New Mexico
Candidate indicted in drive-by shooting case
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A political newcomer who lost his bid for the New Mexico statehouse has been indicted on charges of allegedly orchestrating a series of drive-by shootings at the homes of Democratic officials.
A Bernalillo County grand jury returned a 14-count indictment Monday against Solomon Peña, prosecutors said. The counts include criminal solicitation to commit shooting at a dwelling, shooting at a dwelling, unlawful taking of a motor vehicle and possession of a firearm by a felon.
The 39-year-old felon remains in custody after a judge last week ordered him to be held without bond pending trial.
Detectives identified Peña as their key suspect using a combination of cellphone and vehicle records, witness interviews and bullet casings collected at the lawmakers’ homes.
Authorities arrested Peña on Jan. 9, accusing him of paying for a father and son and two other unidentified men to shoot at the officials’ homes between early December and early January. The shootings followed his unsuccessful Republican bid for a district long considered a Democratic stronghold. He claimed the election was rigged.
No one was hurt, but the case reignited the debate over whether lawmakers should make it harder for people accused of violent crimes to make bail. Lawmakers during this legislative session also are considering a measure that would shield the home addresses of elected officials.
Prosecutors have outlined Peña’s previous time in prison and described him as the “ringleader” of a group that he assembled to shoot at people’s homes, saying ballistics testing determined that a firearm found in the trunk of a car registered to Peña was linked to at least one shooting. Another man was found driving that car and was arrested on an unrelated warrant.
Peña’s defense attorney has raised questions about the credibility of a confidential witness that shared information with authorities, saying some of the statements used in a criminal complaint were contradictory. She also argued her client’s criminal history did not involve any violent convictions or crimes involving firearms and that he has not been in trouble with the law — other than two traffic citations — since his release from prison in 2016.
Court records show Peña was incarcerated for several years after being arrested in 2007 in connection with what authorities described as a smash-and-grab burglary scheme that targeted retail stores. His voting rights were restored after he completed probation in 2021.
Louisiana
Police settle suit over 2020 beating of Black man
SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit filed by a Black man who said police officers in a Louisiana city threw him to the ground, slammed his face into the sidewalk and detained him in a mental health unit in retaliation for criticizing the police.
Terms of the settlement between Brandon Kennedy and officials with the Shreveport Police Department weren’t released.
Kennedy’s case was filed as part of the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana’s Justice Lab program, which enlists the aid of private attorneys in suing over police abuses.
“Our client Brandon Kennedy endured a terrifying and dehumanizing ordeal, and we’re glad he’s receiving monetary compensation,” Nora Ahmed, ACLU of Louisiana legal director, said in a news release.
“We hope this settlement sends a message that when local law enforcement agencies violate the rights of the people they’re sworn to serve — we will hold them accountable,” Ahmed said.
Ahmed noted in an email that defense motions were denied that would have struck references in the lawsuit to the police department’s record on use of force and statistics on disparities in the treatment of Black and white suspects.
“I think in light of everything happening with Nichols this is very significant because it is literally how policing is done in this country,” she said, referring to Tyre Nichols, whose death three days after he was beaten by police officers in Memphis resulted in five officers being fired and charged with second-degree murder.
The Shreveport Police Department did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Kennedy’s lawsuit was filed in December of 2021. It said he was in a convenience store checkout line in December 2020 when he struck up a conversation with another customer. An officer overheard him express support for the Black Lives Matter movement and “his own negative experiences” with Shreveport police, according to the lawsuit.
The officer ordered Kennedy to step outside, according to the lawsuit. Once outside, the lawsuit said, Kennedy was complying with an order to walk away when the officer threw him to the ground, repeatedly slammed his head to the sidewalk and put his knee on Kennedy’s back. Other officers who arrived did nothing to stop the violence but handcuffed Kennedy.
The suit said officers searched Kennedy and, after finding nothing incriminating, took him to a hospital psychiatric ward where he was held. The next morning, a psychiatrist said there was no basis to hold him and he was released.
California
Man, 36, charged in attacks on Los Angeles-area drivers’ vehicles
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A 36-year-old man pleaded not guilty Tuesday to attacking motorists’ vehicles with a pipe this month on a Los Angeles area freeway, prosecutors said.
Nathaniel Walter Radimak was arrested Sunday in connection with assaults he is accused of committing on Jan. 11 while driving a Tesla Model X on State Route 2, the California Highway Patrol said.
Radimak is charged with multiple felonies and misdemeanors including assault and vandalism, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
He pleaded not guilty and was ordered back to court Feb. 14 for a preliminary hearing, the statement said.
The highway patrol said the assaults were recorded on a dashcam video, which showed that the Tesla did not have a rear license plate.
Other drivers came forward with accounts of attacks after video of the attacks was disseminated.
It was not immediately known whether Radimak has a lawyer to comment on his behalf.
California
Ex-solar firm executive sentenced for $1 billion fraud
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A former executive of a California solar power company was sentenced Tuesday to 6 1/2 years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $620 million in restitution for his role in a $1 billion fraud scheme, federal prosecutors said.
Ryan Guidry, 45, of Pleasant Hill pleaded guilty in 2020 to conspiracy and money laundering charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
Guidry was a one-time vice president of operations for DC Solar, based in Benicia in the San Francisco Bay Area. Between 2011 and 2018, the company marketed mobile solar generator units. The firm touted the trailer-mounted units as being able to provide emergency power for cellphone companies or lighting at sporting and other events.
But executives started telling investors they could benefit from federal tax credits by buying the generators and leasing them back to DC Solar, which would then provide them to other companies for their use, prosecutors said.
In reality, DC Solar sold more generators than it made, used phony financial statements and lease contracts to conceal the fraud and in a classic Ponzi scheme repaid early investors with money from later ones, prosecutors said.
Some 9,000 of the approximately 17,000 generators that DC Solar claimed to have made didn’t exist, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Among those suckered by the business were Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
DC Solar founder Jeff Carpoff was sentenced in 2021 to 30 years in prison and ordered to pay $790.6 million in restitution for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.
In 2021 and 2022 four other people, including Carpoff’s wife Paulette Carpoff, were sentenced to prison in connection with the fraud while Ronald J. Roach of Walnut Creek could face up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced in March, prosecutors said.
Detroit
Man convicted of aiding Islamic State in Syria
DETROIT (AP) — A Detroit-area man who was captured on a Syrian battlefield in 2018 has been convicted on charges of providing support to the Islamic State group and attending one of the group’s training camps, prosecutors said.
A federal jury convicted Ibraheem Izzy Musaibli, 32, on Monday of charges of providing and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State group, conspiring to provide material support to the group, and attending an Islamic State training camp.
The Dearborn, Michigan, man faces a maximum 50-year prison sentence at his sentencing, which is set for May 11, federal prosecutors said.
Musaibli’s lawyer, John Shea, declined to comment on Monday’s verdict, The Detroit News reported.
Musaibli, a natural-born U.S. citizen, was captured by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in 2018, flown back to the U.S. and charged in July 2018. He was convicted following a 9-day trial in U.S. District Court in Detroit, prosecutors said.
According to evidence presented at his trial, Musaibli traveled to Yemen in April 2015 and continued his previous research into the Islamic State group there, including downloading propaganda from the group and a book on how to get into Syria.
He then traveled in the fall of 2015 from Yemen to Syria, where he attended a religious training camp run by the Islamic State before undergoing military training where he learned to shoot, carry, and otherwise handle an AK-47 assault rifle, according to trial evidence.
After graduating from the Islamic State’s military training camp, Musaibli swore allegiance to the group and its leader and remained with the group for over 2 1/2 years, prosecutors said.
“Ibraheem Musaibli traveled halfway around the world and joined a vicious, brutal, and violent terrorist organization known — and proud of — its barbaric acts of terror,” U.S. Attorney Dawn N. Ison said in a news release.
Connecticut
Man gets 120 years in slaying of father and son
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut judge sentenced a 55-year-old New Haven man to 120 years in prison for the gruesome slaying of a father and son, part of a murder case that spanned more than three decades and which the judge on Tuesday said included “a demonic level of violence and terror.”
A jury found Willie McFarland guilty of murder in November for the deaths of the two men, Fred Harris, 59, and Greg Harris, 23.
McFarland was sentenced to 60 years for each of the murders, terms that are to be served consecutively, according to a statement by New Haven State Attorney John P. Doyle Jr. The father and son were found bound and with their throats slashed in their Hamden, Connecticut, home in 1987.
In handing down the sentence, Judge Elpedio N. Vitale called McFarland “an unqualified menace to society.”
McFarland quickly became a suspect and was questioned soon after the killings. But for years, authorities had no physical evidence linking him to the crime. They continued to look, conducting DNA testing around 2006 and again in 2018.
McFarland was arrested in 2019.
“After 35 years, the man responsible for the murder of a father and son, in their own home, has been brought to justice,” Doyle said.
