Louisiana
Judge demands evidence, or case against Columbia student is over
JENA, La. (AP) — An immigration judge in Louisiana said she would terminate the case against Mahmoud Khalil if the government does not provide evidence this week justifying their attempted deportation of the Columbia University student activist.
At a hearing Tuesday in Louisiana, Judge Jamee Comans gave the government 24 hours to provide evidence showing that Khalil, a 30-year-old legal permanent resident, should be expelled from the country for his role in campus protests against Israel and the war in Gaza. If the evidence does not support his removal, she said, “then I am going to terminate the case on Friday.”
Khalil has been held in a remote detention facility in Jena, Louisiana since his March 8 arrest by federal immigration authorities, the first in a growing number of attempted deportations against foreign-born students who joined pro-Palestinian protests or expressed criticism of Israel.
While the Trump administration has suggested that Khalil’s role as a spokesperson for protesters proved that he was “aligned with Hamas,” they have yet to produce evidence for the claim.
At Tuesday’s hearing, an attorney for Khalil, Marc Van Der Hout, said he had “not received a single document” in response to his request for “evidence and assertions” in the case. “We cannot plead until we know what the specific allegations are,” Van Der Hout said.
“I’m like you Mr. Van Der Hout, I’d like to see the evidence,” the judge replied.
Khalil, who wore a navy blue T-shirt over a beige sweatshirt, spoke only briefly to request that his wife be permitted remote access to the hearing. The judge obliged, noting that more than 600 people were awaiting access to the proceeding in a virtual lobby. “This is highly unusual,” Comans said.
Khalil’s detention has sparked fury among free speech advocates, who accuse the Trump administration of seeking to squelch criticism of Israel by labeling peaceful activists as terror-supporters. Khalil, an international affairs graduate student, served as a negotiator and spokesperson for student protesters at Columbia, but was not among those arrested and has not been accused of any crime.
In seeking to deport Khalil and other student activists, the Trump administration has relied on a rarely-used statute that authorizes the Secretary of State to expel noncitizens who pose “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”
They have alleged, without offering evidence, that Khalil’s prominent role in anti-Israel protests amounted to support for Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza and attacked Israel in October 2023.
Khalil and others involved in the protests have repeatedly denied claims of antisemitism.
In a letter dictated from jail last month, Khalil said his detention was a “direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza.”
As Khalil’s immigration case plays out in Louisiana, his attorneys have also challenged his detention and potential deportation before a federal judge in New Jersey. That judge last week rejected the Trump administration’s effort to transfer jurisdiction of the legal battle to Louisiana, but has yet to rule on the petition for his release.
Massachusetts
Charges dropped against college students in ‘Catch a Predator’ fad
A judge has dismissed conspiracy and kidnapping charges against five Massachusetts college students who were accused of plotting to lure a man to their campus through a dating app and then seizing him as part of a “Catch a Predator” trend on social media.
The Assumption University students, all teenagers, were arraigned in January and entered not guilty pleas. Since then, their lawyers had filed motions seeking to dismiss the charges, saying authorities lacked probable cause to believe they committed crimes.
Following a hearing last month, a Worcester District Court judge on Tuesday dismissed the conspiracy and kidnapping charges against Kelsy Brainard, Easton Randall, Kevin Carroll, Isabella Trudeau and Joaquin Smith. It wasn’t immediately known if charges were still pending against a sixth student, whose case was being handled in juvenile court.
“Isabella is very happy the judge applied the law correctly,” her lawyer, Robert Iacovelli, told WCVB-TV.
Police say Brainard’s Tinder account was used to lure the man to the private, Roman Catholic university in Worcester last October.
Brainard still faces a charge of witness intimidation stemming from the encounter. Carroll also still faces a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
Messages seeking comment were emailed Wednesday to the Worcester County District Attorney’s office and to the university, where campus police had conducted an investigation.
The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported that defense lawyers entered into the court record a video of a university police officer interrogating one of the students as part of their argument to dismiss the charges. They said the officer presented an incomplete and distorted picture of the evidence.
A report filed by campus police said a 22-year-old active-duty military service member connected with a woman on Tinder and was invited inside a basement lounge. Within minutes, “a group of people came out of nowhere and started calling him a pedophile,” accusing him of wanting sex with 17-year-old girls, according to the report.
The man told police that he broke free and was chased by at least 25 people to his car, where he was punched in the head and his car door was slammed on him before he managed to flee.
Campus surveillance video shows a large group of students, including the woman, “all with their cellphones out in what seems to be a recording of the whole episode,” the police statement said. They are seen “laughing and high fiving with each other” in what appeared to be “a deliberately staged event,” and there was no evidence to indicate the man was seeking sexual relations with girls, the police report said.
Randall had told officers they were inspired by the “catch a predator” trend, which he said “is big on TikTok.” He said their group shared ideas of what to tell the man through the Tinder app to lure him to campus, and then spread word through a dormitory chat group that a “predator” was in the building, the report said.
After the assault, Brainard reported the man to police as a sexual predator, police said, which they determined to be false.
California
Soccer coach charged in the death of boy, 13, found on the side of the road
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A youth soccer coach has been charged in the death of a 13-year-old whose body was found on the side of a Southern California road.
Los Angeles County prosecutors said Monday that the boy was reported missing by his family March 30 after he boarded a train to visit the coach in Lancaster, north of Los Angeles. He wasn’t heard from again. His body was found several days later in Ventura County, northwest of Los Angeles.
“No parent should ever have to endure the unimaginable pain and sorrow of learning their child has been murdered,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement. “Sexual predators ... will be held accountable and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Prosecutors said Mario Edgardo Garcia-Aquino was charged with one count of murder, with the special circumstance allegation of murder during the commission or attempted commission of lewd acts with a child. The charges make him eligible for the death penalty.
Prosecutors said Garcia-Aquino is accused of killing the teen, Oscar Omar Hernandez, and then dumping his body along the roadside.
Garcia-Aquino faces a possible maximum sentence of death or life in prison without the possibility of parole. A decision on whether to seek the death penalty will be made at a later date, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Garcia-Aquino is accused in a separate case of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old male in Palmdale, north of Los Angeles, in February.
Multiple media outlets reported that Garcia-Aquino entered the country illegally. The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to questions about his immigration status.
U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli in Los Angeles told NBC Los Angeles, “This was an avoidable crime and the result of failed border policies.”
“We cannot and will not tolerate illegal aliens who flout our nation’s immigration laws then prey on children. Federal law enforcement will continue to be very aggressive in locating, apprehending, and prosecuting criminal illegal aliens,” Essayli said.
Connecticut
Man pleads guilty to manslaughter in 2023 crash that killed officer
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A 20-year-old Connecticut man accused of causing a car crash that killed a Hartford police officer and seriously wounded that officer’s partner pleaded guilty on Tuesday to several charges, including manslaughter.
Richard Barrington, an 18-year-old high school junior at the time of the 2023 crash, will next appear in court on June 20 for a sentencing hearing. Besides manslaughter, he has pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and interfering with a police officer, his lawyer Cameron Atkinson said.
Authorities said Barrington fled a traffic stop conducted by other officers, drove through two red lights and smashed into the passenger side of another cruiser that was responding to an unrelated emergency call on Sept. 6, 2023.
Officer Robert “Bobby” Garten, 34, an eight-year Hartford police veteran whose father retired as a detective on the force, died from his injuries, police said. Garten’s partner, Officer Brian Kearney, was seriously injured and was later released from a hospital.
Barrington was initially charged with motor vehicle-related crimes related to the traffic stop. Authorities later added charges of first-degree manslaughter, first-degree assault, driving under the influence and other alleged crimes.
Asked to comment on Barrington’s guilty pleas, Atkinson said, “We’re gonna save all of our comments for Judge (David) Gold at the sentencing hearing.”
A memorial service for Garten drew police officers from across the region.
Tennessee
Man sentenced to 76 years for killing 2 at high school basketball game
HUMBOLDT, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee man has been sentenced to 76 years in prison for killing two men and wounding a third in a shooting at a high school basketball game more than three years ago.
Jadon Hardiman, 21, was sentenced Monday after he was convicted in November of charges including second-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault and weapons offenses, Gibson County district attorney Frederick Agee said in a statement.
Hardiman, then 18, attended a basketball game between Humboldt and North Side high schools on Nov. 30, 2021.
He entered the gymnasium’s crowded concession area and pulled a semi-automatic .40 caliber handgun, prosecutors said. He fired three shots at Justin Pankey, a 21-year-old former Humboldt basketball player.
Pankey was hit one time and died within seconds, Agee said. A second bullet hit Xavier Clifton, a former North Side student and basketball player, who was standing in the concession line. Clifton was shot in the neck and paralyzed. He died in March 2022.
A third shot struck another man in the back of the head. He survived. Video footage showed people fleeing into the gym, into bathrooms, and other areas of the school.
Judge demands evidence, or case against Columbia student is over
JENA, La. (AP) — An immigration judge in Louisiana said she would terminate the case against Mahmoud Khalil if the government does not provide evidence this week justifying their attempted deportation of the Columbia University student activist.
At a hearing Tuesday in Louisiana, Judge Jamee Comans gave the government 24 hours to provide evidence showing that Khalil, a 30-year-old legal permanent resident, should be expelled from the country for his role in campus protests against Israel and the war in Gaza. If the evidence does not support his removal, she said, “then I am going to terminate the case on Friday.”
Khalil has been held in a remote detention facility in Jena, Louisiana since his March 8 arrest by federal immigration authorities, the first in a growing number of attempted deportations against foreign-born students who joined pro-Palestinian protests or expressed criticism of Israel.
While the Trump administration has suggested that Khalil’s role as a spokesperson for protesters proved that he was “aligned with Hamas,” they have yet to produce evidence for the claim.
At Tuesday’s hearing, an attorney for Khalil, Marc Van Der Hout, said he had “not received a single document” in response to his request for “evidence and assertions” in the case. “We cannot plead until we know what the specific allegations are,” Van Der Hout said.
“I’m like you Mr. Van Der Hout, I’d like to see the evidence,” the judge replied.
Khalil, who wore a navy blue T-shirt over a beige sweatshirt, spoke only briefly to request that his wife be permitted remote access to the hearing. The judge obliged, noting that more than 600 people were awaiting access to the proceeding in a virtual lobby. “This is highly unusual,” Comans said.
Khalil’s detention has sparked fury among free speech advocates, who accuse the Trump administration of seeking to squelch criticism of Israel by labeling peaceful activists as terror-supporters. Khalil, an international affairs graduate student, served as a negotiator and spokesperson for student protesters at Columbia, but was not among those arrested and has not been accused of any crime.
In seeking to deport Khalil and other student activists, the Trump administration has relied on a rarely-used statute that authorizes the Secretary of State to expel noncitizens who pose “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”
They have alleged, without offering evidence, that Khalil’s prominent role in anti-Israel protests amounted to support for Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza and attacked Israel in October 2023.
Khalil and others involved in the protests have repeatedly denied claims of antisemitism.
In a letter dictated from jail last month, Khalil said his detention was a “direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza.”
As Khalil’s immigration case plays out in Louisiana, his attorneys have also challenged his detention and potential deportation before a federal judge in New Jersey. That judge last week rejected the Trump administration’s effort to transfer jurisdiction of the legal battle to Louisiana, but has yet to rule on the petition for his release.
Massachusetts
Charges dropped against college students in ‘Catch a Predator’ fad
A judge has dismissed conspiracy and kidnapping charges against five Massachusetts college students who were accused of plotting to lure a man to their campus through a dating app and then seizing him as part of a “Catch a Predator” trend on social media.
The Assumption University students, all teenagers, were arraigned in January and entered not guilty pleas. Since then, their lawyers had filed motions seeking to dismiss the charges, saying authorities lacked probable cause to believe they committed crimes.
Following a hearing last month, a Worcester District Court judge on Tuesday dismissed the conspiracy and kidnapping charges against Kelsy Brainard, Easton Randall, Kevin Carroll, Isabella Trudeau and Joaquin Smith. It wasn’t immediately known if charges were still pending against a sixth student, whose case was being handled in juvenile court.
“Isabella is very happy the judge applied the law correctly,” her lawyer, Robert Iacovelli, told WCVB-TV.
Police say Brainard’s Tinder account was used to lure the man to the private, Roman Catholic university in Worcester last October.
Brainard still faces a charge of witness intimidation stemming from the encounter. Carroll also still faces a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
Messages seeking comment were emailed Wednesday to the Worcester County District Attorney’s office and to the university, where campus police had conducted an investigation.
The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported that defense lawyers entered into the court record a video of a university police officer interrogating one of the students as part of their argument to dismiss the charges. They said the officer presented an incomplete and distorted picture of the evidence.
A report filed by campus police said a 22-year-old active-duty military service member connected with a woman on Tinder and was invited inside a basement lounge. Within minutes, “a group of people came out of nowhere and started calling him a pedophile,” accusing him of wanting sex with 17-year-old girls, according to the report.
The man told police that he broke free and was chased by at least 25 people to his car, where he was punched in the head and his car door was slammed on him before he managed to flee.
Campus surveillance video shows a large group of students, including the woman, “all with their cellphones out in what seems to be a recording of the whole episode,” the police statement said. They are seen “laughing and high fiving with each other” in what appeared to be “a deliberately staged event,” and there was no evidence to indicate the man was seeking sexual relations with girls, the police report said.
Randall had told officers they were inspired by the “catch a predator” trend, which he said “is big on TikTok.” He said their group shared ideas of what to tell the man through the Tinder app to lure him to campus, and then spread word through a dormitory chat group that a “predator” was in the building, the report said.
After the assault, Brainard reported the man to police as a sexual predator, police said, which they determined to be false.
California
Soccer coach charged in the death of boy, 13, found on the side of the road
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A youth soccer coach has been charged in the death of a 13-year-old whose body was found on the side of a Southern California road.
Los Angeles County prosecutors said Monday that the boy was reported missing by his family March 30 after he boarded a train to visit the coach in Lancaster, north of Los Angeles. He wasn’t heard from again. His body was found several days later in Ventura County, northwest of Los Angeles.
“No parent should ever have to endure the unimaginable pain and sorrow of learning their child has been murdered,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement. “Sexual predators ... will be held accountable and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Prosecutors said Mario Edgardo Garcia-Aquino was charged with one count of murder, with the special circumstance allegation of murder during the commission or attempted commission of lewd acts with a child. The charges make him eligible for the death penalty.
Prosecutors said Garcia-Aquino is accused of killing the teen, Oscar Omar Hernandez, and then dumping his body along the roadside.
Garcia-Aquino faces a possible maximum sentence of death or life in prison without the possibility of parole. A decision on whether to seek the death penalty will be made at a later date, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Garcia-Aquino is accused in a separate case of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old male in Palmdale, north of Los Angeles, in February.
Multiple media outlets reported that Garcia-Aquino entered the country illegally. The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to questions about his immigration status.
U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli in Los Angeles told NBC Los Angeles, “This was an avoidable crime and the result of failed border policies.”
“We cannot and will not tolerate illegal aliens who flout our nation’s immigration laws then prey on children. Federal law enforcement will continue to be very aggressive in locating, apprehending, and prosecuting criminal illegal aliens,” Essayli said.
Connecticut
Man pleads guilty to manslaughter in 2023 crash that killed officer
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A 20-year-old Connecticut man accused of causing a car crash that killed a Hartford police officer and seriously wounded that officer’s partner pleaded guilty on Tuesday to several charges, including manslaughter.
Richard Barrington, an 18-year-old high school junior at the time of the 2023 crash, will next appear in court on June 20 for a sentencing hearing. Besides manslaughter, he has pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and interfering with a police officer, his lawyer Cameron Atkinson said.
Authorities said Barrington fled a traffic stop conducted by other officers, drove through two red lights and smashed into the passenger side of another cruiser that was responding to an unrelated emergency call on Sept. 6, 2023.
Officer Robert “Bobby” Garten, 34, an eight-year Hartford police veteran whose father retired as a detective on the force, died from his injuries, police said. Garten’s partner, Officer Brian Kearney, was seriously injured and was later released from a hospital.
Barrington was initially charged with motor vehicle-related crimes related to the traffic stop. Authorities later added charges of first-degree manslaughter, first-degree assault, driving under the influence and other alleged crimes.
Asked to comment on Barrington’s guilty pleas, Atkinson said, “We’re gonna save all of our comments for Judge (David) Gold at the sentencing hearing.”
A memorial service for Garten drew police officers from across the region.
Tennessee
Man sentenced to 76 years for killing 2 at high school basketball game
HUMBOLDT, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee man has been sentenced to 76 years in prison for killing two men and wounding a third in a shooting at a high school basketball game more than three years ago.
Jadon Hardiman, 21, was sentenced Monday after he was convicted in November of charges including second-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault and weapons offenses, Gibson County district attorney Frederick Agee said in a statement.
Hardiman, then 18, attended a basketball game between Humboldt and North Side high schools on Nov. 30, 2021.
He entered the gymnasium’s crowded concession area and pulled a semi-automatic .40 caliber handgun, prosecutors said. He fired three shots at Justin Pankey, a 21-year-old former Humboldt basketball player.
Pankey was hit one time and died within seconds, Agee said. A second bullet hit Xavier Clifton, a former North Side student and basketball player, who was standing in the concession line. Clifton was shot in the neck and paralyzed. He died in March 2022.
A third shot struck another man in the back of the head. He survived. Video footage showed people fleeing into the gym, into bathrooms, and other areas of the school.
