Illinois
Teen told he’s indicted on 3 murder charges
JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — A suburban Chicago teen accused of fatally shooting his 17-year-old girlfriend, a 9-year-old girl and the child’s father was told Thursday a grand jury has indicted him on three charges of first-degree murder.
Byrion Montgomery, 17, of Bolingbrook, went before a Will County judge and was informed that the grand jury indicted him in the March 5 slayings of 40-year-old Cartez Daniels, 17-year-old Samiya A. Shelton-Tilman and Sanai Daniels, 9.
Judge Dave Carlson told Montgomery, who is currently being held at the River Valley Juvenile Detention Center in Joliet, that he will be transferred to the Will County Jail after he turns 18 on April 27, the Arlington Heights Daily Herald reported.
Carlson also granted an order to have Montgomery submit to DNA testing.
The 13-count indictment contained the same adult charges that were filed against Montgomery on March 6. They include multiple counts of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, home invasion, aggravated battery and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.
Montgomery has pleaded not guilty. He is being held in lieu of bail set at $20 million.
The attempted murder charge stems from the shooting of Tania Stewart, 34, the fiancee of Cartez Daniels and mother of Shelton-Tilman and Daniels. Stewart survived.
The shootings took place in Bolingbrook, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Chicago.
Police have said Shelton-Tillman and Montgomery dated.
Minnesota
Woman wins appeal in death of allegedly abusive boyfriend
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Maple Grove woman who said she shot and killed her boyfriend because he was abusive could get a new trial after the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled jurors in her trial got an incorrect instruction.
Stephanie Louise Clark, 32, was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of Don’Juan Butler, 30, in March 2020. She claimed she shot Butler because she feared his abuse would escalate and he would kill her or her 5-year-old son.
The appeal centered on the definition of whether Clark was in “imminent” danger when she shot Butler, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.
A three-judge appeals panel unanimously ruled this week that when the jury asked during deliberations for the legal definition of “imminent,” the court misstated it as “immediate.”
The appeals ruling noted that Butler had abused and threatened Clark — including holding a gun to her head — but was not abusing her when she shot him.
“Given (Butler’s) violent actions against Clark, the jury could have found that Clark was in imminent danger of great bodily harm, even if such danger was not immediate,” the ruling said.
If Hennepin County prosecutors do not appeal the ruling, Clark’s case would be returned to the district court for a new trial.
New Mexico
Court to weigh Baldwin codefendant’s plea on weapons charge
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A judge is scheduled to resolve a weapons-related charge Friday against a codefendant in the case against actor Alec Baldwin for the fatal 2021 shooting of a cinematographer on a movie set.
Prosecutors announced in January a proposed plea agreement with safety coordinator and assistant director David Halls regarding his responsibilities in the Western movie “Rust” and the death of Halyna Hutchins.
Halls has pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of negligent or unsafe use of a deadly weapon, pending a court review of the plea proposal. Complete terms of the agreement have not been made public.
Halls is likely to be sentenced Friday if State District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer authorizes the plea agreement.
Baldwin and movie armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed have pleaded not guilty to charges of involuntary manslaughter that carry a maximum penalty of 18 months in prison and fines.
Hutchins died shortly after she was shot Oct. 21, 2021, during rehearsals at a ranch on the outskirts of Santa Fe. Baldwin was pointing a pistol being used in the production at Hutchins when the weapon went off and a single live round killed her and wounded director Joel Souza.
In separate regulatory proceedings, workplace safety authorities have asserted Halls shared responsibility for identifying and correcting any hazardous conditions related to firearms safety in the movie’s production. They contend Halls handed Baldwin the revolver that was loaded with what were assumed to be dummy rounds.
A weekslong preliminary hearing in May will decide whether evidence against Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed is sufficient to proceed to trial.
Santa Fe’s district attorney this week appointed two special prosecutors, Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis.
The original special prosecutor, Andrea Reeb, resigned in the wake of missteps in the filing of initial charges against Baldwin and objections that Reeb’s role as a state legislator created conflicting responsibilities.
Wisconsin
Man gets 15 years for suburban Milwaukee mall shooting
MILWAUKEE (AP) — A youth who was 15 when he shot and wounded eight people at a suburban Milwaukee mall in 2020 was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison.
Xavier Sevilla, now 18, pleaded guilty in January to five counts of first-degree reckless injury with a dangerous weapon. Five other criminal counts were dismissed as part of a plea deal.
Judge David Feiss granted Sevilla credit for three years’ time served. He also sentenced Sevilla to five years of extended supervision.
“I think the community needs to know that when a horrific assault is committed against the community, even by a 15-year-old child, that there will be incredibly difficult and large criminal consequences,” Feiss said.
Officers arrested Sevilla after stopping a car he was in. Prosecutors said investigators found a gun in the car with his fingerprints.
“What I did was violent, what I did was unnecessary, what I did was wrong,” Sevilla said in court. “I understand my actions have done irreversible harm to the community, the victims, their families and my own. I never want to cause pain like this again.”
Sevilla will be incarcerated until he is 30 years old.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled last June that Sevilla should be tried in adult court despite being 15 at the time of the shooting.
Massachusetts
Ex-Boston officer charged with assaulting cop in Jan. 6 riot
BOSTON (AP) — A former Boston police officer was arrested Thursday on charges that he assaulted a police officer after storming the U.S. Capitol with the mob of President Donald Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021.
Joseph Robert Fisher is accused of pushing a chair into a Capitol police officer inside the building as the officer was running after another rioter who deployed pepper spray, according to court documents. Moments later, Fisher also “engaged in a physical assault” against the officer, which ended with Fisher on the ground, an FBI agent wrote in the court papers.
A current Boston police officer helped investigators identify Fisher in photographs, the agent wrote.
The 52-year-old was arrested at his home in Plymouth, Massachusetts and released on conditions after an initial court appearance Thursday. Fisher retired in 2016 after serving more than 20 years in the police force, including as part of the K-9 unit, a department spokesperson said.
He’s charged with assaulting an officer, obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder and other crimes. The Associated Press sent an email to an attorney who represented Fisher for his initial appearance in Boston.
Fisher is among several people charged in the riot who were working or previously worked in law enforcement on Jan. 6. The rioter who received the longest sentence so far — 10 years in prison — was a retired New York City police officer who used a metal flagpole to assault an officer.
Also on Thursday, authorities arrested a Colorado man who prosecutors say was part of a group of rioters who violently pushed against officers desperately trying to defend the Capitol from the angry mob in a tunnel.
Jonathan Grace, of Colorado Springs, faces charges including felony civil disorder. The 49-year-old is also supposed to appear in court on Thursday in Denver. No attorney was immediately listed for him in court records.
Surveillance video shows Grace entering a tunnel where officers were lined up as they tried to beat back the mob. Grace can be seen putting his head down and using his body to push in unison with other rioters against the police line, authorities say. As the rioters pushed, one of officers screamed in pain while being crushed between a shield and a door frame in one of the most harrowing scenes from the riot, according to court documents.
After officers at one point managed to clear rioters out of the tunnel, Grace watched as other rioters dragged a D.C. police officer out of the tunnel and brutally attacked him, authorities say. He then re-joined the rioters pushing against the police line and retreated only after officers sprayed a chemical irritant at the crowd, according to court documents.
They join roughly 1,000 people who have charged with federal crimes in the riot that halted the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory and left dozens of police officers injured. All of the cases are being prosecuted in Washington D.C.’s federal court and authorities continue to make new arrests practically every week.
More than 540 defendants have pleaded guilty. Dozens more have been convicted by judges or juries after trials. More than 440 have been sentenced, with over half getting terms of imprisonment ranging from seven days to 10 years.
Pennsylvania
Political consultant admits forging petition signatures
A Philadelphia political consultant pleaded guilty Thursday to criminal charges for forging signatures to get Democratic nominee clients onto 2019 primary ballots in the city, according to the Attorney General’s office.
Rasheen Crews, 46, will be sentenced June 29.
Crews served as a political consultant during the May 2019 primary, where he worked with several Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas and Philadelphia Municipal Court candidates.
Hired to collect the signatures needed to complete the paperwork needed to be included on the Democratic ballot that year, Crews was paid per signature collected, according to the affidavit. Rather than collecting the signatures legally, Crews either forged, or hired others to forge, signatures by renting out hotel rooms where workers would copy down names and addresses onto petition paperwork, the complaint states.
“He accepted responsibility for what happened back in 2019,” said Jason Javie, Crews’ attorney. “We’re looking forward to June (when) Judge (Rayford) Means ... is going to decide the appropriate sanction because this was an open plea.”
The Office of the Attorney General began investigating Crews in 2019. Though several candidates remained on the ballot that year, others dropped out of the race once the allegations were made.
Crews was charged in November with criminal solicitation to commit forgery and theft by failure to make a required disposition.
