California
81-year-old arrested after police say he terrorized a neighborhood with a slingshot
AZUSA, Calif. (AP) — An 81-year-old man who investigators say terrorized a Southern California neighborhood for years with a slingshot has been arrested, police said.
While conducting an investigation, detectives “learned that during the course of 9-10 years, dozens of citizens were being victimized by a serial slingshot shooter,” the Azusa Police Department said in a statement.
The man is suspected of breaking windows and car windshields and of narrowly missing people with ball bearings shot from a slingshot, the statement said. No injuries were reported.
The man was arrested Thursday after officers served a search warrant and found a slingshot and ball bearings at his home in Azusa, about 25 miles (40 km) east of Los Angeles, police said.
Azusa police Lt. Jake Bushey said Saturday that detectives learned that most of the ball bearings were shot from the suspect’s backyard.
Illinois
Man convicted of Chicago murder based on blind witness’ testimony sues city, police
CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago man convicted of murder based in part on testimony from a legally blind eyewitness is suing the city and the police department.
A judge convicted Darien Harris in 2014 in connection with a fatal shooting at a South Side gas station in 2011. He was 12 years into a 76-year prison sentence when he was freed in December after The Exoneration Project showed that the eyewitness had advanced glaucoma and lied about his eyesight issues. Harris was 30 years old when he went free.
Harris filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in April alleging police fabricated evidence and coerced witnesses into making false statements, the Chicago Tribune reported Monday. He told the newspaper that he is still struggling to put his life back together.
“I don’t have any financial help. I’m still (treated like) a felon, so I can’t get a good job. It’s hard for me to get into school,” he said. “I’ve been so lost. … I feel like they took a piece of me that is hard for me to get back.”
Harris was an 18-year-old high school senior when he was arrested. The legally blind eyewitness picked Harris out of a police lineup and identified him in court. The eyewitness testified that he was riding his motorized scooter near the gas station when he heard gunshots and saw a person aiming a handgun. He also added that the shooter bumped into him.
Harris’ trial attorney asked the witness if his diabetes affected his vision. He said yes but denied he had vision problems. But the man’s doctor deemed him legally blind nine years before the incident, court records show.
A gas station attendant also testified that Harris wasn’t the shooter.
The Exoneration Project has helped clear more than 200 people since 2009, including a dozen in Chicago’s Cook County in 2023 alone.
Arizona
Man accused of starting wildfire in national wildlife preserve
YUMA, Ariz. (AP) — A Yuma man has been arrested for allegedly starting a wildfire in a national wildlife preserve in southwest Arizona near the California border, according to authorities.
Yuma County Sheriff’s officials said 47-year-old Jason Bradley Martin remains jailed on suspicion of arson, criminal damage and other charges.
They announced Saturday night that Martin was identified as a suspect in the case and taken into custody. The county’s jail website didn’t list an attorney for Martin as of Sunday.
The wildfire was reported around 2 p.m. Saturday in the Imperial National Wildlife Refuge, which was established in 1941 to protect 30 miles (48 kilometers) of mostly wetland habitat along the Lower Colorado River.
Authorities said the blaze was 20% contained after burning nearly 2 square miles (5 square kilometers) of vegetation along the Arizona side of the Colorado River in Yuma County.
Multiple agencies, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and federal Bureau of Land Management, responded to the scene to assist firefighting crews Saturday.
Wisconsin
Man sentenced to 20 years in connection with 2016 firebombing
FOND DU LAC, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin judge has sentenced a man to almost 20 years in prison in connection with a 2016 firebombing incident.
Online court records show Fond du Lac County Judge Anthony Nehls sentenced 26-year-old Elliot Schneider on Friday to 18 years behind bars on felony counts of being a party to property damage by means of explosive and reckless endangerment. Nehls also sentenced Schneider to three years in prison for bail jumping. That sentence will be served simultaneously with the firebombing sentence.
Schneider recently started a separate 12-year prison sentence after he was convicted of child sexual assault in December. His firebombing and bail jumping time will begin after that sentence ends.
Prosecutors accused Schneider of building a bomb and paying another man to plant it at the Fond du Lac home of a man whom Schneider believed had stolen money from him in a drug deal, WTMJ-TV reported.
The bomb exploded in a mailbox, injuring one person. Assistant District Attorney Catherine Block told Nehls on Friday that the blast sent debris into the home’s living room and started a fire in another room.
Schneider pleaded no contest to the firebombing charges, a legal maneuver in which a defendant doesn’t admit guilt but doesn’t fight charges in order to resolve the case. He told the judge on Friday that he wasn’t involved in the incident in any way. His attorney, Tsz-King Tse, said the incident happened when Schneider was 18 and he was a different person then.
New York
Man accused in fiery liquid attacks on NYC subway riders
NEW YORK (AP) — A man set a cup of liquid on fire and tossed it at a fellow subway rider in New York City, setting the victim’s shirt ablaze and injuring him, police said Sunday.
The random attack happened on a No. 1 train in lower Manhattan on Saturday afternoon, city police said, adding that the suspect was in custody on an array of criminal charges. Authorities also charged the man in connection with a similar fiery assault on the subway in February.
The victim from Saturday, a 23-year-old man, was recovering at a hospital. He told the New York Post that he shielded his fiancee and cousin from the burning liquid and his shirt caught on fire. He said he slapped himself to put out the flames. Doctors told him he had burns on about a third of his body, he said.
“He had a cup,” the victim told the Post. “He made fire and he threw it all.”
While violent crime is rare in the city’s subway system, which serves about 3 million riders a day, some high-profile attacks this year have left some riders on edge. They include the death of a man who was shoved onto the tracks in East Harlem in March and a few shootings.
The suspect in Saturday’s assault, Nile Taylor, 49, was arrested a short time after it happened when police tracked a phone he allegedly stole from another subway rider to his location, authorities said. He was charged with assault, arson, illegal possession of a weapon and several other crimes.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Taylor had a lawyer who could respond to the allegations, or when he would be arraigned in court.
Authorities also announced on Sunday afternoon that Taylor was charged with attempted assault, reckless endangerment and arson in the February attack. Police say he threw a container with a flaming liquid at a group of people on a subway platform in the West 28th Street station. No one was injured.
Gov. Kathy Hochul in March announced that hundreds of National Guard members would be going into the subway system to boost security. City police said 800 more officers would be deployed to the subway to crack down on fare evasion.
Pennsylvania
Man sentenced to 30 years in slaying of 14-year-old at gas station
MOUNT HOLLY, N.J. (AP) — A Pennsylvania man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison in the shooting death of a teenager at a New Jersey gas station almost three years ago.
Prosecutors in Burlington County say Tamir Phillips, 24, of Bensalem, will not be eligible for parole. He was sentenced Friday.
Phillips was convicted in November of first-degree murder and weapons counts in the August 2021 shooting death of 14-year-old Jesse Everett of Willingboro. Jurors in Mount Holly deliberated for about eight hours over two days before convicting the defendant.
Prosecutors said Phillips was passing the gas station when he saw Everett in a car that had been reported stolen a day earlier. The owner of that car frequently allowed Phillips to use the vehicle, prosecutors said.
The driver passing the station pulled in and stopped behind the stolen car. Phillips got out and confronted Everett before firing a single shot that hit Everett in the head, prosecutors said. Everett died several hours later at Cooper University Medical Center in Camden. Two other people in the car with the victim weren’t hurt.
Pennsylvania
Woman pleads guilty but mentally ill in 2022 kidnap-slaying, DA says
INDIANA, Pa. (AP) — Authorities say one of eight defendants has pleaded guilty but mentally ill in the slaying of a man taken from a western Pennsylvania home and later found stabbed in a rural area more than a year and a half ago.
Indiana County District Attorney Robert Manzi said Friday that 20-year-old Taylyn Edwards of Johnstown entered the plea to charges of first-degree murder and kidnapping in the October 2022 kidnapping and murder of 19-year-old Hayden Garreffa.
Trooper Cliff Greenfield told reporters at the time that Garreffa, who was autistic, was taken in a minivan from a relative’s Buffington Township home without his cellphone and medication, both of which “he never would have left behind.” His body was found two days later in Brush Valley Township with stab wounds and blunt force trauma.
Court documents list the case as adjudicated with a June 19 sentencing date. Edwards’ court-appointed attorney, Timothy Burns, told The (Johnstown) Tribune-Democrat that a mental health evaluation deemed his client competent “but with significant mental health impairment” at the time of the crime.
He said Edwards, who faces life without parole, would receive treatment during her incarceration, and “we thought this was the best resolution.”
Four men and two other women as well as a 14-year-old girl were also arrested in the case. The cases against the adults are still pending, with Manzi having predicted a “long and arduous prosecution” at the time of the arrests. The minor was charged as an adult, but her case was later transferred to juvenile court.
Investigators alleged that the slaying stemmed from an earlier dispute between the victim and one of the other defendants. Garreffa’s mother told The Tribune-Democrat after a January 2023 hearing that her son was severely autistic and was too trusting of people.
81-year-old arrested after police say he terrorized a neighborhood with a slingshot
AZUSA, Calif. (AP) — An 81-year-old man who investigators say terrorized a Southern California neighborhood for years with a slingshot has been arrested, police said.
While conducting an investigation, detectives “learned that during the course of 9-10 years, dozens of citizens were being victimized by a serial slingshot shooter,” the Azusa Police Department said in a statement.
The man is suspected of breaking windows and car windshields and of narrowly missing people with ball bearings shot from a slingshot, the statement said. No injuries were reported.
The man was arrested Thursday after officers served a search warrant and found a slingshot and ball bearings at his home in Azusa, about 25 miles (40 km) east of Los Angeles, police said.
Azusa police Lt. Jake Bushey said Saturday that detectives learned that most of the ball bearings were shot from the suspect’s backyard.
Illinois
Man convicted of Chicago murder based on blind witness’ testimony sues city, police
CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago man convicted of murder based in part on testimony from a legally blind eyewitness is suing the city and the police department.
A judge convicted Darien Harris in 2014 in connection with a fatal shooting at a South Side gas station in 2011. He was 12 years into a 76-year prison sentence when he was freed in December after The Exoneration Project showed that the eyewitness had advanced glaucoma and lied about his eyesight issues. Harris was 30 years old when he went free.
Harris filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in April alleging police fabricated evidence and coerced witnesses into making false statements, the Chicago Tribune reported Monday. He told the newspaper that he is still struggling to put his life back together.
“I don’t have any financial help. I’m still (treated like) a felon, so I can’t get a good job. It’s hard for me to get into school,” he said. “I’ve been so lost. … I feel like they took a piece of me that is hard for me to get back.”
Harris was an 18-year-old high school senior when he was arrested. The legally blind eyewitness picked Harris out of a police lineup and identified him in court. The eyewitness testified that he was riding his motorized scooter near the gas station when he heard gunshots and saw a person aiming a handgun. He also added that the shooter bumped into him.
Harris’ trial attorney asked the witness if his diabetes affected his vision. He said yes but denied he had vision problems. But the man’s doctor deemed him legally blind nine years before the incident, court records show.
A gas station attendant also testified that Harris wasn’t the shooter.
The Exoneration Project has helped clear more than 200 people since 2009, including a dozen in Chicago’s Cook County in 2023 alone.
Arizona
Man accused of starting wildfire in national wildlife preserve
YUMA, Ariz. (AP) — A Yuma man has been arrested for allegedly starting a wildfire in a national wildlife preserve in southwest Arizona near the California border, according to authorities.
Yuma County Sheriff’s officials said 47-year-old Jason Bradley Martin remains jailed on suspicion of arson, criminal damage and other charges.
They announced Saturday night that Martin was identified as a suspect in the case and taken into custody. The county’s jail website didn’t list an attorney for Martin as of Sunday.
The wildfire was reported around 2 p.m. Saturday in the Imperial National Wildlife Refuge, which was established in 1941 to protect 30 miles (48 kilometers) of mostly wetland habitat along the Lower Colorado River.
Authorities said the blaze was 20% contained after burning nearly 2 square miles (5 square kilometers) of vegetation along the Arizona side of the Colorado River in Yuma County.
Multiple agencies, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and federal Bureau of Land Management, responded to the scene to assist firefighting crews Saturday.
Wisconsin
Man sentenced to 20 years in connection with 2016 firebombing
FOND DU LAC, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin judge has sentenced a man to almost 20 years in prison in connection with a 2016 firebombing incident.
Online court records show Fond du Lac County Judge Anthony Nehls sentenced 26-year-old Elliot Schneider on Friday to 18 years behind bars on felony counts of being a party to property damage by means of explosive and reckless endangerment. Nehls also sentenced Schneider to three years in prison for bail jumping. That sentence will be served simultaneously with the firebombing sentence.
Schneider recently started a separate 12-year prison sentence after he was convicted of child sexual assault in December. His firebombing and bail jumping time will begin after that sentence ends.
Prosecutors accused Schneider of building a bomb and paying another man to plant it at the Fond du Lac home of a man whom Schneider believed had stolen money from him in a drug deal, WTMJ-TV reported.
The bomb exploded in a mailbox, injuring one person. Assistant District Attorney Catherine Block told Nehls on Friday that the blast sent debris into the home’s living room and started a fire in another room.
Schneider pleaded no contest to the firebombing charges, a legal maneuver in which a defendant doesn’t admit guilt but doesn’t fight charges in order to resolve the case. He told the judge on Friday that he wasn’t involved in the incident in any way. His attorney, Tsz-King Tse, said the incident happened when Schneider was 18 and he was a different person then.
New York
Man accused in fiery liquid attacks on NYC subway riders
NEW YORK (AP) — A man set a cup of liquid on fire and tossed it at a fellow subway rider in New York City, setting the victim’s shirt ablaze and injuring him, police said Sunday.
The random attack happened on a No. 1 train in lower Manhattan on Saturday afternoon, city police said, adding that the suspect was in custody on an array of criminal charges. Authorities also charged the man in connection with a similar fiery assault on the subway in February.
The victim from Saturday, a 23-year-old man, was recovering at a hospital. He told the New York Post that he shielded his fiancee and cousin from the burning liquid and his shirt caught on fire. He said he slapped himself to put out the flames. Doctors told him he had burns on about a third of his body, he said.
“He had a cup,” the victim told the Post. “He made fire and he threw it all.”
While violent crime is rare in the city’s subway system, which serves about 3 million riders a day, some high-profile attacks this year have left some riders on edge. They include the death of a man who was shoved onto the tracks in East Harlem in March and a few shootings.
The suspect in Saturday’s assault, Nile Taylor, 49, was arrested a short time after it happened when police tracked a phone he allegedly stole from another subway rider to his location, authorities said. He was charged with assault, arson, illegal possession of a weapon and several other crimes.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Taylor had a lawyer who could respond to the allegations, or when he would be arraigned in court.
Authorities also announced on Sunday afternoon that Taylor was charged with attempted assault, reckless endangerment and arson in the February attack. Police say he threw a container with a flaming liquid at a group of people on a subway platform in the West 28th Street station. No one was injured.
Gov. Kathy Hochul in March announced that hundreds of National Guard members would be going into the subway system to boost security. City police said 800 more officers would be deployed to the subway to crack down on fare evasion.
Pennsylvania
Man sentenced to 30 years in slaying of 14-year-old at gas station
MOUNT HOLLY, N.J. (AP) — A Pennsylvania man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison in the shooting death of a teenager at a New Jersey gas station almost three years ago.
Prosecutors in Burlington County say Tamir Phillips, 24, of Bensalem, will not be eligible for parole. He was sentenced Friday.
Phillips was convicted in November of first-degree murder and weapons counts in the August 2021 shooting death of 14-year-old Jesse Everett of Willingboro. Jurors in Mount Holly deliberated for about eight hours over two days before convicting the defendant.
Prosecutors said Phillips was passing the gas station when he saw Everett in a car that had been reported stolen a day earlier. The owner of that car frequently allowed Phillips to use the vehicle, prosecutors said.
The driver passing the station pulled in and stopped behind the stolen car. Phillips got out and confronted Everett before firing a single shot that hit Everett in the head, prosecutors said. Everett died several hours later at Cooper University Medical Center in Camden. Two other people in the car with the victim weren’t hurt.
Pennsylvania
Woman pleads guilty but mentally ill in 2022 kidnap-slaying, DA says
INDIANA, Pa. (AP) — Authorities say one of eight defendants has pleaded guilty but mentally ill in the slaying of a man taken from a western Pennsylvania home and later found stabbed in a rural area more than a year and a half ago.
Indiana County District Attorney Robert Manzi said Friday that 20-year-old Taylyn Edwards of Johnstown entered the plea to charges of first-degree murder and kidnapping in the October 2022 kidnapping and murder of 19-year-old Hayden Garreffa.
Trooper Cliff Greenfield told reporters at the time that Garreffa, who was autistic, was taken in a minivan from a relative’s Buffington Township home without his cellphone and medication, both of which “he never would have left behind.” His body was found two days later in Brush Valley Township with stab wounds and blunt force trauma.
Court documents list the case as adjudicated with a June 19 sentencing date. Edwards’ court-appointed attorney, Timothy Burns, told The (Johnstown) Tribune-Democrat that a mental health evaluation deemed his client competent “but with significant mental health impairment” at the time of the crime.
He said Edwards, who faces life without parole, would receive treatment during her incarceration, and “we thought this was the best resolution.”
Four men and two other women as well as a 14-year-old girl were also arrested in the case. The cases against the adults are still pending, with Manzi having predicted a “long and arduous prosecution” at the time of the arrests. The minor was charged as an adult, but her case was later transferred to juvenile court.
Investigators alleged that the slaying stemmed from an earlier dispute between the victim and one of the other defendants. Garreffa’s mother told The Tribune-Democrat after a January 2023 hearing that her son was severely autistic and was too trusting of people.
