Vermont
Man charged with buying gun found at fatal shootout
A 21-year-old Vermont man is facing federal charges that he purchased a handgun that was found less than 24-hours later at the scene of a shootout in Springfield, Massachusetts, that resulted in the deaths of two men.
Cameron Yee, of South Burlington, was arrested Tuesday on a charge of making a false statement when buying a handgun. He appeared in federal court in Burlington on Wednesday where he pleaded not guilty and was ordered detained pending further proceedings.
Yee’s attorney declined comment.
Court documents say Yee falsely stated on federal forms used when purchasing firearms that he was the actual purchaser of the firearm.
“In truth, as Yee admitted to police, he had been given $2,000 to purchase two handguns by a person Yee knew as ‘Jay’ with the understanding that Jay would receive the .40 caliber weapon,” prosecutors said in a motion for detention filed in federal court. “Yee admitted he understood Jay wanted the weapon because Jay was in a disagreement with another person over the treatment of Jay’s sister. Yee admitted learning that Jay had been shot and killed shortly after Yee supplied Jay with the gun.”
Less than 24 hours after the purchase, Springfield police recovered the gun bought in Vermont next to Andre Yarns, who was bleeding from gunshot wounds and later died. Prosecutors say Yarns and another man found at the scene, who also died, had been involved in a shootout.
Prosecutors did not specifically say if the man Yee knew as “Jay” was Yarns.
Phone records show that Yee and Yarns, who was not legally able to buy a firearm due to his criminal history, had been in regular communication in the days before Yee bought the gun.
It’s not the first time that firearms purchased in Vermont on behalf of others have been used in crimes in Massachusetts.
Between September 2017 and March 2018 two Boston men moved to Swanton, Vermont, where they brought drugs from Massachusetts and exchanged the drugs for cash or guns. Drug customers would buy the firearms on behalf of the two men.
Five of the guns were recovered by police in the Boston area and some were matched to shootings in South Boston.
Both of the Boston men were later sentenced to more than 10 years in prison.
In that case five Vermont drug customers were later charged with buying about 30 firearms for the two Boston men.
Maryland
Judge drops murder charges against mother of 2 missing kids
ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) — A judge dropped murder charges against a Maryland woman stemming from the 2014 disappearance of her two youngest children after finding Wednesday that she remained mentally unfit to stand trial nearly five years after she was first found incompetent.
Catherine Hoggle’s children, 3-year-old Sarah and 2-year-old Jacob, were last seen in their mother’s care and have never been found. Hoggle was arrested days later and charged initially with misdemeanor offenses. Three years later, Montgomery County prosecutors secured an indictment charging her with two counts of first-degree murder.
A judge initially ruled in December 2017 that she was incompetent to stand trial, concluding that she was a danger to herself or to others. Under state law, authorities have five years to restore Hoggle to competence before the charges must be dismissed.
Citing that limit Wednesday, Circuit Judge James Bonifant dismissed both counts of first-degree murder and ordered Hoggle involuntarily committed because she remains a danger to herself and others, news outlets reported.
Hoggle had a history of schizophrenia and was treated with antipsychotic medications after her arrest. She has been held in a maximum-security psychiatric hospital since her 2014 arrest.
If she’s found to no longer be a threat and is released, Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said at a news conference that he’s prepared to charge her again with murder. Double jeopardy does not apply. He stressed that Hoggle will not be free in the community.
Attorney David Felsen has said Hoggle’s thinking was too delusional to participate in a trial.
“She is a profoundly ill woman. She has been an ill woman since 2012, 2013,” Felsen said. “She has taken medications of last resort for years, and she remains ill. And in the United States and in the state of Maryland, we don’t try people for anything, for any crime, if they can’t defend themselves.”
Troy Turner, the children’s father, said he believes that Hoggle is mentally ill, but feigning incompetency, and he will fight for changes to the system he sees as broken.
“This fight’s not over for me and my family,” Turner said. “We’re going to continue to pursue justice.”
Louisiana
2 ex-officials get a year for buying votes
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Two former officials in south Louisiana have been sentenced to a year in prison as part of a scheme to pay voters during a federal election, authorities said.
Jerry Trabona, 73, the former police chief in Amite City, and Kristian Hart, 50, a former councilmember, pleaded guilty in July to violating federal election laws, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release Wednesday.
Trabona was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.
Trabona and Hart agreed to pay — or offer to pay — Tangipahoa Parish voters to cast ballots during the 2016 primary election and the 2016 general election, according to court documents and evidence presented at trial. Each was a candidate in those elections, officials said. Their vote-buying scheme included soliciting and hiring people to identify potential voters, transporting them to the polls and either paying or making promises of payment to voters.
A co-conspirator, Sidney Smith, 69, also of Amite City, paid voters with money provided by Trabona and Hart in the 2016 election, federal prosecutors said. He was sentenced to four months in prison for his role in the scheme.
Calvin Batiste and Louis Ruffino, who previously pleaded guilty for their involvement in the scheme, are awaiting sentencing, authorities said.
Georgia
Man gets prison for letter threatening president
MACON, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia man has been sentenced to serve nearly three years in federal prison for sending a letter threatening to kill President Joe Biden and to blow up the White House, prosecutors said Thursday.
Travis Ball, of Barnesville, was ordered Wednesday to spend two years and nine months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and also to pay a $7,500 fine, the office of U.S. Attorney Peter Leary said in a news release. Ball, 56, had previously pleaded guilty to making threats against the president.
Ball sent letters using someone else’s name to a variety of local and county government offices and officials, including judges and law enforcement officers, in March 2021. The FBI began investigating and Ball was identified as a suspect after a threat letter signed with the same name and containing a white powdery substance was received at the federal courthouse in Macon, prosecutors said.
Federal agents served a warrant at Ball’s home on March 23, 2021. Among other items, they seized a stack of notebook paper that matched the threat letters. The top page had indents from writing, and when investigators used a pencil to lightly shade the page, they discovered that it was a letter dated March 8, 2021, that contained an explicit threat against Biden, including a threat to blow up the White House and kill everyone inside, the release says.
The letter was turned over to the Secret Service after it was received on March 30, 2021, by the White House mail sorting facility.
“Sending death threats and purported anthrax is not protected speech — it is a crime,” Leary said in the release.
Ball had previously been convicted of felony hoax threats after sending letters containing a white powdery substance and threats to “kill all of you” to the State Bar of Georgia and Atlanta newspapers in 2016. He was sentenced in June 2017 to serve two years in prison followed by three years of supervised release.
Wisconsin
Charges: Boy, 10, killed mom over VR headset
MILWAUKEE (AP) — A 10-year-old Milwaukee boy intentionally aimed a gun at his mother, then shot and killed her, because she would not buy him a virtual reality headset, prosecutors said.
The boy initially told police that the Nov. 21 shooting was an accident, according to criminal charges obtained by the Journal Sentinel. But later he said he intentionally aimed at his mom before shooting her. The boy was charged as an adult last week with first-degree reckless homicide.
Wisconsin law requires children as young as 10 to be charged as adults for certain serious crimes, though the boy’s attorneys can seek to move the case to juvenile court. The boy, who family members said has mental health issues, is being held in juvenile detention.
“This is an absolute family tragedy,” said Angela Cunningham, one of the boy’s attorneys. “I don’t think anybody would deny or disagree with that ... The adult system is absolutely ill-equipped to address the needs of a 10-year-old child.”
The shooting occurred shortly before 7 a.m. on Nov. 21. According to the complaint, the boy initially told officers he got the gun from his mother’s bedroom and went to the basement where she was doing laundry. He said he was twirling the gun around his finger when it went off. The boy was allowed to stay with family, and an initial release from police says the shooting was caused by a child “playing” with a gun.
A day later, concerned relatives called police.
The boy’s aunt said that when she picked up the boy, he retrieved a set of house keys that contained a key to the gun’s lock box. When his aunt asked about the shooting, the boy said he pointed the gun at his mom, and that she told him to put it down.
The boy’s aunt and sister said he never cried or showed remorse. They also said he logged into his mother’s Amazon account and ordered an Oculus Virtual Reality Headset the morning after she died. That same morning, he physically attacked his 7-year-old cousin.
Relatives said the boy has a history of disturbing behavior. When he was 4, he swung the family’s puppy around by its tail, the complaint says. Six months ago, family told police, the boy filled a balloon with a flammable liquid and set it on fire, causing an explosion that burned furniture and the carpet. Relatives recalled that when asked about that, the boy said he hears five imaginary people talking to him.
After learning these new details, Milwaukee police interviewed the boy again. This time, he told detectives he aimed the gun at his mom with two hands while in a shooting stance. He said he tried shooting a wall to “scare her” when she walked in front of him and he shot her, the complaint says.
The boy told police he got the gun from the lock box that morning because his mother woke him up early — at 6 a.m. instead of 6:30 a.m. — and because she wouldn’t let him buy something on Amazon.
