters refused to leave him behind. In the documentary, Shannon described how he heard the echoes of Downs sobbing, begging him to save her, as he was being rushed out.

At that moment, Downs believed her life was coming to an end.

“I now knew it had been a bomb, and it looked like there was another one,” she said. “I was getting ready to die. I prayed, or maybe you could call it bargained with God. I kept promising God anything, just to be able to live. I prayed for a second chance. My reality was that I was 28 years old and getting ready to die, and I’ve never really lived. I had a lot of regrets about how I had not been living.”

In between tears, she began to recite portions of Psalm 23 to comfort herself.

“The only thing I could remember was, ‘I walked through the valley of the shadow of death,’” said Downs. “I couldn’t remember what came next. I thought that was awful. And then, of all the weird things to do, a song popped into my head that we used to sing growing up in church. I started singing this song, and I felt peace. This was the first time that I thought I was at peace with what was getting ready to happen.”

There was no second bomb. Once the firefighters realized this, they rushed back in. Shannon remembered to look for Downs. When Downs heard the sounds of men again, she promised in the darkness to bake them, anyone, chocolate chip cookies if they could save her.

Six and a half hours later, she was free.

“I was in the hospital for about eight days,” she said. “The biggest injury was my leg, which had been split open. My bone was intact, but the leg was open. But the hardest part was finding out that 18 of my 33 co-workers were killed. … Grief is something that I couldn’t comprehend. Dealing with the grief and trauma was the hard part. The injuries were nothing.”

Downs was one of the last survivors to be pulled from the rubble after the bombing, which killed 168 people, including 19 children. Nearly 700 others were injured.

Downs struggled with survivor’s guilt.

“I remember on the eighth day in the hospital, they found my best friend’s body,” she tearfully said. “She had baby girls at home.”

As Downs grieved, the community banded together. In just 72 hours after the bombing, 7,000 people waited in line to donate blood, FOX25 reported.

“We have our differences, and differences are not a bad thing,” she said. “But I think it’s cool when we know when to put aside those differences and come together for good.”

Downs was still in the ICU when she saw a group of nurses glued to a television screen. It was revealed that the bombing was orchestrated by two former U.S. Army buddies, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols.

They shared a deep-seated hatred of the federal government fueled by the bloody raid on the Branch Davidian religious sect near Waco, Texas, and a standoff in the mountains of Ruby Ridge, Idaho, that killed a 14-year-old boy, his mother and a federal agent.

“When I found out that it was an American, not only that, but somebody who also served in our military … I struggled with that,” she said. “I could not wrap my brain around that. My father is from the Greatest Generation. He lied about his age when he was 17 years old to fight World War II. It just didn’t add up. How could you be an American? How could you serve our country? How could you do this?”

According to the documentary, Downs later faced McVeigh in court.

“It was very disturbing,” she said, shuddering. “He almost seemed proud of it.”

McVeigh was executed by lethal injection in 2001. He was 33. Nichols, now 70, is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Downs was ready to embrace her second chance at life. She went from a 355-pound “couch potato” to losing 200 pounds and completing a full ironman triathlon. She went on to work for the same credit union, now called Allegiance Credit Union, where she served as president and CEO.

“I’d flunked out of college because I couldn’t pass a math class,” she said. “But I was very fortunate to have bosses who mentored me and believed in me. … I had promised God that I would never live my life the same if I survived, and I meant that. … I went back to college, got my degree, did all the things. … And just this week, I retired. So, I decided to launch a new chapter.”

Today, Downs is a full-time speaker. She also created a new bucket list. She and her sister are planning to walk about 160 miles of Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage known as “The Way of St. James.” She’s also eager to ride her bicycle across the United States.

“I’m still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up,” the 58-year-old chuckled.

Downs hopes viewers watching the documentary will learn how a community became united during tragedy.

“It showcases the strength of the human spirit and the courage of these men who rushed in to help,” she said. “And the way we came together. The thing is, we are all going to face times in our lives when we’re buried under the rubble, where devastation comes to us. … We will face difficult times.

“I think the lesson from this is that, as people, we can come together. And when you come together during times of difficulty, you are stronger than you realize. And together, you will get through it.”

FSU shooting suspect used stepmom’s service weapon and had far-right views, police and classmates say
The 20-year-old is the stepson of a sheriff’s deputy who had access to one of her weapons, officials said.
April 19, 2025, 2:12 AM GMT+8 / Updated April 19, 2025, 4:44 AM GMT+8

The suspect in the Florida State University shooting that left two people dead and several others wounded is the stepson of a sheriff’s deputy and Trump supporter who harbored white supremacist views and had a troubled childhood, officials and classmates said Friday.

Phoenix Ikner, 20, who is believed to be an FSU student and was arrested in the aftermath of Thursday’s shooting, was treated for multiple mental and physical health issues as a child and was at the center of a years-long custody battle, court documents from 2015 obtained by NBC News revealed.

Ikner allegedly used one of his stepmother’s weapons — a handgun — to wreak havoc on the campus, police have said.

Officials said that Ikner’s mother had purchased her former service weapons and that it was her personal property at the time of the shooting.

Police said the gunman also had a shotgun but have not yet confirmed whether it was used. A motive has not been identified.

“There does not appear to be any connection between the shooter and again, even one of the victims,” Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell told reporters Friday.

It was not a surprise that Ikner had access to a weapon, Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil said earlier, as he was a member of the sheriff’s office’s citizen advisory or youth advisory council.

The Leon County Sheriff’s Office described the council as a means to “provide an open line of communication between the youth of Leon County and local law enforcement” in a news release announcing its 2021-22 class.

The gunman opened fire near the student union around 11:50 a.m., FSU Police Chief Jason Trumbower said. He shot multiple people, killing two, before FSU police were able to engage, neutralize and apprehend him.

One of the victims was identified Friday as 57-year-old Robert Morales. Morales was working as FSU’s dining coordinator and worked in the student union center.

“The suspect continues to receive treatment at one of our local hospitals,” Revell said. “He did receive significant injuries in this event, and will require a significant amount of time in that facility. Once he is released from that facility, he’ll be taken to a local detention facility where he will face the charges up to and including first degree murder.”

A student who witnessed the gunman approach campus and begin opening fire said the shooter pulled up to campus in an orange Hummer and got out, holding a rifle and shooting in her direction.

“I think he was shooting and he missed. So he goes back into his car and grabs a pistol, then he turns and shoots the lady in front of him. That’s when I just started running,” McKenzie Heeter, a junior at FSU, told NBC News.

Heeter described the shooter as a “normal college dude.”

In June 2020, Ikner changed his name to Phoenix Ikner from his previous name, Christian Gunner Eriksen, an FBI official told NBC News.

Classmates say suspect had white supremacist views
Ikner is a registered Republican, according to public voter records. He registered in 2022, midway through President Joe Biden’s term in office, records show.

Reid Seybold, a senior at FSU who was around the corner from the shooting when it unfolded, said he knew Ikner from a political discussion group at Tallahassee State College, where he spent the first two years of his education before he transferred to FSU.

Seybold, the group’s president, said Ikner was asked not to return to the group because of views that Seybold said aligned with white supremacy.

“He espoused so much white supremacist rhetoric and far-right rhetoric, as well,” Seybold said.

Since then, Seybold said, he has seen Ikner only a couple of times in passing.

The current president of the same club, Riley Pusins, said that at meetings, the suspect advocated for President Donald Trump’s agenda and often promoted white supremacist values, even though the club was nonpartisan and was about debate and political discourse.

Pusins said many people in the club had labeled the suspect, who attended regularly as recently as last semester, as a fascist.

After the meetings, Pusins said, the suspect often made more “inappropriate” comments. He would “go up to the line” in the meeting and then cross the line in comments made after the fact, Pusins said.

Seybold said he was working on a group project when he heard about the shooting. He said he immediately locked down in the classroom where he was working as he heard gunfire nearby.

“I was texting everybody I loved, letting know that I loved them. I was getting ready to die, which was harrowing,” Seybold said.

“I don’t know why he would have done something like this,” Seybold said. “I don’t know where it would have come from, but I’d sure like to find out.”

Lucas Luzietti, a junior studying political science, shared a national government class with Phoenix Ikner in 2023 at Tallahassee State College.

He recalled how Ikner shared hateful comments about minorities and denied the 2020 election.

“He espoused the election denialism belief that Joe Biden was not the legitimate president, he said that Rosa Parks was in the wrong, he also talked about how Black people are ruining his neighborhood and Stonewell was bad for society. He would also talk about how multiculturalism is dangerous,” Luzietti told NBC News Friday.

“Everyone [in the class] would just look at each other like, ‘Did he really just say that?’” Luzietti recalled. “I got into an argument with him over the legitimacy of the 2020 election because I felt that one was especially dangerous to the fabric of our democracy.”

In that class, Ikner had spoken about having a gun.

“He would joke about mass violence. I don’t remember specific quotes but I know he would laugh about violence against minorities. And he did talk about how he used guns and had access to them,” Luzietti said.

In January, Ikner was quoted in FSU’s student newspaper in a story about anti-Trump protests that took place a week before the presidential inauguration.

The rally, organized by Tallahassee Students for a Democratic Society, also called for an end to the war in the Gaza Strip and “racist attacks on immigrants,” the article says.

“These people are usually pretty entertaining, usually not for good reasons,” said Ikner, who was described as a political science major, according to an archived online report from FSUnews.com. “I think it’s a little too late, he’s [Trump] already going to be inaugurated on Jan. 20 and there’s not really much you can do unless you outright revolt, and I don’t think anyone wants that.”

After Thursday’s shooting, the student newspaper removed Ikner’s quote from the article “at the decision of our editors to maintain ethical journalistic standards and avoid amplifying the voice of an individual responsible for violence.”

Custody battle and health problems
Ikner, according to the court documents, was treated for multiple mental and physical health issues as a child and was at the center of a years-long custody battle.

His biological mother, named in a sheriff’s affidavit as Anne-Mari Eriksen, is a U.S.-Norwegian dual national. She was charged with removing a minor from the state contrary to a court order after taking him from Florida to Norway.

It had been agreed that Eriksen would take her then-10-year-old son to South Florida for spring break, the court filing says.

“Instead of staying in South Florida, the defendant allegedly fled the country with him in violation of their custody agreement,” the court filing says.

The filing added that the boy had “developmental delays and has special needs” that his father, Christopher Ikner, feared would not be properly dealt with without access to doctors in the U.S.

These conditions included a growth hormone disorder and ADHD, the filing says.

Eriksen then failed to return Ikner to his father at the agreed-upon time in March, staying in Norway for several more weeks, according to the filing.

On April 21, 2015, the court ordered his biological mother to return to the country with Ikner after the father had filed an emergency order, The pair returned to Florida at some point after that.

A separate document from June 2015 indicates that Eriksen pleaded no contest to the charge and was sentenced to 200 days in prison, of which she had already served 170 days, followed by two years of “community control” and two years of probation.

Eriksen was also ordered not to contact the family or her son’s school for the length of the sentence.

—

FSU shooting suspect’s complex past comes to light — yet motive remains a mystery
In recent years, Phoenix Ikner became known for far-right, white supremacist rhetoric, classmates said. It’s unclear if that had any tie to the violence.
April 19, 2025, 7:31 AM GMT+8

Years before he was named a suspect in this week’s fatal shooting at Florida State University, Phoenix Ikner had sought a new beginning. Traumatized by a complex custody battle between his parents that had ended in charges against his mother when he was younger, the then-teenager asked a Leon County, Florida, circuit court for a legal name change.

Ikner appeared at his court hearing in 2020 via videoconference, dressed in his naval junior ROTC uniform. An honors student in high school at the time, he made a good impression.

“This court found him to be a mentally, emotionally, and physically mature young adult, who is very articulate, quite intelligent, very well spoken, and very polite,” wrote administrative magistrate James Banks in his approval of the legal switch from Ikner’s birth name, which had been Christian Gunnar Eriksen.

Ikner chose to adopt his father’s surname and selected a first name brimming with symbolism.

“He chose the name Phoenix because of its representation of rising from the ashes anew,” Banks wrote.

How Ikner went from a teenager with hopes for a fresh start to a 20-year-old accused of killing two people and injuring at least five others in Thursday’s shooting in Tallahassee is a mystery. In interviews with classmates and reviews of legal documents, a portrait of a young man who struggled with a fractured family life and clashed with classmates over his extreme political views has emerged.

But a possible motive for the deadly violence is not yet known.

Ikner had just transferred to Florida State University from Tallahassee State College and enrolled this semester as a political science major. He remains hospitalized with serious but non-life-threatening injuries after he was shot by law enforcement, police said.

As the investigation widened Friday into what led to the gunfire, students who knew the accused gunman described him as a troubled young man who openly talked about having a weapon.

“He would joke about mass violence,” said Lucas Luzietti, who shared a national government class with Ikner when he was at Tallahassee State College. “And he did talk about how he used guns and had access to them.”

Luzietti said he once argued with Ikner over the 2020 election and said that their classmates would exchange looks over Ikner’s comments. That included Ikner denying the results of the presidential election and sharing hateful comments about minorities, he added.

“He espoused the election denialism belief that Joe Biden was not the legitimate president, he said that Rosa Parks was in the wrong, he also talked about how Black people are ruining his neighborhood and Stonewell was bad for society,” Luzietti said. “He would also talk about how multiculturalism is dangerous.”

Reid Seybold, a senior at FSU who said he first met Ikner at Tallahassee State, recalled Ikner being asked not to return to a political discussion club at his former college because of “white supremacist rhetoric and far-right rhetoric.”

The club’s current president, Riley Pusins, said Ikner often promoted white supremacist values, even though the group was nonpartisan and was about debate and political discourse. After the meetings, Ikner would make even worse remarks, Pusins said.

NBC News has confirmed the identity of the victims who died in Thursday’s shooting: Robert Morales, 57, and Tiru Chabba, 45. FSU grad student Madison Askins was among the injured; the identities of the other wounded victims have not yet been released.

Authorities said Thursday they believe Ikner used a handgun that belonged to his stepmother, Jessica Ikner, a Leon County sheriff’s deputy and a school resource officer at a Tallahassee middle school.

Jessica Ikner and other family members could not be reached for comment. Court documents, however, detail difficulties in Ikner’s upbringing, including health issues and a battle for his custody that stretched overseas.

In 2015, Ikner’s biological mother, Anne-Mari Eriksen, took him out of the country, violating her agreement with Ikner’s father, Christopher, according to a probable cause affidavit from the Leon County Sheriff’s Office viewed by NBC News. Eriksen had shared custody of her son, who was 10 or 11 years old and went by his birth name at the time, but she was required to give advanced notice if she took Ikner out of the U.S. For spring break that year, the affidavit said, Eriksen had told Christopher Ikner they were traveling to South Florida. Instead, she allegedly took their son to Norway, where both she and him had dual citizenship.

Several weeks after spring break ended, Eriksen still had not brought the boy home to the United States and “had no intention of returning” him to Tallahassee, despite pleas from his father, the affidavit added.

When Eriksen did not bring Ikner back, Christopher Ikner contacted authorities to report his son kidnapped and to report that he was being denied medical care for developmental delays and special needs he had been diagnosed with, which included attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and a growth hormone disorder, the affidavit said.

“By keeping Christian in Norway, the defendant failed to have Christian in school for scheduled testing, canceled appointments with Christian’s doctors in the U.S., and failed to maintain his medication protocols by her own admission,” it said.

Later that year, Eriksen filed a lawsuit against Christopher and Jessica Ikner plus two other relatives in the Ikner family for allegedly slandering her and causing “psychological harm” to their son by “continuous and vicious litigation in family court.” The Ikners could not be reached for comment.

“Christian Gunnar Eriksen is the victim of psychological and emotional abuse, as well as parental alienation. Christopher Ikner enjoys taking credit for things that Anne-Mari Eriksen has done privately, professionally and parent wise,” the legal complaint read.

Eriksen, who could not be reached for comment, was ultimately charged with removing a minor from the state and failing to return a minor, records show. She pleaded no contest and served a brief jail sentence.

When Phoenix Ikner petitioned to legally change his name from Christian Gunnar Eriksen in 2019, which the court approved the following year, his mother objected to the name change, while his father supported it, papers show.

Banks, the administrative magistrate who approved the change, wrote: “He sees no reason to keep his former name as it is a constant reminder of the 2015 tragedy he suffered through and of his mother who he has not seen or spoken to since 2015.”

Authorities say that at about 11 a.m. Thursday, Ikner arrived at the FSU parking garage, where he stayed for close to an hour before walking toward the student union. He then allegedly stalked buildings and lawns, firing his handgun indiscriminately at people, police added.

Panicked students fled for their lives and called 911. Responding officers shot Ikner when he refused their commands, police said, with the rampage lasting less than five minutes.

Following Thursday’s shooting, Ikner has invoked his right to remain silent, police said.

Seybold, who was locked down in a classroom and could hear gunfire nearby, is anxious for answers.

“I don’t know why he would have done something like this,” Seybold said. “I don’t know where it would have come from, but I’d sure like to find out.”

Disturbing security footage shows the moment an Uber driver was murdered as gunmen appeared to have been targeting his passenger outside a Philadelphia hookah lounge.

Olatunji W. Bolaji, 77, was seen picking up a 22-year-old passenger in his black Chevy Suburban in downtown Philadelphia outside the Byblos Hookah Bar around 2 a.m. Wednesday — moments before the deadly shooting, according to video obtained by NBC10.

The unidentified fare hugged a woman outside Bolaji’s car as two men jumped out of a Jeep Grand Cherokee with Massachusetts plates, police said.

The woman is seen fleeing when she notices the suspects rushing toward them with their guns pointed at the passenger.

The rider jumps into the SUV as the men surround him from the front and back of the vehicle.

One of the suspects is seen pointing his gun into the vehicle and firing, hitting Bolaji in the head and the passenger in the arm, leg and abdomen, police told the outlet.

Despite being shot in the head, Bolaji managed to drive away, but ended up crashing into a light pole a block away.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police took the passenger to Jefferson University Hospital in critical condition.

Chief Inspector Scott Small told CBS News that there was “definitely a physical altercation” between the suspects and the passenger before Bolaji came to pick up the rider.

The suspects have yet to be identified and remain at large.

Police said detectives are investigating the shooting and are offering a $20,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest and conviction of the shooters.

A neighbor who lived next to Bolaji for seven years described him as a hardworking, friendly man from a quiet, respectful family. He leaves behind a son and a partner.

He said the driver loved working for Uber, and his family is distraught over his murder.

“Our hearts break for the driver’s family and loved ones in the wake of this devastating loss,” Uber said in a statement to NBC10.

“We’ve reached out to police to offer our support as they work to bring those responsible for this heinous act of violence to justice.”

There have been 58 homicides across the city since the start of 2025, according to statistics provided by the Philadelphia Police Department. There were 81 total homicides in Philly in 2024.

The city has also had 446 shooting incidents this year, resulting in 239 victims as of April 17.

In 2024, the city had a total of 635 shootings resulting in 296 victims.

One day care worker is accused of handling children in a rough manner, while another is accused of pushing wood chips into a child’s mouth.

SIOUX FALLS — Two Sioux Falls day care employees are accused of child abuse at their workplaces in separate criminal cases filed this week.

Police spokesman Sam Clemens said the first investigation began at approximately 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 15, when a parent called police to make a report.

Investigators say that at roughly 1:30 p.m. that same afternoon, 38-year-old Chelsa Struss was working at a day care in the 3300 block of West 49th Street, which had camera surveillance running inside.

Police spokesman Sam Clemens said video showed Struss handling four children in a rough manner, pushing them or dropping them onto mats. No serious injuries were reported.

After an investigation, a warrant was issued for Struss’ arrest on four counts of child abuse, and she was arrested Thursday without incident. She’s currently being held in the Minnehaha County Jail on a $25,000 cash bond.

In the second case, a day care employee across town is accused of putting wood chips into a child’s mouth.

Police in Sioux Falls were notified at approximately 8:15 p.m. Wednesday that a child had told a parent about the incident that occurred earlier that day.

An investigation determined that 22-year-old Mia Lopez, of Sioux Falls, was working at a day care in the 5100 block of South Cliff Avenue when, as a result of frustration, she pushed wood chips into a child’s mouth.

A parent reported that there was dirt on the child’s face as evidence of the accusation.

Lopez was arrested at about 10 p.m. Thursday on one county of child abuse and was lodged in the Minnehaha County Jail.

The case against Lopez is not connected to the case against Struss.

Clemens said that issues involving child abuse at day cares are concerning, but doesn’t happen often.

“This type of behavior is uncommon. We’ve all known that there’s been problems at different day cares in the past,” he explained. “I don’t want people to think day cares are all bad and that children are going to get hurt. It doesn’t happen that frequently.”

He said it’s important for parents to find a childcare provider that’s the right fit for them and their child, considering the child-to-adult ratio, whether surveillance cameras are installed and other important features.

“There’s a lot of things day cares are doing nowadays so parents can monitor their children throughout the day,” Clemens said. “When you take your child to day care, you want them to be healthy and not have an injury.”

When issues do arise, however, Clemens said investigators at the local and state level have a common goal.

“Anytime we have day care issues, sometimes they get reported to [Child Protective Services], sometimes they get reported to police. We work closely with child protection, so if they find out about it, they’ll notify police and vice versa,” he said. “It’s one of those things we’re looking to figure out what happened, and obviously the goal is to make sure no other children are further harmed.”

Each count of child abuse is a Class 3 felony. If convicted, Lopez faces up to 15 years in prison plus fines of up to $30,000, while Struss faces a total of 60 years plus fines of $120,000.

SALEM, N.J. (AP) — The family of NHL hockey player Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew listened in pain Tuesday as lawyers debated whether the men’s own drinking contributed to their deaths when they were hit by an allegedly drunken and enraged driver as they cycled at night.

After nearly two hours of argument, a judge agreed the issue was moot under New Jersey criminal law — upholding all of the charges against the driver, including manslaughter and vehicular homicide.

“There’s no credence in the argument there was contributory negligence on the part of the cyclists,” said Superior Court Judge Michael Silvanio.

According to the defense, the Gaudreaus had blood-alcohol levels of .129 or above, higher than the .08 legal limit in New Jersey and the .087 blood alcohol content that police recorded for Sean Higgins. His lawyers had hoped to have the manslaughter and vehicular homicide charges reduced or dismissed.

“To say that their BAC’s may have contributed to the cause of death is a reach to say the least,” Assistant Prosecutor Michael Mestern argued.

Other drivers told police the brothers were riding safely on the edge of the road, not weaving into traffic, he said. Prosecutors have accused Higgins of being impaired by alcohol and fueled by road rage when he ran into them.

“There are four witnesses that witnessed the defendant speeding and illegally passing the Bronco on the right when he struck the brothers. The witnesses also saw the brothers riding single file, with the flow of traffic, on the fog line just prior to being struck by the defendant,” Mestern wrote in a memo this month.

The Gaudreaus were bicycling near their hometown in southern New Jersey on the eve of their sister’s wedding on Aug. 29. Both of their wives have since given birth to sons. Johnny Gaudreau’s widow, Meredith, gave birth to their third child on April 1. The sister’s wedding was postponed until this summer.

Johnny Gaudreau, known as “Johnny Hockey,” was set to start his third season with the Columbus Blue Jackets after eight seasons with the Calgary Flames. Matthew played hockey at Boston College, like his older brother, and was working as a high school coach.

Higgins, 44, of nearby Woodstown, New Jersey, is charged with two counts each of reckless vehicular homicide and aggravated manslaughter, along with evidence tampering and leaving the scene of an accident. He was found beside his damaged vehicle, which had stalled about a quarter mile from the crash scene.

A combat veteran and married father of two who worked for an addiction treatment company, Higgins told police he had consumed about a half-dozen beers that day, some while driving, after an upsetting phone call with his mother.

Higgins’ lawyers — while also noting that the Gaudreaus were cycling without lights after dark — said they were not trying to cast blame or contribute to the family’s pain, but only give their client a robust defense.

“Mr. (Richard) Klineburger and I are not blaming the two bicyclists for the incident. That would be ridiculous. That would be wrong,” lawyer Matthew Portella said as the Gaudreaus’ parents and sisters grimaced.

Portella instead argued that the grand jury did not hear all of the facts before it approved charges that allege Higgins was intentionally reckless and left the scene.

Mestern called the indictment sound and the judge agreed, sending the charges to trial and scheduling the next hearing for June 10.

Higgins faces a maximum 70 years in prison if convicted on all counts. His lawyers have rejected a plea offer of 35 years.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Burglars tunneled through a concrete wall to gain access to a Los Angeles jewelry store, making off with at least $10 million worth of watches, pendants, gold chains and other merchandise, police said.

The heist happened around 9:30 p.m. Sunday at Love Jewels on Broadway in the heart of downtown’s jewelry district, according to Officer David Cuellar with the LA Police Department.

Investigators were reviewing security camera footage that shows the suspects entering the store from a large hole they drilled from the property next door, he said.

“They tunneled through multiple levels of concrete into the target location,” Cuellar said Tuesday.

An unknown number of suspects fled through the same hole and drove off in a late model Chevy truck, he said. The heist wasn’t discovered until store employees arrived for work Monday morning.

Initial estimates are that $10 million worth of merchandise was stolen, Cuellar said, adding that the number could change. The owner told The Associated Press the loss was around $20 million, and that they did not have insurance. No alarms went off and the feed to their in-store security cameras were cut.

At the store on Tuesday, workers covered up the hole in the wall with a metal plate, repaired other damage and cleaned up overturned display cases and discarded boxes. Two large safes were broken into, containing all the merchandise they had in the store.

Customers and friends stopped by to offer sympathy, with some even asking to purchase items.

Love Jewels’ website advertises items like a 14 karat yellow gold rope chain for $1,200, heart-shaped gold earrings for $200 and a gold cross pendant for $550. Videos on the store’s social media shows glass cases filled with rings, watches and necklaces.

Detectives examined the scene for fingerprints and DNA, police said.

The mom of a postal worker stabbed to death in a Manhattan deli slammed prosecutors Wednesday for striking a deal to let her son’s ruthless killer take a plea deal for just 15 years behind bars.

“She’s going to get out early and kill again,” Ada Rice told The Post after Jaia Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the Jan. 2 slaying of USPS postman Roy Hodge at Joe’s Deli Grocery in Harlem.

The plea deal comes less than three months after prosecutors indicted Cruz on a second-degree murder charge for the broad-daylight killing, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 25 years to life.

But Hodge’s mom said she was left stunned when Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Clerkin told Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Gregory Carro that Cruz “expresses remorse and has asked to accept responsibility for [Hodge’s] death” — despite prosecutors’ admitting Hodge’s family opposed the offer.

Rice said she was left “very upset” with the judicial system in part because she claims the Manhattan DA’s office had told her that they believed in the strength of the case, especially a video from inside the bodega which allegedly shows Cruz spar with Hodge after he cut her in line at the deli counter.

“Initially, the DA told me that there would be no plea deal because they said they saw the video and [that they’re] satisfied,” Rice said, who also expressed regret as to why Cruz hasn’t been charged federally.

“I’m upset this person wasn’t charged federally,” she said. “[My son] died in a federal uniform, which makes him a federal employee.”

The two then got into it when Hodge threw a plastic lemon juice bottle at Cruz before she began to stab him multiple times, prosecutors have said. When Hodge collapsed to the ground, Cruz stood over him and said, “He deserved it.”

Prosecutors said that Cruz had requested an early resolution in the case.

At the hearing Wednesday, one of Hodge’s supporters had to be escorted out by court officer because she flipped out at the offer.

“This is not justice!” the woman screamed inside the courtroom, according to witnesses. “You said you was happy to see him die!”

Cruz’s attorney, Mitchell Schuman, did not immediately respond to comment regarding the plea deal.

Schuman had accused Hodge of being the aggressor at Cruz’s arraignment in January, claiming that video showed he took off his jacket and struck her first — causing Cruz to react and stab him with the knife.

He also said that Hodge berated her with slurs before the altercation.

As part of the plea deal, Cruz will also be sentenced to five years supervised release.

She is expected to be sentenced on May 28.

Records offer details of Cody Balmer, 38, who is accused of setting fire to Pennsylvania governor’s mansion

The man accused of setting fire to the Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial mansion early on Sunday morning while the governor, Josh Shapiro, and his family were asleep inside was due in court three days later on allegations that he assaulted his wife and stepson after trying to take his own life.

Those records help provide a more complete picture of Cody Balmer, 38, of the Pennsylvania capital of Harrisburg, who was denied bail on Monday on charges of attempted murder, terrorism, aggravated assault and aggravated arson in connection with the governor’s mansion blaze.

Balmer, who stuck his tongue out at news media reporters as he was being led into court on Monday, had been due in court on Wednesday on charges related to domestic abuse allegations.

According to a police affidavit from January 2023, police were dispatched to Balmer’s residence after a child called about domestic abuse. Balmer allegedly told officers responding to the call that he had taken a full bottle of pills in a suicide attempt.

That escalated into an argument between Balmer and his wife, with Balmer allegedly assaulting both her and his stepson, according to court records reviewed by the Hill.

USA Today further reported that Balmer and his wife finalized their divorce in February 2025, and he was subject to a protection from abuse order.

Balmer’s mother spoke to the Associated Press and said her son grappled with mental health issues. She reportedly said she had made calls in recent days about those issues, but “nobody would help”.

Balmer’s bail denial on Monday occurred after prosecutors said he told police that he planned to beat Shapiro with a hammer – and used Molotov cocktails made from beer bottles filled with gasoline to start the fire. Security footage from the residence evidently shows a man who was carrying a bag and wearing a black jacket – as well as black boots – breaking a window into the home and tossing a homemade molotov cocktail inside.

Balmer surrendered to the Pennsylvania state police on Sunday and admitted to “harboring hatred toward Governor Shapiro”, authorities alleged. Asked during a police interview what he would have done had Shapiro found him inside the residence, “he advised he would have beaten him with his hammer”, said the probable cause affidavit justifying Balmer’s arrest.

In court on Monday, county judge Dale Klein asked Balmer if he took any medication for mental illness. Balmer responded that he was not mentally ill and he had not taken medication, adding that it had “led … to different types of behavior” in the past.

Klein said he had denied Balmer bail because he could be a danger to the community and himself.

The arson attack attributed to Balmer followed a series of other attacks targeting US political figures.

Those include against Paul Pelosi, the husband of congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, and two separate assassination attempts on Donald Trump.

Supporters of Trump – whose first presidency ended in defeat after the 2020 election before he then won back the Oval Office in November – violently attacked the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. And on 8 April, a California man pleaded guilty to trying to kill US supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2022.

ABC News reported that social media pages connected to Balmer appear to show both critiques of Trump and his presidential predecessor Joe Biden.

Balmer seemed to reject Biden’s 2020 presidential win over Trump and criticized him on Facebook during his term. Posts included a picture with the text “Joe Biden owes me 2 grand” and another that said: “Biden supporters shouldn’t exist.”

In 2020, he posted a meme that argued that both Democrats and Republicans “would rather argue with other than work to solve the problems we are facing”.

After the alleged arson attack, Shapiro said: “This kind of violence is not OK.

“I don’t give a damn if it’s coming from one particular side or the other, directed at one particular party or another, or one particular person or another. It is not OK, and it has to stop.”

Authorities have not disclosed the precise motive for the alleged arsonist. Posting on X, Biden said he and former first lady Jill Biden were “disgusted by the attack on the Shapiro family and their home” – while noting it occurred during the first night of the major Jewish holiday of Passover.

“There is no place for this type of evil in America, and as I told the governor yesterday, we must stand united against hatred and violence,” Biden said.

Trump commented from the White House on Monday that Balmer was “probably just a wack job”.

“The attacker was not a fan of Trump,” the president said. “I understand, just from what I read and from what I’ve been told, the attacker basically wasn’t a fan of anybody.

“Certainly a thing like that cannot be allowed to happen.”

Other entries on Balmer’s rap sheet include several additional violations in Pennsylvania. Among them: a guilty plea to forgery in 2016, for which he was sentenced to 18 months of probation.

ABC also reported that Balmer had been dealing with “protracted” foreclosure proceedings. The outlet added that Balmer posted memes urging people to “become ungovernable” and reposted an artwork of a molotov cocktail in 2022 with the slogan: “Be the light you want to see in the world.”

An autopsy on a corpse that was sexually violated on a Lower Manhattan subway train was unable to determine how the man died before the sickening crime, officials said Tuesday.

The victim was already dead when an unidentified necrophiliac had sex with his corpse at the Whitehall Street station on April 8, authorities said — but his cause of death remains a mystery for now.

“The cause and manner of death are pending further study following the examination,” the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said in a statement after the initial autopsy.
Sources initially said the victim, who has not been identified pending family notification, was believed to have died of natural causes.

Investigators do not believe the two knew each other, the sources added.

The dead man had boarded the subway around 8 p.m., and the suspect got on about three hours later — although it’s not clear exactly where, sources said.

The sicko first made contact with the dead man around 11:20 p.m., and by 11:45, security footage showed the twisted suspect engaging in sexual acts with the victim.

He is described as having a medium complexion and was last seen wearing a blue Los Angeles Dodgers cap, black hooded jacket, a yellow hoodie, blue jeans, red and white sneakers and carrying a black backpack, cops said.

Police are also looking to speak with a woman who was seen rummaging through the dead man’s pockets after he became unconscious, according to police sources.

The woman, described as having a dark complexion, was last seen wearing a yellow hooded sweatshirt, black pants and a black baseball cap, cops said.

Teen charged with killing parents also planned to assassinate Trump, FBI says
Nikita Casap, 17, is accused of conspiracy to assassinate the president.
April 14, 2025, 5:00 AM GMT+8

A 17-year-old Wisconsin teen charged with killing his parents is also accused of plotting to assassinate President Donald Trump, according to an unsealed affidavit from the FBI.

Last month, Nikita Casap, of Waukesha, was charged with killing his mother, 35-year-old Tatiana Casap, and his stepfather, 51-year-old Donald Mayer, and accused of living with their corpses for two weeks. Officials are saying he was also conspiring to kill the president.

The FBI accused Casap of conspiracy, attempting to assassinate the president and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.

According to the FBI, officials found what they called a “manifesto” while searching for a device that belonged to Casap. The document called for the president’s assassination in order to instigate a race war and sow chaos.

Casap also disclosed his plans to others on TikTok and Telegram, and identified himself as a follower of Order of the Nine Angles, which the FBI describes as a neo-Nazi cult that “advocates for the use of violence and terrorism to overthrow governments and destroy modern civilization.”

According to the FBI, Casap allegedly partially paid for “a drone with a dropping mechanism” to inflict harm by descending “an explosive, Molotov cocktail, or very strong topical poison” on a target.

“The killing of his parents appeared to be an effort to obtain the financial means and autonomy necessary to carrying out his plan,” the affidavit read.

Casap was arrested on Feb. 28 after running a stop sign while driving his stepfather’s Volkswagen Atlas in WaKeeney, Kansas, 800 miles away from his Wisconsin home. The car contained his stepfather’s Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum, the victims’ driver’s licenses and spent shell casings, according to a complaint.

The 17-year-old was originally charged with operating a motor vehicle without the owner’s consent and theft of movable property, before eventually being hit with two counts of first-degree homicide, two counts of hiding a corpse, theft of property over $10,000 and two counts of misappropriating ID to obtain money, according to Waukesha officials. According to the FBI, Casap had shared his plans to kill his parents with a classmate.

The teen appeared in court on March 27, where it was revealed that his mother had been found in a hallway covered with blankets and a towel, while his stepfather was found in a first-floor office covered in a pile of clothing.

Casap’s attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

—

Wisconsin teen charged in shooting death of mother, stepfather found decomposed in their home
17-year-old allegedly left the state in dead parents’ SUV
Published April 12, 2025 11:21pm EDT

A 17-year-old Wisconsin boy has been charged in connection with the shooting deaths of his mother and stepfather, who were found severely decomposed in their home in February.

Nikita Casap is charged with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide, two counts of hiding a corpse, theft of movable property, theft of movable property-special facts, taking and driving a vehicle without consent, and two counts of misappropriating ID information to obtain money, according to court records.

The court commissioner set his bail at $1 million and dismissed a prior auto theft case against him, according to a report from affiliate FOX 6 Milwaukee.

The bodies of Donald Mayer and his wife, Tatiana — reportedly Casap’s stepfather and mother — were found severely decomposed in their home on Feb. 28, according to the report.

Prosecutors allege Casap shot and killed his parents on Feb. 11, more than two weeks prior to when their bodies were found.

Officials said the 17-year-old “fantasized” about killing his parents and committing suicide, having told a female classmate about the plot to kill the couple.

Footage from a surveillance camera showed a camera pointed toward Donald Mayer’s body, covered with blankets and pillows, according to the report.

Casap was allegedly seen on footage going into the room to “keep candles lit,” and even looking into the camera saying, “so you can see him there. I can literally see the (expletive) rotten body there,” FOX 6 reported.

On Feb. 23, authorities claim he left the home in his parents’ SUV, traveling through Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming and Colorado before he was arrested in a rural area in northwest Kansas.

Police investigators were able to track down telegram messages prior to the alleged murders, where Casap was asking a Russian speaker, “…while in Ukraine, I’ll be able to live a normal life? Even when it’s found out I did it.”

According to the report, Casap told the female classmate he had been in contact with a man from Russia.

Authorities claim the Russian knew about the boy’s scheme to take passports, a car and the family dog and flee to Ukraine, according to the report.

Morgan Geyser was committed to a Wisconsin mental health center for the 2014 stabbing of her classmate to appease the fictional character ‘Slender Man’

The Wisconsin woman who attempted to kill her 12-year-old classmate to appease the fictional character “Slender Man” will be released despite the state’s claims there are still “red flags” concerning her behavior.

A judge has ruled Morgan Geyser, 22, can continue with her planned conditional release from a Wisconsin mental health institute, rejecting a last-minute petition from the State Department of Health Services asking for her to remain in custody.

The decision comes after failed attempts by Geyser’s defense team to have her released.

Officials asked Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren to reverse his initial decision after he ordered Geyser’s release in January, citing Geyser’s relationship with a murder memorabilia collector and her interest in violent books.

In 2017, Geyser pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the violent stabbing of Payton Leutner but claimed she was not responsible due to her mental illness. She told investigators she tried to kill Leutner to please the horror character Slender Man and was ultimately found not guilty by reason of mental defect.

Geyser’s defense team and the state’s prosecuting attorney did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

“Being found to be mentally ill as the cause of the crime has a pretty high standard,” Dr. Gail Saltz, clinical associate professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College, told Fox News Digital. “The standard is an identifiable illness that impacts your ability to understand that what you’re doing is wrong and that you have the capacity to understand that. That’s true regardless of age. So, it is quite a high standard.”

Geyser and her friend, Anissa Weier, were 12 when they lured Leutner into a wooded park during a sleepover in May 2014. Geyser, encouraged by Weier, stabbed Leutner 19 times.

Leutner miraculously survived the attack.

Geyser has been in custody at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute for the last seven years. She was initially sentenced to 40 years in the psychiatric hospital and was permitted to ask the court to consider her conditional release every six months.

The Wisconsin State Department of Health Services did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Health officials asked Bohren to reconsider, citing Geyser’s relationship with a man who collects murder memorabilia. Prosecutors also said Geyser failed to inform her therapy team about a violent book she was reading.

Geyser’s defense attorney, Tony Cotton, refuted the claims, telling the court the center’s staff members were aware the collector had visited Geyser three times in June 2023 and that she only read books that were permitted by her care team. Cotton added that after Geyser discovered the man was selling items she sent him, she broke things off.

“Morgan is not more dangerous today,” Cotton said.

Bohren also listened to testimony from three psychologists who initially recommended Geyser be released during her hearing in January.

While Geyser’s apparent interest in violent topics concerns prosecutors, experts say some individuals may gravitate toward materials that offer a controlled way to indulge in their morbid curiosity.

“This is a gray zone in the sense that many people read violent material as a way of partaking and thinking about that sort of fantasy material,” Saltz said. “Horror movies exist because many humans have sadistic and masochistic urges that are satisfied by reading about or watching material of this sort.”

However, agency officials argued Geyser remains a danger to the community, citing the book “Rent Boy,” which features topics such as murder and selling organs on the black market.

Prosecutors told Bohren they believed it was concerning that Geyser reportedly only disclosed the information when confronted by her care team.

“The state has real concerns these things are, frankly, just red flags at this point,” Waukesha County Deputy District Attorney Abbey Nickolie said during a hearing last month.

While morbid curiosities may be normal for some, experts believe those with violent pasts could be influenced by materials about their crimes.

“Thought does not equal behavior,” Saltz said. “That being said, [with] somebody who has committed the behavior, we do worry that ultimately that will increase their urge to do something that they truly [want] to do and lead to a behavior that is considered a problem.”

Despite the state’s pleas to keep Geyser institutionalized, Bohren determined she was no longer a danger to society. Her next court appearance is scheduled for April 28, according to documents obtained by Fox News Digital.

“There are many people who commit horrible assaults with the intent to kill and serve their time and the evaluation is that they acknowledge their crime, which [Geyser] clearly has,” Saltz told Fox News Digital. “They fall under all the ingredients that have to do with rehabilitation, who don’t even have a finding that mental illness was a factor and were then released into society. So, I’m saying this isn’t a totally unique situation.”

Weier also pleaded guilty to being a party to attempted second-degree intentional homicide with a dangerous weapon and was sentenced to 25 years in a mental hospital. In 2021, she was released on the condition she must live with her father and wear a GPS monitor.

Attorneys for Weier did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

“You have to think about the victim in this case too,” Saltz said. “The attack was unbelievably traumatic. But, at the end of the day, it’s highly unusual to essentially lock up a 12-year-old for life.”

Accused child abuser Kimberly Sullivan’s attorney says she has a “giant target on her back”

The attorney for Kimberly Sullivan, the Waterbury, Connecticut woman facing a litany of charges for allegedly abusing her stepson for 20 years, denied that his client is responsible for any abuse in an interview with Fox News Digital.

Referring to bodycam footage released by the Waterbury Police Department last week, Ioannis Kaloidis said he completely disagrees with how his client has been portrayed.

“I have seen the photos, I have seen the videos,” Kaloidis said. “I disagree with the characterization of those photos and videos. They’ve been made out to be the worst that anyone has seen in 20 years. I do not see that as the case.

“Her face has been plastered all over the TV, the news, the internet, social media. Her life has been turned upside down. She has a giant target on her back. She has essentially become public enemy number one. It is a tremendous weight that she is carrying. It is a tremendous upheaval to her entire life.”

The allegations came to light after authorities responded to a house fire in Waterbury on Feb. 17.

Inside the home, they said they found a 32-year-old man in an emaciated state, later identified as Sullivan’s stepson. He said he intentionally set the fire because he wanted his freedom.

“This has been an extreme shock to her,” Kaloidis told Fox News Digita. “She lived a relatively quiet life.”

“Her side of the story is quite simple,” he added. “She did not harm him, she did not restain him, she did not imprison him.”

According to an arrest warrant for Sullivan, her stepson, identified as “Male Victim 1,” said he was held in a windowless 8-foot by 9-foot storage closet with no air conditioning or heat and without access to a bathroom for 20 years. He was allegedly kept inside the closet 22-24 hours per day.

The man told police he was allowed two sandwiches and two small water bottles each day, one of which he would use for bathing. He said he disposed of his waste using water bottles and newspaper. The man weighed less than 70 pounds when first responders found him after the fire.

After an investigation, Sullivan was arrested on March 12 and charged with first-degree assault, second-degree kidnapping, first-degree unlawful restraint, cruelty to persons and first-degree reckless endangerment.

She has been released from jail on $300,000 bond.

While Kaloidis conceded that he does not know what happened inside the home at all times during the past 20 years, he said that Sullivan denies imprisoning her stepson.

“She recognizes that given these allegations, the rest of her life is on the line,” he said. “She’s hopeful that through the process she will be vindicated.”

“I can tell you that the allegations were that this individual claims to have been imprisoned in that home up until the day of the fire,” Kaloidis said. “And my client adamantly denies that there was any imprisonment. As for the whole history, there’s a lot that I anticipate will come out over the course of the trial, hopefully, because I think that’s the appropriate place for the release of any additional information.”