A shooting that erupted just before midnight Monday in Fort Worth, Texas, left at least three dead and eight others wounded, police said.
Ten of the victims are adults and one a minor, according to a news release from the Fort Worth Police Department’s homicide unit.
Officers discovered multiple people shot in a parking lot in the Horne Street area of the Como neighborhood, police said. Several victims were brought to local hospitals by private vehicles, while others were transported by ambulance, authorities said. One victim was pronounced dead at the scene.
“We had a shooting. It appears that we had multiple victims that were shot. Probably three of them were transported to Harris Southwest,” police Capt. Shawn Murray said during a news conference. “Five more victims were transported to John Peter Smith.”
It’s too early to tell if the shooting was gang related, a domestic dispute, or something else, police said.
There was a large crowd in the neighborhood when police responded, Murray said.
“Traditionally, the Como neighborhood, July 3 is their big celebration,” Murray said. “They have their parade, and July 3 in the evening, they gather up as a neighborhood and come together.”
Last year, a gunman opened fire on a July Fourth parade in Highland Park, Illinois, killing seven people between the ages of 8 to 85 and injuring dozens more. The ensuing manhunt paralyzed the Chicago area before a suspect was arrested later in the day.
The deadly gunfire in Fort Worth is one of at least six mass shootings in the first three days of July and one at least 341 mass shootings in the nation this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The archive, like CNN, defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more people are shot, not including the shooter.
Police are also investigating a mass shooting in Philadelphia they believe left five people dead and two children injured Monday evening. They have arrested a suspect who they say had a bulletproof vest, an AR-15 style rifle and a handgun.
A Florida lawyer who was accused of stealing from his family’s trust fund is now charged with murder in connection with his father’s death.
Brandon Labiner, 34, was charged Monday with first-degree murder with a firearm in the death of his father, attorney Paul Labiner. Boca Raton police found Labiner’s body in the building where his law firm operated, according to a press release from the Boca Raton police department. Brandon Labiner has not yet entered a plea, and his lawyer did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Brandon Labiner is seen in court on Monday.
According to a heavily redacted probable cause statement obtained by HuffPost, the elder Labiner, 68, was found Saturday in a pool of blood in the stairwell of the building’s parking garage. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police said that he sustained four gunshot wounds, one in his upper chest, two in his lower body, and one more in his head.
Video surveillance from inside the parking garage shows a man riding a bicycle, removing a gun from a drawstring backpack, and confronting the victim in a “scuffle” before leaving the frame, authorities said.
Police tracked down Brandon Labiner the following day. He was barricaded in a building about three miles from the crime scene.
Labiner, who had an active arrest warrant for DUI in a separate county, was taken into custody without incident after crisis negotiators spoke with his attorney.
During a search of his office, investigators found a drawstring backpack, a bicycle that matched the one in the surveillance footage, and a gun matching the one used to kill Paul Labiner, police said.
According to court documents filed with the Florida State Bar, Brandon Labiner was a personal injury attorney before his law license was suspended in April. He had in the past worked at his father’s law firm, and his father initiated the bar complaint, accusing him of misappropriating funds and altering documents.
Labiner is accused of stealing almost $450,000 from his family’s trust between June and August 2022 by allegedly forging bank documents to make it seem as though his father illegally transferred the money to the law firm’s account.
Paul Labiner also filed a lawsuit against his son over the alleged theft from the trust, according to WPTV.
Per WPTV, the 2022 suit alleged that Brandon Labiner had injured his father in a physical altercation at the law firm.
“Brandon’s poor work ethic and subpar performance as a plaintiff’s attorney caused the volume of cases to drastically dwindle to what Plaintiff believes is not more than a handful of viable cases,” the suit said.
Brandon Labiner appeared in court Monday. He was ordered to be held without bond and was told he could not have contact with the victim’s family, who are also his own family, WPTV reported.
Investigators in Baltimore are searching for multiple suspects in a mass shooting that turned a beloved annual neighborhood block party into chaos early Sunday, killing two people and injuring 28 others, most of whom were teens, officials said.
The search for the shooters – investigators believe at least two were involved in the incident – is ongoing, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott told CNN Monday, vowing,“We will not rest until we find those who cowardly decided to shoot up this block party and carry out acts of violence which we know will be illegal guns.”
Officials are combing through “every single lead, every minute, every second of footage, everything that we have to find out who decided to disrupt this peaceful event in this way,” Scott said on “CNN This Morning.”
The gunfire erupted early Sunday in the south Baltimore neighborhood of Brooklyn, where community members were enjoying a yearly celebration dubbed Brooklyn Day.
Aaliyah Gonzalez, 18, whose surname police initially spelled ending with an ‘s,’ and Kylis Fagbemi, 20, were fatally shot, the Baltimore Police Department announced.
The dozens of surviving victims all sustained gunshot wounds, according to acting Police Commissioner Richard Worley. Five of those injured were adults aged 20 or older and the remaining 23 were teenagers ranging in age from 13 to 19, police said.
Seven of the wounded remain in hospitals, with four in critical condition and three in stable condition, the mayor noted.
Investigators are scouring the sprawling crime scene – which spans several blocks – for evidence and are poring over hours of surveillance footage, the police commissioner said. Officials have also urged community members to come forward with any relevant information or video footage that may assist in the investigation.
A reward for information leading to the capture of the suspects has been raised to $28,000, Worley said at a news conference Monday.
Police began receiving calls reporting the shooting around 12:30 a.m. Sunday, according to Worley.
As officers arrived on the scene, they found an 18-year-old woman – later identified as Gonzalez – dead, police said. A 20-year-old identified as Fagbemi was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
An ice cream truck was parked directly across from where Gonzalez was shot and killed. The truck’s driver, Keith, who declined to give his last name, told CNN he watched her collapse on the stairs as hundreds of people ran for cover.
Keith said he told his children to lay down on the floor of the truck and wait for the rounds of shooting to stop.
“I walked over to [Gonzalez], checked her pulse, straightened her out, tried to start doing CPR but she was already dead,” he said.
Some who suffered gunshot injuries took shelter inside the ice cream truck. On Monday morning, blood was still on the ground near the truck’s parking spot.
Keith said he could not see where the gunshots were coming from. He said there were no disruptions at the block party before the shooting started.
He said his two daughters, 13 and 18 years old, are “fine but extremely stressed out.”
Investigators have yet to determine a motive in the attack and are still figuring out whether the victims were targeted or indiscriminately shot at, the police commissioner said. As officers canvassed the neighborhood during the day Sunday, K-9 units located additional shell casings that had not been found overnight, he said.
Staff at MedStar Harbor Hospital were expecting a routine overnight shift when they were met with the arrival of several patients with traumatic gunshot wounds, Dr. Hania Habeeb, associate chair of the emergency department, said at a news conference Monday.
Habeeb said the hospital received 19 patients within an hour, 14 of whom were teenagers. Many of the patients were minors, brought in by family and loved ones who were “appropriately concerned,” she said.
“We didn’t know if we were safe. We didn’t know if the shooter or shooters were right outside of our hospital doors,” Habeeb said.
The hospital went on immediate lockdown to ensure safety while staff performed lifesaving procedures to stabilize the victims. Habeeb added 10 patients were transferred to Baltimore trauma centers.
The attack marks one of the latest acts of gun violence to thrust an American community into grief as they gather in everyday spaces, including parks, schools, shopping malls and grocery stores.
“This was a reckless, cowardly act of violence that has taken two lives and altered many, many more,” Scott said. “This tragic incident is another glaring, unfortunate example of the deep issues of violence in Baltimore, in Maryland and this country and particularly gun violence and the access to illegal guns.”
Just three days into the month, it is one of five mass shootings in July and one of 340 mass shootings in the US in 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The archive, like CNN, defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more people are shot, not including the shooter.
“These weapons come from Virginia, they come from Texas, they come from Florida, they come from Alabama, they come from everywhere in this country,” Scott said.
“We have to deal with this issue of guns and the flow of illegal guns into the hands of people who should not have them at the national level,” he added.
The National Rifle Association sued Maryland Gov. Wes Moore after he signed the Gun Safety Act of 2023 and other gun safety measures into law in May, court documents show.
The block party was held as an annual celebration of the Brooklyn neighborhood. Scott called on the public to think of the shooting as if it happened in a rural community. “When it happens in Baltimore, Chicago or DC it doesn’t get that same attention,” he said.
“These Black American lives, children’s lives, matter just as anyone else,” he added.
Scott described the Brooklyn neighborhood as a working-class community filled with “immense pride.”
“It is a neighborhood that has had its troubles, but a neighborhood that has seen some folks in that community really determined to see it be successful and see things turn around,” he added.
There were “at least a couple hundred people” at the event Saturday, Worley said at Monday’s news conference, describing it as “unpermitted,” emphasizing no organizers had filed paperwork with the city.
Asked about whether police had been appropriately staffed for the event, Worley said the annual celebration happens on a different Saturday each year. In the past, law enforcement was able to discover the date of the event in advance to prepare resources.
But this year, police did not learn of the event until the day of, Worley said. “As far as I know, no one notified BPD that Brooklyn Day was happening on July 1st.”
“Unfortunately, we didn’t get there in time to prevent what happened.”
Mayor Scott said Sunday his office is mobilizing every available resource to assist with the investigation, including distributing information about community-based services available to residents in the Brooklyn Homes area, which he described as a public housing facility.
Yvonne Booker, a resident of Brooklyn Homes, told CNN affiliate WBAL she’s lived in the area for three decades and feels the gun violence has reached a breaking point.
“It’s kind of hard for me. I’m a mother. They need to stop. It’s too much. I’ve been to so many funerals in this community,” Booker said.
Baltimore Police officers are at the scene of an overnight “mass shooting incident” in South Baltimore, Baltimore Police Spokesperson Lindsey Eldridge said Sunday.
The incident happened in the 800 block of Gretna Avenue, Eldridge said.
It’s unclear how many people have been injured. A news conference is expected.
Prosecutors could seek the death penalty against a Mexican national charged with fatally shooting five people in a Texas home, after a grand jury indicted him for capital murder, the district attorney told CNN on Friday.
Francisco Oropesa, 38, was charged in May for the killings in the town of Cleveland in April. Police said he shot the people in the neighboring home after they asked him to stop firing his gun so close to their property because it was waking a baby.
Oropesa fled and was found days later hiding in a closet near the site of the killings, police said.
His bond was set in May at $7.5 million.
Friday’s indictment, on one count of capital murder, means prosecutors can seek the death penalty against Oropesa, but San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon said a decision has not been made.
“We have not decided whether we will seek the death penalty because the defense has not had an opportunity to present any mitigation evidence for the state to consider,” Dillon said. “We will be sure to give them an opportunity to do so before making that decision.”
The indictment was not available from the court clerk’s office.
Brian Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students, appeared on court Tuesday, just one day after prosecutors said they would be seeking the death penalty in the case. Jonathan Vigliotti has the latest developments in the case.
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Three San Antonio police officers were charged with murder on Friday, less than 24 hours after they fatally shot a woman during a police call, their chief announced.
Officer Eleazar Alejandro, 28; Sgt. Alfred Flores, 45; and Officer Nathaniel Villalobos, 27, are suspended from the force without pay as the investigation continues. All were released on $100,000 bond, Bexar County jail records show, and none has commented to CNN.
“The shooting officers’ actions were not consistent with SAPD policies and training, and they placed themselves in a situation where they used deadly force which was not reasonable given all the circumstances as we now understand them,” Chief William McManus said in a news conference Friday night.
Police were responding to a call that a woman later identified as Melissa Ann Perez, 46, was cutting wires to a fire alarm system at her apartment complex, McManus said.
“It appeared that Ms. Perez was having a mental health crisis,” said the chief.
After initially speaking with officers outside, Perez went back inside her apartment and locked the door, according to McManus.
Officers continued to talk to Perez through a rear patio window, urging her to come out, edited and blurred body camera video released by the police department shows.
“You ain’t got no warrant!” she says twice, according to the body camera video.
One officer tried to open the window, and McManus said Perez threw a glass candleholder at him, McManus said. She later swung a hammer at an officer but hit the window instead, breaking it, police said.
According to McManus, one officer opened fire, but Perez was not hit and could be heard still speaking on the body camera video.
But seconds later, Perez “advanced toward the window again while still holding the hammer, and all three officers opened fire,” McManus said.
More than a dozen shots are heard on the body camera video. Perez was struck at least twice, McManus said. Officers “attempted life-saving measures,” the arrest warrant said, but Perez died at the scene.
Although she was allegedly approaching the officers with a hammer when they opened fire, the arrest warrant said Perez “did not pose an imminent threat of serious bodily injury or death when she was shot because the defendants had a wall, a window blocked by a television, and a locked door between them.”
CNN has requested the unedited body camera videos in the case.
Perez’s children, who range in age from 9 to 24 years old, are have been struck with “incomprehensible grief” following their mothers’ death, the family’s attorney, Dan Packard, told CNN Monday.
“There’s no words to explain to a 9-year-old how three police officers all thought it was okay to gun this woman down in unison while she was in her own house behind a wall,” Packard said.
The San Antonio Police Officers’ Association expressed its condolences for Perez’s family in a statement Monday. Citing the active investigation, the association said it “cannot speak to the matter further until the investigation is complete and judicial process is underway.”
“Following the tragic incident, Chief McManus followed all necessary protocols. All three officers have been suspended indefinitely,” the police association said.
The swiftness of the charges against the officers reflects a trend as communities reckon with police accountability in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Five officers in Memphis, Tennessee, were quickly charged in the death of Tyre Nichols, in contrast to earlier cases, such as the police shooting of Jacob Blake, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in which officials decided not to charge the officer five months later.
Officer use of force also has been under scrutiny nationwide, especially against people facing mental health crises. The City of Rochester, New York, reached a settlement with the family of Daniel Prude, who died following an encounter with police. In Virginia, Irvo Otieno died after being pinned to the floor by security officers at a state mental health facility. And in California, Miles Hall was shot by police during what his family called a mental health episode.
Perez’ family is “heartbroken,” it said, and plans to file a lawsuit against the city, according to reports and information from family attorney, Dan Packard.
“We are not talking about a rogue officer who just lost his mind or got mad,” Packard said in an on-camera interview with CNN affiliate KENS 5. “We’re talking about three officers who thought it was OK to gun this woman down in her own house.”
“We believe that there are systemic problems in the department that allowed this to happen,” Packard added.
CNN has reached out to Packard for a copy of the suit, once it’s filed.
Packard told CNN Perez had schizophrenia and may have had prior interactions with police. The attorney said he’s not sure how easily accessible that information would have been to the officers who responded to her home last week.
“I think that’s an important component that (Perez’s family) are not angry people who are overly suspicious of the police, but this has shattered their trust in the police force and in the system,” Packard said.
Perez’s family has requested prayers as they grapple with her sudden death.
“They do not know how these children are going to cope and deal with this and so they take it one day at a time,” the attorney said. “We’re getting them the professional help that they need. But they’re asking for your prayers.”
The police department will conduct an internal review and turn it over to prosecutors once it is completed. Court records indicate their preliminary hearing is set for July 25.
CNN left messages with Alejandro and Villalobos requesting comment Saturday. CNN was unable to find contact information for Flores.
Latah County, Idaho, prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Bryan Kohberger, who is accused of killing four University of Idaho students at an off-campus home in the city of Moscow last fall, according to a court document filed Monday.
The filing says that the state “has not identified or been provided with any mitigating circumstances” to stop it from considering the death penalty.
“Consequently, considering all evidence currently known to the State, the State is compelled to file this notice of intent to seek the death penalty,” the filing states.
It will continue to “review additional information as it is received” and reserves the right to amend or withdraw the notice, according to the filing.
CNN has reached out to Kohberger’s attorneys for comment.
Kohberger faces four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary in the November 13 killings of students Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, at a home just outside the university’s main campus in Moscow. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf by an Idaho judge at a hearing in May.
The case captured the nation’s attention and left the community living in fear before Kohberger’s arrest.
The criminal justice student was arrested at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania almost seven weeks after the killings.
Federal jurors in the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial will soon decide whether to sentence the convicted gunman to death or life in prison – two potential avenues for justice that in the years since the deadliest antisemitic attack in US history have found varying levels of support in an otherwise unified community.
As expected, shooter Robert Bowers was found guilty this month of all 63 counts he faced stemming from the Sabbath morning massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue that left 11 worshipers dead as three congregations gathered to pray. Eleven counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death and 11 counts of use and discharge of a firearm to commit murder during a crime of violence were capital counts, making Bowers eligible for the death penalty.
The 50-year-old shooter’s attorneys never contested he committed the 2018 attack, and the case’s main focus is the issue now at hand: whether he is sentenced to death – still an option amid a federal moratorium on carrying out executions – or life in prison without the possibility of parole. For a death sentence to be handed down, the jury must be unanimous.
But even in a community united – not only its grief but in its hope justice will be done – unanimity around the death penalty is elusive: In the years since the massacre, the victims’ families and congregations have expressed differing views about whether the shooter should be put to death. Some are convinced so egregious an attack warrants capital punishment, while others fear a death sentence could retraumatize their community or a life sentence would better honor the victims, they’ve said.
The divergence reflects a broader national split on capital punishment. Recent high-profile cases, too, have shown juries don’t always send mass killers to death row, with the gunman who killed 17 people at a Parkland, Florida, high school and the terrorist who killed eight on a New York City bike path sentenced to life in prison after their juries declined to unanimously opt for death.
Most of the families of those killed at the Pittsburgh synagogue want the shooter sentenced to die, according to a letter to the editor of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle published in November and signed by seven of the nine families whose relatives were murdered.
“We are not a ruthless, uncompassionate people; we, as a persecuted people, understand when there is a time for compassion and when there is a time to stand up and say enough is enough – such violent hatred will not be tolerated on this earth,” reads the letter written to counter unspecified opinion pieces opposing the US Justice Department’s decision to seek a death sentence.
“Please don’t tell us how we should feel, what is best for us, what will comfort us and what will bring closure for the victims’ families. You can not and will not speak for us,” it reads. “The massacre of our loved ones was a clear violation of American law – mass murder of Jews for simply being Jewish and practicing Judaism, driven by sheer antisemitism – which the law rightfully deems is a capital offense.”
Others have offered a different view. The targeted Dor Hadash Congregation previously voiced its opposition to the death penalty in this case, as did the rabbi of New Light Congregation, who narrowly escaped the shooting in which his faith community lost three worshipers. CNN reached out to Rabbi Jonathan Perlman for comment on his prior position.
“I would like the Pittsburgh killer to be incarcerated for the rest of his life without parole,” Perlman wrote in an August 2019 letter to then-Attorney General William Barr before the decision to seek a death sentence was made. “He should meditate on whether taking action on some white separatist fantasy against the Jewish people was really worth it. Let him live with it forever.”
Perlman’s focus, he wrote, was “not letting this thug cause my community any further pain.”
“We are still attending to our wounds, both physical and emotional, and I don’t want to see them reopened any more. Many of us are healing but many of us (have) been re-traumatized multiple times,” Perlman said. “A drawn out and difficult death penalty trial would be a disaster with witnesses and attorneys dredging up horrifying drama and giving this killer the media attention he does not deserve.”
While the Torah “unambiguously” allows for capital punishment, rabbis in the first and second centuries were hesitant to support its implementation, said David Kraemer, professor of Talmud and rabbinics at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
They feared the flaws of a human court system out of concern innocents could be inadvertently punished, he told CNN. Those rabbis believed it best to err on the side of letting a guilty person go free in part because they believed the guilty would receive an appropriate punishment after death.
“I think the reason they were comfortable with that is because they believed that there was a divine court,” Kraemer said, “that would correct the error that the human court may have made.”
The Justice Department under Barr, an appointee of Republican President Donald Trump, initially chose to try the Pittsburgh shooting as a capital case, even as the US government at that time had not executed a federal death row inmate in almost 20 years. That changed in the Trump administration’s waning days, when 13 federal inmates were put to death over six months ending in January 2021.
The Dor Hadash Congregation lamented the Barr-era decision, writing afterward in late August 2019 it was “saddened and disappointed” the agency chose to push forward with a capital case, despite a letter the congregation said it had sent that same month asking both sides to agree to a plea deal giving the gunman life in prison without parole.
“A deal would have honored the memory of Dor Hadash congregant Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, who was firmly and unequivocally opposed to the death penalty,” its statement read. “It would have prevented the attacker from getting the attention and publicity that will inevitably come with a trial, and eliminated any possibility of further trauma that could result from a trial and protracted appeals.”
The congregation did not feel commenting on the death penalty was appropriate now that the trial has moved on from the guilt phase, its spokesperson told CNN. “We remain very grateful to the Department of Justice and the US Attorney’s office for their work in this matter over the course of the past 4 1/2 years,” Pamina Ewing of Dor Hadash said.
Then in July 2021 – a day after he issued a moratorium on federal executions – Democratic President Joe Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland was sent a letter from seven of the nine families of those slain in the Pittsburgh synagogue attack, urging him to continue to pursue a death sentence in the case, according to Diane and Michele Rosenthal, the sisters of victims David and Cecil Rosenthal.
The letter said the “vast majority of the immediate victim-family members” had not wavered in their desire for the death penalty. “As such, we respectfully beseech you to uphold the prior DOJ decision on the death-penalty qualification of this Capital Murder case and permit it to proceed as originally decided.”
The letter aimed to “reflect … our support in seeking the death penalty in this particular tragedy,” the sisters told reporters in April, weeks before the trial began. They spoke only for their own family, they said, adding the other signatories had agreed to let them share the letter.
The Justice Department under Garland is prosecuting the case, making it the second federal death penalty trial in the era of Biden, who’d campaigned on a promise to abolish the punishment at the federal level but has taken few substantive steps toward doing so.
Since his appointment two years ago, Garland has not authorized the department to seek the death penalty in any new cases, a Justice Department spokesman said, and he continues to assess new requests for authorization to seek or withdraw the death penalty on a case-by-case basis, consistent with federal law and the Justice Manual.
Americans overall remain divided nearly down the middle on the death penalty, as they have been for years following precipitous drops in support for it over recent decades. About 55% of Americans say they are in favor of the death penalty for convicted murderers, a split that’s been relatively unchanged for at least six consecutive years, polling from Gallup shows.
And like in Pittsburgh – where community members have supported each other before the trial and during it – victims of violent crime and their families are no monolith. While some express opposition to capital punishment, others look to it for some semblance of closure or justice.
The Pittsburgh synagogue “massacre was not just a mass murder of innocent citizens during the service in a house of worship. It was an antisemitic hate crime,” Diane Rosenthal said in April. “The death penalty must apply to vindicate justice and to offer some measure of deterrence from horrific hate crimes happening again and again.”
“We don’t want to be here,” she said, “and we know the emotional toll this trial potentially brings. But we owe it to our brothers, Cecil and David.”
Added Michele Rosenthal: “The suggestions published or reported that family members be relieved of the stress of a trial or that a cost-benefit analysis dictates a plea are offensive to our family,” she said. “Our family has suffered long and hard over the last four and a half years. … We don’t want to have to continue to defend ourselves and our position.
“We want justice.”
Beyond the families, many simply are bracing for the Pittsburgh synagogue trial’s penalty phase and how it may impact those touched by the wider ripples of the attack. After the gunman’s conviction, the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh opted to “take no position on what justice is,” its president and CEO told reporters.
“We trust the justice process,” Brian Schreiber said.
Whatever comes of the penalty phase, it will be “gut wrenching,” and “reopen wounds,” said Jeff Finkelstein, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.
“They keep getting reopened for us here in our Pittsburgh community,” he said, “not just the Jewish community but this greater Pittsburgh region.”
Lori Slesinski went missing in June 2006. Friends, family and investigators say details about her dog Peanut led them to a suspect with a criminal past.
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A young woman vanishes. The prime suspect has a criminal past — he murdered his parents when he was a child. Did he kill again? “48 Hours” correspondent Peter Van Sant reports.
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Lori Ann Slesinski was a recent Auburn University graduate who vanished in 2006 when she was supposed to show up at her best friend’s home to watch a movie. Her disappearance remained a mystery until this year, when another friend, Rick Ennis, went on trial for her murder. As “48 Hours” correspondent Peter Van Sant reports, this wasn’t the first time Ennis was accused of an unspeakable crime.
Lindsay Braun: I can still see her smile. Her smile is just etched in my memory.
To this day, Lindsay Braun is haunted by the final call from Lori Slesinski on June 10, 2006, when they were supposed to get together for drinks and a movie.
Surveillance video shows Lori Ann Slesinski shopping in an Alabama Walmart on June 10, 2006. “She called me around 6:30 p.m. and said, ‘I’m going to stop by the store, pick up the drink mixes and then I’ll be headed to your house,’” said friend Lindsay Braun. Lori never arrived.
Lee County Court
Peter Van Sant: That last call — Did it indicate it was her phone?
Lindsay Braun: Yes …
Peter Van Sant: She calls, and it hangs up?
Lindsay Braun: Yes.
Peter Van Sant: And no one’s there?
Lindsay Braun: Just no one was there. It was just dead end.
Peter Van Sant: Did you call her right back?
Lindsay Braun: I did. No answer.
Lori Ann Slesinski with her beloved Peanut. Slesinski had recently graduated from college when she disappeared.
Arlene Slesinski
Lori Sleskinski and Braun became fast friends when they met junior year at Auburn University in 2002.
Lindsay Braun: I … remember the day I met her. … we just kind of immediately clicked … But I could just tell that she was a warm person … very friendly, just outgoing, loving, all those good things.
Lori’s family — her older brother, Paul, and their parents, Arlene and Casey— were actually from New York State. They headed south to rural Alabama farm country when Lori was 13 years old.
Arlene Slesinski: She loved animals. We always had animals in our house … very studious student. She was a good girl.
When she enrolled in nearby Auburn University, her parents bought Lori a mobile home to live off-campus, in a manicured trailer park popular with students.
Peter Van Sant: So, from valedictorian of her high school class … was it tough for you … to see your baby girl leave the house … and head off to university?
Arlene Slesinski: Oh yeah, it was very tough … I called her every day. And … she’s like, “mom, this has got to stop.” … and I was like, “but you’re my baby and … I worry about you.” “Don’t worry about me, I’m fine.”
Lori majored in psychology and minored in criminal justice. She graduated with honors.
Peter Van Sant (looking at photo): There she is with mom and dad…she looks so happy there.
Arlene Slesinski: She was. … She was over the moon happy.
After graduation, Lori and Braun started working together at a local mental health facility.
Peter Van Sant: Did you sense… that she had any enemy in this world?
Lindsay Braun: No.
Peter Van Sant: … the day that Lori disappeared … June 10, 2006 … was anyone with Lori that day?
Lindsay Braun: Rick was at her house.
Lindsay Braun says she could hear another friend of Lori’s in the background of their last call – Rick Ennis. But at the time, she didn’t think much of it. “They were friends,” Braun said. “So, I wasn’t concerned.”
Alana Atkinson
Rick was Derrill Richard Ennis.
Lindsay Braun: When I had spoken to her, he was in the background.
Lori got to know Ennis back when she was still a student. She hung out at the local bowling alley where he worked.
Lindsay Braun: I didn’t know much about him at all except … he was her friend.
Arlene says just before Christmas in 2005, Lori asked if Ennis could join them.
Arlene Slesinski: She asked me, she said, “mom, he has no family. Can I invite him?” She kind of, you know, felt bad that he was going to spend Christmas alone. … He was friendly, um … He was very polite.
Braun says Lori often spent time with Ennis, so she wasn’t surprised that he had been at Lori’s home the day she disappeared.
Lindsay Braun: They were friends so. … I wasn’t concerned.
Peter Van Sant: But now you’re at home —
Lindsay Braun: Yes.
Peter Van Sant: — waiting for Lori to come over.
Lindsay Braun: Yes.
Peter Van Sant: And you went to bed that night thinking?
Lindsay Braun: You know, I hope she’s OK.
But the next morning, Braun started to worry.
Lindsay Braun: I called her house several times … left voicemails on her home answering machine. … “Hey Lori, checking on you. Are you OK? Where are you?”
Peter Van Sant: You went to work on that Monday, right?
Lindsay Braun: Yeah. … She wasn’t there … In my mind something’s wrong … I had Rick’s number … so I did text him, and asked … “have you seen Lori? Where is she? I’m worried about her.” … Um, his conversation back was, “no, I haven’t. … and I’m worried now, too …
When Lori didn’t show up at work a second day, that’s when Braun headed to Lori’s home.
Lindsay Braun: No one answered.
And found her dog Peanut in his crate.
Lindsay Braun: I’m an animal lover so … the very first thing I did was let the dog out.
That’s when she noticed something else strange. Lori was missing three days, but the crate was spotless, and Peanut seemed happy and appeared to be well-fed, as though someone had taken care of him. And there was more.
Lindsay Braun: One thing I remember about Peanut is he wouldn’t walk on tile, so she had these rugs in her kitchen and he would hop on the rugs … and the rugs were gone. I noticed that immediately … her outside trashcan was missing … she had one that she had like yard tools in …
Lindsay Braun: And … the answering machine had actually been unplugged … so those messages were not there.
By this time Lori’s mother heard that she hadn’t been showing up at work.
Arlene Slesinski: I have got to go to Auburn and see what’s going on, where she is ’cause I called her, and she didn’t answer her phone.
She headed off on an agonizing drive, calling her husband, and alerting the police, finally arriving at her daughter’s home.
Peter Van Sant: And when the police got there … what was their attitude?
Arlene Slesinski: Well, you know. They’re like she’s got to be missing 48 hours. … And they didn’t really think a big— make a big deal out of it.
Lindsay Braun: … they wanted to just think she ran away.
Lori’s parents could only wait for Lori to walk through the door, or call. Finally, the phone rang late that afternoon, but Arlene says it wasn’t Lori — it was her friend, Rick Ennis.
“My daughter was a very good person, a kind person, a loving girl. … A very studious student,” Arlene Slesinski said of her daughter. “She loved sports, loved her dog. She had a little Yorkie named Peanut. That was her baby.
CBS News
Arlene Slesinski: … he said that Lori had gone to make a big drug deal.
Peter Van Sant: What?
Arlene Slesinski: Yeah … and I was like, there ain’t no way … My daughter would not do anything like that.
Peter Van Sant: Did you tell the police what he told you?
Arlene Slesinski: I didn’t. Rick told them. … And the police came to the trailer … banging on the door … and they raided the … mobile home and they found nothing.
Four days after she disappeared, Lori Ann Slesinski’s car suddenly exploded into a fireball on a desolate cul-de-sac outside a construction site, not far from her home. Lori was not in the torched car, police said.
Lee County Court
Then, just before dawn, that’s when Lori Slesinski’s missing car suddenly exploded into a fireball on a desolate dead-end outside a construction site.
Arlene Slesinski: The feelings were just unbelievable of fear and knowing something really bad has happened.
Peter Van Sant: Who would set her car on fire?
Arlene Slesinski: Exactly.
Peter Van Sant: And why?
Arlene Slesinski: (emotional)
The investigation shifted from a missing person to a possible homicide. Investigators dug into Ennis’ tip about Lori dealing drugs but found no evidence — none — that he was telling the truth.
Now investigators started digging deeper into Rick Ennis. They wanted to know if he was hiding something from them.
Peter Van Sant: Did you have any sense as to why Rick Ennis didn’t have a family?
Arlene Slesinski: No. I had no idea why at all.
Peter Van Sant: Eventually, you learned.
Arlene Slesinski: I did. … It’s beyond shocking.
DID RICK ENNIS HAVE A SECRET?
Peter Van Sant (inside Lori Slesinski’s trailer): And do you go into that trailer from time to time just to connect with her?
Arlene Slesinski: I do. … Just go in there and think about the happier times.
Peter Van Sant: This room … besides the memories, is also a solemn place because you believe some horrors went on in this room, correct?
Arlene Slesinski: Yes.
In the early days of the investigation back in 2006, Arlene Slesinski says she became suspicious of Rick Ennis when he told her that the night Lori disappeared, she had gone out to make a drug deal.
Peter Van Sant: And why would he be doing that do you think?
Arlene Slesinski: I think to take the heat off of him. … I was thinking, “this guy is lying through his teeth.”
Police suspected the same. But without direct evidence linking Ennis to Lori’s disappearance, police could not make an arrest, and the case quickly went cold.
Peter Van Sant: Did Rick Ennis stick around town?
Agent Mark Whitaker | Alabama SBI: He was there for a couple of days. But within a — a week, after his third interview, he left town; never came back to Auburn again.
In 2016, 10 years after Lori disappeared, Mark Whitaker, a special agent with the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation, started a cold case unit. He chose the disappearance of Lori Slesinski as his first case.
Peter Van Sant: Any estimate how many murder cases you’ve been involved with in your career?
Mark Whitaker: Probably about a hundred.
Peter Van Sant: Where does this one rank in terms of fascination for you as an investigator?
Mark Whitaker: It’s number one.
Mark Whitaker: It was a very difficult case. … because there was no body. … we don’t know exactly what happened. And — we don’t know where she is.
But it didn’t take long for Rick Ennis to become Whitaker’s prime suspect.
Mark Whitaker: We couldn’t eliminate him. His inconsistencies in his statements made no sense whatsoever. We knew Lori was not a drug dealer. … I mean, she vanished off the face of the Earth when he’s the last one to ever see her.
And when police spoke to Ennis hours after Lori was reported missing, they noticed scratches on his hands and arms.
Mark Whitaker: (points at evidence photos of Ennis’ scratches): Right here, that is a thumb print where somebody’s digging in … she’s fighting for her life and doing everything she can to get away from him.
In Ennis’ car, there were handcuffs, a knife, and cleaning supplies. And they soon learned something startling about Rick’s past.
Former Alabama State Trooper John Clark.
John Clark (in car with Peter Van Sant): Turned into one of the most bizarre cases I’ve ever been associated with.
John Clark: I was patrolling this county when I got a call.
It was March 5, 1993. The call from dispatch said a car had gone off a highway and struck a fence.
John Clark: And as my headlights take in the curve, I see it looks like a young boy with a backpack.
It’s a 12-year-old Rick Ennis. And he admits he had been driving the car. Clark searches his backpack.
John Clark: The first thing I pull out is a kitchen knife …. There’s … some 12-gauge and some 22-caliber loose ammunition in the bottom of the bag.
In 1993, when he was 12 years old, Rick Ennis murdered his parents.
Alana Atkinson
John Clark: … he’s sittin’ back there in that seat behind you. And I said, “Where are your parents?” … He looks right back at me and he says, “I killed them both.”
Peter Van Sant: “I killed ’em both.”
John Clark: “I killed ’em both.” No tears, no emotion, nothing.
Clark then radioed for local police to get over to Ennis’s home.
At the time, a show called “MPD: The Television Series” was following the officers:
COP: State troopers workin’ a wreck involvin’ a 12-year-old —
COP (as officers approach trailer): The boy’s telling them that they killed his daddy and mama in here.”
Cameras enter the home of Rick’s mother and stepfather. On the floor of a bedroom are two dead bodies.
COP: There is pieces of a baseball bat in the bedroom that has quite a bit of blood on it.
COP: There’s blood on the walls, blood spatters on the door.
Rick’s own mother, Dolly Flowers, was shot in the face and then beaten to death with a baseball bat. Rick told investigators he covered her face with a velvet blanket, and placed a rose on her chest.
Eddie Joe and Dolly Flowers.
Angela Flowers
Rick Ennis’ stepfather, Eddie Joe Flowers, was known as Elvis for his sideburns and colorful personality. Rick shot him in the face using a shotgun. Ennis told cops he was mad that his parents planned to move. He said he didn’t want to leave his school. For two days, investigators believe he lived with their bodies, while continuing to go to school.
Investigators say they found what they describe as Ennis’ to-do list that included killing his three stepsisters.
Peter Van Sant: So, he wanted to kill all three of you?
Angela Flowers: Oh, yeah. … I feel very blessed to be here, and not to be one of his victims.
Donna Furr. Angela Flowers, and Tina Sexton are all Eddie’s daughters. Tina was 20 when her dad was murdered.
Tina Sexton: This changed everything. My dad was my world. (Crying and a long pause) Never getting to see him again.
The sisters say Dolly was a sweet, outgoing woman who met their father in church. Rick was the polar opposite.
Donna Furr: Every time I would go and visit my dad and Dolly, they — he would go into his bedroom and close himself off …
Tina Sexton: He’d come out and eat and then he’d go back in his room.
Peter Van Sant: What is the longest conversation you ever had with him?
Donna Furr: Five seconds maybe.
Tina Sexton: He didn’t talk to nobody.
Peter Van Sant: What did your father think of Rick?
Donna Furr: He just said “He’s just a little different than — than y’all were when y’all were coming up … He just thought that … they were in a new relationship, and you know, that it would — he would outgrow it, and things would get better over time.
But just 10 months after they married, the happy couple was dead.
Donna Furr: He was 12 years old and had murdered two people … brutally murdered them.
At age 12, Rick Ennis couldn’t be tried as an adult. He spent nine years in juvenile detention in Alabama and was released after he turned 21.
It was now up to Agent Whitaker and his team to determine whether Rick Ennis had murdered again.
A NEW LOOK AT THE EVIDENCE
Agent Mark Whitaker knew what Rick Ennis did to his parents, and his instincts told him Ennis had done something horrible to Lori, too. But now he had to prove it.
Mark Whitaker: The burn site was found on the 14th.
Mark Whitaker (with Van Sant where Lori’s car was found): The car was … facing out back toward the bowling alley. … There’s nothing else around here at the time. There’s no apartments. It’s just a paved road.
The blaze destroyed whatever evidence there was in the car, but an investigator reported finding a tiny item on the ground nearby.
Mark Whitaker:He found a hand-rolled cigarette butt about right here (points towards the ground). And he collected that … It was not tested … Kinda got lost in the shuffle. The case agent retired.
Whitaker’s team now submitted it for testing.
And there was a gas can that had been found nearby.
Mark Whitaker: It was right in this area right here.
It looked like one that had been missing from the bowling alley where Ennis had worked.
Mark Whitaker: And it’s right here, 1,000 yards from the bowling alley, 30 yards from her car.
Whitaker’s partner, JW Barnes, showed “48 Hours” something that for police tied everything together: railroad tracks.
Agent JW Barnes | Alabama SBI: These are the same tracks that go right by the bowling alley. … They run … right across the street from where Lori’s car was found burning.
Mark Whitaker (pointing to areas of a large map): I’ve always thought that’s what Ennis used for transportation, was walking down the railroad tracks. Cause it’s a straight shot, you’re not gonna be seen unless you want to be seen. … And those railroad tracks run by Lori’s house.
And in that house were signs of a violent struggle, says Whitaker.
“These areas you see right here that have been cut out, that’s where the scuff marks … were,” Agent Mark Whitaker said, indicating signs of a violent struggle in Lori Slesinski’s trailer.
CBS News
Mark Whitaker (inside Lori’s trailer): These areas you see right here that have been cut out, that’s where the scuff marks … were … They were black, just like the bottom of her shoes, there was even some up as high, here. So, it’s — obviously there was a struggle in here with somebody kickin’ their legs, probably up in the air.
Remember, Lori’s dog Peanut seemed happy, and taken care of.
Mark Whitaker: My theory is that Rick Ennis stayed in the house …
Peter Van Sant: After he had murdered Lori.
Mark Whitaker: I believe so. … It’s the only way to explain it.
When detectives re-interviewed Rick Ennis later that day on June 14, they noticed scratches on his arms and hands. According to investigators, he did not explain them – and they say, Ennis had inconsistencies in his statements to police.
Lee County Court
Mark Whitaker (inside Lori’s trailer): We don’t have a cause of death, but I’ve always thought that he strangled her … the scratches that he had all over his arm were just indicative of defense wounds when you’re fightin’ somebody.
Whitaker says the phone in the corner of the bedroom was missing its cord.
Mark Whitaker: … and it was a long cord, and it ran all the way through the room.
Peter Van Sant: And what do you think that cord was used for?
Mark Whitaker: I think it was used to bound her.
Peter Van Sant: To tie her up?
Mark Whitaker: Yes, sir.
Peter Van Sant: Could it have been used to strangle her?
Mark Whitaker: Sure.
Mark Whitaker: That phone cord was missing.
That’s not the only thing that was missing. There were those three rugs in the kitchen.
Mark Whitaker: … they were kinda strategically put out so that Peanut, Lori’s dog … could hop through the linoleum and be back on carpet.
The rugs turned up, he says, a few years later.
Mark Whitaker: Ennis had a former roommate who reached out to law enforcement … and told them … “Hey, there’s this guy who left behind three rugs.”
Mark Whitaker: Peter, I want to show you somethin’ else … Lori had a table set up about right here, and on this table … days before Lori went missin’, a love letter was left here for her from Rick.
People who knew Lori said Ennis wanted to be more than just a friend. Police say Ennis told a buddy that Lori rejected him.
Mark Whitaker: And he was devastated by that.
Peter Van Sant: So, do you believe this rejection may have been a motive for murder?
Mark Whitaker: I think that’s what sent him over the edge. I absolutely do.
Despite the mounting evidence, Agent Whitaker stillneeded something more that tied Ennis directly to the crime scene.
Arlene Slesinski: As far as I’m concerned, he is investigating this case like Lori is his own daughter.
Arlene Slesinski: I mean he has a picture of Lori in his house.
For Alabama SBI Agent Mark Whitaker, solving the Slesinski cold case was his number one priority.
Mark Whitaker
Mark Whitaker: I’ve had it in my closet. It would make me think about her every day when I was getting ready for work. When I would put my ties on, I would just remember what I was supposed to be doing every single day.
And then …
Mark Whitaker: … it’s like, 1:00 in the mornin’, and JW calls me.
JW Barnes found exactly what they needed in the case files collecting dust for 10 years.
Mark Whitaker: He goes, “I just found a … report that was in an envelope that hadn’t been opened.”
Whitaker could hardly believe it. When Lori disappeared in 2006, police collected evidence from her trailer, but by the time the results came in, no one followed up. The report contained critical evidence: Ennis’ DNA was identified in semen found on Lori’s bedsheet, and in blood on the interior of the front door. And, it turned out, his blood was also found on one of the rugs investigators say were in Lori’s kitchen.
Rick Ennis’ DNA was identified in semen found on Lori’s bedsheet, in blood on the interior of the front door and on one of the rugs investigators say were in Lori’s kitchen.
Lee County Court
Mark Whitaker: You’ve got his blood on the rug here. You’ve got his semen back there. You’ve got his blood on a door … most people’s blood is not inside somebody else’s home … unless somethin’ really bad had happened.
Twelve years after Lori disappeared, there was now enough evidence to charge Rick Ennis with her murder. But by this time, Ennis was happily engaged to school librarian Alana Atkinson — and living 500 miles away in Virginia. He was designing and building portable living structures called yurts for Sharon Morley’s company. Morley liked Ennis from the moment they met.
Sharon Morley: He was just so open and friendly and had a great sense of humor.
But on August 6, 2018, Rick’s birthday, Morley saw a task force of lawmen arrive.
On August 6, 2018 – 12 years after Lori Slesinski went missing — a taskforce of U.S. Marshals arrested Rick Ennis in rural Virginia, where he was living and engaged to a school librarian. He was charged with murdering Lori Ann Slesinski.
Law enforcement
Sharon Morley: Walking out of the woods, they were hiding behind trees, they had the place surrounded.
Mark Whitaker: It was the highlight of my career to make the phone call to Arlene and Casey Slesinski that morning, to tell them that we just took Rick Ennis in custody … for Lori’s murder.
Peter Van Sant: Was this kind of a bittersweet moment for you?
Arlene Slesinski: Most definitely, yes. … I guess, psychologically, I never accepted the fact that she really was gone. And I cried big time. Yeah.
Later that month, Ennis appeared before an Alabama judge, with Lori’s parents facing him.
Arlene Slesinski: I guess he kind of seemed surprised that we were there.
Peter Van Sant: What did you want him to know?
Arlene Slesinski: That we finally got you. You’re not going to get away with this.
News of Ennis’s arrest quickly spread.
Terry Booth: I saw on social media … it’s Rick.
Terry Booth says he was friends with Rick Ennis, and suddenly remembered a conversation he had with him years earlier at a bar when he asked him why he’d left Alabama.
Peter Van Sant: What did he say?
Terry Booth: He just mainly said I had to get rid of a b****. … I’m thinking this guy is just messing around with me.
But that changed when he learned of Rick’s arrest.
Terry Booth: And it was real … he wasn’t joking. … I couldn’t sleep the whole night.
He called Whitaker’s task force.
Mark Whitaker: And it was just unbelievable what Ennis had told him.
But the most explosive news of all came later and, incredibly, while Whitaker was with Ennis at another court hearing.
Investigators report that a hand-rolled cigarette was found on the ground near Lori’ Slesinski’s burned car. It was collected, but was not initially tested.
WRBL/Pool
Mark Whitaker: An investigator from Auburn PD comes up to me and tells me “You’re not gonna believe this. That hand-rolled cigarette butt next to the car has his DNA on it.” … I wanted to do a somersault in the courtroom, but I couldn’t.
Everyone now was prepared to go to trial, but the courts quickly ground to a halt because of the pandemic, and Arlene Slesinski suffered more losses. First her son to cancer, and then her husband Casey to Covid.
Arlene Slesinski: And I got a call … “I think you’d better come” … when I got there, he was gone (crying).
Peter Van Sant: You lose your daughter, you lose your son, and then you lose your husband. … How do you go on with all this?
Arlene Slesinski: I guess my faith, my friends, family.
Arlene Slesinski: … and … I just did not want to die not knowing what happened to my daughter or seeing justice being done.
But Rick Ennis was determined to prove police had it all wrong. And he wasn’t the only one fighting to prove his innocence.
Alana Atkinson: They have the wrong person. There’s — there’s no way.
His fiancé, Alana Atkinson.
Peter Van Sant: Do you believe Rick had anything to do with Lori’s disappearance, with her death?
Alana Atkinson: No. I do not.
Alana Atkinson: … not only do I believe Rick is innocent, I believe that … he would’ve given his life for Lori if he had been there. That’s the kind of person he is.
And she believes that — despite the fact that she knows Ennis murdered his mother and stepfather when he was 12.
Peter Van Sant: People would wonder … why is it hard for you to believe that he could kill again?
She says Ennis told her something about what happened with his mother — something that convinced her he had nothing to do with what happened to Lori.
RICK ENNIS TALKS TO “48 HOURS”
Alana Atkinson: Rick Ennis is one of the most compassionate, generous, kind people that I’ve ever known.
Alana Atkinson has been in love with Rick Ennis for four years.
Alana Atkinson: I love his intelligence. I always joke with him and tell him I fell in love with his brain first.
But just two months into their romance, Atkinson, an amateur genealogist, was researching Ennis’ ancestry when she stumbled upon news that he had killed his mother and stepfather.
Alana Atkinson: My first thought was what in the world happened in his home life that pushed him to that point?
Ennis would tell her something she didn’t see in any article.
Peter Van Sant: Rick, it’s Peter Van Sant with “48 Hours.”
Rick Ennis: Oh, hi, Mr. Van Sant.
Reached by phone, Ennis told “48 Hours” what he insists happened.
Rick Ennis: I was molested by my mother.
Ennis says his mother sexually abused him and he snapped.
Rick Ennis: I exploded, and the result was that I — I took my mother’s life and then I took my stepfather’s life.
In 2018, Rick Ennis was charged with Slesinski’s murder. In an exclusive interview, Ennis denies having anything to do with Lori’s disappearance and says he killed his mother and stepfather because his mother abused him, something “48 Hours” could not corroborate.
Alana Atkinson
But remember, back then he told authorities he killed his parents because he didn’t want to move.
Rick Ennis: I was deeply ashamed about — my mother molesting me, and I had a really hard time talking about it.
Still, “48 Hours” could find no evidence to corroborate Rick’s abuse allegation.
Peter Van Sant: You know, I, Rick, I — I have to tell you, obviously, I — I have no idea what happened. A skeptic would say you’ve conveniently accused the mother that you murdered of molesting you and she can’t defend herself. … You understand how that’s difficult for some to believe?
Rick Ennis: Well, I mean, it — it’s something that I worked through with a — a psychiatrist … what I did when I was 12 is the greatest regret of my life.
Rick Ennis insists he’s no longer that angry 12-year-old. Now 41, Ennis would stand trial for yet another murder.
Rick Ennis (to Peter Van Sant): I never murdered Lori Slesinski. She was a very close, dear friend of mine. I never would have hurt her.
Prosecutor Jessica Ventiere is sure that is a lie. But at trial, she wouldn’t be allowed to tell the jury anything about Ennis’ past.
JessicaVentiere: This is by far the most complicated case of my career.
JESSICA VENTIERE | PROSECUTOR (in court): He becomes obsessed with her.
Ventiere’s first hurdle was convincing the jury that Lori was, in fact, dead. She called Lori’s mother, Arlene, to the stand.
JESSICA VENTIERE: Did she make contact with you after her brother died?
ARLENE SLESINSKI: No, ma’am.
JESSICA VENTIERE: Have you ever received a birthday card?
ARLENE SLESINSKI: No, ma’am.
JESSICA VENTIERE: A Mother’s Day card?
ARLENE SLESINSKI: No.
JESSICA VENTIERE: Have you ever heard from your daughter in any way since that Thursday before she disappeared?
ARLENE SLESINSKI: No, ma’am
Was Lori Ann Slesinski’s rejection of Rick Ennis a motive for murder?
Arlene Slesinski
Lindsay Braun was next, seemingly setting up a motive, telling the jury that Lori rejected Rick Ennis.
LINDSAY BRAUN: She told me about a letter that he had written her.
JESSICA VENTIERE: Was it a love letter?
LINDSAY BRAUN: Yes. … She told me that she wasn’t interested him — in him … that way.
And Terry Booth would take the stand to recount that troubling remark he said Ennis made.
TERRY BOOTH: … he had to strangle a b****. … that she was a White piece of trailer park trash.
The district attorney built her case with testimony about the scuff marks on the wall, and the blood in Lori’s trailer, Rick’s semen on her bed and the cigarette butt with Ennis’ DNA found near Lori’s scorched car.
William Whatley: They’ve got problems with this evidence.
But defense attorney William Whatley claimed that hand-rolled cigarette was planted — arguing police could have taken it from Ennis’ home.
WILLIAM WHATLEY | DEFENSE ATTORNEY: That cigarette butt didn’t come from the burn scene.
The defense suggested Lori was responsible for her own disappearance. They portrayed her as a drug dealer.
WILLIAM WHATLEY:You knew that Lori had grown marijuana.
LINDSAY BRAUN: Yes.
Lindsay Braun insisted, however, that it was only for Lori’s personal use.
LINDSAY BRAUN: For herself, for so she didn’t have to purchase any.
Rick Ennis testified in his own defense, insisting he had nothing to do with Lori Slesinski’s disappearance.
WRBL/Pool
Butto drive home their points, Whatley called Rick Ennis himself to the stand.
RICK ENNIS: I spent a lotta time with her.
Ennisinsisted he had no reason to hurt Lori.
WILLIAM WHATLEY: Did you write a … letter to Lori?
RICK ENNIS: Yes, sir, I did. … I asked her if she wanted to date. … it woulda been a month or two before she went missing. I’m not certain.
But even though she turned him down, Ennis says they were still intimate.
WILLIAM WHATLEY: Now, did you ever have sex with Lori?
RICK ENNIS: Yes, sir.
So, what about what he said to Terry Booth? Ennis says it never happened.
WILLIAM WHATLEY: Did you ever go out drinking with Terry Booth?
RICK ENNIS: No, sir.
WILLIAM WHATLEY: Did you tell Terry Booth that you strangled someone?
RICK ENNIS: No, sir.
WILLIAM WHATLEY: Rick, I want to show you some photographs here …
And those rugs given to police by his former roommate? Rick claims they were not from Lori’s trailer.
WILLIAM WHATLEY: Where did you get these rugs from, Rick?
RICK ENNIS: Target.
WILLIAM WHATLEY: Did you get any of those from Lori
RICK ENNIS: No, sir.
Ennis says Lori was fine when he left her that Saturday. He says he headed off to sell some weed and he claims she was off to do the same.
WILLIAM WHATLEY: The last time you saw Lori did you have any kind of an argument with her?
ENNIS: No, sir.
WILLIAM WHATLEY: Did you break into Lori’s trailer that Saturday?
RICK ENNIS: I did not.
WILLIAM WHATLEY: Did you kidnap Lori?
RICK ENNIS: No, sir.
WILLIAM WHATLEY: Did you kill Lori?
RICK ENNIS: I d — I did not.
WILLIAM WHATLEY: Did you burn Lori’s car?
RICK ENNIS: No, sir.
The knife investigators found in Rick Ennis’ car.
CBS News
So, what about the knife, handcuffs and cleaning items in his car? Rick Ennis says it had nothing to do with Lori. He was moving things from his apartment. And those scratches on him? Back in 2006, police say he had no explanation, but at the trial he had an answer .
RICK ENNIS: I got them from playin’ with my dog.
Ventiere barely made it to the podium to start her cross-examination.
JESSICA VENTIERE: Is there anything else you’d like to blame on the dog?
Ventiere questioned Ennis about that blood on Lori’s door.
JESSICA VENTIERE: The blood in Lori’s trailer has your DNA in it. How did that get there?
RICK ENNIS: I have no idea.
And the question Ventiere really wanted an answer for she never got.
JESSICA VENTIERE: Where did you dump Lori’s body?
RICK ENNIS: I didn’t dump Lori’s body anywhere.
JESSICA VENTIERE: Who did then?
RICK ENNIS: I have no idea.
Both sides had their final chance to persuade the jury. Defense attorney Whatley told the jurors there wasn’t any evidence that a crime had even been committed.
WILLIAM WHATLEY: There’s no evidence that Lori was kidnapped. There’s no evidence that she was forcibly taken against her will.
Ventiere attacked Ennis’ defense.
JESSICA VENTIERE: The fact they can sit there and say that their client told the truth about anything is laughable. … This is about a man who was obsessed with Lori.
Ventiere insisted that the volume of evidence against Rick Ennis was overwhelming even if police still couldn’t find Lori’s remains. And she reminded the jury that Lori would never just take off.
JESSICA VENTIERE: She would never, ever, ever leave Peanut behind, never.
After seven days of testimony, it was now up to the jury to decide.
Jessica Ventiere: I’m terrified. I only get one shot at this.
Arlene Slesinski: you just never know what a jury’s gonna do.
JUSTICE FOR LORI
JUDGE: Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, have y’all reached a verdict in this case? OK. Can you hand that to the bailiff please ma’am?
Peter Van Sant: When the jury came back into the courtroom … did you look at their faces?
Arlene Slesinski: Yes, I did. … It was very hard to read their faces. … I still wasn’t sure what the verdict was going to be.
JUDGE: Would the defendant please stand?
Nearly 16 years after Lori Slesinski vanished, the jury reached a verdict during their second day of deliberations.
Peter Van Sant: Give me a sense of … what that meant to you.
Arlene Slesinski: Sheer relief, joy that he was finally convicted, and would never get to do this to anyone else again.
DA JESSICA VENTIERE (press conference): I’m thrilled that we were able to bring Justice for Lori after such a long time …
Immediately following the jury’s verdict, DA Ventiere went to Arlene with a proposal. Ennis was now facing a possible death sentence, but that would trigger years of appeals and legal wrangling. To spare Arlene all that, Ventiere suggested offering Rick life without parole. Arlene agreed.
JUDGE: It is the sentence of the court that you be in prison in the penitentiary of the state of Alabama for a term of life without the possibility of parole ..
Alana Atkinson was stunned.
Alana Atkinson: Just complete shock. Disbelief. I was devastated.
She was so certain Rick Ennis would be exonerated she’d made plans to celebrate. A celebration, Rick told “48 Hours,” that he would be part of.
Rick Ennis (to Peter Van Sant on the phone): I thought that we were gonna go and … have a nice dinner and that I was gonna get to start my life over.
Arlene headed home to savor the bittersweet victory.
Peter Van Sant: After this verdict, did you have a conversation with Lori?
“Lori, justice has finally come. We’ve waited for this for a long time,” Arlene Slesinski said to her daughter following Rick Ennis’ guilty verdict.
Arlene Slesinski
Arlene Slesinski: I did. … I just said, “Lori, justice has finally come. We’ve waited for this for a long time. And I hope you’re all celebrating in heaven with the entire family … And I wish you were all here to see this day (cries).
Peter Van Sant: This tragic murder, the ripple effects across your family … is just incredible.
Arlene Slesinski: It has left a very large void in my life. I was getting ready to retire. I mean I could have been enjoying my grandchildren possibly — just spending time with my daughter, who I loved.
Arlene Slesinski: We brought Peanut home with us and he stayed with us ’til he was, I guess, about 16 years old when he died. … every time we mentioned Lori’s name, he would — he would — I don’t care where he was in the house, it was like he just heard her name and he’d run in there, like, “where is she?” … it just totally amazed me that he — he never forgot her. … Never.
Arlene Slesinski (walking with Mark Whitaker): Did you ever think that six years ago we would be here today?
With her husband and both her children gone, this tragic story has brought new friendships into Arlene’s life.
Arlene Slesinski: Mark Whitaker is my hero … Him and his wife are like family to me now.
Lori and her parents on her graduation day.
CBS News/Arlene Slesinski
Arlene Slesinski (with Mark Whitaker looking at photos of Lori): This was on her graduation day. Casey, her and me.
Mark Whitaker: That’s a great photo.
Arlene Slesinski: And this was her a month before she disappeared at her cousin Jennifer’s wedding with her cousin Thomas.
Mark Whitaker: Wow. Not a care in the world.
Arlene Slesinski: Nope.
Mark Whitaker (to Peter Van Sant): She’s one of the bravest women that I’ve — I’ve ever met.
Mark Whitaker (to Arlene): You showing all these to me just makes everything more real for me … beautiful girl. Thanks for sharing those with me.
Arlene Slesinski: You’re welcome
Mark Whitaker (to Peter Van Sant): I could tell … She seems to be happier now.
Arlene Slesinski (to Whitaker): I can’t thank you enough for it. It was just —
Agent Mark Whitaker and Arlene Slesinski
CBS News
Mark Whitaker: I love you.
Arlene Slesinski: I love you, too.
Mark Whitaker: One tough lady. (Hugs Arlene and kisses the top of her head).
Arlene Slesinski gained a new companion in 2021 — her dog, Daisey.
Produced by Murray Weiss. Richard Barber is producer/editor. Kat Teurfs is the field producer. Morgan Canty is the associate producer. Joan Adelman and Gary Winter are the editors. Patti Aronofsky is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.
New details are emerging about a previous dispute between neighbors after prosecutors say a northern Idaho man went to his neighbor’s home and shot and killed four family members there, including two teenagers.
Majorjon Kaylor, 31, of Kellogg, was arrested Sunday night shortly after the shooting in the small mining community. Shoshone County Sheriff Holly Lindsey confirmed to CBS News that Kaylor was charged with murder and was being held in Shoshone County jail.
Killed were Kenneth Guardipee, 65; his daughter Kenna Guardipee, 41; and her sons 18-year-old Devin Smith and 16-year-old Aiken Smith. The family lived in the same multi-home building as Kaylor and they had recently moved into the apartment, CBS affiliate KREM-TV reported.
Majorjon Kaylor, 31, right, sits next to defense attorney Lisa Chesebro in a Wallace, Idaho, courtroom on Tuesday, June 20, 2023, during his first appearance on four murder charges. Prosecutors say Kaylor shot and killed his neighbors, including a child, Sunday evening.
Josh McDonald / AP
If convicted, Kaylor could face the death penalty. He is being held without bond and has not yet entered a plea.
Few details have been released about the shooting, and authorities have not said what they believe Kaylor’s motive may have been.
But there had been a recent conflict between the families, police said: A week before the shootings, Kaylor’s family called police to complain that 18-year-old Devin Smith was standing in front of his bedroom window, masturbating in view of Kaylor’s young daughters who were playing outside. Smith’s family lived in the bottom unit of the duplex, and Kaylor’s family lived in the top unit.
“We responded to the call, investigated the call, and the report was done that day and submitted to the prosecutor’s office for charges,” Kellogg Police Chief Paul Twidt said. “I stand by what my officer did, and he did everything he could at the time. Nobody could have foreseen anything like this.”
The police department recommended that Smith be charged with indecent exposure, a misdemeanor, Twidt said, and the prosecutor’s office told the officer the charge would be filed. There was no record of the charge in the online court system on Tuesday, however, which could mean that Smith had not yet been served with the formal charges before he died, or that the case had not yet been made public for another reason.
During Kaylor’s initial court appearance, prosecuting attorney Benjamin Allen said the crime was “relatively horrific” and noted that one of the victims was a child. He also said Kaylor admitted the killings when he was interviewed by police.
“Admissions were ultimately made to the offenses charged,” Allen told Shoshone County Magistrate Judge Keisha Oxendine during Tuesday’s court proceeding.
“We see a crime which was committed in a relatively horrific manner in regards to the nature of the allegations, the manner in which it was carried out, and the method in which was utilized by the defendant in the course of his actions,” Allen said.
Citing the criminal complaint, KREM-TV reported that when police arrived at the scene, Kaylor reportedly said he “snapped,” “lost it” and “did something about it.”
Police obtained video surveillance that captured the altercation and gunshots, the station reported.
The Shoshone County dispatch center received a 911 call around 7:20 p.m. Sunday indicating that multiple people had been killed. Law enforcement officers found four people dead of gunshot wounds, and they detained Kaylor.
“This is a tragic situation that will affect the Kellogg community. Detectives continue working to establish a timeline and what led to the shooting,” Lt. Paul Berger, a detective with the Idaho State Police, said in a news release on Monday.
The charging documents allege the shootings of the two oldest victims were “premeditated and/or to execute vengeance.” The other killings were allegedly, “premeditated, to executive vengeance, and/or committed in the perpetration of burglary,” according to the charging documents. Under Idaho law, it is considered burglary to enter a house, room or apartment with the intent to commit a felony such as murder.
A GoFundMe to raise money for funeral expenses for the family has raised more than $3,600.
A preliminary hearing in the case has been set for July 3.
The quadruple homicide comes just seven months after another multiple killing in the state made national headlines. Bryan Kohberger, 28, was charged with four counts of murder in connection with the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students who were found dead on Nov. 13 at a home in Moscow, Idaho.
The latest killings in Idaho came amid a spate of gun violence over the weekend that killed and wounded numerous people across the U.S., including at least 60 shot in the Chicago area alone.
A 16-year-old boy died from a gunshot wound to the head in Brooklyn on Monday, cops said.
Two men wearing black “COVID masks” approached the teenage victim on Marcus Garvey Blvd. between Willoughby Ave. and Hart St. at 5:47 p.m. and fired three shots at point-blank range, according to police on the scene.
Police investigate a fatal shooting on Marcus Garvey Boulevard and Hart Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York City on Monday, June 19, 2023. (Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News)
At least one of the bullets struck the victim in the head, and he crumpled onto the pavement, witnesses told the Daily News.
“I thought it was firecrackers,” said one man, who refused to give his name. “I looked across the street and his body was on the ground.”
Paramedics rushed the teen to Woodhull Hospital in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where he was pronounced dead, cops said.
Police investigate a fatal shooting on Marcus Garvey Boulevard and Hart Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York City on Monday, June 19, 2023. (Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News)
The shooters were spotted fleeing south, towards the Roosevelt Houses, according to police and witnesses.
A cousin of the victim said he was a good kid who loved his family, studied hard and didn’t deserve to be gunned down on the streets.
“He loves his mother, comes from a good family and did well in school. We’re destroyed,” Tyrone Gibbins, 38, told The News at Woodhull Hospital. “We don’t know who would do this.”
The victim lived inside a sprawling housing complex, called “The Courtyard” by locals, on Willoughby Ave. between Marcus Garvey Blvd. and Lewis Ave., less than a block away from where he was shot.
No arrests have been made and the investigation remains ongoing, cops said.
A killer fatally shot a man sitting outside his Bronx apartment building in a targeted hit on Monday, cops said.
The victim was sitting alone outside the six-story apartment building where he lives with his mother on Longfellow Ave. near Freeman St. at 2:18 p.m. when the shooter walked up and fired two shots at point-blank range, according to police.
At least one of the bullets struck the victim in his neck, creating a gruesome wound, an eyewitness told the Daily News.
NYPD investigate where a male was shot in the neck outside 1417 Longfellow Ave in the Bronx on June 19, 2023. (Kerry Burke)
“He was shot in the neck and the gash was wide open,” said the witness, who declined to give his name.
Paramedics rushed the victim to St. Barnabas Hospital in critical condition, and he was pronounced dead later in the day, cops said.
The shooter, who was spotted wearing a white shirt and black pants, fled the scene on foot heading south toward Freeman St., according to police.
A witness said that the victim had been with a group of neighbors just before the shooting and that the gunman approached him after his acquaintances departed.
Multiple neighbors described the victim as struggling with mental illness and said that, while his condition made him at times confrontational and antisocial, he didn’t deserve to be gunned down in broad daylight.
“He had mental issues, but he didn’t deserve to die,” said a neighbor who gave his name as Mike.
No arrests have been made in the case, and the investigation is ongoing.
Three years after George Floyd was murdered by then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, the Justice Department issued a blistering report Friday of the city’s police department, detailing racial discrimination, excessive and unlawful use of force, First Amendment violations and a lack of accountability for officers.
“Our investigation found that the systemic problems in MPD made what happened to George Floyd possible,” the report states.
The Minneapolis Police Department has, for years, used dangerous “techniques and weapons” against people who had committed a petty offense or no offense at all, “including unjustified deadly force,” it adds.
“MPD used force to punish people who made officers angry or criticized the police,” the report says, and “patrolled neighborhoods differently based on their racial composition and discriminated based on race when searching, handcuffing, or using force against people during stops.”
In its investigation, the Justice Department reviewed hundreds of police body-worn camera videos, incident and police reports, hundreds of complaints filed against officers and dozens of interviews with city leaders, community leaders and police officials.
“As I told George Floyd’s family this morning, his death has had an irrevocable impact on the Minneapolis community, on our country and on the world,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a news conference Friday.
“George Floyd should be alive today,” Garland added.
In a review of the 19 police shootings that took place between 2016 and the summer of 2022, the investigation found that “a significant portion of them were unconstitutional uses of deadly force” including officers shooting at individuals without determining any immediate threat and MPD officers using deadly force against “people who are a threat only to themselves,” the report says.
In one example cited by the report, a woman had been shot by an officer after she reportedly “spooked” him as she came to his police car.
On May 25, 2020, Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck and back for over nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and gasping for air. According to the DOJ’s report, at the time, neck restraints were used by Minneapolis police officers 197 times between 2016 and 2020. Nearly a fourth of those were used in cases where no arrest was made.
Three years on: reflections on the legacy of George Floyd
Officers would “frequently used neck restraints without warning” and used the restraints against individuals – including teenagers – accused of low-level offenses, passively resisted arrest, posed no threat or “had merely angered the officer.”
MPD officers, the investigation found, also used takedowns, strikes, tasers, chemical spray and other methods of force in ways that violated individuals’ rights.
The department now prohibits neck restraints, “no-knock” raids and requires approval for officers to use certain crowd control weapons without approval from the chief of police.
The investigation also found that MPD officers disproportionately stop and use force against Black and Native American people.
“During stops involving Black and Native American people, MPD conducts searches and uses force more often than it does during stops involving white people engaged in similar behavior,” the report, which reviewed data of roughly 187,000 pedestrian and traffic stops says.
“We estimate that MPD stops Black people at 6.5 times the rate at which it stops White people, given their shares of the population. Similarly, we estimate MPD stops Native American people at 7.9 times the rate at which it stops white people, given population shares.”
During these stops, the DOJ found that MPD officers unlawfully discriminated against Black and Native American people in both searches and use of force.
After Floyd’s murder in 2020, many police officers in the department stopped listing the race or gender of individuals in their reports in violation of the department’s policy, according to the investigation.
The report also found evidence of some officers, including those in leadership positions, have made racist or discriminatory comments to other officers.
During one of the protests following Floyd’s murder, an MPD lieutenant said a group of protesters were likely mostly White because “there’s not looting and fires.”
Other MPD employees told the Justice Department about similar discriminatory comments made by their colleagues, including comments about how “you don’t have to worry about Black people during the day ‘cuz they haven’t woken up—crime starts at night.”
The investigation found that officers were often only held accountable for biased conduct after public calls of outrage.
How the fatal arrest of George Floyd unfolded
Garland outlined several incidents where MPD officers were not held accountable for racist conduct until public outrage surfaced.
“For example,” Garland said Friday, “after MPD officers stopped a car carrying four Somalian-American teens, one officer told the teens, ‘Do you remember what happened in Black Hawk Down. When we killed a bunch of your folk? I’m proud of that. We didn’t finish the job over there. If we had, you guys wouldn’t be over here right now.’”
According to the Justice Department’s report, MPD officers also violated people’s First Amendment rights, including journalists, and found that officers “regularly retaliate against people for their speech or presence at protests – particularly when they criticize police.”
“MPD officers frequently use indiscriminate force, failing to distinguish between peaceful protesters and those committing crimes,” the report says. “For example, MPD officers regularly use 40 mm launchers – firearms that shoot impact projectiles, like rubber bullets – against protesters who are committing no crime or who are dispersing.”
The investigation found that in the protests following Floyd’s murder, officers had pepper sprayed a journalist in the face after pushing the reporter’s head to the pavement.
Other incidents cited in the report include police officers retaliating against individuals who were recording the officers by illegally grabbing phones, destroying recording equipment or using force – including pepper spray – against them.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
Nathan Carman, the man accused of killing his mother at sea in 2016 to get family and insurance money, has died in federal custody, according to a new court filing from federal prosecutors.
“The United States received information from the U.S. Marshal that Carman died on or about June 15, 2023. Dismissal of the charges against Carman is thus appropriate,” the filing states.
No cause of death was given. A spokesperson for the Vermont US Attorney’s Office said Thursday they had no further comment beyond the filing.
Carman was arrested in May 2022 and pleaded not guilty to fraud charges and a murder charge in connection with his mother’s death. Nathan was found adrift in a life raft in 2016, a week after he and his mother, Linda Carman, began a fishing trip off the coast of New England. His mother’s body was never recovered.
A trial was previously scheduled to begin in October of this year, according to court records. A judge would have handed down a mandatory life sentence for murder on the high seas to Carman, had he been convicted. The fraud charges carried a sentence of up to 30 years in prison each, the Vermont US Attorney’s Office said.
The indictment says Carman was also accused of fatally shooting his grandfather, John Chakalos, in his Connecticut home in 2013. Chakalos made “tens of millions of dollars” through real estate ventures, the indictment says. Carman’s alleged crimes were “part of a scheme to obtain money and property from the estate of John Chakalos and related family trusts,” according to a news release from the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont. Carman was not charged with murder in his grandfather’s death.
But all eyes were on Carman in the 2016 death of his mother.
In September of that year, the then-22-year-old and his mother, Linda Carman, 54, were reported missing, a police affidavit said. The night before, they had embarked on their usual weekend fishing trip, departing from Ram Point Marina, Rhode Island.
Days later, on September 25, a Chinese freighter found Nathan Carman by himself, adrift in a life raft. Carman then contacted the US Coast Guard from the freighter.
“There was a funny noise in the engine compartment. I looked and saw a lot of water,” Carman told a Coast Guard Search and Rescue Controller, according to a Coast Guard recording. “I was bringing one of the safety bags forward, the boat dropped out from under my feet. When I saw the life raft, I did not see my mom. Have you found her?”
According to the South Kingstown Police affidavit, “Linda and Nathan had different intentions as to the final destination of the fishing trip.” The mother had told her friend they were going to fish at a spot some 20 miles off Rhode Island, while the son told a local man they were going to another spot about 100 miles offshore.
The local, who had small talk with Nathan Carman, also noticed he had removed the boat’s trim tabs, devices that help the boat steer with more control and fuel efficiency. He also did not see any fishing poles in the boat, and when he asked Carman about them, he didn’t get an answer.
The marina manager told CNN there had been “many” repair issues with the vessel, a used 32-foot aluminum-covered fiberglass boat that Nathan Carman had purchased earlier in the year.
The Carman family had a history of police investigations.
Linda Carman had been arrested in 2011 for an alleged assault of her then-85-year-old father, John Chakalos.
There had been an argument over the direction of care for Nathan, who had Asperger’s syndrome. The case was never prosecuted and was eventually dismissed, with Linda Carman claiming self-defense.
Then, in 2013, Chakalos, a wealthy real estate investor whose estate exceeded $42 million, was killed. His wife had died of cancer only a month earlier.
There was no forced entry and nothing stolen, according to Gerry Klein, who was Linda Carman’s attorney. Linda Carman was questioned heavily, and Nathan Carman was a suspect, but a search warrant in his then-Middletown home produced firearm rifles that did not match the caliber of the weapon used in the killing.
Also, according to Klein, the grandfather and grandson had been very close, and Linda Carman insisted that her son was not capable of any violence, especially taking the life of someone he loved. Klein also noted Linda Carman told him Nathan was with her fishing at the time the grandfather was killed, but media reports had said Nathan never showed up.
After Chakalos’s death, Nathan Carman received the money from the two bank accounts his grandfather had set up. Between the years of 2014 and 2016, he spent most of it and by the fall of 2016, he was “low on funds,” according to the indictment.
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