California
Jailbreak mastermind convicted
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — An inmate who organized a daring, elaborate Southern California jailbreak in 2016 was found guilty Thursday of the escape but acquitted of kidnapping a taxi driver while on the run, authorities said.
Jurors in Orange County Superior Court also convicted Hossein Nayeri, 44, of Newport Beach of stealing a van but acquitted him of kidnapping during a carjacking and lesser offenses, the district attorney’s office said in a statement.
On Jan. 22, 2016, Nayeri and two other men broke out of the Orange County Central Jail Complex in Santa Ana, prompting a weeklong manhunt.
Using smuggled tools, they cut through a metal grate in their maximum-security dorm cell, then climbed through plumbing shafts within the walls to reach the roof, where they rappelled down five stories using a rope made of bed linens, according to authorities and a cellphone video shot by Nayeri.
The men later kidnapped a 72-year-old unlicensed taxi driver. The driver was sometimes held at gunpoint as he drove the men around. The men then stole a van and took both vehicles and the driver along as they drove hundreds of miles north to the San Francisco Bay Area, authorities said.
One escapee, Bac Tien Duong, later feared that the driver would be killed and fled with him back to Southern California, authorities said.
Nayeri and Jonathan Tieu were arrested the next day in San Francisco after a man recognized them from media reports, prosecutors said.
Duong was convicted of escape and kidnapping in 2021. Tieu is awaiting trial for the escape, prosecutors said.
At the time of his escape, Nayeri was awaiting trial on charges that he and two friends kidnapped, tortured and mutilated a marijuana dispensary owner in 2012. The owner was kidnapped from a Newport Beach home because the robbers falsely believed he had buried $1 million in the Mojave Desert, prosecutors said.
He was beaten with rubber piping, shocked with a Taser, burned with a blowtorch and finally his penis was cut off before the robbers fled, prosecutors said.
Nayeri fled to Iran. But he was later caught in the Czech Republic and extradited. In 2020, he was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.
Nayeri’s co-defendants also were convicted.
Massachusetts
Pizza parlor owner accused of physically abusing employees
BOSTON (AP) — The owner of a Boston pizza parlor is accused of physically and verbally abusing a longtime immigrant employee who could not legally work in the U.S., forcing the employee to work long hours, and threatening to turn him over to immigration authorities if he protested, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
Stavros Papantoniadis, 47, who also goes by Steve, was charged with forced labor according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston. He is being held pending a detention hearing scheduled for Monday.
An email seeking comment was left with his federal public defender.
Papantoniadis, who lives in Westwood, owns and operates two Stash’s Pizza locations in Boston and formerly owned several other pizza parlors in suburban communities, prosecutors said. No one was available to discuss the case at the restaurant’s two locations.
U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins called forced labor a form of human trafficking.
“The allegations in this case are horrific,” she said. “Nobody has the right to violently kick, slap, punch or choke anyone, and certainly not an employer to an employee.”
Although he only faces one charge, he victimized at least seven employees, according to court documents.
He deliberately recruited workers who were not in the U.S. legally and therefore not authorized to work, and paid them cash, authorities said.
One employee, a native of a North African country, allegedly worked as much as 119 hours a week at Stash’s Pizza from 2001 to 2015, endured derogatory comments about his religion, and was violently attacked by his employer. The worker was once kicked so hard in the genitals by Papantoniadis that he required surgery, prosecutors said. On another occasion, Papantoniadis hit the worker in the mouth and broke some teeth, prosecutors said.
The worker was so scared that he kept working at Stash’s Pizza, prosecutors said.
Another employee from El Salvador who was not a legal resident of the U.S. told investigators that he worked 80 hours per week, seven days a week and was not paid overtime. He reported having food thrown at him and being denied time off to see a doctor for serious medical issues.
The worker, who is gay, said Papantoniadis also made derogatory comments about his sexual orientation.
This is not the first time Papantoniadis has been in federal court. In 2017 he was accused of violating federal minimum wage, overtime, and child labor laws, according to federal court records. In that case he agreed to pay $330,000 in back wages and overtime.
The investigation is ongoing and federal investigators asked anyone who thinks they may have been a victim to contact them.
Michigan
No charges for officer who shot man in police station lobby
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — A suburban Detroit officer who fatally shot an armed man inside the lobby of police station will not face criminal charges, a prosecutor said Thursday.
Ali Naji “objectively posed an imminent threat” and the Dearborn police officer who shot him acted in self defense, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said.
Naji, 33, walked into the police station just west of Detroit on Dec. 18 and attempted to fire a handgun at the officer, who was seated at a desk behind a bullet-resistant window. The gun failed to fire. While Naji removed the magazine and attempted to reinsert it into the gun, the officer opened the window and shot Naji.
Naji, of Dearborn, was pronounced dead at a hospital. State police determined the gun he wielded had been stolen from a local barbershop where he previously had worked.
Worthy’s office said Naji had a known history of mental health issues and that on the day of the shooting people were in and out of the police station lobby dropping off gifts as part of an annual Christmas toy collection drive.
“We may never know why Mr. Naji walked into the Dearborn Police Department with a loaded weapon attempting to fire it at a police officer,” Worthy said. “Although extremely tragic, this is a clear case where the officer acted in lawful self-defense and in the defense of others.”
Oklahoma
Man pleads guilty to killing 3, cutting heart from one
CHICKASHA, Okla. (AP) — An Oklahoma man has been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to killing three people, including a woman whose heart was cut from her body, weeks after being released from prison as part of a mass commutation effort.
Lawrence Paul Anderson, 44, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Grady County District Court to three counts of murder and single counts of maiming and assault and battery.
Anderson was sentenced to life without parole as part of a plea deal in which prosecutor Jason Hicks dropped plans to seek the death penalty at the request of the victims’ families.
“They don’t want a trial,” Hicks said at a news conference after the sentencing. “They don’t want to sit in a courtroom and listen to all the gory details of what happened to their loved ones.”
Investigators said Anderson broke into the home of Andrea Lynn Blankenship, 41, fatally stabbed her and cut out her heart, taking it to the home of his uncle and aunt, Leon Pye and Delsie Pye.
Anderson then cooked and tried to serve the heart to the Pyes, then fatally stabbed Leon Pye, 67, and his 4-year-old granddaughter, Kaeos Yates, and wounding his aunt, Delsie Pye, authorities said.
During sentencing Delsie Pye, 66, said she is heartbroken that a family member would commit such a crime.
Tasha Yates, the mother of Kaeos Yates, cursed Anderson before rushing out of the courtroom.
“Who kills a baby ... who does that?” Yates yelled.
Anderson was released from prison less than a month before the February 2021 attacks after his 20-year prison sentence for drug-related crimes was commuted by Gov. Kevin Stitt following a recommendation from the state Pardon and Parole Board.
A grand jury investigation later found Anderson was wrongly placed on the commutation docket in August 2019 after the board in July 2019 rejected his commutation request, which under board rules require that he wait three years before reapplying.
The board later recommended commutation, which was approved by Stitt, following the second request.
Delsie Pye and the families of the victims have sued Stitt, the Pardon and Parole Board and others for federal civil rights violations related to Anderson’s release.
The lawsuit is pending, with all defendants having filed motions to dismiss the action.
Missouri
Man guilty in shooting over disabled parking spot
ST. CHARLES. Mo. (AP) — A suburban St. Louis man has been convicted of shooting an Amazon delivery truck driver during a dispute over a disabled parking spot.
Larry Thomlison, 70, of St. Charles, was found guilty Monday of first-degree assault and armed criminal action in the March 2019 shooting of 21-year-old Jaylen Walker, who was paralyzed from the waist down, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Prosecutors said Walker had illegally parked his delivery ban in a disabled parking spot and was talking to another Amazon driver when Thomlison confronted him.
When Thomlison, who was driving a car with a disabled permit placard, tried to photograph him, Walker pushed the phone away and Thomlison punched him, police said.
When the two men fell to the ground during their fight, Thomlison pulled out a gun and shot Walker in the back, prosecutors said.
Thomlison will be sentenced May 1.
Massachusetts
Man pleads guilty to trying to hire someone to kill wife
BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts man who tried to hire a contract killer to kill his wife after she sought a restraining order against him instead asked an undercover federal agent to do the job, authorities said.
Massimo Marenghi, 56, faces up to 10 years in prison at sentencing after pleading guilty on Thursday in federal court to murder for hire, the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston said.
Authorities started investigating in January 2021 when someone went to law enforcement and reported that Marenghi had complained about the restraining order and asked for assistance in killing his wife, prosecutors said.
Federal investigators directed that person to introduce Marenghi to an undercover agent posing as a contract killer.
Marenghi met with the agent in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, discussed a price of $10,000, and provided the agent with a photo of his wife’s home and explained how to evade surveillance.
At a second meeting, he provided the agent with a $1,500 deposit, a photograph of his wife, a description of her car, details about her work schedule, and indicating when he would have custody of their children, which he said would be the “best time for the construction work to start.”
Sentencing is scheduled for June 8.
