Florida
Ex-NFL star Antonio Brown gets $25K bail and GPS monitor on attempted murder charge
Former NFL star wide receiver Antonio Brown will be released on $25,000 bail and must wear a GPS ankle monitor on an attempted murder charge in Florida, a judge ordered Wednesday.
Brown, 37, has pleaded not guilty to the second-degree attempted murder charge, which carries a potential 15-year prison sentence and a fine up to $10,000 if he is convicted. His lawyer, Mark Eiglarsh, said Brown would return to his home in Broward County, Florida, while the case proceeds.
“He no longer has a passport. He’ll be living at his home. I look forward to working with him zealously on this case,” Eiglarsh told Circuit Judge Mindy Glazer at a bond hearing.
Brown appeared at the hearing via video wearing a red jail shirt and spoke only to answer questions from the judge. Prosecutors had sought pretrial detention, contending Brown is a high-paid former professional athlete with the resources to flee.
According to an arrest warrant, Brown is accused of grabbing a handgun from a security staffer after a celebrity boxing match in Miami on May 16 and firing two shots at a man he had gotten into a fistfight with earlier. The victim, Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu, told investigators that one of the bullets grazed his neck.
Brown’s attorney said Wednesday that the affidavit is mistaken and that Brown actually used his personal firearm, and that the shots were not aimed at anyone.
“It was my client’s own gun,” Eiglarsh said.
Based on his social media posts, Brown had been living in Dubai for several months. In a social media post after the altercation, Brown said he was defending himself because he was “jumped by multiple individuals who tried to steal my jewelry and cause physical harm to me.”
Eiglarsh said Brown has unspecified business interests in Dubai and always intended to turn himself in on the attempted murder charge.
Brown, who spent 12 years in the NFL, was an All-Pro wide receiver who last played in 2021 for Tampa Bay but spent most of his career with Pittsburgh. For his career, Brown had 928 receptions for more than 12,000 yards and accounted for 88 total touchdowns counting punt returns and one pass.
Indiana
Prosecutor says it will take days to decide whether to charge homeowner in woman’s death
LEBANON, Ind. (AP) — A decision on whether to file charges against an Indiana homeowner suspected of killing of a Guatemalan house cleaner after she mistakenly went to the wrong address may not come for days, prosecutors say.
Investigators turned over their findings in Maria Florinda Rios Perez De Velasquez’s death to Boone County Prosecutor Kent Eastwood on Friday. Eastwood said in a news release that his review will take “several days.” He promised to announce his decision publicly but said he may not do so until the end of this week or early next week.
“Our hearts remain with Mrs. Rios Perez de Velasquez’s loved ones,” Eastwood said in the release. “Justice requires patience, and we ask for the community’s understanding as we work diligently to reach the right decision under Indiana law.”
The woman’s family and supporters gathered on the steps of Eastwood’s office on Monday with a photo of her and signs that read “Justice for Maria.”
“Although we’re immigrants, we still have rights,” Rios Perez De Velasquez’s husband, Mauricio Velasquez, said in Spanish. “We’re not animals. We’re people just like everyone else. We have blood, too. All I’m asking for is justice.”
Authorities have said the couple was part of a cleaning crew and had gone to a home in Whitestown, an Indianapolis suburb, early Wednesday morning for a job, but it was the wrong address. Police officers found the woman dead on the front porch of the home just before 7 a.m.
Eastwood told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that the homeowner had shot her. Police Capt. John Jurkash said in an email to the AP that the shot came from inside the house. Mauricio Velasquez told WRTV in Indianapolis that he was standing on the porch with his wife and didn’t realize she had been shot until she fell into his arms, bleeding.
Authorities have not publicly identified the shooter. Police have said there is no evidence the Velasquezes actually entered the home.
Complicating Eastwood’s charging decision is Indiana’s stand-your-ground law, which permits residents to use deadly force to stop someone they reasonably believe is trying to enter their dwelling unlawfully. Thirty-one states have such laws.
In similar cases elsewhere, prosecutors have successfully brought charges against people who opened fire outside their homes, including a guilty plea by an 86-year-old man who shot Ralph Yarl after the Black teenager came to his door by mistake. In New York, a man was convicted of second-degree murder for fatally shooting a woman inside a car who came down his driveway by mistake.
Jody Madeira, an Indiana University law professor who specializes in gun rights, called the Whitestown case “horrible” and “exceptionally unusual.”
For the shooter to enjoy stand-your-ground immunity, she said, he would have to prove that he thought he was in imminent danger and that any other reasonable person would feel the same way in that situation.
The public generally can legally access private property — including a front porch — for a legitimate purpose until they are told to leave, Madeira said. For example, a homeowner can’t legally shoot a pizza delivery person or an Amazon driver just for stepping onto their property, she said.
The couple apparently never entered the shooter’s home, so there was no unlawful entry, Madeira said. A reasonable person who hears his doorknob rattle would probably call the police or look out the window without opening fire, she said. That could leave the shooter open to a reckless homicide charge, she said.
“What we’re doing here is setting a precedent,” Madeira said of Eastwood’s decision. “If we let this go without filing criminal charges, we might be sending a message that it’s OK to fire through a door when someone comes up on the front porch and knocks and rattles the doorknob.”
Tennessee
Death row inmate declines to choose between electric chair and lethal injection
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee death row inmate Harold Wayne Nichols on Monday declined to choose between the electric chair and lethal injection for his Dec. 11 execution, meaning the state will default to lethal injection.
Nichols was sentenced to death in 1990 after he was convicted of raping and murdering Karen Pulley, a 21-year-old student at Chattanooga State University, two years earlier. He has two weeks to change his mind about choosing which method will be used, Tennessee Department of Correction spokesperson Dorinda Carter said in an email.
He was scheduled to be executed in 2020, and had chosen the electric chair, but was then given a reprieve due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Tennessee inmates who were convicted of crimes before January 1999 are permitted to choose electrocution over the state’s preferred method of lethal injection. Although several states still permit the use of the electric chair, it has only been used five times in the past decade, all in Tennessee.
At the time that Nichols selected electrocution, Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol used three different drugs in series. It was a process that inmates’ attorneys claimed was riddled with problems. Their concerns were shown to have merit in 2022, when Gov. Bill Lee paused executions, including a second execution date for Nichols. An independent review of the state’s lethal injection process found that none of the drugs prepared for the seven inmates executed in Tennessee since 2018 had been properly tested.
The Correction Department issued a new execution protocol in last December that utilizes the single drug pentobarbital. Attorneys for several death row inmates have sued over the new protocol, but a trial in that case is not scheduled until April.
Nichols confessed to raping and murdering Pulley as well as several other rapes in the Chattanooga area. Although he expressed remorse at trial, he admitted that he would have continued his violent behavior had he not been arrested.
Louisiana
Fired coach lawsuit alleges LSU is declining to honor the terms of his contract
Brian Kelly is suing LSU, arguing that the university is declining to acknowledge that the recently dismissed coach is owed his full $54 million buyout.
The lawsuit filed in civil district court in Baton Rouge alleges that LSU representatives told Kelly’s attorneys on Monday that the coach was never “formally terminated” the day after LSU’s 49-25 loss to No. 3 Texas A&M.
Additionally, the lawsuit says LSU representatives told Kelly’s lawyers for the first time this week that the university intends to fire him for cause — a move that could substantially reduce Kelly’s buyout.
The lawsuit states that Monday marked the first time LSU raised arguments that “grounds for termination for cause existed.”
If LSU officials offered details to Kelly’s lawyers about what those grounds are, they were not mentioned in the lawsuit.
Kelly’s lawyers have asked the East Baton Rouge Parish court for a declaratory judgment that LSU fired Kelly without cause on Oct. 26 and that Kelly is entitled to his full buyout.
The 64-year-old Kelly was hired after the 2021 football season on a 10-year contract worth about $100 million. He went 34-14 with LSU, including three bowl victories. But the Tigers did not reach the College Football Playoff — which last year expanded to a 12-team format — during Kelly’s tenure.
Four days after Kelly had packed up his office at LSU’s football operations building and had been replaced by interim coach Frank Wilson, LSU athletic director Scott Woodard resigned under pressure from Gov. Jeff Landry and his appointees on LSU’s Board of Supervisors.
The day before Woodward resigned, Landry publicly slammed the then-athletic director, saying he would not be permitted to hire LSU’s next football coach. Landry also blamed Woodward for signing Kelly to a contract that became financially burdensome when the coach did not meet expectations.
“LSU has never claimed that Coach Kelly was terminated for cause and, prior to November 10, 2025, never asserted that he engaged in any conduct that would warrant such a termination,” the lawsuit states.
Rather, the lawsuit says, “LSU repeatedly confirmed,” both publicly and to Kelly, “that the termination was due to” the LSU football team’s performance.
Now, LSU representatives are saying that Woodward lacked “the authority” to fire Kelly or have settlement talks with him, Kelly’s lawsuit alleges.
According to Kelly’s contract with LSU, the school could fire him for cause if it had cited “serious misconduct,” including NCAA violations, crimes or immoral behavior. In such cases, however, LSU would have been required to outline in writing any grounds for the termination with cause within a seven-day period.
“LSU did not even attempt to satisfy any of these requirements, nor can they do so retroactively,” the lawsuit stated.
The lawsuit says Kelly informed LSU that he was open to a settlement, but that it had to “make sense financially.”
LSU initially offered to settle with a lump-sum payment of $25 million, which was raised to $30 million after Kelly rejected the initial offer, the lawsuit states.
Kelly has rejected LSU’s settlement offers so far, “but stated he remained open to any additional offers that LSU would like to make,” the lawsuit said.
Ex-NFL star Antonio Brown gets $25K bail and GPS monitor on attempted murder charge
Former NFL star wide receiver Antonio Brown will be released on $25,000 bail and must wear a GPS ankle monitor on an attempted murder charge in Florida, a judge ordered Wednesday.
Brown, 37, has pleaded not guilty to the second-degree attempted murder charge, which carries a potential 15-year prison sentence and a fine up to $10,000 if he is convicted. His lawyer, Mark Eiglarsh, said Brown would return to his home in Broward County, Florida, while the case proceeds.
“He no longer has a passport. He’ll be living at his home. I look forward to working with him zealously on this case,” Eiglarsh told Circuit Judge Mindy Glazer at a bond hearing.
Brown appeared at the hearing via video wearing a red jail shirt and spoke only to answer questions from the judge. Prosecutors had sought pretrial detention, contending Brown is a high-paid former professional athlete with the resources to flee.
According to an arrest warrant, Brown is accused of grabbing a handgun from a security staffer after a celebrity boxing match in Miami on May 16 and firing two shots at a man he had gotten into a fistfight with earlier. The victim, Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu, told investigators that one of the bullets grazed his neck.
Brown’s attorney said Wednesday that the affidavit is mistaken and that Brown actually used his personal firearm, and that the shots were not aimed at anyone.
“It was my client’s own gun,” Eiglarsh said.
Based on his social media posts, Brown had been living in Dubai for several months. In a social media post after the altercation, Brown said he was defending himself because he was “jumped by multiple individuals who tried to steal my jewelry and cause physical harm to me.”
Eiglarsh said Brown has unspecified business interests in Dubai and always intended to turn himself in on the attempted murder charge.
Brown, who spent 12 years in the NFL, was an All-Pro wide receiver who last played in 2021 for Tampa Bay but spent most of his career with Pittsburgh. For his career, Brown had 928 receptions for more than 12,000 yards and accounted for 88 total touchdowns counting punt returns and one pass.
Indiana
Prosecutor says it will take days to decide whether to charge homeowner in woman’s death
LEBANON, Ind. (AP) — A decision on whether to file charges against an Indiana homeowner suspected of killing of a Guatemalan house cleaner after she mistakenly went to the wrong address may not come for days, prosecutors say.
Investigators turned over their findings in Maria Florinda Rios Perez De Velasquez’s death to Boone County Prosecutor Kent Eastwood on Friday. Eastwood said in a news release that his review will take “several days.” He promised to announce his decision publicly but said he may not do so until the end of this week or early next week.
“Our hearts remain with Mrs. Rios Perez de Velasquez’s loved ones,” Eastwood said in the release. “Justice requires patience, and we ask for the community’s understanding as we work diligently to reach the right decision under Indiana law.”
The woman’s family and supporters gathered on the steps of Eastwood’s office on Monday with a photo of her and signs that read “Justice for Maria.”
“Although we’re immigrants, we still have rights,” Rios Perez De Velasquez’s husband, Mauricio Velasquez, said in Spanish. “We’re not animals. We’re people just like everyone else. We have blood, too. All I’m asking for is justice.”
Authorities have said the couple was part of a cleaning crew and had gone to a home in Whitestown, an Indianapolis suburb, early Wednesday morning for a job, but it was the wrong address. Police officers found the woman dead on the front porch of the home just before 7 a.m.
Eastwood told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that the homeowner had shot her. Police Capt. John Jurkash said in an email to the AP that the shot came from inside the house. Mauricio Velasquez told WRTV in Indianapolis that he was standing on the porch with his wife and didn’t realize she had been shot until she fell into his arms, bleeding.
Authorities have not publicly identified the shooter. Police have said there is no evidence the Velasquezes actually entered the home.
Complicating Eastwood’s charging decision is Indiana’s stand-your-ground law, which permits residents to use deadly force to stop someone they reasonably believe is trying to enter their dwelling unlawfully. Thirty-one states have such laws.
In similar cases elsewhere, prosecutors have successfully brought charges against people who opened fire outside their homes, including a guilty plea by an 86-year-old man who shot Ralph Yarl after the Black teenager came to his door by mistake. In New York, a man was convicted of second-degree murder for fatally shooting a woman inside a car who came down his driveway by mistake.
Jody Madeira, an Indiana University law professor who specializes in gun rights, called the Whitestown case “horrible” and “exceptionally unusual.”
For the shooter to enjoy stand-your-ground immunity, she said, he would have to prove that he thought he was in imminent danger and that any other reasonable person would feel the same way in that situation.
The public generally can legally access private property — including a front porch — for a legitimate purpose until they are told to leave, Madeira said. For example, a homeowner can’t legally shoot a pizza delivery person or an Amazon driver just for stepping onto their property, she said.
The couple apparently never entered the shooter’s home, so there was no unlawful entry, Madeira said. A reasonable person who hears his doorknob rattle would probably call the police or look out the window without opening fire, she said. That could leave the shooter open to a reckless homicide charge, she said.
“What we’re doing here is setting a precedent,” Madeira said of Eastwood’s decision. “If we let this go without filing criminal charges, we might be sending a message that it’s OK to fire through a door when someone comes up on the front porch and knocks and rattles the doorknob.”
Tennessee
Death row inmate declines to choose between electric chair and lethal injection
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee death row inmate Harold Wayne Nichols on Monday declined to choose between the electric chair and lethal injection for his Dec. 11 execution, meaning the state will default to lethal injection.
Nichols was sentenced to death in 1990 after he was convicted of raping and murdering Karen Pulley, a 21-year-old student at Chattanooga State University, two years earlier. He has two weeks to change his mind about choosing which method will be used, Tennessee Department of Correction spokesperson Dorinda Carter said in an email.
He was scheduled to be executed in 2020, and had chosen the electric chair, but was then given a reprieve due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Tennessee inmates who were convicted of crimes before January 1999 are permitted to choose electrocution over the state’s preferred method of lethal injection. Although several states still permit the use of the electric chair, it has only been used five times in the past decade, all in Tennessee.
At the time that Nichols selected electrocution, Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol used three different drugs in series. It was a process that inmates’ attorneys claimed was riddled with problems. Their concerns were shown to have merit in 2022, when Gov. Bill Lee paused executions, including a second execution date for Nichols. An independent review of the state’s lethal injection process found that none of the drugs prepared for the seven inmates executed in Tennessee since 2018 had been properly tested.
The Correction Department issued a new execution protocol in last December that utilizes the single drug pentobarbital. Attorneys for several death row inmates have sued over the new protocol, but a trial in that case is not scheduled until April.
Nichols confessed to raping and murdering Pulley as well as several other rapes in the Chattanooga area. Although he expressed remorse at trial, he admitted that he would have continued his violent behavior had he not been arrested.
Louisiana
Fired coach lawsuit alleges LSU is declining to honor the terms of his contract
Brian Kelly is suing LSU, arguing that the university is declining to acknowledge that the recently dismissed coach is owed his full $54 million buyout.
The lawsuit filed in civil district court in Baton Rouge alleges that LSU representatives told Kelly’s attorneys on Monday that the coach was never “formally terminated” the day after LSU’s 49-25 loss to No. 3 Texas A&M.
Additionally, the lawsuit says LSU representatives told Kelly’s lawyers for the first time this week that the university intends to fire him for cause — a move that could substantially reduce Kelly’s buyout.
The lawsuit states that Monday marked the first time LSU raised arguments that “grounds for termination for cause existed.”
If LSU officials offered details to Kelly’s lawyers about what those grounds are, they were not mentioned in the lawsuit.
Kelly’s lawyers have asked the East Baton Rouge Parish court for a declaratory judgment that LSU fired Kelly without cause on Oct. 26 and that Kelly is entitled to his full buyout.
The 64-year-old Kelly was hired after the 2021 football season on a 10-year contract worth about $100 million. He went 34-14 with LSU, including three bowl victories. But the Tigers did not reach the College Football Playoff — which last year expanded to a 12-team format — during Kelly’s tenure.
Four days after Kelly had packed up his office at LSU’s football operations building and had been replaced by interim coach Frank Wilson, LSU athletic director Scott Woodard resigned under pressure from Gov. Jeff Landry and his appointees on LSU’s Board of Supervisors.
The day before Woodward resigned, Landry publicly slammed the then-athletic director, saying he would not be permitted to hire LSU’s next football coach. Landry also blamed Woodward for signing Kelly to a contract that became financially burdensome when the coach did not meet expectations.
“LSU has never claimed that Coach Kelly was terminated for cause and, prior to November 10, 2025, never asserted that he engaged in any conduct that would warrant such a termination,” the lawsuit states.
Rather, the lawsuit says, “LSU repeatedly confirmed,” both publicly and to Kelly, “that the termination was due to” the LSU football team’s performance.
Now, LSU representatives are saying that Woodward lacked “the authority” to fire Kelly or have settlement talks with him, Kelly’s lawsuit alleges.
According to Kelly’s contract with LSU, the school could fire him for cause if it had cited “serious misconduct,” including NCAA violations, crimes or immoral behavior. In such cases, however, LSU would have been required to outline in writing any grounds for the termination with cause within a seven-day period.
“LSU did not even attempt to satisfy any of these requirements, nor can they do so retroactively,” the lawsuit stated.
The lawsuit says Kelly informed LSU that he was open to a settlement, but that it had to “make sense financially.”
LSU initially offered to settle with a lump-sum payment of $25 million, which was raised to $30 million after Kelly rejected the initial offer, the lawsuit states.
Kelly has rejected LSU’s settlement offers so far, “but stated he remained open to any additional offers that LSU would like to make,” the lawsuit said.
