North Dakota
Alleged doughnut thief charged with brandishing hatchet in store
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A Bismarck man is in trouble with the law after he allegedly raised a hatchet toward a convenience store clerk who tried to stop him from stealing doughnuts.
Brently Iron Road, 36, faces a charge of felony terrorizing and misdemeanor criminal trespass in connection with the incident on Friday, the Bismarck Tribune reported.
According to a police affidavit, a clerk at the Simonson Station store confronted Iron Road after Iron Road allegedly put packaged doughnuts in his coat.
Iron Road put the doughnuts back but became agitated. When the clerk told him to leave he pulled a hatchet from his waistband and raised it toward the worker. Iron Road left the store after the clerk told him again to leave.
Police found the hatchet in a snowbank and viewed store video that shows Iron Road raise the hatchet to shoulder height and shaking it toward the clerk, according to the affidavit.
Court documents didn’t list an attorney for Iron Road.
New Jersey
Cause ruled in death of missing college student
PRINCETON, N.J. (AP) — The death of a Princeton University student from Ohio whose disappearance near the New Jersey campus last fall drew national attention has been ruled a suicide, authorities said.
The Mercer County prosecutor’s office announced the ruling Wednesday in the death of 20-year-old Misrach Ewunetie following completion of an autopsy by the Middlesex regional medical examiner’s office.
Authorities said her body was found Oct. 20 by an employee behind tennis courts on the campus facilities grounds. Prosecutors said at the time that the death did not appear “suspicious or criminal in nature.”
An extensive search had been launched after Ewunetie was reported missing almost a week earlier. She had last been seen heading into her dorm room at the Ivy League school in the early morning hours of Oct. 14, school officials said.
According to her LinkedIn profile, Ewunetie was a junior pursuing a sociology degree with a computer applications certificate. She was valedictorian at Villa Angela-St. Joseph high school in Cleveland, Ohio, before accepting a full scholarship to Princeton.
New Mexico
Cameraman hurt on film set gets $66M in lawsuit
A Los Angeles cameraman who suffered a spinal cord injury while on a New Mexico movie set has been awarded more than $66 million in a lawsuit, among the largest settlements in the state’s history, a news outlet reported.
The Santa Fe New Mexican quoted Jame Razo as saying that the jury’s decision Friday was “a huge emotional relief.”
“I can finally begin my healing journey,” he said in a phone interview Tuesday, the newspaper reported.
The 55-year-old was a cameraman on the set of “Only the Brave,” a film about elite firefighters starring Josh Brolin and Jeff Bridges, in June 2016. He was driving a mobile camera crane unit, which weighs over 3,000 pounds (1,361 kilograms) when fully loaded, up a steep road on Pajarito Mountain in the Pajarito Ski Area near Los Alamos, when the unit tipped over and fell on him, the newspaper reported.
Razo suffered crush injuries that left several areas of his body severely damaged. Since then, he has had over 1,000 medical appointments and nearly a dozen surgeries, according to the report.
In the suit, Razo says producers were negligent by denying him time to scout the terrain first or install tank treads on the vehicle.
It took a jury four hours to decide that Razo should receive $24.6 million in damages and his wife $6 million. In addition, production companies Black Label Media and No Exit Film are liable for $27 million and $9 million in punitive damages, respectively.
Attorneys for the California-based production companies did not respond to messages from the newspaper seeking comment.
California
Prosecutor: 4 more slayings tied to serial killer
STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) — A man suspected in Northern California serial killings has been charged in four additional slayings this week, bringing the total to seven deaths since April 2021, authorities said.
The shootings terrorized the Central Valley city of Stockton earlier this year as police searched for a man clad in black who appeared to be “on a mission” as he hunted victims for ambush-style shootings. He was also tied violence in Alameda County.
Wesley Brownlee was arrested in October when he “was out hunting” for another possible victim in Stockton, police said at the time. Authorities had said they had linked him to the killings of six men and the wounding of a woman. Prosecutors charged him in a seventh killing, which had not been disclosed before, on Tuesday.
Brownlee is set to appear in court Jan. 3. His public defender, Allison Nobert, did not immediately return a request for comment.
Brownlee was initially only charged in the deaths of three victims in Stockton: Jonathan Rodriguez Hernandez, 21, who died Aug. 30; Juan Cruz, 52, who died Sept. 21; and Lawrence Lopez Sr., 54, who died Sept. 27.
The amended complaint, filed Tuesday, additionally charges Brownlee with the killings of Paul Yaw, 35, who died July 8, and Salvador Debudey Jr., 43, who died Aug. 11, in Stockton, as well as the Alameda County fatal shootings of Juan Vasquez Serrano, 39, on April 10, 2021, and Mervin Harmon on April 16, 2021.
He is also charged with attempted murder in the April 16, 2021, shooting of Natasha LaTour, 46.
Harmon had not previously been publicly linked to Brownlee’s spate of shootings.
Additional details about Harmon’s death were not immediately available.
Massachusetts
Woman gets life sentence for ‘ritualistic’ killings of two young sons
BROCKTON, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts woman convicted of fatally stabbing her two young sons in what authorities called a “ritualistic” killing was sentenced Wednesday to a mandatory term of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The sentencing of Latarsha L. Sanders, 48, in Plymouth Superior Court came a day after she was convicted by a jury of two counts of first-degree murder in the February 2018 deaths of 8-year-old Edson Brito and 5-year-old La’son Brito.
“Hopefully this is some form of justice for the dad of the little boys and the family,” Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz said after the hearing.
The defense had argued that Sanders was not mentally competent at the time of the killings.
“The family has been totally and completely supportive of Miss Sanders because they have recognized from day one that she was insane at the time that she killed her two children,” defense attorney Elliot Levine said in court.
Police responding to a 911 call at the family’s Brockton home on Feb. 5, 2018 found Sanders outside, distraught and combative, prosecutors said.
The boys were found in the family’s third-floor apartment wrapped in bedding. They had each been stabbed multiple times with a kitchen knife that was later found in the sink. They were pronounced dead at the scene.
“Sanders cleaned up the children, placed them in beds, and mopped up the crime scene,” prosecutors said in a news release. “Sanders never sought medical attention for the boys.”
Sanders told investigators that the killings had to do with “Voodoo stuff,” according to a police report.
Indiana
Inmate allegedly attacked officer in his jail cell
ROCKVILLE, Ind. (AP) — A western Indiana jail inmate faces felony charges for allegedly attacking and trying to choke a correctional officer in his jail cell, police said.
Michael J. Rozsa, 60, of Rockville is accused of attacking the officer on Dec. 17 at the Parke County Jail as the officer was conducting a routine inmate check, the county sheriff’s office said.
Rozsa allegedly struck, attempted to choke, and held the officer in his cell for a period of time before the officer managed to subdue Rozsa and exit the cell following the physical altercation, the Tribune-Star reported.
No serious injuries were reported in the incident at the county jail in Rockville, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) west of Indianapolis.
Rozsa has been charged with escape, causing bodily injury to another person while escaping, and battery with bodily injury to a public safety officer.
He appeared remotely for an initial hearing Tuesday and a not guilty plea was entered on his behalf. Rozsa’s bond was set at $35,000, with a pretrial conference scheduled for March 2.
Virginia
Court asked to enforce $3M deal in lawsuit over police shooting
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — Several parties to a wrongful death lawsuit over the fatal police shooting of a Black man on the Virginia Beach oceanfront last year have asked a judge to enforce the $3 million settlement agreement announced earlier this month.
The city of Virginia Beach and the family of Donovon Lynch — a cousin of musician and Virginia Beach native Pharrell Williams — announced the settlement agreement Dec. 13. But Lynch’s father, Wayne Lynch, has since told local news outlets that he’s parted ways with his attorneys and that the settlement isn’t finalized.
Last week, several parties to the matter filed a joint motion asking a judge to enforce the announced deal.
The joint motion was filed by Thomas Martin and Justin Fairfax, who have served as attorneys for Wayne Lynch, as well as attorneys for the city and the officer who shot Donovon Lynch.
The motion says that an outside party advised Wayne Lynch not to sign the agreement, “which is against the interests of the Estate and contrary to Plaintiff’s prior agreement.”
Court records show that the motion was referred to a judge on Tuesday.
Efforts by The Associated Press to reach Wayne Lynch weren’t immediately successful. But Lynch wrote in an emailed statement on Tuesday that the settlement had not been finalized, TV station WVEC-TV reported.
“I regret that it was publicly disclosed before all non-monetary terms were finalized,” Lynch’s statement said.
He also wrote that Fairfax, a former lieutenant governor, and Martin were no longer representing him.
Lauren Burke, a spokesperson for Fairfax, disputed that, saying in a statement provided to the AP Wednesday that Fairfax and Martin remain “the attorneys of record in this case.”
Wayne Lynch filed the $50 million wrongful death lawsuit in June 2021 against the city and Solomon D. Simmons, the police officer who shot his son. Simmons is also Black.
Lynch’s shooting occurred on a warm March night near the city’s crowded boardwalk, which is lined with restaurants and hotels. The evening dissolved into chaos after separate outbreaks of gunfire. At least eight people were wounded and one woman, who was believed to be a bystander, was killed.
In November 2021, a special grand jury found that Simmons was justified in shooting Lynch. Authorities said Lynch had a gun and racked a round into the chamber before pointing his weapon toward a parking lot filled with people and police.
