Kyren Lacy, top NFL draft prospect, wanted for negligent homicide after deadly crash
Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images, FILE
(LOUISIANA) — NFL hopeful Kyren Lacy, one of the top wide receiver prospects in this year’s draft, is wanted for negligent homicide in connection with a deadly crash in Louisiana last month, state police announced Friday.
Louisiana State Police said they have issued an arrest warrant for Lacy, 24, of Thibodaux, for allegedly leaving the scene of a fatal crash on Dec. 17.
Lacy, who played for Louisiana State University in the fall before declaring for the draft, is alleged to have been behind the wheel of a 2023 Dodge Charger when he “recklessly passed multiple vehicles at a high rate of speed by crossing the centerline and entering the northbound lane while in a designated No-Passing Zone” on Louisiana Highway 20, state police said in a press release.
The driver of a 2017 Kia Cadenza traveling north swerved to avoid hitting the Dodge, only to cross the centerline and collide head-on with a 2017 Kia Sorento. A passenger in the Kia Sorento, identified by police as 78-year-old Herman Hall of Thibodaux, died from his injuries after being transported to a hospital, authorities said.
Lacy allegedly drove around the crash scene and fled south, “without stopping to render aid, call emergency services, or report his involvement in the crash,” state police said.
In addition to negligent homicide, he is being sought for felony hit and run and reckless operation of a vehicle, police said.
“Troopers are in communication with Lacy and his legal representation to turn himself in,” Louisiana State Police said in the release.
Lacy’s agent said the athlete is “fully cooperating with the authorities.”
“We strongly believe that the facts will ultimately demonstrate the truth, but we respect the need for a full and thorough investigation,” the agent, Rocky Arceneaux of Alliance Sports, said in a statement.
Arceneaux added that the case is “being taken very seriously, and we are committed to resolving it responsibly.”
Lacy was a wide receiver for the LSU Tigers. Two days after the crash, on Dec. 19, he announced that he will be declaring for the 2025 NFL draft.
The star prospect had 58 catches for 866 yards and nine touchdowns this season. Lacy had 26 touchdown catches in his five seasons at LSU. He opted out of the Texas Bowl against Baylor to focus on preparation for the draft.
(STARR COUNTY, Texas) — A Texas official, who this week offered the incoming Trump administration a 1,402-acre plot of land to build “deportation facilities,” says other parts of Texas near the border could be offered up in a similar fashion.
“Absolutely — I have 13 million acres, if any of them can be of help in this process, we’re happy to have that discussion,” Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham told ABC’s Mireya Villarreal in an interview.
The Texas General Land Office purchased the plot of land from a farmer in October originally to facilitate Texas’ efforts to build a border wall. Together with this land, the state office owns about 4,000 acres in Starr County, about 35 miles from McAllen, Texas.
“My office is fully prepared to enter into an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or the United States Border Patrol to allow a facility to be built for the processing, detention, and coordination of the largest deportation of violent criminals in the nation’s history,” Buckingham wrote in a letter addressed to President-elect DonaldTrump, earlier this week.
In an interview via Zoom, Buckingham claimed authorities were frequently “getting reports from the community” that crimes were happening on the property.
“There was a significant mass of humanity and terrible things happening on this property. We heard it again and again and again,” she said.
Buckingham placed the blame squarely on what she called the Biden administration’s “open border policies” and said the county voted Republican for the first time in a century because residents there felt those policies are “directly harming their communities” and jeopardizing their safety.
During the interview, Villarreal noted she had been speaking with residents and community leaders in the region who paint a different picture of the area, one of a safe community that does not have the violent crime that Buckingham has described.
When asked by Villareal to provide details of where those crimes are occurring, Buckingham said most of the migrants are passing through and, using some of the same rhetoric about migrants and crime used by President-elect Donald Trump on the campaign trail, said they “unleash some of their violent criminal habits” in other states across the country.
“Well, a lot of it is migrant-migrant crime, but you’re right, the communities along the border are lovely,” she said. “The people who live there are lovely. Obviously, most of the migrants who come across aren’t interested in sticking around too long. They go to other parts of the country, as we have seen in faraway states — people who came across the Texas border — and then tend to unleash some of their violent criminal habits in other states.”
She added, “But the bottom line is, until we have complete operational control of the border, until we have these violent criminals off of our soil that continue to hurt our sons and daughters, we need to keep working on it and get it done.”
In 2023, in the same county where the Texas commission recently bought the 1,402-acre plot of land, the Biden administration announced it had authorized building about 20 miles of southern border wall using money that was already appropriated under the first Trump administration.
President Joe Biden at the time claimed he had no choice to build the wall, which directly contradicted a promise he made during his 2020 presidential run.
“I tried to get them to reappropriate — to redirect the money,” Biden told reporters at the time. “They didn’t, they wouldn’t. And in the meantime, there’s nothing under the law other than they have to use the money for what is appropriated. I can’t stop that.”
After that announcement, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said there was an “immediate need to construct physical barriers” in the area.
Buckingham said she’s confident she’ll hear back from the incoming Trump administration about her offer of land.
“We have heard through back channels that they’re aware of our letter and they are definitely looking at it,” she said.
Incoming “border czar” Tom Homan, in an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, indicated the incoming administration would be open to using the land Texas is offering.
“Absolutely we will,” he said, adding that when they arrest a migrant, they’ll need a place to detain them.
Democratic governors of border states — such as Arizona and California — have said they will not aid the Trump administration’s mass deportation plans.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs told ABC News Live earlier this week that she would not use state police or the National Guard to help with mass deportation.
ABC News’ Mireya Villareal contributed to this report.
(ATHENS, Ga.) — Police questioned the man accused of killing Laken Riley about multiple scratches on his arms a day after the 22-year-old nursing student was found murdered on the University of Georgia’s campus, body camera footage played Monday during the suspect’s bench trial showed.
Police spoke to the defendant, Jose Ibarra, who is an undocumented migrant, at his apartment in Athens on Feb. 23, while investigating Riley’s death. The Augusta University student was found beaten in a wooded area on the Athens campus on Feb. 22 after she didn’t return from a run, authorities said. Her brutal death became a rallying cry for immigration reform from many conservatives, including President-elect Donald Trump.
Special prosecutor Sheila Ross said last week that Ibarra was “hunting” for women on the campus and encountered Riley while she was on her run. Ross said the evidence shows an extended struggle ensued and Riley “fought for her life” before dying due to blunt force trauma and asphyxiation. Ibarra’s DNA was found under Riley’s fingernails, according to Ross.
Officers questioned Ibarra in connection with the murder after a suspicious jacket was found in a dumpster near his apartment, Ross said. Ring camera footage captured a man discarding the jacket, which had Riley’s hair on it, in the dumpster at 9:44 a.m. on Feb. 22, about 16 minutes after she died, Ross said.
University of Georgia Police Sgt. Joshua Epps testified Monday that he noticed a scratch on Ibarra’s right bicep while questioning him at his apartment.
“On his left arm, he had a forearm scratch that was very similar, which in my mind, looked like fingernail scratches to me,” Epps said.
Epps said he also observed a fresh “puncture” on Ibarra’s left wrist.
Prosecutors entered into evidence on Monday photos of Ibarra’s scratches on his arms and bruising on his palm.
Body camera footage of the officers’ questioning Ibarra was also played in court.
When asked about what happened to his right bicep, Ibarra told officers that he had a scratch but “didn’t exactly explain from where or how,” University of Georgia officer Rafael Sayan, who was called to translate during the questioning, testified on Monday.
When asked what happened to his left wrist, Ibarra first said he didn’t have anything there, then said, “It’s just a scratch,” according to Sayan.
When asked why his knuckle was red, Ibarra said it was because of the cold, Sayan said.
Ibarra was detained following the questioning, Epps said. He was arrested that day on murder charges in connection with Riley’s death.
During testimony on Monday, one of Ibarra’s roommates identified Ibarra as the man discarding the jacket in the dumpster, based on his cap and loafers.
Ibarra, 26, has pleaded not guilty to malice murder and felony murder.
Police have said they believe Ibarra — a migrant from Venezuela who officials said illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 — did not know Riley and that this was a “crime of opportunity.”
Additional charges in the 10-count indictment include aggravated battery, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, obstructing or hindering a person making an emergency telephone call and tampering with evidence. The latter charge alleged that he “knowingly concealed” evidence — including the jacket found in the dumpster — involving the offense of malice murder.
Ibarra waived his right to a jury trial. The case is being presented in the Athens-Clarke County courtroom to Judge H. Patrick Haggard, who will render a verdict.
(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in New York on Thursday raised the possibility of holding Rudy Giuliani in contempt if he fails to turn over property by next week to the two Georgia poll workers he defamed after the 2020 election.
A 90-minute hearing devolved into what the judge called “griping” after a lawyer for former election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss accused Giuliani of “game playing” and an attorney for Giuliani accused the two women of being “vindictive.”
A federal jury last year ordered Giuliani to pay Freeman and Moss nearly $150 million for defaming them with false accusations that the mother and daughter committed election fraud while the two were counting ballots in Georgia’s Fulton County on Election Day in 2020.
Earlier this week, Freeman and Moss’ attorney claimed that Giuliani had “secreted away” his property after the receivership controlled by the two election workers accessed Giuliani’s apartment, only to find it virtually empty.
The former New York City mayor was given a Nov. 14 deadline to turn over the shares in his Upper East Side co-op apartment, valuable sports memorabilia, a Mercedes-Benz convertible, and luxury watches — including one that belonged to Giuliani’s grandfather.
When defense lawyer Ken Caruso complained that forcing Giuliani to relinquish his grandfather’s watch was “vindictive,” an exasperated Judge Lewis Liman said, “Oh come on!”
“The law is the law and I don’t apply it differently to your client,” Liman said. “Don’t come to me and say something is vindictive.”
The judge was equally unmoved by the defense argument that Giuliani’s car, a blue Mercedes-Benz convertible once owned by the actress Lauren Bacall, was exempt from the judgment because it’s worth less than $4,000.
“Monday the title and keys will be delivered as well as the physical location of the car,” Judge Liman said.
Giuliani also balked at relinquishing about $2 million dollars he is owed for legal worked performed for Donald Trump.
“They wanted that money to make a political statement,” Caruso said.
Liman did not budge and reminded Giuliani of the consequences.
“He is under an unqualified order to deliver all the receivership property to the receiver,” Liman said. “If he doesn’t comply then I’m sure I’ll get a motion for contempt. If he hasn’t delivered, and there is a way in which he could have delivered, he’ll be subject to contempt sanctions.”
Outside court, Giuliani accused Freeman and Moss of bringing a “political vendetta” that was “financed by the Bidens.”
When ABC News asked whether he regretted defaming Freeman and Moss, Giuliani answered “No” before his lawyer stepped in to say the case was on appeal.
