California
Rapper-actor Kaalan Walker gets 50 years for rape sentence
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Actor and rapper Kaalan Walker has been sentenced to 50 years to life in prison for his conviction for raping aspiring models he met online, authorities said.
Walker, 27, was sentenced Monday in Superior Court in Los Angeles following his April conviction on three counts of forcible rape, one count of assault to commit oral copulation, two counts of statutory rape and two counts of rape by intoxication.
His lawyer, Andrew Flier, said the trial was unfair. He called the sentence “draconian” and said it would be appealed, NBC News reported.
Walker, whose rapper name is KR, played a gang member in the 2018 remake of the movie “Superfly” and also appeared in the 2017 film “Kings,” starring Halle Berry and Daniel Craig.
He was arrested in 2018 and charged with a series of assaults dating back to 2016 involving four women and three teenage girls.
Prosecutors said Walker used social media to contact aspiring models and offer them phony professional opportunities so they would meet him, then assaulted them.
Alabama
Former state attorney pleads guilty to child porn
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — An attorney who worked on the staff of Gov. Kay Ivey pleaded guilty to a child pornography charge and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
Chase Tristian Espy, 36, pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography, authorities said in a statement, and a judge scheduled a sentencing hearing for Jan. 24.
Espy, of Vestavia Hills, previously worked as deputy general counsel in the office of Ivey. He was only employed there a few months and was fired at the time of his arrest last August, officials said at the time.
Investigators seized Espy’s cellphone after he engaged in online chats with an investigator he believed to be a 15-year-old girl, authorities said in a statement. A search found multiple videos and several images portraying child sexual abuse, authorities said.
Maine
Former officer sentenced for drug, gun charges
MACHIAS, Maine (AP) — A longtime law enforcement officer and former candidate for sheriff in Washington County has been sentenced to four years in prison for drug- and gun-related charges.
The case against Jeffrey Bishop, 55, unfolded with his arrest for providing opioid pills to a teenage girl last year in a high school parking lot. Prosecutors said the drugs were meant for the girl’s mother.
He told the judge Monday that he was “very humble” and a “very broken man” but said he wasn’t fully satisfied with the plea agreement, the Bangor Daily News reported. He also said he was “baffled” that his police background was considered an aggravating factor when it came to his sentencing.
He was arrested less than a week after he retired from the Calais Police Department last year. In his resignation letter, Bishop said he “decided to go out on top,” after a long career in law enforcement.
California
LA County to pay $32M to settle suit over boy’s abuse death
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles County agreed Tuesday to pay $32 million to the family of a 10-year-old boy who died after allegedly being tortured and abused by his mother and her boyfriend.
The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a deal in a lawsuit over the death of Anthony Avalos of Lancaster. Sheriff’s deputies who went to the boy’s high-desert home in response to a 911 call from the mother on June 20, 2018, were told that the boy was injured in a fall. He died in a hospital the next day.
Anthony’s mother, Heather Barron, and her boyfriend, Kareem Leive, have pleaded not guilty to murder and torture.
Prosecutors have said the couple beat the boy, repeatedly dropped him on his head, smashed him into the floor or furniture, denied him food at times or force-fed him and refused to let him use the bathroom.
A lawsuit filed on behalf of Anthony’s father and three siblings alleged that the county Department of Children and Family Services and a contracted company that supplied home counseling disregarded reports of abuse.
The suit argued that the department was notified 13 times of abuse in Anthony’s home.
Supervisors approved a tentative agreement that was reached with the county on May 4, which would have been Anthony’s 14th birthday.
“We hope that Anthony’s family and loved ones find a small measure of peace and closure in the resolution of this tragic case,” the child welfare department said in a statement Tuesday. “Anthony’s death and other child tragedies demonstrate the complexities of child welfare, and we continue to apply lessons learned to evolve and improve the way we work with children and families.”
The department said it has taken “significant steps to mitigate the risk of harm to children” and is committed to continuing reform.
The home counseling contractor that was sued previously reached a $3 million deal with the boy’s family.
California
Man charged in 3 slayings linked to serial killer
STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) — Prosecutors on Tuesday charged a Northern California man with fatally shooting three men whom police have said were among six victims slain by a serial killer over the past year and a half.
Wesley Brownlee, 43, was arrested Saturday on suspicion of killing six men and wounding a woman in a series of shootings dating back to April 2021. Police had been conducting surveillance on him Saturday as he drove through the streets of Stockton, armed with a handgun and possibly “out hunting” for another victim.
The San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office on Tuesday filed three counts of murder, one count of a felon in possession of a firearm and one count of possession of ammunition. Brownlee, a truck driver who had recently moved to Stockton from Oakland, was only charged in three recent slayings in Stockton.
District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar said she expects to file additional charges in two other murders in Stockton, as well as an attempted murder. Another killing occurred last year in Oakland, which is located in Alameda County.
“There are some people who are just simply too dangerous to share the streets with you and I,” Verber Salazar said at a press conference after Brownlee’s arraignment.
Brownlee did not enter a plea Tuesday and was scheduled to return to court on Nov. 14 for further arraignment. The judge assigned him a public defender. The public defender’s office did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Detectives are still seeking tips from the public because Brownlee might be linked to more crimes, Stockton Police Chief Stanley McFadden said.
“We’re going to stay tenacious, we don’t know how many cases there are,” McFadden said.
The firearm found in Brownlee’s possession during his arrest is of a similar caliber to the one that was used in the violence. Authorities believe the same gun was used in the slayings of the three men and are testing it to determine whether it was used in the other shootings.
Verber Salazar would not say whether Brownlee knew any of the victims personally.
Authorities previously described the suspect — now identified as Brownlee — as a serial killer who was “on a mission” but did not appear to have a clear motive in who he targeted for his crimes. Investigators have said ballistics tests and video evidence linked the shootings.
The five men killed in Stockton this year were Paul Yaw, 35, who died July 8; Salvador Debudey Jr., 43, who died Aug. 11; Jonathan Rodriguez Hernandez, 21, who died Aug. 30; Juan Cruz, 52, who died Sept. 21; and Lawrence Lopez Sr., 54, who died Sept. 27. Juan Vasquez Serrano, 39, was killed in Oakland on April 10, 2021, and Natasha LaTour, 46, was shot in Stockton on April 16 that year but survived.
The criminal complaint filed Tuesday only lists charges for the killings of Rodriguez, Cruz and Lopez.
Brownlee grew up in Oakland and has a criminal history that includes traffic violations and convictions for drug crimes in Alameda County that goes back to an arrest when he was 15 years old, according to The East Bay Times. He was most recently discharged from parole in 2006.
Georgia
Detainees testify in rights abuse trial of sheriff
ATLANTA (AP) — Two former jail detainees testified that deputies of a Georgia sheriff charged with violating their civil rights kept them in restraint chairs for hours, causing them to urinate on themselves while they were bound.
“It felt horrible,” one of the men, Joseph Harper, told a jury Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Atlanta. “I had to use the bathroom on myself twice. I couldn’t hold it.”
Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill is standing trial on federal charges that he violated the rights of seven detainees. Prosecutors say their placement in restraint chairs was unnecessary, was improperly used as punishment and caused pain and bodily injury.
Hill is widely known as one of metro Atlanta’s most flamboyant lawmen. He calls himself “The Crime Fighter” and uses Batman imagery to promote himself on social media and in campaign ads. This is his second trial on criminal charges. Clayton County voters reelected Hill in 2012 while he was under indictment the first time, accused of using his office for personal gain. He beat those charges.
Hill has pleaded not guilty to the civil rights charges, which his attorneys say are politically motivated. Drew Findling, one of Hill’s lawyers, cross-examined both men Tuesday about what he said where inconsistencies between their trial testimony and what they had previously told investigators.
Walter Thomas was jailed in Clayton County in May 2020 after a Georgia state trooper pulled him over for speeding and found drugs in his car. Thomas testified that jailers kept him in a restraint chair for more than four hours without giving him a break, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
“I actually was crying,” Thomas said on the witness stand. “I was scared, nervous. Just all over the place.”
Asked by prosecutor Brett Hobson if he had wet himself while restrained, Thomas answered: “About three or four times.”
Harper was booked into the jail in April 2020 on charges he had threatened his sister and eluded police. He is now serving a 15-year sentence for aggravated battery and false imprisonment.
Harper testified he felt pain and cramps while bound in the restraint chair, with his hands cuffed behind his back and straps around his waist and upper arms. A video played for the jury showed a mask on his face to keep him from spitting at jailers.
Prosecutors say Hill violated his own policy stating that a restraint chair should be used on violent or uncontrollable detainees to prevent injury or property damage if other techniques don’t work. The policy also says a restraint chair “will never be authorized as a form of punishment.”
During cross-examination, Findling noted that Harper had told the FBI he had been knocked unconscious as police tried to arrest him, but later admitted in court that he was faking. The defense attorney also challenged Thomas’ account to the FBI that the state trooper who pulled him over had been rude and uncooperative.
