New Jersey
Man sentenced to life after retrial conviction in 2012 murder of woman found in burning home
HACKENSACK, N.J. (AP) — A man has been sentenced to life in prison for the second time following his conviction in a retrial in the death of a woman whose body was found inside her burning home in New Jersey almost a dozen years ago.
A Bergen County judge imposed the term Friday on 49-year-old Daniel Rochat in the September 2012 death of 70-year-old Barbara Vernieri, NorthJersey.com reported. The East Rutherford real estate agent was found beaten and set on fire while she was still alive in her home, authorities said.
Rochat’s first conviction was overturned in 2022 by an appellate court that ruled that DNA evidence used to connect him to the crime was unreliable. He was tried again this year and convicted in April of murder, arson, felony murder, desecration, hindering and false swearing.
Judge Christopher Kazlau sentenced Rochat on Friday to life in prison, which the state presumes to be 75 years with a requirement that 85% of that sentence be served before a defendant can be eligible for parole. Rochat was also sentenced to 10 years each on the arson and desecration convictions and lesser terms on the other counts.
Kazlau called the murder “brutal and senseless” and cited what he called the defendant’s complete lack of remorse, calling his tone and demeanor during police interviews “striking.”
Rochat proclaimed his innocence in court, arguing that justice hadn’t been served because “the person who did this brutal murder has eluded justice.” One of his attorneys, Eric Feinberg, argued that his client has “lost out on the best years of his life” after a dozen years behind bars, and the defense unsuccessfully sought a new trial.
Rochat’s mother, Janet, told the court that her son had a “warm and loving relationship” with Vernieri and she believed law enforcement misinterpreted his visit to the home days before she was killed. Prosecutors had suggested that he had intended to rob the victim to pay back $11,000 he owed to an ex-girlfriend who had just ended their relationship.
Wisconsin
Judge sends Milwaukee man to prison for life in 2023 beating death of 5-year-old boy
MILWAUKEE (AP) — A judge has sentenced a Milwaukee man to life in prison without parole for his role in beating a 5-year-old boy to death last year.
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Jean Kies sentenced 27-year-old David Pietura on Friday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
Pietura’s attorney, Russell Jones, argued for the possibility of parole after 40 years behind bars, but Pietura said during the sentencing that he shouldn’t get parole and if Wisconsin had the death penalty he would deserve it.
According to prosecutors, Pietura and a then-15-year-old boy lived with 5-year-old Prince McCree’s family. Peitura and the teen beat Prince to death in the home’s basement in October using their fists, a barbell, a concrete birdfeeder and a golf club and then hid the body in a Dumpster, prosecutors allege.
The reason for the attack remains unclear. Pietura told police that the teen had talked about killing Prince for some time because he didn’t like him.
Pietura was charged with being a party to first-degree intentional homicide, child abuse and hiding a corpse. He pleaded guilty in June to the homicide count. Prosecutors dropped the other charges in exchange for the plea.
The teen, now 16, faces multiple charges in adult court, including being a party to first-degree intentional homicide. His attorney is trying to move the case into juvenile court.
Spurred by Prince’s death and the murder of 14-year-old Lily Peters in the woods in Chippewa Falls in 2022, Gov. Tony Evers signed a law this past April expanding Wisconsin’s missing person alerts for children.
New York
A man dubbed ‘pirate of the unknown’ is extradited to U.S. in alleged cocaine trafficking conspiracy
NEW YORK (AP) — A citizen of Montenegro nicknamed the “pirate of the unknown” has been extradited to New York City from Italy to face charges connected to what U.S. authorities called an international drug ring that transported tons of cocaine around the world.
Milos Radonjic, 34, arrived in Brooklyn on Friday and is scheduled to be arraigned in federal court Monday, according to federal prosecutors and officials with the Department of Homeland Security and FBI. A federal grand jury indicted him and several other people last year on charges of conspiracy and attempt to violate the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act.
According to court filings, Radonjic was a high-ranking member of a transnational drug organization that used commercial cargo ships, including some registered to deliver goods to the U.S., to transport tons of cocaine from South America to Europe for drug cartels in the Balkans. Ship crew members knowingly took part in the alleged trafficking, court documents say.
U.S. authorities said Radonjic and others arranged to use speed boats to deliver drugs at night to cargo ships on the high seas near Colombia and Ecuador.
Radonjic and others also trafficked narcotics that have “contributed to the overdose and drug addiction crisis in the United States and throughout the world,” U.S. prosecutors wrote in a request to a federal judge to detain Radonjic pending trial.
“This arrest and successful extradition is a lesson that the high seas are not a no-man’s land for the rule of law, and that we are committed to bringing those who violate it to justice,” Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement Saturday.
Peace’s office said Radonjic had not been assigned an attorney as of Saturday.
Radonjic was arrested in October after traveling to Italy to captain a yacht in an international race, authorities said.
U.S. authorities have not released the names of other people who were indicted and said they were not in U.S. custody.
Nevada
Attorney general appeals to state high court in effort to revive fake electors case
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The top prosecutor in Nevada is asking the state Supreme Court to uphold the indictments of six Republicans charged with submitting a bogus certificate to Congress that declared Donald Trump the winner of the presidential battleground’s 2020 election.
Officials have said it was part of a larger scheme across seven battleground states to keep the former president in the White House after losing to Democrat Joe Biden. Criminal cases have also been brought in Michigan, Georgia and Arizona.
Meanwhile, the fate of Nevada’s so-called fake electors case hangs in the balance.
Clark County District Court Judge Mary Kay Holthus issued a written order Friday night affirming her ruling from the bench last month that Las Vegas was the wrong venue for the case and therefore the charges must be dismissed.
A spokesperson for Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat, confirmed Saturday in a statement that the office formally filed its appeal shortly after the judge issued her written order.
“We remain confident in our case and look forward to bringing these individuals to justice and holding them accountable for their actions,” the statement says.
The defendants are state GOP chairman Michael McDonald; Clark County GOP chairman Jesse Law; national party committee member Jim DeGraffenreid; national and Douglas County committee member Shawn Meehan; Storey County clerk Jim Hindle; and Eileen Rice, a party member from the Lake Tahoe area.
They were indicted by a grand jury in Las Vegas last December, just before a three-year statute of limitations expired. Each was charged with offering a false instrument for filing and uttering a forged instrument — felonies carrying a penalty of up to four or five years in prison.
Monti Levy, one of the defense lawyers, said Saturday they “are confident that Judge Holthus made the correct decision and that her order granting the motion to dismiss will be upheld.”
The defense attorneys had argued that Ford improperly brought the case against their clients before a grand jury in Democratic-leaning Las Vegas instead of in a northern Nevada city, where the alleged crimes occurred.
Ford’s office, meanwhile, argued that “no one county contains the entirety of these crimes.”
It wasn’t clear Saturday from court records whether oral arguments had been scheduled before the Nevada Supreme Court. The court’s clerk also did not respond to an emailed message seeking more information.
Trump lost to Biden by more than 30,000 votes in Nevada. An investigation by then-Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican, found no credible evidence of widespread voter fraud in the state.
New Hampshire
Justice Department defends group’s right to sue over AI robocalls sent to voters
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The federal Justice Department is defending the legal right to challenge robocalls sent to New Hampshire voters that used artificial intelligence to mimic President Joe Biden’s voice.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke and U.S. Attorney Jane Young filed a statement of interest Thursday in the lawsuit brought by the League of Women Voters against Steve Kramer — the political consultant behind the calls — and the three companies involved in transmitting them.
Kramer, who is facing separate criminal charges related to the calls, has yet to respond to the lawsuit filed in March, but the companies filed a motion to dismiss last month. Among other arguments, they said robocalls don’t violate the section of the Voting Rights Act that prohibits attempting to or actually intimidating, threatening or coercing voters and that there is no private right of action under the law.
The Justice Department countered that the law clearly allows aggrieved individuals and organizations representing them to enforce their rights under the law. And it said the companies were incorrect in arguing that the law doesn’t apply to robocalls because they are merely “deceptive” and not intimidating, threatening or coercive.
“Robocalls in particular can violate voting rights by incentivizing voters to remain away from the polls, deceive voters into believing false information and provoke fear among the targeted individuals,” Young said in a statement. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office commends any private citizen willing to stand up against these aggressive tactics and exercise their rights to participate in the enforcement process for the Voting Rights Act.”
At issue is a message sent to thousands of New Hampshire voters on Jan. 21 that featured a voice similar to Biden’s falsely suggesting that voting in the state’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary two days later would preclude them from casting ballots in November. Kramer, who paid a magician and self-described “digital nomad” who does technology consulting $150 to create the recording, has said he orchestrated the call to publicize the potential dangers of AI and spur action from lawmakers.
He faces 26 criminal charges in New Hampshire, along with a proposed $6 million fine from the Federal Communications Commission, which has taken multiple steps in recent months to combat the growing use of AI tools in political communications.
On Thursday, it advanced a proposal that would require political advertisers to disclose their use of artificial intelligence in broadcast television and radio ads, though it is unclear whether new regulations may be in place before the November presidential election.
Man sentenced to life after retrial conviction in 2012 murder of woman found in burning home
HACKENSACK, N.J. (AP) — A man has been sentenced to life in prison for the second time following his conviction in a retrial in the death of a woman whose body was found inside her burning home in New Jersey almost a dozen years ago.
A Bergen County judge imposed the term Friday on 49-year-old Daniel Rochat in the September 2012 death of 70-year-old Barbara Vernieri, NorthJersey.com reported. The East Rutherford real estate agent was found beaten and set on fire while she was still alive in her home, authorities said.
Rochat’s first conviction was overturned in 2022 by an appellate court that ruled that DNA evidence used to connect him to the crime was unreliable. He was tried again this year and convicted in April of murder, arson, felony murder, desecration, hindering and false swearing.
Judge Christopher Kazlau sentenced Rochat on Friday to life in prison, which the state presumes to be 75 years with a requirement that 85% of that sentence be served before a defendant can be eligible for parole. Rochat was also sentenced to 10 years each on the arson and desecration convictions and lesser terms on the other counts.
Kazlau called the murder “brutal and senseless” and cited what he called the defendant’s complete lack of remorse, calling his tone and demeanor during police interviews “striking.”
Rochat proclaimed his innocence in court, arguing that justice hadn’t been served because “the person who did this brutal murder has eluded justice.” One of his attorneys, Eric Feinberg, argued that his client has “lost out on the best years of his life” after a dozen years behind bars, and the defense unsuccessfully sought a new trial.
Rochat’s mother, Janet, told the court that her son had a “warm and loving relationship” with Vernieri and she believed law enforcement misinterpreted his visit to the home days before she was killed. Prosecutors had suggested that he had intended to rob the victim to pay back $11,000 he owed to an ex-girlfriend who had just ended their relationship.
Wisconsin
Judge sends Milwaukee man to prison for life in 2023 beating death of 5-year-old boy
MILWAUKEE (AP) — A judge has sentenced a Milwaukee man to life in prison without parole for his role in beating a 5-year-old boy to death last year.
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Jean Kies sentenced 27-year-old David Pietura on Friday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
Pietura’s attorney, Russell Jones, argued for the possibility of parole after 40 years behind bars, but Pietura said during the sentencing that he shouldn’t get parole and if Wisconsin had the death penalty he would deserve it.
According to prosecutors, Pietura and a then-15-year-old boy lived with 5-year-old Prince McCree’s family. Peitura and the teen beat Prince to death in the home’s basement in October using their fists, a barbell, a concrete birdfeeder and a golf club and then hid the body in a Dumpster, prosecutors allege.
The reason for the attack remains unclear. Pietura told police that the teen had talked about killing Prince for some time because he didn’t like him.
Pietura was charged with being a party to first-degree intentional homicide, child abuse and hiding a corpse. He pleaded guilty in June to the homicide count. Prosecutors dropped the other charges in exchange for the plea.
The teen, now 16, faces multiple charges in adult court, including being a party to first-degree intentional homicide. His attorney is trying to move the case into juvenile court.
Spurred by Prince’s death and the murder of 14-year-old Lily Peters in the woods in Chippewa Falls in 2022, Gov. Tony Evers signed a law this past April expanding Wisconsin’s missing person alerts for children.
New York
A man dubbed ‘pirate of the unknown’ is extradited to U.S. in alleged cocaine trafficking conspiracy
NEW YORK (AP) — A citizen of Montenegro nicknamed the “pirate of the unknown” has been extradited to New York City from Italy to face charges connected to what U.S. authorities called an international drug ring that transported tons of cocaine around the world.
Milos Radonjic, 34, arrived in Brooklyn on Friday and is scheduled to be arraigned in federal court Monday, according to federal prosecutors and officials with the Department of Homeland Security and FBI. A federal grand jury indicted him and several other people last year on charges of conspiracy and attempt to violate the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act.
According to court filings, Radonjic was a high-ranking member of a transnational drug organization that used commercial cargo ships, including some registered to deliver goods to the U.S., to transport tons of cocaine from South America to Europe for drug cartels in the Balkans. Ship crew members knowingly took part in the alleged trafficking, court documents say.
U.S. authorities said Radonjic and others arranged to use speed boats to deliver drugs at night to cargo ships on the high seas near Colombia and Ecuador.
Radonjic and others also trafficked narcotics that have “contributed to the overdose and drug addiction crisis in the United States and throughout the world,” U.S. prosecutors wrote in a request to a federal judge to detain Radonjic pending trial.
“This arrest and successful extradition is a lesson that the high seas are not a no-man’s land for the rule of law, and that we are committed to bringing those who violate it to justice,” Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement Saturday.
Peace’s office said Radonjic had not been assigned an attorney as of Saturday.
Radonjic was arrested in October after traveling to Italy to captain a yacht in an international race, authorities said.
U.S. authorities have not released the names of other people who were indicted and said they were not in U.S. custody.
Nevada
Attorney general appeals to state high court in effort to revive fake electors case
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The top prosecutor in Nevada is asking the state Supreme Court to uphold the indictments of six Republicans charged with submitting a bogus certificate to Congress that declared Donald Trump the winner of the presidential battleground’s 2020 election.
Officials have said it was part of a larger scheme across seven battleground states to keep the former president in the White House after losing to Democrat Joe Biden. Criminal cases have also been brought in Michigan, Georgia and Arizona.
Meanwhile, the fate of Nevada’s so-called fake electors case hangs in the balance.
Clark County District Court Judge Mary Kay Holthus issued a written order Friday night affirming her ruling from the bench last month that Las Vegas was the wrong venue for the case and therefore the charges must be dismissed.
A spokesperson for Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat, confirmed Saturday in a statement that the office formally filed its appeal shortly after the judge issued her written order.
“We remain confident in our case and look forward to bringing these individuals to justice and holding them accountable for their actions,” the statement says.
The defendants are state GOP chairman Michael McDonald; Clark County GOP chairman Jesse Law; national party committee member Jim DeGraffenreid; national and Douglas County committee member Shawn Meehan; Storey County clerk Jim Hindle; and Eileen Rice, a party member from the Lake Tahoe area.
They were indicted by a grand jury in Las Vegas last December, just before a three-year statute of limitations expired. Each was charged with offering a false instrument for filing and uttering a forged instrument — felonies carrying a penalty of up to four or five years in prison.
Monti Levy, one of the defense lawyers, said Saturday they “are confident that Judge Holthus made the correct decision and that her order granting the motion to dismiss will be upheld.”
The defense attorneys had argued that Ford improperly brought the case against their clients before a grand jury in Democratic-leaning Las Vegas instead of in a northern Nevada city, where the alleged crimes occurred.
Ford’s office, meanwhile, argued that “no one county contains the entirety of these crimes.”
It wasn’t clear Saturday from court records whether oral arguments had been scheduled before the Nevada Supreme Court. The court’s clerk also did not respond to an emailed message seeking more information.
Trump lost to Biden by more than 30,000 votes in Nevada. An investigation by then-Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican, found no credible evidence of widespread voter fraud in the state.
New Hampshire
Justice Department defends group’s right to sue over AI robocalls sent to voters
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The federal Justice Department is defending the legal right to challenge robocalls sent to New Hampshire voters that used artificial intelligence to mimic President Joe Biden’s voice.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke and U.S. Attorney Jane Young filed a statement of interest Thursday in the lawsuit brought by the League of Women Voters against Steve Kramer — the political consultant behind the calls — and the three companies involved in transmitting them.
Kramer, who is facing separate criminal charges related to the calls, has yet to respond to the lawsuit filed in March, but the companies filed a motion to dismiss last month. Among other arguments, they said robocalls don’t violate the section of the Voting Rights Act that prohibits attempting to or actually intimidating, threatening or coercing voters and that there is no private right of action under the law.
The Justice Department countered that the law clearly allows aggrieved individuals and organizations representing them to enforce their rights under the law. And it said the companies were incorrect in arguing that the law doesn’t apply to robocalls because they are merely “deceptive” and not intimidating, threatening or coercive.
“Robocalls in particular can violate voting rights by incentivizing voters to remain away from the polls, deceive voters into believing false information and provoke fear among the targeted individuals,” Young said in a statement. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office commends any private citizen willing to stand up against these aggressive tactics and exercise their rights to participate in the enforcement process for the Voting Rights Act.”
At issue is a message sent to thousands of New Hampshire voters on Jan. 21 that featured a voice similar to Biden’s falsely suggesting that voting in the state’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary two days later would preclude them from casting ballots in November. Kramer, who paid a magician and self-described “digital nomad” who does technology consulting $150 to create the recording, has said he orchestrated the call to publicize the potential dangers of AI and spur action from lawmakers.
He faces 26 criminal charges in New Hampshire, along with a proposed $6 million fine from the Federal Communications Commission, which has taken multiple steps in recent months to combat the growing use of AI tools in political communications.
On Thursday, it advanced a proposal that would require political advertisers to disclose their use of artificial intelligence in broadcast television and radio ads, though it is unclear whether new regulations may be in place before the November presidential election.
