Tag: crime

‘Cannibal’ killer warning signs exposed in new report with release plan already in motion

New prison documents show that Tyree Smith, who has been dubbed the “Connecticut Cannibal,” exhibited violent behavior behind bars and was a “serious threat to life” in prison before he was granted release, according to a news report.

Smith confessed to the 2011 killing of a homeless man, Angel Gonzalez, in Connecticut, and he admitted to eating the victim’s body parts in a cemetery.

In 2013, a three-judge panel found Smith not guilty by reason of insanity in the death of Gonzalez. However, he was committed to Connecticut Valley Hospital for 60 years.

Smith was granted a conditional release by the Nutmeg State’s Psychiatric Security Review Board in February 2025, which allows him to leave Connecticut Valley Hospital in Middletown. However, Smith will remain under supervision and will continue to receive mental health services, according to WTNH.

For months, Smith has been staying full-time at a community facility with strict conditions, treatment and around-the-clock supervision, CBS News reported after the release from the hospital was granted.

Smith’s doctor said the cannibal killer has been rehabilitated and is taking medications to help with psychosis and voices in his head, WTNH reported.

“To quote the director there, he is a joy. He is considered a support to the other people there,” forensic psychiatrist Caren Teitelbaum said. “Once he was stable, he was a really calming presence for other patients.”

“He has maintained clinical stability. Adhered to the medications and continued to engage in group and substance abuse treatment,” Teitelbaum added. “He also denied visual hallucinations and a desire to harm others or himself.”

However, new prison documents obtained by WTNH from the Connecticut Department of Correction suggest otherwise.

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Ex-State Department employee pleads guilty to embezzling $650K

A former budget analyst for the State Department has pleaded guilty to embezzling $657,347.50 during her employment.

Levita Almuete Ferrer, 64, of Maryland, admitted she used her signature authority over a checking account for the State Department between March 2022 and April 2024.

Ferrer, also known as Levita Brezovic, attempted to hide the scheme through a QuickBooks account, specifically assigning herself as the payee and printing them.

She would often then alter the payee in QuickBooks to a genuine State Department vendor, making it difficult to trace her activities.

Ferrer pleaded guilty to theft of government property and will be sentenced on Sept. 18. She faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.

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California Penal Reform And The Violent Criminals It Let Loose

Smiley Martin should have been behind bars. 

A career criminal with a long rap sheet involving firearms, he was given a 10 year sentence in 2018 for punching, dragging and severely beating his girlfriend with a belt. In prison, Martin was found guilty of beating another inmate and engaging in other criminal activity. Nevertheless, he was freed just four years later, thanks to a plea deal that categorized him as a “nonviolent offender” and a California ballot measure that sharply reduced sentences for “good behavior.”

Just two months after his release, Martin and several accomplices, including his brother, were arrested for carrying out the worst mass shooting in Sacramento’s history – leaving six dead and 12 others injured on April 3, 2022. Martin was charged with three counts of murder and illegal possession of a firearm, including a machine gun. He will not stand trial on those charges, since the 29-year-old died in jail of a drug overdose last September.

Martin’s life and death have brought attention to the criminal justice reform that helped put him back on the streets: Proposition 57. The ballot measure was sold to the public in 2016 as a way to relieve the state’s chronically overcrowded prisons by rewarding “nonviolent” offenders for good behavior by shortening their sentences. It was supposed to be a humanitarian answer to what social justice activists described as an epidemic of “mass incarceration.” It has instead put tens of thousands of violent offenders such as Martin back on the streets.

Many of them have been rearrested. The latest Recidivism Report from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation shows that nearly two thirds (64.2%) of the 34,215 inmates granted early release between July 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020 had been rearrested as of April 2, 2025.

Breaking down the recidivism rate for prisoners within three years of their release, it reported that “22.1% of the release cohort (7,567 individuals) were convicted of a felony offense, and 17.0% (5,828 individuals) were convicted of a misdemeanor offense.” The Department of Corrections also reports almost half the inmates granted early release had not earned any credits for good behavior.

Prop 57 critics are not surprised. In the run-up to the 2016 ballot measure – which was approved with the support of 65% of voters – the measure’s opponents warned that violent criminals like Martin would likely benefit from the initiative.

But they were denounced as scaremongers. When Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert warned that Prop 57 would free perpetrators of domestic violence, then-Gov. Jerry Brown, who was the top proponent for the ballot measure, shot back; “That’s a complete red herring, and it’s very disingenuous of these highly politicized prosecutors to make that claim.” Brown assured voters that each inmate’s crime and behavior in prison would be considered before release was granted. 

While supporters of Prop 57 described it as a humane response to a court order, critics say its proponents misrepresented the bill to secure its passage. At a time when President Trump is putting progressive criminal justice organizations in his crosshairs, the troubled history of Prop 57 highlights the challenges of rehabilitating inmates while also reducing prison overcrowding without building more prisons.

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Illegal Alien Charged in Rape of Corpse on NYC Subway

An illegal alien has been arrested for raping a corpse in a New York City subway car, authorities say.

On Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revealed the immigration history of Felix Rojas, 44, who allegedly performed horrific sexual acts on the body of a man who died inside a Manhattan subway car last month.

Rojas was arrested on Sunday and charged with rape and grand larceny in connection with the attack, which unfolded on April 8.

That night, 37-year-old Jorge Gonzalez boarded an R train and bummed a cigarette off another passenger, surveillance footage shows.

Minutes later, Gonzalez lost consciousness and ultimately died from causes that remain unclear, although his estranged wife has reportedly said he suffered from cirrhosis tied to alcohol abuse.

Rojas approached Gonzalez approximately 30 minutes later and began rifling through his pockets.

The suspected thief then proceeded to methodically penetrate Gonzalez’s mouth and anus, repositioning the victim’s body multiple times and pausing when the car doors opened, prosecutors say.

“To make sure he had not missed anything when he searched the victim before sexually assaulting him, the defendant searched the person of the victim once more after he had penetrated him, going so far as to take off the victim’s shoes,” said Assistant District Attorney Antonio Melchionna during Rojas’ arraignment on Tuesday in Manhattan Criminal Court.

“The defendant was careful enough to stop what he was doing as the train would approach and stop at stations along the line. He even took the time to sit down and act inconspicuous as passengers entered the train car.”

Rojas was arrested after his son alerted authorities upon seeing security footage released by NYPD.

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Harvard Law Review Awards $65k Fellowship to Student Charged in Assault of Israeli Classmate: Report

The Harvard Law Review is awarding a $65,000 fellowship meant to serve “the public interest” to Ibrahim Bharmal, the Harvard Law School student who faced criminal charges for assaulting an Israeli classmate, according to a new report.

Bharmal is one of this year’s recipients of the Harvard Law Review Fellowship, Ira Stoll of The Editors reported. The program supports “recent Harvard Law School graduates”—Bharmal is set to graduate this month—with “a demonstrated interest in serving the public interest through their work and scholarship.” It comes with a $65,000 stipend that funds each fellow’s work “in a public-interest related role at a government agency or nonprofit organization.” For Bharmal, that work will come at the Council on American-Islamic Relations’s Los Angeles office, according to Stoll.

The move comes at a tumultuous time for both the Harvard Law Review and Harvard Law School. The Trump administration is probing both entities over internal documents, first reported in the Washington Free Beacon, that show editors at Harvard Law Review use race to select both editors and articles for publication. At least one private attorney, former Texas solicitor general Jonathan Mitchell, plans to sue the journal over the practice, ordering its editors on Friday to preserve documents that he plans to subpoena.

The law review claims to be separate from the law school, something a spokesman for Harvard, Jeff Neal, emphasized in a statement to the Free Beacon. The fellowship could undercut those claims. A Free Beacon review found that Harvard’s database for grant and fellowship opportunities, known as CARAT, advertises the fellowship. That advertisement states that a “committee of Harvard Law School and Harvard Law Review alumni in public interest careers chooses finalists from the set of applicants, and a faculty committee interviews the finalists to select fellows,” indicating Harvard faculty members signed off on Bharmal as a recipient.

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Second teen accused of sparking NJ wildfire that has torched 15K acres in Pine Barrens

A second teenager is accused of sparking the massive wildfire in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens.

A 17 year-old boy was charged with aggravated arson and hindering apprehension Wednesday for helping to ignite the fire that has burned more than 15,000 acres, according to the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office. He is not being identified because he is a minor.

Police say the teen helped Joseph Kling, 19, set wooden pallets on fire and that he lied to police about how the fire started.

Kling was arrested last week and charged with aggravated arson. He now faces an additional charge of hindering apprehension.

New Jersey firefighters battled the fierce blaze in the southern part of the state that took days to contain, and was thought to be the largest wildfire in the Garden State in the last 20 years.

A column of smoke was first spotted from the Cedar Bridge Fire Tower in Barnegat Township on April 22, and the fire quickly spread out of control, forcing the evacuation of 5,000 residents, and cutting electricity to 25,000 Garden Staters.

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Two Israeli businessmen murdered hours apart in same LA neighborhood — with one held captive for hours and beaten to death

Two Israeli businessmen were found murdered hours apart in their homes in the same section of Los Angeles Saturday, with one tied up and beaten to death while the other was identified as the brother of a prison warden in the Jewish state, police said.

There is no apparent connection between the two killings, but they both occurred in the San Fernando Valley inside the victims’ homes.

The murder of Alexander Modebadze, 47, was particularly heinous, according to cops.

Three attackers broke into Modebadze’s home, held him captive for hours and savagely beat him to death, police said in a statement.

Police later arrested and charged three Georgian nationals for the murder: Pata Kochiashvili, Zaza Outarashvili and Basiki Kutsishvili.

They are being held on a $2 million bail.

Later that day, cops found another murdered Israeli businessman in the San Fernando Valley: Meni Hidhra, the brother of the warden of Israel’s Nitzan Prison, the Jewish Journal reported.

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North Korea-linked gang ‘stole’ billions from Americans through romance scams, online schemes

A Cambodia-based gang with ties to North Korea has “stolen” billions of dollars from Americans through romance scams and other cyber-heists since August 2021, federal officials said Thursday in announcing a crackdown on the malign network.

For years, the online marketplace Huione Group has helped North Korea and other transnational criminal gangs rip people off by sending texts or direct messages on social media platforms and sites to bilk them for fake investments or “pig butchering.”

The cons, which also take place on dating or professional networking sites, have gotten US retirees and others to invest in crypto or other virtual currencies — before eventually defrauding them.

Between August 2021 and January 2025, Huione raked in at least $4 billion in proceeds from the romance and investment racket, with affiliates helping facilitate payments (Huione Pay PLC), provide fiat currencies (Huione Crypto), and furnish an online marketplace with illicit goods and services (Haowang Guarantee).

The US Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) shared the findings of its investigation into the Huione’s scam network exclusively with The Post, tallying up $37 million that went toward North Korean cyber heists and another $336 million in the romance and investments grift.

Now, the Treasury is taking action by proposing a federal rule to sever the Cambodian firm’s access to the US financial system.

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Judge rules Trump use of Alien Enemies Act for gangs is ‘unlawful’ 

A federal district judge ruled Thursday that the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) does not permit President Trump to swiftly deport alleged Venezuelan gang members to a prison in El Salvador, extending a block on the law being used against migrants detained in South Texas. 

U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr., a Trump appointee, said the rarely used law can only be invoked when an “organized, armed force” is entering the United States, rejecting the president’s claims that he can use it against alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA).

The ruling from Rodriguez offered a historical deep dive into the rarely used statute — used just three times prior in U.S. history, and all during times of war — while parsing terms central to igniting the power. 

Rodriguez determined Trump’s efforts to use the law to deport alleged gang members strayed from the strict war powers, writing that Trump’s invocation “exceeds the scope of the statute and, as a result, is unlawful.”

“The Proclamation makes no reference to and in no manner suggests that a threat exists of an organized, armed group of individuals entering the United States at the direction of Venezuela to conquer the country or assume control over a portion of the nation. Thus, the Proclamation’s language cannot be read as describing conduct that falls within the meaning of ‘invasion’ for purposes of the AEA,” he wrote. 

“While the Proclamation references that TdA members have harmed lives in the United States and engage in crime, the Proclamation does not suggest that they have done so through an organized armed attack, or that Venezuela has threatened or attempted such an attack through TdA members. As a result, the Proclamation also falls short of describing a ‘predatory incursion.’” 

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Second wife abuse report emerges against deported El Salvadoran: ‘ Me and my kids are afraid now’

The wife of recently deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia told a court in 2020 that while the couple lived in Maryland she faced physical and verbal abuse from her husband on multiple occasions, the earliest known petition for protection from domestic violence filed against the illegal immigrant shows. 

The complaint was followed by a second petition, in 2021, by wife Jennifer Vasquez against her husband for alleged domestic abuse. 

Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador with suspected gang ties, is now at the center of an intense court battle that could have wide-ranging impacts on President Donald Trump’s signature campaign issue and promise to voters: mass deportations of illegal immigrants that have crossed the border in record numbers in recent years. 

The detailed petition reviewed by Just the News is the latest piece in the growing body of evidence suggesting Abrego Garcia wasn’t the peaceful, law-abiding father “from Maryland,” as his wife and lawyers have claimed in the news media during the court battle to bring him home.

Vasquez, who recently said her deported husband is a “loving partner,” claimed in the August 2020 filing that during one incident Abrego Garcia locked their children in a basement room, slapped her, and broke her cellphone in anger when a police officer showed up at their residence.

“This is not the 1st time, it been [sic] a couple of occasion [sic] he takes my phone, and car [illegible] left without be able to call anyone,” Vasquez wrote in her petition. 

She also claimed that it was not the first time that Abrego Garcia physically abused her. “I have photos of all the bruises his [sic] left on my body,” she wrote. 

“In my house, his [sic] broken TV’s, my son’s tablet, my car windshield, phones, walls. Me and my kids are afraid now. His [sic] kicked me, bashed me, slapped me in the face,” Vasquez continued. 

Even more concerning, Vasquez claimed that her husband also suggested that he would face no consequences if he killed her. 

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