Connecticut
Jurors in ‘Fitbit murder’ trial convict man of killing wife
VERNON, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut man was convicted Tuesday of murder in the 2015 killing of his wife — a case built partly on evidence provided by her Fitbit exercise activity tracker.
A jury in Rockville Superior Court found Richard Dabate guilty of all three charges — murder, tampering with evidence and making a false statement to authorities — following a five-week trial and on the second day of deliberations. The murder charge carries up to 60 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 16.
Court marshals handcuffed Dabate and led him out of the courtroom after Judge Corinne Klatt increased his bond to $5 million. He had been free after posting $1 million bail following his arrest.
Dabate’s lawyer, Trent LaLima, said an appeal of the convictions is planned.
“I think we put on a very strong case for why Rick did not commit this offense,” he said outside the courthouse after the verdicts were announced.
Wayne Rioux, a spokesperson for Connie Dabate’s family, said justice prevailed with the convictions of Richard Dabate.
“The trial was not about Fitbit,” he said. “The trial was about the cold-blooded, planned murder of Connie Margotta Dabate. ... There will be no closure for the Margotta family, but there is finally justice for Connie.”
Dabate maintained his innocence and testified that a large masked man with a voice like actor Vin Diesel and dressed in camouflage shot his wife, Connie Dabate, and tied him up at the couple’s Ellington home in December 2015.
Police said information on Connie Dabate’s Fitbit contradicted her husband’s story and showed she was moving around an hour after he said she was killed.
Prosecutor Matthew Gedansky said in his closing argument that Dabate hatched a plan to kill his wife and stage a home invasion as his life was about to unravel with the birth of a child he was having with another woman.
LaLima questioned the reliability of the data from the Fitbit tracker, saying the devices were not designed with the accuracy needed for court testimony.
LaLima also pointed to unknown DNA that was found in the Dabates’ home, including on the gun that killed Connie, and testimony from a house cleaner, who said they may have seen a dark green figure move past the window around the time of the crime.
A jury was picked for the case in early 2020, before state courts shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic. A judge dismissed that jury last August, saying it had been empaneled too long and some jurors had moved out of state, and a new panel was selected beginning in late February.
Maryland
Man pleads guilty to stealing checks intended for churches
GREENBELT, Md. (AP) — A Florida man has pleaded guilty in connection with the theft of more than 2,600 checks intended for religious institutions in several states that were deposited into fake bank accounts, a federal prosecutor in Maryland said.
Florin Vaduva, 31, of Dania Beach, Florida, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud. The plea agreement orders Vaduva to pay at least $1 million restitution, U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron announced Tuesday in a news release.
The guilty plea says that from June 2018 to January 2021, Vaduva and at least five others conspired to steal checks intended for religious institutions and deposit them into multiple fraudulent bank accounts. The checks were stolen from roadside mailboxes.
Vaduva and the co-conspirators deposited the stolen checks into bank accounts through ATMs, then withdrew money and spent the proceeds using debit cards.
During five months in 2020, Vaduva deposited or was part of the deposit of at least 49 stolen checks totaling more than $27,000 from churches in Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia into five fraudulently opened bank accounts. Vaduva was apprehended last September.
Vaduva faces up to 30 years in prison and five years of supervised release when he is sentenced on Aug. 8.
Illinois
Man gets 15 months for inciting to riot in downtown Chicago
CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago man who posted online to urge others to join massive crowds that were looting downtown businesses in the summer of 2020 was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison Tuesday.
James Massey, 23, pleaded guilty in February to inciting and participating in a riot. He admitted in a plea agreement with prosecutors that he posted multiple videos and messages on Facebook calling for people to travel to downtown Chicago to engage in property damage and looting.
Massey was later captured on surveillance video helping to loot and destroy four businesses, including a cellphone store and a marijuana dispensary, the Chicago Tribune reported.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly rejected a defense request for probation, saying Massey hurt legitimate protesters calling attention to the issue of police misconduct after high-profile incidents including the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in late May.
Massey has been in custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center since August 2021 when he was arrested while trying to illegally purchase a handgun at an Indiana gun store while free on bond. With good behavior, he would eligible for release in about five months.
Massey apologized to the court, saying the kind of behavior he engaged in that night was behind him.
Massey was arrested after an investigation revealed that he posted a series of sometimes profane messages and videos on Facebook on Aug. 9, 2020, in which he urged people to take part in the widespread violence that erupted in the city that day and the next.
After police shot a man who had opened fire on officers on the city’s South Side, Police Superintendent David Brown said there was a social media post urging people to form a car caravan and converge on the business and shopping district. Further ratcheting up the tensions in the city was a video that circulated on Facebook falsely claiming that Chicago police had fatally shot a teenager.
Massey told others that the looting would start at 12 a.m. and that they should “Bring YA TOOLS SKI MASKS AND GLOVES.”
Prosecutors say Massey said in a video posted later: “I ain’t missing out. I am ready to steal.”
After sending other messages, such as “WE LIE TOGETHER WE DIE TOGETHER,” prosecutors said in the complaint that Massey is seen on surveillance video walking to a store with a tire iron in his hand while another person smashed the store window. They alleged he entered a store, grabbed some coats then took part in vandalizing a convenience store and a cellphone store.
During the rioting, vandals smashed windows of dozens of businesses and made off with clothing, cash machines and anything else they could carry. Two people were shot and more than a dozen police officers were injured in the rioting that ended with more than 100 arrests.
South Dakota
Noem’s appeal of abortion pills order put on hold
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Tuesday ordered that a case between Planned Parenthood and the state of South Dakota be put on hold until the U.S. Supreme Court issues a decision in a separate case that could overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide.
The South Dakota lawsuit is over a rule pushed by Republican Gov. Kristi Noem that would require abortion-seekers to make three separate visits to a doctor to take abortion pills. Planned Parenthood, which operates the state’s only clinic that regularly provides abortions, asserted that the rule would have ended its ability to provide medicine-induced abortions.
A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against the rule in February, finding that it likely infringed on the right to an abortion. Noem appealed that decision.
But both sides motioned for the appeal to be held in abeyance until the Supreme Court issues a decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
The legal fight over requirements to get abortion pills in South Dakota may soon become moot. South Dakota is one of 13 states with a trigger law that would ban abortions altogether if Roe is overturned.
California
Ex-deputy pleads guilty to $5.6-million investment scam
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former Southern California sheriff’s deputy who funded an extravagant lifestyle with $5.6 million he bilked from victims in investment scams pleaded guilty to federal charges and could face up to 20 years in prison, authorities said Tuesday.
Christopher Burnell, 51, of Highland, entered pleas Monday to 11 counts of wire fraud and two counts of filing a false tax return, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.
Burnell, a former deputy with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, claimed to be a wealthy businessman who made tens of millions of dollars from lawsuits against the Sheriff’s Department and the Kaiser Permanente health care chain, from selling a patent for an air-cooled bullet-resistant vest and through various investments, prosecutors said.
Burnell promised some victims that if they invested their money with him, they could earn 100% returns in weeks, prosecutors said.
But instead of investing the money, Burnell blew more than $2 million gambling at a local casino, spent $500,000 on private jet trips and hundreds of thousands of dollars buying luxury goods for his then-girlfriends, court documents said.
The fraud lasted from late 2010 through late 2017, ending when Burnell couldn’t find new victims and the money ran out, prosecutors said.
Burnell could face up to 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud and up to three yeaars in prison for each tax count when he is sentenced on Aug. 15, prosecutors said.
Nevada
Trial set for man held in Vegas boy’s body in freezer case
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Dec. 5 trial date has been set for a Las Vegas man accused of killing his girlfriend’s 4-year-old son and hiding the body in a freezer where police found it in February after the boy’s sister gave notes to her teacher saying her mother was being held captive at the man’s home.
Brandon Lee Toseland has been jailed since his arrest Feb. 22 on charges including murder, kidnapping, child abuse and domestic battery by strangulation.
Toseland’s defense attorney, Craig Mueller, did not immediately respond Tuesday to messages seeking comment following a brief court appearance in Clark County District Court.
Toseland, 35, pleaded not guilty last week in the case in which prosecutors have said they may seek the death penalty.
Police said the boy’s frozen body bore visible injuries of physical abuse. An indictment attributes his death to internal injuries, but the Clark County coroner’s office has not released findings on a cause and manner of death.
A lawyer who represented the mother alleged that she was physically, sexually and emotionally abused by Toseland. The woman is not facing criminal charges in the boy’s death.
