Tag: murder

Alvin Bragg’s Prison Reform Poster Boy (And Joe Rogan Guest) Charged With Murder

Sheldon Johnson, a “criminal justice activist,” is being held on murder charges following a gruesome discovery in a Bronx apartment: a dismembered body. The body, it is alleged, is that of a former prison rival.

Johnson, 48, worked at Queens Defenders (@QueensDefenders), a public legal defense firm.

Johnson became something of a cause célèbre in the past year. He was released early from prison, having served 25 years of a 50 year sentence. His release was the work of activist D.A. Alvin Bragg, who has sought to decriminalize and forgive scores of prisoners. We continue to see the fruit of his labors.

After he was spotted by a neighbor of the deceased, Johnson was monitored by building superintendent Orlando Medina on CCTV. Johnson left and returned to the apartment complex several times, once in a blond wig. The police were summoned. According to the NY Times, what they eventually discovered was gruesome.

Once the detectives obtained a warrant to search the apartment, they discovered the victim’s torso and feet inside the bin, the reports said. They also found his legs, arms and head in the freezer. Mr. Small had been shot at least once in the head.

—NYT

Wrote To Alvin Bragg From Prison

Johnson wrote to D.A. Bragg from prison, using the website PrisonWriters.com, a nonprofit organization that seeks so open channels of dialogue between prisoners and lawmakers. His letter is full of verbal flourishes, woke jargon, and fifty-cent words. The full body of the letter can be found here.

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Dem Rep., Biden Co-Chair Escobar on Riley Death: ‘The Issue Is Not that Migrants Commit Crimes’

On Friday’s broadcast of “CNN Newsroom,” Biden Campaign Co-Chair Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) reacted to the killing of Laken Riley by saying that while any criminals should face the fullest prosecution, “when Donald Trump was in office, over a million migrants were released. I’m sure that there was a fraction of those migrants who also committed crimes.” She also said in another part of the interview that “it has been immigrant labor, the immigrant workforce that has actually propped up our economy. The challenge we face is that Congress has not created legal pathways for them.”

Escobar said, “[I]t is impossible to deport every undocumented person in this country. There simply are not the resources, nor is it advantageous to us. I’m sure you’ve seen the reports, Jim, that it has been immigrant labor, the immigrant workforce that has actually propped up our economy. The challenge we face is that Congress has not created legal pathways for them. We can have both a manageable immigration system and a well-managed border, but it takes congressional action.”

Host Jim Acosta then asked, “But when you have cases like the case down in Georgia, the case up in New York where you have migrants committing crimes that get a lot of attention, horrific crimes, is there a need on the president’s part to start calling some of this out? Even though you look at crime in these cities where migrants have been bused up to places like New York and so on, crime is actually coming down in those places. But you do have these high-profile cases. Does the president need to speak out more on some of these cases?”

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Jam Master Jay: Two Men Found Guilty in Murder of Run-D.M.C. DJ

A JURY FOUND two men guilty of murdering the pioneering and world-famous DJ Jam Master Jay in 2002 at the conclusion of a federal trial on Tuesday. The verdict ends decades of speculation about why Jay, whose real name was Jason Mizell, had been killed. The jurors delivered the decision after weeks of testimony at the U.S. District Court – Eastern Division of New York courthouse in Brooklyn.

Karl Jordan Jr. and Ronald Washington were charged with murder “while engaged in a narcotics trafficking conspiracy and firearm-related murder,” per the Department of Justice.

“More than two decades after they killed Jason Mizell in his recording studio, Jordan and Washington have finally been held accountable for their cold-blooded crime driven by greed and revenge,” United States Attorney Breon Peace said. “That the victim, professionally known as Jam Master Jay, was a hip hop icon and Run-DMC’s music was born in Hollis, Queens, in this very district, and beloved by so many, adds to the tragedy of a life senselessly cut short.”

In 2020, U.S. attorneys indicted Jordan and Washington of conspiring to kill and conducting the murder of Mizell after a drug deal went bad. Mizell, U.S. attorneys claimed, had begun selling cocaine when Run-D.M.C.’s popularity started to fade, and that when a drug dealer refused to work with him if he included Washington in their plan for distribution, Washington and Jordan planned Mizell’s death.

In 2023, the government added another man, Jay Bryant, to the indictment, claiming that he helped Jordan and Washington gain access to Mizell, who was playing video games at a recording studio at the time of his death. Bryant is set to be tried in January 2026. Jordan and Washington each face a minimum of 20 years, with sentencing set for a later date. Jordan has also been charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and will be tried at a later date, per the DOJ.

Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall instructed attendees to remain calm, though it was anything but once the verdict was read. “Y’all just killed two innocent people,” Washington yelled after the verdict was announced. A supporter of Jordan screamed, “Bullshit. Bullshit. He didn’t do it. The Feds made the witnesses lie.”

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Illegal Immigrant In GA Murder Was Released From Custody Twice After Previous Arrests

Newly emerging details following the arrest of Jose Antonio Ibarra demonstrate the gross negligence that enabled him to enter into the country before taking residence in Georgia, ultimately leading to the murder of Laken Riley.

According to US Customers and Border Protection, Ibarra was arrested near the US-Mexico border on September 8, 2022 after entering the country illegally. Ibarra was subsequently released following his arrest before leaving Texas to take refuge in the sanctuary city that is Eric Adam’s NYC, where he was able to find gainful employment as an Uber driver.

While University Of Georgia Chief Of Police Jeff Clark stated that Ibarra did not have an “extensive” criminal history at the time of his arrest, that categorization omitted the fact that the suspect was arrested again in NYC just one week after being released by US Customs And Border Protection after entering the US illegally. According to a statement made by Immigration And Customs Enforcement following his arrest: “New York City police also arrested Ibarra last September and charged him “with acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 and a motor vehicle license violation,”

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“A journalist’s twenty-year fascination with the Manson murders leads to “gobsmacking” (The Ringer) new revelations about the FBI’s involvement in this “kaleidoscopic” (The New York Times) reassessment of an infamous case in American history.

Over two grim nights in Los Angeles, the young followers of Charles Manson murdered seven people, including the actress Sharon Tate, then eight months pregnant. With no mercy and seemingly no motive, the Manson Family followed their leader’s every order — their crimes lit a flame of paranoia across the nation, spelling the end of the sixties. Manson became one of history’s most infamous criminals, his name forever attached to an era when charlatans mixed with prodigies, free love was as possible as brainwashing, and utopia — or dystopia — was just an acid trip away.

Twenty years ago, when journalist Tom O’Neill was reporting a magazine piece about the murders, he worried there was nothing new to say. Then he unearthed shocking evidence of a cover-up behind the “official” story, including police carelessness, legal misconduct, and potential surveillance by intelligence agents. When a tense interview with Vincent Bugliosi — prosecutor of the Manson Family and author of Helter Skelter — turned a friendly source into a nemesis, O’Neill knew he was onto something. But every discovery brought more questions:

  • Who were Manson’s real friends in Hollywood, and how far would they go to hide their ties?
  • Why didn’t law enforcement, including Manson’s own parole officer, act on their many chances to stop him?
  • And how did Manson — an illiterate ex-con — turn a group of peaceful hippies into remorseless killers?

O’Neill’s quest for the truth led him from reclusive celebrities to seasoned spies, from San Francisco’s summer of love to the shadowy sites of the CIA’s mind-control experiments, on a trail rife with shady cover-ups and suspicious coincidences. The product of two decades of reporting, hundreds of new interviews, and dozens of never-before-seen documents from the LAPD, the FBI, and the CIA, Chaos mounts an argument that could be, according to Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Steven Kay, strong enough to overturn the verdicts on the Manson murders. This is a book that overturns our understanding of a pivotal time in American history.”

Ex-prison officer charged in death of NH psychiatric patient

A former corrections officer was charged Thursday with second-degree murder in the death of a patient at New Hampshire’s prison psychiatric unit nine months ago.

Matthew Millar, 39, of Boscawen, is accused of kneeling on Jason Rothe’s torso and neck for several minutes on April 29 while Rothe was face-down and handcuffed in the secure psychiatric unit at the state prison in Concord. The unit treats inmates in need of acute psychiatric care, those found not guilty by reason of insanity and those — like Rothe — who haven’t committed crimes but are deemed too dangerous to remain at the state psychiatric hospital.

According to court documents, Rothe, 50, was committed to New Hampshire Hospital in 2019 because of mental illness and transferred to the prison unit in 2022 out of concern he posed a risk to himself or others. Shortly after his death, investigators said Rothe died after a physical altercation with several corrections officers and that an autopsy was inconclusive. On Thursday, the attorney general’s office said Rothe’s cause of death was combined compressional and positional asphyxia.

Millar made an initial appearance Thursday in court, where his attorney said he intends to plead not guilty. He was ordered held without bail pending a hearing Feb. 14.

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56 years after death, Tennessee folk hero Buford Pusser’s wife Pauline Pusser exhumed

Pauline Pusser has been dead for 56 years without a suspect in the case.

On Thursday, authorities exhumed her body, the wife of hard-charging sheriff Buford Pusser, who became known as a folk hero after his death in Tennessee.

Pauline was shot to death in an ambush presumably meant to kill her husband.

An overcast day accompanied by whistling winds blew a foul stench through the cemetery in Adamsville, a small town around 100 miles east of Memphis, after the departure of Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents, which oversaw the exhumation of the body on Thursday.

Disturbed dirt rests in front of her grave, adjacent to her husband’s headstone that reads “He Walked Tall.”

A recent tip prompted a review of the case, TBI said, and they discovered that an autopsy was never done after Pauline Pusser’s death on Aug. 12, 1967.

“With the support of Pauline’s family and in consultation with the 25th Judicial District Attorney General Mark Davidson, TBI requested the exhumation in an attempt to answer critical questions and provide crucial information that may assist in identifying the person or persons responsible for Pauline Pusser’s death,” TBI said.

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Daughter of ‘Mormon Manson’ Ervil LeBaron lifts the lid on what it was like to grow up under terrifying control of polygamous cult leader who ordered the MURDERS of multiple people as part of heinous ‘Blood Atonement’ killings to ‘cleanse their sins’

The daughter of polygamous cult leader Ervil LeBaron – who was dubbed the Mormon Manson for orchestrating more than two dozens murders both inside and outside of the sect – has revealed what her life was like growing up.

Celia LeBaron, now 57, was born into the Church of the Lamb of God – a fundamentalist Mormon breakaway group which continued to practice polygamy and even followed the ‘Blood Atonement’ teaching that stated the blood of sinners needed to be shed for them to ascend to heaven.

Her father was ultimately sentenced to life in prison but continued to create hit lists from behind bars for his followers to carry out.

Ervil, who died in a Utah state prison in 1981, is estimated to have had 25 people killed as a result of his orders – with deaths including that of his own pregnant daughter. 

Celia, who is now a mother of three, appeared on an episode of the Cults to Consciousness podcast to unravel her childhood memories.

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How a Medieval Murder Map Helped Solve a 700-Year-Old London Cold Case

ON FRIDAY, MAY 3, 1337, Chaplain John Ford was strolling down the bustling market street of London Cheapside during golden hour—when three men assaulted him. As one man stabbed Ford in the throat with an 11-inch-long dagger, the other two slashed his stomach open. Ford was left to die in a puddle of blood under the arches of what once was Greyfriars Church as the assailants escaped. Among the crowds, a hatter, a rosary-maker, and a third man called for help.

When local officials filed a report detailing the murder, a mysterious “longstanding dispute” was mentioned alongside one name: the rich and famous Ela FitzPayne.

But what could the churchman possibly have done for the noblewoman to order the man’s murder in broad daylight on a crowded London street?

These are the kinds of questions that Manuel Eisner, the deputy director of the Cambridge Institute of Criminology, asks himself daily. In 2018, Eisner founded the Medieval Murder Maps—an interactive medieval murder map plotting the sudden deaths of thousands across the medieval towns of London, York, and Oxford. For Eisner, cracking 700-year-old cold cases, like the murder of John Ford, can provide an invaluable snapshot into medieval life, helping us understand the origins of the modern criminal justice system, what life was like for the past’s everyday people, and how crime patterns have, or haven’t, changed.

“I call it a distant mirror,” says Eisner. “You don’t just read it as violence. You have these little stories that are taking you on a time travel [adventure].”

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LA Innocence Project took wife-killer Scott Peterson’s case because of key evidence including blood spatter that might have exonerated him but was withheld from trial and other suspects ‘who were were overlooked’

The Los Angeles Innocence Project decided to take Scott Peterson’s case with a view to revisiting previously ‘withheld’ evidence that may exonerate him, court records reveal. 

The organization – which is separate from the more acclaimed Innocence Project – was contacted by Peterson’s team in March last year. 

Its attorneys have not publicly discussed the case nor vouched for Peterson’s absolute innocence.

A spokesman today told DailyMail.com: ‘The Los Angeles Innocence Project (LAIP) represents Scott Peterson and is investigating his claim of actual innocence. 

‘We have no further comment at this time.’ 

Paperwork submitted to the Superior Court of California in San Mateo however highlights why they think he may have a shot at clearing his name. 

Lawyers point to ‘blood spatter’ in the home where Peterson is accused of murdering his pregnant wife Laci, but insist it does not belong to him. 

They also say no other suspects were considered. 

Laci was 27-years-old and eight months pregnant when she disappeared on Christmas Eve, 2002. 

Peterson led the search for his wife but was arrested months later when her body later washed up in the San Francisco shoreline in 2003.

He has always claimed that she was killed by a panicked burglar after catching them ransacking the couple’s home. 

A jury however convicted him of the killing, deciding he was motivated by an affair he was having at the time with Amber Frey, a 20-year-old massage therapist. 

Peterson was sentenced to death, but the decision was overturned in 2020 by the California Supreme Court, citing potential juror bias that prosecutors failed to account for. 

In December 2022, Peterson’s request for a new trial was rejected. 

Now, the L.A. Innocence Project is spearheading his case.  

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