Georgia
National Guard soldier charged with murder in shooting at military base
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — A National Guard solider appeared in federal court Monday charged with murder in a weekend shooting that left a man dead and triggered a lockdown at a Georgia military base.
Natravien Landry, 25, made an initial court appearance before a federal magistrate judge in Augusta, according to U.S. District Court records. He’s charged with a killing Saturday morning at a home on Fort Eisenhower, where Landry served in a Georgia National Guard transportation unit.
Commanders at Fort Eisenhower, home to the U.S. Army Cyber Command, ordered a two-hour lockdown because of the shooting. Afterward they gave few details, saying a person had been arrested in an “isolated” fatal shooting at the Army post adjoining Augusta.
An Army investigator’s affidavit filed in court gave further details.
Landry was on duty Saturday and was taking a break when he went to the on-base home of a former girlfriend, and he confronted and fatally shot another man who had spent the night there, according to the affidavit.
Fort Eisenhower officials have not released the victim’s name. He was identified only by initials in the investigator’s affidavit.
Landry fled in a car and was arrested later Saturday by sheriff’s deputies in Meriwether County, about 180 miles from the base. The affidavit said Landry threw a 9mm handgun from the car’s window after being pulled over and admitted to the shooting when questioned by an Army investigator.
Massachusetts
Two charged in connection with Iran-backed drone strike that killed 3 U.S. troops in Middle East
BOSTON (AP) — Two men, including a dual Iranian American citizen, have been charged with conspiring to export sensitive technology to Iran that was used in a drone attack in Jordan that killed three American troops early this year and injured dozens of other service members, the Justice Department said Monday.
The pair were arrested after FBI specialists who analyzed the drone traced its navigation system to an Iranian company operated by one of the defendants, who relied on parts and technology funneled into the country by his alleged co-conspirator, prosecutors said.
The defendants were identified as Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi, who prosecutors say works at a Massachusetts-based semiconductor company, and Mohammad Abedininajafabadi, who was arrested Monday in Italy as the Justice Department seeks his extradition to Massachusetts.
Prosecutors allege that Abedininajafabadi, who was also called Adedini in court documents, has deep connections to the Iranian government.
They say his Tehran-based company manufactures navigation systems for the military drone program of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and that he conspired with Sadeghi to circumvent American export control laws, including through the creation of a front company in Switzerland, and procure sensitive technology into Iran.
Sadeghi, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was arrested Monday in Massachusetts and was ordered to remain detained following a court appearance. His lawyer did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Both men are charged with export control violations, and Adedini separately faces charges of conspiring to provide material support to Iran.
Three Georgia soldiers — Sgt. William Jerome Rivers of Carrollton, Sgt. Breonna Moffett of Savannah and Sgt. Kennedy Sanders of Waycross — were killed in the Jan. 28 drone attack on a U.S. outpost in northeastern Jordan called Tower 22. U.S. officials have blamed it on the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias that includes Kataib Hezbollah.
In the attack, the one-way attack drone may have been mistaken for a U.S. drone that was expected to return back to the logistics base about the same time and was not shot down. Instead, it crashed into living quarters, killing the three soldiers and injuring more than 40.
Following the attack, the U.S. launched a huge counterstrike against 85 sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Iranian-backed militia and bolstered Tower 22’s defenses.
California
Tech consultant found guilty of second-degree murder in stabbing death of Cash App founder
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A San Francisco jury on Tuesday found a tech consultant guilty of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee.
Jurors took seven days to deliver their verdict against Nima Momeni in the April 4, 2023, death of Lee, a beloved tech mogul who was found staggering on a deserted downtown street, dripping a trail of blood and calling for help. Lee, 43, later died at a hospital.
Prosecutors said Momeni planned the attack on Lee, driving him to an isolated spot under the Bay Bridge and stabbing him three times with a knife he took from his sister’s kitchen. They say Momeni was angry with Lee for introducing his younger sister to a drug dealer she says gave her GHB and other drugs and then sexually assaulted her.
But Momeni testified on the stand that Lee was the one who attacked him with a knife, angry after the tech consultant chided him about spending more time with his family instead of searching for a strip club that night. Momeni, who studies martial arts, claimed self-defense and said he didn’t realize he had fatally wounded Lee or that Lee was even hurt.
Jurors received the case, which started Oct. 14, on Dec. 4.
Momeni was charged with murder in the first degree, but jurors could have found him guilty of murder in the second degree or manslaughter.
A conviction of murder in the second degree carries a sentence of 16 years to life in this case.
Momeni, 40, has been in custody since his arrest in April 2023.
In a 2023 press release announcing a murder charge against Momeni, the office of District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said he faced 26 years to life in prison if convicted.
Lee had created mobile payment service Cash App and was the chief product officer of the cryptocurrency MobileCoin when he died. He had moved to Miami from the San Francisco Bay Area, where his ex-wife Krista Lee lives with their two children.
National Guard soldier charged with murder in shooting at military base
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — A National Guard solider appeared in federal court Monday charged with murder in a weekend shooting that left a man dead and triggered a lockdown at a Georgia military base.
Natravien Landry, 25, made an initial court appearance before a federal magistrate judge in Augusta, according to U.S. District Court records. He’s charged with a killing Saturday morning at a home on Fort Eisenhower, where Landry served in a Georgia National Guard transportation unit.
Commanders at Fort Eisenhower, home to the U.S. Army Cyber Command, ordered a two-hour lockdown because of the shooting. Afterward they gave few details, saying a person had been arrested in an “isolated” fatal shooting at the Army post adjoining Augusta.
An Army investigator’s affidavit filed in court gave further details.
Landry was on duty Saturday and was taking a break when he went to the on-base home of a former girlfriend, and he confronted and fatally shot another man who had spent the night there, according to the affidavit.
Fort Eisenhower officials have not released the victim’s name. He was identified only by initials in the investigator’s affidavit.
Landry fled in a car and was arrested later Saturday by sheriff’s deputies in Meriwether County, about 180 miles from the base. The affidavit said Landry threw a 9mm handgun from the car’s window after being pulled over and admitted to the shooting when questioned by an Army investigator.
Massachusetts
Two charged in connection with Iran-backed drone strike that killed 3 U.S. troops in Middle East
BOSTON (AP) — Two men, including a dual Iranian American citizen, have been charged with conspiring to export sensitive technology to Iran that was used in a drone attack in Jordan that killed three American troops early this year and injured dozens of other service members, the Justice Department said Monday.
The pair were arrested after FBI specialists who analyzed the drone traced its navigation system to an Iranian company operated by one of the defendants, who relied on parts and technology funneled into the country by his alleged co-conspirator, prosecutors said.
The defendants were identified as Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi, who prosecutors say works at a Massachusetts-based semiconductor company, and Mohammad Abedininajafabadi, who was arrested Monday in Italy as the Justice Department seeks his extradition to Massachusetts.
Prosecutors allege that Abedininajafabadi, who was also called Adedini in court documents, has deep connections to the Iranian government.
They say his Tehran-based company manufactures navigation systems for the military drone program of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and that he conspired with Sadeghi to circumvent American export control laws, including through the creation of a front company in Switzerland, and procure sensitive technology into Iran.
Sadeghi, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was arrested Monday in Massachusetts and was ordered to remain detained following a court appearance. His lawyer did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Both men are charged with export control violations, and Adedini separately faces charges of conspiring to provide material support to Iran.
Three Georgia soldiers — Sgt. William Jerome Rivers of Carrollton, Sgt. Breonna Moffett of Savannah and Sgt. Kennedy Sanders of Waycross — were killed in the Jan. 28 drone attack on a U.S. outpost in northeastern Jordan called Tower 22. U.S. officials have blamed it on the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias that includes Kataib Hezbollah.
In the attack, the one-way attack drone may have been mistaken for a U.S. drone that was expected to return back to the logistics base about the same time and was not shot down. Instead, it crashed into living quarters, killing the three soldiers and injuring more than 40.
Following the attack, the U.S. launched a huge counterstrike against 85 sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Iranian-backed militia and bolstered Tower 22’s defenses.
California
Tech consultant found guilty of second-degree murder in stabbing death of Cash App founder
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A San Francisco jury on Tuesday found a tech consultant guilty of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee.
Jurors took seven days to deliver their verdict against Nima Momeni in the April 4, 2023, death of Lee, a beloved tech mogul who was found staggering on a deserted downtown street, dripping a trail of blood and calling for help. Lee, 43, later died at a hospital.
Prosecutors said Momeni planned the attack on Lee, driving him to an isolated spot under the Bay Bridge and stabbing him three times with a knife he took from his sister’s kitchen. They say Momeni was angry with Lee for introducing his younger sister to a drug dealer she says gave her GHB and other drugs and then sexually assaulted her.
But Momeni testified on the stand that Lee was the one who attacked him with a knife, angry after the tech consultant chided him about spending more time with his family instead of searching for a strip club that night. Momeni, who studies martial arts, claimed self-defense and said he didn’t realize he had fatally wounded Lee or that Lee was even hurt.
Jurors received the case, which started Oct. 14, on Dec. 4.
Momeni was charged with murder in the first degree, but jurors could have found him guilty of murder in the second degree or manslaughter.
A conviction of murder in the second degree carries a sentence of 16 years to life in this case.
Momeni, 40, has been in custody since his arrest in April 2023.
In a 2023 press release announcing a murder charge against Momeni, the office of District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said he faced 26 years to life in prison if convicted.
Lee had created mobile payment service Cash App and was the chief product officer of the cryptocurrency MobileCoin when he died. He had moved to Miami from the San Francisco Bay Area, where his ex-wife Krista Lee lives with their two children.
