Minnesota
Woman convicted of killing 6-year-old son
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota woman who asked a store clerk for ammunition that would “blow the biggest hole” was found guilty Wednesday of fatally shooting her 6-year-old son just 10 days after regaining full custody of him, in a case that raised questions about the conduct of child welfare workers.
Jurors in Hennepin County District Court deliberated for less than two hours before finding Julissa Thaler, a 29-year-old Spring Park woman with a history of mental illness and drug abuse, guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Eli Hart.
The charge carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 16.
Investigators said Eli was shot inside his mother’s car in a parking lot at Lake Minnetonka Regional Park in Minnetrista. Police found the body in the trunk May 20 after pulling her over for a traffic violation.
During closing arguments, defense lawyer Bryan Leary said she participated in the boy’s death but was not the one who shot him. He said no eyewitnesses, photos or videos connected her to the killing, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.
“She’s not charged with the crime they have proved,” Leary said. “She destroyed evidence, lied to police, ran away, but they have not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the gun was in her hands when it was fired nine times into her son.”
Thaler did not testify, and her defense called no witnesses.
Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Dan Allard said overwhelming evidence, including cellphone data linking her to all the sites involved in the death, showed Thaler killed her son, either for life insurance money, because of her mental health or after the stress of a custody battle with the boy’s father.
He noted that the boy’s DNA was found in Thaler’s hair and on her skin and clothes. If she didn’t shoot him, Allard said, why didn’t she tell police when pulled over, “Oh my God, someone shot my son — he’s in the trunk!”
Her ex-boyfriend, Tory Hart, a bait and tackle shop manager from Chetek, Wisconsin, has filed a lawsuit alleging that child welfare workers ignored warning signs before his son’s death. He had filed a petition seeking custody shortly before the killing and at trial told jurors his son was “everything to me.”
Hart’s lawsuit and other documents obtained by the Star Tribune spell out a string of issues.
Among other things, police responded to Thaler’s Farmington home 21 times in 10 months, she was arrested for stealing drugs from a health clinic and had to find a new drug-testing facility because of “bizarre behavior.”
Thaler lost custody of Eli twice, first in October 2020 and then for most of 2021.
Robert Pikkarainen, another ex-boyfriend of Thaler, testified at trial that she and Eli had an argument the night before he died because he didn’t want to go to bed.
She left the apartment and put a recently purchased shotgun in the car, grabbed her son and went downstairs, he said.
Pikkarainen, who was not charged, said he fell asleep and asked where she had gone when he woke up the next morning.
“She was kind of like, ‘I had to go do something,’” Pikkarainen said.
Later that day Thaler was stopped while driving with one tire completely gone, the rim scraping the road and the back windshield blown out.
Officers escorted her home before they continued searching her vehicle. Eli’s body was in the trunk wrapped in a blanket.
Maine
Hospital emergency preparedness worker sentenced to 5 years
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A former emergency preparedness director at Maine Medical Center was sentenced Wednesday to five years in federal prison for misrepresenting himself, stealing thousands of dollars and buying two boats.
Joshua Cory Frances also was ordered to repay more than $87,000 in restitution to several organizations and return one of the boats. He’d faced up to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud and federal program fraud.
Frances, 46, was commander of a task force comprised primarily of physician assistants, emergency medical technicians and other medical workers to help out in emergencies in northern New England.
Prosecutors said he used a government email address to represent himself as an employee of the Department of Homeland Security and used that email address to enroll in a program to receive excess gear from the Department of Defense. Through the program, he bought a sailboat and a 27-foot (8-meter) Boston Whaler.
Frances pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal program fraud and wire fraud last fall. Under terms of the plea agreement, he can appeal if the sentence was greater than 51 months.
Illinois
Alleged Chicago brothel operator pleads guilty to conspiracy
CHICAGO (AP) — A 35-year-old woman who prosecutors said operated a multistate prostitution business from a three-story Chicago building that functioned like a brothel pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal conspiracy charge.
A federal indictment unsealed in 2019 said Jessica Nesbitt took in millions of dollars through prostitution services that she and her employees provided in Illinois; Washington, D.C.; California; Florida; Indiana; Nevada and Wisconsin.
Nesbitt, who has been free on bond since 2019 and cares for a teenage son, faces up to five years in prison. Her sentencing hearing is scheduled to happen May 3.
“Ms. Nesbitt has accepted full responsibility for all of her deeds,” her attorney, Barry Sheppard, told reporters at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse.
Nesbitt admitted arranging prostitution services with herself and employees at rates of $300 to $1,000 per hour. She admitted in a plea agreement with prosecutors that she took in more than $1 million in payments from clients over seven years through her business, Kink Extraordinaire.
New York
New Year’s Eve machete attack suspect pleads not guilty
NEW YORK (AP) — A Maine man charged with attacking police officers with a machete near New York’s Times Square on New Year’s Eve pleaded not guilty Wednesday to attempted murder and assault charges in a new state indictment.
Authorities have said Trevor Thomas Bickford of Wells, Maine, began studying radical Islamic ideology last summer. They say the 19-year-old decided in November to wage jihad against U.S. officials and officials of other governments he thought to be anti-Muslim.
Bickford entered the plea to the 18-count indictment during an appearance in state court in Manhattan. His lawyer, Rosemary Vassallo, would only confirm the plea and declined further comment in an email to The Associated Press.
Bickford is also facing federal terrorism charges.
Three officers were injured in the attack at the edge of the high-security zone where throngs of revelers had gathered, about two hours before the new year began. Prosecutors say Bickford shouted “Allahu akbar” — the Arabic phrase for God is great — before striking the officers in the head with the machete and trying to grab an officer’s gun. One officer suffered a fractured skull.
Bickford was shot in the shoulder by police and taken to a hospital. He’s now detained without bail.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced the state indictment earlier Wednesday. The charges include six counts of attempted murder and 10 assault charges.
“Trevor Bickford allegedly carried out planned attacks on three members of the NYPD in Times Square on New Year’s Eve as they did their duty to protect our city,” Bragg said in a statement. “The charges contained in the indictment demonstrate just how seriously we are treating this incident.”
The Legal Aid Society, a public defender organization representing Bickford, has urged the public “to refrain from drawing hasty conclusions and to respect the privacy of our client’s family.”
Connecticut
Former college student pleads guilty to deadly sword attack
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A former University of Connecticut student pleaded guilty to murder and other charges Wednesday for killing a man and severely wounding another with a sword in 2020 — one of two deadly attacks that led to a six-day manhunt in several states that ended with his capture in Maryland.
Peter Manfredonia, 26, from Newtown, Connecticut, agreed to a 55-year prison sentence during a hearing at Rockville Superior Court. Sentencing was set for April 20. He also is expected to plead guilty in connection with the second attack next week in state court in Milford, his lawyer said.
Manfredonia answered questions from the judge about the plea agreement during the hearing, but did not say anything else. He pleaded guilty to murder, assault and home invasion.
State’s Attorney Matthew Gedansky said the victims and their families in both cases supported the plea bargain, which was the result of months of discussions.
“It was a global resolution plea agreement between everybody — a lot of discussion between the two state’s attorneys, the families of the victims ... and the two judges,” Gedansky said in a phone interview.
Manfredonia’s lawyer, Michael Dolan, called the plea agreement “a fair resolution” based on the evidence and seriousness of the charges. He said Manfredonia will plead guilty in the second case on Feb. 16 and receive another 55-year sentence, to run concurrently with the sentence in the other case.
Police and prosecutors said Manfredonia killed Ted DeMers, 62, and seriously wounded an 80-year-old man who lost several fingers and part of his ear in a Samurai sword attack in Willington on May 22, 2020.
It’s not clear why Manfredonia attacked the men. But an acquaintance of Manfredonia’s lived near DeMers’ home and told police she stopped seeing him recently.
After the sword attack, police said Manfredonia broke into another man’s house in Willington and held him hostage for about 24 hours before taking off with his truck and firearms. The man later told police that Manfredonia told him “he just flipped.”
Two days later, Manfredonia went to the Derby home of a high school friend, Nicholas Eisele, 23, and fatally shot him, authorities said. Manfredonia then forced Eisele’s girlfriend into her car and fled the state, police said.
After Manfredonia let the woman go near Columbia, New Jersey, investigators tracked him to Pennsylvania, where police said he took an Uber to a Walmart in East Stroudsburg. Authorities searched the area but didn’t find him. A man fitting his description was later spotted near Scranton, Pennsylvania, prompting another search there.
Police believe Manfredonia stole a car and abandoned it in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, before taking another Uber to Hagerstown, Maryland, where he was captured without incident when police spotted him near a truck stop.
Dolan, Manfredonia’s lawyer, said Manfredonia was having mental health problems at the time and it was difficult for him to get help during the first months of the coronavirus pandemic.
“His mental health issues weren’t being addressed and unfortunately he had a psychotic episode,” Dolan told The Associated Press Wednesday.
