New Mexico
Man convicted of trying to kill a woman in 2020
TIERRA AMARILLA, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico man could face up to 50 years in prison after being convicted of injecting a woman with heroin and throwing her off a bridge into the Rio Grande in February 2020.
Authorities said the woman survived by floating down the river to get to a riverbank and seeking help at a nearby home.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reported that 47-year-old Brenton Rael was found guilty Thursday a Rio Arriba County jury after a three-day trial in Tierra Amarilla.
He was convicted on charges of kidnapping, attempted murder, battery, assault, robbery, conspiracy and being a felon in possession of a firearm and acquitted of tampering with evidence.
Rael, of Petaca, was one of three suspects accused of kidnapping the woman, drenching her in bleach, drugging her to make her death look like an overdose and then tossing her into the river near Española.
According to the New Mexican, the three suspects allegedly the woman because she was friends with someone who had stolen drugs from Rael.
His sentencing hearing hasn’t been scheduled yet, but prosecutors told the newspaper that Rael could get more than 50 years in prison.
Rael’s two co-defendants both pleaded guilty to reduced charges prior to his trial. One got an eight-year prison term and the other is facing a prison sentence of between four and eight years.
California
Alec Baldwin sues to ‘clear his name’ in movie set killing
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Saying he wants to clear his name, Alec Baldwin on Friday sued people involved in handling and supplying the loaded gun that he was using when it fired, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a 2021 filming accident in New Mexico.
Baldwin filed a cross-complaint in Superior Court in Los Angeles alleging negligence against some of the people sued by a script supervisor, Mamie Mitchell. Among other things, it seeks a share of any damages that Mitchell may win from the people Baldwin names and asks that they pay for any damages assessed against him.
Mitchell was standing behind Hutchins, who died shortly after being wounded during setup for a scene in the western movie “Rust” at a film set ranch on the outskirts of Santa Fe on Oct. 21, 2021.
Mitchell sued Baldwin, who was a producer on the film, the production company and many others involved for assault and negligence.
In his cross-complaint, Baldwin says that while working on camera angles with Hutchins during rehearsal for a scene, he pointed the gun in her direction and pulled back and released the hammer of the gun, which discharged.
The shot fatally wounded Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza in the shoulder.
The actor said neither he nor Hutchins knew the weapon contained a live round.
“This tragedy occurred on a movie set — not a gun range, not a battlefield, not a location where even a remote possibility should exist that a gun would contain live ammunition,” the lawsuit said.
Baldwin has maintained he was told the gun was safe and that he did not pull the trigger. But a recent FBI forensic report found the weapon could not have fired unless the trigger was pulled.
“More than anyone else on that set, Baldwin has been wrongfully viewed as the perpetrator of this tragedy. By these cross-claims, Baldwin seeks to clear his name,” the actor’s lawsuit says.
Baldwin’s cross-complaint says he has lost opportunities and been fired from jobs because of the shooting and also “has suffered physically and emotionally from the grief caused by these events.”
New Mexico’s Office of the Medical Investigator determined the shooting was an accident. However, prosecutors are reviewing the shooting to determine whether criminal charges should be filed.
In April, New Mexico’s Occupational Health and Safety Bureau imposed the maximum fine of $137,000 against Rust Movie Productions and distributed a scathing narrative of safety failures, including testimony that production managers took limited or no action to address two misfires of blank ammunition on set prior to the fatal shooting.
The company is challenging the fine.
Baldwin’s lawsuit alleges negligence by armorer Hannah Guttierez-Reed; prop master Sarah Zachry; first assistant director and safety coordinator David Halls, who handed Baldwin the gun; ammunition supplier Seth Kenney and his company, PDQ Arm & Prop, which also supplied prop weapons for the production.
All have previously denied responsibility for the fatal shooting.
In October, Hutchins’ family announced they had agreed to settle another lawsuit against the actor and the movie’s producers, and producers said they aimed to restart the project in January.
A lawyer for Ms. Gutierrez-Reed, Jason Bowles said he was reviewing Baldwin’s lawsuit. Attorneys for other defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment, the New York Times reported.
A phone message left by The Associated Press seeking comment from Bowles wasn’t immediately returned Friday night.
Idaho
Attorney asks judge to split couple’s triple-murder trial
ST. ANTHONY, Idaho (AP) — An Idaho judge is considering whether to split up the trials of a newlywed couple accused of conspiring to kill her two children and his late wife.
An attorney for Chad Daybell asked a judge Thursday that his client be tried separately from Lori Vallow Daybell, EastIdahoNews. com reported.
The attorney, John Prior, said the co-defendants will have “mutually antagonistic defenses” — a legal term that generally means a jury would have to disbelieve one defendant in order to believe the other.
Daybell and Lori Vallow Daybell were scheduled to stand trial in January in the case, in which prosecutors allege they promoted bizarre, apocalypse-focused spiritual beliefs in a plot to murder the family members and steal their money. Both Daybell and Vallow Daybell have pleaded not guilty, and Judge Steven Boyce has postponed the trial until officials can determine whether Vallow Daybell is mentally competent.
Chad Daybell’s attorney John Prior told Boyce at Thursday’s hearing that the cases need to be separated or they could become an “evidentiary nightmare.”
“Our version of the facts of this case will differ greatly from what Ms. Vallow and her legal counsel are going to be presenting,” Prior said.
Fremont County prosecutor Lindsey Blake said that the two should face trial together and that Daybell’s attorney didn’t meet the high burden required to justify severing the case. She noted similarities between evidence and witnesses the state will present against both defendants, and the trial is already expected to last 10 weeks. Splitting the cases would mean 20 weeks of trial time, Blake said.
Idaho law enforcement officers started investigating the couple in November 2019 after extended family members reported her two youngest children, Joshua “J.J.” Vallow and Tylee Ryan, were missing. At the time, J.J. Vallow was 7 years old, and Tylee Ryan was nearing her 17th birthday.
Daybell and Vallow Daybell had married just two weeks after his previous wife, Tammy Daybell, died unexpectedly. The children’s bodies were later found buried on his property in rural eastern Idaho.
The couple were eventually charged with murder, conspiracy and grand theft in connection with the deaths of the children and Daybell’s late wife. They could face the death penalty if convicted.
Prosecutors say the couple promoted unusual religious beliefs to further the murder conspiracies. Vallow Daybell’s former husband, Charles Vallow, died while the two were estranged but had said in divorce documents that Vallow Daybell believed she was a godlike figure responsible for ushering in the apocalyptical end times. Daybell wrote doomsday-focused fiction books and recorded podcasts about preparing for the apocalypse.
Friends of the couple told law enforcement investigators that the pair believed people could be taken over by dark spirits, and that Vallow Daybell referred to her children as “zombies,” a term they used to describe those who were possessed.
Nevada
Vegas woman takes plea in California doctor’s beating death
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A former model charged in the beating death of a California doctor whose body was found in a car trunk outside Las Vegas has accepted a plea agreement.
Las Vegas media outlets reported this week 29-year-old Kelsey Turner will take an Alford plea to second-degree murder, according to court documents.
Instead of pleading guilty, Turner is acknowledging there is enough evidence for a conviction. In exchange, she will be eligible for parole in 10 years.
Turner could receive anywhere from 10 to 25 years in prison. Her sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 10.
Prosecutors say Turner, her boyfriend and their roommate were involved in the 2019 killing of 71-year-old psychiatrist Thomas Kirk Burchard.
Diana Pena, the roommate, testified Turner was romantically involved with Burchard and was upset by images and messages saved on his phone. Pena said Jon Kennison, the boyfriend, hit the victim with a bat. Instead of taking him to the hospital, Turner told Kennison to hit him again.
Burchard’s body and a bloodied bat were found in Turner’s abandoned Mercedes-Benz near Lake Mead.
Investigators were able to locate Turner at her home, which records showed Burchard paid her rent.
Kennison was sentenced to between 18 and 45 years in prison.
Pena pleaded guilty to a reduced accessory charge in exchange for testifying.
Georgia
Woman gets 9 years for bank fraud, other charges
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Georgia woman has been sentenced to 9 years in prison for bank fraud, aggravated identity theft and COVID-relief fraud, federal prosecutors said.
Chrystal Slaughter, 34, of Austell, Georgia, was also ordered to pay more than $200,000 in restitution to the victims in the case, U.S. Attorney Darren J. LaMarca said in a news release Thursday.
Court documents show Slaughter used the personal information of her victims to get loans from various banks, acquire lines of credit, buy a luxury vehicle and finance trips to locations like South Beach, Florida.
While on pretrial release after being indicted on eight counts for committing these offenses, Slaughter fraudulently simultaneously applied for unemployment insurance benefits from the State of Mississippi and the State of Georgia, LaMarca’s office said.
She was then named in a 10-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in September 2021, prosecutors said.
