After 40 years on the run, escaped prisoner from Puerto Rico caught in Florida
Lee County Sheriff’s Office
(FORT MYERS, Fla.) — A man who escaped a Puerto Rican prison nearly 40 years ago was taken into custody in Florida, according to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.
Jorge Milla-Valdes escaped from a Puerto Rican prison in 1987. The Puerto Rico Department of Justice believed he was living under the name Luis Aguirre.
His criminal history included robbery and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon in Florida’s Monroe County, according to the sheriff’s office.
The LCSO Fugitive Warrants Unit searched for Milla-Valdes and obtained the original 1986 fingerprints from Puerto Rico, and a set from his criminal history in Monroe County.
“Latent Fingerprints Supervisor Tina Carver expedited the fingerprint comparison. 15-minutes later -and using finger prints that were taken over 40 years ago- Supervisor Carver was able to match the prints, and confirm that Aguirre and Milla-Valdes was the same individual who had escaped,” the sheriff’s office said.
The fugitives unit was informed of the match and Milla-Valdes was taken into custody two hours later in Ft. Myers Shores, according to the sheriff’s office.
“They don’t want me. They told me about two times,” Milla-Valdes told officers as he was taken into custody, police bodycam footage shows.
“Now they do. They changed their mind,” an arresting officer responded.
The sheriff applauded his unit’s fast response.
“My team’s skill is unmatched at every level; even if your crimes don’t start here in Lee County, I promise, they WILL end here,” Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said in a statement.
Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter is an attractive target “for violent extremists to attack,” especially after the vehicle ramming in New Orleans that killed 14 people, though there are no known threats to the funeral, according to a new security assessment obtained by ABC News.
“State funerals are considered no-notice events that significantly reduce planning timelines for potential hostile actors,” the document said. “However, state funerals still present attractive targets due to the large gathering of senior US government officials, foreign dignitaries, and heads of state, as well as the symbolic nature of the venues and media attention expected.”
Carter, who died on Dec. 29 at the age of 100, will be honored with a state funeral at Washington National Cathedral on Thursday. President Joe Biden will deliver a eulogy and President-elect Donald Trump is expected to attend.
The memorials for Carter begin on Saturday when he’s transferred from his hometown of Plains, Georgia, to Atlanta. A ceremony will be held at the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta on Saturday afternoon.
Carter’s remains will be transferred to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday and he will lie in state at the Capitol from Tuesday to Thursday. After the service at Washington National Cathedral, Carter’s remains will return to Plains.
The assessment also noted other specially designated security events this month, including the certification of the Electoral College on Jan. 6 and Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20. The simultaneous events “may increase the perception of a target-rich environment for a variety of threat actors,” the document said.
“Targets could include the planned special events and ceremonies related to the State Funeral and associated First Amendment-protected activities around these ceremonies,” the assessment said. “While there is no indication that the intersection of these two events will lead to an increased threat picture, the potentially large crowds for both may provide an attractive target to threat actors.”
The document also specifically mentioned the New Year’s attack in New Orleans, noting “the use of vehicle-ramming alone or in conjunction with other tactics has become a recurring tactic employed by violent threat actors in the West.”
The document added that “large crowds gathering in publicly accessible locations to observe or participate in State Funeral events could become targets of opportunity for a vehicle attack.”
Fourteen people were killed and dozens were hurt when a man drove a truck through crowds on Bourbon Street early on New Year’s Day. The suspect, who also died in the attack, posted several videos online “proclaiming his support for ISIS,” and mentioning he joined ISIS before this summer, according to the FBI.
(WASHINGTON) — Six months after a federal judge dismissed special counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents case against Donald Trump and his two co-defendants, defense attorneys are set to return to Florida to try to prevent the limited release of Smith’s final report detailing his investigation.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who tossed out the case based on the constitutionality of Smith’s appointment, is considering whether to prevent Attorney General Merrick Garland from allowing select members of Congress to view the volume of Smith’s report covering his probe — with Friday’s hearing set to serve as an epilogue to the criminal case that legal experts say once posed the most significant legal threat to the former president.
Earlier this week, Garland released the first volume of Smith’s report related to Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, while withholding the second volume related to Smith’s classified documents probe because Trump’s former co-defendants are still appealing the case.
Garland has proposed allowing the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees to see the volume, but Trump’s former co-defendants have argued that even a limited release of that volume should be blocked.
“The Final Report relies on materials to which Smith, as disqualified special counsel, is no longer entitled access — making his attempt to share such materials with the public highly improper,” lawyers for longtime Trump aide Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago staffer Carlos De Oliveria argued in a court filing, echoing the same argument about the constitutionality of Smith’s appointment that got the criminal case thrown out.
The defense lawyers have argued that releasing the report to members of Congress could result in a leak of its findings, which would keep Nauta and De Oliveria from receiving a fair trial if the appeals court reverses the case’s dismissal.
“Once the Report is disclosed to Congress, this Court will effectively lose its ability to control the flow of information related to privileged and confidential matters in a criminal proceeding,” lawyers for Nauta and De Oliveira wrote. “That makes delaying the issuance of the Final Report until this matter is resolved essential, as there will be no way to put the proverbial cat back into the bag after the Final Report is shared with Congress, and no way to control congressional speech regarding the pending criminal case.”
Trump pleaded not guilty in June 2023 to 37 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials, after prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information. The former president, along with Nauta and De Oliveira, also pleaded not guilty in a superseding indictment to allegedly attempting to delete surveillance footage at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Lawyers for the Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe have downplayed the risks of releasing Smith’s report on the case, arguing that the sensitive work products of other special counsels have been reviewed by members of Congress using secure protocols. The four members of Congress who would access Smith’s report would be bound by confidentiality, and would be limited to an on-camera review of the report in which they would be prohibited from taking notes.
“[T]his argument rests entirely on conjecture and disregards the options available to the Court to protect the Defendants from prejudice were this speculative chain of events to come to pass,” prosecutors argued. While Judge Cannon cast the legitimacy of Smith’s appointment into doubt, prosecutors argued that the question of releasing the report no longer relates to Smith — who resigned last week after handing the report in — and is fully in the hands of Garland.
“The Attorney General thus has authority to decide whether to release an investigative report prepared by his subordinates,” their filing said.
(CARISBAD, Calif.) — A judge granted a gun violence protective order against a Carlsbad, California, man who authorities allege was communicating with the Abundant Life Christian School shooting suspect.
Carlsbad police filed the application for a gun violence emergency protective order against Alexander Charles Paffendorf in San Diego County Superior Court on Tuesday. FBI agents “stopped and detained” him after they allege “he was discovered plotting a mass shooting” with Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow, the suspected school shooter in Madison, Wisconsin, according to court records obtained by ABC News.
Paffendorf allegedly admitted to authorities “that he told Rupnow that he would arm himself with explosives and a gun and that he would target a government building,” a Carlsbad police officer wrote on the protective order application form.
FBI agents saw messages from Paffendorf to Rupnow, the officer stated. Paffendorf has not been charged with a crime.
Rupnow, 15, allegedly opened fire with a handgun at Abundant Life Christian School on Monday morning, killing a fellow student and teacher. Six others were injured.
She died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.
The restraining order requires Paffendorf to surrender all guns, ammunition and magazines to law enforcement or “sell them to or store them with a licensed firearms dealer” within 48 hours of receipt of the order.
The Carlsbad Police Department said in a statement Thursday, “Carlsbad is not the lead agency on this investigation, but we are in communication with our federal partners, and we do not believe there to be a threat to our city. Because this is an ongoing investigation being handled by another agency, there are no other details to share at the moment.”
The FBI said Thursday it is “not aware of any ongoing threats associated with this matter in Wisconsin or California.”
The agency added, “The Madison Police Department is leading the ongoing investigation into the school shooting in Wisconsin with the assistance of the Milwaukee and San Diego field offices of the FBI, the Carlsbad, California Police Department, and other law enforcement partners. As this is an ongoing investigation, we do not have any further comment.”
A hearing for Paffendorf is scheduled for Jan. 3. Attorney information for the California man was not immediately available.
