3 arrested for alleged acid attack on New Jersey woman
(WILLIAMSTOWN, N.J.) — Three Florida residents have been arrested after they were hired for an alleged acid attack on a woman in New Jersey last month, officials said Tuesday.
Police responded to a home in Monroe Township on July 26, where a 42-year-old woman was attacked upon arriving home from work, according to the Gloucester County, New Jersey, Prosecutor’s Office.
“As the victim opened her car door, she was approached by an unknown female who threw a cup and its liquid contents directly at the victim,” the prosecutor’s office said in a press release.
The alleged female assailant then fled the scene.
The victim was airlifted to a burn center, where she is still being treated for chemical burns over 35% of her body, the officials said.
“The liquid used in the attack is believed to be a highly caustic acid,” the prosecutor’s office said.
Following an extensive investigation, police said they were able to trace the getaway vehicle to two suspects, who they identified as 38-year-old Betty Jo Lane and 39-year-old Jmarr McNeil, both of Jacksonville, Florida.
Prosecutors said Lane and McNeil were hired to carry out the attack by 49-year-old William DiBernardino, of Boynton Beach, Florida.
The victim “had a prior relationship” with DiBernardino, the prosecutor’s office said.
All three suspects were taken into custody in Florida, the office said. Lane and McNeil were extradited to New Jersey on Tuesday, according to the Boynton Beach police.
They have each been charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, first-degree attempted murder, aggravated assault, unlawful possession of a weapon and stalking.
It was not immediately clear if the suspects had retained attorneys.
(LOS ANGELES) — After hours of legal wrangling on Thursday, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to nine tax-related charges in a last-minute bid to avoid a lengthy and potentially embarrassing trial, abandoning an earlier proposal to plead guilty while maintaining his innocence on the underlying conduct.
U.S. Judge Mark Scarsi accepted Hunter Biden’s guilty plea to his nine-count tax case. Sentencing in the case is scheduled for Dec. 16.
Scarsi clarified that Hunter Biden faces a maximum sentence of 17 years in prison and a fine of as much as $1.35 million.
“Do you agree that you committed every element of every crime alleged…in the indictment?” Judge Scarsi asked.
“Yes,” Hunter Biden said before pleading guilty to each count of the indictment.
It was perhaps the most stunning twist in a legal drama that has for years been defined by unexpected turns – and immediately raised the specter of a presidential pardon, despite President Joe Biden’s previous assurance that he would not grant his son clemency.
Prosecutors accused Hunter Biden in December of engaging in a four-year scheme to avoid paying $1.4 million in taxes while spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on exotic cars, clothing, escorts, drugs and luxury hotels.
Hunter Biden had originally pleaded not guilty to a nine-count indictment that includes six misdemeanor charges of failure to pay, plus a felony tax evasion charge and two felony charges of filing false returns.
But on Thursday, just moments before prospective jurors were to be summoned into the Los Angeles courtroom where his trial was scheduled to begin, Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Hunter Biden, announced his intention to submit a so-called “Alford plea,” which would allow Hunter Biden to plead guilty on all counts but preclude him from acknowledging guilt on the underlying conduct.
When prosecutors opposed that path – and Judge Scarsi expressed some hesitation in granting it – attorneys for Hunter Biden said he would enter a traditional guilty plea.
“Mr. Biden is prepared to proceed today and finish this,” Lowell said Thursday afternoon in court.
In pleading guilty to the tax charges, Hunter Biden managed to avoid what was expected to be a grueling and potentially embarrassing weekslong trial, during which prosecutors had planned to examine interludes from his time suffering drug addiction and his overseas business ventures.
Attorneys in special counsel David Weiss’ office had planned to introduce more than two dozen witnesses, including Hunter Biden’s ex-wife and her sister.
Dressed in a dark suit and thick-rimmed glasses, Hunter Biden on Thursday addressed the court to acknowledge that he understood the potential consequences of a guilty plea. His voice showed little emotion and he occasionally glanced into the gallery, where his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, was seated.
Prosecutor Leo Wise, who earlier in the day called the Alford plea proposal “an injustice,” then read the entire 56-page indictment aloud in court to establish a factual record.
Thursday’s court appearance comes three months after Hunter Biden was convicted by a Delaware jury on three felony charges related to his purchase of a firearm in 2018 while allegedly addicted to drugs. His sentencing in that case is scheduled for Nov. 13.
What did prosecutors allege?
In their 56-page indictment, prosecutors alleged that Hunter Biden willfully avoided paying taxes by subverting his company’s own payroll system, that he failed to pay his taxes on time despite having the money to do so, and that he included false information in his 2018 tax returns.
“[T]he defendant spent this money on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes,” the indictment alleged.
Prosecutors also highlighted millions of dollars that Hunter Biden received from overseas business in Ukraine, China, and Romania in exchange for “almost no work.”
Although Hunter Biden eventually paid back all his back taxes and penalties with the help of a third party — identified by ABC News as Hunter Biden confidant Kevin Morris — Judge Scarsi blocked defense attorneys from introducing that information to the jury.
“Evidence of late payment here is irrelevant to Mr. Biden’s state of mind at the time he allegedly committed the charged crimes,” Scarsi wrote in an order last week.
Last June, Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor offenses, acknowledging that he failed to pay taxes on income he received in 2017 and 2018. The deal also allowed him to enter into a pretrial diversion agreement to avoid criminal charges related to his 2018 firearm purchase.
Had the deal worked out, Hunter Biden would have likely faced probation for the tax offenses and had his gun charge dropped if he adhered to the terms of his diversion agreement.
However, the plea deal fell apart during a contentious hearing before U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who took issue with the structure of the deal.
By September, the special counsel had unsealed an indictment in Delaware charging Hunter Biden for lying on a federal form when he purchased a firearm in 2018.
The federal indictment in Los Angeles for the tax crimes followed in December.
ABC News’ Olivia Rubin contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Marking a new journey in NASA’s exploration of Mars, the Perseverance rover is set to begin a monthslong, steep and challenging ascent up a crater, the space agency announced Wednesday.
The Perseverance rover, nicknamed “Percy,” is the centerpiece of NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, working to collect data in preparation for future human exploration of the Red Planet.
The car-sized spacecraft has spent two and a half years exploring the Mars Jezero Crater floor and river delta and beginning the week of Aug. 19, will start the ascent up the western rim of the crater.
“Perseverance has completed four science campaigns, collected 22 rock cores, and traveled over 18 unpaved miles,” Art Thompson, Perseverance project manager at of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said in a press release Wednesday.
“As we start the Crater Rim Campaign, our rover is in excellent condition, and the team is raring to see what’s on the roof of this place,” Thompson added.
In what will be the “most challenging” journey for the rover to date, Perseverance will rely on auto-navigation capabilities while encountering slopes of up to 23 degrees on the pre-planned path up the crater.
When Perseverance summits the crater, which scientists have dubbed “Aurora Park,” the rover will have gained approximately 1,000 feet in elevation.
Researchers are looking forward to the new frontier of data that awaits the rover on the crater rim, saying the mission expects “many more discoveries to come.”
Eleni Ravanis, a University of Hawaiì at Mānoa scientist on Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z instrument team and one of the Crater Rim Campaign science leads, said the findings will have “significant implications” in understanding the Red Planet.
“Our samples are already an incredibly scientifically compelling collection, but the crater rim promises to provide even more samples that will have significant implications for our understanding of Martian geologic history,” Ravanis said in the release.
(NEW YORK) — Ernesto has become a Category 1 hurricane Wednesday after hitting Puerto Rico overnight and leaving power outages and flooding in its wake.
The center of then-Tropical Storm Ernesto passed within 40 miles of San Juan, Puerto Rico, early Wednesday, producing strong winds and heavy rain.
More than 570,000 customers are without power in Puerto Rico, according to LUMA, a service provider. The island’s eastern and central regions are the most impacted.
The storm was moving away from Puerto Rico on Wednesday morning with hurricane strength winds of 75 mph.
The highest rainfall total recorded so far is 9.6 inches in Naguabo, Puerto Rico.
More rain is possible this morning and into early afternoon before the storm moves out of Puerto Rico.
On Culebra island, east of Puerto Rico, sustained winds of 68 mph were reported with a gust up to 86 mph. A METAR Observation Station at the Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico reported sustained winds of 48 mph and a gust of 74 mph.
Tropical storm warnings were issued for Puerto Rico and a hurricane watch was in effect for the British Virgin Islands.
President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration for Puerto Rico on Tuesday night.
Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi had warned residents to stay home starting on Tuesday evening, when the tropical storm-force winds are forecast to reach the island. Total rainfall could reach up to 10 inches in some spots.
A flash flood warning was issued for parts of Puerto Rico early Wednesday morning, as several inches of rain already caused flooding. Heavy rain and gusty winds will continue in Puerto Rico into the afternoon as Ernesto moves away from the island.
ABC News’ Jessica Gorman contributed to this report.