Nevada
Death penalty possible in Vegas boy’s body-in-freezer case
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The death penalty will be considered in the case of a Las Vegas man accused of kidnapping and killing a 4-year-old boy and hiding the body in a freezer while keeping the boy’s mother captive, a prosecutor told a judge during a brief schedule-setting hearing on Friday.
Clark County District Court Judge Tierra Jones postponed Brandon Lee Toseland’s arraignment until at least April 15 on 10 charges including murder, kidnapping and child abuse in the death of the boy and felony domestic battery alleging that he choked the child’s mother.
Toseland appeared by video hookup from the Clark County Detention Center, where he has been held without bail since his arrest Feb. 22. Defense attorney Augustus Claus said outside court Friday that Toseland, 35, will plead not guilty to all charges.
Police said they found Toseland in a vehicle with the boy’s mother after the boy’s 7-year-old sister gave her teacher a handful of sticky notes from the mother that said she was being held captive and thought the girl’s brother was dead at Toseland’s house. Police said they also found handcuffs with the woman in the car.
The boy’s frozen body was found in a freezer in the garage, wrapped in plastic and bearing what police said were visible injuries of physical abuse.
An indictment that added four counts against Toseland was filed Thursday, moving the case from local to state court for trial.
Claus said Friday that he had not received a medical examiner’s report and autopsy on the child, who according to the indictment died of internal injuries.
Prosecutors Michelle Fleck and Christopher Hamner declined outside court to comment.
The Clark County coroner’s office said rulings on a cause and manner of the child’s death were pending.
“We plan on defending the case vigorously,” Claus said in a brief interview. “There’s an entire alternate version of events that hasn’t been given a voice. We plan on being that voice.”
The mother’s lawyer, Stephen Stubbs, alleges she was physically, sexually and emotionally abused by Toseland and that her children were physically and emotionally abused and kept apart from her most of the time.
The Associated Press is not naming the mother or children to avoid identifying a victim who alleges sexual abuse. Stubbs has said the mother does not want her name made public.
The boy’s father died in January 2021 of a respiratory illness. Stubbs said the mother and her two children moved into Toseland’s home last March.
Another woman, Marylee Ruiz, who said she had two children with Toseland before ending her relationship with him about five years ago, watched in court on Friday. Ruiz said she was concerned about what her children, now ages 7 and 5, experienced while living in the house.
Mississippi
Man gets 30 years for producing child porn
GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release for producing a video of a minor engaging in sexually explicit behavior, federal prosecutors said.
According to court documents, Joshua Stockstill, 29, of Picayune, enticed a minor child to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct with his cell phone in November 2018, U.S. Attorney Darren J. LaMarca said in a news release Thursday.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children became aware of the video and other images. On July 14, with help from the center, the FBI identified Stockstill, then a sergeant with the Picayune Police Department, as the producer of the video. Stockstill pleaded guilty in the case in November.
At sentencing Wednesday, Stockstill also was ordered to pay a $10,000 fee under the Amy, Vicky, and Andy Child Pornography Victim Assistance Act of 2018, LaMarca’s office said.
California
Accused shooter in Lady Gaga dog theft mistakenly freed
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A gunman accused of shooting and seriously wounding Lady Gaga’s dog walker and stealing her two French bulldogs was mistakenly released from jail and is being sought, authorities said Friday.
James Howard Jackson, 19, was facing an attempted murder charge when he was released from Los Angeles County’s jail on Wednesday “due to a clerical error,” the county Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.
The sheriff’s Major Crimes Bureau is Major Crimes Bureau is working on finding him, the statement said.
Jackson is one of five people arrested in connection with the Feb. 24, 2021, attack in Hollywood. Prosecutors said Jackson and two other alleged gang members had driven around looking for expensive French bulldogs to steal, then spotted, tailed and robbed Ryan Fischer as he walked Lady Gaga’s dogs near Sunset Boulevard.
During a violent struggle, Fischer was hit, choked and then shot in an attack captured by the doorbell camera of a nearby home.
The camera recorded the dog walker screaming “Oh, my God! I’ve been shot!” and “Help me!” and “I’m bleeding out from my chest!”
Fischer lost part of a lung.
“While I’m deeply concerned at the events that led to his release, I’m confident law enforcement will rectify the error,” Fischer said in a statement obtained by KABC-TV. “I ask for Mr. Jackson to turn himself over to the authorities, so resolution to the crime committed against me runs its course, whatever the courts determine that outcome to be.”
The pop star’s dogs were returned two days later by a woman who claimed she had found them tied to a pole and asked about Lady Gaga’s offer of a $500,000 reward if the dogs were returned “no questions asked.” The singer was in Rome at the time filming a movie.
She’s charged with receiving stolen property and the father of another suspect is charged with helping him avoid arrest.
Jackson already had been charged in the attack and had pleaded not guilty when the county district attorney’s office filed a superceding indictment Tuesday charging him with attempted murder, conspiracy to commit a robbery and assault with a semiautomatic firearm.
The move was done “to speed up the legal process” and Jackson was arraigned Wednesday under a new case number, the DA’s office said in a statement.
“Mr. Jackson was subsequently released from custody by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. We are unsure as to why they did so,” the statement said.
