Oregon
Man sentenced to 20 years in prison for death of his then-girlfriend in 1980s cold case
GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — A man was sentenced to 20 years in prison in Oregon for the death of his then-girlfriend in a 1980s cold case that was recently reopened, authorities said Tuesday.
Marcus Sanfratello, 73, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the death of Teresa Peroni and was sentenced to 20 years in prison with a minimum of 10 years served, the Oregon Attorney General’s office said in a statement.
Sanfratello’s defense attorney, Elizabeth Baker, said her client had “strong motivation to resolve the matter” because of the diagnosis of a complex health issue.
“This resolution gives the family closure while allowing my client the treatment he urgently requires,” she said in a text message, adding that he will receive treatment while serving his sentence.
Peroni disappeared in 1983 at age 27 after attending a party in a rural area near the small town of Selma in southern Oregon. Authorities say she was last seen walking into the woods with Sanfratello, her boyfriend at the time. Authorities investigated, but there was not enough evidence to move forward with charges.
In 1997 a human skull was found on a nearby property and sent to the University of North Texas for examination, the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office said last year.
The sheriff’s office reopened the case in 2024, with investigators collecting new DNA evidence and using modern forensic testing. With the additional DNA, experts at the university were able to confirm that the skull was Peroni’s.
Sanfratello was taken into custody last year in Chico, California, before being extradited to Oregon, where he was initially indicted on a higher charge of second-degree murder.
“For Teresa Peroni’s family, this has been a 43-year wait for an answer they never should have had to wait for,” Oregon Attorney General Rayfield said in a statement. “Cases like this remind us of why we don’t give up.”
Colorado
Pneumonia evidence upends a decades old conviction in baby’s death to free Stephen Martinez
DENVER (AP) — A judge on Tuesday threw out the first-degree murder conviction of a man found guilty in the death of his then-girlfriend’s 4-month-old daughter nearly 30 years ago because of new evidence in the case.
Stephen Martinez was convicted in 2000 and sentenced to life in prison after prosecutors argued he had beaten Heather Mares in 1998. But recently presented defense evidence that the baby died of pneumonia prompted prosecutors to reexamine the case and conclude that they could not prove Martinez was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
The Denver District Attorney’s Office didn’t oppose a request from Martinez’s lawyers at the Korey Wise Innocent Project to overturn his conviction.
District Court Judge Andrew Luxen overturned Martinez’s conviction, ordered him to be released from prison and dismissed the case over the objections of Mares’ family, including her parents Kim Estrada and Chris Mares. They believe Martinez killed the baby and said he had not expressed any remorse.
“My life was stopped 27 hears ago along with our family’s,” said Estrada, who began sobbing after Luxen announced his decision.
Martinez was prosecuted under what was at the time a new state statute allowing first-degree murder charges instead of the lesser charge of child abuse resulting in death.
Martinez declined to speak during the hearing.
One of his lawyers, Jeanne Segil, said the criminal justice system failed Martinez as well as Mares’ family.
“This case is a tragedy on every front,” she said.
Martinez’s aunt, Theresa Garcia, said she wished Martinez’s parents, who died while he was in prison, could be here to see if him released.
“I know they are looking down on us today and smiling as their son returns home and is reunited with his loved ones,” she said.
Martinez’s lawyers say his trial mistakenly focused on a false confession and shaken baby syndrome, also known as abusive head trauma, which some defense attorneys and experts have called into question.
Segil said complications from pneumonia can cause the same symptoms associated with the syndrome, including bleeding and swelling of the brain.
Denver District Attorney John Walsh stressed that there was no misconduct by police or prosecutors who worked on the case.
“This is simply an example of the criminal justice system being willing and able to reassess a case when necessary,” he said.
Georgia
Navy veteran charged in series of shootings dies in jail
ATLANTA (AP) — A man charged in a string of shootings near Atlanta that left three people dead, including a Department of Homeland Security employee who was walking her dog, died in jail Tuesday night, authorities said.
Olaolukitan Adon Abel, 26, was found in his cell unresponsive, according to a statement from the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office. Officials performed lifesaving measures on the U.S. Navy veteran, but he was later pronounced dead.
The official cause of death has not been determined, but officials don’t suspect foul play, according to the office. Officials are conducting an internal review.
Adon Abel was accused of killing Prianna Weathers, 31, and DHS auditor Lauren Bullis, 40, in last week’s attack. Authorities had also been seeking an additional murder charge for Tony Mathews, 49, who was injured in the attack and died Sunday.
Authorities haven’t offered a potential motive for the shootings. It’s unclear if Adon Abel knew any of the victims — police have said they believe at least one was targeted at random.
Adon Abel’s roommates told The Associated Press that shortly before the shootings, he got in an intense argument over the air conditioning in their home and stormed out. He lived with six others in separate units of the home.
The United Kingdom native was granted U.S. citizenship in 2022 while serving in the U.S. Navy and stationed in the San Diego area.
The attacks quickly drew the Trump administration’s attention, with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin raising concern that Adon Abel was granted U.S. citizenship when Democrat Joe Biden was president. Mullin cataloged a litany of Adon Abel’s previous alleged crimes, but it is unclear whether any of them occurred before he became a citizen.
Florida
AG launches criminal probe into ChatGPT over FSU shooting
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s attorney general on Tuesday opened a rare criminal investigation into OpenAI’s ChatGPT over whether the artificial intelligence app offered advice to a gunman who killed two people and wounded six others last year at Florida State University.
Attorney General James Uthmeier said that prosecutors had done an initial review of chat logs between ChatGPT and the gunman, Phoenix Ikner, to determine if the AI app aided, abetted or advised the commission of a crime.
Prosecutors believe the chatbot advised Ikner on what type of gun and ammunition to use, whether a gun would be useful at short range, and what time of day and at which location would allow for the most potential victims, Uthmeier said.
“My prosecutors have looked at this, and they’ve told me if it was a person at the other end of that screen, we would be charging them with murder,” Uthmeier said at a news conference in Tampa. “Now, of course, ChatGPT is not a person, but that does not absolve our office and my prosecution team from our duty to investigate whether there is criminal culpability here.”
Florida’s Office of Statewide Prosecution has subpoenaed OpenAI for records of its policies and training materials regarding threats to harm others, and for its policies on reporting “possible past, present, or future crime,” according to the attorney general’s office.
OpenAI spokeswoman Kate Waters called the FSU shooting a tragedy but said the company had no responsibility. The company proactively shared information with law enforcement and continues to cooperate with investigators, she said Tuesday.
“In this case, ChatGPT provided factual responses to questions with information that could be found broadly across public sources on the internet, and it did not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activity,” Waters said in an email.
Uthmeier conceded that his office was venturing into “uncharted territory” by launching a criminal probe into whether a chatbot contributed to the commission of a crime. His office also has initiated a civil probe, he said.
Several civil lawsuits have sought damages from AI and tech companies over the influence of chatbots and social media on loved ones’ mental health. Last month, a jury in Los Angeles found both Meta and YouTube liable for harms to children using their services. In New Mexico, a jury determined that Meta knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.
Also last month, a man sued Google for the wrongful death by suicide of his son and product liability claims, the latest in a growing number of legal challenges against AI developers that have drawn attention to the mental health dangers of chatbot companionship.
Ikner faces two counts of first-degree murder and several counts of attempted first-degree murder in the shooting that terrorized the campus in Florida’s capital city.
Ikner is the stepson of a local sheriff’s deputy, and investigators say he used his stepmother’s former service weapon to carry out the shooting. Prosecutors in the case intend to seek the death penalty.
Uthmeier, a Republican, was named to the position by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, after the GOP governor appointed then-Attorney General Ashley Moody to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Marco Rubio when he became the secretary of state in President Donald Trump’s second administration.
Uthmeier is running in November to be elected to the position on his own.
DeSantis has called a special session for the end of the month to consider an “Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights,” as well as redraw congressional districts.
Florida
Teen charged with killing stepsister on cruise ship pleads not guilty
MIAMI (AP) — A teenager charged with killing his stepsister on a Carnival Cruise ship filed a not-guilty plea Tuesday and waived his appearance at a hearing in Miami federal court.
Timothy Hudson has received the indictment and is waiving his appearance at an arraignment scheduled for Wednesday, defense attorney Eric Cohen said in a court filing. The 16-year-old also signed the one-page document.
Cohen didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking further comment
Hudson is being prosecuted as an adult in the death of 18-year-old Anna Kepner, whose body was found under a bed in a Carnival Horizon room that she was sharing with him and another teen during a family trip in November.
Hudson is charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse. He has been free in the care of an uncle since his arrest in February, though prosecutors now want a judge to lock him up while the case unfolds.
That issue is unsettled.
Kepner was a high school cheerleader at Temple Christian School in Titusville, Florida, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) east of Orlando. The cause of her Nov. 6 death was determined to be mechanical asphyxia, which is when an object or force stops someone from breathing.
Records and hearings in the case were closed to the public for weeks because Hudson was initially charged as a minor. But U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom granted the government’s request to have him prosecuted as an adult. The case was unsealed on April 10.
Man sentenced to 20 years in prison for death of his then-girlfriend in 1980s cold case
GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — A man was sentenced to 20 years in prison in Oregon for the death of his then-girlfriend in a 1980s cold case that was recently reopened, authorities said Tuesday.
Marcus Sanfratello, 73, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the death of Teresa Peroni and was sentenced to 20 years in prison with a minimum of 10 years served, the Oregon Attorney General’s office said in a statement.
Sanfratello’s defense attorney, Elizabeth Baker, said her client had “strong motivation to resolve the matter” because of the diagnosis of a complex health issue.
“This resolution gives the family closure while allowing my client the treatment he urgently requires,” she said in a text message, adding that he will receive treatment while serving his sentence.
Peroni disappeared in 1983 at age 27 after attending a party in a rural area near the small town of Selma in southern Oregon. Authorities say she was last seen walking into the woods with Sanfratello, her boyfriend at the time. Authorities investigated, but there was not enough evidence to move forward with charges.
In 1997 a human skull was found on a nearby property and sent to the University of North Texas for examination, the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office said last year.
The sheriff’s office reopened the case in 2024, with investigators collecting new DNA evidence and using modern forensic testing. With the additional DNA, experts at the university were able to confirm that the skull was Peroni’s.
Sanfratello was taken into custody last year in Chico, California, before being extradited to Oregon, where he was initially indicted on a higher charge of second-degree murder.
“For Teresa Peroni’s family, this has been a 43-year wait for an answer they never should have had to wait for,” Oregon Attorney General Rayfield said in a statement. “Cases like this remind us of why we don’t give up.”
Colorado
Pneumonia evidence upends a decades old conviction in baby’s death to free Stephen Martinez
DENVER (AP) — A judge on Tuesday threw out the first-degree murder conviction of a man found guilty in the death of his then-girlfriend’s 4-month-old daughter nearly 30 years ago because of new evidence in the case.
Stephen Martinez was convicted in 2000 and sentenced to life in prison after prosecutors argued he had beaten Heather Mares in 1998. But recently presented defense evidence that the baby died of pneumonia prompted prosecutors to reexamine the case and conclude that they could not prove Martinez was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
The Denver District Attorney’s Office didn’t oppose a request from Martinez’s lawyers at the Korey Wise Innocent Project to overturn his conviction.
District Court Judge Andrew Luxen overturned Martinez’s conviction, ordered him to be released from prison and dismissed the case over the objections of Mares’ family, including her parents Kim Estrada and Chris Mares. They believe Martinez killed the baby and said he had not expressed any remorse.
“My life was stopped 27 hears ago along with our family’s,” said Estrada, who began sobbing after Luxen announced his decision.
Martinez was prosecuted under what was at the time a new state statute allowing first-degree murder charges instead of the lesser charge of child abuse resulting in death.
Martinez declined to speak during the hearing.
One of his lawyers, Jeanne Segil, said the criminal justice system failed Martinez as well as Mares’ family.
“This case is a tragedy on every front,” she said.
Martinez’s aunt, Theresa Garcia, said she wished Martinez’s parents, who died while he was in prison, could be here to see if him released.
“I know they are looking down on us today and smiling as their son returns home and is reunited with his loved ones,” she said.
Martinez’s lawyers say his trial mistakenly focused on a false confession and shaken baby syndrome, also known as abusive head trauma, which some defense attorneys and experts have called into question.
Segil said complications from pneumonia can cause the same symptoms associated with the syndrome, including bleeding and swelling of the brain.
Denver District Attorney John Walsh stressed that there was no misconduct by police or prosecutors who worked on the case.
“This is simply an example of the criminal justice system being willing and able to reassess a case when necessary,” he said.
Georgia
Navy veteran charged in series of shootings dies in jail
ATLANTA (AP) — A man charged in a string of shootings near Atlanta that left three people dead, including a Department of Homeland Security employee who was walking her dog, died in jail Tuesday night, authorities said.
Olaolukitan Adon Abel, 26, was found in his cell unresponsive, according to a statement from the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office. Officials performed lifesaving measures on the U.S. Navy veteran, but he was later pronounced dead.
The official cause of death has not been determined, but officials don’t suspect foul play, according to the office. Officials are conducting an internal review.
Adon Abel was accused of killing Prianna Weathers, 31, and DHS auditor Lauren Bullis, 40, in last week’s attack. Authorities had also been seeking an additional murder charge for Tony Mathews, 49, who was injured in the attack and died Sunday.
Authorities haven’t offered a potential motive for the shootings. It’s unclear if Adon Abel knew any of the victims — police have said they believe at least one was targeted at random.
Adon Abel’s roommates told The Associated Press that shortly before the shootings, he got in an intense argument over the air conditioning in their home and stormed out. He lived with six others in separate units of the home.
The United Kingdom native was granted U.S. citizenship in 2022 while serving in the U.S. Navy and stationed in the San Diego area.
The attacks quickly drew the Trump administration’s attention, with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin raising concern that Adon Abel was granted U.S. citizenship when Democrat Joe Biden was president. Mullin cataloged a litany of Adon Abel’s previous alleged crimes, but it is unclear whether any of them occurred before he became a citizen.
Florida
AG launches criminal probe into ChatGPT over FSU shooting
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s attorney general on Tuesday opened a rare criminal investigation into OpenAI’s ChatGPT over whether the artificial intelligence app offered advice to a gunman who killed two people and wounded six others last year at Florida State University.
Attorney General James Uthmeier said that prosecutors had done an initial review of chat logs between ChatGPT and the gunman, Phoenix Ikner, to determine if the AI app aided, abetted or advised the commission of a crime.
Prosecutors believe the chatbot advised Ikner on what type of gun and ammunition to use, whether a gun would be useful at short range, and what time of day and at which location would allow for the most potential victims, Uthmeier said.
“My prosecutors have looked at this, and they’ve told me if it was a person at the other end of that screen, we would be charging them with murder,” Uthmeier said at a news conference in Tampa. “Now, of course, ChatGPT is not a person, but that does not absolve our office and my prosecution team from our duty to investigate whether there is criminal culpability here.”
Florida’s Office of Statewide Prosecution has subpoenaed OpenAI for records of its policies and training materials regarding threats to harm others, and for its policies on reporting “possible past, present, or future crime,” according to the attorney general’s office.
OpenAI spokeswoman Kate Waters called the FSU shooting a tragedy but said the company had no responsibility. The company proactively shared information with law enforcement and continues to cooperate with investigators, she said Tuesday.
“In this case, ChatGPT provided factual responses to questions with information that could be found broadly across public sources on the internet, and it did not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activity,” Waters said in an email.
Uthmeier conceded that his office was venturing into “uncharted territory” by launching a criminal probe into whether a chatbot contributed to the commission of a crime. His office also has initiated a civil probe, he said.
Several civil lawsuits have sought damages from AI and tech companies over the influence of chatbots and social media on loved ones’ mental health. Last month, a jury in Los Angeles found both Meta and YouTube liable for harms to children using their services. In New Mexico, a jury determined that Meta knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.
Also last month, a man sued Google for the wrongful death by suicide of his son and product liability claims, the latest in a growing number of legal challenges against AI developers that have drawn attention to the mental health dangers of chatbot companionship.
Ikner faces two counts of first-degree murder and several counts of attempted first-degree murder in the shooting that terrorized the campus in Florida’s capital city.
Ikner is the stepson of a local sheriff’s deputy, and investigators say he used his stepmother’s former service weapon to carry out the shooting. Prosecutors in the case intend to seek the death penalty.
Uthmeier, a Republican, was named to the position by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, after the GOP governor appointed then-Attorney General Ashley Moody to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Marco Rubio when he became the secretary of state in President Donald Trump’s second administration.
Uthmeier is running in November to be elected to the position on his own.
DeSantis has called a special session for the end of the month to consider an “Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights,” as well as redraw congressional districts.
Florida
Teen charged with killing stepsister on cruise ship pleads not guilty
MIAMI (AP) — A teenager charged with killing his stepsister on a Carnival Cruise ship filed a not-guilty plea Tuesday and waived his appearance at a hearing in Miami federal court.
Timothy Hudson has received the indictment and is waiving his appearance at an arraignment scheduled for Wednesday, defense attorney Eric Cohen said in a court filing. The 16-year-old also signed the one-page document.
Cohen didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking further comment
Hudson is being prosecuted as an adult in the death of 18-year-old Anna Kepner, whose body was found under a bed in a Carnival Horizon room that she was sharing with him and another teen during a family trip in November.
Hudson is charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse. He has been free in the care of an uncle since his arrest in February, though prosecutors now want a judge to lock him up while the case unfolds.
That issue is unsettled.
Kepner was a high school cheerleader at Temple Christian School in Titusville, Florida, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) east of Orlando. The cause of her Nov. 6 death was determined to be mechanical asphyxia, which is when an object or force stops someone from breathing.
Records and hearings in the case were closed to the public for weeks because Hudson was initially charged as a minor. But U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom granted the government’s request to have him prosecuted as an adult. The case was unsealed on April 10.
