New Jersey
Woman convicted of murder of child found buried in yard
BRIDGETON, N.J. (AP) — A woman accused of having killed her toddler son almost four years ago and telling police he had been kidnapped before his remains were found buried in the yard of her New Jersey home has been convicted of murder and other charges.
Prosecutors in Cumberland County say 28-year-old Nakira Griner of Bridgeton will face a mandatory term of life in prison without parole when she is sentenced next month. She was convicted by a jury Wednesday of first-degree murder, desecration of human remains, child endangerment, evidence tampering and false public alarm.
Authorities said she initially told police in February 2019 that she had been attacked on the street and 23-month-old Daniel Griner Jr. had been abducted. An intensive search began but the child’s burnt remains were found the next day in the yard of her home, and an autopsy concluded that he had been beaten to death, authorities said.
Prosecutors said that Griner later told police that the child accidentally fell down a flight of stairs in the family home, but she said in phone calls from jail that she “did what she did to him” to cover up bruising on his body.
Defense attorney Jill Cohen acknowledged that her client dismembered and burned the child’s body but argued that prosecutors couldn’t prove she was directly responsible for his death and therefore could be convicted of nothing more than manslaughter. Cohen said she intends to appeal the verdict.
Wisconsin
Man gets life term for killing relative with ax
SPARTA, Wis. (AP) — A judge sentenced a Wisconsin man to life in plus 120 years in prison on Wednesday for killing his step-grandfather with an ax and injuring two other people during an altercation at the step-grandfather’s home.
Monroe County Circuit Judge Todd Ziegler called 38-year-old Thomas Wayne Aspseter a selfish, remorseless human being with almost no redeeming qualities before he sentenced him, the La Crosse Tribune reported.
“There is a struggle to find positive aspects of Mr. Aspseter’s character,” the judge said.
According to prosecutors, Aspseter had been staying with his 87-year-old step-grandfather, Bernard Waite, but Waite wanted him to leave the home in Sparta, a community of about 10,000 people roughly midway between Milwaukee and Minneapolis. Aspseter apparently returned to the home in June 2021 while Waite was at a family gathering in Waukesha and used a crowbar to get inside.
Waite and his brother and sister-in-law, Michael and Margaret Waite, returned home to find Aspseter on the property. Bernard Waite told him to leave. An enraged Aspseter then hit Bernard and Michael Waite with the ax, striking both of them in the head, and struck Margaret Waite in the arm.
Aspseter then shot himself in the throat with a rifle, called 911 and confessed to killing Bernard Waite, according to the complaint.
Ziegler heard testimony that Michael Waite barely survived the attack and that Margaret Waite has lost strength in her injured arm.
“I’ve been in hell for quite a while,” she said. “I live this every day and every night.”
Ziegler sentenced Aspseter to life for killing his step-grandfather and to consecutive 60-year terms for the attacks on Michael and Margaret Waite.
Illinois
2 sentenced in death of woman hit by stray bullet
CHICAGO (AP) — Two men have been sentenced to more than 50 years in prison for the gang-related shooting death of a Chicago woman who was hit by a stray bullet as she was out shopping with her young sons.
A Cook County judge sentenced Bryant Mitchell, 27, and Marco Zabala, 28, on Tuesday after a jury convicted them last summer of first-degree murder in the death of 36-year-old Candice Dickerson and a charge of aggravated discharge of a firearm.
Mitchell was sentenced to 56 years in prison and Zabala to 51, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Dickerson, a mother of three and a pharmacy technician at Norwegian American Hospital, was at a store in April 2019 looking for a new cellphone to reward one of her sons for his educational achievements.
She was talking to a store employee and standing near two of her sons, then ages 10 and 12, when a bullet came through a store window and struck her in the head. She was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Mitchell and Zabala, who prosecutors said were members of the Satan’s Disciples street gang, were charged in Dickerson’s death in May 2019.
Video of the attack showed the Chicago men and another Satan’s Disciples member flashing rival gang signs at some men in a car moments before Zabala retrieved a gun and handed it to Mitchell, who fired five shots at the car, authorities said.
Minnesota
Woman gets probation for helping husband set protest fires
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Rochester, Minnesota, woman has been sentenced to three years of probation for helping her husband set fires during protests over George Floyd’s death and fleeing with him to Mexico.
A federal judge sentenced 24-year-old Mena Dhaya Yousif on Tuesday, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported. She had pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact in connection with the May 28, 2020, fires.
Her husband, 36-year-old Jose Angel Felan Jr., was sentenced in October to 6 1/2 years in federal prison for setting the fires, including a fire at a St. Paul high school. Yousif is visible in surveillance video standing next to him as he was starting a fire at a Goodwill store.
Immigration authorities captured them in Mexico in February 2021. Prosecutors last month recommended Yousif serve two years on probation, noting that she has no criminal history and didn’t help her husband or anyone else damage any property. Prosecutors also pointed out that she was several months into a high-risk pregnancy when her husband started the fires.
A third defendant in the high school fire, Mohamed Hussein Abdi, was sentenced to five years’ probation almost a year ago.
Nevada
Official: Driver in crash that killed 2 was above DUI limit
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Las Vegas woman had a blood-alcohol level nearly twice Nevada’s legal limit when her SUV struck and killed a New Mexico couple crossing a busy street last week near downtown Las Vegas casinos, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
Mykael Lanice-Lynn Terrell, 28, was arrested at her apartment shortly after the Dec. 28 crash that killed William Clayton Baxter Jr. and Kristie Eileen Baxter of Hobbs, New Mexico. Police said in an arrest report that Terrell “denied drinking any alcohol or using any marijuana products.”
However, a blood sample obtained a short time later showed Terrell’s blood-alcohol percent was 0.15%, prosecutor Eric Bauman told The Associated Press. Bauman did not immediately say if Terrell was believed to have used marijuana.
Terrell is free on $100,000 bond. She made a brief appearance Wednesday before a Las Vegas judge who assigned a deputy public defender to her case and warned Terrell not to violate strict terms of release, including a ban on driving and electronic location monitoring.
The public defender, Talia Walkenshaw, did not immediately respond later to a message from the AP.
Terrell faces six felony charges, including two counts of driving under the influence causing death that each carry a mandatory minimum sentence of two to 20 years in state prison. The other charges are reckless driving causing death and failure to stop at the scene of a fatal crash.
She was not asked Wednesday to enter a plea. Justice of the Peace Joe Bonaventure set her next court date for Jan. 18.
In the police arrest report, an emergency medical technician told investigators he was parked with a police officer in a DUI response van about a block south of the crash scene at 4th and Fremont streets when he saw a red SUV later linked to Terrell driving “at a high rate of speed” up 4th Street, passing a car and nearly hitting another pedestrian moments before the Baxters were struck.
Police said the couple was crossing 4th Street against a “don’t walk” signal. The intersection, with a marked walkway beneath traffic signals, is often crowded with people making their way among casinos, stores, kiosks, bars and restaurants beneath a four-block-long lighted video canopy.
Muskegon
Woman charged in teen son’s death bound over for trial
MUSKEGON, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan woman was bound over for trial Wednesday on charges of murder and child abuse in the death of a malnourished 15-year-old son.
Shanda Vander Ark, 43, of Norton Shores, “is intently torturing her own child,” Muskegon County District Judge Maria Ladas Hoopes said in her ruling. “His physical state is appalling.”
That child, Timothy Ferguson, weighed 69 pounds (31.3 kilograms) when he was found dead in July, The Muskegon Chronicle reported. A medical examiner determined the boy died from malnourishment and hypothermia.
Prosecutors revealed text messages Van Ark sent to her oldest son, 20-year-old Paul Ferguson, instructing him to taunt his younger brother with a frozen pizza roll and to pour hot sauce on the younger brother’s genitals. Paul Ferguson wouldn’t do the latter.
The woman and Paul Ferguson also allegedly subjected Timothy Ferguson to ice baths, restrained him with shackles and zip ties and starved him for a month.
Paul Ferguson spoke of giving the younger brother an ice bath the day before his death, leaving him in the tub for at least four hours. Paul Ferguson said he did so only because Van Ark said to.
Pictures of Timothy Ferguson’s lifeless body shown in court showed bruises and his ribs nearly visible through his skin.
Timothy Ferguson had some mental disabilities and was instead being home-schooled, prosecutors have said.
Vander Ark was found competent to stand trial last month.
Paul Ferguson faces one count of first-degree child abuse in his brother’s death.
Mexico City
Ex-UFC fighter Phil Baroni charged with murder
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Former mixed martial arts fighter Phil Baroni has been arrested in Mexico for allegedly killing his girlfriend, the prosecutors’ office in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit said Wednesday.
The office said a woman was found dead on Jan. 1 in the beach town of San Fernando, just north of the resort of Puerto Vallarta.
The office identified the suspect only by his nationality, American, and his first name in a statement. But a state official later confirmed his last name, and said an initial hearing in the case would be held Monday.
Baroni is listed as a welterweight with a 15-18-0 record on the Ultimate Fighting Championship web page.
While the official report contained few details, local media reported that a Mexican woman was found dead in a hotel room with bruises.
According to the newspaper Tribuna de la Bahia, Baroni summoned police and said the woman had slipped and hit her head after he threw her into the shower.
It was not clear if Baroni had a lawyer.
It was the second recent violent incident for the UFC in Mexico. UFC President Dana White was seen on video released by TMZ slapping his wife, Anne, while the two were on vacation in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, last month.
White told TMZ in an interview this week that he was “embarrassed” and concerned for how his three children were affected.
“You’ve heard me say for years, ‘There’s never ever an excuse for a guy to put his hands on a woman,’ and now here I am on TMZ talking about it,” White told the website.
