New Jersey
Man gets 375 years in 2016 slayings of women, 2 kids
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A man has been sentenced to 375 years in jail in the 2016 slayings of three people, including two children, in New Jersey’s largest city that authorities said apparently stemmed from his anger over a Facebook post.
Jurors in Essex County deliberated for less than two hours last month before convicting 31-year-old Jeremy Arrington of three counts of murder and attempted murder as well as burglary, criminal restraint and weapons charges.
Judge Ronald Wigler on Friday imposed three consecutive life terms in the slayings as well as consecutive sentences on other counts, telling the defendant that he had committed “perhaps the most horrific, heinous, cruel, and depraved murders this county has ever seen.”
Prosecutors said Arrington entered a Newark home in November 2016, tied up people inside and stabbed them with kitchen knives, killing 8-year-old Aerial Little Whitehurst and 11-year-old Al-Jahon Whitehurst, then shot and killed 23-year-old college student Syasia McBurroughs, who was visiting the family.
A 29-year-old woman, a 13-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl were wounded. Prosecutors said a young girl with autism was able to escape and called for help from a closet, allowing police to respond before more lives were lost.
Authorities said Arrington was apparently angry that one of the victims had reposted a Facebook alert from police naming him as a suspect in an earlier shooting and sexual assault.
In addition to the three life terms, the judge imposed consecutive 50-year sentences for each of the three attempted murder convictions, prosecutors said. A life term under New Jersey law is 75 years, and a defendant must serve 63 years and nine months before being eligible for parole. Under the law, prosecutors said, Arrington would not be eligible for parole before serving 281 years of his 375-year sentence.
Arrington, who did not take the stand at his trial, read a short statement at Friday sentencing hearing apologizing to the families. He described his actions as “craziness and uncalled for” and said he would switch places with the victims if he could, NJ.com reported.
The defense tried to use an insanity defense at trial but that was rejected by the judge because the defense lawyer was unable to find an expert witness to testify that Arrington couldn’t be held criminally liable for his actions due to his mental state, NJ.com reported.
Georgia
Inmate charged with murder 40 years after slaying
CUSSETA, Ga. (AP) — In a case that went unsolved for four decades, a grand jury in Georgia indicted an inmate on murder charges in the 1982 killing of a young Army soldier found fatally shot by a roadside weeks after she was last seen leaving her barracks.
Authorities announced that a grand jury in rural Chattahoochee County near the Georgia-Alabama line indicted 64-year-old Marcellus McCluster, already serving a life sentence for murder in an unrelated case, in the slaying of Rene Dawn Blackmore 40 years ago.
The 20-year-old woman was an Army private stationed at Fort Benning when she vanished in April 1982. Her wallet and sweater were discovered almost a month later beside a road near Cusseta, a few miles from the Army post.
A second month passed before Blackmore’s body was found off a logging road a few miles away. Investigators determined she had been killed by a shotgun blast.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Vic Reynolds told a news conference Thursday that McCluster had been indicted March 28. He is scheduled to be arraigned in a Chattahoochee County court April 25, the Ledger-Enquirer of Columbus reported.
Blackmore’s mother, Donna Reitman, said in a statement that her daughter was a “focused young woman” who “loved laughing and having fun with friends.”
“I have lived these 40 years always feeling the pain her absence causes,” Reitman said. “And believing no one outside of her family and friends even cared. It is with a grateful heart that on March 28, 2022, this belief was shown to be untrue.”
McCluster is charged with felony murder and malice murder in Blackmore’s death. He’s already serving a life sentence for a murder conviction stemming from an unrelated 1983 slaying in Stewart County. It was not immediately known if McCluster had an attorney representing him.
Reynolds said GBI agents and Army criminal investigators had identified McCluster as a possible suspect within a year after Blackmore was killed, but the initial case stalled.
The investigation gained new life in 2020 after the GBI formed a cold case unit made up of retired agents. Blackmore’s killing became the focus of the new unit’s initial efforts, Reynolds said.
Jennings White was the original GBI agent assigned to Blackmore’s death and he assisted the cold case unit’s investigation. He said he never forgot about Blackmore and knew her killing could be solved.
“I’m just so glad that I’m able to see the whole thing turn around,” White said.
Arizona
Couple convicted of defrauding investors out of $5 million
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A Tucson couple who ran a software company have been convicted of defrauding investors out of about $5 million, according to federal authorities.
Prosecutors said 73-year-old Michael Feinberg and his 80-year-old wife Betsy Feinberg were convicted by jurors Friday after a trail in U.S. District Court in Tucson.
The two are scheduled to be sentenced on June 15.
According to evidence presented at trial, the Feinbergs’ company promised investors and philanthropists enormous returns.
Their self-proclaimed revolutionary software also was supposed to give people the ability to create programs without having to be a programmer.
Prosecutors said the couple made false promises about the software’s completion date, release date and capabilities for 15 years.
They said the Feinbergs used investor money to pay themselves salaries and pay their personal expenses including their mortgage on a Sedona home.
The couple was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and five counts of securities fraud.
Missouri
Prosecutors won’t retry man for 2003 killing
Prosecutors announced Friday that they won’t seek to retry a Kansas City man after the Missouri Supreme Court overturned his conviction because the case is “tainted from all directions.”
The Jackson County prosecutor’s office said in a statement that there is insufficient evidence to prove that Keith Carnes fatally shot a rival drug dealer, 24-year-old Larry White, in 2003 in a Kansas City parking garage.
The announcement came just three days after the Missouri Supreme Court set aside Carnes’ first-degree murder and armed criminal action convictions, ordering him to be released from prison within 30 days unless prosecutors move to retry him.
One issue was that a special master who reviewed the case found that Kansas City police did not give Carnes’ original defense team a report from a confidential informant that might have led to his exoneration.
Also, two witnesses who identified Carnes as the killer recanted their testimony in 2014, saying they had been pressured by police and Jackson County prosecutors.
Another witness also said police had intimidated him when they interviewed him about the night of the killing. He said White had an argument with another drug dealer — not Carnes — and warned the other man not to come back to his property shortly before the killing.
But in a twist to the case, one of the witnesses testified last year that her original testimony was correct and said she had recanted because of threats from Carnes’ supporters.
“Eyewitness testimony is thrown into question with recantations, including a recantation of a recantation,” the prosecutor’s office said in the statement. “We also do not have physical evidence to corroborate certain eyewitness accounts.”
The statement was highly critical of Carnes supporters, alleging witnesses were pressured to recant or change their testimony.
“In short, the evidence today in Carnes case is tainted from all directions,” the statement said.
The statement stressed that the case remains under investigation, adding that witnesses indicated that there was a second person present when White was killed. The statement said law enforcement would like that person’s identify.
“We will continue to fight for justice for Mr. White and this community,” the statement said, adding that the family continues to believe Carnes was one of the killers.
Washington
2nd defendant pleads guilty in 2018 hate crime
SEATTLE (AP) — A second defendant has pleaded guilty in federal court to a hate crime and making false statements in connection with a 2018 racially-motivated assault in the Seattle area.
U.S. Attorney Nick Brown said Jason DeSimas, 45, of Tacoma, Washington, is one of four men from across the Pacific Northwest being prosecuted for punching and kicking a Black man at a bar in Lynnwood, Washington.
U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones scheduled sentencing for July 8.
According to the plea agreement, DeSimas was a prospective member of a white supremacist group. DeSimas believed that he and his group could go into bars and initiate fights, so that the rest of the members of the group could join in.
On Dec. 8, 2018, the men went to a bar in Lynnwood, Washington and assaulted a Black man who was working as a DJ. The group also assaulted two other men who came to the DJ’s aid. The attackers shouted racial slurs and made Nazi salutes during the assault.
DeSimas also admitted making false statements to the FBI during the investigation of the case.
Under terms of the plea agreement, both sides will recommend a 37-month prison term. The judge is not bound by the recommendation.
Daniel Delbert Dorson, 24, of Corvallis, Oregon, has already pleaded guilty in the case and is scheduled for sentencing Aug. 19. Jason Stanley, 44, of Boise, Idaho, and Randy Smith, 39, of Eugene, Oregon, are also charged in the case and are in custody awaiting trial.
Illinois
Man guilty of murder for shooting deputy at hotel
ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) — A jury convicted a man of a federal murder charge Friday in the shooting death of a northern Illinois sheriff’s deputy.
Floyd E. Brown, 42 of Springfield, was found guilty of the second-degree murder of Jacob Keltner, attempted murder of a federal officer, assault and weapons charges. He was acquitted of first-degree murder.
The 35-year-old Keltner was a McHenry County deputy working with a U.S. Marshal’s Service fugitive task force serving Brown an arrest warrant when he was killed on March 7, 2019. Brown was wanted in a string of downstate burglaries.
Brown testified Thursday, admitting he shot his AK-47 assault rifle through his hotel room door after he heard the sound of a gun being cocked when the task force knocked on the door.
Prosecutors said he then jumped from a third-floor window and shot Keltner, who was positioned outside.
