Court Digest

Washington
Prosecutors say  man charged in 4 murders lured victims with promise of buried gold
SEATTLE (AP) — A Washington state man in jail awaiting trial in one murder case has been charged with three more killings, and prosecutors say he lured all four victims by asking them to help dig up buried gold.

Richard Bradley Jr., 40, was charged in May 2021 with first-degree murder in the death of 44-year-old Brandi Blake, whose body was found buried in a sprawling park in the town of Auburn, Washington. In the last two weeks, prosecutors have filed three more murder charges against Bradley, The Seattle Times reports, in the shooting deaths of a father and adult son in May 2021 and in the 2019 death of a man whose remains were found near Blake’s grave.

Bradley’s defense attorney, Peter Geisness, did not immediately return voice and email messages on Saturday. Bradley is scheduled to stand trial next month in Blake’s death. He has not yet had the opportunity to enter a plea on the other murder charges, according to online court records.

Senior Deputy Prosecutor Thomas O’Ban II wrote in court documents that Bradley is accused of using the same scheme in each of the deaths — allegedly telling the victims he needed their help digging up a stash of stolen gold, taking them to a wooded area and killing them before stealing their vehicles and whatever possessions were inside.

Charging documents say Emilio Maturin was 36 when he was last seen alive in July 2019. His girlfriend reported him missing two weeks later.

According to court documents, she told detectives that she overheard Bradley telling Maturin that “he needed help digging up some buried gold in Auburn.” Maturin initially was skeptical, she told detectives, but allegedly went along anyway. Maturin was in the habit of taking large amounts of money with him whenever he left the house, according to the court documents, and he had roughly $15,000 in cash when he left that day in his recently purchased BMW.

The girlfriend tracked Maturin’s cellphone to Game Farm Park in Auburn and went to look for him but got scared and left, according to charging documents.

Several hours later, Auburn police found an unregistered BMW parked near a large field at the park and waited for the driver to return. When they attempted to stop the driver, the car took off. Bradley was arrested after a car and foot chase and charged with eluding police, according to charging documents.

Michael Goeman, 59, and his son Vance Lakey, 31, were shot to death in March 2021, and their bodies were found on an unmaintained road not far from the park. Goeman received a large inheritance just before he and his son were killed, according to court documents.

Bradley was considered a person of interest in the deaths at the time. He was charged that May with second-degree arson after prosecutors said he offered a man $1,000 to set fire to the father and son’s impounded SUV. On Thursday, prosecutors added two counts of second-degree murder.

Blake went missing in early May 2021. She had won $20,000 at a casino and, like Maturin, was known to carry large amounts of cash, according to court documents. Investigators found her body in a shallow grave at the park later that month — as well as three human ribs about 30 feet (9 meters) away.

Bradley was charged that same month with killing Blake, who died of blunt force injuries. The ribs were later matched by DNA to Maturin, and Bradley was charged with murder in Maturin’s death on Dec. 5 of this year.

Ohio
Probation ordered for boy, 13, after plea in alleged plan for mass shooting at synagogue
CANTON, Ohio (AP) — A 13-year-old Ohio boy accused of planning a mass shooting at a local synagogue has been ordered to spend a year on probation.

The Canton Repository reports that the Plain Township boy pleaded true, the juvenile equivalent of guilty, on Friday to misdemeanor counts of inducing panic and disorderly conduct. Authorities said that a “detailed plan to complete a mass shooting” at Temple Israel in Canton, south of Akron, was posted on the live-streaming platform Discord.

Stark County Family Court Judge Jim James then ordered probation, according to a court document, but suspended a 90-day sentence at the Multi-County Juvenile Attention Center. The boy was also barred from using the internet without supervision and ordered to continue counseling with a licensed therapist.

The boy was also told to read a book about Carl Lutz, the Swiss diplomat credited with saving the lives of tens of thousands of Jews from the Holocaust in Budapest, Hungary, during World War II. The youth must then submit a book report to the juvenile probation department.

According to documents released Thursday by the county sheriff’s office, an FBI agent alerted officials Sept. 7 to posts between the boy and a person in Washington state that allegedly included a map of the synagogue and plans to burn down and “shoot up” the building. Discord later said it reported the discussions to the FBI, the newspaper reported.

The charges come amid a rise of antisemitism in the United States and worldwide. In the U.S. alone, antisemitic incidents rose 35% from 2021 to 2022.

Arkansas
Man convicted in graduation shooting gets 105 years in prison
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. (AP) — A jury has convicted a man accused of firing a gun into a crowd following a high school graduation ceremony in Arkansas, killing one and injuring four others.

At the end of the five-day trial in Garland County Circuit Court, the six-man, six-woman panel deliberated for less than an hour Friday before convicting Charles Johnson Jr., 26, of first-degree murder in the 2022 death of Michael Jordan, 39, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.

It took just over an hour before the jury recommended a sentence of 40 years in prison with an enhancement of five years added for the use of a firearm, the newspaper said. They also found him guilty of four counts of first-degree battery and sentenced him to 20 years for injuries to Markezeon Carlton Green, with an enhancement of 10 years for committing the offense in the presence of a child; 15 years for injuries to Candice Hughes; and five years each for the injuries to Monique West and Adamma Watson.

Judge Ralph Ohm said the jury recommended the sentences run consecutively for a total of 105 years.

Johnson chose not to testify and his court-appointed attorney, Mark Fraiser, did not present any other witnesses or testimony.

The shooting happened May 12, 2022, outside the Hot Springs Convention Center, which had hosted a graduation ceremony for Hot Springs World Class High School. Hot Springs officers wounded Johnson, who fled and was later arrested at a hospital on a murder warrant.

In his closing arguments, Deputy Prosecutor Brock Price outlined evidence against Johnson, including matching the clothes and shoes worn by the shooter as seen in multiple cellphone videos and police body camera footage to Johnson, and matching his DNA to the blood trail leaving the scene as he fled after being shot by police.

Price said Johnson walked toward a group that included Jordan and Green and “fired into the crowd” even though police were just a few feet away. He continued firing into the crowd while running away.

Hot Springs is a popular tourist destination that’s about 45 miles (75 kilometers) southwest of Little Rock.

Illinois
Dad who said ‘If I can’t have them neither can you’ pleads guilty to killing 3 kids
WAUKEGAN, Ill. (AP) — A suburban Chicago man who told his estranged wife “If I can’t have them neither can you” pleaded guilty but mentally ill Friday to three counts of first-degree murder for killing their three young children, a prosecutor said.

Jason Karels, 36, of Round Lake Beach will be sentenced to life in the Illinois Department of Corrections without the possibility of parole, Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said.

Karels admitted to killing by drowning 5-year-old Bryant Karels, 3-year-old Cassidy Karels and 2-year-old Gideon Karels on June 13, 2022.

Officers sent to his home to check on the welfare of the children found a note for his estranged wife saying, “If I can’t have them neither can you,” prosecutors have said.

“This case has devastated the Round Lake Beach community and beyond,” Rinehart said in a news release. “We hope that today’s resolution provides some measure of closure, and we will continue to provide support to the family.”

Several members of the family were present in court for the hearing.

Karels was arrested after leading police on a chase that ended in a crash at an Interstate 80 bridge in Joliet, Round Lake Beach police have said. Karels was briefly hospitalized after the crash.

After the crash, Karels told first responders he was responsible for his children’s deaths and had attempted to kill himself before fleeing the home, police said. Officers found his blood in the house from his attempts to hurt himself.

Police said at the time of the deaths that the parents shared custody of the children but did not live together.

A pre-sentence investigation was ordered for Karels, and a sentencing hearing is scheduled for Feb. 16, 2024.

California
A Tesla driver to pay $23K in restitution for a 2019 Los Angeles crash that killed 2 people
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Tesla driver will pay more than $23,000 in restitution for the deaths of two people during a 2019 car crash in a Los Angeles suburb, a decision announced the same day that the automaker recalled nearly all vehicles sold in the U.S.

Wednesday’s court hearing wrapped up a case believed to be the first time in the U.S. prosecutors brought felony charges against a motorist who was using a partially automated driving system. It was among a series of deadly crashes investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that led to this week’s recall.

The recall affects more than 2 million Tesla vehicles and will update software and fix a defective system that’s supposed to ensure drivers are paying attention when using Autopilot. It came after a two-year federal investigation into crashes that happened while the Autopilot partially automated driving system was in use.

The Tesla driver in the Los Angeles case, Kevin Aziz Riad, pleaded no contest to two counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence. Despite facing more than seven years behind bars, a judge sentenced him to probation in June.

Aziz Riad’s attorney, Peter Johnson, did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

Authorities say Aziz Riad, a limousine service driver, was at the wheel of a Tesla Model S that was moving at 74 mph (119 kph) when it left a freeway and ran a red light on a local street in Gardena, California, on Dec. 29, 2019.

The Tesla, which was using Autopilot at the time, struck a Honda Civic at an intersection, and the car’s occupants, Gilberto Alcazar Lopez and Maria Guadalupe Nieves-Lopez, died at the scene. Their families have separately filed civil lawsuits against Aziz Riad and Tesla that are ongoing.

Donald Slavik, who is representing Alcazar Lopez’s family, said while they are appreciative of any restitution, it’s “a very small amount of the damages” they have suffered. Their suit is scheduled to go to trial next year.

“The recently announced recall, if it limits the use of Autopilot to controlled access highways, would likely have prevented this tragic incident,” Slavik said in an email Friday.

An attorney for the Nieves-Lopez family also did not respond to a request for comment.