Washington
Man who blamed Trump’s ‘orders’ for Jan. 6 riot sentenced
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday sentenced an Ohio man who claimed he was only “following presidential orders” from Donald Trump when he stormed the U.S. Capitol to 3 years in prison.
Dustin Byron Thompson was convicted in April by a jury that took less than three hours to reject his novel defense for obstructing Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s presidential victory.
The jury also found Thompson guilty of all five of the other charges in his indictment, including stealing a coat rack from an office inside the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot.
Thompson apologized and said he was ashamed of his actions.
U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton told Thompson he could not understand how someone who had a college degree could “go down the rabbit hole” and believe “so much in a lie.” The judge said Thompson had to pay a price for a “serious crime” that undermined the “integrity and existence of this country.”
The maximum sentence for the obstruction count was 20 years imprisonment. The government had recommended a sentence of 70 months while the defense sought a year and a day in prison.
Thompson testified at trial that he joined the mob’s attack and stole the coat rack and a bottle of bourbon. He said he regretted his “disgraceful” behavior. But he also said he believed Trump’s false claim that the election was stolen and was trying to stand up for him.
Thompson was charged and convicted on six counts: obstructing Congress’ joint session to certify the Electoral College vote, theft of government property, entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly or disruptive conduct in a Capitol building and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
More than 770 people have been charged with federal crimes arising from the riot. Over 250 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors. Thompson was the fifth person to be tried on riot-related charges.
Pennsylvania
Philadelphia man charged for forging 2019 election petitions
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Philadelphia political consultant is facing criminal charges after allegedly forging signatures to get Democratic nominee clients onto 2019 primary ballots in the city, according to the Attorney General’s office.
The charges announced Wednesday against political consultant Rasheen Crews, 46, stem from the May 2019 primary elections for the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas and Philadelphia Municipal Court. Petitions for nearly a dozen candidates show that over one thousand signatures were duplicated, the Attorney General’s office said in a statement.
Crews was paid between $1.50 and $2.50 per signature by clients who sought to complete the paperwork needed to be included on the Democratic ballot for the 2019 primary, according to the affidavit. However, the complaint states, 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.
Some pages were allegedly photocopied, or the voter names found across the various petition pages did not live at the addresses listed, or identified voters who said they had not signed, the affidavit states.
Several of the candidates withdrew from the race in 2019, and two told an investigator in the affidavit that they dropped out because they didn’t want to be associated with Crews or felt uncomfortable remaining in the race following the allegations. Several remained on the primary ballot.
Anthony Kyriakakis was ultimately elected to the Common Pleas Court in 2019. His office had no comment on the charges. Other candidates have been elected in subsequent elections.
Crews was charged with two felonies, criminal solicitation to commit forgery and theft by failure to make a required disposition. Arrest records released early Wednesday did not show any attorney information.
“In advance of the 2023 municipal elections, this arrest is an important reminder that interfering with the integrity of our elections is a serious crime,” said Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who is also the Democratic governor-elect.
Indiana
Woman convicted of killing boyfriend with sharp comb
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — A Fort Wayne woman has been convicted of killing her boyfriend, who was stabbed to death last year with the sharp metal point of a comb.
An Allen County jury deliberated for about an hour Thursday night before convicting Sierra M. Hernandez, 27, of one count of murder, The Journal Gazette reported.
Hernandez fatally stabbed her boyfriend, Roderick Patterson, 25, in May 2021 at her Fort Wayne home using the sharp metal point of a rattail comb, according to trial testimony.
Allen County deputy prosecutor Tesa Helge said in opening statements that Hernandez stabbed Patterson with the rattail comb during a passionate fight.
Prosecutors said the couple had a turbulent relationship that included Hernandez punching Patterson, evidence of him throwing rocks through her windows and exchanges of threatening texts.
Defense attorney Nikos Nakos said in his closing arguments that the prosecution’s evidence was all circumstantial. He had argued that Hernandez couldn’t have stabbed Patterson because she was seven months pregnant at the time of his killing.
Nakos also argued that due to her long fingernails Hernandez couldn’t have gripped the comb hard enough to provide the force necessary to stab Patterson.
Hernandez faces between 45 and 65 years in prison in the killing. Her sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 16.
Louisiana
Jury convicts man who raped informant in unmonitored sting
A Louisiana jury Thursday convicted a career criminal of raping a police informant who had been sent into a drug house in a sting that went unmonitored and unprotected by law enforcement.
Jurors in Alexandria looked away at times as prosecutors played graphic footage of a sexual assault that happened as the woman went undercover to buy methamphetamine. She wore a hidden camera that recorded Antonio D. Jones forcing her to perform oral sex on him — twice— but the device did not transmit the attack in real time.
Jones, 48, was found guilty of two counts of third-degree rape. He had been scheduled for trial last month but skipped bail and was later captured in Mississippi.
“We think justice was served,” Rapides Parish District Attorney Phillip Terrell told The Associated Press. “He is an incorrigible, violent criminal and we think the community is much safer now that he’s going to be going to prison.”
The conviction came two months after the attack on the woman was reported in an AP investigation that exposed the perils such informants can face seeking to “work off” criminal charges in often loosely regulated, secretive arrangements.
The woman testified against Jones during the trial, later telling AP in a text exchange “it was not easy but was rewarding.” AP does not typically identify victims of sexual assault.
Despite the woman’s cooperation, she was charged anyway just three weeks after the recorded assault with possession of drug paraphernalia. But prosecutors said late Thursday they plan to drop the pending charges against her.
“We certainly do not intend to prosecute a rape victim,” Assistant District Attorney Brian Cespiva said in a telephone interview.
Jones’ defense attorney, Phillip M. Robinson, said he will appeal Jones’ conviction and earlier asked for a mistrial because the jurors were looking away from the video in disgust. The lengthy footage showed Jones forcing the woman into sex as she cried and said “no,” and he even stopped at one point to conduct a separate drug deal.
Jones is scheduled for sentencing Dec. 12. Cespiva said he will ask that Jones be sentenced to 50 years in prison. Jones faces a separate trial next year on drug distribution charges.
The victim, meanwhile, is undergoing drug treatment.
“I’m convinced she’s on her way to sobriety,” prosecutor Terrell said.
Alabama
Woman convicted in kidnapping of 3-year-old girl
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — Federal jurors convicted an Alabama woman on Thursday in the death of a 3-year-old girl whose disappearance from a public housing community prompted a more than weeklong search in 2019.
News outlets reported that Derick Irisha Brown, 32, was convicted of a kidnapping that led to a death and conspiracy in the abduction of Kamille “Cupcake” McKinney, whose remains were found 10 days after she was last seen following a birthday party in Birmingham. Brown faces life in prison.
Brown’s former boyfriend, 42-year-old Patrick Devone Stallworth, was convicted last month on the same charges.
Prosecutors said the two had planned to kidnap a child on the day the girl disappeared. The motive was unclear, with authorities saying Brown might have wanted the girl because she lost custody of her children and Stallworth might have wanted her for sex.
The search for the girl gripped the metro area until McKinney’s body was found in a dumpster at an area landfill, and hundreds of people attended her funeral.
Jurors rejected defense claims that Brown minded her own business while Stallworth committed the crime. The two, who await trial on state murder charges, blamed each other following their arrests.
Medical testimony showed that the girl died of asphyxia and had drugs including methamphetamine in her system.
Illinois
Man arrested on charges stemming from Capitol riot
CHICAGO (AP) — An Illinois man accused of grabbing a police officer’s baton and interfering with law enforcement during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection in the U.S. Capitol is facing felony and misdemeanor charges, prosecutors said.
Tyng Jing Yang, 60, of Hoffman Estates, Illinois, was arrested Wednesday and charged with the felony offense of interfering with law enforcement officers during a civil disorder, along with four related misdemeanor offenses.
He entered the Capitol building illegally, posed for photos in the Rotunda, and when law enforcement officers tried to clear the area, “Yang forcibly interfered with those efforts and physically grabbed hold of an officer’s baton,” according to court documents.
Yang appeared in Chicago’s federal court on Wednesday but was released pending his next court date, which will be a virtual hearing on Nov. 29 in Washington, D.C., according to a spokesperson for Yang’s attorney, Craig Estes.
The judge also ordered Yang, who holds dual Taiwan and U.S. citizenship, to surrender his Taiwanese passport, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The FBI tracked down Yang using cell phone, toll and security camera data, according to court documents.
More than 30 Illinois residents and nearly 900 people nationwide have been arrested on charges stemming from the riot.
Earlier this month, another Chicago area man pleaded guilty to assaulting a law enforcement officer at the Capitol riot.
James Robert Elliott of Aurora, a member of the far-right extremist group Proud Boys, admitted to hitting an officer with a flag pole.
A U.S. Department of Justice press release said Elliott, 25, described his actions in texts afterward: “I bonked 2 cops … never thought I’d say that lol.”
