List of All Articles with Tag 'crime'

A family of four and their three dogs were found shot dead in their home in a Chicago suburb – with the killer or killers now at large. The bodies of Alberto Rolon, Zoraida Bartolomei and their two children were found on Sunday after family members asked police to carry out a welfare check, Romeoville Police Deputy Chief Chris Burne said in a press conference on Monday. Police said that relatives had become concerned when one of the adults failed to turn up for work at 6am on Sunday morning and then didn’t respond to phone calls throughout the day. Officers carried out a welfare check at around 8.43pm at the family’s home on the residential 500 block of Concord Avenue in Romeoville. When police arrived at the home, the four family members were dead from gunshot wounds. Three dogs were also found shot dead inside the home. The names and ages of the children have not yet been released. In a statement, police said that the killings are believed to have happened between 9pm on Saturday evening and 5am on Sunday morning. Deputy Chief Burne said that investigators had ruled out a murder-suicide, with the perpetrator or perpetrator unknown at this time. “We do not believe the offender is among the victims,” he said during the press conference. “It is not a murder-suicide.” Despite concerns that the killer is out there, police said they do not feel the need to lock down the area. “Due to the timeframe that has gone by – more than 18 hours from the time we were contacted – we are not asking anybody to shelter in place, we are not actively looking for anybody in the area,” said Deputy Chief Burne. Currently, no further information about the killer is known, with locals voicing concerns that such a tragedy could unfold in what they thought was a peaceful residential area. Lynn Phillips, who lives one door down from the family’s home, told The Chicago Sun Times that it was “devastating”. “I’ve been crying on and off all day. It was a mom and dad and a couple of kids. The parents would be outside working the yard, and we’d wave hi and bye, that kind of thing. Nothing unusual. We all keep to ourselves,” the neighbour said. Cristina Ibarra, who has lived in the residential community for three years, told the paper that it is very unusual for police to even patrol the area because the streets are usually so quiet. “It’s sad because it’s your neighborhood and it’s usually quiet, and then this happens,” Ms Ibarra said. “It’s very sad.” Police said that the investigation is in the early stages, so further details will not yet be released due to the sensitivity of the case. Read More Former NFL player Sergio Brown missing; mother's body was found near suburban Chicago creek Owner of day care where toddler died of suspected fentanyl exposure dubbed ‘depraved’ in court hearing Delphi murders suspect makes bombshell claim that victims were ‘sacrificed’ by white nationalist cult

Police in Los Angeles are investigating after two aspiring models were found dead in apartment complexes just days apart. One of the deaths has already been ruled a murder, while the second is still under investigation. Police said it was too early to say if the cases are connected, according to ABC News. Maleesa Mooney, 31, was killed on 12 September. Police found her around 3.45pm PST by officers responding to a welfare check at her apartment. That death is being investigated as a homicide, according to the broadcaster, citing an LAPD spokesperson. “The investigation revealed that Maleesa Mooney had been murdered inside of her apartment. Maleesa Mooney’s exact cause of death is unknown, pending a post-mortem examination which will be conducted by the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office,” police said in a statement on 15 September. Nichole "Nikki" Coats, 32, was killed on 10 September. Her cause of death is "undetermined" at this point, but a homicide investigation may begin following the LA County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner report. Ms Mooney's family held a rally in LA on Sunday evening demanding justice for the woman's death. The woman's sister, Jourdin Pauline, told an ABC News affiliate that her family became concerned after multiple failed attempts to get in touch with her. "We're supposed to grow old together," Ms Pauline told KABC. "That's not supposed to happen to her." She described her sister as "kind," "genuine," and "loving." "To have someone do what they did to my sister, to that caliber, is sick. It's demented,” she said. The LAPD has asked that anyone with information regarding Ms Mooney's death come forward. Ms Coats' father, Guy Coats, told ABC News that he and his family are "distraught" after learning of her death. He said Ms Coats was an aspiring model who worked as a sale rep in her daytime hours. On 12 September, a cousin who had spent time with Ms Coats told Mr Coats that she couldn't get ahold of the woman. Ms Coats cousin had a key to her apartment and let herself in to see if she was home. She found Ms Coats unresponsive, and said when she touched her she "was like a rock." The cousin then called 911. Ms Coats family became suspicious that foul play led to the woman's death after learning that another aspiring model had been killed just days before, only three miles from her apartment. The family is currently awaiting the coroner's report. Read More Person detained in ‘ambush’ killing of LA sheriff’s deputy Police investigating murders of elderly couple find human remains Idaho murder victim’s father claims Bryan Kohberger is enjoying ‘unprecedented privileges’ in jail

The owner of a New York day care where a one-year-old boy died of fentanyl exposure was dubbed “depraved” during a court hearing. Youngster Nicholas Dominici died after he was exposed to the opioid at a Bronx facility on Friday, while three other young children were hospitalised. Daycare owner Grei Mendez, 36, and tenant Carlisto Acevedo Brito, 41, were arrested on charges including murder, manslaughter and assault. A kilo of fentanyl was found in a hallway closet outside Mr Brito’s room, which he rented from Ms Mendez for $200 a week, according to investigators. Prosecutors told a judge during a Sunday night arraignment hearing that Ms Mendez had taken part in the “reckless depraved act” by renting Mr Brito, her husband’s cousin, the room, reported ABC News. Her lawyer told the court that his client, who faces a sentence of life imprisonment if convicted, had no idea that drugs were being stored at the daycare. “Her only crime was renting her room to someone who had a kilo,” attorney Andres Aranda said. “There is no evidence that she did anything but care properly for these children.” Police say that drug production equipment was also found inside the daycare. Investigators believe that the children inhaled fentanyl particles during their daylong exposure to the drug before they were found unconscious and the alarm was raised. The judge said that Mr Brito, a national of the Dominican Republic in the country illegally, was a flight risk. He also said that Ms Mendez, who is not a US citizen and also has ties to the Dominican Republic, was a flight risk. Authorities are also looking to question Ms Mendez’s husband, who they say was captured on video fleeing the daycare with bags after the incident. “I love him, I miss him, I want him back – but there’s nothing that will give me back my son – when I came home from work and walked through the door, he’d say ‘daddy, daddy!’” Nicholas’s father, Otoniel Feliz, told ABC7. “My wife was on her way to the day care. She was going to pick him up early. Shortly before she arrives, she receives the call and also sees the ambulance.” Read More One-year-old child dead and three others hospitalised after daycare incident

A federal court jury in Oxford, Mississippi, has ruled against a civil lawsuit filed by the widow of a man who was shot dead in 2017 by two police officers, while serving a warrant at the wrong address. Claudia Linares was seeking $20m in compensation for the death of her husband Ismael Lopez, 41. During the four-day trial that concluded on Thursday 15 September, the jury ruled that Southaven officers, Zachary Durden and Samuel Maze, did not violate Lopez’s civil rights. “The verdict was that the jurors did not believe that the use of force used by Officers Durden and Maze was excessive in light of all the facts that they considered,” Murray Wells, the attorney for Lopez’s family, said in a statement to WREG-TV. The case had previously attracted attention because the city tried to argue that Lopez did not have any civil rights as he was living illegally in the US and was facing deportation and criminal charges for the illegal possession of firearms. However, in 2020, a judge rejected the city’s claim, and ruled that constitutional rights apply to “all persons.” The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation reported that on 14 July 2017, Lopez and his wife were in bed when officers knocked on their door with the intention of serving a domestic violence warrant to a person who actually lived across the street. According to Mr Durden and Mr Maze, the pair did not identify themselves, and when the door opened, Lopez’s dog ran out and he pointed a rifle through the door. Officer Maze then shot the dog and Mr Durden fired multiple bullets at Lopez. He died after a bullet hit the back of his skull when he was six feet from his front door. Police have claimed he was running away from law enforcement, and a third office later told investigators that Mr Durden had ordered Lopez to drop his rifle several times before shooting him. Lopez’s lawyers stated in their argument that his fingerprints and DNA were not found on the rifle supposedly used to fire at Mr Durden, but believe the officer shot him in reaction to his colleague shooting the dog. They also called upon evidence that state investigators found his body lying in a prone position with his hands cuffed behind his back. There is no video footage to corroborate either claim. “Those officers used tactical maneuvers to hide themselves as police officers,” Mr Wells told WREG. “There are a couple of huge factors at play. One was this unbelievable mistake of going to the wrong address and we felt it was just incompetent because they didn’t even take the time to look at the boxes. They went to the wrong side of the road, so that started this. They never announced that they were police and at the end of the day Ismael Lopez was shot through a door, in the back of the head,” he said. Darren Musselwhite, mayor of Southhaven, praised the jury’s decision: “This verdict proves what we’ve believed to be correct since day one as our officers responded appropriately considering the circumstance of being threatened with deadly force,” he said. “We’ve stood behind them during the last six years for this very reason and, for their sake, are glad this trial is over.” Read More Police officer who fatally shot motorist charged with murder Philadelphia officer to be fired over shooting death of Black man as new video contradicts police account A Utah man was killed during a police traffic stop. His family say they’ve been ‘stonewalled’ by authorities

A person has been detained in connection with the fatal shooting of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who was shot over the weekend in what authorities say was a targeted killing. Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer, 30, was on duty Saturday night and sitting in his patrol car at an intersection in Palmdale, California, when he was ambushed, Sheriff Robert Luna said in an earlier press conference. “He ambushed and killed — murdered — one of our deputies,” Mr Luna said, describing the suspect as a “public safety threat.” The sheriff announced on Twitter Monday morning that a person has been detained, but further details were not immediately available. A press conference is set for later today. Police said there was video that captured a vehicle described by Mr Luna as a 2006 to 2012 dark grey Toyota Corolla driving next to Clinkunbroomer’s patrol vehicle at the time of the 6pm shooting. The sheriff released photos, calling it a “vehicle of interest.” Mr Luna added that Clinkunbroomer had gotten engaged just four days before the incident. “He was just starting his life,” the sheriff said. The sheriff also released a statement on Facebook, writing that the “eight-year veteran of the LASD” was “senselessly murdered tonight.” “From everything I know about Ryan, people absolutely loved and adored him. He wasn’t just one of our Deputy Sheriffs. He was a third generation deputy. His father and grandfather served with us,” the statement read. “Service was running through his veins. He embodied the values of bravery, selflessness and was committed to justice. Our deputy was a devoted family member and a cherished community member. He was cowardly shot while working tirelessly to serve our community this evening,” the sheriff added. Read More LA sheriff’s deputy shot dead inside patrol car in targeted ‘ambush’ days after marriage proposal A Mississippi jury rules officers justified in fatal 2017 shooting after police went to wrong house Minnesota man acquitted of killing 3 people, wounding 2 others in case that turned alibi defense

The owner of the daycare centre in the Bronx where a one-year-old boy died and other children fell ill from suspected fentanyl exposure have been charged with murder. Divino Nino owner Grei Mendez De Ventura, 36, and his neighbour Carlisto Acevedo Brito, 41, were arrested on Saturday night. They are each facing 11 charges, including child endangerment and criminal possession of a controlled substance, according to The New York Post. Daycare staff called 911 after finding children unresponsive after their nap on Friday. A two-year-old boy is in critical condition, while another two-year-old boy and an eight-month-old girl are both in stable condition. The one-year-old boy was pronounced dead at the scene. A fourth child, another two-year-old boy, who was picked up from the daycare earlier in the day on Friday also appeared to have been exposed to drugs. He was taken to a hospital and is in stable condition, police said. All four children seemed to have been exposed to an opioid, officials said, according to the New York Times. These suspicions, police said, arose after assessing the hospitalised children’s symptoms in combination with the discovery of a “kilo press” found at the daycare centre. “This is an item that is commonly used by drug dealers when packaging large quantities of drugs,” police explained. Last Friday concluded the one-year-old’s first week at the daycare, according to the child’s father Otoniel Feliz. Mr Feliz told the Post that he initially thought his son was sick from carbon monoxide poisoning. “It was a peaceful place, it seemed like they would take good care [of the kids]. They always keep in contact with us. Everything seemed fine,” he said. “We expected that we were taking our son to a place where he would be taken care of, not to the funeral home,” Mr Feliz said. Read More Prescription opioid shipments declined sharply even as fatal overdoses increased, new data shows One-year-old child dead and three others hospitalised after daycare incident No charges against Maine authorities for death of handcuffed man who was hit in head with flashlight

A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy was shot and killed in his patrol while on duty in what officials described as a “targeted” attack. Ryan Clinkunbroomer, 30, was found shot on Saturday evening after a “good samaritan” reported an officer “unconscious” inside his vehicle outside the Palmdale sheriff’s station, Sheriff Robert Luna said during a news conference. The deputy was then transported to a local hospital and was treated for a gunshot wound but did not survive. The suspect has not been caught, the sheriff said. “He ambushed and killed — murdered — one of our deputies,” Mr Luna said, describing the suspect as a “public safety threat.” Sheriff Luna said although the investigation is in the early stages, the shooting is believed to be a “targeted act.” He speculated, “It could have been just the fact that he was representing the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department as one of our employees. We don’t know.” “He was just driving down the street and for no apparent reason — and we’re still looking into the specific reasons – somebody decided to shoot and murder him. I’m assuming at this point, because he was in uniform. “Our deputy was a devoted family member and a cherished community member. He was cowardly shot while working tirelessly to serve our community this evening.” Mr Luna added that Clinkunbroomer had gotten engaged just four days before the incident. “He was just starting his life,” the sheriff said. The sheriff also released a statement on Facebook, writing that the “eight-year veteran of the LASD” was “senselessly murdered tonight.” “From everything I know about Ryan, people absolutely loved and adored him. He wasn’t just one of our Deputy Sheriffs. He was a third generation deputy. His father and grandfather served with us,” the statement read. “Service was running through his veins. He embodied the values of bravery, selflessness and was committed to justice. Our deputy was a devoted family member and a cherished community member. He was cowardly shot while working tirelessly to serve our community this evening,” the sheriff added. Read More Man charged with attempted murder after boy, 14, stabbed in chest Mother who killed three young children before attempting to end her life is indicted on murder charges Alex Murdaugh trial latest: Prosecution finds ‘significant disputes’ in convicted murderer’s jury tampering claims

On 16 February, Porcha Woodruff was helping her children get ready for school when six Detroit police officers arrived at her door. They told her she was under arrest for a January carjacking and robbery. She was so shocked she wondered for a moment if she was being pranked. She was eight months into a difficult pregnancy and partway through a nursing school programme. She did little else besides study and take care of her kids. She certainly wasn’t out stealing cars at gunpoint, she said. “I’m like, ‘What,?’ I opened my door so he could see my stomach. ‘I’m eight months pregnant. You can see two vehicles in the driveway. Why would I carjack?’” she told The Independent. “‘You’ve gotta be wrong. You can’t have the right person.’” Her children cried as she asked officers if the suspect was pregnant and insisted they had mistakenly arrested her. She was put in handcuffs and taken to jail, where she had panic attacks and early contractions. She later learned police identified her as a suspect after running security footage through the department’s facial recognition software, relying on a 2015 mugshot from a past traffic arrest into a photo lineup where the carjacking victim singled out Ms Woodruff as her assailant. The Detroit Police Department eventually dropped the case, but the arrest has deeply shaken Ms Woodruff. “What happened to the questioning? What happened to me speaking to someone?” she said. “What happened to any of the initial steps that I thought were available to a person who was accused of doing something?” The case underscores the growing risks of civil rights violations as police departments and law enforcement agencies across the country increasingly adopt facial-recognition and other mass surveillance technologies, often used as an unreliable shortcut around methodical human police work. Criminal justice advocates and the people targeted by this burgeoning police tech argue these programmes are riddled with the same biases and opaque or nonexistent oversight measures plaguing policing at large. The early results, at least, haven’t been encouraging. At least six people around the US have been falsely arrested using facial ID technology. All of them are Black. These misfires haven’t stopped the technology from proliferating across the country. At least half of federal law enforcement agencies with officers and a quarter of state and local agencies are using it. “We have no idea how often facial recognition is getting it wrong,” Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP), told The Independent. “When you have facial recognition being used thousands of times, without any accountability for mistakes, it’s inviting injustice,” he added. Nowhere has that injustice been more pronounced than Detroit, a city where Black people have long experienced documented over-policing from law enforcement. Three of the six people mistakenly arrested by facial recognition technology have been in the Motor City, according to the ACLU. This status quo is why Ms Woodruff is suing DPD, claiming among other things that the agency has engaged in “a pattern of racial discrimination” against her and other Black residents “by using facial recognition technology practices proven to misidentify Black citizens at a higher rate than others in violation of the equal protection guaranteed by” the Michigan civil rights statutes. “I definitely believe that situation would’ve gone differently had it been another race, honestly, just my opinion. There was no remorse shown to me and I was pregnant. I pleaded,” she told The Independent. “Being mistaken for something as serious as that crime – carjacking and armed robbery – that could’ve put me in a whole different type of lifestyle,” she added. “I was in school for nursing. Felons cannot become nurses. I could’ve ended up in jail. That could have altered my life tremendously.” The Independent has requested comment from DPD. After Ms Woodruff filed her suit, Detroit police chief James White said in a press conference in August “poor investigative work” led to the false arrest, not facial recognition technology. He claimed that department software gave detectives numerous possible suspects and was only meant to be a “launch” point for further investigation. “What this is, is very, very poor investigative work that led to a number of inappropriate decisions being made along the lines of the investigation, and that’s something this team is committed to not only correcting, having accountability, having transparency with this community, and in building policy immediately to ensure regardless of the tool being used, this never happens,” Mr White said. He added that officers won’t be allowed to use images sourced by facial recognition in lineups, and warrants based on facial ID matches must be reviewed by two captains before being carried out. ‘The lead and the conclusion’ Some aren’t convinced these changes will prevent the excesses of what they see as a fundamentally flawed technology. “The technology is flawed. It’s inaccurate,” Philip Mayor, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Michigan, told The Independent. “Police repeatedly assured us that it’s being used only as an investigative lead, but what we see here in Detroit time and time again is it is both being used as the lead and the conclusion.” Studies suggest that facial-recognition algorithms, which have been used to capture suspects in high-profile cases like those connected to January 6, also fail to accurately identify Black people and women, driving up inequalities in arrests, because image-training datasets often lack full diversity. However, according to Mr Mayor, police departments make things even worse by failing to do basic training and common-sense investigative work on top of facial recognition tools. He represents Robert Williams, a Detroit man who was mistakenly arrested for a 2020 theft from a high-end Detroit boutique. A security contractor employed by the store worked with the city and state police and flagged Mr Williams’ name using facial recognition tools. How police came to trust that Williams was the right man reveals the sloppiness of how facial ID tech is used in practice, according to the ACLU attorney. After the theft, police searched a database containing both past photos of Mr Williams and his present-day driver’s license. ‘It picks out 486 people who are the most likely perpetrators; not a single one of them is his current driver’s license, even though his current driver’s license is in the database that was searched,’’ Mr Mayor said. “That seems like an obvious exculpatory fact, the kind of thing that would lead you to say if you were actually thinking, this isn’t the right guy.” When these dubious matches are then used to build a line-up, questionable police work attains the gloss of near-fact, and witnesses choose from a group of people who may have no credible tie to a crime that took place but still look something like the person who did. “This is not me,” Mr Williams told police during his investigation, according to The New York Times. “You think all Black men look alike?” The father of two, after asking a local police voluntarily stop using facial recognition technology, sued the DPD in 2021. “This technology is dangerous when it doesn’t work, which is what the cases in Detroit are about. It’s even more dangerous when it does work. It can be used to systematically surveillance when we come and go from every one of the places that are important in our private lives,” the ACLU attorney said. “I don’t think there’s any reason to believe that departments elsewhere right now are not making the same mistakes.” ‘A force multiplier for police racism’ Detroit isn’t the only place grappling with the impacts – and errors – of this technology. In Louisiana, the use of facial recognition technology led to a wrongful arrest of a Georgia man for a string of purse thefts. A man in Baltimore spent nine days in jail after police incorrectly identified him as a match to a suspect who assaulted a bus driver. The Baltimore Police Department ran nearly 800 facial recognition searches last year. Those cases and others have added to a growing list of misidentified suspects in a new era of racial profiling dragnets fuelled by tech that is rapidly outpacing police and lawmakers’ ability to fix it. Facial recognition software often is “a force multiplier for police racism,” worsening racial disparities and amplifying existing biases, according to Mr Cahn. It can spur a vicious cycle. Black and brown people are already arrested at disproportionate rates. These arrests mean they are more likely to enter a database of faces being analyzed and used for police investigations. Then, error-prone facial recognition technology is used to comb these databases, often failing to identify or distinguish between Black and brown people, particularly Black women. “So the algorithms are biased, but that’s just the start, not the end of the injustice,” Mr Cahn says. Such technologies, advocates warn, are embedded in wider mass surveillance programmes that often lack robust public oversight. In New York City, law enforcement agencies relied on facial recognition technology in at least 22,000 cases between 2016 and 2019, according to Amnesty International. New York City’s Police Department spent nearly $3bn growing its surveillance operations and adding new technology between 2007 and 2019, including roughly $400m for the Domain Awareness System, built in partnership with Microsoft to collect footage from tens of thousands of cameras throughout the city, according to an analysis from STOP and the Legal Aid Society. The NYPD has failed to comply with public disclosure requirements about what those contracts – from facial recognition software to drones and license plate readers – actually include, according to the report. Until 2020, that money was listed under “special expenses” in the police budget until passage of the Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology Act. The following year, more than $277m in budget items were listed under that special expenses programme, the report found. “We’ve seen just concerted pushback from police departments against the sort of oversight that every other type of government agency has because they don’t want to be held accountable,” according to Mr Cahn. “If we treated surveillance technology vendors the way we treated other technology vendors, it would be like Theranos – police would be arresting some of these vendors for fraud rather than giving them government contracts,” he added. “But there is no accountability.” On 7 August, 2020, New York City Police Department officers in riot gear launched a six-hour siege outside Derrick Ingram’s Hell’s Kitchen apartment. Mr Ingram – a racial justice organiser who is embroiled in a federal lawsuit against the NYPD – was surrounded by more than 50 officers after he allegedly shouted into an officer’s ear at a protest earlier that summer. Police insisted they had a warrant on assault charges, but couldn’t produce one when Mr Ingram asked them to, according to his suit. The whole encounter, in which the NYPD deployed snipers, drones, helicopters, and police dogs, began with facial recognition technology. “To say that I was terrified is an understatement – I was traumatized, I still am,” Mr Ingram later testified. “I fear deep down in my core that if I opened my door to those officers, my life would be swiftly taken.” To identify Mr Ingram as a potential suspect, NYPD relied on facial recognition software “as a limited investigative tool, comparing a still image from a surveillance video to a pool of lawfully possessed arrest photos,” according to a police statement, adding that “no one has ever been arrested solely on the basis of a computer match.” The software pulls from a massive internal database of mugshots to generate possible matches, according to the department. Civil rights groups and lawmakers criticized the department’s use of facial recognition – initially hailed as a tool to crack down on violence offenders – for being deployed to suppress dissent, and triggering a potentially lethal police encounter at Mr Ingram’s home. As for Ms Woodruff in Detroit, she hopes her experience can show the dangers of relying too heavily on facial recognition technology. “It may be a good tool to use, but you have to do the investigative part of using that, too,” she said. “It’s just like everything else. You have your pieces that you put together to complete a puzzle.” Her life would’ve been a whole lot different, she said, if “someone would’ve just taken the time to say, ‘OK, stop, we’re going to check this out, let me make a phone call.’” Read More Detroit police changing facial-recognition policy after pregnant woman says she was wrongly charged White House science adviser calls for more safeguards against artificial intelligence risks How a Drake concert put NYPD’s ‘arsenal’ of surveillance technologies under the spotlight

The state of Michigan has agreed to pay $1.03 million to a man who spent nearly 21 years in prison for the deaths of two hunters before the convictions were thrown out in February. Jeff Titus, 71, qualified for compensation under the state's wrongful conviction law, which pays $50,000 for every year behind bars. Records show Court of Claims Judge James Redford signed off on the deal on Aug. 23. “Our goal is to hold accountable those who are responsible for the harm done to Mr. Titus. The state's acknowledgment of his wrongful conviction is a start,” attorney Wolfgang Mueller said Friday. Titus had long declared his innocence in the fatal shootings of Doug Estes and Jim Bennett near his Kalamazoo County land in 1990. He was released from a life sentence earlier this year when authorities acknowledged that Titus’ trial lawyer in 2002 was never given a police file with details about another suspect. Thomas Dillon was an Ohio serial killer whose five victims between 1989 and 1992 were hunting, fishing or jogging. There is no dispute that the failure to produce the file violated Titus’ constitutional rights. In June, Kalamazoo County prosecutor Jeff Getting said Titus would not face another trial. “I don’t know who ultimately murdered Mr. Estes and Mr. Bennett,” said Getting, who wasn't involved in the 2002 trial. There was no physical evidence against Titus, who was portrayed at trial as a hothead who didn’t like trespassers. The Innocence Clinic at University of Michigan law school worked to exonerate him. Dillon died in prison in 2011. ___ Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwritez

Mexico extradited Ovidio Guzmán López, a son of former Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, to the United States on Friday to face drug trafficking charges, US attorney general Merrick Garland said in a statement. “This action is the most recent step in the Justice Department’s effort to attack every aspect of the cartel’s operations,” Mr Garland said. The Mexican government did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Mexican security forces captured Mr Guzmán López, alias “the Mouse,” in January in Culiacan, capital of Sinaloa state, the cartel’s namesake. Three years earlier, the government had tried to capture him, but aborted the operation after his cartel allies set off a wave of violence in Culiacan. January’s arrest set off similar violence that killed 30 people in Culiacan, including 10 military personnel. The army used Black Hawk helicopter gunships against the cartel’s truck-mounted .50-caliber machine guns. Cartel gunmen hit two military aircraft forcing them to land and sent gunmen to the city’s airport where military and civilian aircraft were hit by gunfire. The capture came just days before US president Joe Biden visited Mexico for bilateral talks followed by the North American Leaders’ Summit. On Friday, Mr Garland recognized the law enforcement and military members who had given their lives in the US and Mexico. "The Justice Department will continue to hold accountable those responsible for fueling the opioid epidemic that has devastated too many communities across the country.” In April, US prosecutors unsealed sprawling indictments against Mr Guzmán and his brothers, known collectively as the “Chapitos.” They laid out in detail how following their father’s extradition and eventual life sentence in the US, the brothers steered the cartel increasingly into synthetic drugs like methamphetamine and the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl. The indictment unsealed in Manhattan said their goal was to produce huge quantities of fentanyl and sell it at the lowest price. Fentanyl is so cheap to make that the cartel reaps immense profits even wholesaling the drug at 50 cents per pill, prosecutors said. The brothers denied the allegations in a letter. The Chapitos became known for grotesque violence that appeared to surpass any notions of restraint shown by earlier generations of cartel leaders. Fentanyl has become a top priority in the bilateral security relationship. But Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has denied assertions by the US government and his own military about fentanyl production in Mexico, instead describing the country as a transit point for precursors coming from China and bound for the US. López Obrador blames a deterioration of family values in the US for the high levels of drug addiction in that country. An estimated 109,680 overdose deaths occurred last year in the United States, according to numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 75,000 of those were linked to fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. Inexpensive fentanyl is increasingly cut into other drugs, often without the buyers’ knowledge. Read More El Chapo’s son, three Sinaloa cartel leaders and two Mexican firms sanctioned for bringing fentanyl into US Case details Sinaloa cartel's fentanyl-fueled evolution Mexican capo's arrest a gesture to US, not signal of change Big week for US-Mexico ties going into North American summit Drug lord, trafficker, killer of wedding singers: How the ‘New Mouse’ followed in the bloody footsteps of his father El Chapo

Prosecutors have responded to Alex Murdaugh’s allegations of jury tampering at his double murder trial stating that South Carolina investigators have found “significant factual disputes” with the claims. The South Carolina Attorney General’s Office filed the response on Friday moving to dismiss Murdaugh’s request for a new trial due to “procedural defect”. The filing, which came just under deadline on Friday afternoon, is the state’s first response to the allegations made in the defence’s bombshell motion last week. Murdaugh demanded a new trial after his legal team accused Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill of pressuring jurors to return a guilty verdict. Prosecutors also said that they want Murdaugh’s defence team to show that they did not know about the alleged jury tampering during the murder trial. Ms Hill has not commented publicly on the allegations. The response from the state on Friday comes a day after a smiling Murdaugh appeared publicly for the first time since he was sentenced to life in prison for the murders of his wife Maggie and son Paul, this time to face a string of financial fraud charges. At the status hearing in Beaufort County, Judge Clifton Newman set the trial date for 27 November. The case will focus on the millions of dollars he stole from the family of his dead housekeeper Gloria Satterfield, part of the 101 state charges in response to his alleged financial crimes. Two former friends and alleged co-conspirators in the case also appeared in court on Thursday, former Palmetto State Bank CEO Russell Laffitte and former attorney Cory Fleming, the latter sentenced to 10 years in prison. Read More Smiling Alex Murdaugh appears in court in shackles as trial date set in financial fraud case Alex Murdaugh’s demand for new trial over jury tampering claims awaiting response as deadline looms – live

A man has been charged with assault after he allegedly shoved a passenger onto subway tracks in Manhattan. Derrick Mills, 49, was arrested on Thursday in connection with the attack on 74-year-old Trevor Crawford. The assault, which New York City transit officials have described as “disgusting” and unprovoked, took place at the 68th Street-Hunter College station on the Upper East Side on Tuesday. Mr Mills allegedly shoved Mr Crawford off the downtown platform after making eye contact with him. The victim landed on his back and suffered a broken spine as well as five fractured ribs and pelvis. “He was so fast, he came around the other side, he opened his eyes wide. I wasn’t scared, I was just more nervous,” Mr Crawford recounted in an interview with PIX11. “[He yelled,] ‘Didn’t I tell you not to say anything to me?’” Following the attack, Mr Crawford was pulled from the tracks by an MTA employee. The suspect then fled before authorities arrived at the scene. Mr Crawford was returning home from work when the assault unfolded. He was transported to a hospital, where he was briefly treated in the intensive care unit. “I must worry because I work at night, but I never expected it to happen to me,” Mr Crawford told PIX11. “ ...anyone would be happy. There’s one less troublemaker on the street.” The incident was captured in surveillance footage that the NYPD released to the public. A person who recognised Mr Mills, who is reportedly homeless, tipped authorities. The NYPD had offered a reward of up to $3,500 for information that led to an arrest. He was then arrested near West 80th Street on Thursday night and has since confessed to the crime, the New York Post reports. “We’ve said over and over that if you commit a crime in the New York City subway system, your picture will be taken, the NYPD will find you, and we will press for maximum prosecution,” NYC Transit President Richard Davey said in a statement after the arrest. “This was a disgusting incident that understandably unsettled riders, and we appreciate the rapid arrest that was assisted by a New Yorker who saw a photo of the perpetrator that was taken by a station platform camera.” Read More NYPD release pictures of man and woman suspected of repeatedly stabbing subway passenger on train Citibank workers clash with climate activists outside New York office in protest over fossil fuel funding Rudy Giuliani goes on unhinged rant claiming Mike Pence’s wife leads him around on a leash