National Roundup

Virginia
City council suspends virtual public comments
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — The Charlottesville City Council has suspended virtual public comments during public meetings after anonymous callers Zoomed into a council meeting and made racist remarks.

The Daily Progress reports that the decision came after an Oct. 2 council meeting was interrupted repeatedly by people who turned their cameras off, used fake names and flooded the public comment period with racist slurs and praise for Adolf Hitler.

“We struggled for a while in trying to figure out what we could constitutionally do and concluded there was not really a good answer,” Mayor Lloyd Snook told the newspaper last week. “Do we listen to everybody as they’re ranting, knowing that if they were there in person, they probably wouldn’t do it, but feel free to do it anonymously online?”

Under the new policy, the public will still be able to attend meetings virtually, but anyone who wishes to speak will have to do so in person.

In August 2017, hundreds of white nationalists descended on Charlottesville, ostensibly to protest city plans to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

James Alex Fields Jr., of Maumee, Ohio, rammed his car into a crowd of people who were protesting against the white nationalists, injuring dozens and killing Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal and civil rights activist. Fields is serving life in prison for murder, hate crimes and other charges.

Councimember Brian Pinks­ton called the decision to suspend virtual comments a “judgement call.”

“On one hand, we obviously value people’s input and desire to participate remotely and we’d love to continue to do that,” he told the newspaper. “But at same time, I’ll call it taking care of the community and protecting those from behavior that’s not just offensive but deeply hurtful.”

During the meeting, the people in attendance could be heard gasping after some of the remarks, and several demanded that the speakers be cut off.

Council members questioned whether the virtual public comments were protected by the First Amendment, as the first speaker to make racist remarks claimed.

Snook eventually looked to city attorney Jacob Stroman for guidance, and Stroman said the council could cut off the speaker.

“The gross insult” to community members was unacceptable, “even under the broadest interpretation of the First Amendment,” Stroman said.

The Daily Progress reported that the remarks at the meeting seemed spurred at least in part by the city’s decision to lift the curfew at a park after police were accused of mistreating the homeless population there. That story had been circulating in national right-wing media ahead of the meeting. Police Chief Michael Kochis called the allegations “unfounded” and said the city plans to reinstate the curfew to coincide with the availability of more beds for the unhoused.

Arkansas
Suspect charged in 1991 killing, closes cold case
GOULD, Ark. (AP) — A tip from an inmate and a confession from a suspected killer has led to the closure of a 32-year-old cold case, Arkansas State Police said.

Rick Allen Headley, 48, was charged this week with first-degree murder in the 1991 death of 19-year-old Sabrina Lynn Underwood of Huntsville, state police said in a news release Friday. Headley is currently being held at the Varner Unit in Lincoln County serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to capital murder for the March 2018 stabbing death of his estranged wife, Kirstie Headley, in Mountain Home.

Headley is set to appear in Fulton County Circuit Court on Nov. 13 in the Underwood case, state police said.

Underwood’s remains were found in April 1991, less than three months after she was reported missing, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.

Underwood’s mother, Loretta, last saw her on Jan. 20, 1991, when she dropped her off at the intersection of U.S. 412 and U.S. 62 near Bear Creek Springs in Boone County. She had planned to hitchhike about 70 miles east to Izard County, where her boyfriend was jailed at the North Central Unit in Calico Rock, the newspaper reported.

A police affidavit said she had made the same trip a week earlier on Jan. 13 but didn’t reach her destination this time. When Underwood’s boyfriend called her mother to find out why she didn’t make her scheduled visit, a missing person report was filed with the Madison County sheriff’s office on Jan. 24.

On April 8, roughly 140 miles (225 kilometers) from Huntsville, two turkey hunters stumbled upon a bundle of clothes near the Gum Springs Cemetery in Fulton County. Human remains also were found and later identified as Underwood, the newspaper said.

In July 2022, state police Special Agent Justin Nowlin received a tip from an attorney who said his client had information that could possibly lead to identifying a suspect in Underwood’s murder. In an interview, the witness provided investigators with a confession letter given to him by Headley that contained details of Underwood’s killing.

On Aug. 24, 2022, investigators questioned Headley. According to an affidavit, Headley identified a photo of Underwood and admitted to writing the confession letter.

In his interview, Headley said he hoped nobody else had been arrested for Underwood’s murder, the newspaper said.

An Arkansas State Police spokesperson said Underwood’s family, which includes her mother who’s now in her 70s, was “very happy” about the case being solved.

“Sabrina’s family still suffers from the pain of her absence, but we hope this week’s arrest will provide them with some comfort and long-sought answers,” Col. Mike Hagar, director of the state police, said in a news release. “We will never give up on finding justice for families like the Underwoods.”

New Mexico
Man gets 13-year sentence for stabbings on train
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A man who stabbing and injuring two people and hurting a third on a commuter rail train in Albuquerque last year was sentenced Friday to over a decade in prison, KRQE-TV reported.

District Court Judge Clara Moran gave Luis Sanchez a prison sentence of 13 years as part of a plea agreement. Sanchez previously pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated battery and one count of being a felon in possession of a destructive device.

In March of 2022, Sanchez got into a confrontation with another male passenger of the Rail Runner while the commuter train was between stations, the company’s officials said. Sanchez then stabbed that passenger as well as a security guard who tried to step in. He also slashed an elderly woman in the shoulder. He then fled down the tracks, but authorities arrested him.

New Mexico State Police have said they found a gun in a backpack he dropped.