Idaho
Police say use of racial slur audible against Utah team
COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho (AP) — Police investigating racist incidents directed toward the Utah women’s basketball team when they were near their Idaho hotel while in town last month for the NCAA Tournament say they’ve found an audio recording in which the use of a racial slur was clearly audible.
The Coeur d’Alene Police Department said in a Wednesday post on Facebook that it is working to determine the “context and conduct” associated with the slur’s use to determine if there was a violation of law. Police said they are still reviewing evidence from the March 21 incidents, but it appears that a racial slur was used more than once.
Police said they’ve collected about 35 hours of video from businesses in the area, and that video and audio corroborates what members of the basketball program reported. Police said detectives are working to locate any additional evidence and get information on suspects. Detectives also are trying to identify a silver car that was in the area at the time.
Following Utah’s loss to Gonzaga in the second round of the tournament on March 25, Utes coach Lynne Roberts said her team had experienced a series of hate crimes after arriving at their hotel in Coeur d’Alene. Utah and other teams played their games in Spokane, Washington, but the Utes were staying about 35 miles away in Coeur d’Alene.
Roberts said the March 21 incidents left players and coaches so shaken and concerned for their safety that they moved to a different hotel the next day.
Tony Stewart, an official with the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, has said the Utes were walking from their hotel to a restaurant when a pickup truck with a Confederate flag drove up and the driver began using racist language. After the team left the restaurant, the same driver returned “reinforced by others,” Stewart said, and they revved their engines and again yelled at the players.
Utah has said it filed a police report the night of the incidents. Coeur d’Alene police chief Lee White said last week that about 100 people were around the area that night. He has said there are two state charges that could be enforced — malicious harassment and disorderly conduct — if someone is arrested. White also said he was working with the FBI.
Far-right extremists have maintained a presence in the region for years. In 2018, at least nine hate groups operated in the region of Spokane and northern Idaho, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Oklahoma
State executes man convicted of double slaying
McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — A man convicted of shooting and killing two people in Oklahoma City more than two decades ago was executed Thursday morning.
Michael Dewayne Smith received a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and was pronounced dead at 10:20 a.m., Oklahoma Department of Corrections spokesperson Lance West said.
Smith, 41, was sentenced to die in the separate shooting deaths of Janet Moore, 41, and Sharath Pulluru, 22, in February 2002. He is the first person executed in Oklahoma this year and the 12th put to death since the state resumed executions in 2021 following a nearly seven-year hiatus resulting from problems with executions in 2014 and 2015.
During a clemency hearing last month, Smith expressed his “deepest sorrows” to the victims’ families, but denied he was responsible.
“I didn’t commit these crimes. I didn’t kill these people,” Smith said, occasionally breaking into tears during his 15-minute address to the board, which denied him clemency in a 4-1 vote. “I was high on drugs. I don’t even remember getting arrested.”
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday morning denied a stay of execution requested by Smith’s attorneys, who argued that his confession to police was not sufficiently corroborated.
Prosecutors say Smith was a ruthless gang member who killed both victims in misguided acts of revenge and confessed his involvement in the killings to police and two other people.
They claim he killed Moore because he was looking for her son, who he mistakenly thought had told police about his whereabouts. Later that day, prosecutors say Smith killed Pulluru, a convenience store clerk who Smith believed had disrespected his gang during an interview with a newspaper reporter.
Smith’s attorney, Mark Henricksen, argued that Smith is intellectually disabled, a condition worsened by years of heavy drug use, and that his life should be spared and he should be allowed to spend the rest of it in prison. Henricksen said Smith was in a PCP-induced haze when he confessed to police and that key elements of his confession aren’t supported by facts.
New York
MS-13 gang member pleads guilty in killing of 4 young men
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) — An MS-13 gang member has admitted to participating in the brutal killing of four young men on Long Island in 2017.
Edwin Rodriguez, 24, pleaded guilty Wednesday to racketeering charges in connection with the April 11, 2017, deaths of Justin Llivicura, Michael Lopez, Jorge Tigre, and Jefferson Villalobos in Central Islip.
The then 17-year-old, who authorities said went by the nickname “Manicomio,” fled the country after the killings but was arrested in El Salvador in 2019 and extradited to the U.S. in 2022.
Rodriguez’s lawyer Glenn Obedin said in an emailed statement after the proceedings in federal court in Central Islip that his client was “relieved” to have reached a plea deal and was “ready now to move on to the next phase of the proceeding and the next phase of his life.” Rodriguez faces up to life in prison for the crimes.
Prosecutors said Rodriguez was a member of the Normandie Locos Salvatruchas clique of MS-13 that killed rival gang members that were perceived to have disrespected MS-13 in their social media postings.
Rodriguez and other gang members lured the five young men to a wooded park in Central Islip under the guise of smoking marijuana, prosecutors said. Instead, nearly a dozen MS-13 members and associates armed with machetes, knives, an axe, and wooden clubs attacked them in the cover of night.
Prosecutors said one of the intended victims escaped, but the four others were hacked, stabbed and bludgeoned to death and their bodies were discovered the following evening.
More than a dozen MS-13 members and associates have been charged in connection with the killings, which were part of a string of grisly gang-related deaths that shocked residents and underscored the deepening problem of gang violence in the suburbs just east of New York City.
MS-13 got its start as a neighborhood street gang in Los Angeles, but grew into a transnational gang based in El Salvador. It has members in Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico and thousands of members across the United States with numerous branches, or “cliques,” according to federal authorities.
Police say use of racial slur audible against Utah team
COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho (AP) — Police investigating racist incidents directed toward the Utah women’s basketball team when they were near their Idaho hotel while in town last month for the NCAA Tournament say they’ve found an audio recording in which the use of a racial slur was clearly audible.
The Coeur d’Alene Police Department said in a Wednesday post on Facebook that it is working to determine the “context and conduct” associated with the slur’s use to determine if there was a violation of law. Police said they are still reviewing evidence from the March 21 incidents, but it appears that a racial slur was used more than once.
Police said they’ve collected about 35 hours of video from businesses in the area, and that video and audio corroborates what members of the basketball program reported. Police said detectives are working to locate any additional evidence and get information on suspects. Detectives also are trying to identify a silver car that was in the area at the time.
Following Utah’s loss to Gonzaga in the second round of the tournament on March 25, Utes coach Lynne Roberts said her team had experienced a series of hate crimes after arriving at their hotel in Coeur d’Alene. Utah and other teams played their games in Spokane, Washington, but the Utes were staying about 35 miles away in Coeur d’Alene.
Roberts said the March 21 incidents left players and coaches so shaken and concerned for their safety that they moved to a different hotel the next day.
Tony Stewart, an official with the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, has said the Utes were walking from their hotel to a restaurant when a pickup truck with a Confederate flag drove up and the driver began using racist language. After the team left the restaurant, the same driver returned “reinforced by others,” Stewart said, and they revved their engines and again yelled at the players.
Utah has said it filed a police report the night of the incidents. Coeur d’Alene police chief Lee White said last week that about 100 people were around the area that night. He has said there are two state charges that could be enforced — malicious harassment and disorderly conduct — if someone is arrested. White also said he was working with the FBI.
Far-right extremists have maintained a presence in the region for years. In 2018, at least nine hate groups operated in the region of Spokane and northern Idaho, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Oklahoma
State executes man convicted of double slaying
McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — A man convicted of shooting and killing two people in Oklahoma City more than two decades ago was executed Thursday morning.
Michael Dewayne Smith received a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and was pronounced dead at 10:20 a.m., Oklahoma Department of Corrections spokesperson Lance West said.
Smith, 41, was sentenced to die in the separate shooting deaths of Janet Moore, 41, and Sharath Pulluru, 22, in February 2002. He is the first person executed in Oklahoma this year and the 12th put to death since the state resumed executions in 2021 following a nearly seven-year hiatus resulting from problems with executions in 2014 and 2015.
During a clemency hearing last month, Smith expressed his “deepest sorrows” to the victims’ families, but denied he was responsible.
“I didn’t commit these crimes. I didn’t kill these people,” Smith said, occasionally breaking into tears during his 15-minute address to the board, which denied him clemency in a 4-1 vote. “I was high on drugs. I don’t even remember getting arrested.”
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday morning denied a stay of execution requested by Smith’s attorneys, who argued that his confession to police was not sufficiently corroborated.
Prosecutors say Smith was a ruthless gang member who killed both victims in misguided acts of revenge and confessed his involvement in the killings to police and two other people.
They claim he killed Moore because he was looking for her son, who he mistakenly thought had told police about his whereabouts. Later that day, prosecutors say Smith killed Pulluru, a convenience store clerk who Smith believed had disrespected his gang during an interview with a newspaper reporter.
Smith’s attorney, Mark Henricksen, argued that Smith is intellectually disabled, a condition worsened by years of heavy drug use, and that his life should be spared and he should be allowed to spend the rest of it in prison. Henricksen said Smith was in a PCP-induced haze when he confessed to police and that key elements of his confession aren’t supported by facts.
New York
MS-13 gang member pleads guilty in killing of 4 young men
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) — An MS-13 gang member has admitted to participating in the brutal killing of four young men on Long Island in 2017.
Edwin Rodriguez, 24, pleaded guilty Wednesday to racketeering charges in connection with the April 11, 2017, deaths of Justin Llivicura, Michael Lopez, Jorge Tigre, and Jefferson Villalobos in Central Islip.
The then 17-year-old, who authorities said went by the nickname “Manicomio,” fled the country after the killings but was arrested in El Salvador in 2019 and extradited to the U.S. in 2022.
Rodriguez’s lawyer Glenn Obedin said in an emailed statement after the proceedings in federal court in Central Islip that his client was “relieved” to have reached a plea deal and was “ready now to move on to the next phase of the proceeding and the next phase of his life.” Rodriguez faces up to life in prison for the crimes.
Prosecutors said Rodriguez was a member of the Normandie Locos Salvatruchas clique of MS-13 that killed rival gang members that were perceived to have disrespected MS-13 in their social media postings.
Rodriguez and other gang members lured the five young men to a wooded park in Central Islip under the guise of smoking marijuana, prosecutors said. Instead, nearly a dozen MS-13 members and associates armed with machetes, knives, an axe, and wooden clubs attacked them in the cover of night.
Prosecutors said one of the intended victims escaped, but the four others were hacked, stabbed and bludgeoned to death and their bodies were discovered the following evening.
More than a dozen MS-13 members and associates have been charged in connection with the killings, which were part of a string of grisly gang-related deaths that shocked residents and underscored the deepening problem of gang violence in the suburbs just east of New York City.
MS-13 got its start as a neighborhood street gang in Los Angeles, but grew into a transnational gang based in El Salvador. It has members in Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico and thousands of members across the United States with numerous branches, or “cliques,” according to federal authorities.
