California
U.S. man sentenced to 18 years for deadly migrant boat trip
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A federal judge sentenced a San Diego man to 18 years in prison Friday for piloting a small vessel overloaded with 32 migrants that smashed apart in powerful surf off San Diego’s coast last year, killing three people.
U.S. District Judge Janis L. Sammartino called it “the most egregious case I’ve ever had in my courtroom in over 15 years in the Southern District of California” before sentencing 40-year-old Antonio Hurtado.
Prosecutors say Hurtado was high on drugs when he drove the migrants into rough, stormy seas in the dark on May 2021. As 5-to-8-foot (1.5-2.4-meter) waves pounded the vessel, he jumped overboard and swam to shore, abandoning the passengers he had told to hide in the cabin and under deck. The boat capsized and broke apart as they were hurled into the treacherous early morning waters. Hurtado’s lawyer could not be reached for comment.
More than two dozen people were injured, including a 15-year-old Mexican boy and a 15-year-old Mexican girl.
The 32 migrants — all but one from Mexico — had agreed to pay between $15,000 and $18,000 to be smuggled into the United States.
They boarded the first boat in the small fishing village of Puerto Neuvo, Baja California, Mexico, according to the investigation. From there they traveled about two hours offshore near the Coronado Islands where Hurtado and his 40-foot boat — named the “Salty Lady” — were waiting to pick them up and take them to the San Diego coast, prosecutors said.
High on drugs, Hurtado passed out for an hour before passengers were able to wake him, prosecutors say. Then the vessel’s engine failed but Hurtado ignored his passengers’ pleas to call the U.S. Coast Guard for help.
Instead, he jumped overboard as the boat began to list on its side and swam to shore.
Rangers at Cabrillo National Park saw the boat capsize and called the U.S. Coast Guard, one of many federal and local agencies that responded, along with hikers. In the end, 29 people were rescued. Three migrants, Maricela Hernandez-Sanchez, Victor Perez-Degollado, and Maria Eugenia Chavez-Segovia, sustained blunt force trauma and drowned, according to the medical examiner’s report.
Hurtado was identified by the migrants as being the captain and taken into custody. He told authorities he was “coming down” from drugs and was taken to a hospital to detox.
He also kneed a U.S. Border Patrol agent in the face as he attempted to put an ankle restraint on him before transporting him, according to the investigation.
“This sentence recognizes the serious nature of these crimes and stands as a stern warning to smugglers: your profit-driven schemes will fail; we will prosecute you for your crimes; and we will obtain justice for your victims,” U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman said in a statement.
New York
Police: Man slashed 3 with machete after trying to buy guns
PATCHOGUE, N.Y. (AP) — A Long Island man is facing assault and weapons charges for allegedly attacking three people with a machete at a sporting goods store.
Suffolk County police said Saturday that the attack occurred the previous afternoon at a Dick’s Sporting Goods store in Patchogue, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of New York City.
Treyvius Tunstall allegedly asked to buy rifles but walked away after he was asked to provide identification. According to police, he then slashed a store manager with a machete and attacked two other people as he fled.
The store manager suffered wounds to the torso, arms and head, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said Saturday. Prosecutors said Tunstall severed tendons in the store manager’s arms during the attack. Newsday reported.
The manager was treated at the scene by paramedics and taken to a hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
A customer was struck in the head by the back of the machete and a person in the parking lot was cut on the arm and shoulder, according to police. Both victims were treated at the scene for minor injuries.
Police apprehended Tunstall nearby. Through his court-appointed attorney, the 22-year-old West Babylon resident pleaded not guilty at a court appearance Saturday to three counts of assault and six weapons counts, and was ordered held on $400,000 cash bail or $800,000 bond.
According to Harrison, Tunstall had gone to a Dick’s store in Bay Shore, about 15 miles (25 kilometers) away, earlier in the afternoon and bought the machete, a knife and a backpack but was told to go to the Patchogue store if he wanted to purchase rifles.
Police hadn’t determined a motive for the attack, Harrison said.
North Carolina
Prosecutor dismisses murder count in student’s death
GASTONIA, N.C. (AP) — A local North Carolina prosecutor has dropped a first-degree murder charge against a man whose conviction in the death of a university student was overturned by a judge eight years later.
Gaston County District Attorney Travis Page formally dismissed on Friday the charge against Mark Bradley Carver, 54, of Belmont, saying in a news release that “the evidence no longer supports” the count.
The dismissal meant Carver, who was released from prison in 2019 but remained under house arrest while awaiting a new trial, got an electronic monitor removed from his ankle late Friday, news outlets reported.
“We’re happy it’s finally over,” said Robin Carver, his sister-in-law. “It’s been a long time coming.”
Carver and his cousin had been charged with first-degree murder in the 2008 death of 20-year-old Ira Yarmolenko, who was a student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Yarmolenko’s body was found on the banks of the Catawba River next to her car, which was at the bottom of an embankment. A ribbon, bungee cord and drawstring were wrapped around her neck.
Carver and the cousin, Neal Cassada, had been fishing nearby. Cassada died before his trial began. Carver, who has maintained his innocence throughout, was convicted in 2011 and received a life sentence.
In June 2019, Superior Court Judge Christopher Bragg ordered a new trial, citing in part the DNA evidence that prosecutors used against Carver.
Page, who became DA in July 2021, also said the evidence no longer supported a murder charge against Cassada. He said in his news release that the DNA prosecutors used at Carver’s trial to tie him to Yarmolenko’s car “no longer contained a sufficient amount of DNA for examination.”
But Chris Mumma, Carver’s attorney and executive director of the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence, has said state labs used outdated methods to test the DNA found on the car.
“Both men are innocent — as they have always proclaimed,” Mumma said in a news release.
No other suspects in Yarmolenko’s murder have been identified. Page said his office will “continue to seek justice for the Yarmolenko family and all homicide victims as the evidence and rule of law permit.”
Washington
Ex-commissioner candidate sentenced for Jan. 6 role
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) — A former candidate for Yakima County commissioner has pleaded guilty and was sentenced to probation for her role in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Lisa Homer, 50, pleaded guilty this week to one count of illegally demonstrating inside the U.S. Capitol, a misdemeanor, KIMA-TV reported.
As part of a plea deal, prosecutors dropped charges of illegally entering the capitol and disorderly conduct. She was sentenced to three years of probation, 60 hours of community service, a $5,000 fine and $500 restitution.
A report by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force says video evidence shows Homer participating in chants led by members of the far-right Proud Boys. Homer, formerly of Yakima, entered the Capitol Building, according to the report.
The report also shows over a dozen photos of Homer captured Jan. 6 in New York Times video. In that footage she’s seen donning a beanie with the words “Lions not sheep,” which appears to be the same hat she’s seen wearing in a social media profile picture.
Roughly 850 people have been charged with federal crimes for their conduct on Jan. 6. More than 350 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanor offenses, and more than 230 have been sentenced so far.
Georgia
Trial begins in shooting death of 7-year-old
ATLANTA (AP) — The trial is underway for a man accused of fatally shooting a 7-year-old girl who was riding in a car with her family after a day of Christmas shopping in Atlanta.
Fulton County prosecutor Pat Dutcher said in his opening statement on Friday that Kennedy Maxie was struck by gunfire after the defendant, Daquan Reed, was robbed of his cellphone and money outside the Phipps Plaza mall in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood.
Enraged, Reed picked up a pistol and fired it from the rear passenger seat of a car, Dutcher said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. After the shooting, Reed got rid of the gun and told people not to talk to police before leaving the area, Dutcher said.
Reed’s attorney, Nicole Fegan, said though Kennedy’s death was “terrible,” her client was innocent, and there was no physical evidence that could establish his guilt.
Reed faces charges of felony murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, criminal damage to property, possession of a firearm during a crime and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The trial is scheduled to continue on Monday, the AJC reported.
Reed was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service in Virginia a little more than two weeks after the shooting.
The AJC said jurors also heard from Kennedy’s mother, Mariah Maxie, and aunt Jade Maxie.
Kennedy was in the car with them, stopped at a red light, when shots rang out. Jade Maxie drove to the hospital, where Kennedy died five days later.
“I will never forget (that day),” Jade Maxie said.
Wisconsin
Widow of man who died at vet’s home sues state, others
UNION GROVE, Wis. (AP) — The widow of a man who died at a Wisconsin veterans nursing home is suing the state as well as some of the facility’s employees who she said failed to properly care for her husband.
Luane Krall, in her lawsuit, said staff failed to ensure her husband, Randy, was hydrated, which led to his death in late 2020 at age 69. Krall said staff at the troubled home in Union Grove provided “reckless, wanton, demeaning and inhuman treatment” of her husband.
The lawsuit filed in Dane County this month names the facility, the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs, department Secretary Mary Kolar as well as 14 of the home’s employees involved in Krall’s care. The lawsuit seeks unspecified financial damages.
Dehydration has been a chronic problem at the facility, which ranks among the worst state veterans homes in the country in terms of violations and fines, according to a recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation. The Union Grove facility was cited for 62 violations and received fines totaling $250,000 since 2017, records show.
A Department of Veterans Affairs spokeswoman, in an email, said the DVA’s medical director previously reviewed the case and determined that appropriate care was provided. The department denies the allegations in the lawsuit.
