Wisconsin
Woman committed over Slender Man stabbing seeks her release
WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) — The second of two Wisconsin women who were sent to a state mental health facility after a 2014 stabbing attack on a sixth-grade classmate that they claimed was to appease the horror character Slender Man is petitioning for her release.
Morgan Geyser, 20, asked Waukesha County Judge Michael Bohren on June 14 to order her release as he did last year for her co-defendant, Anissa Weier, who spent nearly four years at a mental health facility in Oshkosh.
During a hearing Thursday, Bohren appointed three doctors to evaluate Geyser’s mental state and to submit their reports by Aug. 26. Prosecutors and defense attorneys will return to court on Sept. 12 to schedule another hearing to review the reports.
According to prosecutors, Geyser and Weier lured Payton Leutner to a Waukesha park following a sleepover in May 2014, and Geyser repeatedly stabbed Leutner while Weier urged her on. All three girls were 12 at the time.
Geyser and Weier left Leutner for dead, but she managed to crawl out of the woods in the park and was discovered by a passing bicyclist.
She suffered 19 stab wounds and barely survived, according to medical staff who treated her. Police found Weier and Geyser later that day walking on Interstate 94 in Waukesha. They said they were traveling to Slender Man’s mansion in northern Wisconsin and attacked Leutner because they thought it would make them Slender Man’s servants and prevent him from killing their families.
Geyser pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide in a deal with prosecutors and a judge sent her to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute after determining she had a mental illness.
Weier, 20, pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree intentional homicide and was also sent to the psychiatric facility after a jury found she was suffering from a mental illness at the time of the attack.
Last September, Weier was granted a conditional release to live with her father and was ordered to wear a GPS monitor. Some restrictions are likely if Bohren orders Geyser’s release.
Idaho
Woman sentenced for attempted murder of husband
BURLEY, Idaho (AP) — An Idaho woman has been sentenced to up to 12 years in prison for attempted murder after prosecutors said she put a plastic bag over her husband’s head while he slept.
Fifth District Judge Michael Tribe said Mildred Nineth Rivero would be eligible for parole after serving at least four years of the sentence, The Times-News reported on Monday.
Rivero, of Burley, pleaded guilty to the attempted murder charge in March after prosecutors agreed to drop additional charges including strangulation and concealment or destruction of evidence.
Prosecutors said Rivero put the plastic bag over her partially paralyzed husband’s head while he slept in a reclining chair, and that she held him down as he struggled. The man survived, and later told police that he ripped a small hole in the bag and rolled out of his chair away from Rivero.
Rivero’s attorney could not be immediately reached for comment.
Washington
Ex-state employee pleads guilty to pandemic fraud
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A former employee of Washington state’s Employment Security Department pleaded guilty to three federal felonies for exploiting his employment for personal enrichment and fraudulently distributing at least $360,000 in pandemic-related unemployment benefits, prosecutors said.
Seattle U.S. Attorney Nick Brown said in a statement that Reyes De La Cruz, III, of Moses Lake, pleaded guilty Wednesday to crimes in U.S. District Court in Tacoma in which he personally enriched himself by at least $130,000.
De La Cruz, 48, was hired as an intake agent in 2020 to help the Employment Security Department deal with the crush of filings for pandemic unemployment benefits. De La Cruz had previously worked for the department from 1996 to 2003.
From July 2020 into March 2021, De La Cruz used his access to the claims database to defraud the benefits system. At least ten times, De La Cruz accepted bribes in exchange for engineering benefit payments for people by making false entries in the claims database. In many cases, the person did not qualify for benefits.
He also filed claims using other people’s personal information without authorization and had the benefits paid to debit cards mailed to himself. The Employment Security Department uncovered evidence of the fraud.
De La Cruz remains in federal custody. Under the plea agreement, De La Cruz faces around six years in prison.
Massachusetts
Man who took Molotov cocktails to Floyd protest sentenced
WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts man who took three Molotov cocktails to a demonstration to protest the killing of George Floyd, and who shouted “kill the police,” has avoided any additional prison time.
Vincent Eovacious, 20, of Worcester, was sentenced by a federal judge Thursday to time served — the three days he has already spent behind bars — and three years of probation, according to federal prosecutors, who had sought a 13-month prison term.
Eovacious was among the crowds that gathered in Worcester on the night of June 1, 2020, to protest the killing a week earlier of Floyd by police in Minneapolis, prosecutors said.
A crowd blocked traffic and began throwing rocks, bottles and other objects at police, who gathered into a defensive line. Officers spotted Eovacious, dressed in a trench coat and carrying a satchel, on the roof of a one-story building and screaming “kill the police,” according to the prosecution.
He was then seen removing a white rag and bottle containing a yellowish liquid from the satchel and attempting to insert the rag into the bottle, authorities said. When police shined flashlights on him, he moved away from the edge of the rooftop but was later spotted on the streets.
He was stopped, and police searched the satchel and found three bottles filled with gasoline, five rags and two lighters, prosecutors said. A half-full gas can and more rags were found in his vehicle. Eovacious said he was “with the anarchist group” and was “waiting for an opportunity,” prosecutors said.
“During what should have been a peaceful demonstration, Mr. Eovacious sought to incite violence by bringing dangerous Molotov cocktails with him and threatening to kill police officers,” U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins said. “Protesting injustice is legal. Violence, destruction and threats are not.”
Eovacious pleaded guilty in September to civil disorder and possession of an unregistered firearm.
Massachusetts
California man charged with secretly recording young girl
BOSTON (AP) — A California man has been accused by federal prosecutors of climbing onto the roof of a Massachusetts family’s garage so he could secretly record an 11-year-old girl as she changed in her bedroom.
Jacob Guerrero, 23, of Woodland, California, was indicted on a charge of sexually exploiting a child, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement Thursday.
He was previously arrested on April 14 and remains in custody. An email seeking comment was left Friday with his federal public defender.
Before making the video recording, Guerrero conducted surveillance of the family’s home and made notes regarding the time of day that the girl and her siblings arrived home, showered, and changed at night, prosecutors said.
Then on about March 17, 2021, prosecutors say he climbed on to the garage attached to the girl’s home and stood outside a second-floor bedroom window as she changed to make the video.
Guerrero also made notes about children’s habits in several other homes, prosecutors allege.
The case stems from another investigation in which Guerrero is alleged to have dressed in a wig and women’s clothing in an attempt to secretly record girls in bathrooms and changing rooms at a Massachusetts mall using pen cameras on his shoes.
North Carolina
Felon who shot at deputy gets 10 years in prison
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A man who shot at a North Carolina sheriff’s deputy has been sentenced to 10 years prison on a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm, prosecutors said.
Rodriguez Crudup pleaded guilty to the charge in March, U.S. Attorney Michael F. Easley Jr. said.
A deputy with the Warren County Sheriff’s Office responded to a domestic disturbance call on Dec. 28 at a residence in Warrenton, according to court documents and information presented in court.
The deputy was told Crudup, who was at the residence, took the victim’s loaded firearm and ran into the woods, the news release said. The deputy heard Crudup running and went toward him. Crudup fired a shot that the deputy heard pass over his head, prosecutors said. The deputy retreated and took cover at his vehicle as he called additional units.
Crudup, who was sentenced on Wednesday, was arrested and the loaded gun, which apparently jammed after he fired the shot, was found in the woods where he had been.
Judge James C. Dever rejected Crudup’s arguments that it was an accidental discharge and found he intentionally fired his weapon at a law enforcement officer.
Texas
Event to honor jurors leads to mistrial in murder case
HOUSTON (AP) — An effort by Houston area officials to thank residents for taking part in the jury selection process has ended with a mistrial in a murder case.
Last week, the office of Harris County District Clerk Marilyn Burgess held its annual Jury Appreciation Week, an event with guest speakers and door prizes that was created to “honor jurors and tell them how important their participation is in the American justice system.”
But Houston public radio station KUHF reported Wednesday that a defense attorney criticized the comments one of the guest speakers made to potential jurors, objecting to statements that serving on a jury was a chance to provide “justice” for victims.
Defense attorney Sean Buckley said the comments presented a biased view of the justice system and tainted the jury pool.
“It was really tantamount to a pep rally for recruiting groups of jurors to go over to the courthouse and convict people of violent crimes,” he said.
Buckley said jurors from the appreciation week event were picked for the murder trial of his client, Itani Milleni, who is accused of beating his estranged wife to death in 2015.
Buckley asked for a mistrial over the comments and state District Judge Te’iva Bell granted the request on Wednesday.
Dane Schiller, a spokesman for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, said prosecutors planned to retry Milleni.
“We will do all we can to protect society from this defendant, who is accused of a vicious murder,” Schiller said. “We will not be deterred in our efforts to see that all the facts are presented to a jury in a fair trial and that justice is done.”
In a statement on Thursday, the Harris County District Clerk’s Office said guest speakers during Jury Appreciation Week “are solely for inspiration and entertainment. The remarks made by the guest speakers are their own.”
