Wisconsin
Suspect in parade attack withdraws insanity plea
WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) — A man accused of killing six people and injuring dozens of others by driving an SUV through a Christmas parade in Wisconsin last year withdrew his insanity plea Friday.
Darrell Brooks Jr., 40, appeared in Waukesha County Circuit Court where he’s facing nearly 80 charges, including six homicide counts, in connection with the Nov. 21 incident in Waukesha. Brooks had changed his not guilty plea to not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect in June.
Brooks offered little explanation for his decision when questioned by Judge Jennifer Dorow, saying, “I have my own reasons why.” He confirmed he had discussed the change with his attorneys.
After the announcement on the plea change, the defense asked that the jury status hearing for Friday be rescheduled. The judge agreed and pushed the hearing to Sept. 19.
Last month, Dorow refused a defense motion to have the case against Brooks dismissed because of a July search of the defendant’s jail cell. Investigators and prosecutors were looking for information related to Brooks’ recent decision to change his plea.
His attorneys say the warrant for the search was deficient and that the action violated Brooks’ attorney-client privilege.
In denying the motion, Dorow said the paperwork seized, photocopied and return to the jail cell was not privileged material.
Dorow also rejected a motion to suppress some statements Brooks made to investigators after defense attorneys argued that he continued to be questioned after stating he wished to invoke his right to remain silent.
California
Deputy charged in killings of couple
DUBLIN, Calif. (AP) — A Northern California sheriff’s deputy was charged Friday in the killings of a husband and wife who were shot inside their home, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors charged Devin Williams Jr., a deputy with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, with two counts of murder and with the special circumstance of avoiding lawful arrest after he fled the Dublin home of Benison and Maria Tran, Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said in a statement.
Williams, 24, surrendered to law enforcement hours after he was accused of the slayings. Williams appeared in court Friday but didn’t enter a plea. His attorney, Jesse Garcia, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Benison Tran, 57, was a retired civil engineer and Maria Tran, 42, was a nurse that Williams met at John George Psychiatric Hospital in San Leandro, where she worked. Benison Tran retired last year after working nearly 29 years as a civil engineer for the city of Santa Clara, said Michelle Templeton, a city spokeswoman.
The couple was fatally shot inside their Dublin home Wednesday. Four other relatives who were in the home, including their child, were unharmed, Lt. Ray Kelly, a spokesperson with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, said.
A relative of the Trans who witnessed the slayings called police and identified Devin Williams Jr., a deputy with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, as the gunman, Kelly said.
Kelly said investigators are still trying to determine the motive.
Williams’ mother, Anitra Williams, told KTVU-TV that her son had been in a romantic relationship with Maria Tran since January and that he believed she was 35-year-old and unmarried.
Anitra Williams said she had warned her son against being with Tran but that her son was “blinded by love.”
“She told him she loved him, they were on a 10-day trip,” Anitra Williams said.
Williams made it 160 miles (258 kilometers) south of the crime scene to the city of Coalinga where he called police in Dublin to say he wanted to surrender, Kelly said.
Williams had been with the sheriff’s office since September 2021 and was still on probation. He had been assigned to the Oakland courthouse, and there were no concerns about his job performance, Kelly said.
Illinois
Prosecutor says R. Kelly a sexual predator using fame to abuse minors
CHICAGO (AP) — R. Kelly is a sexual predator who parlayed his fame to abuse minors, a prosecutor said Monday during closing arguments at the R&B star’s child pornography and trial-fixing trial.
Addressing jurors in a courtroom in Chicago, Kelly’s hometown, Elizabeth Pozolo cited one of Kelly’s accusers who was the government’s star witness at the monthlong trial.
Referring to the accuser by a pseudonym, “Jane,” Pozolo said Kelly “took advantage of Jane’s youth. He repeatedly abused her. He performed degrading acts upon her for his own sick pleasure.”
She said Kelly and his two co-defendants helped to recover child pornography videos and hid evidence before Kelly’s 2008 trail, at which he was acquitted.
She said they acted to cover up the fact that “R. Kelly … the R&B superstar … is actually a sexual predator.”
Pozolo described in graphic detail the video excerpts jurors saw that she said show Kelly abusing Jane while she calls him “daddy” and refers to herself as being 14 years old. She said Kelly can be seen walking up to the camera to adjust it. Jane testified at trial that she was the teenager in the video.
“That abuse is forever memorialized ...,” Pozolo told jurors, her voice rising. “Who does that? Who uses a 14-year-old child to film a video like this? This man. Robert Kelly.”
Before Kelly’s 2008 trial, Pozolo said Kelly and his associates scrambled to recover sex videos that had gone missing from a collection he often carried around in a large gym bag. More tapes revealing Kelly as a sexual abuser could sink his career and land him in yet more legal trouble, so he was prepared to make six- and seven-figure payments to get them back, Pozolo said.
“The secret that would ruin Kelly forever if it came out,” she said. “So yes, that secret was worth $1 million.”
Before the defense rested late Friday, Kelly co-defendant and ex-business manager Derrell McDavid testified that he had believed Kelly when he denied abusing minors — then said he started having doubts about Kelly’s believability during the trial that started last month.
Kelly and McDavid are charged with fixing Kelly’s 2008 state child pornography trial by threatening witnesses and concealing video evidence.
Jane did not testify in 2008, and jurors cited that as a reason they couldn’t convict Kelly then. The current proceedings are in some ways a do-over of that trial. This time, Jane testified that she was the girl in that video and that Kelly had sexually abused her hundreds of times starting when she was 14.
Kelly and McDavid also face child pornography charges. Another co-defendant, Kelly associate Milton Brown, is accused of receiving child pornography.
McDavid was the only one who testified on his own behalf.
Kelly, 55, is already facing 30 years in prison after a separate federal trial in New York in June.
Known for his smash hit “I Believe I Can Fly” and for sex-infused songs such as “Bump n’ Grind,” Kelly sold millions of albums even after allegations of sexual misconduct began circulating in the 1990s. Widespread outrage emerged after the #MeToo reckoning and the 2019 docuseries “Surviving R. Kelly.”
Texas
Man gets 60 years for filming himself raping child
DALLAS (AP) — A Dallas-area man was sentenced to 60 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to filming himself raping a 7-year-old girl, authorities said Friday.
Mark Allen Miller, of Rowlett, was sentenced Thursday by a federal judge in Dallas after pleading guilty to two counts of producing child pornography, the U.S. attorney’s office for the northern district of Texas said in a statement.
Miller, 35, was arrested on Jan. 12 after the girl’s father, with whom Miller was staying, said he walked in on Miller raping the girl, who was 9 years old at the time. Miller admitted to police that he had been molesting the girl for years, the prosecution statement said.
The father told investigators that he and Miller had been friends for more than a decade and that Miller was staying overnight at their home. The father heard a noise and went to check on it. When he saw that Miller wasn’t in the living room where he’d been sleeping, the father rushed to his daughter’s room and found Miller raping her. The father held Miller at gunpoint until police arrived.
A forensic analysis of Miller’s electronic devices revealed that he had produced at least five videos and 132 images of child pornography involving the victim dating back two years, to when she was 7.
During the sentencing hearing, a Rockwall Police Department forensic analyst testified that Miller’s electronic devices contained more than 8,000 sexually explicit images of other children.
New York
Woman gets prison term for altercation aboard plane
PHOENIX (AP) — A New York woman has been sentenced to four months in prison for interfering with crew members aboard a flight from Dallas to Los Angeles last year that had to be diverted to Phoenix, according to federal prosecutors.
They said Kelly Pichardo and another first-class passenger engaged in intimidating behavior on the flight and both women had to be removed from the plane after it landed at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Feb. 24, 2021.
Authorities said the women each assaulted a passenger during the flight and used racial slurs when a male passenger asked them to stop.
Pichardo also allegedly spit at the man when he tried to record the altercation.
The case was investigated by the FBI and Phoenix police and the two women were indicted for disorderly conduct for verbally and physically assaulting other customers and flight crew members.
Prosecutors said Pichardo, a 32-year-old resident of the Bronx, has been ordered to pay nearly $9,200 restitution to American Airlines as a result of the altercation.
They say Pichardo also will serve three years of supervised release following her prison sentence.
The other female passenger involved in the incident has pleaded guilty and will be sentenced in November.
Nevada
Woman sentenced in 2019 death of boyfriend’s daughter
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Las Vegas woman has been sentenced to at least 20 years in prison in connection with the death of her boyfriend’s young daughter in 2019.
A jury in July convicted 26-year-old Shevhuan Miller on charges of murder and child abuse.
The Clark County coroner’s office determined 5-year-old Janiyah Russell died of blunt force injuries.
On Thursday, a district judge sentenced Miller to between 20 and 50 years in prison for first-degree murder and child abuse, neglect or endangerment resulting in substantial bodily harm.
The child’s father — 27-year-old Richard Davis — is scheduled to go to trial in February.
Prosecutors said Davis is facing charges of murder and six counts of child abuse, neglect or endangerment resulting in substantial bodily harm.
Court records show Davis and Miller called police on Sept. 11, 2019 to report the child was cold and unresponsive.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that Miller told police she put the child in the bathtub and later dressed the girl, laid her on a couch and went back to bed for two hours.
Davis admitted to spanking his daughter with a belt about 20 times a few days earlier, according to the newspaper.
