ReportWire

Tag: grand jury indictment

  • Authorities believe sheriff who inspired movie “Walking Tall” killed wife in 1967

    [ad_1]

    Authorities in Tennessee announced Friday that they believe a sheriff who inspired the movie “Walking Tall” is responsible for his wife’s death in 1967.During a news conference Friday, officials with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said there were “inconsistencies” in statements from Sheriff Buford Pusser following the 1967 murder of his wife, Pauline. “It’s been said that the dead can’t cry out for justice. It is the duty of the living to do so. In this case, that duty has been carried out 58 years later,” said District Attorney General Mark Davidson for the 25th Judicial District.Blood splatter patterns on the vehicle also contradicted statements from Buford Pusser, officials said.Buford Pusser reported that his wife volunteered to ride along in the dark early-morning hours of Aug. 12, 1967, on a disturbance call. He claimed that a car pulled alongside his and fired several shots, killing Pauline and injuring him in what he claimed was an ambush intended for him and carried out by unknown assailants.Buford Pusser recovered from his injury. No viable suspects were developed, and no charges were filed.After receiving a tip that an autopsy was never performed on Pauline Pusser, the TBI exhumed her body in February 2024. Davidson said the investigation revealed that Pauline Pusser was more than likely shot outside the vehicle and then placed inside the vehicle. Cranial trauma suffered by Pauline Pusser, depicted in crime scene photographs, does not match interior crime scene photographs from the vehicle.TBI officials also said the autopsy determined that Pauline Pusser had a nasal fracture before her death. Investigators now believe the physical evidence points to a staged crime scene and that Buford Pusser’s gunshot wound was likely self-inflicted.“There is probable cause to believe that Pauline’s death was not an accident, not an act of chance, but, based on the totality of the TBI investigative file, an act of intimate, deliberate violence,” Davidson said.Law enforcement officials said the discoveries would be sufficient to seek a grand jury indictment of Buford Pusser if he were alive today.Buford Pusser died in 1974 after a one-vehicle crash. He served as the sheriff of McNairy County, Tennessee, from 1964 to 1970 and was known for his crackdown on crime along the Mississippi-Tennessee state line.

    Authorities in Tennessee announced Friday that they believe a sheriff who inspired the movie “Walking Tall” is responsible for his wife’s death in 1967.

    During a news conference Friday, officials with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said there were “inconsistencies” in statements from Sheriff Buford Pusser following the 1967 murder of his wife, Pauline.

    “It’s been said that the dead can’t cry out for justice. It is the duty of the living to do so. In this case, that duty has been carried out 58 years later,” said District Attorney General Mark Davidson for the 25th Judicial District.

    Blood splatter patterns on the vehicle also contradicted statements from Buford Pusser, officials said.

    Buford Pusser reported that his wife volunteered to ride along in the dark early-morning hours of Aug. 12, 1967, on a disturbance call. He claimed that a car pulled alongside his and fired several shots, killing Pauline and injuring him in what he claimed was an ambush intended for him and carried out by unknown assailants.

    Buford Pusser recovered from his injury. No viable suspects were developed, and no charges were filed.

    After receiving a tip that an autopsy was never performed on Pauline Pusser, the TBI exhumed her body in February 2024.

    Davidson said the investigation revealed that Pauline Pusser was more than likely shot outside the vehicle and then placed inside the vehicle. Cranial trauma suffered by Pauline Pusser, depicted in crime scene photographs, does not match interior crime scene photographs from the vehicle.

    TBI officials also said the autopsy determined that Pauline Pusser had a nasal fracture before her death. Investigators now believe the physical evidence points to a staged crime scene and that Buford Pusser’s gunshot wound was likely self-inflicted.

    “There is probable cause to believe that Pauline’s death was not an accident, not an act of chance, but, based on the totality of the TBI investigative file, an act of intimate, deliberate violence,” Davidson said.

    Law enforcement officials said the discoveries would be sufficient to seek a grand jury indictment of Buford Pusser if he were alive today.

    Buford Pusser died in 1974 after a one-vehicle crash. He served as the sheriff of McNairy County, Tennessee, from 1964 to 1970 and was known for his crackdown on crime along the Mississippi-Tennessee state line.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Wyoming man indicted after allegedly showing off wounded wolf in bar before killing it

    [ad_1]

    A Wyoming man who allegedly hit a wolf with a snowmobile, taped the wounded animal’s mouth shut and showed it off in a rural bar before killing it has been indicted on an animal cruelty charge by a grand jury nearly a year and a half after the incident.Cody Roberts last year paid a $250 fine for illegal possession of wildlife but avoided more serious charges as investigators struggled to find cooperative witnesses. Wyoming law gives wide leeway for people to kill wolves and other predators by a variety of means in the vast majority of the state.Even so, the 12-person grand jury found enough evidence over the past two weeks to support the charge of felony animal cruelty, Sublette County Attorney Clayton Melinkovich said in a statement Wednesday.Melinkovich had no further comment on the case. Roberts has not commented on the case and did not have a listed working number, nor an attorney on file in state District Court who might comment on his behalf.If convicted, Roberts faces up to two years in prison and a $5,000 fine.Widely circulated photos showed a man identified as Roberts posing with the wolf, its mouth bound with tape, on Feb. 29, 2024, in a bar near Daniel, a town of about 150 people about 50 miles south of Jackson.Video clips showed the same animal lying on a floor, alive but barely moving.The light punishment against Roberts led to calls for a Wyoming tourism boycott, to little apparent effect. Yellowstone National Park had its second-busiest year on record in 2024, up more than 5% from 2023.Grand juries in Wyoming are rare. The last one to get significant attention, in 2019, found that a sheriff’s deputy did not commit involuntary manslaughter by killing an unarmed man after a traffic stop.Government-sponsored poisoning, trapping and bounty hunting all but wiped out wolves in the lower 48 states in the 19th and 20th centuries. Starting in the 1990s, a reintroduction program brought them back to Yellowstone and central Idaho, and their numbers have rebounded.Though wolves remain listed as a federally endangered or threatened species in most of the country, they have no such protection in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, where they can be hunted and trapped.Exceptions include Yellowstone and neighboring Grand Teton National Park, where hunting is prohibited and the wild canines are a major attraction for millions of tourists. In 85% percent of Wyoming, wolves are classified as predators and can be freely killed by virtually any means.The so-called predator zone includes Sublette County, where the wolf was killed. Groups including the Humane Society argued that Wyoming’s animal cruelty law could nonetheless apply there.

    CHEYENNE, Wyo. —

    A Wyoming man who allegedly hit a wolf with a snowmobile, taped the wounded animal’s mouth shut and showed it off in a rural bar before killing it has been indicted on an animal cruelty charge by a grand jury nearly a year and a half after the incident.

    Cody Roberts last year paid a $250 fine for illegal possession of wildlife but avoided more serious charges as investigators struggled to find cooperative witnesses. Wyoming law gives wide leeway for people to kill wolves and other predators by a variety of means in the vast majority of the state.

    Even so, the 12-person grand jury found enough evidence over the past two weeks to support the charge of felony animal cruelty, Sublette County Attorney Clayton Melinkovich said in a statement Wednesday.

    Melinkovich had no further comment on the case. Roberts has not commented on the case and did not have a listed working number, nor an attorney on file in state District Court who might comment on his behalf.

    If convicted, Roberts faces up to two years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

    Widely circulated photos showed a man identified as Roberts posing with the wolf, its mouth bound with tape, on Feb. 29, 2024, in a bar near Daniel, a town of about 150 people about 50 miles south of Jackson.

    Video clips showed the same animal lying on a floor, alive but barely moving.

    The light punishment against Roberts led to calls for a Wyoming tourism boycott, to little apparent effect. Yellowstone National Park had its second-busiest year on record in 2024, up more than 5% from 2023.

    Grand juries in Wyoming are rare. The last one to get significant attention, in 2019, found that a sheriff’s deputy did not commit involuntary manslaughter by killing an unarmed man after a traffic stop.

    Government-sponsored poisoning, trapping and bounty hunting all but wiped out wolves in the lower 48 states in the 19th and 20th centuries. Starting in the 1990s, a reintroduction program brought them back to Yellowstone and central Idaho, and their numbers have rebounded.

    Though wolves remain listed as a federally endangered or threatened species in most of the country, they have no such protection in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, where they can be hunted and trapped.

    Exceptions include Yellowstone and neighboring Grand Teton National Park, where hunting is prohibited and the wild canines are a major attraction for millions of tourists. In 85% percent of Wyoming, wolves are classified as predators and can be freely killed by virtually any means.

    The so-called predator zone includes Sublette County, where the wolf was killed. Groups including the Humane Society argued that Wyoming’s animal cruelty law could nonetheless apply there.

    [ad_2]

    Source link