Mount Clemens
Brothers convicted in grisly stabbing deaths of girl, mother
MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. (AP) — Two brothers have been convicted of murder in the grisly cold case stabbing deaths of a Detroit-area woman and her 11-year-old daughter, prosecutors said.
A jury deliberated less than two hours Monday before convicting Tony Johnson, 42, and Henry Johnson, 37, of two counts each of premeditated first-degree murder and premeditated felony murder, the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office said.
The brothers face mandatory life sentences without parole, prosecutors said.
Tina Geiger, 36, and Krissy Geiger, 11, were slain July 24, 2013, in their Clinton Township apartment. Tina Geiger suffered about 60 stab wounds and Krissy had more than 20 stab wounds, mostly to her neck, the Detroit Free Press reported.
The case was closed but reopened in 2019 by the Clinton Township Police Department.
A bloody palm print and DNA found on the girl matched Tony Johnson, prosecutors said. DNA also confirmed blood found in the stairwell and on a railing outside the apartment came from a male relative of Tony Johnson’s. Henry Johnson resided in the same apartment complex.
Tony Johnson was identified on video surveillance at a convenience store at the same time as the victims, prosecutors said. Investigators believed the brothers walked the victims home, sexually assaulted the girl and stabbed both victims.
Minnesota
Man pleads guilty to threatening U.S. senator
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota man has pleaded guilty to threatening a U.S. senator, according to federal prosecutors.
Brendon Daugherty, 35, of Coon Rapids, entered the plea to one count of interstate transmission of a threat during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis Tuesday.
According to court documents, Daugherty left two threatening voice mail messages for a senator who was unnamed, but lives outside Minnesota, on June 11.
In the first message Daugherty said the senator and the Republican Party was pushing him to become a domestic terrorist, according to U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger.
“Have a nice (expletive) day; can’t wait to kill ya,” Daugherty said.
In the second message, Daugherty threatened to carry out “nefarious goals,” Luger said.
“I also just wanted to note, thank God the Republican Party is against gun control laws because it would keep guns out of the hands of a person that was disabled and volatile like I am, but you guys are totally against that,” the message said.
FBI agents spoke with Daugherty at his Coon Rapids home on Sept. 2. According to court documents, he admitted making the calls and said he did so because the senator was “doing a bunch of stupid (expletive) with gun control,” and that he wants politicians to “feel a little bit pressured.”
A sentencing hearing will be scheduled later.
Tennessee
Man gets 40 years for shooting federal officers
JACKSON, Tenn. (AP) — A man has been sentenced to 40 years in federal prison for shooting two deputy U.S. Marshals during a standoff at a duplex in West Tennessee, prosecutors said.
Bobby Joe Claybrook Jr., 41, had pleaded guilty to assault on a federal officer with a deadly weapon and discharging a weapon during a violent crime stemming from a November 2020 shooting, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a Tuesday news release announcing the sentence.
Authorities said federal agents and local law enforcement went to a duplex in Jackson to serve arrest warrants for Claybrook on attempted homicide and weapons charges.
Before the agents knocked on the door, Claybrook fired on the team through a small porch window. Two officers were shot. They were treated for their wounds at a hospital and released, prosecutors said.
A SWAT team negotiated Claybrook’s surrender after a lengthy standoff.
Claybrook was sentenced Friday, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Washington
High court told jurors were misled in Arizona death row case
WASHINGTON (AP) — A lawyer for a man on Arizona’s death row told the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday that jurors in the case were wrongly told that the only way to ensure the man would never walk free was to sentence him to death.
The man, John Montenegro Cruz, argued that the jury should have been informed he would be ineligible for parole if spared from death. Cruz says Arizona has been defying the Supreme Court on the issue.
Cruz’s lawyer, Neal Katyal, says efforts to tell the jury that Cruz was not parole-eligible were rejected. Arizona says Cruz failed to make the precise requests he needed to under Supreme Court precedent.
At least one juror has said that had she known that a “life sentence without parole” was an alternative to death, she “would have voted for that option.”
The case is important not only for Cruz, but also for other inmates on death row in Arizona who are in the same situation.
Cruz was convicted of the 2003 murder of Tucson police officer Patrick Hardesty. Hardesty and another officer were investigating a hit-and-run accident that led them to Cruz, who attempted to flee and shot Hardesty five times.
A 1994 Supreme Court case, Simmons v. South Carolina, says that in certain death penalty cases, jurors must be told that choosing a life sentence means life without the possibility of parole. That’s required when prosecutors argue that the defendant will pose a threat to society in the future.
In a 2016 case, Lynch v. Arizona, the Supreme Court told Arizona directly that it needed to comply with Simmons. But Cruz says Arizona has continued to defy the high court.
“It sounds like you’re thumbing your nose at us,” Justice Elena Kagan told lawyer Joseph Kanefield, who argued for Arizona.
The case is not necessarily one that will divide the court between its six conservative and three liberal justices.
In addition to Kagan, the court’s two other liberal justices, Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, suggested Cruz should get a new penalty phase of his trial where it’s clear to jurors that he’s ineligible for parole if he’s not sentenced to death.
But conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett also at one point suggested sympathy for Cruz’s view, saying Arizona’s argument “just seems like hair splitting.” Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch suggested they would vote for the state.
The case is John Montenegro Cruz v. State of Arizona, 21-846.
California
Man gets life for murder of teen he met online
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California man was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after admitting that he raped and killed a 13-year-old girl he met online, then set her body on fire.
Armando Cruz, of Inglewood, accepted an agreement to plead guilty to murder, rape, kidnapping and other charges in exchange for a life sentence, KBAK-TV reported Tuesday.
Cruz met Patricia Alatorre of Bakersfield on social media in 2020 and the pair exchanged photos and later met up, Kern County prosecutors said.
The second time they met, the girl didn’t want to go with him but he drove her away from their meeting place and raped her then killed her before dousing her body in lighter fluid and setting her on fire, prosecutors said.
Patricia’s mother, Clara Alvarez, wrote in a letter that Alvarez was a “monster” who deserves to spend the rest of his days behind bars, KGET-TV reported.
“This child murderer is a cruel and ugly sick-minded person who should never see the light of day ever again,” she wrote.
Ohio
Woman testifies that husband wanted 8 family members killed
WAVERLY, Ohio (AP) — A woman who helped plan the 2016 slayings of eight members of another family, a crime that shook rural southern Ohio and stymied investigators for over two years, says the massacre was her husband’s idea.
Angela Wagner made the claim while testifying Tuesday at the murder trial of her 31-year-old son, George Wagner IV, who could face the death penalty if he is convicted. She returned to the stand Wednesday.
The slayings stemmed from a child custody dispute involving another of Angela Wagner’s sons and one of the victims, authorities have said.
Angela Wagner said that her younger son, Jake, had wanted to kill his child’s mother, but that her husband, George “Billy” Wagner III, objected because he believed the woman’s family would seek revenge.
“They’ll know, and then they come for Jake. They’d shoot him, if not all of us,” Angela Wagner said her husband told her. He also said the rest of the woman’s family “had to be murdered,” she testified.
Angela Wagner pleaded guilty in September 2021 to 14 counts and agreed to testify against her older son and her husband. In return, prosecutors dismissed eight counts of aggravated murder and agreed to not seek the death penalty.
Jake Wagner pleaded guilty in April 2021 to shooting five of the victims, saying he had no choice but to kill the mother of his daughter, a toddler at the time.
George Wagner IV — who is accused of helping to plan the killings — is the first person to go on trial for the killings. His father has pleaded not guilty and likely won’t go on trial until next year. The four members of the Wagner family were not arrested until more than two years after the slayings.
Those killed were 40-year-old Christopher Rhoden Sr.; his ex-wife, 37-year-old Dana Rhoden; their three children, 20-year-old Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 16-year-old Christopher Jr., and 19-year-old Hanna Rhoden, the mother of Jake Wagner’s daughter; Clarence Rhoden’s fiancee, 20-year-old Hannah Gilley; Christopher Rhoden Sr.’s brother, 44-year-old Kenneth Rhoden; and a cousin, 38-year-old Gary Rhoden.
Mount Clemens
Man who fled crashed pickup with body in bed faces 2 counts
MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. (AP) — Prosecutors on Tuesday charged a 19-year-old man with two felony counts in connection with the death of a 62-year-old woman whose body was found in the bed of a crashed pickup truck.
Stephen Freeman of Lexington faces charges of receiving and concealing a body and concealing the death of an individual. A judge set his bond at $75,000 surety only with a GPS tether upon release, the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office said.
It wasn’t clear whether Freeman has an attorney who might comment on his behalf.
The body of Gabriele Seitz of Shelby Township was discovered Thursday afternoon following a minor collision in which the driver of the truck fled the scene, Roseville police have said.
“When they opened the bed of the pickup truck they found a deceased person,” Chief Ryan Monroe said at the time. “We believe it was just a regular rear-end traffic crash. We don’t believe at this time that the deceased has anything to do with the accident. We think the body was already in the back of the truck.”
A cause of death hasn’t been determined.
Freeman was arrested about 1 p.m. Saturday, jail records state. His probable cause hearing is scheduled for Nov. 9. A preliminary examination is set for Nov. 16.
