Category Archives: US crime

Denver gunman who killed five in shooting rampage knew victims

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Lyndon James McLeod, 47, who was killed at scene was ‘on radar of law enforcement’, say Denver police

A gunman who killed five people and injured two others in a series of shootings in Denver is believed to have targeted the victims based on previous personal and business dealings and was investigated by police twice in the last two years.

Denver police said that Lyndon James McLeod, 47, who was also killed in the deadly rampage on Monday night, knew most of the victims and was “on the radar of law enforcement”.

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Gunman kills four people and injures officer in Denver area

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Suspect also died after being shot, but it was not immediately clear if police officers had shot him

At least four people were killed and three injured, including a police officer, after a series of shootings across the Denver area.

Police did not immediately name the suspected gunman, who was also killed, and said the motive for the shootings on Monday, across several locations in and around Colorado’s capital, was unclear.

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JonBenét Ramsey: DNA testing could be used to solve case, police say

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In 2008, newly discovered DNA pointed toward the involvement of an ‘unexplained third party’ in the six-year-old’s murder

Twenty-five years after JonBenét Ramsey was killed, police say DNA hasn’t been ruled out to help solve the case.

The six-year-old was found dead in the basement of her family’s Boulder, Colorado, home on 26 December 1996, bludgeoned and strangled, several hours after her mother called 911 to say her daughter was missing and a ransom note had been left behind. Her death was ruled a homicide, but nobody was ever charged in the case.

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Miss Sweden and Bugs Bunny add up to a bad day in court for Ghislaine Maxwell

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The former socialite had nothing to say after the prosecution in her New York trial dispensed quickly with defence witnesses

Defending a client charged with crimes modern society finds more terrible than murder, who might face the rest of her life in prison, Ghislaine Maxwell’s defence in New York opened with a nice lady who hadn’t seen anything, a travel agent who booked flights years after they mattered and a professor of BugsBunnyology – and none of them cut the mustard.

At the end of the defence’s first day, Maxwell was seen holding her hands up in despair at her fancy attorneys who have cost her, according to her own estimate, some $7m. Juries in US federal trials must be unanimous and there are legal grounds for knocking out some of the charges, but it looks bleak for Maxwell.

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Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers call Jeffrey Epstein’s ex-girlfriend as a witness

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Maxwell’s defense team rested their case on Friday, with closing arguments set to begin on Monday

  • This article contains depictions of sexual abuse

Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers called one of Jeffrey Epstein’s ex-girlfriends as a defense witness on Friday in the British socialite’s Manhattan federal court sex-trafficking trial.

Maxwell’s defense team also rested their case on Friday afternoon and she declined to testify. Her trial will enter a new stage Monday when the prosecution and defense will present their closing arguments.

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 802 9999. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732).

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Ohio police ask for help finding thieves who stole entire bridge

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Someone first stole the deck boards and then came back for the rest of the structure, leaving police baffled

Police in Akron, Ohio, are hunting brazen thieves who have stolen an entire 58ft-long bridge.

The pedestrian bridge used to span the Cuyahoga River in a park in the city, but had been removed as part of a wetlands restoration project and stored in a nearby field.

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The lawyer who tried faking his death, and the writer exposing his crime dynasty

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Mandy Matney kept a harsh spotlight trained on South Carolina’s Murdaugh family until they became impossible for anyone to ignore

Real-life villains don’t come more sharply drawn than Alex Murdaugh, a greedy and ghoulish personal injuries lawyer who casts a haunting shadow over the state of South Carolina. For nearly a century, his father and grandfather were the prosecutors for a five-county district while also running a powerful private law firm.

But it wasn’t until the small hours of 24 February 2019 that the dark veil over the Murdaugh family’s dealings began to slip. That’s when Alex’s son Paul is alleged to have plowed the family’s 17-foot bay boat into a bridge abutting Parris Island, the nation’s largest Marine recruit depot. Among the three people cast overboard was an ebullient 19-year-old former high school soccer player named Mallory Beach. She was found dead in the murky tidewaters near the crash site after a seven-day search.

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Derek Chauvin expected to plead guilty to violating George Floyd’s civil rights

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Federal docket entry shows hearing scheduled for Wednesday for Chauvin to change his current not guilty plea in the case

Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer, appears to be on the verge of pleading guilty to violating George Floyd’s civil rights, according to a notice sent out Monday by the court’s electronic filing system.

The federal docket entry shows a hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday for Chauvin to change his current not guilty plea in the case. These types of notices indicate a defendant is planning to plead guilty.

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Friend, lover, fixer? Ghislaine Maxwell prosecutors home in on nature of Epstein relationship

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Federal sex-trafficking trial has shed more light on pair’s ties, and how their lives seemed intimately interwoven

Ghislaine Maxwell has long been accused of luring teenage girls into Jeffrey Epstein’s orbit for him to sexually abuse, but whatever motive for allegedly doing so has long remained a mystery.

The answer hinges somewhat on the nature of their relationship. Did Maxwell serve as the late financier’s consigliere, or act as his girlfriend and procurer?

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 802 9999. 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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Ghislaine Maxwell gave me nude massage when I was 16, accuser says

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Annie Farmer testifies about encounter at New Mexico ranch in 1996, and recounts how she met Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein

The fourth accuser to testify in Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial said Friday that she was only 16 when the British socialite gave her a nude massage at Jeffrey Epstein’s New Mexico ranch.

This accuser, Annie Farmer, also said that the morning after her encounter with Maxwell, Epstein climbed into bed with her and said he “wanted to cuddle” and she “felt kind of frozen”.

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 802 9999. 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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Ghislaine Maxwell sex-trafficking trial adjourned after attorney becomes ill

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Judge Alison Nathan says she expects proceedings will resume on Friday

Ghislaine Maxwell’s New York sex-trafficking trial was unexpectedly adjourned early Thursday because an “ill” attorney needed medical care. “I’ve been informed there’s an attorney in the case who’s ill, and that attorney has to get care,” the judge, Alison Nathan, told jurors this morning.

Nathan’s disclosure came several moments after attorneys on the case asked to speak with her in private. It’s unclear from proceedings which attorney is ill.

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Third accuser alleges Ghislaine Maxwell preyed on her when she was a minor

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‘Carolyn’ testifies that Maxwell coordinated sexualized massages with Jeffrey Epstein, starting when she was 14

  • This article contains depictions of sexual abuse

Prosecutors in Ghislaine Maxwell’s child sex-trafficking trial in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday introduced a witness who was once the kind of minor teen on whom the Briton is alleged to have preyed.

At 14, Carolyn was vulnerable. She had an alcoholic mother and a 17-year-old boyfriend and had been raped and molested by her grandfather from the age of four. She needed money.

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Jussie Smollett to return to witness stand after calling claim he staged attack ‘100% false’

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Empire actor faces charges he lied to Chicago police about an alleged anti-gay, racist attack in January 2019

Jussie Smollett will return to the witness stand on Tuesday at his trial in Chicago, where the former Empire actor said that claims he staged an anti-gay, racist attack on himself were “100% false”.

Prosecutors will continue cross-examining the 39-year-old, who appeared calm through several hours of testimony Monday. He told jurors “there was no hoax” and that he was the victim of a hate crime in his downtown Chicago neighborhood.

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Nevada man arrested for allegedly assaulting police at US Capitol attack

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A 34-year-old Nevada man has been arrested and held on multiple charges related to the 6 January riot at the US Capitol, including assaulting law officers with what prosecutors say appeared to be a table leg with a protruding nail.

A US magistrate in Reno on Friday ordered Josiah Kenyon of Winnemucca to remain jailed without bail, until he is transported to Washington to face charges.

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Michigan shooting: suspect’s parents missing after pair charged with manslaughter

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  • Police in Oakland county hunting Jennifer and James Crumbley
  • Son Ethan, 15, charged with murder over deadly school shooting

The parents of a boy who is accused of killing four students at Oxford high school are missing and being searched for by law enforcement after the pair were also charged as part of the investigation into the mass shooting in Michigan.

Jennifer and James Crumbley were charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter.

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Prosecutor announces Michigan shooter’s parents to be charged with manslaughter – video

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A prosecutor in Michigan filed involuntary manslaughter charges on Friday against the parents of a boy who is accused of killing four students at Oxford high school. 'Gun ownership is a right but with that right comes great responsibility,' Karen McDonald said at a press conference on Friday morning.

The parents were summoned to the school a few hours before the shooting occurred after a teacher found a drawing of a gun, a person bleeding and the words 'help me', McDonald revealed

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Ghislaine Maxwell was present when Jeffrey Epstein abused me, accuser testifies

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Witness identified as ‘Jane’ alleges Epstein began sexual abuse when she was 14 and says Maxwell was sometimes in the room

The first accuser in Ghislaine Maxwell’s child sex trafficking trial testified in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday that she was just 14 when the British socialite allegedly lured her into Jeffrey Epstein’s abusive orbit.

This accuser, who used the name “Jane” in court, alleged that Maxwell was sometimes present when this abuse occurred and participated on some occasions.

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El Chapo’s wife Emma Coronel Aispuro sentenced to three years in US prison

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Coronel admitted to acting as a courier between Joaquín Guzmán and other members of the Sinaloa cartel while he was in prison

Emma Coronel Aispuro, the wife of the imprisoned drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán has been sentenced to three years in a US prison, after she pleaded guilty to helping the Sinaloa drug cartel.

Before her sentencing in a federal court in Washington, Coronel, 32, pleaded with US District Judge Rudolph Contreras to show her mercy.

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Jussie Smollett was ‘real victim’ of racist attack, lawyer says as trial begins

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Ex-Empire actor is accused of hiring two men to fake an attack in Chicago but new evidence could support Smollett’s defense

Jussie Smollett “is a real victim” of a “real crime,” his attorney said in opening statements at the ex-Empire actor’s trial Monday, rejecting prosecutors’ allegation that he staged a homophobic and racist attack in Chicago.

Defense attorney Nenye Uche said two brothers attacked Smollett in January 2019 because they didn’t like him, and that a $3,500 check the actor paid the men was for training so he could prepare for an upcoming music video, not as payment for staging a hate crime, as prosecutors allege. Uche also suggested a third attacker was involved and told jurors there is not a “shred” of physical and forensic evidence linking Smollett to the crime prosecutors allege.

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Michael Cohen: prosecutors could ‘indict Trump tomorrow’ if they wanted

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New York investigation of Trump Organization is one of a number of sources of legal jeopardy for the former president

Prosecutors in New York could “indict Donald Trump tomorrow if they really wanted and be successful”, the ex-president’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen said on Sunday, discussing investigations of Trump’s business affairs.

Asked if he was “confident you did help Donald Trump commit crimes”, Cohen told NBC’s Meet the Press: “I can assure you that Donald Trump is guilty of his own crimes. Was I involved in much of the inflation and deflation of his assets? The answer to that is yes.”

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