Tag: crime

SICK! Don Lemon Whines After Judge Refuses to Give Convicted Killer Karmelo Anthony a Do-Over — “He Was 17!”

Fired CNN host Don Lemon is back again wringing his hands over convicted murderer Karmelo Anthony, and he wants you to feel sorry for the teenager who stabbed 17-year-old Austin Metcalf in the heart at a high school track meet.

A Texas judge on Saturday denied Anthony’s motion for a new trial, leaving his murder conviction and 35-year prison sentence intact.

Anthony was convicted in June of murdering 17-year-old Austin during a high school track meet in Frisco, Texas, on April 2, 2025.

Austin died in the arms of his twin brother, Hunter.

But Lemon appears far more troubled by the consequences facing the convicted killer than by the permanent sentence Anthony imposed on Austin and his devastated family.

Lemon said:

“Breaking—and it is complicated, so make sure you pay attention. Karmelo Anthony is not getting a new trial, and after what came out in court last week, I have questions.

“We learned there was a private, off-the-record agreement to keep the troubled youths’ backgrounds—both teenagers—away from the jury.

“Austin Metcalf had allegations involving racial slurs, bullying, and assault. Karmelo had allegations involving threatening texts, stalking, and assault. None of that came in.

“And Karmelo’s former lawyer says that they had planned to put him on the stand, but all of this helped change that decision.

“So now the defense says the first trial was too controlled, too secretive, and unfair. The judge said no. Thirty-five years still stands.

“And I’m still stuck on one thing: He was 17. Seventeen years old. And now he could spend most of his life in prison. That is a hell of a sentence for a teenager.”

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Accused Murderer Out on $600K Bond Recruited USPS Carriers to Steal Nearly $24 MILLION in Checks — Then Sold Them on Telegram

A 28-year-old Houston man already free on a $600,000 bond in a murder case is now accused of running a nearly $24 million check-theft ring, by recruiting U.S. Postal Service mail carriers to steal checks off their own routes and selling the loot on Telegram.

Tryston Tremaine Vaughn, 28, is alleged to have recruited USPS mail carriers to steal checks on their delivery routes, the DOJ said in an August 25 statement.

Those checks were then allegedly bought from the postal workers by Vaughn and others, advertised on a Telegram channel called “slipsandchips,” and shipped to buyers across the country via FedEx.

Prosecutors say the haul totaled approximately $23,973,338.15. One stolen check was for $1.5 million.

And the man accused of running the operation was not locked in a cell while this was happening. He was walking around on bond after a fatal shooting.

A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Texas returned a nine-count indictment charging five people:

  • Tryston Tremaine Vaughn, 28 — alleged recruiter and ringleader
  • Alyssa Nadine Bryant, 27 — accused of helping buy, sell, and ship the stolen checks
  • Catherine Clauzelle Kilpatrick, 29 — USPS mail carrier (Greens North Station)
  • Drakkor Jamar Alexander, 34 — USPS mail carrier (Spring Main Post Office)
  • Malcolm Tiree Joubert, 35 — USPS mail carrier (Windmill Station)

All five face conspiracy to commit bank fraud and bank fraud. The three carriers also face theft of mail matter by a postal employee.

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Army Lays Groundwork for First Military Executions Since 1961

The Army has prepared for the possibility of carrying out executions of the military’s death row prisoners if President Donald Trump approves them.

The plan would apply to the military’s four death row inmates and would mark the first U.S. military execution in more than six decades if carried out, according to an internal planning document first reviewed by ABC News. The outlet reported earlier this month that said document is called “Operation Resolute Justice” and was internally issued within the Army this past February.

“Exercises regarding this operation have been conducted regularly for the past 20 years,” Cynthia Smith, an Army spokesperson, told ABC News, adding in early June that no orders had been handed down by Trump. “These drills are a standard component of our continued planning and preparation if the president approves a death sentence,”

The main holdup is built into military law. Article 71 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice says a court-martial death sentence “may not be executed until approved by the president,” and it also bars execution until appellate review produces a final judgment on the legality of the proceedings. That requirement explains why military death sentences can sit for decades after trial.

Ronald Gray, sentenced to death in 1988 for murders and rapes near Fort Bragg, had an approved execution date set for Dec. 10, 2008, but a federal court stayed the execution on Nov. 26, 2008.

The last U.S. military execution occurred April 13, 1961, when Army Pvt. John A. Bennett was hanged after being convicted of rape and attempted murder.

Ronald Gray, Hasan Akbar, Timothy Hennis and Nidal Hasan are prisoners currently sentenced to death in the military system. They were imprisoned based on the following crimes:

  • Gray was convicted by general court-martial of 14 charges, including premeditated murder, attempted murder and three rapes.
  • Akbar was sentenced to death in 2005 after a grenade and shooting attack killed Army Capt. Christopher Seifert and Air Force Maj. Gregory Stone and wounded 14 other soldiers in Kuwait in 2003.
  • Hennis was sentenced to death in 2010 after a military trial for a 1985 triple murder.
  • Hasan was sentenced to death in 2013 after killing 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009.

What the Army Is Preparing

The Army plan is called “Operation Resolute Justice” and involves coordination with the Federal Bureau of Prisons for possible executions at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Ind.

The plan outlines procedures for transferring condemned prisoners from the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., to Terre Haute, arranging a viewing station for witnesses and coordinating with federal prison officials. Terre Haute has housed all the federal government’s executions since 2001.

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Write Code, Go to Prison. Slaughter Children, Get a Pardon: Welcome to American “Justice”

If you want to understand the true nature of the American justice system, look at who it pardons and who it cages. This is a regime that hands full clemency to executives who admit, in writing, to laundering money for hackers and drug cartels, while it hunts down software developers who never touched a single dollar that wasn’t theirs, who had zero victims, and then buries them under decades of federal time. The hypocrisy is not incidental. It is the modus operandi of the machine: the state does not actually care about fraud, laundering, or victims. It cares about control, and control is exactly what open-source financial privacy takes away from it.

We said it after Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht in January 2025: the pardon was a great start, but the debt owed to the rest of the political prisoners rotting in federal cages was nowhere near paid. Nineteen months later, that debt has been settled only for the defendants with the most useful political connections, while the actual innovators, the ones who built tools instead of stealing from innocent people, are still being ground up by the exact same machine.

Take for instance, Roman Storm, who is still fighting for his freedom for the “crime” of writing code. A Manhattan jury convicted him in August 2025 on a single count tied to Tornado Cash, a privacy protocol, and deadlocked on the far more serious and entirely unprovable money-laundering and sanctions charges, and rather than take that hung jury as the warning it was, federal prosecutors are pushing for an October 2026 retrial on the very counts they couldn’t get a conviction on the first time. This is happening while the Justice Department’s own March 2026 report to Congress admits that lawful Americans have every right to use mixers to protect their financial privacy. The state knows it is prosecuting a man for building something it has since conceded is legal to use. It is pursuing him anyway. Storm’s own team has called this what it is, an attempt to make writing code a crime, and this past week Storm pointed out that if prosecutors’ theory of liability were applied honestly, it would put Google and OpenAI in a federal courtroom right alongside him.

If you want to be even more angry, read about Dexter Taylor’s case. Taylor is still in a maximum-security cage for building firearms in his own apartment that he never sold, never trafficked, and never used to harm a single human being. He is three years into a ten-year sentence, parole-eligible only in 2032, still appealing a conviction his attorney says could take years and go all the way to the Supreme Court. A software engineer with zero prior criminal history is serving longer than plenty of people convicted of manslaughter, for a hobby with no victim, and the state has shown no interest in correcting that.

Ian Freeman already lost his appeal, which is what happens when the machine runs its full course, and the state simply wins by default. Freeman helped people convert cash into Bitcoin through Bitcoin ATMs and church-run kiosks, and for that he was locked in a state-run cage after a federal appellate court affirmed both his conviction and his sentence in the summer of 2025. He is still in that cage today for giving people a way to hold their own money outside the banking cartel.

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Caught on Video: Alleged Israeli Crime Boss Gunned Down in Broad Daylight at Gas Station in Caesarea

Yushvaev had often been arrested, but never convicted.

Shocking footage that’s going viral online shows a man being shot dead at a gas station in Israel’s Caesarea.

The man has been identified as Yanis Yushvaev, described in local media as the boss of Israel’s Caucasian Mafia.

The Times of Israel reported:

“Yushvaev, 40, a resident of the central town of Or Akiva, was well known to police and had been repeatedly arrested in recent years on suspicion of violent crimes.

Footage of the shooting showed a man wearing a hoodie and cap approaching a restaurant at the Caesarea Junction gas station. The man met Yushvaev and two other men at the door as they walked out, and passed them by, only to suddenly spin around, draw a handgun, and shoot Yushvaev from behind at point-blank range. He then fled the scene.”

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Former CDC Scientist Whose Studies Were Used to ‘Debunk’ Vaccine-Autism Link Will Plead Guilty

A former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) scientist who played a crucial role in research rebutting any link between vaccines and autism is expected to plead guilty next week to wire fraud and money laundering.

Poul Thorsen, 65, is finalizing a plea deal with prosecutors relating to charges stemming from a 2011 federal indictment, Nathan Kitchens, assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, told The Defender.

Thorsen, who began working for the CDC in the late 1990s, faces two counts of wire fraud and nine counts of money laundering related to over $1 million in CDC grant money. The funds were earmarked for autism and public health research, but Thorsen allegedly used them to buy a home, two cars and a motorcycle.

Kitchens declined to comment on whether Thorsen will plead guilty to all or some of the charges.

Thorsen has been held in federal custody without bail since his extradition from Germany to the U.S. in May. The case is being heard at a federal court in Georgia, where the CDC is headquartered.

Researcher James Grundvig, the parent of a child with autism who was vaccine-injured, called the expected guilty plea “a very big deal.”

Grundvig, who wrote “Master Manipulator: The Explosive True Story of Fraud, Embezzlement, and Government Betrayal at the CDC,” which focused on the Thorsen case, praised U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for extraditing Thorsen “in record speed.”

He said Thorsen likely understands that the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice have “all the goods” to prosecute him.

“I guess Thorsen’s realizing, since he’s in American jail already and has no chance for bail, he might as well make a plea deal,” Grundvig said.

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Man Accused of Threatening Mass Shootings at Five North Carolina Schools Released from Jail Days Before Classes Resume

A Charlotte man charged with making detailed threats to carry out mass shootings at five public schools has been released from jail just three days before students in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools district were scheduled to return to class.

The man’s release has sparked outrage among parents concerned for their children’s safety.

Drew Andres Owens, 33, was released from the Mecklenburg County Jail at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday after posting a reduced bond, according to jail records obtained by the New York Post, with the new school year beginning today.

Owens faces five felony counts of communicating threats of mass violence on educational property and has pleaded not guilty. The case remains pending.

Court documents explain that Owens allegedly sent emails on February 15, 2025, threatening to “slaughter staff and students” at West Charlotte High School, Ardrey Kell High School, Community House Middle School, and Hawk Ridge Elementary School.

A separate indictment involves a mailed threat against Garinger High School.

The affidavit claimed a student armed with two shotguns and an AR-15 would carry out the attack, though school administrators found no such student enrolled.

Owens’ own father, a West Charlotte High School ROTC instructor, confirmed to police that his son was responsible for the threats.

The Post reports:

Darryl Owens allegedly told authorities that his son had harassed relatives, neighbors and family friends after being removed from the family home in 2021, and had sent unsigned emails and letters threatening to kill or shoot people at multiple locations.

The father told police he had previously obtained a restraining order against his son, that Owens had been arrested for violating it and that the order was later dismissed.

He also told police that Owens had recently sat outside neighbors’ homes and photographed his car at West Charlotte High School “to try to lure him outside.”

His original combined bond of roughly $200,000 was later reduced to $60,000 for the primary case.

Owens is reportedly under electronic monitoring and ordered to stay away from school campuses.

Parents don’t think that is enough.

“Is he going to show up at one of the schools? It’s not good,” one parent told local station WSOC. “I’m not going to feel at ease; I’m not going to pretend it’s OK.”

Another parent told the station, “It’s really unnerving for some of us. We live in the area where he knows people, and again it’s not positive; it’s scary.”

“He’s out, and that’s it, and the rest of us have to deal with it, and teachers have to go to school on Tuesday and deal with it,” they added.

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Palm Beach County REC Voting To Replace Indicted Candidate

Palm Beach County, Florida – The Republican Executive Committee (REC) of Palm Beach County is holding an emergency meeting this week to vote on a replacement candidate for Mike Caruso on the November 3 ballot. Caruso is the incumbent Clerk of the Court and Comptroller, but he was indicted last week for child abuse, and Governor DeSantis immediately suspended him from his position. Nevertheless, Caruso has refused to withdraw from his race for re-election.

Even if the REC nominates a replacement, Caruso’s name is highly likely to remain on the November ballot. Florida election rules make it extremely difficult for a substitute’s name to appear in time. The Supervisor of Elections requires the entire process to be completed by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, August 26. A similar situation occurred in 2006 with former Republican Congressman Mark Foley, who remained on the ballot after criminal charges related to a Congressional page and ultimately lost.

Republican voters in Palm Beach County now face a difficult predicament. Many fear Caruso’s presence on the ballot could drag down the entire Republican ticket in the County, and potentially hurt Byron Donalds’ gubernatorial campaign, which needs strong turnout from Palm Beach County’s roughly 300,000 Republican voters.

Caruso still retains strong allies on the REC Board, including State Committeeman Joe LaFauci, State Committeewoman Jodi Schwartz, Secretary Katina Maxwell and Treasurer Jane Pike. LaFauci is described as a close friend of Caruso; Caruso and his wife Tracy campaigned and raised funds vigorously for LaFauci in 2024. Rumors circulate that Tracy may seek to succeed her husband as Clerk of the Court and Comptroller.

REC Chairman Cascio is currently in Europe on vacation and has insisted on running tonight’s meeting via Zoom rather than allowing Vice Chairwoman Lonnie Weinberg—the only REC Board member widely viewed as having no ties to Caruso—to preside. Cascio has publicly stated that Caruso is “innocent until proven guilty.”

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The Left Cries ‘Racism’ as Residents in Majority-Black City Have Been Left Without Power for Two Weeks – Then Community Notes Reveals the Damning Truth

An inconvenient truth regarding out-of-control crime has blown up another racial hoax attempted by the radical left regarding an unfortunate circumstance in a major majority-black city in America.

Thousands of residents of Gary, Indiana, have been left without power for two weeks following severe storms with 100-mph winds on August 11 that destroyed the region’s electrical grid.

This has created a massive humanitarian crisis, as many families are resorting to cooking meals in public parks because so many grocery stores are closed and they’re desperately trying to prevent more food from spoiling.

The delay is certainly tragic and has left thousands of residents in the 76.2% black city suffering. But instead of utilizing intellectual curiosity, leftists on social media quickly cried ‘racism.’

But X’s Community Notes quickly nuked the race-baiting angle with the real reason for the delays.

It turns out that some residents of Gary decided to shoot at NIPSCO crew members who were attempting to restore power to the city.

Why should utility workers risk their lives when the people of the community make it clear they are unwelcome?

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Another Winner: Radical DSA Candidate for US House, Defund the Police Advocate and Convicted Felon Trashed Black Leaders Last Year – Hakeem Jeffries Forced to Speak Out Against Him

The party of tolerance and inclusion strikes again.

DSA Democrat William Lawrence is under fire for demeaning older black political leaders.

New video has surfaced of Democratic DSA candidate William Lawrence, a convicted felon and defund the police protester, being confronted after he said that older Black political leaders “defang the white left.”

Lawrence is very popular on the far left and with the communist faction taking control of the Democrat Party. William Lawrence was arrested and found guilty in 2013 during a protest against a Michigan gas pipeline.

Lawrence was so impressed with his activism that he posted a picture of the protest on his Instagram page.

Lawrence also spoke out publicly about defunding the police although he now is attempting to distance himself from those comments.

And William Lawrence also has been very public in his hatred of Israel and support for Palestinians.

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