Georgia
Man gets life sentence for killing of whistleblower
BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — A Mexican citizen was sentenced Monday to life in a U.S. prison for killing a man who reported him and his brother to authorities for cheating migrant workers out of millions of dollars.
A U.S. District Court judge in Brunswick, Georgia, sentenced 46-year-old Juan Rangel-Rubio nearly six months after a jury convicted him of conspiring to kill a witness and other criminal counts.
According to federal prosecutors, Rangel-Rubio and his brother recruited migrant workers living illegally in the U.S. to work for a tree-trimming business in southeast Georgia, then routed more than $3.5 million of the workers’ earnings to their own accounts.
Employee Eliud Montoya filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and was fatally shot in August 2017 outside his home near Savannah. Prosecutors said Rangel-Rubio pulled the trigger after plotting the killing with his brother, Pablo Rangel-Rubio, and a getaway driver, Higinio Perez-Bravo.
Both co-defendants had previously received prison sentences for conspiring to kill Montoya, a U.S. citizen. Prosecutors said the Rangel-Rubio brothers and Perez-Bravo were all Mexican citizens living in the U.S. illegally when the killing occurred.
“Eliud Montoya was murdered for doing the right thing and revealing Juan Rangel-Rubio’s scheme to profit off his use of undocumented workers,” Jill E. Steinberg, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, said in a news release. “As a result of the diligent efforts of our law enforcement partners, Juan Rangel-Rubio will be held accountable for his despicable crimes.”
Mississippi
No evidence man shot at church started fight or reached first for gun
LAUREL, Miss. (AP) — Evidence shows a reserve sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot a man at a Mississippi church punched the victim in the face and chased him into a parking lot before shooting him and kicking him in the head, according to testimony at a recent bond hearing.
However, WDAM-TV reports, there’s no evidence that the victim started a physical fight or first reached for the gun of the reserve deputy, George Ryan Walters, according to testimony from Mississippi Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Zachary Summers describing church security video.
The Jones County Sheriff’s Department had said James Corey Donald was shot during an altercation with Walters. Initial statements from Jones County Sheriff Joe Berlin indicated Donald may have reached for Walter’s gun.
Walters has been charged with second-degree murder in the April 3 shooting of death of the 45-year-old Donald at The Rock Church in Laurel. A lawyer for Walters didn’t immediately respond to an email Monday seeking comment.
Walters is an unpaid Jones County reserve deputy who attends the church and is a member of the church’s security team. A 2016 Mississippi law provides legal protections to people designated by churches to undergo firearms training and provide security.
Walters passed out during the bond hearing and was taken from the courthouse in an ambulance.
Summers said autopsy results suggest Donald died from a gunshot wound to the back. He testified that there were also signs of internal bleeding around the brain and abrasions to Donald’s head.
Jones County Circuit Judge Dal Williamson has assigned Simpson County District Attorney Chris Hennis to prosecute the case. Hennis will decide whether to seek an indictment once MBI agents complete their inquiry.
Oklahoma
Man could get new trial amid prosecutor misconduct
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma man convicted of murder for stabbing another man to death in 2018 could get a new trial after the district attorney acknowledged two of his former prosecutors watched jurors deliberate via a video feed into the courtroom.
Robert Kraft, 34, of Choteau, Oklahoma, was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder in July 2022, and the jury recommended a life prison sentence.
But Kraft’s attorney has filed a motion for a mistrial after District Attorney Matt Ballard acknowledged two of the prosecutors on the case, Isaac Shields and George Gibbs, Jr., watched jurors deliberate.
A status hearing in the case was held on Monday, but the judge has yet to rule on the mistrial motion.
Kraft’s attorney, M.J. Denman, Jr., said it’s a miscarriage of justice that the two prosecutors illegally observed jury deliberations and gave the prosecution an advantage that he was not afforded.
“It’s like playing cards and not realizing you have a mirror behind you where they can see your hand,” Denman said in a telephone interview after Monday’s hearing. “I just would never expect two people whose job is supposed to be to enforce the law to break the law. They are supposed to have a higher standard.”
Both Shields and Gibbs resigned from the Rogers County District Attorney’s Office after the incident. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation launched a probe into the matter, and former Attorney General John O’Connor appointed another prosecutor, Brian Hermanson, to consider whether charges should be filed against the two prosecutors. Hermanson didn’t respond Monday to a message seeking comment on the status of his investigation.
Ballard said that while he’s disappointed in the actions of his former prosecutors, he said their viewing of the jury deliberations did not affect the outcome of the trial, and that the jury’s verdict should stand.
“It’s a very unfortunate situation, and I absolutely do not condone the actions of either of these former prosecutors,” Ballard said, “but one of the positive aspects is that we’ve been able to determine through our investigation as well as OSBI’s investigation that it appears there was never any contact with any of the jurors and that it was limited to observing through video screens the deliberations themselves.”
Listening to or observing a jury while they are deliberating, or even attempting to do so, is a felony under Oklahoma law, punishable by up to two years in prison and a fine of up to $1,000.
An attorney for Shields said neither he nor Gibbs meant to do anything illegal.
“There was no intent whatsoever from either prosecutor to do anything improper nor to do anything that would influence the jury or undermine the integrity of the trial,” said attorney Sheila Naifeh. “It is with great regret that this has become a focal point of this trial.”
