Category Archives: US crime

Florida clown murder trial postponed after discovery of ‘clown sighting file’

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In 1990 incident, Sheila Keen Warren is alleged to have dressed as a clown before shooting her employer’s wife in the face

The trial of a Florida woman accused of dressing up as clown in 1990 and fatally shooting the wife of a man she later married has been postponed, following the disclosure of a law enforcement file containing information about other clown-sighting leads at the time.

Prosecutors informed defense attorneys for Sheila Keen Warren last Thursday that they had found a “clown sighting file” which defense attorneys had been demanding but prosecutors had been saying they didn’t have, according to a court filing by defense attorneys in the Palm Beach county case.

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Juror in Gretchen Whitmer kidnap case dismissed for flirting with defendant

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Judge acts after prosecutor says woman and Paul Bellar, 24, had ‘non-verbal communication’ in form of eye contact and smiling

A judge dismissed a young woman from the jury hearing the trial of three men in connection with a 2020 plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, after attorneys accused her of flirting with a defendant.

Judge Thomas Wilson announced on Friday that the woman had been removed from the jury, two days after attorneys raised concerns she was having too much non-verbal communication with the defendant Paul Bellar, the Jackson Citizen Patriot reported.

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Suspect, 15, in custody after North Carolina shooting leaves five dead

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White juvenile male arrested with one survivor in critical condition after shooter opens fire on walking trail in Raleigh

Five people were killed by a shooter who opened fire along a walking trail in North Carolina’s capital city and eluded officers for hours before he was cornered in a home and arrested, police said.

A 15-year-old white male suspect is in custody and in critical condition, the Raleigh police commissioner, Estella Patterson, told a press conference on Friday.

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Convicted con artist Anna Sorokin released from jail, attorney says

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Subject of Netflix drama known as the ‘SoHo grifter’ must refrain from posting on social media

Anna Sorokin, the convicted con artist who masqueraded as a German heiress and swindled wealthy New Yorkers, has been released from jail but must steer clear of social media, her attorney has confirmed.

The 31-year-old, who also went by the name Anna Delvey and is the subject of Netflix’s Inventing Anna, has been held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since March 2021.

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Suspect arrested after Las Vegas Strip stabbing attack kills two and injures six

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A man with a large kitchen knife said he wanted to take a picture with showgirls but then started stabbing people, a witness said

An attacker with a large kitchen knife killed two people and wounded six others in stabbings along the Las Vegas Strip before he was arrested on Thursday, police said.

Three people were hospitalized in critical condition and another three were in stable condition, according to Las Vegas police, who said they began receiving 911 calls about the stabbings around 11.40am across the street from the Wynn casino and hotel.

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Kidnapping suspect’s brother arrested as California community mourns family

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Merced officers suspect Alberto Salgado helped destroy evidence in the abduction and killings of four members of the Singh family

The younger brother of a man suspected in the kidnapping and killings of an eight-month-old baby, her parents and an uncle, was arrested on suspicion he helped his brother destroy evidence, authorities said on Friday.

Alberto Salgado, 41, was arrested late Thursday and accused of criminal conspiracy, accessory and destroying evidence, the Merced county sheriff’s office said. He is booked in the Merced county jail – the same place where Jesus Salgado, 48, is being held on kidnapping and murder charges. It was not clear whether either brother had a lawyer who could speak on their behalf.

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Trouser snakes: US man accused of smuggling three reptiles in his pants

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New Yorker accused of hiding large Burmese pythons in trousers while crossing from Canada in July could face 20-year sentence

A New York City man faces up to 20 years in prison for allegedly attempting to smuggle three large snakes across the US-Canada border – in his pants.

Queens resident Calvin Bautista, 36, is accused of hiding three Burmese pythons while on a bus crossing into the US at the Champlain port of entry in New York state on 15 July 2018, the Associated Press reported.

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TV producer Eric Weinberg charged with multiple counts of rape and sexual battery

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Scrubs and Californication producer accused of using ‘his Hollywood credentials’ to sexually assault women during photo shoots

Eric Weinberg, a veteran television producer and writer who worked on shows including Scrubs and Californication, has been arrested and charged with 18 counts including rape, sexual battery and false imprisonment by violence.

The 61-year-old was initially arrested at his Los Angeles home in July and released on $3.2m bond. On Tuesday, he was arrested again and later released on $5m bond.

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Suspect in California kidnapping is in custody as family is still missing

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The man is suspected of abducting four, including an 8-month-old baby, and tried to kill himself before Merced police arrived

A man suspected of kidnapping a Sikh family, including an 8-month-old baby, in central California tried to kill himself Tuesday and is hospitalized in critical condition, authorities said. The family is still missing.

The Merced county sheriff’s office said in a statement that investigators identified Jesus Salgado, 48, after he used a victim’s ATM card.

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California serial killer appears to be ‘on a mission’, as police link seven shootings

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Ballistics tests tie together fatal shooting in Oakland with killings of five men and the non-fatal shooting of a woman in Stockton

A California serial killer seems to be “on a mission” dating back to last year, which has seen the fatal shooting of at least six men and the wounding of one woman – but authorities have not figured out what’s behind the violence.

Ballistics tests and some video evidence linked the shootings in Stockton and Oakland, about 70 miles apart in northern California, police said.

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Oakland police search for two suspects after school shooting that injured six

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Mayor Libby Schaaf calls for gun restrictions after shooting at Rudsdale Newcome high school for recently immigrated students

California authorities are searching for at least two people in connection with a shooting on a school campus in Oakland that left six people injured.

Wednesday’s shooting occurred at Rudsdale Newcomer high school, which serves students who are at risk of not graduating and have recently immigrated to the US after fleeing their home countries “because of violence and instability”. The school is one of four adjacent schools that serve middle and high school students on Fontaine Street just outside East Oakland.

This story was amended on 28 September 2022 to clarify that the shooting happened at a grade school, not a high school

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Kentucky man seeking parole says he still hears voices that led to school shooting

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Michael Carneal was 14 years old in 1997 when he fired on a prayer group, killing three; his request has been delayed until Monday

A Kentucky man who killed three students and wounded five in a school shooting 25 years ago told a parole panel on Tuesday he was still hearing voices like the ones that told him to steal a pistol and shoot into a high school lobby in 1997.

The two-person panel hearing Michael Carneal’s testimony deferred a decision until Monday, when the entire state parole board could grant his parole request, defer his next parole decision or determine that he must spend the rest of his life in prison.

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California woman who admitted to faking her kidnapping sentenced to 18 months in prison

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Sherri Papini’s case gained national attention when she went missing for weeks but was found staying with an ex-boyfriend

Sherri Papini, the California woman who admitted to faking her own kidnapping in 2016, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Papini’s case grabbed national attention when she went missing for several weeks, prompting a frantic search and widespread media coverage. She eventually reappeared with an elaborate story of being abducted by two “Hispanic women”, chained to a pole for three weeks, beaten and branded before being released by the side of a highway.

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Adnan Syed in court on Monday to vacate murder conviction in ‘Serial’ case

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Prosecutors in Baltimore say they lack confidence in ‘integrity of the conviction’ for strangling ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee in 1999

A court hearing has been set for Monday in Baltimore to consider a request from prosecutors to vacate the 2000 murder conviction of Adnan Syed, whose case was chronicled in the hit podcast Serial.

Baltimore circuit judge Melissa Phinn scheduled the hearing for 2pm ET, the Baltimore Sun reported.

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Investigative reporter Jeff German stabbed to death in Las Vegas

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Police say killing followed altercation outside journalist’s home and suspect is being pursued

Police were looking for a suspect after a Las Vegas investigative reporter was stabbed to death outside his home, authorities said.

Las Vegas police officers found Jeff German dead with stab wounds around 10.30am on Saturday after authorities received a 911 call, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

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Suspect in Detroit shootings was not confronted after first killing, police say

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Man aged 19 held over killing of three people on Sunday and wounding of a fourth did not encounter police after first incident

A 19-year-old man suspected of randomly killing three people on Detroit streets over roughly two hours may have been emboldened when he did not encounter police after the first shooting, the mayor said on Monday.

No one called 911 when a 28-year-old man was shot on Sunday, less than two miles from a police station, Mayor Mike Duggan said.

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Woman fatally shoots three male relatives before killing herself

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Facebook post accused father, brother-in-law and his father, of either physically abusing woman’s sister or ignoring it

A Massachusetts woman shot her brother-in-law, his father, her own dad and herself to death after she publicly accused the first man of physically abusing her sister for years while the other two – along with additional relatives – stood idly by, according to authorities and a chilling social media post that offers an apparent motive for the violence.

The gruesome saga began with a Facebook post published on the afternoon of 23 August in which Khosay Sharifi recounted how her sister has been choked, slapped, kicked, punched in the face and cursed out by her husband of 14 years.

In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 800-273-8255 and online chat is also available. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org

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Duo plead guilty to plot to sell Biden daughter’s stolen diary to Project Veritas

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Aimee Harris stole items from Ashley Biden’s room and conspired Robert Kurlander to sell them to activist group, prosecutors say

Two people have pleaded guilty in a scheme to peddle a diary and other items belonging to Joe Biden’s daughter to the conservative group Project Veritas for $40,000, prosecutors said Thursday.

The two, both from Florida, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property, Manhattan US attorney Damian Williams’s office said.

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California man found guilty of two 1980s murders thanks to new DNA technology

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In 2006 detectives discovered DNA evidence, but it was 12 more years before they could identify suspect using genealogy websites

Prosecutors in California secured the conviction of a 1980s double murderer after the first use by Los Angeles county detectives of online genealogical databases to identify a suspect.

Horace Van Vaultz, now 67, killed Selena Keough, 20, in Montclair in 1981, and Mary Duggan, 22, in Burbank in 1986, but escaped justice for 36 years until investigators were able to link him to DNA from the victims.

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Iran denies role in Salman Rushdie attack but claims author is to blame

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Foreign ministry spokesperson blames author and supporters after stabbing that left him with ‘life-changing’ injuries

Iran has denied having any role in the attack on Salman Rushdie but claimed the author had only himself to blame for crossing a “red line” over Islam in his writings.

Rushdie’s life was reported to be out of danger but he was said to have sustained “life-changing” injuries after being stabbed 10 times when he was speaking at an event on Friday in Chautauqua, New York.

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