Crime

The Associated Press reports: The suspect in the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre pleaded not guilty to dozens of charges Monday as his new lawyer, a prominent death penalty litigator who represented one of the Boston Marathon bombers, signaled he might be open to a plea deal. Robert Bowers, a truck driver who authorities say gunned down 11 people at Tree of …

The CBC reports: Serial killer Bruce McArthur will be eligible to apply for parole after spending at least 25 years in prison for the murders of eight men in Toronto, a judge ordered on Friday. McArthur, 67, will be 91 when his first chance at parole comes up. In his sentencing decision, Ontario Superior Court Justice John McMahon noted the …

NBC News reports: A fourth man has been found guilty of taking part in a violent beating inside a downtown Charlottesville parking garage. Fifty-year-old Tyler Watkins Davis appeared in Charlottesville Circuit Court early Friday, February 8. The Florida man entered an Alford plea to malicious wounding, meaning he admits there is enough evidence to convict him of that charge. The …

The New York Daily News reports: This is some high-level hate. A deranged man was so enraged at Barack Obama that he tossed a heavy cinder block through the plate glass window of a Harlem store last month, yanked out a mannequin of the former President, and left it shattered on the sidewalk. The agitated man walked by the Romantic …

CBS News reports: Nuns have suffered and are still suffering sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests and bishops, and even being held as sexual slaves, Pope Francis confirmed on Tuesday. The abuse was so severe in one case that an entire congregation of nuns was dissolved by former Pope Benedict. The scope of the abuse of nuns by …

The Independent reports: Nearly one year on, police have filed charges in relation to the death of a seven-year-old Wisconsin boy who was buried alive in snow as a part of grueling punishment for not being able to recite 13 bible verses to his father’s satisfaction. The death of Ethan Hauschultz has led to the arrest of three family members …

Oklahoma City’s NBC affiliate reports: A former Oklahoma lawmaker sentenced for child sex trafficking has been ordered to pay more than $125,000 in restitution. Former state Sen. Ralph Shortey is serving a 15 year prison sentence at a facility in Seagoville, Texas after pleading guilty in Nov. 2017. Police caught Shortey in March 2017 in a Moore hotel room with …

Variety reports: The Chicago Police Department has released two images from surveillance video of “potential persons of interest” in the alleged attack of “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett. Smollett’s music manager also confirmed that he was on the phone with the actor at the time he was attacked in Chicago early on Tuesday morning, and that he heard some of what …

The Associated Press reports: A high-stakes gambler who rained a hail of gunfire down on a crowd of country music fans, killing 58, took any specific motive for the 2017 attack to his grave, the FBI said Tuesday as it concluded the investigation into the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. The agency found no “single or clear motivating …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Empire star Jussie Smollett was attacked early this morning in Chicago in what police are saying is a possible hate crime, Deadline has confirmed. Chicago PD released the following statement on Twitter: “Overnight the Chicago Police Department received a report of a possible racially charged assault and battery against a cast member of the television show Empire. …

The Toronto Star reports: Accused serial killer Bruce McArthur has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the deaths of eight men, admitting to killings that began in 2010 and continued until late 2017. The plea, entered in Superior court before Justice McMahon Tuesday morning, brings to a close a tragic and disturbing case that was unprecedented in this city, and …

NBC News Washington reports: A D.C. restaurant that was once at the center of an online conspiracy theory dubbed “pizzagate” was intentionally set on fire, fire officials say. Firefighters responded to a small fire at Comet Ping Pong on Connecticut Avenue NW about 9:20 p.m. Wednesday night, D.C. Fire and EMS said. They found that employees had put out the …

The Christian Post reports: A Christian missionary may be charged with “genocide” by Brazillian authorities after he illegally came in contact with a remote tribe. Steve Campbell of Greene Baptist Church in Maine is being investigated by officials from FUNAI, the Brazilian government’s Indigenous Affairs Department, after traveling deep into the southern Amazon jungle with the intention of sharing the …

The New York Post reports: A Maryland white supremacist hobbled into Manhattan court Wednesday and admitted to fatally stabbing a black New Yorker. James Jackson, 30, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, terrorism, hate-crime and weapons charges in exchange for a sentence of life in prison for slaughtering Timothy Caughman, 66, in Midtown on March 20, 2017. “You stabbed Timothy Caughman …

The BBC reports: US singer Chris Brown has been arrested in Paris on suspicion of rape, French police say. A 24-year-old woman alleges that the star assaulted her in a hotel suite in the city earlier this month. She reportedly told police that the pair met at a nightclub in central Paris, close to the Champs-Elysées, before they returned to …

Provo’s Gephardt Daily reports: A 27-year-old Provo man has been arrested after he allegedly wrote on his Facebook page that he was going to kill “as many girls as I see,” because he had been rejected. Christopher Wayne Cleary is facing charges of third-degree felony threat of terrorism as well as probation violation, according to a probable cause statement from …

The New York Times reports: When Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) asked President Trump’s nominee for attorney general, William P. Barr, earlier this week whether it would be a crime if “the president tried to coach somebody not to testify, or testify falsely,” Barr was unequivocal: “Yes,” the nominee told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Under an obstruction statute, yes.” Now …

The Washington Post reports: Democratic leaders reacted with fury and demanded an investigation late Thursday following a new report that President Trump personally directed his former attorney, Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress about the president’s push for a lucrative condo project in Moscow in the lead-up to the 2016 election. The Thursday night report from BuzzFeed News cites two …

The Dallas Morning News reports: Two men have been charged with federal hate crimes for using the Grindr app to lure at least nine gay men to a vacant Dallas apartment where they allegedly beat, robbed, threatened and humiliated them, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday. Daniel Jenkins, 19, and Michael Atkinson, 24, committed the armed assaults during the first …

CBS News reports: One of the few well-known openly gay rappers in Puerto Rico has become a victim of intensifying violence on the island. Kevin Fret, a 24-year-old musician and outspoken advocate for the LGBT community, was murdered early Thursday morning in Santurce, one of San Juan’s busiest and most densely populated neighborhoods, according to El Vocero, one the largest …