Texas
Man sentenced for kicking cat prosecutors say was set on fire
Beaumont, Texas (AP) — A Texas man has been sentenced to more than three years in prison after pleading guilty to kicking a cat that court records say was later set on fire.
Documents in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas show Donaldvan Williams of Beaumont was sentenced Tuesday to 40 months in prison as part of an agreement in which he earlier pleaded guilty to animal crushing, aiding and abetting.
The attorney for Williams, 30, did not immediately return a phone call for comment.
Federal prosecutors worked with Texas state prosecutors to determine whether to file charges in state or federal court, according to Davilyn Walston, spokesperson for U.S. Attorney Damien Diggs.
“A lot of times, when you have offenders that are particularly egregious ... the state penalties aren’t as harsh,” Walston said.
Williams could have faced as little as ( two years in prison if convicted of animal torture or cruelty under Texas law.
He was charged under the federal Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, which prohibits harm to animals and bans videos of animal cruelty.
The documents say Williams and Decorius Mire found the cat in a parking lot in October 2021 and Williams kicked the animal like a football while Mire recorded the kick with his cell phone and later posted the video on social media.
The indictment in the case states that a third unknown, person set the cat on fire shortly after it was kicked 15-20 feet.
Mire also pleaded guilty as part of a plea agreement and was sentenced in July 2023 to 18 months in prison.
New York
Tube-tying rose most steeply in states that ban abortion after Roe v. Wade was overturned
More women chose to have their tubes tied after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, a new study shows, and the biggest increases were in states that ban abortion.
A research letter published Wednesday in JAMA examined insurance claims data from 2021 and 2022 for around 4.8 million women who got tubal ligations, which are surgeries to close the fallopian tubes so the patient can no longer get pregnant. The data came from 36 states and Washington, D.C., and researchers categorized these places as “banned,” “limited” or “protected,” based on their abortion policies.
In the 18 months before the Dobbs decision in late June 2022, tubal ligations remained stable in all three groups of states. But in the latter half of 2022, the procedure rose in all three groups.
Researchers also looked at sustained change in the numbers over time, finding that tubal ligations rose by 3% each month in banned states.
It’s “not entirely surprising” given the changes to abortion laws, said Xiao Xu, lead author of the research letter and associate professor of reproductive sciences at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
The research letter adds to other findings about a rise in sterilization procedures after Roe was overturned, including a study from researchers published in April in JAMA Health Forum that found an abrupt increase in tubal ligations among women 18-30 years old and vasectomies among men in that age group.
“It looks like the data they used were able to break things down by state, which is nice and something we were unable to do with the data we used,” said Jacqueline Ellison, an author of the April study who works at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public Health.
Dr. Clayton Alfonso recalled seeing a rise in tubal ligations in his OB-GYN practice at Duke University in North Carolina, “especially closer to the Dobbs decision.”
Patients who didn’t want more — or any — children were worried about contraceptives failing and becoming pregnant unexpectedly, said Alfonso, who wasn’t involved in either study. Patients told him they would rather be sterilized in case they weren’t able to get an abortion.
North Carolina banned most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy in 2023. Alfonso said the number of patients seeking tubal ligations has fallen a bit, which he suspects happened when people became more certain about local laws.
He also said he’d like to see research on what happens past 2022, given the “ever-evolving landscape.” Xu said her team is interested in doing such a study when the data becomes available.
New York
Man convicted of dismembering his boss sentenced to 40 years to life
NEW YORK (AP) — A personal assistant convicted of killing and dismembering his former tech entrepreneur boss after stealing about $400,000 from him was sentenced Tuesday to 40 years to life in prison, Manhattan’s district attorney said.
Tyrese Haspil, 25, was found guilty in June of murder, grand larceny and other charges in the 2020 death of his former boss, Fahim Saleh.
Prosecutors said Haspil had been hired as an assistant for Saleh, whose ventures included a ride-hailing motorcycle startup in Nigeria, but quickly began to siphon money from Saleh’s businesses. Haspil resigned a year later but continued to steal money, even after Saleh discovered the theft and let Haspil repay him over two years to avoid criminal prosecution.
Haspil decided to kill Saleh over concerns that his former boss would discover he was continuing to steal from his companies, prosecutors said.
On July 13, 2020, Haspil, wearing a black suit and a mask, followed Saleh into the elevator of his luxury apartment building in Manhattan and shocked him in the back with a Taser when the elevator doors opened into Saleh’s apartment. Saleh fell to the floor and Haspil stabbed him to death, authorities said.
Haspil returned the apartment the next day to dismember the body with an electric saw but eventually left to purchase a charger after the saw’s battery died. While Haspil was out, Saleh’s cousin arrived at the apartment and discovered the dismembered body.
Police arrested Haspil days later.
“Today, Tyrese Haspil is facing accountability for brutally murdering and decapitating Fahim Saleh, a kind, generous, and empathetic person who positively impacted the world. Even after the defendant stole from him to fund a lavish lifestyle, Mr. Saleh still gave him a second chance,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement. “While today’s sentence won’t bring Mr. Saleh back, I hope it provides his family a sense of closure as they continue to mourn his painful loss.”
Man sentenced for kicking cat prosecutors say was set on fire
Beaumont, Texas (AP) — A Texas man has been sentenced to more than three years in prison after pleading guilty to kicking a cat that court records say was later set on fire.
Documents in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas show Donaldvan Williams of Beaumont was sentenced Tuesday to 40 months in prison as part of an agreement in which he earlier pleaded guilty to animal crushing, aiding and abetting.
The attorney for Williams, 30, did not immediately return a phone call for comment.
Federal prosecutors worked with Texas state prosecutors to determine whether to file charges in state or federal court, according to Davilyn Walston, spokesperson for U.S. Attorney Damien Diggs.
“A lot of times, when you have offenders that are particularly egregious ... the state penalties aren’t as harsh,” Walston said.
Williams could have faced as little as ( two years in prison if convicted of animal torture or cruelty under Texas law.
He was charged under the federal Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, which prohibits harm to animals and bans videos of animal cruelty.
The documents say Williams and Decorius Mire found the cat in a parking lot in October 2021 and Williams kicked the animal like a football while Mire recorded the kick with his cell phone and later posted the video on social media.
The indictment in the case states that a third unknown, person set the cat on fire shortly after it was kicked 15-20 feet.
Mire also pleaded guilty as part of a plea agreement and was sentenced in July 2023 to 18 months in prison.
New York
Tube-tying rose most steeply in states that ban abortion after Roe v. Wade was overturned
More women chose to have their tubes tied after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, a new study shows, and the biggest increases were in states that ban abortion.
A research letter published Wednesday in JAMA examined insurance claims data from 2021 and 2022 for around 4.8 million women who got tubal ligations, which are surgeries to close the fallopian tubes so the patient can no longer get pregnant. The data came from 36 states and Washington, D.C., and researchers categorized these places as “banned,” “limited” or “protected,” based on their abortion policies.
In the 18 months before the Dobbs decision in late June 2022, tubal ligations remained stable in all three groups of states. But in the latter half of 2022, the procedure rose in all three groups.
Researchers also looked at sustained change in the numbers over time, finding that tubal ligations rose by 3% each month in banned states.
It’s “not entirely surprising” given the changes to abortion laws, said Xiao Xu, lead author of the research letter and associate professor of reproductive sciences at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
The research letter adds to other findings about a rise in sterilization procedures after Roe was overturned, including a study from researchers published in April in JAMA Health Forum that found an abrupt increase in tubal ligations among women 18-30 years old and vasectomies among men in that age group.
“It looks like the data they used were able to break things down by state, which is nice and something we were unable to do with the data we used,” said Jacqueline Ellison, an author of the April study who works at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public Health.
Dr. Clayton Alfonso recalled seeing a rise in tubal ligations in his OB-GYN practice at Duke University in North Carolina, “especially closer to the Dobbs decision.”
Patients who didn’t want more — or any — children were worried about contraceptives failing and becoming pregnant unexpectedly, said Alfonso, who wasn’t involved in either study. Patients told him they would rather be sterilized in case they weren’t able to get an abortion.
North Carolina banned most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy in 2023. Alfonso said the number of patients seeking tubal ligations has fallen a bit, which he suspects happened when people became more certain about local laws.
He also said he’d like to see research on what happens past 2022, given the “ever-evolving landscape.” Xu said her team is interested in doing such a study when the data becomes available.
New York
Man convicted of dismembering his boss sentenced to 40 years to life
NEW YORK (AP) — A personal assistant convicted of killing and dismembering his former tech entrepreneur boss after stealing about $400,000 from him was sentenced Tuesday to 40 years to life in prison, Manhattan’s district attorney said.
Tyrese Haspil, 25, was found guilty in June of murder, grand larceny and other charges in the 2020 death of his former boss, Fahim Saleh.
Prosecutors said Haspil had been hired as an assistant for Saleh, whose ventures included a ride-hailing motorcycle startup in Nigeria, but quickly began to siphon money from Saleh’s businesses. Haspil resigned a year later but continued to steal money, even after Saleh discovered the theft and let Haspil repay him over two years to avoid criminal prosecution.
Haspil decided to kill Saleh over concerns that his former boss would discover he was continuing to steal from his companies, prosecutors said.
On July 13, 2020, Haspil, wearing a black suit and a mask, followed Saleh into the elevator of his luxury apartment building in Manhattan and shocked him in the back with a Taser when the elevator doors opened into Saleh’s apartment. Saleh fell to the floor and Haspil stabbed him to death, authorities said.
Haspil returned the apartment the next day to dismember the body with an electric saw but eventually left to purchase a charger after the saw’s battery died. While Haspil was out, Saleh’s cousin arrived at the apartment and discovered the dismembered body.
Police arrested Haspil days later.
“Today, Tyrese Haspil is facing accountability for brutally murdering and decapitating Fahim Saleh, a kind, generous, and empathetic person who positively impacted the world. Even after the defendant stole from him to fund a lavish lifestyle, Mr. Saleh still gave him a second chance,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement. “While today’s sentence won’t bring Mr. Saleh back, I hope it provides his family a sense of closure as they continue to mourn his painful loss.”
