Connecticut
State sues four firearm companies in crackdown on ghost guns
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut on Tuesday sued four gun companies it accused of mailing illegal firearm parts with no serial numbers to an undercover state investigator, the latest legal filing by states and cities seeking to crack down on untraceable ghost guns.
Announcing the civil lawsuit, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong displayed AR-15 “80% lower receivers” that the companies sent to the investigator. The components can be used to make automatic and semi-automatic rifles.
“Ghost guns are an untraceable menace that exist for one reason — to evade law enforcement and registration,” Tong said. “They are a threat to public safety, and they are illegal in Connecticut.”
The civil lawsuit accuses the companies of violating state consumer protection laws, which carry fines of up to $5,000 per violation. Tong suggested the companies also violated the state’s 2019 criminal ghost gun ban. But he would not comment on any criminal investigation.
Police across the country are seeing a proliferation of ghost guns.
In Hartford, police seized 57 ghost guns last year, up from 21 in 2021 and seven in 2020, Tong said. Connecticut is one of 11 states that regulate the sales and manufacturing of unmarked gun parts, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
Connecticut joins other states and cities that have sued gun companies over ghost guns, including San Francisco, New York and New York City.
In state court in Hartford, Tong’s office sued Indie Guns of Orlando, Florida; Steel Fox Firearms of DeLand, Florida; Hell Fire Armory of Wilmington, North Carolina; and AR Industries of Orem, Utah.
Indie Guns owner Lawrence Destefano, whose company also is being sued by New York state, New York City and two other cities, called the lawsuits baseless. He said they are an attack on what he called craft gun ownership and a government attempt to track more gun owners.
“The only reason these lawsuits were filed was to force a settlement that requires the defendant to turn over customer data,” he said in a phone interview. “I will never turn over unfettered, blanket, indiscriminate customer data.”
The other three companies did not return messages seeking comment Tuesday.
New York
Federal appeals court restores promoter’s lawsuit against FIFA
NEW YORK (AP) — A promoter’s lawsuit against FIFA and the U.S. Soccer Federation can proceed toward trial after a lower-court judge had thrown it out, a federal appeals court decided Tuesday.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in the lawsuit by Relevant Sports, controlled by Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, after the USSF refused to sanction a league match between Ecuador’s Barcelona and Guayaquil in Miami Gardens, Florida.
In its refusal, the USSF had cited a 2018 FIFA policy that its ruling council “emphasized the sporting principle that official league matches must be played within the territory of the respective member association.”
In a decision written by Judge Raymond J. Lohier Jr., the 2nd Circuit said a three-judge panel disagreed with a lower court judge who said Relevent needed to have evidence to prove that the soccer entities had agreed in advance to adopt the 2018 policy.
“Relevent plausibly alleges that the 2018 Policy reflects a contractual commitment of head-to-head competitors to restrict competition,” the appeals court said.
It added that Relevent’s lawsuit alleged that the policy itself violates antitrust laws and its implementation provides direct evidence of collusion among the parties.
The 2nd Circuit rejected arguments by FIFA that it isn’t subject to a lawsuit in New York. It said the USSF is FIFA’s agent and transactions substantial business on behalf of FIFA in New York.
Relevent had first sued in 2019 over the issue in New York Supreme Court after the USSF refused to sanction the 2018-19 league match between Barcelona and Guayaquil.
It later withdrew the state lawsuit and brought the claims to federal court, also in 2019, citing antitrust law.
In 2020, the U.S. Justice Department warned FIFA that a prohibition against staging league matches internationally could violate American antitrust laws.
“Today’s ruling is an important victory for both American soccer and the global growth of the game,” Relevent said in a statement. “By paving the way for the best teams and players from football clubs around the world to compete in competitive matches in the United States, more fans will have the chance to witness the sport being played at its highest level and directly experience all that it has to offer.”
Relevent added “there’s still additional work ahead to make this vision a reality.”
FIFA said in a statement that it “will review the written decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals before deciding next steps.”
USSF CEO JT Batson did not respond to a request for comment.
Relevent is represented by Jeffrey Kessler, the lawyer retained by members of the U.S. women’s national soccer team who settled their wage and gender discrimination lawsuit against the USSF for $24 million.
California
2 convicted in torture-murder of 10-year-old boy
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The mother of a 10-year-old boy and her boyfriend were found guilty Tuesday of torturing and murdering the Southern California child, who was beaten, brutalized and starved.
Heather Barron, 33, and Kareem Leiva, 37, were convicted by the judge in a non-jury trial of first-degree murder involving torture. They also were convicted of child abuse of two other children in their Lancaster home.
They now face sentences of life in prison without chance of parole.
Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies went to the high-desert home of the boy, Anthony Avalos, in response to a 911 call from the mother on June 20, 2018. They were told that he had been injured in a fall.
He died in a hospital the next day. Doctors said he was severely malnourished and dehydrated.
Prosecutors alleged that the boy was intentionally killed by torture. They said that for years the boy was routinely beaten and whipped with a belt along with the other children, repeatedly dropped on his head, smashed into the floor or furniture, burned with cigarettes and denied water and food at times or force-fed.
Prosecutors said Leiva sprayed hot sauce in the children’s faces; forced them to fight one another, with the loser being punished by him; and made the youngsters kneel for lengthy periods on concrete floors, nails or uncooked rice or squat until they fell over.
County District Attorney George Gascón said the couple “tortured the boy every day for two weeks leading up to his death.”
“The brutality that was meted out on this young child was unimaginable,” Gascón said in a statement after the verdicts.
The other two children testified about the abuse at the trial, where the prosecution described Barron and Leiva as “monsters” who collaborated on the torture.
Barron’s defense attorney argued that she was herself abused by Leiva and couldn’t stop him from hurting the children.
After his arrest, Leiva told sheriff’s deputies that he had abused the children, adding: “everything is just my fault.”
Leiva’s attorney had argued against finding him guilty of first-degree murder, telling the judge that there was reasonable doubt that the violence was intended to kill the child.
Last year, Los Angeles County agreed to pay $32 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the boy’s father and three siblings over his death. A home counseling contractor also was sued and previously reached a $3 million deal with the boy’s family.
The lawsuit alleged that the county Department of Children and Family Services disregarded 13 reports of abuse allegations involving Anthony from relatives, teachers, counselors and even law enforcement.
The agency never tried to remove the boy from the home.
In the wake of the settlement, the department said it had taken “significant steps to mitigate the risk of harm to children” and was committed to continuing reform.
California
Judge says San Francisco mayor’s brother can be resentenced
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s incarcerated brother could get a reduction in his 44-year manslaughter sentence after a judge ruled Monday that he can be resentenced according to new sentencing laws.
The judge’s decision that Napoleon Brown, Breed’s older brother, could be resentenced followed recent changes to the definition of murder in California, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Brown has served more than half of a 44-year sentence for a 2000 conviction for armed robbery, carjacking and involuntary manslaughter. He is scheduled to return to court on April 3.
In 2000, Brown and another man robbed a diner in San Francisco, and fled over the Golden Gate Bridge. His then-girlfriend, who was driving the getaway car, was either pushed or fell from the vehicle — and was fatally struck by a drunken driver.
Brown’s attorney, Marc Zilversmit, has argued for a reduced prison term based on the 2018 revision to California’s definition of murder. The new law says that prosecutors can charge a suspect with murder only if he or she killed someone, solicited the killing or acted with “reckless indifference to human life” when someone was slain.
The district attorney’s office has opposed Brown being resentenced and argued that he wasn’t eligible for resentencing because he was the “actual killer.” Brown’s legal team argued that the killer was the drunken driver.
The case made headlines again last year after San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins asked the attorney general’s office to handle the case over fears of a conflict of interest because Breed appointed Jenkins to office to replace ousted District Attorney Chesa Boudin. The attorney general refused, saying the agency could simply make sure Jenkins didn’t touch the case.
In 2018, Breed was fined $2,500 for using official stationery to write Governor Jerry Brown asking to commute her brother’s sentence.
Missouri
Man serving life sentence admits to 1990 slaying
ST. CHARLES, Mo. (AP) — A prisoner who has been behind bars for decades for a St. Louis-area killing has pleaded guilty to one of four other deaths he has been linked to by prosecutors.
Gary Muehlberg, 73, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison Monday in the 1990 death of 21-year-old Sandy Little, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Prosecutors said in September that Muehlberg had confessed to killing Little and three other women in 1990. The confessions came after prosecutors promised not to seek the death penalty.
He has served 28 years of a life sentence for the 1993 killing of Kenneth Atchison, of St. Louis County. Prosecutors said he killed Atchison for $6,000 and put his body in a plywood box in Muehlberg’s Bel-Ridge basement.
Little’s body was found in an abandoned box off Interstate 70 in O’Fallon five months after she disappeared in September 1990.
Muehlberg has plea hearings scheduled this month in the deaths of Robyn Mihan, Brenda Pruitt and Donna Reitmeyer.
The four women disappeared from south St. Louis within six months in 1990. Their bodies were found by passersby in makeshift containers in Lincoln, St. Charles and St. Louis counties: One was bound between two mattresses, one was concealed in a wooden box and two were stuffed into garbage cans.
Prosecutors said all of the women’s killings were connected to an area of south St. Louis that was known at the time for prostitution but authorities have not released a motive for their deaths.
The cases were unsolved until O’Fallon police Detective Sgt. Jodi Weber reopened the investigations in 2008. She eventually found DNA on one of the bodies that matched Muehlberg’s.
