Man gets life sentence for raping girl, nine, forced to leave Ohio for abortion

Gerson Fuentes found guilty in case that dominated headlines when girl had to travel to Indiana for procedure banned in Ohio

The man found guilty of raping and impregnating a nine-year-old Ohio girl who later traveled to Indiana for abortion has been sentenced to life in prison.

On Wednesday afternoon, 28-year-old Gerson Fuentes appeared at the Franklin county court of common pleas in Columbus, Ohio, where he entered a plea agreement which will allow him to be eligible to seek probation after 25 years. If granted parole, Fuentes would also have to register as a tier 3 sex offender and will have a lifetime of in-person verification every 90 days.

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Man accused of attacking Capitol officer as January 6 arrests pile up

Jeremy Rodgers, 28, arrested in Florida a day after armed man wanted over riot detained near Barack Obama’s Washington home

Americans continue to be arrested on suspicion of taking part in the Capitol attack, two and half years after the January 6 insurrection by supporters of Donald Trump.

Court documents on Monday showed that a Michigan man accused of attacking a police officer with a flagpole during the insurrection was arrested in Florida last Friday, a day after an armed man also wanted for the rioting was arrested near Barack Obama’s Washington home. Another man suspected of violence at the Capitol was arrested in Maryland last month.

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US ‘mom influencer’ guilty of falsely accusing Latino couple of trying to kidnap her children

Kathleen Sorensen, of California, sentenced to three months in prison for knowingly making false report of crime

A white California woman who styled herself on social media as a “mom influencer” has been ordered to spend three months in prison for falsely accusing a Latino couple of attempting to kidnap her children.

State jurors in Sonoma county found 30-year-old Kathleen “Katie” Sorensen guilty in April of knowingly making a false report of a crime in a case that involved her publishing a December 2020 social media post that asserted a man and a woman had tried to steal her two children from her in the parking lot of a Michaels craft store about 40 miles outside San Francisco.

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US urges appeals court to uphold Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking conviction

Maxwell was given 20-year prison sentence for helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls

The US government has urged an appeals court to uphold Ghislaine Maxwell’s conviction and 20-year prison sentence for helping the disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls.

In a Thursday night filing with the second US circuit court of appeals in Manhattan, federal prosecutors said none of Maxwell’s legal arguments about the fairness of her trial held merit.

Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html.

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Man accused of killing Jordan Neely with chokehold due in court

Daniel Penny, 24, expected to enter plea to grand jury manslaughter indictment after incident on New York subway

The man accused of fatally strangling Jordan Neely with a chokehold in a New York City subway car last month is due in court on Wednesday to enter a plea to a grand jury indictment charging him in the killing.

Daniel Penny, 24, was captured in videos recorded by bystanders choking Neely from behind for several minutes on 1 May while they rode on a train on the F line, in Manhattan.

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Three men including ex-NYPD officer convicted of harassing Chinese exile

Prosecutors say ‘Operation Fox Hunt’ is a Beijing effort to pressure Chinese nationals in the US to return home to face charges

A former New York City police sergeant and two Chinese citizens living in the US have been convicted of various charges in a trial showcasing Chinese efforts to pressure expatriates into returning home, part of a program called “Operation Fox Hunt”.

Michael McMahon, who now works as a private investigator, Zheng Congying and Zhu Yong were accused of taking part in scare tactics aimed at a former Chinese official.

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American man charged with murder after attack on US women in Germany

The recent college graduates were visiting Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria when man allegedly shoved them down a steep slope

Two US women who had just earned computer-related college degrees had gone to southern Germany to celebrate when a fellow American whom they met while hiking shoved them both down a steep slope last week, killing one and seriously wounding the other, according to officials.

Eva Liu, 21, had received her bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in May. Authorities say she was sexually assaulted and pushed to her death near Neuschwanstein Castle, a famous tourist destination in Bavaria. Her 22-year-old friend Kelsey Chang had also just graduated from the same school with a bachelor’s in computer engineering – reports say she was attacked, too, but survived.

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At least 38 people shot, including two fatally, at weekend in US

There have been more than 305 mass shootings in the US so far this year as of Sunday morning

At least 38 people were shot – including two fatally – in three different mass shootings reported Saturday and Sunday in separate parts of the US, according to officials.

One minor was killed and nine others were wounded in a shooting in a building in downtown St Louis, Missouri, about 1.45am Sunday, the local television station KMOV reported. The name of the slain victim wasn’t immediately available, and information on the conditions of the wounded wasn’t released right away either.

Associated Press contributed reporting

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Arizona man freed after nearly three decades on death row

Barry Jones pleads guilty to lesser charge in deal to overturn his conviction for murder of four-year-old girl in 1994

An Arizona man who spent nearly three decades on death row before the reversal of his conviction over the death of a four-year-old girl has been freed from prison.

Barry Jones’s release, ordered on Thursday, came after a Tuscon-area state court judge approved a deal between prosecutors and him which involved his pleading guilty to a lesser murder charge. According to prosecutors, a medical review of the case failed to conclude that Jones caused the girl’s fatal injury, and his pleading guilty to second-degree murder involves his failure to adequately seek emergency care for the victim.

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Church hands over ‘voluminous documents’ about accused US ex-priest

Catholic archdiocese gives New Orleans DA files on Lawrence Hecker, accused of raping child decades ago

The second-oldest archdiocese in the US has handed over “voluminous documents” involving a retired Roman Catholic priest – and accused serial predator – to the New Orleans district attorney’s office as prosecutors investigate an allegation that the cleric manhandled and raped a child decades earlier.

The district attorney, Jason Williams, revealed the archdiocese’s provision of the documents after a federal court hearing on Thursday centering on whether those materials should be more widely released as a matter of public safety and interest.

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Trump pleads not guilty to 37 federal criminal counts in Mar-a-Lago case

Ex-president arraigned and charged in Miami court over allegations he mishandled classified documents

Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents as he was formally arraigned on Tuesday, becoming the first former US president to face federal criminal charges.

Federal prosecutors accused Trump of willfully withholding classified documents obtained during his presidency and obstructing justice in his efforts to conceal those materials from authorities, as detailed in a 49-page indictment unsealed on Friday. The former president was charged with 37 federal counts, including 31 violations of the Espionage Act.

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San Francisco shooting leaves nine wounded after ‘targeted’ incident

Police say all victims are expected to survive their injuries after incident in Mission District on Friday night

Multiple victims were struck by bullets during a mass shooting in San Francisco’s Mission District on Friday night, but authorities said there were no fatalities.

“We can confirm there are 9 shooting victims – all are expected to survive their injuries,” the San Francisco police department said in a tweet.

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Donald Trump uses his legal woes to plead for money from supporters – again

Following his indictment, Trump asked supporters to ‘make a contribution to peacefully defend our movement from the neverending witch hunts’

Federally indicted Donald Trump, newly charged with multiple counts over his mishandling of classified documents, is using his legal woes to plead for money – again.

The sweeping 37-count felony indictment paints a damaging portrait of Trump’s treatment of sensitive documents, accusing him of defying justice department demands to return papers he had taken to his Florida home of Mar-a-Lago, and even storing some of them in a shower.

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‘Help me’: South Carolina woman shops passenger to police with silent message

Driver of Jeep stopped for running red light helps police jail man – her own passenger – suspected of attempted murder and kidnap

By mouthing the words “help me” to an officer who had pulled her over for a traffic stop, a woman in South Carolina helped authorities jail a man suspected of a shooting and a kidnapping: her own passenger, according to authorities.

The unusual encounter began when officer Kayla Wallace pulled over a woman behind the wheel of a Jeep that ran a red light during the early evening of 28 May, the North Myrtle Beach police department said in a statement this week. Wallace noticed the woman was in distress while seated alongside 29-year-old Collin Bates, the police’s statement added.

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Nuclear weapon secrets in the bathroom: five revelations from Trump’s unsealed indictment

Trump took classified documents including information on nuclear weapons and secret plans to attack a foreign country

Donald Trump took classified documents including information on nuclear weapons in the US and secret plans to attack a foreign country, according to a 49-page federal indictment unsealed Friday afternoon.

The former US president, alongside a military valet, now faces a sweeping 37-count felony indictment related to the mishandling of classified documents.

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Donald Trump charged with illegal retention of classified documents

Ex-president is being prosecuted for violating Espionage Act and obstruction over documents held at Mar-a-Lago and has been summoned to court next week

Federal prosecutors have charged Donald Trump over his retention of national security documents and obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them, according to multiple people familiar with the matter, a historic development that poses the most significant legal peril yet for the former president.

The exact nature of the indictment, filed in federal district court in Miami, is unclear because it remains under seal and the justice department had no immediate comment.

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Peru extradites Dutch murderer to US over Natalee Holloway disappearance

Joran van der Sloot, already serving 28-year sentence, faces fraud and extortion charges linked to Alabama teen missing since 2005

Peruvian police have handed over a convicted Dutch murderer to US FBI agents for transfer to the United States, where he faces extortion and fraud charges related to the killing of the Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway two decades ago.

Joran van der Sloot, a Dutch national from the Caribbean island of Aruba, is set to face charges in the United States related to the mysterious disappearance and presumed murder of Holloway, an 18-year-old from a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, who vanished during a high school graduation trip to Aruba in 2005.

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High school student and relative killed in Virginia graduation shooting

Virginia representative calls for more gun safety policies after suspect was arrested for killing two people and wounding five

A high school student and a relative were killed on Tuesday evening at a mass shooting at the young man’s graduation event in Richmond, Virginia, where five other people were shot and wounded.

Gunfire rang out outside a downtown theater, where the graduation ceremony had just ended, causing hundreds of attendees to flee in panic, weep and clutch their children, authorities and witnesses said.

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Black woman in Florida fatally shot through front door by white neighbor

Ajike ‘AJ’ Owens killed after allegedly trying to retrieve iPad taken from her child, while shooter has not been arrested or charged

A Black mother of four in Florida was killed by a white neighbor who shot her through a front door as the victim attempted to retrieve an iPad taken from her child, civil rights attorney Ben Crump has said.

In a Twitter post on Monday, Crump said the death of Ajike “AJ” Owens, 35, at a housing complex in Ocala on Friday evening was an “unjust killing” and lamented that the shooter had not been arrested or charged.

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Ohio police continue search for fugitive who escaped prison last week

Safecracker James Lee was apprehended last Wednesday, while convicted killer Bradley Gillespie is still on the lam

Authorities on Sunday were searching for a convicted killer who escaped an Ohio prison by hiding in a trash container.

The manhunt for Bradley Gillespie began last week when he and another man incarcerated at Allen-Oakwood correctional institution in Lima, Ohio, James Lee, were discovered missing, according to reports.

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