Texas
Ex-sheriff’s deputy indicted on capital murder charges
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A former Texas sheriff’s deputy was indicted on capital murder charges in the April shooting deaths of his ex-wife, teenage stepdaughter and the stepdaughter’s boyfriend.
Travis County District Attorney José Garza announced in a press release Wednesday that a grand jury had returned the indictment against Stephen Broderick, 41.
Broderick was arrested after an overnight search following the April 18 shooting of Amanda Broderick, 34; Alyssa Marie Broderick, 17; and Willie Simmons III, 18, at a popular shopping area known as the Arboretum.
Broderick has been jailed since then and will be held without bail, the district attorney’s office said. An attorney for him could not immediately be reached to comment on the indictment.
Prosecutors say Broderick lost his job as a sheriff’s deputy last year after being arrested on charges of sexual assault of a child.
Court records show that a protective order on behalf of his ex-wife and two children had been filed against Broderick following that arrest in June.
Broderick was required to surrender his firearms and wear an ankle monitor to track his whereabouts, according to prosecutors. Police did not say where Broderick got the weapon used in the April shooting.
Broderick was taken into custody on a rural road about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the shooting just after sunrise the following day, according to police.
“Our office is committed to doing everything we can to hold Mr. Broderick accountable and ensure that he causes no more harm to our community,” Garza said.
Louisiana
Rapper Phipps paroled; long claimed he was innocent in death
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Rapper McKinley “Mac” Phipps has been released from prison after being granted parole in the case of a 2001 shooting at a south Louisiana nightclub.
The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reported that Phipps was released late Tuesday, hours after parole was granted by the state parole board.
Phipps was serving a 30-year sentence after a St. Tammany Parish jury found him guilty in 2001 of manslaughter in the shooting death of a man at a nightclub in Slidell. At the time of the shooting, he was a 22-year-old rapper with a new record deal with the No Limit label.
Phipps has always maintained that he was wrongfully convicted. Witnesses told The Huffington Post in 2015 that their testimony was coerced, bringing new attention to his case.
Phipps, meanwhile, was drawing praise for mentoring young inmates. Board members noted that he had no disciplinary infractions in the last 18 years and that he would be eligible for early release for good behavior in 2024.
Under his current parole conditions, he must observe a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, avoid establishments which serve alcohol, perform six hours of community service a month with at-risk youth, and meet with his parole officer weekly.
Phipps’ wife and mother pledged to help him comply with his parole conditions. No one opposed the parole and the parole panel approved it unanimously.
“I want to say thank you for this opportunity,” Phipps added. “I definitely want to say I’m sorry to the family of the victim and to just anyone who was affected by this.”
Gov. John Bel Edwards granted Phipps clemency in April, setting up Tuesday’s hearing.
Florida
Man gets year in prison for buying endangered animal parts
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man has been sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison for buying parts of dead endangered animals.
Steven Phillip Griffin II, 36, was sentenced last week in Tampa federal court, according to court records. He pleaded guilty in November to receiving and transporting endangered species in violation of the Endangered Species Act and for possessing firearms and ammunition as a convicted felon.
“This sentence sends a clear message to wildlife traffickers that we and our law enforcement partners are in the business of identifying and apprehending those who exploit protected species for commercial gain,” said Special Agent in Charge Phillip Land of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
According to the plea agreement, Griffin communicated with an undercover wildlife agent for more than two years to negotiate the sale and purchase of endangered and threatened wildlife. Griffin repeatedly stated that he collects skulls, full skeletons and other parts of animals such as lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars, rhinos and elephants. Griffin also sent photographs of his personal collection, as well as items on his wish list, to the undercover agent.
In May 2019, Griffin drove to Texas, met with undercover agents and purchased two Southern White rhino horns, four elephant ivory tusks, one African lion skull and three leopard skulls for $9,750, investigators said. He then transported the items back to his Tampa Bay area home.
Agents later executed a federal search warrant at Griffin’s residence and seized a variety of animal parts, firearms and ammunition, officials said. Griffin had been previously convicted of a felony and was not allowed to possess a firearm or ammunition, according to authorities.
Illinois
Man exonerated in 1994 murder, gunned down outside Chicago
CHICAGO (AP) — One of four men convicted and later cleared of the 1994 rape and murder of a Chicago woman has been shot to death, the Cook County medical examiner’s office revealed Wednesday.
Michael Saunders, 42, of Homer Glen died of a gunshot to the head. Authorities in Calumet Park, were the shooting occurred Monday, haven’t revealed the circumstances of the crime, deemed a homicide.
Saunders, Harold Richardson, Vincent Thames and Terrill Swift spent more than a decade in prison before DNA evidence exonerated them in 30-year-old Nina Glover’s death. They were later cleared and granted certificates of innocence. They were teenagers at the time of Glover’s death.
In 2011, tests showed that DNA found on Glover’s body matched that of Johnny “Maniac” Douglas, who was one of the first people the police interviewed in Glover’s killing and who later was convicted in another killing. Douglas was shot to death in 2008.
In 2017, the city of Chicago paid $31 million to settle a wrongful-conviction lawsuit filed by Saunders and the three others. Two years later, Cook County paid $24 million to settle claims by Saunders, Richardson and Thames. Swift separately settled his case against Cook County for $5.6 million.
