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Laundrie family attorney reacts to Petito lawsuit against Utah police

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 22:30:14 GMT

If you or someone you know is the victim of domestic abuse, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233.

The Laundrie family attorney, Steve Bertolino, wished the Petito-Schmidt family "best of luck" in their wrongful death lawsuit against the Moab Police Department in Utah on Monday, but he also said he does not believe that the officers involved did anything wrong.

Almost a year after Moab police responded to a domestic violence call alleging that Brian Laundrie, 23, had slapped and hit his ex-fiancee, Gabby Petito, 22, in public outside a grocery store on the city’s main street, Petito’s parents announced they intend to file a wrongful death lawsuit alleging the officers failed to recognize their daughter was a victim of domestic violence and mishandled the call.

The officers, Eric Pratt and Daniel Robbins, separated the couple for the night, leaving Petito with their converted camper van and dropping Laundrie off at a local motel — despite acknowledging on bodycam video that Utah law required them to make an arrest in domestic violence cases.

GABBY PETITO'S PARENTS ANNOUNCE WRONGFUL DEATH LAWSUIT AGAINST MOAB POLICE OVER BRIAN LAUNDRIE 911 CALL

Bertolino said he was speaking on his own behalf and not for Chris or Roberta Laundrie.

"The Moab police, in my view, did not contribute to the death of Gabby Petito in any way," the New York-based attorney, who had represented Brian Laundrie before his death, told Fox News Digital. "My understanding of the Moab incident is that Gabby was the aggressor and admitted on camera to hitting Brian first."

Lawyers for Petito’s parents announced Monday a notice of claim for a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against the Moab Police Department and several employees involved in the call directly and indirectly.

GABBY PETITO'S MOTHER SLAMS BRIAN LAUNDRIE'S NOTEBOOK CONFESSION

"The Moab police report indicated that they could have arrested Gabby but chose not to and instead separated Brian and Gabby," Bertolino said. "A full five days after the Moab incident took place Brian flew home to Florida from Salt Lake City. During the time while Brian was in Florida, Gabby was communicating with her family and others while she waited in Salt Lake City for Brian to return."

Laundrie flew home to Florida for a week, then returned to Utah, where he and Petito continued their cross-country van-life road trip — but not for long. By the end of August, according to lawyers for Petito’s parents and the FBI, she had been beaten and choked to death at a campsite north of Jackson, Wyoming.

BRIAN LAUNDRIE FOUND: PARENTS MAY HAVE JUST MISSED UNCOVERING REMAINS THEMSELVES

"The intervening days and events from the Moab incident to the date of Gabby's death appear to be far enough removed from the reasonable actions of the officers on the scene," Bertolino said. "I see no legal liability, but maybe the city of Moab will settle the matter. So, best of luck to the Petito family in their quest to recover for their loss from another source."

An outside investigation into the Aug. 12 domestic violence incident between Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie in Moab, Utah, found "unintentional mistakes" — and issued a number of recommendations on how the department should move forward.

Moab has not provided Fox News Digital with any documents, comment or confirmation that any of these recommendations had been followed. A city spokesperson declined to comment Monday citing a policy on pending litigation.

The family alleges that Moab officers Eric Pratt and Daniel Robbins failed to properly handle a 911 call in which a witness claimed he saw Brian Laundrie hitting Petito and trying to steal her phone and drive off without her in the middle of downtown Moab. The court filing also indicates former Moab Police Chief Bret Edge and former Assistant Chief Braydon Palmer inadequately prepared and trained their officers.

"We believe that these officers were negligent, and their negligence contributed to Gabby’s death," Brian Stewart, an attorney for the Petito-Schmidt family, told reporters Monday, later adding, "They did not understand the law and did not apply the law properly in Gabby’s situation."

Bertolino has long maintained that he does not believe the Moab officers were wrong.

He told Fox News Digital after the independent investigator’s report into the incident was released on Jan. 12 that he believes the officers "did the best they could" and "did the right thing."

"To label every disagreement between couples a citable domestic violence incident is to criminalize human emotions and reactions that should be dealt with outside of the criminal code," he said. "In my opinion, the officers did the right thing by separating the two young adults."

If you or someone you know is the victim of domestic abuse, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233.

Los Angeles DA George Gascon announces charges for driver in fiery crash that killed 6

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 21:18:41 GMT

Los Angeles County DA George Gascon on Monday said the driver accused of causing a fiery crash that killed six people – including a pregnant woman – in Los Angeles last week has been charged with six counts of murder and five counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence.

The five counts are for five people who were killed. An unborn child could not be accounted for the manslaughter charge, Gascon said. She faces up to 90 years to life in prison if convicted.

The announcement came after Nicole Lorraine Linton, a 37-year-old nurse from Houston, was released from a hospital and taken to jail, according to custody records. It was not immediately clear whether she had an attorney who could comment on her behalf.

As of Sunday, Nicole Lorraine Linton was being held in lieu of $9 million bail at LA County's Century Regional Detention Facility, records show.

ANNE HECHE WON'T SPEND ‘ANY SIGNIFICANT TIME’ IN JAIL FOR FIERY CRASH, EXPERT SAYS

Thursday's crash killed Asherey Ryan, her 11-month-old son Alonzo Quintero and her boyfriend, Reynold Lester, Sha'seana Kerr said in a GoFundMe posting.

Lester's family told KABC-TV that the 24-year-old security guard was the father of Ryan's unborn child, who was listed as "baby boy Ryan" in online coroner's records.

Two other women were also killed but their names weren't made public as of Monday.

The California Highway Patrol said a Mercedes-Benz ran a red light at high speed and caused the crash involving as many as six cars near a gas station in unincorporated Windsor Hills about 10 miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles. Several victims were thrown from the cars and two vehicles caught fire.

CHP Officer Franco Pepi called it "one of the most horrific crashes that we've seen."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

California man arrested in death of 1-year-old boy found dead near train tracks

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 21:00:10 GMT

A California man was arrested last week on suspicion of murder after a 1-year-old he was babysitting was found dead near railroad tracks, police said.

The Mendocino Sheriff’s Office responded to a call on Wednesday from a concerned parent reporting her two missing boys – ages 1 and 2. She said she had left them in the care of Edward "Two Feathers" Steele at a hotel in Ukiah, a rural area north of San Francisco.

Deputies responded to the area to locate Steele and the two missing children. A few hours later, medical first responders found the 2-year-old boy near the railroad tracks suffering from heat-related symptoms. The boy was transferred to an area hospital for treatment.

Officials continued searching the area. Law enforcement personnel located the body of the 1-year-old child about a half-hour later.

NEBRASKA MURDER SUSPECT WHO IS ACCUSED OF KILLING FOUR PEOPLE HAS BAIL SET AT $5 MILLION

Steele, 32, was taken into custody Thursday. The woman who reported her children missing was later arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor domestic violence battery, according to the Sheriff's Office.

There was no immediate word on the cause of the child's death. The sheriff’s office said Steele is believed to have information concerning the two children before their discovery.

No further details have been released on the 2-year-old boy’s condition. It wasn't immediately clear whether Steele had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

Father and son convicted in Ahmaud Arbery killing get life in prison for federal hate crime charges

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 15:30:12 GMT

Two of the three White men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery in a Georgia neighborhood in 2020 were sentenced Monday to life in prison for committing federal hate crimes – just months after the three defendants received life in prison for state murder charges.

Travis McMichael, who killed Arbery with a shotgun after the street chase initiated by his father and joined by a neighbor, was the first of the three defendants to be sentenced on Monday, when he was ordered to spend life in prison. His father, Gregory McMichael, who initiated the neighborhood chase that ended with the Arbery's death, was later sentenced to life in prison for committing a federal hate crime.

U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood scheduled back-to-back hearings to individually sentence each of the defendants. The third defendant, 52-year-old William "Roddie" Bryan, was sentenced later on Monday to 35 years in prison for recording cellphone video of the slaying.

Arbery's killing on Feb. 23, 2020, became part of a larger national reckoning over racial injustice and killings of unarmed Black people including George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky. Those two cases also resulted in the Justice Department bringing federal charges.

AHMAUD ARBERY'S MOTHER FEELS ' COMPLETELY BETRAYED' BY DOJ'S HATE CRIMES PLEA DEAL

The McMichaels and Bryan faced possible life sentences after a jury convicted them in February of federal hate crimes, concluding that they violated Arbery's civil rights and targeted him because of his race. All three men were also found guilty of attempted kidnapping, and the McMichaels face additional penalties for using firearms to commit a violent crime.

A state Superior Court judge imposed life sentences for all three men in January for Arbery's murder, with both McMichaels denied any chance of parole. Federal life sentences "give you a backstop in the event that an appellate court decides there was some kind of error in the course of the state trial," said Michael Moore, an Atlanta lawyer and former U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Georgia.

MEN FOUND GUILTY IN ARBERY MURDER WILL GO TO FEDERAL COURT ON HATE CRIME CHARGES

All three defendants have remained jailed in coastal Glynn County, in the custody of U.S. marshals, while awaiting sentencing after their federal convictions in January.

Because they were first charged and convicted of murder in a state court, protocol would have them turned over to the Georgia Department of Corrections to serve their life terms in a state prison.

In court filings last week, both Travis and Greg McMichael asked the judge to instead divert them to a federal prison, saying they won’t be safe in a Georgia prison system that’s the subject of a U.S. Justice Department investigation focused on violence between inmates.

The McMichaels armed themselves with guns and jumped in a truck to chase Arbery after spotting him running past their home outside the port city of Brunswick on Feb. 23, 2020. Bryan joined the pursuit in his own truck, helping cut off Arbery's escape.

He also recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery at close range as Arbery threw punches and grabbed at the shotgun.

MEN FOUND GUILTY IN ARBERY MURDER WILL GO TO FEDERAL COURT ON HATE CRIME CHARGES

The McMichaels told police they suspected Arbery had been stealing from a nearby house under construction. But authorities later concluded he was unarmed and had committed no crimes. Arbery's family has long insisted he was merely out jogging.

The McMichaels and Bryan were arrested after the graphic video of the shooting leaked online and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case from local police.

During the February hate crimes trial, prosecutors fortified their case that Arbery's killing was motivated by racism by showing the jury roughly two dozen text messages and social media posts in which Travis McMichael and Bryan used racist slurs and made disparaging comments about Black people. A woman testified to hearing an angry rant from Greg McMichael in 2015 in which he said: "All those Blacks are nothing but trouble."

Defense attorneys for the three men argued the McMichaels and Bryan didn’t pursue Arbery because of his race but acted on an earnest — though erroneous — suspicion that Arbery had committed crimes in their neighborhood.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Mall of America shooting: Minnesota police arrest three; two suspects still at large

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 20:40:37 GMT

The Bloomington Police Department announced the arrests of three people, including Best Western employees, who allegedly helped two suspects escape the Mall of America following a shooting there on Thursday.

Denesh Raghubir, 21; Delyanie Kwen-Shawn Arnold, 23; and Selena Raghubir, 23, were charged with aiding an offender to avoid arrest.

The two suspects who were allegedly involved in the altercation before the shooting – 21-year-old Shamar Alon Lark and 23-year-old Rashad Jamal May – are still at large.

NORTH CAROLINA MALL SHOOTING: 3 INJURED IN GASTONIA, POLICE SAY

According to court documents obtained by Fox 9 Minneapolis, Lark and May got into a fight at the cash register of the Nike store with another group of people. They left the store briefly, but Lark allegedly returned with a handgun and fired three shots. No one was wounded by the gunfire.

The suspects fled the scene and were eventually picked up by a Best Western hotel shuttle at a nearby IKEA driven by Denesh Raghubir, the court filings say.

"[Denesh Raghubir] stated that when he dropped the two off at Best Western, [Selena Raghubir] immediately left the front desk and he did not see her for about 45 minutes," the court documents say.

Selena Raghubir's boyfriend, Delyanie Kwen-Shawn Arnold, then allegedly transported the two suspects to a residential area in Bloomington.

May was also in contact with Arnold by phone in the minutes after the shooting, according to the court documents.

UPSCALE DC-AREA MALL EVACUATED AFTER GUNFIRE ERUPTS, VIRGINIA POLICE SAY

Authorities later searched the homes of Arnold and Selena Raghubir, where they found clothing that the two shooting suspects were wearing on the day of the altercation.

"I don't know why they would help," Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges said at a press conference on Monday. "I know that they're all friends. But they're locked up and those two are running around right now, so that didn't really work out too well for them."

All three suspects are being held at the Hennepin County Adult Detention Center on a $75,000 bail.

A spokesperson for BWH Hotel Group said in a statement on Monday that the involved employees have been fired.

"Noting this hotel is independently owned and operated, we support the hotel’s decision to immediately terminate the employees who were allegedly involved in this terrible event," the spokesperson said. "The actions of these employees stand in stark contrast to our brand’s values and the sense of community that is at the heart of our hotel family."

Yaser Said 'honor killings' trial: Ex-FBI 'Top 10 Most Wanted' suspect accused of killing daughters testifies

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 20:31:32 GMT

One of the FBI’s former top 10 most-wanted suspects, who is facing a trial 12 years after allegedly carrying out "honor killings" against his two daughters in Texas, took the stand on Monday and told the court, "I did not kill my daughters."

Yaser Said, 65, testified with the help of a translator on Monday inside a Dallas courtroom, where the defense rested later in the day. Said is charged with capital murder, accused of killing 18-year-old Amina Said and 17-year-old Sarah Said on New Year’s Day in 2008. Yaser Said has entered a not guilty plea.

Said, who had worked as a taxi driver, faces an automatic life sentence if convicted.

The sisters were found shot to death in a taxi parked near a hotel in the Dallas suburb of Irving.

YASER SAID 'HONOR KILLINGS' TRIAL: DAUGHTER IN 911 CALL TELLS POLICE SHE'S 'DYING'

His testimony comes days after jurors heard a 911 call Sarah Said made from a cellphone, telling the operator that her father shot her and she was dying.

"Help," said a crying voice on the 911 recording, later determined by police to be that of Sarah Said. "I’m dying. Oh my God. Stop it."

SON OF YASER SAID, FBI 10 MOST-WANTED ‘HONOR KILLINGS’ SUSPECT, PLEADS GUILTY TO CONCEALING HIM

Said testified for less than two hours on Monday, when prosecutors tried to poke holes in his claims.

During cross-examination, prosecutors asked him if, as a taxi driver, he could understand and speak English. Through a translator, he answered yes.

Prosecutors also asked him why he would leave his daughters in his car if he feared he was being followed, as he had claimed. They also asked why he left his gun in his car if he was "scared."

Said responded that he believed the person following them was after him and not his daughters.

TRIAL OF TEXAS MAN ACCUSED OF MURDERING DAUGHTERS IN ‘HONOR KILLINGS’ FOR HAVING NON-MUSLIM BOYFRIENDS BEGINS

During his cross-examination, Said also testified that women in America are more protected than men; that women do not have the fear of calling police on a man; and that his ex-wife, Patricia Owens, who testified last week, lied when she said that he had threatened to kill her.

A jury is expected to hear closing arguments on Tuesday, and panelists will be sequestered for the duration of deliberations.

Owens testified Thursday that her ex-husband was abusive and controlling during their marriage. And when Owens was asked to identify her ex-husband in court, she pointed at Said and said, "That devil there."

MARYLAND MAN ACCUSED OF KILLING, DISMEMBERING DAUGHTER, YEARS AFTER ALLEGEDLY MURDERED SON AND FRIEND

A former police detective testified Thursday that the taxi in which the girls had been found had been lent to Yaser Said.

A week before the sisters were killed, they and their mother left their home in the Dallas suburb of Lewisville and went to Oklahoma to get away from Said. Both sisters’ boyfriends also joined the three.

Prosecutor Lauren Black said in opening statements that the sisters had become "very scared for their lives," and the decision to leave was made after Said "put a gun to Amina’s head and threatened to kill her," the prosecutor said.

Owens, who spoke softly and often hesitantly on the stand, testified that Said eventually convinced her to return to Texas. "I didn’t think anything would happen," she testified.

Black said during opening statements that Said was "obsessed with possession and control." Owens testified that when she married Said, she was 15 and he was 29. The evening the girls were killed, Said wanted to take just the two sisters to a restaurant.

A police report from after the girls’ death described that a family member told investigators that the suspect threatened "bodily harm″ against Sarah for going on a date with a non-Muslim. Owens fled with her daughters in the week before their deaths because she was in "great fear for her life." Gail Gattrell, the sisters’ great-aunt, has called the deaths an "honor killing," in which a woman is murdered by a relative to protect her family’s honor.

In a letter written to the judge overseeing the case, Said said he was not happy with his kids’ "dating activity" but denied killing his daughters. Defense attorney Joseph Patton said in opening statements that the evidence would not support a conviction and that police were too quick to focus on Said.

In a Dec. 21, 2007, email that was brought into evidence, Amina Said told one of her teachers that she and her sister planned to run away. She wrote that she and her sister didn’t want to live by the culture of their father, who was born in Egypt, nor did they want arranged marriages, as he planned. Her father, she wrote, had "made our lives a nightmare."

"He will, without any drama nor doubt, kill us," the email read.

Yaser Said, who had been sought on a capital murder warrant since the slayings, was placed on the FBI’s most-wanted list. He was finally arrested in August 2020 in Justin, about 35 miles northwest of Dallas. His son, Islam Said, and his brother, Yassim Said, were subsequently convicted of helping him evade arrest.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Oklahoma lawmakers raise questions about defendant's guilt in death penalty case

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 20:06:26 GMT

More than 60 Oklahoma lawmakers, including many Republicans who support the death penalty, urged the state attorney general to join their request for a new evidentiary hearing in the case of death row inmate Richard Glossip.

The group of 61 state legislators sent a letter last week to Attorney General John O’Connor following an independent investigation by a Texas law firm that raised questions about Glossip’s guilt.

"The report concluded that no reasonable juror who heard all the evidence would find Mr. Glossip guilty," the letter stated. "As elected officials representing the citizens of this great state, we believe it is vitally important to conduct a serious review of this case so that the truth might be conclusively found."

ATTORNEYS FOR OKLAHOMA DEATH ROW INMATE GLOSSIP FILE NEW AFFIDAVIT CLAIMING HE WAS FRAMED

The report by the Houston law firm Reed Smith did not find any definitive proof of Glossip's innocence, but raised concerns about lost or destroyed evidence and a detective in the case asking leading questions to Glossip's co-defendant, Justin Sneed, to implicate Glossip in the 1997 killing of Glossip's boss, motel owner Barry Van Treese. Sneed, who admitted killing Van Treese but said he did so at Glossip's direction, was sentenced to life in prison and was a key witness against Glossip.

OKLAHOMA DEATH ROW INMATE'S CASE TO BE REVIEWED BY OUTSIDE FIRM AFTER LAWMAKERS RAISE DOUBTS ABOUT HIS GUILT

O'Connor's office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, but prosecutors in his office have urged the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to reject Glossip's request for an evidentiary hearing, suggesting it's a delay tactic.

"The appellant's actions in this sense are dilatory and only prolong the wait for justice for the victim, Barry Van Treese, and his family in this case," the state wrote in response to Glossip's objection to setting an execution date.

DEATH ROW INMATE RICHARD GLOSSIP'S 4TH EXECUTION DATE SET AS LAWMAKERS SEEK NEW HEARING TO PROVE INNOCENCE

Glossip, now 59, has maintained his innocence and has been scheduled to be executed three separate times, only to be spared shortly before his death sentence was carried out. He was just hours from being executed in September 2015 when prison officials realized they had received the wrong lethal drug, a mix-up that led in part to a nearly seven-year moratorium on the death penalty in Oklahoma.

Kansas Jayhawks football looks for bounce back season as Lance Leipold enters his second season as head coach

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 19:44:15 GMT

Lance Leipold first walked into the head coach's office at Kansas, arguably the worst program in Division I football, amid terrible circumstances and during a time of the year that only made everything worse.

The Jayhawks were coming off a winless 2020 season under Les Miles, who had then resigned in ignominy amid a flurry of sexual harassment allegations dating to his time at LSU. The scandal also led to the departure of athletic director Jeff Long, leaving the entire program in turmoil during a crucial recruiting period and all the way into spring practices.

Leipold never even conducted a practice with the Jayhawks until the start of fall camp last year.

So even though they proceeded to win just two games in his debut, extending their streak of losing seasons to unlucky No. 13, the point at which Leipold is starting off this fall is a whole lot better than where he stood a year ago.

"There's so many things that are different for the better," Leipold said. "We've said many times, player know the coaches, know what to expect. We still have a fair amount of new guys going through their first practice, and there's uncertainty and wandering around — Where do I go next? — everyone is understanding and we're in a much better spot."

The long-time small-college coach pauses for a moment and thinks back to last season.

"Last year, two or three weeks into training camp we were still evaluating," Leipold recalled. "We have an idea now. We still may be evaluating, but we're developing at the same time. That's a good feeling."

The challenge now is turning development into success.

KANSAS AGAIN NO. 1 SEED FOR WIDE-OPEN BIG 12 TOURNAMENT

Six coaches have failed to produce a winning season since the Jayhawks went 8-5 under Mark Mangino in 2008, and none managed more than one conference win. That includes Charlie Weis, who arrived in Lawrence flashing Super Bowl rings, and Miles, who won a national championship with the Tigers.

The 58-year-old Leipold is about substance more than style, though, and that could be exactly what the Jayhawks need to climb the Big 12 standings. He cut his teeth at his alma mater, Wisconsin-Whitewater, going 109-6 and winning six national titles in eight seasons at the Division III school, then turned around a lowly Division I program at Buffalo.

Leipold accomplished all of that by being the antithesis of so many young, hotshot coaches across major college football whose success is largely tied to their ability to recruit five-star prospects. He is a football coach in the truest sense, rather than the CEO of a corporation, and hangs his battered cap on his ability to take good players and make them great.

He'd rather be on the practice field with his hand in the dirt than poring over spreadsheets in his office.

"There's expectations, you know? There's really no gray. There's black and white," said Kansas defensive end Sam Burt, who is on his third coach after starting his career with David Beaty. "You can see he knows what he's doing. The whole coaching staff knows what it's doing. And like I said, there's no gray. It's always like this or that, if that makes sense."

FINAL FOUR 2022: KANSAS OUTLASTS VILLANOVA TO MOVE INTO NATIONAL TITLE GAME

It makes perfect sense if you know Leipold's career arc.

He spent time at Doane, an NAIA school in Nebraska, and Nebraska-Omaha, whose football program no longer exists. And the two stints Leipold had at the Division I level were under two more consummate coaches: He was a graduate assistant to Wisconsin's Barry Alvarez in the early 1990s and worked with Frank Solich at Nebraska in the early 2000s.

"Where we're going, how we're doing it — that was Year 1," Leipold said. "Now I think this group has a determination about them in how they want to approach things and change the direction of this program."

There was unmistakable progress last season, highlighted by a dramatic overtime win at Texas, and a full recruiting cycle coupled with a productive spring program have only carried that momentum forward.

"It feels way different, just how we attack everything: the tempo, the pace, the excitement," Jayhawks safety Kenny Logan said. "We believe in what we’ve done this offseason. We don’t want to go through (another rebuild)."

Rather, the Jayhawks want to finish off this one.

That task continues Sept. 2, when they open their season against Tennessee Tech. Then comes back-to-back road games against Big 12 foe West Virginia and future conference rival Houston before another non-league game against Duke.

HUSBAND OF SLAIN EX-KANSAS WOMEN'S SOCCER PLAYER CHARGED WITH MURDER, SAYS GOD TOLD HIM TO DO IT: POLICE

Those four games should help to tell whether Leipold is on the right track.

"We’re not in the moral victory business and we understand that completely," Leipold said. "But we’re always looking at, whether it be individual improvement in certain things, how we’ve gone about our daily business and really how we’ve connected dots with our players about becoming better holistically, whether it be weight room or academically and better leadership, better teammates, that these things are going to stack upon themselves and help us on game day."

Chicago man out on probation charged in violent home invasion

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 19:55:55 GMT

A Chicago man out on probation for domestic battery charges was arrested Saturday for breaking into a residence where his ex-girlfriend was visiting, prosecutors said.

Adam Stone, 24, was charged with home invasion causing injury and three counts of criminal damage to property – all felonies, the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office said in a press release.

Police officers responded to a residential break-in at a home in Naperville – about 30 miles west of Chicago – around 4:12 a.m. on Saturday, the attorney’s office said.

The responding officers found several men holding down another man – later identified as Stone – outside the residence.

CHICAGO POLICE SEEK SUSPECT WHO PUSHED VICTIM OFF CTA PLATFORM

Investigators determined that Stone had broken into the residence because his ex-girlfriend was visiting. Once on the premise Stone broke a basement window and entered the home where he fought with the occupants and was forced outside, the attorney’s office said.

Stone also allegedly threw landscape bricks through the front window and two cars parked in front of the home, according to the attorney’s office.

At the time of these alleged offenses, Stone was out on probation after pleading guilty to aggravated domestic battery, DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert B. Berlin said.

"The fact that this crime was allegedly committed by an individual out on probation makes this breach of safety that much more concerning," Naperville Chief of Police Jason Arres said in a statement. "Thankfully, none of the victims were seriously injured during this incident.

DuPage Judge Leah Bendik granted the state’s motion to deny bail for Stone Sunday morning.

Stone’s next court appearance is scheduled for Friday in front of Judge Margaret O’Connell.

Nebraska murder suspect who is accused of killing four people has bail set at $5 million

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 19:52:06 GMT

A judge set bail at $5 million on Monday for a man suspected of killing four people and trying to burn down their homes in the small northeast Nebraska town of Laurel last week.

Court records show Cedar County Judge Douglas Luebe set bond at 10% of $5 million for 42-year-old Jason Jones, meaning he would have to put up $500,000 to be released from jail while he awaits trial.

"The defendant is considered an extreme danger to public safety," the judge wrote in his bond order.

NEBRASKA POLICE MAKE ARREST IN LAUREL FIRES THAT LEFT FOUR DEAD

Neither Nebraska State Patrol Col. John Bolduc nor a spokeswoman for CHI Health St. Elizabeth in Lincoln, where Jones is being treated for serious burns, would give Jones’ current medical condition on Monday.

Jones is charged with 10 felonies, including four counts of first-degree murder, two counts of arson and four weapons counts. Investigators have said Jones shot and killed his neighbor across the street, 53-year-old Michele Ebeling, early Thursday morning before setting her house on fire, then went three blocks south, broke into another home and fatally shot three people there: 86-year-old Gene Twiford; his wife, 85-year-old Janet Twiford; and their 55-year-old daughter, Dana Twiford.

NEBRASKA EXPLOSION, FIRES KILL 4, FOUL PLAY SUSPECTED

Jones also set fire to the Twiford home, police said.

During the investigation into the killings, the Nebraska State Patrol said they found a backpack and receipts belonging to Jones showing the purchase of a gas can and other items. A pistol registered to Jones was also found at the Twifords' home, the patrol said.

NEBRASKA FIRE CREWS HOPE FOR RAIN AS THEY CONTINUE TO BATTLE FIRES

Authorities have not commented on a possible motive for the killings, but charging documents allege Jones killed the Twifords while trying to carry out a burglary.

Laurel is a small city of about 1,000 that lies about 100 miles northwest of Omaha.