Arrest made in alleged murder of female soldier on Army base
U.S. Army Fort Leonard Wood/Facebook
(FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo.) — An Army specialist has been charged with the murder of a fellow soldier whose body was found on an Army base last week.
Spc. Wooster Rancy, 21, is accused in the murder of Sarah Roque, a 23-year-old sergeant, officials said Thursday.
Last week, Roque was found dead in a dumpster at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri.
Rancy also faces obstruction of justice charges, officials said. He is currently in pretrial confinement ahead of a preliminary hearing.
A combat engineer, Rancy is originally from Miami and joined the Army in 2022, officials said.
It is not yet clear what led to Rancy’s arrest or the motive in the killing.
Roque, of Ligonier, Indiana, was reported missing after she failed to report for duty last week.
In a press conference after her body was found, Maj. Gen. Christopher Beck said her death was being investigated as a homicide.
“As a commander and a leader, this is a tragedy,” Beck said. “This is something that we never want to happen, we never want for the family to have to endure, or for the unit to have to endure.”
Roque served as a mine dog handler, officials said. Since she enlisted in 2020, she was awarded the Army Commendation Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Good Conduct Medal and the Army Service Ribbon.
“Sarah not only served our country bravely and honorably as a soldier, she was also a daughter, a sister and a friend to many,” Beck said.
(NEW YORK) — Daniel Penny “used far too much force for far too long” and though he may be an “honorable veteran” and “nice young man,” he was reckless with Jordan Neely’s life because “he didn’t recognize his humanity,” Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran said in her opening statement Friday during the trial over the fatal chokehold.
“He was aware of the risk his actions would kill Mr. Neely and did it anyway,” Yoran said.
Penny is charged with manslaughter and negligent homicide in the May 2023 death of Neely, a homeless man who was acting erratically on a New York City subway car.
“Jordan Neely took his last breaths on the dirty floor of an uptown F train,” Yoran told a rapt jury.
Neely entered a moderately crowded subway car at the Second Avenue stop and began making threats about hurting people, scaring many of the passengers, Yoran said.
She pointed at Penny as she told the jury, “This man, took it upon himself to take down Jordan Neely. To neutralize him.”
Thirty seconds later, the train arrived at the next station and all the passengers left the train car, except two men who were helping Penny restrain Neely. The prosecutor said Penny hung onto Neely for 51 seconds after Neely’s body went limp.
“By doing so, he pushed Mr. Neely to the point of no return,” Yoran said. “He left Mr. Neely lying on the floor unconscious and didn’t look back.”
Penny has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in Neely’s death. His attorneys have said Neely was “insanely threatening,” but Yoran said Penny’s actions were unnecessarily reckless because he continued the chokehold for 5 minutes and 53 seconds after the subway car was empty of passengers. “A grasp that never changed,” Yoran called it.
“The defendant did not intend to kill him. His initial intent was even laudable,” Yoran said. “But under the law, deadly physical force such as a chokehold is permitted only when it is absolutely necessary and for only as long as is absolutely necessary. And here, the defendant went way too far.”
The prosecutor told jurors they would see video of the chokehold.
“You will see Mr. Neely’s life being sucked out before your very eyes,” Yoran said, appearing to upset one of the jurors who grimaced and briefly shut his eyes.
She also said jurors would see body camera video of Penny’s initial encounter with police, four and a half minutes after letting go of Neely.
When the officer asked Penny what happened, the prosecutor said Penny replied that Neely had been threatening. “Then he said, ‘I just put him out,'” Yoran told the jury.
The defense is set to give its opening statement on Friday following a break.
Protest audible from courtroom
The sounds of a sidewalk protest over the death of Neely were audible in the 13th-floor courtroom ahead of opening statements. Protesters were heard calling Penny a “subway strangler.”
Judge Max Wiley said he would instruct jurors to ignore “noise outside the courthouse.”
Penny, in a slate blue suit, strode confidently into the courtroom and took his seat at the defense table ahead of opening statements.
The jury of seven women and five men, four of whom are people of color, will be asked to do something prosecutors concede is difficult: convict someone of an unintentional crime.
To convict, prosecutors must prove Penny’s use of lethal force was unjustifiable and that Penny acted recklessly and consciously disregarded the substantial risk of putting Neely in the chokehold for so long. Prosecutors do not have to prove Penny intended to kill Neely, which defense attorneys have said Neely did not intend to do.
Wiley denied Penny’s bid to dismiss his involuntary manslaughter case in January.
The case has fueled political narratives about urban crime and captivated a city in which the subway is indispensable.
Differing accounts of the incident
While there is no doubt that Penny’s actions led to Neely’s death on May 1, 2023, witness accounts differ regarding the events that led up to Penny applying the fatal chokehold, according to various sources.
Many witnesses reported that Neely, 30, who was homeless at the time of his death and was known to perform as a Michael Jackson impersonator, had expressed that he was homeless, hungry and thirsty, according to prosecutors. Most of the witnesses also recounted that Neely indicated a willingness to go to jail or prison.
Some witnesses also reported that Neely threatened to hurt people on the train, while others did not report hearing those threats, according to police sources.
Additionally, some witnesses told police that Neely was yelling and harassing passengers on the train. However, others have said that while Neely had exhibited erratic behavior, he had not been threatening anyone in particular and had not become violent, according to police sources who spoke with ABC News following the incident.
According to prosecution court filings, some passengers on the train that day said they didn’t feel threatened. One said they weren’t “really worried about what was going on,” while another called it “like another day typically in New York. That’s what I’m used to seeing. I wasn’t really looking at it if I was going to be threatened or anything to that nature, but it was a little different because, you know, you don’t really hear anybody saying anything like that.”
Other passengers, however, described being fearful, according to court filings. One said they “have encountered many things, but nothing that put fear into me like that,” while another said Neely was making “half-lunge movements” and coming within a “half a foot of people.”
Neely had a documented history of mental health issues and arrests, including alleged instances of disorderly conduct, fare evasion and assault, according to police sources.
Less than 30 seconds after Penny allegedly put Neely into a chokehold, the train arrived at the Broadway-Lafayette Station, according to court records.
“Passengers who had felt fearful on account of being trapped on the train were now free to exit the train. The defendant continued holding Mr. Neely around the neck,” said prosecutor Joshua Steinglass in a court filing objecting to Penny’s dismissal request.
According to prosecutors, footage of the interaction, which began about two minutes after the incident started, captures Penny holding Neely in the chokehold for about four minutes and 57 seconds on a relatively empty train, with a couple of passengers nearby.
Prosecutors said that about three minutes and 10 seconds into the video, Neely ceases all purposeful movement.
“After that moment, Mr. Neely’s movements are best described as ‘twitching and the kind of agonal movement that you see around death,'” prosecutors said.
The case is expected to feature testimony of passengers who were aboard the subway at the time, as well as a roughly six-minute video of the chokehold.
Jury to hear eyewitness statements
Before opening statements on Friday, Wiley granted a defense request to allow some of the statements that eyewitnesses to the chokehold made to police that were captured on body-worn cameras.
One witness, a Ms. Rosario, was captured on body-worn camera 15 minutes after the incident aboard the F train.
“I can see most of that statement coming in as an excited utterance,” Wiley said.
The judge declined to allow a part of her statement in which an officer is heard asking whether she thought Neely was on drugs.
A Mr. Latimer is captured a minute later and Wiley said his statement is “well within the immediacy of the event” and could be admitted.
“This person displays emotion, excitement as he’s describing what happened. It’s narrative,” Wiley said.
Most of the passengers who were aboard the train and who witnessed the event are expected to testify at trial.
Jury will see evidence that Neely did not have a weapon
The judge also previously ruled that the jury will see evidence that shows Neely was unarmed.
Penny’s defense had sought to preclude evidence or testimony about the lack of a weapon recovered from a search of Neely’s body but in a written opinion issued Thursday, Wiley said such evidence and testimony is relevant to the case.
“The fact that Mr. Neely was unarmed provides additional relevant information to aid the jury, namely, it clarifies what could have been perceived by someone in the defendant’s position,” Wiley wrote. “The possibility that a person in the defendant’s situation could have been reasonable in mistakenly believing that Mr. Neely had been armed is appropriate for consideration by the jury and well within their capability.”
The defense worried that including evidence that Neely was unarmed could bolster sympathy for the victim but Wiley said it would help the jury decide whether Penny’s actions were justified.
Penny’s lawyers and Neely’s family speak ahead of the trial
Members of Neely’s family were seated with the spectators for opening statements Friday.
“I loved Jordan. And I want justice for Jordan Neely. I want it today. I want justice for everybody and I want justice for Jordan Neely,” his uncle, Christopher Neely, said before entering court.
Prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney’s office are expected to concede that Neely may have seemed scary to some subway riders, but will argue Penny continued the chokehold well past the point where Neely stopped moving and posed any kind of threat.
Penny’s attorneys have said that they were “saddened at the loss of human life,” but that Penny saw “a genuine threat and took action to protect the lives of others,” arguing that Neely was “insanely threatening” to passengers aboard the subway train.
While Penny’s defense will argue that he had no intent to kill Neely, prosecutor Steinglass has noted that the second-degree manslaughter charge only requires prosecutors to prove Penny acted recklessly, not intentionally.
“We are confident that a jury, aware of Danny’s actions in putting aside his own safety to protect the lives of his fellow riders, will deliver a just verdict,” Penny’s lawyers, Steven Raiser and Thomas Kenniff, said earlier this year, after Penny’s request to dismiss the charge was denied.
“This case is simple. Someone got on a train and was screaming so someone else choked them to death,” Neely family attorney Donte Mills said in a past statement to ABC News. “Those two things do not and will never balance. There is no justification.”
“Jordan had the right to take up his own space. He was allowed to be on that train and even to scream. He did not touch anyone. He was not a visitor on that train, in New York, or in this country,” Mills added.
Avishek Das/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — After waiting six months — and losing $4 billion on paper — former President Donald Trump faces a potential windfall from his social media company.
Half a year after the public company behind Trump’s Truth Social platform went public, the “lockup” agreement that prevented Trump from selling any of his 115 million shares expired on Thursday afternoon.
Beginning to sell his shares could allow Trump to profit handsomely from his stake in the company — which is currently valued at approximately $1.7 billion — but it could crater the stock for the company’s diehard supporters, many of whom invested their money in the company as a sign of their support for the former president.
At the same time, holding onto the investment would be a financial leap of faith for Trump, whose shares comprise a large percentage of his net worth but have lost billions of dollars in value over the last six months.
Asked about the choice last week, Trump vowed not to sell.
“They’re worth billions of dollars, but I don’t want to sell my shares,” Trump said. “I’m not going to sell my shares. I don’t need money.”
Trump’s choice comes amid new financial pressures and a significant reshuffling of his financial portfolio.
While Trump’s net worth has grown to $4.3 billion according to the most recent Forbes estimate, the former president owes over $560 million in civil judgments, which he is actively appealing. The majority of his personal wealth — once built on the namesake properties that shot him to fame — now stems from his shares in his social media company, Trump Media & Technology Group, which have fallen more than 70% since the company went public.
Analysts, meanwhile, have expressed concern about a further decline if Trump loses the November election.
Shares in Trump Media closed at a new low of $14.70 Thursday ahead of the lockup provision expiring, though the company enjoyed a 25% surge last week after Trump announced his plan to hold his shares.
“When he’s promised to do something, he’s kept his word,” said Jerry Dean McLain, a shareholder who purchased a hundred additional shares after Trump’s pledge. “He’s loyal to his followers — to his people — so I don’t have any reason not to believe him.”
‘Nothing like this’
Trump turned to the idea of creating his own social media company in the months following his ban from Twitter and other social media companies after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Truth Social launched in 2022, billing itself as a beacon for free speech on the internet with larger plans to expand into streaming.
“All of a sudden, I went from being No. 1 to having no voice,” Trump said about the benefit of Truth Social. “I’m not going to let that happen again.”
Despite multiple roadblocks — including a dispute with the company’s cofounders and its special purpose acquisition company paying a fine to settle fraud charges with the Securities and Exchange commission — the social media company went public in March.
Shares in the public company peaked at $66 in April, with analysts comparing the company to so-called “meme stocks” like AMC and GameStop, whose share prices surged based on investor enthusiasm rather than financial metrics.
By the summer, Trump Media’s stock price lingered around $30 before slumping to the teens in September, which some experts still believe is overvaluing the company, which only brought in $836,000 in revenue last quarter — a 30% decline from a year earlier. Based on the company’s cash per share, the stock is overvalued by 1,000%, according to University of Florida finance professor Jay Ritter.
With the company losing millions of dollars, reporting limited revenue, and offering an unproven business model, the stock’s performance has frequently tracked with Trump’s personal wins and losses. When Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in New York, the stock declined 14% in after-hours trading following the verdict. Shares then surged as much as 30% early trading on the Monday after Trump survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“It’s much more of a speculative half-proxy for the former president’s reelection prospects and half kind of a long shot early-stage opportunity to get in on a potential new tech company and social media platform,” said Tyler Richey, an analyst at Sevens Report Research.
While it’s not unusual for a company’s stock price to fluctuate based on its corporate leadership, Trump’s relationship to the value of his company stands alone, according to Mike Stegemoller, a finance professor at Baylor University. Trump is the platform’s most notable user, he attracts new members to the platform, and he is the company’s largest shareholder.
“Publicly traded corporations … are somewhat dependent on personalities, but nothing like this,” said Stegemoller. “You’re getting this asset that generates cash flows, and you’re coupling that with a personality that’s pulling revenue to that asset.”
In regulatory filings, the company has acknowledged the risk of being tied to the former president. If Trump were to sell his shares or begin using another social media platform, the company’s stock value could suffer.
Trump, for his part, has vowed to continue posting on Truth Social.
“I love it. I use it as a method of getting out my word,” Trump said last week regarding the platform.
‘A much more profitable deal’
The lockup agreement that’s kept Trump from selling off his shares in the first six months is an arrangement that’s often used by public companies to prevent company leadership from taking actions that could affect the stock price, according to Ritter.
Trump’s 115 million shares means he owns more than half of the company, so selling those shares — which Trump would have to disclose within two days in a public filing — could trigger a massive selloff and tank the company’s stock price.
“As soon as folks know he’s getting out in any large amount, I would imagine shares would fall,” said Stegemoller.
According to Stegemoller, Trump’s announcement last week that he would not sell his shares is reasonable — not only because Trump likely wants the company to succeed, but also because selling his shares too rapidly could cost him money. Because he holds so many shares, Trump would be unlikely to fully offload them all before the stock price plummeted, forcing him to sell his remaining shares at a lower price.
Alternatively, Trump could slowly sell some of his shares, arrange a deal with a buyer, or use the shares as collateral for loans. Selling some of his shares would allow Trump to still own a controlling interest in the company while diversifying his portfolio, according to Stegemoller.
“Selling slowly over time in order to pull money out of his investment is a much more reasonable deal for him, and a much more profitable deal for him, too,” Stegemoller said.
Although Trump has publicly declared that he plans to hold his shares, executives in the company could consider selling their holdings, which could also impact the stock price.
“They might want to get out as quickly as possible, and rather than sell their shares gradually, it might be a rush for the exit,” said Ritter.
‘I’m not leaving’
Trump has suggested that the company’s sluggish stock performance is partially due to speculation about him stepping away from the company — a notion he tried to dispel last week.
“People think that I’m leaving. That’s why they’re down,” Trump said regarding shares in the company. “It’s different if I leave, but I’m not leaving. I love it.”
And some analysts believe the expiration of the lockup provision could prove to be a turning point for the company.
According to Richey, a recent spike in trading volume and other metrics suggest that the stock price might be reaching a bottom, while Trump’s decision to hold his shares could reassure investors.
Speculation about Trump’s chances of winning in the November election could also help the stock price.
“There’s still money in the markets supporting a Donald Trump win if you’re using the stock price as a proxy for the election outcome,” Richey said.
(WASHINGTON) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said earlier this week that former President Donald Trump has “promised” him “control of the public health agencies” should Trump win back the White House in November.
Kennedy, who suspended his independent presidential campaign in August and endorsed Trump, made the remarks on a Zoom call with supporters on Monday night. The agencies Kennedy would reportedly oversee in that case include the federal Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture.
“The key, which President Trump has promised me, is control of the public health agencies, which is HHS and its sub-agencies, CDC, FDA, NIH and a few others. And also the USDA, which is, you know, key to making America healthy, because we’ve got to get off of seed oils and we’ve got to get off of pesticides … and we need to make that transition to regenerative agriculture,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy has been anti-vaccine activist and founded the Children’s Health Defense, a prominent anti-vaccine nonprofit that has campaigned against immunizations and other public health measures like water fluoridation. Medical experts expressed concerns about a rise in medical misinformation through Kennedy’s candidacy.
Kennedy’s remarks drew condemnation from Trump’s former Surgeon General Jerome Adams.
“If RFK has a significant influence on the next administration, that could further erode people’s willingness to get up to date with recommended vaccines, and I am worried about the impact that could have on our nation’s health, on our nation’s economy, on our global security,” Adams said at a public health conference, according to The New York Times reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg.
Trump has said he is committed to brining Kennedy into his administration. Last week, Trump touted Kennedy’s role in helping him “straighten out our health,” but joked that he’s worried about his strong stance on the environment, saying he wants to keep drilling.
“I don’t know if I’m going to have him working too much on the environment. I’m a little concerned about that with Bobby. I don’t know if I want him playing around with our with our liquid gold under our feet,” Trump said at a campaign event in Las Vegas, Nevada, last Friday. “You know, like I said, Bobby will work on health. He’s great.”
Trump first floated the idea of Kennedy leading his administration’s health efforts during the Al Smith Dinner earlier this month. He said Kennedy will “make us a healthier place.”
“We’re gonna let him go wild for a little while, then I’m gonna have to maybe reign him back, because he’s got some pretty wild ideas, but most of them are really good,” Trump said at the dinner. “I think he’s a he’s a good man, and he believes, he believes the environment, the healthy people. He wants healthy people, he wants healthy food. And he’s going to do it. He’s going to have a big chance to do it, because we do need that.”
The Trump campaign said that while no formal decisions have been made about his Cabinet should he win the election, the former president will “work alongside” people like Kennedy in health-related roles.
“No formal decisions about Cabinet and personnel have been made, however, President Trump has said he will work alongside passionate voices like RFK Jr. to Make America Healthy Again by providing families with safe food and ending the chronic disease epidemic plaguing our children,” Trump Campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to ABC News. “President Trump will also establish a special Presidential Commission of independent minds and will charge them with investigating what is causing the decades-long increase in chronic illnesses.”
ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh, Soorin Kim and Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.
