Colorado
Appeals court says ban on gun sales to those under 21 can take effect
DENVER (AP) — A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that a Colorado law raising the age to purchase a gun from 18 to 21 can take effect while the legal battle over it continues.
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals said that lawyers for one of the young men who challenged the law with a gun rights group, Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, did not meet the legal burden for having the law blocked while the lawsuit played out. It sent the case back to a lower court for further proceedings.
The law was one of four gun control bills signed by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis in 2023 following the lead of other states trying to confront a surge in violent crime and mass shootings.
U.S. District Judge Philip Brimmer issued a preliminary injunction against it before it could take effect. His ruling frequently referenced a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that expanded Second Amendment rights, and concluded that the lawsuit would likely succeed. That 2022 Supreme Court decision in a New York case changed a test lower courts had used for evaluating challenges to gun laws.
Colorado’s law effectively sought to prevent those between 18 and 20 from buying rifles and shotguns. A federal law already prevents licensed firearms dealers from selling handguns to those under 21 but that ban has also been challenged in light of the Supreme Court decision.
A Polis spokesperson, Shelby Wieman, said in a statement that the law was “commonsense gun safety legislation.”
The executive director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, Ian Escalante, did not immediately have a comment on the ruling.
New York
Man sentenced to life in prison for killing, dismembering woman in life insurance scheme
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York man was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison for a scheme that involved killing and dismembering a woman after fraudulently taking out a life insurance policy in her name to collect the benefits, federal prosecutors said.
Cory Martin, 37, was also sentenced by a federal judge in Brooklyn to a concurrent sentence of 20 years in prison for wire fraud conspiracy and a consecutive term of two years for aggravated identity theft.
U.S. Attorney Breon Peace, whose office prosecuted the case, called it a “ghastly, cold-blooded crime” motivated by greed and executed with extensive planning.
Brandy Odom, 26, had been a sex worker Martin managed and lived with in an apartment in Queens.
“Martin preyed on Brandy Odom. He saw the victim as a way to make money,” Peace said in a statement. “He trafficked her for commercial sex, then killed her with his bare hands so he could profit from her death.”
Prosecutors said Martin and a co-conspirator fraudulently obtained two life insurance policies in Odom’s name the year before Martin strangled her in her bedroom.
The two purchased cleaning supplies and dismembered Odom’s body in 2018 and dumped the parts in a Brooklyn park. They then made several unsuccessful attempts to claim benefits under Odom’s life insurance policies before being apprehended in 2020.
A federal jury found Martin guilty in March following a two-week trial in which prosecutors argued Martin had watched crime shows, including “Dexter” and “The First 48,” for tips on how to get away with the killing.
“The defendant believed he could thwart law enforcement and cover up this heinous crime by relying on television shows about murder, but the investigatory efforts of law enforcement brought him to justice,” Peace said Wednesday.
Lawyers for Martin didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
New York
Rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine strikes deal to end current jail stint
NEW YORK (AP) — Rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine struck a deal to end his current jail stint, agreeing to serve a month behind bars for violating the terms of his release after a felony conviction, prosecutors said Wednesday.
The deal with federal prosecutors was described in a letter partially endorsed by a Manhattan federal judge. It calls for the entertainer to be sentenced to a month in jail, followed by a month of home incarceration, a month of home detention and a month of curfew. He would also be subject to electronic monitoring.
Judge Paul A. Engelmayer said he will sentence the performer whose real name is Daniel Hernandez immediately after he admits to the violations at a Nov. 12 hearing. He said he will require each side to explain why a one-month jail sentence followed by three months of home incarceration, detention or curfew are sufficient for repeated violations of probation.
The terms of the deal also call for Tekashi 6ix9ine to submit to supervision from the court’s Probation Department for another year.
Tekashi 6ix9ine, 28, was within a few months of being free from court supervision when he was arrested on Oct. 29 after his probation officer complained that he wasn’t following rules about obtaining permission in advance to travel and that he had failed drug tests.
In 2019, Engelmayer sentenced him to two years in prison in a racketeering case after the musician pleaded guilty that same year to charges accusing him of joining and directing violence by the gang known as the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods.
In April 2020, Tekashi 6ix9ine was freed months early from his prison sentence after complaining that his ailments made him particularly susceptible to the coronavirus, which was spreading through the nation’s jails and prisons.
Engelmayer, expressing dismay at the artist’s apparent failure to follow the rules, noted at a hearing last month that he had granted compassionate release to him during the coronavirus crisis.
The rapper apologized and told the judge he was “not a bad person.”
Appeals court says ban on gun sales to those under 21 can take effect
DENVER (AP) — A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that a Colorado law raising the age to purchase a gun from 18 to 21 can take effect while the legal battle over it continues.
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals said that lawyers for one of the young men who challenged the law with a gun rights group, Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, did not meet the legal burden for having the law blocked while the lawsuit played out. It sent the case back to a lower court for further proceedings.
The law was one of four gun control bills signed by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis in 2023 following the lead of other states trying to confront a surge in violent crime and mass shootings.
U.S. District Judge Philip Brimmer issued a preliminary injunction against it before it could take effect. His ruling frequently referenced a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that expanded Second Amendment rights, and concluded that the lawsuit would likely succeed. That 2022 Supreme Court decision in a New York case changed a test lower courts had used for evaluating challenges to gun laws.
Colorado’s law effectively sought to prevent those between 18 and 20 from buying rifles and shotguns. A federal law already prevents licensed firearms dealers from selling handguns to those under 21 but that ban has also been challenged in light of the Supreme Court decision.
A Polis spokesperson, Shelby Wieman, said in a statement that the law was “commonsense gun safety legislation.”
The executive director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, Ian Escalante, did not immediately have a comment on the ruling.
New York
Man sentenced to life in prison for killing, dismembering woman in life insurance scheme
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York man was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison for a scheme that involved killing and dismembering a woman after fraudulently taking out a life insurance policy in her name to collect the benefits, federal prosecutors said.
Cory Martin, 37, was also sentenced by a federal judge in Brooklyn to a concurrent sentence of 20 years in prison for wire fraud conspiracy and a consecutive term of two years for aggravated identity theft.
U.S. Attorney Breon Peace, whose office prosecuted the case, called it a “ghastly, cold-blooded crime” motivated by greed and executed with extensive planning.
Brandy Odom, 26, had been a sex worker Martin managed and lived with in an apartment in Queens.
“Martin preyed on Brandy Odom. He saw the victim as a way to make money,” Peace said in a statement. “He trafficked her for commercial sex, then killed her with his bare hands so he could profit from her death.”
Prosecutors said Martin and a co-conspirator fraudulently obtained two life insurance policies in Odom’s name the year before Martin strangled her in her bedroom.
The two purchased cleaning supplies and dismembered Odom’s body in 2018 and dumped the parts in a Brooklyn park. They then made several unsuccessful attempts to claim benefits under Odom’s life insurance policies before being apprehended in 2020.
A federal jury found Martin guilty in March following a two-week trial in which prosecutors argued Martin had watched crime shows, including “Dexter” and “The First 48,” for tips on how to get away with the killing.
“The defendant believed he could thwart law enforcement and cover up this heinous crime by relying on television shows about murder, but the investigatory efforts of law enforcement brought him to justice,” Peace said Wednesday.
Lawyers for Martin didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
New York
Rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine strikes deal to end current jail stint
NEW YORK (AP) — Rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine struck a deal to end his current jail stint, agreeing to serve a month behind bars for violating the terms of his release after a felony conviction, prosecutors said Wednesday.
The deal with federal prosecutors was described in a letter partially endorsed by a Manhattan federal judge. It calls for the entertainer to be sentenced to a month in jail, followed by a month of home incarceration, a month of home detention and a month of curfew. He would also be subject to electronic monitoring.
Judge Paul A. Engelmayer said he will sentence the performer whose real name is Daniel Hernandez immediately after he admits to the violations at a Nov. 12 hearing. He said he will require each side to explain why a one-month jail sentence followed by three months of home incarceration, detention or curfew are sufficient for repeated violations of probation.
The terms of the deal also call for Tekashi 6ix9ine to submit to supervision from the court’s Probation Department for another year.
Tekashi 6ix9ine, 28, was within a few months of being free from court supervision when he was arrested on Oct. 29 after his probation officer complained that he wasn’t following rules about obtaining permission in advance to travel and that he had failed drug tests.
In 2019, Engelmayer sentenced him to two years in prison in a racketeering case after the musician pleaded guilty that same year to charges accusing him of joining and directing violence by the gang known as the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods.
In April 2020, Tekashi 6ix9ine was freed months early from his prison sentence after complaining that his ailments made him particularly susceptible to the coronavirus, which was spreading through the nation’s jails and prisons.
Engelmayer, expressing dismay at the artist’s apparent failure to follow the rules, noted at a hearing last month that he had granted compassionate release to him during the coronavirus crisis.
The rapper apologized and told the judge he was “not a bad person.”
