2025.4.8 ‘Morbidly obese’ killer’s final meal, last words revealed before he’s executed for strangling beloved Miami Herald worker
A “morbidly obese” convicted killer who kidnapped and strangled a Miami newspaper worker 25 years ago recited a bible verse and munched on bacon, a candy bar and ice cream leading up to his execution in Florida Tuesday.
Michael Tanzi, 48, was given a fatal injection at Florida State Prison and pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. for the ruthless murder of respected Miami Herald production worker Janet Acosta in April 2000.
As Acosta ate lunch in her van, Tanzi attacked and robbed her before driving the vehicle to the Florida Keys, where he strangled her and left her body on an island, according to authorities.
The murderer’s legal team attempted to stop the execution by filing several appeals, including one based on the argument that he shouldn’t be killed because he was “morbidly obese” and had sciatica, which could lead to a cruel amount of pain during the lethal injection.
But the Florida Supreme Court shot that plea down, stating his appeal was not timely because his conditions had been known since 2009.
Tanzi’s last meal consisted of a pork chop, bacon, a baked potato, corn, soda, ice cream and a candy bar, prison officials said, according to Newsweek.
He also met with a spiritual advisor, who was his only visitor ahead of his execution.
In his final statement, he directed his comments to Acosta’s family.
“I want to apologize to the family,” he said softly before reciting a bible verse.
Tanzi’s chest heaved for about three minutes when he was injected with the lethal dose. A correction officer shook his shoulders and said his name twice before he was declared dead.
The hulking figure was convicted of first-degree murder, carjacking, kidnapping and armed robbery with a 12-person jury unanimously recommending the death sentence.
Tanzi bound and gagged Acosta and sexually assaulted her during her terrifying last moments.
“He drove to an isolated area in Cudjoe Key, told her he was going to kill her, and began to strangle her,” the state Commission on Capital Cases summary said.
“He stopped to place duct tape over her mouth, nose and eyes in an attempt to quiet her and then strangled her until she expired.”
Acosta worked for the Miami Herald for 25 years and was remembered as highly regarded, according to an article in the newspaper Tuesday.
“It makes me want to cry,” her coworker and close friend Carolyn Green told the outlet.
“That’s why I haven’t spoken about it. Janet was the nicest person you’d ever want to meet.”
“It’s done. Basically, justice for Janet happened,” said Acosta’s sister, Julie Andrew, who attended the execution. ”My heart felt lighter and I can breathe again.”
This was the third execution in Florida this year.
2025.4.7 Shooter pleads guilty to manslaughter in north Fargo killing
Tyreik Taylor Roberts entered an Alford plea for the September shooting of Jalab Moses.
FARGO — A Fargo man has pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge in connection to a September shooting.
On Monday, April 7, in Cass County District Court, Tyreik Taylor Roberts, 24, entered an Alford plea to manslaughter, meaning he maintains his innocence but acknowledges prosecutors have enough evidence to secure a conviction. In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to drop murder, aggravated assault, fentanyl and drug paraphernalia charges.
Roberts is accused of shooting 25-year-old Jalab Moses twice on Sept. 20 during an argument at 1341 Eighth Ave. N. in Fargo, according to court documents. Law enforcement located Roberts at the scene and took him into custody shortly after the shooting.
Roberts claimed Moses reached for the defendant’s gun, adding that he acted in self-defense, according to a police report.
Roberts also claimed Moses appeared to reach for something and threatened to stab and fight Roberts as Moses approached the defendant, court records said.
No weapons were found on Moses, the report said.
Prosecutors initially charged Roberts with murder, as well as possession of fentanyl and drug paraphernalia. They added the manslaughter and aggravated assault charges in early December.
Prosecutor Casey Moen declined to say why the charges were added.
Roberts’ trial was set to begin April 22, but that has been canceled. A sentencing hearing was not immediately set.
If convicted of murder, Roberts could have been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Because he pleaded guilty to manslaughter, the most he will receive is 10 years in prison.
Roberts faces at least four years behind bars under North Dakota law since a weapon was involved in the crime, prosecutor Joshua Traiser said. Neither the defense nor the prosecution recommended a sentence on Monday.
Roberts will have to undergo a pre-sentence investigation that will help determine his punishment.
2025.4.7 Trial delayed for Fargo man accused of killing childhood friend
Leo Dartoe’s murder trial is delayed due to a legal conflict. He’s accused of killing his childhood friend, Sampson Bleh, in a dispute linked to an alleged affair.
FARGO — The murder trial of Leo Dartoe, who is accused of shooting and killing a longtime friend in a Fargo apartment last summer, has been delayed.
Dartoe was scheduled to go to trial in May after requesting a speedy trial. However, the court proceeding has been pushed back due to a scheduling conflict involving Dartoe’s attorney.
Dartoe is charged in the August shooting death of 35-year-old Sampson Bleh. According to prosecutors, the two were childhood friends, but Dartoe may have been angry with Bleh for allegedly punching him in the face the day before the fatal shooting.
Authorities say Bleh had accused Dartoe, 34, of having a relationship with his girlfriend. Bleh was found shot multiple times.
Dartoe’s attorney has raised concerns about the investigation, claiming that Bleh’s body was disturbed and that law enforcement did not conduct a thorough examination of the crime.
Despite the delay, prosecutors say Dartoe remains in jail on an unrelated drug case, minimizing concerns about prolonged pretrial detention.
“I don’t believe there is an issue of oppressive pre-trial incarceration, I don’t believe there is any concern or anxiety of the accused when there would be a continuance since he is already sitting on that other matter,” said Brianna Kraft, Cass County Assistant State’s Attorney.
A new trial date has not been set. If convicted of the murder charge, Dartoe could face life in prison.
2025.4.7 NJ mom who drowned her 2 kids to root out ‘all the evil in the world’ found not guilty by reason of insanity
‘She thought that if she destroyed her children, she would be destroying all the evil in the world,’ psychologist Gianni Pirelli testified
A New Jersey woman who drowned her toddlers last year to eliminate “all the evil in the world” — citing “religious reasons” — was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Naomi Elkins, 27, was charged with killing her daughters, ages 1 and 3, after she drowned them in her bathtub at her home in Lakewood, New Jersey, on June 25.
Superior Court Judge Guy P. Ryan ruled last week that Elkins did kill her children, but was not guilty by reason of insanity, the Ashbury Park Press reported. The judge ordered Elkins to be committed to a secure psychiatric hospital for two lifetimes — one for each child she killed.
This means she was sentenced to a total of 150 years in a psychiatric hospital, as each life term of commitment equates to 75 years under state law.
Elkins had admitted to police that she drowned each of her children in separate bathtubs for “religious reasons.”
She first stabbed the younger child in the stomach but was not convinced that it would kill her, so she put the child in a bathtub and held her underwater for two to three minutes, telling police she counted to 50 several times to ensure she held her underwater for “enough time,” according to a criminal complaint.
Her other daughter observed what happened and ran away to hide, the judge said. But Elkins grabbed her and put her in the bathtub in a second bathroom, climbed on top of her and held her down while the bathtub filled up.
Elkins then called first responders to report that she had hurt her daughters. Both children were pronounced dead at the scene.
Psychologist Gianni Pirelli testified in court that Elkins was “undoubtedly psychotic” and that the woman believed that either she or her husband was the Messiah, the Ashbury Park Press reported. Pirelli said Elkins was described as “emotionless” after the incident and that her statements included similar “religious themes.”
“She thought that if she destroyed her children, she would be destroying all the evil in the world,” Pirelli said.
Elkins’ husband had left town on a business trip the day before the killings.
Pirelli said Elkins has struggled with mental illness since at least 2018 and suffered postpartum psychosis after the births of her two children. The woman’s mental health never stabilized, Pirelli said.
After her second pregnancy, Elkins began to believe that she was “either a descendant of Hitler or evil entities, this idea of her being evil, this self-loathing or idea that she needed to repent,” Pirelli said.
Following her confession, Elkins was allowed to write a letter, which “reads as if it’s a letter to God,” Pirelli said.
“I thought I loved you, God, my creator,” Elkins wrote in the letter.
“You are evil. I’m deserving of death and destruction. I don’t know what I was. I loved my children, but I loved you more,” the letter continues.
The letter adds: “I put me before my kids. How could a Jewish mother do that? How? How is it possible?”
Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said his office could not dispute the determination that Elkins was legally insane when she killed her children.
“Based on our review of the facts and circumstances, in combination with the expert psychiatric report and testimony, the State agrees with this finding,” Billhimer said. “It’s not even a close call.”
Elkins’ mental health will be evaluated periodically by the court, and she will remain in a psychiatric institution unless she reaches a point when she is no longer considered a danger to herself or others, Defense attorney Mitchell Ansell said.
2025.4.6 Maniac with meat cleaver attacks several kids in horrifying, bloody scene on NYC street – before he’s shot by NYPD cops: police
Maniac with meat cleaver attacks several kids in horrifying, bloody scene on NYC street – before he’s shot by NYPD cops: police
Published April 6, 2025, 12:04 p.m. ET
Four young girls were slashed with a meat cleaver in Brooklyn on Sunday morning when a relative went on a deranged and bloody rampage — before he was shot by cops, officials said.
Police rushed to a home on 84th Street around 10:15 a.m. after one of the victims — a wounded 11-year-old girl — locked herself in a room and called 911, telling the dispatcher that her uncle had stabbed her and her siblings.
“At that point [the cops] heard screams coming from behind the door to their left and immediately began forcing their way into the apartment, kicking down the door,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters at a briefing at the scene.
“Once they entered, they encountered a man standing near the entrance holding a large meat cleaver covered with blood, and they could see blood on the floor of the home,” Tisch said. “The officers ordered the man to drop the weapon several times. He refused and advanced towards them.
“Two officers discharged their firearms, firing seven total rounds between them, striking the subject, ending the threat,” she said.
Tisch said the four girls, ages 16, 13, 11 and 8, all suffered “serious slash and stab wounds” and were rushed to Maimonides Medical Center. They are all expected to survive.
“This could have ended very differently,” Tisch added.
The suspect, identified as Lun Chang Chen, 49, was also rushed to the hospital and is in critical condition, police said. He is believed to have lived in the home where the horror unfolded.
The motive for the brutal assault is under investigation.
“I was watching through the window and the girl covered in blood came out,” said a neighbor, who asked to be identified only as Maria. “And then there was another girl. The two girls were just covered in blood.
“I was shaking. I’m still shaking now,” she said. “I don’t usually see them. They just moved here. I lived here seven years and there are a lot of new people moving here.”
Disturbing images from the scene obtained by The Post show at least one of the girls outside the building covered in blood from head to toe — while the suspect is seen being wheeled out on a stretcher.
“They brought out a guy on a stretcher, all bloody without a shirt,” neighbor Humbert Huerta said. “I don’t know who it was, but they shot him twice. They took him out and put him in the ambulance. Probably 40 years old.”
Tisch told reporters that a fifth child, a boy, was in the apartment earlier and ran for help when the suspect launched his attack.
“Right now we know there were five children, four hurt,” she said. “This might be the father of some of them or the uncle. And, again, we’re going to work through that. And we believe the mother was out of the house.”
State Assemblyman Lester Chang, who represents the Brooklyn neighborhood, said one of the victims may be a baby-sitter.
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Meat cleaver-wielding man stabs young girls in bloody NYC attack as 11-year-old calls 911: police
Authorities identified the suspect as Long Chen, 49, and believe he was related to the victims; he was shot by police
Published April 6, 2025 4:53pm EDT
A meat cleaver-wielding man was shot by police in New York City after officers said he stabbed four young girls inside a home on Sunday morning.
The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said officers responded to a “heartbreaking” 911 call at a home in the Bensonhurt neighborhood in southern Brooklyn around 10:30 a.m. for reports of an assault in progress.
Police said one of the children, an 11-year-old, called 911 and said she and her siblings had been stabbed by her uncle, Jessica Tisch, NYPD commissioner, shared during the press conference.
“The 11-year-old 911 caller, who herself was a victim, hid in a room to call the police and a young, uninjured boy ran in to alert a neighbor,” Tisch said.
When officers arrived at the scene, they heard the children screaming inside. Tisch said officers “immediately began forcing their way” into the home.
“Once they entered, they encountered a man standing near the entrance holding a large meat cleaver covered in blood, and they could see blood on the floor and the walls of the home,” Tisch described.
Officers then ordered the man to drop the weapon several times, but Tisch said he refused and lunged at the officers. Officers opened fire on the man, striking him and ending the threat.
Two knives were recovered from the scene; one was described as a “large” cleaver that the man was holding. Another knife, covered in blood, was found in a separate room, officials said.
Officers found four young girls, aged 16, 13, 11 and 8, who were all inside the apartment at the time of the attack, all with serious slash and stab wounds, Tisch said.
“At this time, all four children, thank God, are expected to survive,” Tisch said. “But this could have ended very differently. Officers and EMS arrived at the door within minutes of receiving the 911 call. Their fast, decisive action pinpointing the location and taking down the door absolutely saved the lives of these young girls.”
The suspect was identified as Long Chen, 49, and officials said while his exact relationship to the victims is under investigation, he is believed to be a relative. Police said he was in critical condition.
Investigators believe the children’s mother was out of the home when the attack happened.
Family members told authorities that Chen had a history of mental illness, but that there appeared to be no prior domestic violence incidents at the home.
“Obviously, the motive behind this horrific attack is still under investigation, and we will provide more information when we have it,” John Chell, NYPD chief of department, said.
“We know there were five children, four hurt and a young man who so bravely went to the neighbors to alert the neighbors to call us, and also that 11-year-old who went to that room and made that call quite, quite heroic on their behalf.”
2025.4.5 Charles Manson’s cult killings fueled by ‘perfect storm’ as theories get new analysis: criminal profiler
Charles Manson’s cult was linked to seven killings in California
The mystery of Charles Manson’s motive in notorious cult killings is getting a fresh look as an FBI criminal profiler reveals a “perfect storm” of factors came together for the infamous murders.
Countless theories about how Manson managed to convince a group of young adults to kill for him have been dissected, but director Errol Morris is offering a new perspective into the mind of the notorious cult leader in his Netflix documentary “CHAOS: The Manson Murders.”
Based on the 2019 book “CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties,” authored by Tom O’Neill and Dan Piepenbring, the documentary delves into the theory Manson may have been influenced by an external force when directing his followers.
“I’ve found myself trapped in a number of different true-crime stories, and the Manson murders are peculiar,” Morris told Netflix’s Tudum. “You could encapsulate the mystery in just one question: How is it that Manson managed to convince the people around him that killing was OK?”
Netflix and Morris did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Morris explores the widely circulated theory suggesting Manson may have been operating under the influence of the CIA’s controversial MK-ULTRA program, leaning into the cultural interest surrounding mind control, a widespread fascination throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
However, experts have expressed skepticism about the idea that Manson was acting under government control.
“[Manson] was influenced by what he wanted to do,” former FBI profiler Mary Ellen O’Toole told Fox News Digital. “He was influenced by the fact that he wanted to become a very well-known musician at the time, which is why he made friends with the influential people that he did. But was there this outside force that compelled him to do that? I don’t believe that there was. There was still his personality that was distinct to him [and] was not created by an outside force.”
The CIA has also discredited the theory, first explored by O’Neill, in recent years.
“The author cannot definitively tie Manson to MK-ULTRA or CHAOS; he can only imply it on circumstantial evidence,” the CIA said in a review of O’Neill’s book.
O’Neill did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
In 1969, the Manson family carried out the brutal murders of seven people under his watchful eye. Pregnant actress Sharon Tate, Wojciech Frykowski, Jay Sebring, Steven Parent, Abigail Folger and Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were massacred by the family in a string of killings.
The group carried out five of its murders inside Tate’s home Aug. 9, 1969. One day later, the final victims of the Manson family, the LaBiancas, were fatally stabbed inside their home.
“[Manson] met up with a lot of his later-to-be followers in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, which, at that time in the ’60s, was known for being a gathering place for people in very formative years,” O’Toole told Fox News Digital.
“There was the use of drugs and alcohol, and people came together without a lot of external oversight by a parent or a caregiver, so they were very vulnerable at that point. [Then], here comes Charlie Manson, with his personality and his ability to get people — especially young people — to follow him, and that’s what I’m talking about in regard to the perfect storm.”
After the killings, Manson and his “family” moved to Spahn Ranch, located approximately 30 miles north of Los Angeles, where he subjected his followers to outlandish lectures while providing them with drugs and overseeing orgies.
Authorities arrested Manson three months later as details of the killings rattled Los Angeles and investigators delved into theories about the murders.
During the trial, prosecutors argued Manson was using his status with his all-white followers in an attempt to ignite a race war, citing his supposed misinterpretation of the Beatles’ 1968 song, “Helter Skelter.” Manson never actually carried out the murders himself, relying entirely on his followers to kill for him.
“[Manson] really was someone that knew right from wrong,” O’Toole said. “He knew the repercussions and the end results of his actions. He took no responsibility for his actions or the actions of his group, and he was very deliberate in his thinking.”
In 1971, Manson and three followers — Leslie Van Houten, Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel — were convicted for their roles in the murders and subsequently sentenced to death. A fourth “family” member, Charles “Tex” Watson, was convicted several months later.
The four defendants were resentenced to life in prison after a 1972 ruling from the California Supreme Court abolishing the state’s death penalty.
Manson was 83 years old when he died of natural causes Nov. 19, 2017.
In 2023, Van Houten walked free after serving more than 50 years in a California prison for the killings of the LaBiancas, making her the only member of the Manson family to be released from prison.
While Manson never actually carried out the murders he was imprisoned for, Peacock’s 2024 “Making Manson” documentary revealed he may have committed more killings himself.
In a teaser clip, Manson can be heard confessing to additional crimes while on a jailhouse phone call.
“There’s a whole part of my life that nobody knows about,” Manson can be heard saying. “I lived in Mexico for a while. I went to Acapulco, stole some cars.”
Manson goes on to reveal more details about the supposed murders.
“I just got involved in some stuff over my head, man,” he added. “Got involved in a couple of killings. I left my .357 Magnum in Mexico City, and I left some dead people on the beach.”
“I would never draw the line and say Charlie Manson could manipulate people to do his bidding, but he himself would never do it,” O’Toole said. “I would never draw that line. You can’t simply say that because Charlie hurting other people was part of his repertoire. So, whether he had somebody else do it or he did it himself is certainly something that has to be explored.”
2025.4.5 Ohio high school staffer allegedly asked student to kill her husband for $2,000
A staff member at an Ohio high school is accused of trying to hire a student to kill her husband for $2,000, according to a criminal complaint.
Stephanie Demetrius, 44, was charged with felony conspiracy for allegedly asking a juvenile at the Academy for Urban Scholars High School in Columbus to commit the murder, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Demetrius allegedly approached the student on March 26 and paid $250 cash “as a down payment for the job,” the affidavit stated.
Police obtained a recording of a phone call between the student and Demetrius during which she “confirmed the remaining payment was not a worry,” the affidavit stated.
“She noted when the kids would be out of the ex-husband’s house and that … he worked from home. When asked if neighbors would hear the gunfire, she advised that they don’t care about her neighbors,” the affidavit stated.
During her arraignment on Thursday, her public defender said Demetrius denied the allegations and “says this is being fabricated.” Her attorney added that Demetrius looks forward to her day in court.
The prosecutor, Parker Schwartz, asked for a high bond “given the alarming allegations here.” He said Demetrius is in a “recent or pending divorce or separation” and has a protection order against her.
The defense said Demetrius has four children while asking for a reasonable bond.
The judge set Demetrius’ bond at $150,000 and ordered that she comply with the terms of the protection order filed against her as well as stay away from the juvenile involved in the case as part of her bond conditions.
When asked if she had any questions, Demetrius responded, “Who is the juvenile involved in this case?”
She has not yet entered a plea to the charge.
ABC News has reached out to Demetrius’ public defender for comment and has not yet received a response.
Her preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 11.
Demetrius was a literacy enrichment instructor at the school, a spokesperson told ABC News. She was immediately fired, the school said in a statement on Friday.
“The safety and well-being of our students is our highest priority,” the Academy for Urban Scholars High School said in the statement. “We remain committed to maintaining a secure, focused learning environment where students can thrive academically and personally.”
The school said it is cooperating with authorities and is “offering counseling and resources to the student directly impacted, his family, and are also making these services available to any other students or families who may need them.”
PHILADELPHIA — A 17-year-old boy accused of shooting and killing a teenager during an argument aboard a bus in Philadelphia was arrested Thursday, according to authorities.
The U.S. Marshals Eastern Pennsylvania Violent Crimes Fugitive Task Force said they tracked down Zayki Davis at his friend’s apartment complex in Norristown, Penn.
Clark said Davis, who was wanted for murder, had been hiding out in the apartment with “a long-time friend.”
The arrest stems from a fight that broke out on a Septa bus a few weeks ago, according to Clark.
Clark said Davis fatally shot a 15 year-old juvenile after he and the teenager were involved in a disagreement on March 22.
“After a verbal dispute, Davis exited the bus and fired one round into the bus which struck and killed the victim,” Clark said.
Clark added Davis was arrested without incident and taken back to Philadelphia Police headquarters by homicide detectives.
2025.4.3 NYC man who killed pregnant ex-girlfriend in front of kids hours after baby shower sentenced to 40 years to life in prison
A Bronx man convicted of gunning down his pregnant ex-girlfriend in front of her kids just hours after her baby shower was sentenced to 40 years to life behind bars on Thursday.
Justice Ann Scherzer slapped the prison term on Justin Soriano, 44, inside Manhattan Supreme Court for the grisly slaying of his eight-month pregnant ex gal pal, Shanice Young, outside her Harlem home in September 2021.
Soriano — who was convicted on murder, criminal possession of a weapon, menacing and endangering the welfare of a child charges in November — pulled up to her building on a motorcycle as Young’s family and her new boyfriend unloaded baby shower gifts from a car into the apartment, while the expectant mom sat in the passenger seat, prosecutors said at the trial.
Wearing all black and latex gloves, Soriano stormed into the building and then whipped out a gun and chased her boyfriend outside.
The 31-year-old mom stepped out of the car while her two daughters, 15 and 6, and the new boyfriend’s children — a 7-year-old girl and 1-year-old baby — sat in the vehicle.
Young asked “why he was doing this,” and the enraged ex repeated the question before blasting her three times in the face around 1 a.m. near West 128th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, according to prosecutors.
Medics rushed Young to Harlem Hospital, where she and the unborn baby died.
A friend of Young’s said baby shower gifts were lined up in the hallway before the violence exploded.
“Who the f–k shoots a pregnant woman?” the distraught friend railed to The Post at the time. “You’ve got to be out of your mind.”
Soriano, meanwhile, fled the scene and was caught by cops days later in the Bronx.
He had nine previous arrests, including charges for drugs, resisting arrest and assault, according to police sources.
The tragedy came during a time that “should have been a joyous and memorable occasion and celebration” for Young, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement.
“Soriano committed this horrific shooting in front of four children, including Ms. Young’s own daughters, who helplessly watched their mother die right before their eyes.”
“I hope the significant sentence imposed today serves as a measure of justice for this tragic and abhorrent act of violence,” he added.
2025.4.3 Teen accused of killing New Jersey police officer to be charged as adult, new US attorney says
Detective Joseph Azcona was fatally shot while inside his vehicle last month
Interim New Jersey U.S. Attorney Alina Habba has announced that a 14-year-old gang member accused of fatally shooting a Newark police detective will be charged as an adult in federal court as she vows to crack down on violent crime in the Garden State.
The teen suspect, who has not yet been publicly identified and is an alleged member of the violent Bloods gang, is accused of shooting and killing Detective Joseph Azcona in Newark last month while he was inside his police vehicle. Another officer was also injured in the shooting.
“We’ll be charging that minor as an adult. We filed the papers yesterday,” Habba told the New York Post on Wednesday as she accompanied a multi-agency law enforcement raid on wanted criminals in Brick City.
Habba, President Donald Trump’s former attorney who was sworn in to her new role on Friday, issued a firm warning to violent underage offenders.
“The message is very clear: If you’re a child, I don’t care. If you shoot a cop, you’re getting tried as an adult. I have no tolerance for violence and we’re gonna clean up New Jersey.”
Offenders under age 15 cannot be tries as adults New Jersey but Habba said her office filed papers to take the case to federal court where the teen will be eligible.
“He’s 14 years old; he’s part of a gang — he shot a cop who came out to get him and the officer is now dead. He was 26 years old,” Habba told the Post.
The teen was initially charged with murder, attempted murder and possession of illegal weapons.
The slain officer was part of a team of Newark police detectives and federal agents that had gone to capture a suspect in an illegal weapons sting when the officer was fired on in his vehicle, authorities said.
The other officer who was struck was hospitalized with injuries that were not life-threatening, authorities said. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka called the shooting a “heinous, callous disregard for humanity” and that officers had gone to the scene knowing that “grave danger was possible.”
During Wednesday’s raid, law enforcement arrested an 18-year-old alleged Bloods gang member with a history of weapons charges and wanted for aggravated assault after an incident in which he allegedly shot two people, the Post reported.
2025.4.3 Longest-serving inmate on Arkansas’ death row dies from natural causes
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Bruce Ward, a convicted murderer who was the longest-serving inmate on Arkansas’ death row, has died, the state Department of Corrections said. He was 68.
The state Department of Corrections said Ward was pronounced dead Tuesday from natural causes. He had been held on death row at the Varner SuperMax unit in Gould, located 67 miles (108 kilometers) south of Little Rock.
Citing confidentiality, the department declined to provide any further details on Ward’s health or the circumstances surrounding his death.
Ward was on death row for 35 years after being convicted for the 1989 killing of Rebecca Doss, who was found strangled in the men’s room of the Little Rock convenience store where she worked. Ward’s death leaves 24 inmates on death row in the state.
He was among eight inmates the state had planned to execute over a two-week period in 2017 before its supply of a lethal injection drug expired. Ward’s execution and three others were halted by court decisions, though the state executed four other inmates.
All three of the drugs used in the state’s lethal injection protocol have expired and Arkansas has been unable to purchase replacements because the manufacturers object to their products being used in executions.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders last month signed a new law allowing the state to use nitrogen gas for executions. The measure makes Arkansas the fifth state to legalize that method and supporters said it would allow the state to resume executions.
The law doesn’t take effect until later this year, and officials have not said how soon they plan to resume executions.
The longest serving inmate now on Arkansas’ death now is Don Davis, who was sentenced in 1992 for killing a northwest Arkansas woman after breaking into her home. Davis, who was also one of the inmates spared from execution in 2017, was hospitalized for several days after he attempted suicide.
There are about 2,100 people on death row in the United States, and more than half have been awaiting execution for more than 18 years, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
2025.4.2 Covenant School trans shooter plotted Nashville attack for years, kept notebooks with plans: final report
Audrey Hale kept multiple journals about motive, but no highly anticipated ‘manifesto,’ police say
FIRST ON FOX: Nashville police have released their final report on the Covenant School massacre – a targeted March 2023 attack on a Christian school by a transgender shooter who killed three third-graders and three adults.
Rather than a highly anticipated manifesto, the report found that killer Audrey Hale left behind numerous notebooks, art books and computer documents about her plans to commit the attack and gain notoriety, partly inspired by the Columbine school shooting in 1999.
Hale, the 28-year-old attacker and biological female, began “fantasizing” about and researching mass shootings as far back as 2017, according to investigators. A year later, she wrote “detailed fantasies” about shooting up the Isaac T. Creswell Middle Magnet School for the Arts, killing her father and killing her psychiatrist.
“In this case, a manifesto didn’t exist,” the document reads. “Hale never left behind a single document explaining why she committed the attack, why she specifically targeted The Covenant, and what she hoped to gain, if anything, with the attack.”
Instead, her motivations were scattered across those many notebooks and other writings, investigators found. They included an image showing more than two-dozen notebooks seized from Hale’s car and bedroom. They also said she left a suicide note addressed to her parents.
Read the Nashville police report…
“In short, the motive determined over the course of the investigation was notoriety,” according to investigators. “Even though numerous disappointments in relationships, career aspirations, and independence fueled her depression, and even though this depression made her highly suicidal, this doesn’t explain the attack. As Hale wrote on several occasions, if suicide was her goal then she would have simply killed herself.”
Hale wanted people to remember her after her death, according to the document, and was partly inspired by books and documentaries on the Columbine killers. She wanted similar records of her own life and expected her guns, artwork and journals to be preserved in museums around the world.
“Most disturbingly, she wanted the things she left behind to be shared with the world so she could inspire and teach others who were ‘mentally disordered’ like her to plan and commit an attack of their own,” investigators wrote.
Because of Hale’s consistent diaries over a period of years, police said they were able to collect far more information about her than in a typical investigation. They found no evidence of accomplices and said she wanted to prove her “superiority.”
The Covenant School was attached to a church that Hale once attended, and she chose the target because of her connection to it, because children wouldn’t put up a fight, and because she wanted to obtain infamy, according to police.
She killed three 9-year-olds: the pastor’s daughter Hallie Scruggs, Evelyn Dieckhaus and William Kinney. The three adults she killed were 60-year-old Head of School Katherine Koonce, Cynthia Peak, 61, and Mike Hill, 61.
Her biggest fear in the attack, at 5 feet, 2 inches tall and 120 pounds, was running into a “hero” who could physically overpower her and force her to be captured alive.
So she settled on an elementary school that she described as the setting for her “happiest” childhood memories.
“She never remarked of being bullied and ostracized there; on the contrary, she remarked on a couple of occasions how she established friendships, which included play-dates at the homes of other children and a sense of acceptance,” police revealed. “She gave no examples of how anyone at the school belittled her or harmed her, as she did in other places she attended school. Because of this, Hale felt The Covenant was the perfect place to commit an attack, as it was the perfect setting for her death.”
The killer also had plans for “B” and “C” targets – the Opry Mills Mall and a stretch of Belmont Boulevard near Belmont University campus in Nashville. If her parents discovered her plans, she decided she would kill them and attack the Belmont target, according to investigators.
She spent months practicing at the firing range and painted the phrase “Dark Abyss” on her clothes and guns. That was the name she had given to her depression.
But the attack was delayed multiple times, including once after the death of a close friend in a car crash.
Hale, who began using the name “Aiden Williams” in the years before her death, was killed by responding officers in harrowing bodycam video.
“Hale felt she would be a failure if she killed less than 10 people during the attack. In that respect, she did fail, in no small part due to the actions of the faculty and staff at The Covenant,” police wrote. “But she managed to attain the notoriety she craved simply by self-documenting her life and actions in a way no other mass killer has done before.”
2025.4.2 Arsonist who set 9 fires across San Diego County in November gets 13-year sentence
The arson spree began in Jamul, and also included bush fires in Dehesa, Rancho San Diego, La Mesa and San Diego.
Allen Dinoyo, 48, was homeless when he started a series of fires across the county last fall.
On Wednesday, he was sentenced to 13 years and 4 months in prison for his crimes.
Cal Fire captain Mike Cornette said there are protections for people who accidentally start fires when they’re trying to cook or keep warm, but that was not the case with Dinoyo.
Also on Wednesday, Cornette reflected on the end of the complicated investigation that lead to Dinoyo’s arrest.
“This is a success story for our Cal Fire law enforcement officers,” Cornette said. “To successfully bring an arsonist in, to being held accountable.”
Cal Fire investigators say Dinoyo’s arson spree began on Nov. 10 when he lit a fire in Jamul. Exactly 10 days later, Dinoyo lit six more fires — in Jamul, Dehesa and Rancho San Diego — within two hours. The one in Jamul prompted an evacuation warning and road closures near the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge and burned 11 acres near Miller and Campo roads.
“Anytime we have a concentrated number of fires in one area, that kind of raises some suspicion on our part,” Cornette said.
Ten days after those fires, Dinoyo sparked two more, bringing the total to nine. One was in La Mesa and the other was in San Diego.
“As law enforcement goes through their investigation and they decide that this probably is an arson investigation, then it ramps their side up,” Cornette said. “So, they’re going to start gathering evidence, collecting those interviews and doing surveillance.”
Investigators said Dinoyo got around to start all these fires by car. They also found him with a lighter and arrested him on multiple felony arson charges.
“There’s a fine line between an accidental cooking fire escaping the confines of the ring and a malicious arson start,” Cornette said.
2025.4.2 6-month-old baby dies after being attacked by family’s dog in Baytown
Dog will be euthanized, city confirmed
A heartbreaking incident in Baytown has an even more tragic development after a baby died from injuries suffered from a dog attack.
It happened Tuesday at the Inverness Gardens apartments off East James Street just before 4 p.m. Baytown police report that the baby was rushed to the hospital but died from her injuries.
The dogs belonged to the baby’s parents. Since then, those dogs have been seized by animal control.
On Wednesday afternoon, officials with the City of Baytown confirmed that the dog involved in the attack will be euthanized. The family has verbally agreed to sign a surrender order allowing the city to take this measure.
Neighbors identified the baby as a girl who had just celebrated her sixth month birthday with a party at the apartments. One neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous, said she called 911 after the baby’s mother knocked on her door seeking help.
“She knocked on my door, baby in hand. Blood was everywhere,” the witness said. “The mother was just devastated.”
As emergency responders arrived, the neighbor said the baby’s mother turned to prayer.
“She just kept praying. She had the baby in her hands say please God, I trust you God, I trust you, God. I pray that baby’s okay. to return it to God. Please. I thank you, God. I caused you God. You know, I pray that baby’s okay,” the witness added.
Neighbors described the dogs’ behavior as aggressive. They noted that they first saw the dogs at the apartments on Sunday.
2025.4.1 Mom, 75, charged 55 years later with killing baby after she claimed he fatally fell from crib
A Louisiana mother has been charged with murdering her baby nearly 55 years after claiming he fell out of his crib — as authorities uncovered old hateful letters detailing how she wished he was dead.
Alice Rollinson Bunch Idlett, now 75, was arrested Thursday and charged with second-degree murder in the 1970 death of her 16-month-old baby, Earl Dwayne Bunch III, KPLC-TV reported.
At the time, the then-20-year-old mom claimed that her son fractured his skull falling from his crib — but a cold-case investigation launched in 2022 ruled it a homicide.
Baby Earl was covered in bruises as well as bite and burn marks — and his mom wrote disturbing letters to her then-husband, Earl Bunch Jr, about “hating” and “wanting to kill” their son, according to court documents shared by the outlet.
“I just got through whipping that little basdard (sic). I hate him. That’s the honest truth,” she allegedly wrote her husband, who was stationed in Thailand during the Vietnam War at the time.
“I can’t stand this life. God had to punish me by letting me have that little brat. I wish I would have died when he was born. I hate myself,” she wrote, according to documents first shared in 1985 as part of a divorce and custody battle over their daughter.
“I’ll kill him before he becomes spoilt,” she allegedly threatened in one letter. “I honestly mean that…”
Idlett frequently wrote of her hatred for the baby, according to the court filing, which quoted her as telling her husband in one letter, “If he starts crying when I put him down to play, I’m going to whip him until his darn seat is red. … I hate your son. I wish he was dead…”
In another letter, she asked what was “wrong” with her because she “should love my own son.”
“I feel as if he would die tomorrow I wouldn’t care. I can’t help it,” she allegedly wrote.
When Idlett took her son to the hospital, he was “limp and gasping for breath,” and the doctor found “bite marks” and a “burn mark on his buttocks” as well as bruising all over his body, according to the court documents.
The doctor noted the injuries were not consistent with a fall from a crib, but Idlett denied doing anything to her son, later telling her husband he “probably fractured his skull when he fell out of bed at his grandmother’s house.”
The boy’s father did not alert authorities to the alarming letters at the time, according to KFDM.
“He testified that he accepted his son’s death as accidental because he could not believe that the woman he loved could have harmed her own son,” according to the court filing.
The case was ultimately closed due to a lack of evidence and remained untouched for years until the 2022 investigation, which resulted in the Calcasieu Parish District Attorney’s Office convening a Grand Jury and charging Idlett with second-degree murder.
She was booked into the Calcasieu Parish Correctional Center on a $950,000 bond, where she remains behind bars.
MANASSAS PARK, Va. — A grand jury has charged Naresh Bhatt, 37, with first-degree murder and desecration of a dead body in the disappearance of his wife, Mamta Kafle Bhatt, 28, last seen in late July.
Mamta, a pediatric nurse and mother to a one-year-old daughter, was reported missing on August 5. Inquiries showed signs of a fierce struggle in the couple’s apartment, with Mamta’s blood found in the bedroom and bathroom. Authorities have reason to believe she was dismembered and killed inside the home.
Before Mamta disappeared, Naresh made online searches, such as queries regarding the time frame for remarriage after the death of a spouse. He was also observed buying knives and cleaning materials when she disappeared.
Even after thorough searches, Mamta’s body has not been found. Manassas Park Police Chief Mario Lugo, however, was optimistic about the case, saying, “I feel we have a strong case for not having the body.“
Naresh was originally accused of hiding a corpse and has been in jail since August. He is due to go on trial on September 8, 2025. The couple’s child is now in Mamta’s family’s care.
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