#forensic-evidence

#forensic-evidence

A Manhattan jury is now deciding whether Randy Santos, 31, was legally insane when he allegedly bludgeoned four homeless men to death with a metal bar in Chinatown in October 2019, or whether he should be held fully responsible and face the possibility of life in prison. Closing arguments wrapped up Thursday, Feb. 19, in a case that has haunted Lower Manhattan since those predawn sidewalk killings. Santos has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. His attorneys say he was living with untreated schizophrenia and hearing voices that ordered him to kill, setting up a high-stakes clash over his mental state on the night of the attacks.

Chris Nanos, the Pima county sheriff leading the investigation in Tucson, has been accused of bypassing federal analysts, according to an unnamed source at the FBI who spoke to Reuters. The sheriff reportedly sent the evidence in question to a private lab in Florida. It included DNA evidence and gloves recovered in a search close to the home just north-east of Tucson from where Nancy Guthrie, Savannah Guthrie's mother, was reported missing on 1 February.

Several members of the public allegedly saw Debella carry out the senseless attack on May 9 2024 before "casually walking away", the court heard. He was arrested within hours of Ms Mukey's death and detectives built a case using CCTV, DNA and evidence from his internet use. Met Police said Debella had an interest in violence, trawling the internet before and after the killing for violent videos, as well as news articles about the stabbing.

Footage shows Andrew Pickering, 50, raiding a service station in Ouston, Durham, before repeatedly wobbling on a stepladder in a haphazard bid to flee the scene through a hole in the roof. In the CCTV clips, released by Durham Constabulary, Pickering clambers up the ladder used to make his entry before making dramatic falls back to the ground four times - before eventually opting to exit via the door.

After starting deliberations midday Friday, jurors in the Brian Walshe murder trial have reached a verdict. Walshe is charged with first-degree murder for allegedly killing his wife, Ana, on New Year's Day 2023. Just before jury selection began, he pleaded guilty to two lesser charges: willfully misleading a police investigation and willfully conveying away a human body or the remains thereof.

State Police forensic scientist Matthew Sheehan spent Monday afternoon walking jurors through blood and bloody items he said stretched from the basement of the Walshe home in Cohasset to a trash bin outside Brian Walshe's mother's home in Swampscott. Walshe is standing trial for allegedly killing his wife, Ana, on New Year's Day 2023. Prosecutors say he then dismembered her body and tossed her remains in dumpsters around the region, including one near his mother's home. Investigators never found her body.

Detectives instead focused on a dispute Jackson was having with his landlord. "As you can imagine, in 1993 they did not have a lot of the things that we have available to us today to find leads - no electronic footprint like we have these days," Smyth said. "They relied heavily on witnesses, fingerprints, that sort of thing. DNA was in its infancy."

He created the documentary "Straight Outta Hunters Point" in 2003, and his film "Sucker Free City," directed by Spike Lee, aired on Showtime. In 2024, he took over editorship of the San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper, and just last month, the Society of Professional Journalists of Northern California awarded him the Silver Heart Award for revitalizing the paper when it was "on the brink of closure." The award noted his work in Black media and mentoring members of the community.

In a statement, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau confirmed the arrests, but declined to give any details until after the suspects' interrogation, which can go on for up to four days. France's interior minister Laurent Nuñez posted a message on X congratulating the police and calling for details of the "ongoing investigation", involving 100 officers, to remain a secret. Authorities then followed the suspects in a bid to find their accomplices and the jewels, intervening upon their attempt to flee the country.

Christopher Silva, 43, was arrested Wednesday morning at his Stoneham home by the FBI Boston's Violent Crimes Task Force. He was charged with maliciously damaging the ATM with an explosive, the Woburn Police Department said in a Facebook post. Silva allegedly placed an explosive device on an ATM at Eastern Bank on Mishawum Road on Sept. 4 around 4 a.m., police said. Investigators found the ATM was tampered with, and it "sustained damage consistent with some type of an explosive device being detonated," the statement said.

Suspects have been arrested in connection with last Sunday's heist of crown jewels from the Louvre in Paris, the Paris prosecutor said on Sunday, confirming earlier media reports. Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau did not say how many suspects had been taken into custody, but media spoke of two men. Beccuau also lamented the fact that the information had been prematurely leaked, saying this could hinder the work of investigators "mobilized to recover the stolen jewels and apprehend all of the perpetrators."