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Tag: murder

  • White House expands its playbook for responding to mass shootings in the year after Uvalde | CNN Politics

    White House expands its playbook for responding to mass shootings in the year after Uvalde | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    When news broke of a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, one year ago, President Joe Biden was on his way back from Tokyo following a major international summit.

    Biden watched the news unfold on Air Force One, feeling, like others, horrified and heartbroken for the families, and deciding in that moment to speak upon returning to the White House, a White House official told CNN.

    Moments after landing, a somber Biden – who had been in the Obama White House during the devastating shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School – walked into a briefing in the Oval Office and prepared an address he delivered that evening in the Roosevelt Room.

    “I had hoped, when I became president, I would not have to do this again,” Biden said as he started the speech. He later visited Uvalde.

    Over the last year, Biden has signed legislation called the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act into law and implemented two dozen executive actions to try to reduce gun violence. And on Wednesday, Biden will again deliver remarks to mark the one-year remembrance of the Uvalde shooting.

    But in that same time span, hundreds more mass shootings have gripped communities nationwide.

    Mass shootings have become so common in the United States that the White House has framed their approach as akin to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s hurricane response. Behind the scenes, administration officials have been developing ways in which the federal government can respond in the short and long term after a mass shooting, recognizing the physical, mental and economic ramifications.

    “I think we’ve learned that the needs of these communities are really intense, and they also last long after the immediate hours and days after a mass shooting. If a hurricane devastates a community, you get that immediate White House response, but you also get FEMA deployed on the ground to provide direct services and support to survivors,” one source told CNN.

    This recognition of the long after-effects of mass shootings has prompted discussions within the White House about additional measures, including earlier this month, when Domestic Policy Council Director Susan Rice gathered the first meeting of Cabinet officials and senior staff to discuss steps forward in responding to mass shootings, according to sources familiar with the meeting.

    The reality officials were up against in that meeting came into sharp focus again less than 24 hours later, when another mass shooting unfolded – that time, in Allen, Texas.

    “I don’t think we could feel more urgency than we did on [that] Friday. I think people feel this very deeply. We now work with so many communities that have experienced shootings. It’s devastating, of course, when another gets added to the list,” the source told CNN.

    The Buffalo, New York, shooting last year at a local grocery story was an example of a tragedy that had unanticipated effects as it left a mostly Black community without a crucial grocery store for a period of time.

    “For too long, when we’ve thought about mass shootings and gun violence in general, we’ve only thought about the individuals hurt or killed. What this administration does is certainly attend to survivors and the families of those who have been hurt, but they have a realization that a mass shooting or gun violence in general ripples through the community,” John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, told CNN.

    An operation kicks into gear within the walls of the White House the moment an alert pops up of a potential mass shooting.

    The White House Situation Room and the National Security Council work with the Justice Department and other law enforcement, as well as the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, to track down information and gather the facts as they emerge. Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall will then brief Biden on what’s known about the situation and the weapon used, according to a White House official, acknowledging that it can be a fluid situation.

    The Domestic Policy Council, meanwhile, assesses patterns and whether there are new lessons to be gleaned and considered in policy making. And the intergovernmental affairs team also races to reach out to the mayor’s office or other local officials to provide a point of contact at the White House.

    Biden’s advisers keep him updated along the way. But the exasperation felt by White House officials after each mass shooting has been reflected in Biden’s statements, which have started with: “Once again.”

    In an op-ed this month, Biden touted the work done by this administration, but called on Congress to do more.

    “But my power is not absolute. Congress must act, including by banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, requiring gun owners to securely store their firearms, requiring background checks for all gun sales, and repealing gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability,” he wrote.

    White House officials have also been sober about the political realities Democrats face with the current makeup of Congress, where Republicans in control of the House have rejected Biden’s calls for an assault weapons ban. Even when both chambers of Congress were controlled by Democrats during the first two years of Biden’s term, an assault weapon ban gained little traction, in part because of a 60-vote threshold necessary to advance bills through the Senate.

    After three children and three adults were killed in a shooting at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville in March, Biden asserted that he’s done all he can to address gun control and urged members on Capitol Hill to act.

    Many Republicans in Congress, including those in positions of leadership and in the Tennessee delegation, had either been reluctant to use the deadly violence in Nashville as a potential springboard for reform or they outright rejected calls for additional action on further regulating guns, arguing that there isn’t an appetite for tougher restrictions. Some Democrats in Congress, meanwhile, slammed House Republicans for their disinterest.

    Advocacy groups have welcomed Biden’s executive actions and the administration’s response in the wake of a shooting, but stress there’s room for more.

    “It’s part of what moves the needle. Seeing the movement at the federal level is encouraging,” said Mark Barden, co-founder and CEO of the Sandy Hook Promise Action Fund. “It’s something. It’s not everything. It’s not enough. We certainly need more.”

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  • Police identify killer in 1975 murder of teen Sharron Prior after suspect’s body exhumed nearly 1,000 miles away

    Police identify killer in 1975 murder of teen Sharron Prior after suspect’s body exhumed nearly 1,000 miles away

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    Canadian police said Tuesday they have solved one of the highest-profile cold cases in Quebec history, linking the 1975 rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl to a West Virginia man who died more than 40 years ago.

    Police in Longueuil, Quebec, said that DNA evidence allows them to be 100% certain that Franklin Maywood Romine murdered teenager Sharron Prior in the Montreal suburb.

    prior.jpg
    Sharron Prior

    Longueuil Police


    The body of Romine, who was born in 1946 in West Virginia’s second largest city of Huntington and died in 1982 at the age of 36 in Verdun, Montreal under mysterious circumstances, was exhumed from a West Virginia cemetery in early May for DNA testing intended to confirm his link to the crime.

    Longueuil police say the DNA of Romine – who had a long criminal history – matches a sample found at the murder scene. He also matched a witness’ physical description of the suspect.

    The rape and killing of Prior had gone unsolved since she disappeared on March 29, 1975, after setting out to meet friends at a pizza parlor near her home in Montreal’s Pointe-St-Charles neighborhood.

    Her body was found three days later in a wooded area in Longueuil, on Montreal’s South Shore.

    “The solving of Sharron’s case will never bring Sharron back. But knowing that her killer is no longer on this Earth and won’t kill anymore, brings us to somewhat of a closure,” Prior’s sister Doreen said Tuesday, according to CTV News. 

    Law enforcement investigated more than 100 suspects over the years, but never made any arrests. Yvonne Prior, the teenager’s mother, is now in her 80s, still lives in Canada, and has spent her life searching for her daughter’s killer.

    Romine’s name didn’t come up in investigation until last year, according to WCHS-TV of Charleston, West Virginia. When Longueuil police said started looking through criminal records, they found an extensive history of violence and attempts by Romine to evade law enforcement by moving between West Virginia and Canada.

    Romine first attempted escape from the West Virginia Penitentiary in 1964 and later escaped in 1967, according to records obtained by WCHS. Two years later, Romine already had a Canadian rap sheet.

    In 1974, he was arrested for breaking into a house and raping a woman in Parkersburg, West Virginia. He was released on a $2,500 bond two months later and fled to Canada, according to an Associated Press story from the time.

    Just months after Prior’s murder in 1975, Romine was captured by Canadian border officials and extradited back to West Virginia, where he was sentenced to five to 10 years in prison for sexual assault in the Parkersburg case.

    He died in Canada in 1982, shortly after his release, although officials say they haven’t been able to find a death certificate detailing the circumstances that lead to his death. His body was returned to his mother in West Virginia, where his family buried him in the Putnam County, West Virginia Pine Grove Cemetery.

    Putnam County Prosecutor Mark Sorsaia  told CBS affiliate WOWK-TV earlier this month that he filed the court’s legal petition to get approval for the exhumation.

    Sorsaia called the crime against Prior “the most evil element in the human race.”

    “It’s a combination of the most evil element in the human race, contacting the most innocent element in the human race – a child,” he told WCHS. “Some things are worse than death – losing a child like that, for a family, for a mom. To know that your child died that way.”

    On Tuesday, Prior’s family thanked the police for the “miracle of science” that finally identified the killer, CTV News reported.

    “You may never have come back to our house or Congregation Street that weekend but you have never left our hearts and you never will,” Sharron’s sister Moreen said.

    Le meurtrier de Sharron Prior identifié grâce à son ADN 48 ans après les faits

    Le SPAL, en collaboration avec le…

    Posted by Service de police de l’agglomération de Longueuil on Tuesday, May 23, 2023

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  • Here’s why Idaho student murder suspect Brian Kohberger may have chosen to ‘stand silent’ in court, experts say | CNN

    Here’s why Idaho student murder suspect Brian Kohberger may have chosen to ‘stand silent’ in court, experts say | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of stabbing four Idaho college students to death, sat wordlessly in court during his arraignment on Wednesday as a judge read aloud the murder and burglary charges against him and asked whether the suspect was prepared to announce his plea.

    Instead of entering a plea, Kohberger’s attorney replied, “Your honor, we are standing silent.”

    The unconventional legal strategy, also known as “standing mute,” relies on an Idaho criminal rule which requires a judge to then enter a not guilty plea on the defendant’s behalf, effectively allowing him to avoid verbally committing to being guilty or not guilty.

    “It doesn’t matter what he says or doesn’t say,” Seattle attorney Anne Bremner told CNN. “Either way, he’s on the record with a not guilty plea.”

    Though highly unusual, standing silent is not unheard of. The tactic was also used in the case against Nikolas Cruz, the gunman responsible for the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

    As the October trial looms, Kohberger faces four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary for the November 13 killings of University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, in an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho.

    Though a sweeping gag order has largely shrouded details of the case from the public, investigators have said Kohberger, a graduate student in the Department of Criminology at nearby Washington State University, broke into the victims’ home and stabbed them repeatedly before fleeing the scene.

    The gruesome killings and prolonged investigation blanketed the college campus and surrounding city in uncertainty and apprehension. After nearly seven weeks, Kohberger was arrested and identified as the alleged killer.

    There are a number of reasons defendants may choose to “stand silent,” especially in such a high-profile and highly scrutinized case as Kohberger’s, according to University of Idaho law professor Samuel Newton.

    The defendant may want to avoid criticism that could come with a certain plea, Newton said. A not guilty plea, for example, may spark public outrage that they are not taking responsibility for their alleged actions, he explained.

    Prosecutors and defense attorneys may also be negotiating behind the scenes, potentially discussing a plea agreement, Newton said.

    Bremner dismissed the idea that the move could indicate Kohberger’s attorney may be considering a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity because there is no insanity defense in Idaho.

    Bryan Kohberger listens during his arraignment in Latah County District Court on May 22, 2023.

    Kohberger has been held without bail since he was arrested in December at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania and brought back to Idaho, where he awaits trial.

    The trial is set to begin October 2 and is expected to last about six weeks.

    Prosecutors have 60 days from Monday to announce, in writing, whether they plan to seek the death penalty in their case against him.

    Two hearings are also scheduled for June 9 to address motions, filed by an attorney representing the family of Goncalves and a media coalition, regarding concerns over the wide-ranging gag order in the case.

    The restriction currently prohibits prosecutors, defense lawyers, attorneys for victims’ families and witnesses from publicly discussing details of the case that are not already public record.

    After Kohberger was arrested, investigators laid out some of the evidence that led them to home in on the 28-year-old as their suspect, including surveillance footage, a witness account and DNA evidence.

    A key lead came from surveillance footage which caught a white Hyundai Elantra near the victims’ home that night, according to a probable cause affidavit. The vehicle, which was later found by police at Washington State University in nearby Pullman, Washington, was registered to Kohberger, authorities said.

    Kohberger’s driver’s license information was consistent with a description of the suspect given to police by once of the victims’ surviving roommates, officials said.

    The roommate told investigators that she saw a masked figure clad in black in the house on the morning of the killings, according to an affidavit. She described the person as “5’10” or taller, male, not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows,” it said.

    As the investigation was still ongoing, Kohberger drove cross-country to his parents’ house in Pennsylvania, arriving there about a week before Christmas, Monroe County Chief Public Defender Jason LaBar told CNN in December.

    There, investigators were finally able to connect Kohberger to the crime scene by linking DNA found in trash collected from his family’s home to DNA on a tan leather knife sheath found lying next to one of the victims, the affidavit said.

    A cache of items was seized from the Pennsylvania home after the suspect’s arrest, including a cell phone, black gloves, black masks, laptops, a Smith and Wesson pocket knife and a knife in a leather sheath, according to an evidence log.

    Authorities also seized a white 2015 Hyundai Elantra an attorney for the suspect previously said he’d used to drive, accompanied by his father, to his parents’ home for the holidays.

    The vehicle was dismantled by investigators, who collected parts, fibers and swabs for further examination, court documents show.

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  • Idaho college murder suspect appears in court for first time since January

    Idaho college murder suspect appears in court for first time since January

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    Idaho college murder suspect appears in court for first time since January – CBS News


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    Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students, appeared in court Monday and faced family members of his alleged victims. A judge entered a plea of not guilty for Kohberger. Lilia Luciano has more.

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  • Alabama death row inmate cannot be executed due to intellectual disability, appeals court rules | CNN

    Alabama death row inmate cannot be executed due to intellectual disability, appeals court rules | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    An appeals court has ruled the state of Alabama cannot execute man with an intellectual disability who was sentenced to death for murdering a man in 1997, upholding a lower court’s decision.

    The US Eleventh Court of Appeals’ decision on Friday means that 53-year-old Joseph Clifton Smith cannot be executed unless the decision is overturned by the US Supreme Court.

    In a statement released after the appeals court decision, Amanda Priest, communications director for Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, said, “Smith’s IQ scores have consistently placed his IQ above that of someone who is intellectually disabled. The Attorney General thinks his death sentence was both just and constitutional.”

    “The Attorney General disagrees with the Eleventh Circuit’s ruling, and will seek review from the United States Supreme Court,” the statement concluded

    In 2021, a US District Court judge ruled that due to his intellectual disability, Smith could not “constitutionally be executed,” and vacated his death sentence.

    The judge referenced the district court’s finding that Smith’s “intellectual and adaptive functioning issues clearly arose before he was 18 years of age,” according to the 2021 appeals court ruling, which agreed with the lower court.

    Smith confessed to murdering Durk Van Dam, whose body was found “in an isolated area near his pick-up truck” in Mobile County in southwest Alabama, according to the court’s Friday ruling. Smith “offered two conflicting versions of the crime,” the ruling says – first admitting he watched Van Dam’s murder and then saying he participated but didn’t intend to kill the man.

    The case went to trial and the jury found Smith guilty, the order states. During his sentencing proceedings, Smith’s mother and sister testified that his father was “an abusive alcoholic,” according to the ruling.

    Smith had struggled in school since as early as the first grade, the order says, which led to his teacher labeling him as an “underachiever” before he underwent an “intellectual evaluation,” which gave him an IQ score of 75, the court said. When he was in fourth grade, Smith was tested again and placed in a learning-disability class – at the same time as his parents were going through a divorce, the court said.

    “After that placement, Smith developed an unpredictable temper and often fought with classmates. His behavior became so troublesome that his school placed him in an ‘emotionally conflicted classroom,’” the ruling states.

    Smith then failed the seventh and eighth grades before dropping out of school entirely, the ruling says, and he then spent “much of the next fifteen years in prison” for burglary and receiving stolen property.

    One of the witnesses in Smith’s evidentiary hearing held by the district court to determine whether he has an intellectual disability was Dr. Daniel Reschly, a certified school psychologist, the ruling says.

    The court ultimately determined that Smith “has significant deficits in social/interpersonal skills, self-direction, independent home living, and functional academics,” the ruling says.

    In its conclusion, the appeals court wrote: “We hold that the district court did not clearly err in finding that Smith is intellectually disabled and, as a result, that his sentence violates the Eighth Amendment. Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s judgment vacating Smith’s death sentence.”

    “This case is an example of why process is so important in habeas cases and why we should not rush to enforce death sentences—the only form of punishment that can’t be undone,” the office of Smith’s federal public defender said in a statement after the appeals court decision.

    “Originally, this same District Court denied Mr. Smith the opportunity to be heard, and it was an Eleventh Circuit decision that allowed a hearing that created this avenue for relief,” the statement said.

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  • Children’s Book Writer Accused Of Poisoning Husband Allegedly Took Out $2 Million In Life Insurance

    Children’s Book Writer Accused Of Poisoning Husband Allegedly Took Out $2 Million In Life Insurance

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    A Utah mother accused of killing her husband, and then authoring a children’s book about grieving, took out millions of dollars in life insurance on him years before his death, prosecutors alleged.

    According to updated charging documents obtained by The Associated Press, prosecutors said that Kouri Richins bought four life insurance policies on behalf of her husband, Eric Richins, without his knowledge from 2015 to 2017, including benefits totaling nearly $2 million.

    The woman, age 33, is accused of poisoning her 39-year-old husband in March 2022 by lacing a Moscow mule cocktail with a lethal dose of fentanyl. She reportedly told investigators that she had found her husband unresponsive in the middle of the night, and earlier this month, she was charged with murder.

    A statement of probable cause alleged that Kouri Richins had made previous attempts to poison her husband. He once became ill after she made him a drink while on vacation in Greece, it said, and he also became sick after eating a sandwich she made on Valentine’s Day last year.

    According to court documents, investigators found messages that Kouri Richins sent to an acquaintance about obtaining drugs including fentanyl and “some of the Michael Jackson stuff,” presumably referring to the anesthetic propofol. Prosecutors allege that these substances were used in the attempts to kill her husband.

    Before his death, Eric Richins reportedly planned to divorce his wife and changed his will to benefit a sibling rather than her. Three months before his death, however, Kouri Richins made herself the sole beneficiary, according to local news outlet KPCW.

    Kouri Richins is pictured in Park City, Utah, on April 12.

    According to the AP, Eric Richins met with a divorce attorney and estate planner to cut his wife out of his will in October 2020 after learning about financial moves that Kouri Richins had made without his knowledge.

    These allegedly included her taking out a $250,000 home equity line of credit, withdrawing $100,000 from his bank account, spending more than $30,000 on his credit cards, and stealing $134,000 from his business.

    Greg Skordas, a spokesperson for Eric Richins’ family, told CBS affiliate KUTV that despite his suspicions that his wife tried to poison him, the man likely wanted to preserve the relationship for his children.

    “It appears Eric may have stayed in a relationship that wasn’t good because he loved his boys, and wanted to keep the family relationship together,” Skordas told KUTV. “Maybe he was hopeful things would change, but his number one concern was for his boys.”

    After her husband’s death, the widowed mother of three self-published a children’s book about grieving the loss of a loved one. “Are You With Me?” follows the story of a child whose late father continues to watch over them after his death.

    In an interview with local station ABC4 in April, Kouri Richins said she and her children began writing as a way to navigate life following Eric Richins’ death.

    The new allegations in the updated charging documents have led her detention hearing to be rescheduled. She is next expected in court on June 12.

    Subscribe to our true crime newsletter, Suspicious Circumstances, to get the biggest unsolved mysteries, white collar scandals and more delivered straight to your inbox every week. Sign up here.

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  • Accused killer of tech exec Bob Lee pleads not guilty to murder charge at arraignment | CNN

    Accused killer of tech exec Bob Lee pleads not guilty to murder charge at arraignment | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The man accused of fatally stabbing tech executive Bob Lee last month pleaded not guilty to murder in a San Francisco court Thursday.

    Nima Momeni, 38, will be held in custody without bail, the judge said.

    Assistant District Attorney Omid Talai argued Momeni presents a public safety risk and is a flight risk. He said the knife used in the killing was connected to Momeni. It was a knife of the same brand as found in his sister’s apartment, and Momeni’s DNA was found on the knife’s handle, Talai said.

    Paula Canny, Momeni’s attorney, said the DNA testing on the knife “isn’t entirely accurate” and argued Momeni is not a flight risk, noting he had not fled in the nine days between the killing and his arrest.

    “(He) is a loving son, hardworking, has never been convicted of a felony, has no criminal record or been convicted of a crime of violence,” she said. Momeni is not a citizen and would risk being deported to Iran, she added.

    Canny said this was “never a case of ‘who done it,’ it was always a case about ‘what happened.’” Outside court Thursday, Canny offered a preview of her client’s defense.

    “My defense is it was a combination of an accident and self-defense,” she said. “There was no premeditation or deliberation.”

    San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins defended the charge after the hearing. “We believe that this was an intentional killing,” she said.

    The hearing comes more than a month after Lee, a 43-year-old who cofounded the mobile payment service provider Cash App, was stabbed to death in the Rincon Hill neighborhood in the predawn hours of April 4. An autopsy report shows he suffered knife wounds that pierced his heart and lung.

    Authorities have said Lee and Momeni knew each other and were in a white BMW shortly before the stabbing at about 2 a.m. The prosecution’s case relies heavily on grainy security video of what they say was the fatal stabbing, but Canny has said, “I don’t think you can see anything” in the video.

    A witness described as Lee’s close friend said Momeni and Lee had an earlier discussion about Momeni’s sister and “whether his sister was doing drugs or anything inappropriate,” according to court documents. Lee had told Momeni nothing inappropriate had happened, according to the documents.

    Further, a message from Momeni’s sister to Lee afterward showed the sister checking in on Lee. “Just wanted to make sure your doing ok Cause I know nima came wayyyyyy down hard on you And thank you for being such a classy man handling it with class,” she wrote, according to documents from the district attorney’s office.

    The killing has rattled the San Francisco tech scene and spurred broader criticisms of crime in the city, including from Tesla and Twitter executive Elon Musk, who connected the killing to “repeat violent offenders” being released from custody. However, Jenkins criticized Musk’s statement as “reckless and irresponsible” and said his remarks “assumed incorrect circumstances” about the case.

    Lee was the former chief technology officer of Square who helped launch Cash App. He later joined MobileCoin, a cryptocurrency and digital payments startup, in 2021 as its chief product officer.

    Momeni has been the owner of an IT business, California Secretary of State records indicate. He has been held without bail since his arrest last month.

    Motion-to-detain documents and surveillance footage from the DA’s office last month laid out what authorities say preceded the stabbing.

    The footage shows Momeni arriving at his sister’s apartment building in a white BMW around 8:30 p.m. on April 3, and later shows Lee entering the building around 12:39 a.m. on April 4.

    A little after 2 a.m., security footage shows Lee and Momeni leaving the building and getting into Momeni’s BMW. Additional footage from the area shows the two driving in the car together.

    Video then shows the BMW drive to a “dark and secluded area” on Main Street, just out of view for the video to see the interaction between the two men, per the document.

    Eventually, the two subjects, who are unidentifiable by their faces but seem to be wearing the same clothing as earlier, appear back in frame. After about five minutes, the subject wearing a white-colored top, consistent with what Momeni appeared to be wearing, “suddenly move(s) toward the other subject,” the document says. The two subjects then separate.

    The person in dark-colored clothing, who authorities believe to be Lee, walks northbound, while the person in the light-colored clothing walks south and stops along a fence, where a knife was ultimately recovered, the document says. The BMW then speeds away, the document states.

    A kitchen knife was found near the scene, Jenkins has said.

    The toxicology report shows Lee had cocaine, ketamine and alcohol in his system at the time of the stabbing, but the substances were not indicated as a factor in his death.

    The alcohol was equivalent to the amount of a beer, and the ketamine could have been given as anesthesia in the hospital, said Dr. Kendall Von Crowns, the chief medical examiner in Tarrant County, Texas, who reviewed and analyzed the toxicology report for CNN.

    Canny used the toxicology report to accuse Lee of unstated wrongdoing and said it would be a factor in Momeni’s defense.

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  • Grand jury indicts Bryan Kohberger in stabbing deaths of 4 Idaho students

    Grand jury indicts Bryan Kohberger in stabbing deaths of 4 Idaho students

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    Grand jury indicts Bryan Kohberger in stabbing deaths of 4 Idaho students – CBS News


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    Bryan Kohberger, a former teaching assistant at Washington State University, was indicted Wednesday by a grand jury on murder charges in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students at an off-campus home last November.

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  • 98-year-old woman and her daughter among 3 victims killed by New Mexico student who fired randomly, hitting cars and homes | CNN

    98-year-old woman and her daughter among 3 victims killed by New Mexico student who fired randomly, hitting cars and homes | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A 98-year-old woman and her 73-year-old daughter were among the three people killed by an 18-year-old high school student who roamed through his neighborhood Monday firing indiscriminately at homes and passersby in their vehicles, according to authorities in the northwestern New Mexico town of Farmington.

    In all, Beau Wilson shot nine people Monday morning before four Farmington police officers fatally shot him, police officials said at a Tuesday news conference.

    Gwendolyn Schofield, 98, and daughter Melody Ivie, 73, were killed in their vehicle and Shirley Volta, 79, who also was shot in a car, died at a hospital, according to authorities.

    Farmington Police Sgt. Rachel Discenza was wounded in the exchange of fire with the assailant and New Mexico State Police officer Andreas Stamatiadas was shot as he came to the scene.

    Four other wounded victims were hospitalized, but like the officers, have been released.

    “The amount of violence and brutality that these innocent people faced is something that is unconscionable to me. And I don’t care what age you are. I don’t care what else is going on in your life. To kill three innocent elderly women that were just absolutely in no position to defend themselves is always going to be a tragedy,” Farmington Deputy Chief Kyle Dowdy said Tuesday.

    Investigators are still working on a motive for the shooting, Dowdy said. Interviews with Wilson’s family indicated they had concerns about his mental health, but it was unknown whether Wilson had been diagnosed with any mental health issues, he added.

    The shooter only had “minor infractions” as a juvenile, so he was not on the radar of authorities, the deputy chief said.

    The gunman turned 18 in October 2022 and the next month purchased one of the three weapons used in the shooting, Dowdy said. The deputy chief said police believe the other weapons were legally owned by a family member and they are investigating how the shooter got them.

    One of the guns was an assault-style rifle – a weapon of choice among US mass shooters in recent, high-profile massacres, including the 2012 Sandy Hook school attack and a shooting in Uvalde, Texas, nearly a year ago that left 19 children and two teachers dead.

    The attack left Farmington “shaken to the core by an unthinkable incldent that robbed families of their loved ones,” Mayor Nate Duckett told reporters. It is the latest American city to experience the wider scourge of US gun violence that’s resulted in 225 mass shootings in the first 20 weeks of the year.

    The shooter walked through the neighborhood in this commercial hub near the Southwest’s Four Corners and “randomly fired at whatever entered his head to shoot at,” before police fatally shot him, Police Chief Steve Hebbe said in a video statement Monday night.

    “There were no schools, no churches, no individuals targeted,” he said.

    Dowdy said investigators have not seen a link between the assailant and the victims, but the shooter was staying at a residence in the neighborhood.

    Investigators are piecing together how the attack that left more than 150 shell casings over a “wide and complex scene” that spans more than a quarter of a mile unfolded, authorities said. The assailant fired at three vehicles and six houses, though none of the victims was in a residence.

    Dowdy said investigators were still at the scene and haven’t found all the shell casings it was unclear how many of those the gunman fired.

    Discenza, a patrol sergeant with 10 years at the department, was wearing body armor but was hit by a bullet in the pelvic region, police officials said.

    Stamatiadas was shot while driving to the scene, officials said, and drove himself to a medical facility, according to the chief. The mayor said both have been released from the hospital.

    The four civilians who were shot are no longer in the hospital, Farmington Deputy Chief Baric Crum said Tuesday,

    Five people were treated at the scene for injuries such as cuts from flying glass.

    The shooting was first recorded on a doorbell camera at 10:56 a.m. MT and then emergency dispatch received “hundreds” of calls for an active shooter, police said. Officers were dispatched one minute later, including three who on their way to lunch and responded without body armor.

    They arrived at 11:02 and four minutes later the officers killed the gunman, according to Dowdy. Farmington officers were the only law enforcement personnel who shot at the gunman, firing 16 rounds total, officials said.

    Wilson was a student at Farmington High School, which was set to have its graduation ceremony Tuesday evening.

    Authorities expect to hold another news conference Wednesday.

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  • 5/15: CBS Evening News

    5/15: CBS Evening News

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    5/15: CBS Evening News – CBS News


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    At least 3 killed in New Mexico shooting; Recalled Gerber baby food was still distributed

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  • At least 3 killed in New Mexico shooting

    At least 3 killed in New Mexico shooting

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    At least 3 killed in New Mexico shooting – CBS News


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    At least three people were killed and two officers were wounded in a mass shooting in Farmington, New Mexico. The shooter is also dead. Janet Shamlian reports.

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  • 2 dead, 5 injured following shooting involving teens in Yuma, Arizona | CNN

    2 dead, 5 injured following shooting involving teens in Yuma, Arizona | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Police in southwestern Arizona are investigating a fatal weekend shooting that left two people dead and five others injured, including teenagers, authorities said Sunday.

    Victims ranged from 15 to 20 years old in the shooting that happened Saturday night at a gathering in a residential area of Yuma, according to the Yuma Police Department.

    Officers responded shortly before 11 p.m. local time and found several gunshot victims who were all male, police said in a statement.

    Two of the victims – 19-year-old and 20-year-old men – were taken to the Yuma Regional Medical Center, where they were both pronounced dead.

    The 19-year-old victim was transported to the hospital before police arrived at the scene, and the Yuma Fire Department took the 20-year-old victim to the hospital, the statement said.

    A 16-year-old boy was also taken to the same medical center and later flown to Phoenix with life-threatening injuries.

    The injuries of the remaining gunshot victims aged 15, 16, 18 and 19 were not life-threatening, authorities said.

    Several off-duty officers who happened to be in the area also responded to the shooting, police said.

    Investigators were interviewing several witnesses Sunday, said Yuma Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Lori Franklin, CNN affiliate KYMA reported.

    A suspect has not yet been taken into custody as authorities continue their investigation, according to the statement.

    The shooting marks the 33rd mass shooting of May 2023, and more than 215 mass shootings in the US so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

    CNN and the GVA define a mass shooting as one in which four or more people were either injured or killed, excluding the shooter.

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  • Lori Vallow Daybell: Guilty

    Lori Vallow Daybell: Guilty

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    Lori Vallow Daybell: Guilty – CBS News


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    A jury in Idaho found Lori Vallow Daybell guilty on all charges, including the murders of her two children and conspiracy to commit murder in the death of her husband’s first wife. “48 Hours” contributor Jonathan Vigliotti takes you inside the case that gripped the nation.

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  • 5/12: CBS Evening News

    5/12: CBS Evening News

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    5/12: CBS Evening News – CBS News


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    Lori Vallow Daybell convicted of murdering 2 of her children; Seventh grader who took wheel of school bus after driver lost consciousness called “hero”.

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  • Lori Vallow Daybell convicted of murdering 2 of her children

    Lori Vallow Daybell convicted of murdering 2 of her children

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    Lori Vallow Daybell convicted of murdering 2 of her children – CBS News


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    An Idaho jury on Friday found Lori Vallow Daybell guilty in the murders of two of her children, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow. Daybell was also found guilty of conspiring to kill her husband’s first wife, Tammy Daybell. Kris Van Cleave reports from Boise.

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  • Joran van der Sloot, suspect in disappearance of Natalee Holloway, to be extradited to U.S.

    Joran van der Sloot, suspect in disappearance of Natalee Holloway, to be extradited to U.S.

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    Joran van der Sloot to be extradited to U.S.


    Joran van der Sloot to be extradited to U.S. to face extortion charges

    02:17

    Joran van der Sloot, the Dutchman connected to the 2005 disappearance of American Natalee Holloway in Aruba, will be temporarily extradited to the U.S. to face charges of extortion and wire fraud, Peruvian authorities announced Wednesday. Van der Sloot is currently serving a 28-year sentence for the 2010 killing of 21-year-old college student Stephany Flores in Lima.

    Holloway went missing in May 2005 while on a senior class trip in Aruba, where van der Sloot is from. She was last seen leaving a bar with van der Sloot, who was detained and questioned, but never charged. The U.S. is accusing van der Sloot of attempting to extort Holloway’s family with promises of leading them to her body, which has never been found.  

    Holloway was declared dead by an Alabama judge in 2012, more than six years after her disappearance. One day earlier, van der Sloot pleaded guilty to Flores’ murder. 

    The Peruvian attorney general’s office said in a statement to CBS News that Van der Sloot will be temporarily handed over to the U.S. for prosecution and will return to Peru “immediately following the proceedings.”

    “We hope that this action will enable a process that will help to bring peace to Mrs. Holloway and to her family, who are grieving in the same way that the Flores family in Peru is grieving for the loss of their daughter, Stephany,” said Gustavo Meza-Cuadra, Peru’s ambassador to the U.S., in a statement.

    A State Department spokesperson told CBS News on Thursday that the department doesn’t comment on extradition matters and referred questions to the Justice Department. A DOJ spokesperson declined to comment Wednesday.

    Alex Sundby contributed reporting.


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  • Joran van der Sloot to be extradited to U.S. to face extortion charges

    Joran van der Sloot to be extradited to U.S. to face extortion charges

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    Joran van der Sloot to be extradited to U.S. to face extortion charges – CBS News


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    Joran van der Sloot, the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalie Holloway in Aruba, will be extradited to the U.S. from Peru to face charges that he attempted to extort Holloway’s family. He is currently serving a 28-year prison sentence in Peru for the 2010 murder of a different woman, 21-year-old Stephany Flores. Elaine Quijano has more.

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  • Kouri Richins wrote a children’s book on grief after her husband died. Now she’s charged with his murder.

    Kouri Richins wrote a children’s book on grief after her husband died. Now she’s charged with his murder.

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    After her husband died last year, she wrote a children’s book on grief. Now she’s charged with his murder.

    Kouri Richins was arrested on Monday in Utah and is accused in charging documents of poisoning her husband with a lethal dose of fentanyl at their home in Kamas, a small mountain town near Park City. According to a probable cause statement, the victims “told a friend that he thought his wife was trying to poison him,” CBS affiliate KUTV reported.

    Wife Murder Children's Book
    This photo provided by KPCW.org shows Kouri Richins at the KPCW studio in Park City, Utah, April 12, 2023. Richins was arrested on May 8, 2023 in Utah and is accused in charging documents of poisoning her husband with a lethal dose of fentanyl at their home in Kamas.

    / AP


    Prosecutors allege that Richins called authorities in the middle of the night in March 2022 to report that her husband, Eric Richins, was “cold to the touch.” The mother of three told officers that she had made her husband a mixed vodka drink to celebrate him selling a home and then went to soothe one of their children to sleep in their bedroom. She later returned and upon finding her husband unresponsive, called 911.

    A medical examiner later found five times the lethal dosage of fentanyl in his system.

    In addition to the murder charge, Richins also faces charges involving the alleged possession of GHB – a narcolepsy drug frequently used in recreational settings, including at dance clubs.

    Detectives said they found evidence that Richins had communicated with a person who has previously been charged for possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, KUTV reported. Richins reportedly texted this person to ask for some prescription pain medication for an investor who had a back injury, and she was given hydrocodone pills. About two weeks later, Kouri said her investor wanted something stronger and requested “some of the Michael Jackson stuff,” asking specifically for fentanyl.

    KUTV reported that three days after Richins allegedly procured the fentanyl — she and her husband had a Valentine’s Day dinner in which he “became very ill,” a probable cause statement read.

    “Eric believed that he had been poisoned,” the statement said. “Eric told a friend that he thought his wife was trying to poison him.”

    The charges come two months after Richins appeared on local television to promote “Are you with me?” a picture book she wrote to help children cope after the death of a loved one.

    For a segment entitled “Good Things Utah,” Richins called her husband’s death unexpected and described how it sent her and her three boys reeling. For children, she said, grieving was about “making sure that their spirit is always alive in your home.”

    “It’s – you know – explaining to my kid just because he’s not present here with us physically, doesn’t mean his presence isn’t here with us,” she told the anchors, who commended her for being an amazing mother.

    KUTV reports the dedication section of the book reads: “Dedicated to my amazing husband and a wonderful father.”

    Richins’ attorney, Skye Lazaro, declined to comment on the charges.

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  • Where is Diana Duve?

    Where is Diana Duve?

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    Where is Diana Duve? – CBS News


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    When a woman disappears with her boyfriend, investigators learn he was entrusted with millions at his bank job, but he also told outlandish lies about who he was. “48 Hours” contributor Michelle Miller reports.

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  • Eric Smith: Gambling on a Killer

    Eric Smith: Gambling on a Killer

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    When he was 13 years old, he committed an unthinkable crime. 28 years later, Smith is out on parole. What’s next for him? “48 Hours” contributor Jim Axelrod reports.

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