Maryland
Ex-prosecutor pleads guilty over ex-romantic partners' records
BALTIMORE (AP) — A former Maryland prosecutor has formally acknowledged making false statements to obtain cell phone records for his ex-romantic partners to stalk them.
Former Baltimore City Assistant State's Attorney Adam Lane Chaudry, 43, pleaded guilty on Friday in federal court to two counts of fraud in connection with obtaining the confidential records, according to a news release from the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office.
Sentencing is set for March. Chaudry faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison for each count.
"The notion of a state prosecutor abusing his office ... in the face of the crime wave we face in this metropolitan area, in pursuit of some personal mission, is quite shocking to me," U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett was quoted by the Baltimore Banner as saying in court.
According to a federal indictment, Chaudry obtained the records by duping grand juries to issue subpoenas.
The prosecutor claimed he needed the subpoenas to pursue criminal investigations, but the ex-partners were never a witness or a target of a criminal investigation or prosecution by the state attorney's office, the news release said.
Both Chaudry's defense attorney and a spokeswoman for the state's attorney's office declined to comment, the Baltimore Sun reported.
Chaudry worked at the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office for 13 years and ultimately joined the homicide division. The city prosecutor's office fired him in June 2021 after officials reviewed the allegations.
In December 2021, the Maryland Office of the State Prosecutor charged Chaudry with 88 criminal counts. The state dropped the charges in October, about a month after the federal indictment on the same allegations.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said the unlawful activity began in 2019 and centered upon two of Chaudry former romantic partners and three longtime friends of one of the victims.
Iowa
Fifth teenager pleads guilty in shooting near high school
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Another teenager accused in a fatal shooting near an Iowa high school has admitted to the crime, marking the fifth guilty plea among the 10 people charged.
Daniel Hernandez, 18, pleaded guilty Friday to second-degree murder and two counts of willful injury, the Des Moines Register reported. He had previously been charged with first-degree murder, two counts of attempted murder and two counts of willful injury.
Ten teenagers were charged in the shooting that happened March 7 outside Des Moines' East High School. Fifteen-year-old Jose Lopez died. His sister, 16-year-old Jessica Lopez, along with 18-year-old Kemery Ortega, were badly injured. Jose Lopez was not a student at the school, but the two injured teens were.
Eight defendants were initially charged as adults with first-degree murder and other crimes while the remaining two were sent to juvenile court. Those accused ranged in age from 14 to 18 at the time of the crime.
Hernandez said in a court hearing on Friday that he was involved in a "caravan" of three vehicles that fired shots as it rolled past the school. He didn't say what prompted the gunfire. The victims were standing near a sidewalk when they were struck.
The first suspect to be sentenced was 16-year-old Kevin Martinez, who pleaded guilty to intimidation with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Two other suspects have pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and other charges. Another pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact and weapons charges.
Texas
Cop testifies in his murder trial for shooting
A former Texas police officer took the witness stand on Monday in his murder trial for fatally shooting a Black woman through a rear window of her home in 2019.
Aaron Dean testified that "this jury needs to hear from me and hear the truth" on the fourth day of his trial in the killing of Atatiana Jefferson. His testimony came more than three years after the white Fort Worth officer shot the 28-year-old dead while responding to a call about an open front door.
The testimony is Dean's first public statement since the Fort Worth Police Department released body-camera video of the shooting and arrested him on a murder charge within days of the Oct. 12, 2019 killing. He quit the force without speaking to investigators.
Since then, Dean's case was repeatedly postponed amid lawyerly wrangling, the terminal illness of Dean's lead attorney and the COVID-19 pandemic.
His lawyers have argued Dean saw Jefferson holding a gun before shooting, while prosecutors claimed the evidence showed he didn't see it.
Tarrant County prosecutors rested their case Wednesday after about two and a half days of testimony.
Dean shot Jefferson after a neighbor called a nonemergency police line to report that the front door to Jefferson's home was open. She had been playing video games that night with her nephew and it emerged at trial that they left the doors open to vent smoke from hamburgers the boy burnt.
Bodycam footage showed that Dean and a second officer who responded to the call didn't identify themselves as police at the house. Officer Carol Darch testified last week that she and Dean thought the house might have been burglarized and quietly moved into the fenced-off backyard, guns drawn, looking for signs of forced entry.
There, Dean fired a single shot through the window a split-second after shouting at Jefferson, who was inside, to show her hands.
Dean's lawyers said he opened fire after seeing the silhouette of Jefferson with a gun in the window and a green laser sight pointed at him. Darch's back was to the window when Dean shot, but she said he never mentioned seeing a gun before he pulled the trigger and didn't say anything about the weapon as they rushed in to search the house.
Jefferson's 8-year-old nephew witnessed his aunt be shot from inside the room. Zion Carr testified that Jefferson took out her gun believing there was an intruder in the backyard, but he offered contradictory accounts of whether she pointed the pistol out the window.
Carr, now 11, testified on the trial's opening day that Jefferson always had the gun down, but he said in a interview that was recorded soon after the shooting and played in court that she pointed the weapon at the window.
