Crime

Birmingham’s ABC affiliate reports: A youth minister was in court for sex crimes Wednesday. Terry Murphree is charged with nearly 20 counts of sex crimes including rape and clergy having sex with a child and human trafficking. Not only is Murphree accused of raping a 13-year-old child, Blount County Investigators also say he sexually assaulted four more underage girls and …

ABC News reports: A Northern California wildland fire that exploded overnight into the state’s largest blaze this wildfire season, destroying structures and prompting thousands of evacuations, was allegedly started by a man who pushed a burning car into a gully, authorities said Thursday. The 48-year-old arson suspect linked to starting the Park Fire in Butte County near the city of …

ABC News reports: A Nevada man has been arrested after he threatened several government officials, including the New York judge who oversaw former President Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial and the prosecutor who brought the case, according to an indictment unsealed in Las Vegas. Spencer Christjencody Gear, 32, allegedly made phone calls and sent emails to eight federal officials …

From the Justice Department: An Ohio man was sentenced today for threatening to destroy a reproductive health services facility in Columbus, Ohio, and for conspiring to commit money laundering. Mohamed Waes, 33, was sentenced to 66 months in prison, three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $273,982.08 in restitution. “This defendant threatened to burn down a reproductive …

Law & Crime reports: A civilian U.S. Army employee dubbed the “Gucci Goddess” who stole over $108 million from a grant program for military families and lived lavishly buying fancy homes, scores of vehicles and boxes of jewelry will spend 15 years in prison. Janet Yamanaka Mello, 57, was sentenced on Tuesday to 180 months after she pleaded guilty in …

The Associated Press reports: FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers on Wednesday that a laptop tied to the Trump rally gunman included a Google search of “How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?” That is a reference to Lee Harvey Oswald, the shooter who killed President John F. Kennedy in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. The Google search, apparently by …

From the Justice Department: A South Carolina man was sentenced to prison today after he previously pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement during the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol. His actions and the actions of others disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the 2020 presidential …

Bloomberg News reports: Meta Platforms Inc. removed 63,000 Instagram accounts in Nigeria linked to scammers who were using its social media services to blackmail targets after soliciting intimate photos, the company said Wednesday. Meta, which also owns Facebook and WhatsApp, added that it had deleted thousands of additional Facebook accounts, pages and groups that were sharing scripts on how to …

The Associated Press reports: A Wisconsin man fled to Ireland and sought asylum to avoid a prison sentence for joining a mob’s attack on the U.S. Capitol over three years ago, federal authorities allege in a court filing Tuesday. The filing charges Paul Kovacik with defying a court order to surrender and serve three months behind bars for participating in …

The Roys Report reports: A convicted felon-turned-pastor in central Florida is accused of supplying a teenage girl with an alcohol-infused slurpee and marijuana-laced gummy, while he repeatedly sexually assaulted her. William Martinez is charged in Hernando County Court with two counts of lewd and lascivious behavior of a victim over 12 and less than 16, and two counts of sexual …

The New York Post reports: Donald Trump’s 20-year-old would-be assassin allegedly used a drone to aerially scope out the Pennsylvania fairgrounds ahead of the Republican presidential nominee’s speech as part of his sinister plot last weekend, according to a report. Shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks programmed the drone to fly over the Butler Farm Showgrounds hours before his assassination attempt on …

NBC News reports: Michael M. Wiseman was arrested Friday on charges of written threats to kill, according to a statement from the Jupiter Police Department in Florida. “After investigating the reports and the suspect’s Facebook account, JPD detectives found that Wiseman had made multiple threats against Trump and Vance, who earlier this week became the Republican nominees for President and …

The Wilmington Star-News reports: A pastor of a Brunswick County church faces multiple counts in a child sexual offense case. On July 8, Jonathan Ballard, pastor of Straightway Ministries Wilmington and Church of the Living God in Leland and Whiteville, was indicted with 12 counts of taking indecent liberties with children, six counts of statutory sex offense, and one count …

Law & Crime reports: A Jan. 6 rioter and member of the militia group known as the Three Percenters who brought a hatchet with him to the U.S. Capitol will not be released from prison pending appeal following the Supreme Court‘s ruling that narrowed an obstruction charge used against him and many others. Alan Hostetter, once a police chief in …

CNN reports: The Trump rally shooter searched online for information on the arrest of a Michigan mass shooter and his parents, who were prosecuted in a 2021 high school shooting. He visited websites for how to build explosives. And in the minutes before he fired shots in an attempted assassination of Donald Trump, he screenshotted a picture from a livestream …

The Christian Post reports: Eternal Church in Fort Mill, South Carolina, has fired longtime Pastor Donald Logan after it was revealed that he is a registered sex offender convicted of sexual misconduct with a 14-year-old girl 27 years ago. “Effective immediately, we have made the decision to release Pastor Don Logan,” reads an email church elders sent to the congregation. …

The New York Times reports: When the F.B.I. was able to finally access Mr. Crooks’s cellphones and other electronic devices, agents could see that he had searched for images of Mr. Trump as well as President Biden, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and even F.B.I. Director Christopher A. Wray. Mr. Crooks also typed in “major depressive disorder” and searched for …

Reuters reports: Jack Teixeira, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard who has pleaded guilty in federal court to a massive leak of classified U.S. national security documents online, will face a court-martial on charges that he also violated military laws. Teixeira, 22, will face a trial on military charges that he obstructed justice following the discovery of one …

The Guardian reports: A popular former New Orleans-area Catholic priest who was dismissed as pastor from St. Anthony of Padua in Luling last year has been arrested and charged with illegally possessing child abuse imagery depicting unclothed children. Anthony Odiong was arrested Tuesday as he was leaving his home in Ave Maria, Florida. According to sworn statements in support of …

The Daily Beast reports: Police found two items beside the body of 20-year-old Thomas Crooks after he was shot during an assassination attempt on Donald Trump Saturday at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania: a remote detonator and a cellphone. A picture of the scene was published by local news station WPXI as part of a report chronicling the movements of …