Minnesota
Man found guilty of killing neighbor
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Hennepin County jury has found a Brooklyn Park man guilty of killing his former neighbor, who was a Minneapolis activist and artist.
Jurors deliberated a day before finding Demetrius Wynee guilty Tuesday of second-degree murder with intent. He was found not guilty of a lower charge, second-degree murder without intent.
Susan Spiller, 68, was strangled, beaten and stabbed several times and was found dead in her bedroom in July 2015. A Hennepin County medical examiner said Spiller died of “complex homicidal violence.”
Neighbors told police Spiller had been having ongoing issues with Wynne’s family, the Star Tribune reported.
“Nearly seven years have passed since this tragedy occurred. While the guilty verdict cannot undo the heartbreak and devastation the victim’s family and loved ones have endured, my hope is that this helps in the healing process,” Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said in a statement.
Having killed Spiller when he was 14, Wynne was arrested nearly four years later following a fingerprint match. He was first charged in juvenile court, but late in 2019 was moved to adult court to stand trial.
Sentencing is scheduled for April 28. Prosecutors plan to request a 30-year sentence.
Massachusetts
Man gets 40 years for fatal attack on uncle
GREENFIELD, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts man has been sentenced to at least 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to fatally stabbing his uncle and severely injuring his aunt in their own home nearly two years ago.
Elijah Michonski, 20, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Franklin Superior Court to charges including second-degree murder and armed assault with intent to murder in the July 2020 killing of Nicholas Weir, 41, and the attack on Teresa Weir, 39, in Montague, according to the office of Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan.
Michonski, 18 at the time, had been living with his aunt and uncle for more than two years up until June 2020 when he was asked to leave, prosecutors said.
He returned and broke in, attacked his aunt first, then his uncle when he tried to intervene, before stealing their car and leaving the scene, prosecutors said. He later turned himself in.
Nicholas Weir died at the hospital the day after the attack. Teresa Weir suffered 13 stab wounds, a fractured skull and a concussion, prosecutors said.
Michonski had faced a first-degree murder charge, but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge to spare the victims’ family the trauma of a trial, prosecutors said.
Michonski’s attorney says her client is remorseful.
Kentucky
Former prosecutor, wife plead guilty to wire fraud
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A former Kentucky prosecutor and his wife have pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud charges.
Michael T. Hogan was the county attorney in Lawrence County when he conspired with his wife to pocket delinquent tax funds collected by the office, according to the U.S. Attorney in Lexington. Hogan agreed to resign as county attorney as part of a plea agreement announced Tuesday.
Federal prosecutors said Hogan paid his wife, Joy M. Hogan, his legal secretary, more than $365,000 from the tax account between 2013 and 2020. Hogan would write checks to his wife from the account, according to a media release from the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Hogan also admitted to over-billing for work with Lawrence County’s child support enforcement office.
Michael and Joy Hogan will be sentenced on July 6. They each face a maximum 20-year sentence on the wire fraud conviction. Michael Hogan also faces up to 10 years in prison on a program theft conviction.
Oregon
Man gets 10 years for violent actions during protests
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A man from Indiana accused of hurling Molotov cocktails at police in Portland, Oregon, and breaking windows during 2020 protests against police brutality was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Malik Muhammad, 25, initially faced dozens of charges in state and federal court stemming from protests he joined after traveling from Indianapolis to Portland.
He pleaded guilty to 14 felonies including attempted murder on Tuesday as part of a plea agreement, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. Muhammad also pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on Monday to two counts of unlawful possession of a destructive device in connection with the same protests. No additional prison time is expected in that sentencing.
He traveled to Portland from his home in Indianapolis in August 2020 to engage in violence at the city’s mass protests in September and October, prosecutors said.
Muhammad was accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail that landed near a police vehicle on Sept. 5, 2020, in Southeast Portland and throwing a similar device at a line of officers downtown later that month that caught an officer’s pant leg on fire, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.
In October 2020, Muhammad is accused of smashing windows of the Oregon Historical Society and a Portland State University building with a metal baton.
Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Cheryl Albrecht called the plea agreement “a balanced, equitable result” noting prosecutors took into account mitigating information about Muhammad. Court documents say he’s a U.S. Army veteran who has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder as well as bipolar disorder. At the time of the protests, Muhammad was not taking medication.
“We are dedicated as a community to not only reducing but ending, the historic repression and discrimination that has overburdened communities of color and that we are dedicated to doing so peacefully,” Albrecht said.
Albrecht also sentenced Muhammad to pay $200,000 in restitution.
Under the agreement, Muhammad will serve his sentence in an Oregon Department of Corrections prison rather than in a federal facility.
Florida
Threats to Congress get man 1 year, 3 months in prison
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man convicted of making threatening phone calls to three members of Congress was sentenced Tuesday to a year and three months in federal prison.
Frank Anthony Pezzuto, 73, of Venice, was sentenced in Tampa federal court, according to court records. A jury found him guilty in November on three counts of using interstate communications to make threats against members of Congress. Pezzuto must also pay a fine of $7,500.
According to an indictment, Pezzuto made three threatening phone calls in early 2020 from his Florida home to congressional offices in Washington, D.C. Court records identify the members of Congress only by their initials, not their full names.
Pezzuto left a voicemail Jan. 25, 2020, at one congressman’s office saying he was coming to kill the representative, the indictment says. Then on Jan. 30, it says, Pezzuto left a voicemail at another congressman’s office saying that he worked for criminal gang MS-13 and that MS-13 was coming to cut off the elected official’s head. The final call was made Feb. 3, when Pezzuto called a congresswoman’s office and said to the person who answered the phone, “Tell her I’m going to kill her today,” the indictment says.
Pezzuto used his cellphone to make all three calls but attempted to hide his phone number and disguise his voice, prosecutors said. U.S. Capitol Police said they were able to identify Pezzuto as the caller and confirm that the calls had been routed through a cell tower near Pezzuto’s home in Florida.
Muskegon
Judge: Van owned by convicted killer of 2 will be destroyed
MUSKEGON, Mich. (AP) — A minivan owned by a man serving life sentences for the slayings of two women in western Michigan will be destroyed, a judge has ruled.
A Muskegon County judge ruled March 25 in favor of prosecutors’ motion to allow authorities to destroy the vehicle rather than continue to store it, the Muskegon Chronicle reported.
The Dodge Grand Caravan played a role in Jeffrey Willis’ crimes in the Muskegon area. At trial, county prosecutor D.J. Hilson said Willis had kept a “rape kit” in a box inside his minivan.
Willis, 52, is serving life without parole after being convicted of killing Rebekah Bletsch as she jogged along a rural road in 2014. He was also convicted of kidnapping and killing a gas station clerk who disappeared in 2013. Jessica Heeringa’s body still hasn’t been found.
Judge William Marietti wrote in his ruling that “substantial evidence” was presented at both trials that the van “was employed by the defendant to facilitate the criminal behavior for which he was convicted” as well as in the kidnapping of a teenager.
That teen said in 2016 that she had escaped from the vehicle, jump-starting investigations into the then-unsolved homicides of Bletsch and Heeringa.
Hilson said the victims’ families will be invited to watch the vehicle’s destruction, if they so desire.
“This van was an instrument in the crimes he was convicted of,” he told the Muskegon Chronicle on Tuesday. “Hopefully, this will add some peace and comfort to the victims and their families.”
Willis had sought in a handwritten legal brief more than $250,000 worth of fees from authorities for their “use” of the minivan since his 2016 arrest.
California
Convicted terrorist sentenced for selling methamphetamine
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A convicted terrorist from Southern California was sentenced to more than 15 1/2 years in prison for selling drugs to an undercover FBI agent, prosecutors said.
Ahmed Binyamin Alasiri, 45, of Garden Grove was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty last fall to distributing methamphetamine, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Alasiri also received a concurrent two-year sentence for violating the terms of his supervised release from federal prison.
Alasiri sold 1.7 kilograms (3.8 pounds) of methamphetamine to an undercover agent in three transactions in 2020, a year after he was released from federal prison, prosecutors said.
In 2007, Alasiri, who was then known as Kevin Lamar James, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to levy war against the United States government through terrorism. His co-conspirators staged armed robberies of gas stations “to raise money for attacks Alasiri planned on U.S. military operations and Israeli and Jewish facilities in Southern California,” the U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement.
He served 16 years in federal prison before being released in 2019.
Alasiri “was industrious and obtained legitimate full-time employment, yet he did not hesitate to traffic in drugs to earn income,” prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum.
In his plea agreement, Alasiri said he had “family members who were drug traffickers and that he himself sold drugs to customers,” according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
