New York
Man charged with smuggling pythons in his pants at U.S. border
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A New York City man has been charged with smuggling three Burmese pythons in his pants at a U.S-Canadian border crossing.
Calvin Bautista, 36, is accused of bringing the hidden snakes on a bus that crossed into northern New York on July 15, 2018. Importation of Burmese pythons is regulated by an international treaty and by federal regulations listing them as “injurious to human beings.”
Bautista, of Queens, was arraigned Tuesday in Albany on the federal smuggling charge and released pending trial, according to a news release from the office of U.S. Attorney Carla B. Freedman.
An email seeking comment was sent to Bautista’s lawyer.
The charge carries the potential for a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine as high as $250,000, according to federal prosecutors.
The Burmese python, one of the world’s largest snakes, is considered a vulnerable species in its native Asia and is invasive in Florida, where it threatens native animals.
Louisiana
Life in prison for man convicted of killing, burning body
LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) — A 43-year-old Louisiana man faces life in prison after being convicted of killing another man whose body was so burned it took DNA to identify him.
That’s the mandatory sentence, since Nathaniel Mitchell III was convicted of second-degree murder of Zacchaeus H. Burton of Baton Rouge. Burton’s body was found July 17, 2019, at the end of a dead-end street in DeQuincy, about 130 miles (210 kilometers) west of his home town.
Codefendant George Anthony Buck pleaded guilty to manslaughter and testified against Mitchell, Bethany Bryant, spokesperson for the Calcasieu Parish District Attorney’s Office said in an email Wednesday.
Mitchell was convicted Monday and Judge Michael Canaday scheduled formal sentencing Nov. 23, news agencies reported.
Buck is to be sentenced Nov. 21, Bryant said. Manslaughter carries a maximum 40-year sentence
Calcasieu Parish Sheriff Tony Mancuso said in 2019 that Burton had been staying with Mitchell in Iowa (pronounced EYE-oh-way), another Calcasieu Parish town about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of DeQuincy.
Investigators believe the two traveled separately to DeQuincy, where Burton was shot, the American Press reported.
Prosecutors said Buck saw the shooting, then dumped gasoline on Burton’s body and set it on fire, KPLC-TV reported.
New York
Judge: Fake heiress can fight deportation on house arrest
NEW YORK (AP) — A U.S. immigration judge cleared the way Wednesday for fake German heiress Anna Sorokin to be released from detention to home confinement while she fights deportation, if she meets certain conditions.
She must post a $10,000 bond, provide a residential address where she’ll stay for the duration of her immigration case and refrain from social media posting, Manhattan Immigration Judge Charles Conroy said.
Sorokin, 31, has been in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since March 2021, after spending more than three years behind bars for swindling banks, hotels and friends to bankroll a posh lifestyle.
Immigration authorities say she’s overstayed her visa and must be returned to Germany.
Sorokin’s lawyer, Duncan Levin, said they are “extremely gratified” by the decision to release her to home confinement.
“The judge rightfully recognized that Anna is not a danger to the community,” Levin said in a written statement. “While there are still a few hurdles to jump through on her release conditions, Anna is thrilled to be getting out so she can focus on appealing her wrongful conviction.”
A message seeking comment was left with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Sorokin, whose scheme inspired the Netflix series “Inventing Anna,” was convicted in 2019 on multiple counts of larceny and theft. She was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison, credited with more than 500 days time served while her case was pending and released on good behavior in February 2021.
Immigration authorities picked her up a few weeks later.
Using the name Anna Delvey, Sorokin maneuvered her way into elite New York social circles by passing herself off as a socialite with a $67 million (68 million euros) fortune overseas, prosecutors said. She falsely claimed to be the daughter of a diplomat or an oil baron.
Prosecutors said Sorokin falsified records and lied to get banks to lend, luxury hotels to let her stay and well-heeled Manhattanites to cover plane tickets and other expenses for her, stealing $275,000 in all.
Maryland
Family of victim in ‘Serial’ case asks court to halt case
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — The family of the victim in the murder case chronicled in the first season of the “Serial” podcast has asked Maryland’s intermediate appellate court to halt Adnan Syed’s court case pending the family’s appeal of a judge’s overturning of Syed’s murder conviction.
Young Lee, the brother of victim Hae Min Lee, asked the Maryland Court of Special Appeals in a six-page motion filed late last month to suspend further proceedings, including an Oct. 18 deadline by which prosecutors must decide whether to drop the charges against Syed or retry him for the killing. He contends that the family was not given enough notice about a court hearing last month over whether Syed’s conviction should be overturned.
“The Lee family is not seeking, through this motion or through the appeal, to impact Mr. Syed’s release from custody,” said the family’s attorney, Steve Kelly. “If the wrong person has been behind bars for 23 years, the Lee family and the rest of the world want to understand what new evidence has led to that conclusion.”
Baltimore Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn overturned Syed’s conviction on Sept. 19. The Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office said it found evidence that should have been disclosed to Syed’s attorneys.
Prosecutors moved to vacate Syed’s conviction on Sept. 14. That followed a yearlong investigation and was two days after they notified the Lee family, the family’s motion says. Then on Sept. 16, Syed’s attorneys and prosecutors discussed the motion at a meeting in Phinn’s chambers.
Phinn ordered a new trial, but prosecutors were given 30 days — until Oct. 18 — in which to dismiss the charges or proceed with a new trial.
Syed has always maintained his innocence. His case captured the attention of millions in 2014 when the debut season of “Serial” focused on Lee’s killing and raised doubts about some of the evidence prosecutors had used, inspiring heated debates across dinner tables and water coolers about Syed’s innocence or guilt.
Syed was serving a life sentence after he was convicted of strangling 18-year-old Lee, whose body was found buried in a Baltimore park.
Prosecutors said a reinvestigation of the case revealed evidence regarding the possible involvement of two other possible suspects. The two suspects may be involved individually or may be involved together, the state’s attorney’s office said.
Illinois
Man found guilty in murder of 6 family members
CHICAGO (AP) — A jury on Wednesday found a man guilty of first-degree murder in the 2016 slayings of six members of his family — including two young boys — inside their Chicago home in 2016.
The jury deliberated for about a day before finding 28-year-old Diego Uribe Cruz guilty of all six counts of first-degree murder of four adults and two children inside their bungalow in the Gage Park neighborhood on the city’s Southwest Side. With the conviction, Uribe Cruz faces a sentence of life in prison without parole, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office said.
During the trial, prosecutors alleged that Uribe Cruz shot his aunt, 32-year-Maria Martinez, after he tried to rob her before he fatally stabbed her sons, ages 10 and 13, and stabbed or beat to death other relatives to make sure there were no witnesses. — the last of which was her father, whom he stabbed after he returned from a store with snacks.
“These were women, children, brothers, sisters, grandparents, cousins. They were a family,” Jason Fisher, an assistant state’s attorney, told the jury, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Evidence against him included DNA recovered from under Maria Martinez’s fingernails and a small amount of blood that matched that of Uribe Cruz. Prosecutors also showed the jury a video in which Uribe Cruz confessed to some of the details to Chicago police detectives.
Also, Uribe Cruz’s former girlfriend, Jafeth Ramos, testified against him. Ramos, who was originally charged with murder as well as Cruz, testified as part of a plea deal that called for her to plead guilty to armed robbery and agree to cooperate with authorities. According to the Tribune, she is expected to be sentenced to 25 years in prison.
She testified that when Uribe Cruz came to the house he asked to talk to Maria Martinez upstairs. There he held her at gunpoint and shot her when she did not give him money. When her brother, Noe Martinez, Jr., came upstairs, Uribe Cruz beat him with the gun and put a knee to his neck when he lost consciousness.
She testified that when Martinez’s mother, 58-year-old Rosaura Martinez, came upstairs, he pushed her down the stairs before stabbing her. Then, she testified, he forced Alexis Cruz, 10, and his 13-year-old brother, Leonardo Cruz search the house for things of value before he stabbed them to death.
The last member of the family to die, prosecutors told the jury, was 62-year-old Noe Martinez Sr., who was stabbed when he walked into the house.
California
3 charged with $2.6M Beverly Hills jewelry store robbery
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Three men were charged Wednesday with stealing more than $2.6 million in a brazen smash-and-grab robbery at a Beverly Hills jewelry store, federal prosecutors said.
Jimmy Lee Vernon III, 31, Ladell Tharpe, 37, and Deshon Bell, 20, all of Long Beach, were each indicted on one count each of conspiracy and interference with commerce by robbery, which carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each count, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the three had attorneys to speak for them.
The three are accused of driving three cars, one of them reportedly stolen, to the Beverly Hills store on March 23, where Vernon and others allegedly smashed the exterior store cases with axes, sledgehammers and crowbars and ran off with dozens of bracelets, watches, necklaces and other items.
Vernon’s cellphone fell out of his sweatpants pocket during the robbery and law enforcement recovered it, authorities said.
According to the indictment, two days after the robbery Tharpe posted to his Instagram account photographs that included “large stacks of money and a message praising his ‘robbery gang.’”
All three men were arrested last month.
Bell, the alleged getaway driver, was released on $15,000 bond.
A juvenile who wasn’t charged in the federal indictment also was arrested in connection with the robbery and is charged with commercial burglary, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
