The U.S. Embassy in Mexico released this photo of Ryan Wedding on Dec. 8, 2025. (U.S. Embassy in Mexico)
(NEW YORK) — Authorities have released new photos of Ryan Wedding, a former Canadian Olympian snowboarder turned alleged drug kingpin who is on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.
Wedding, 44, is wanted for “allegedly running and participating in a transnational drug trafficking operation that routinely shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California, to Canada, and other locations in the United States,” the Los Angeles FBI office said Monday on X while releasing a newly obtained photo of the fugitive.
“Additionally, it is alleged that Wedding was involved in orchestrating multiple murders in furtherance of these drug crimes,” the statement continued.
The FBI said the photo is believed to have been taken in Mexico during the summer of 2025.
In it, he is seen lying in a bed shirtless, with a prominent tattoo of a lion on his chest.
The U.S. Embassy in Mexico also shared a photo on Monday of Wedding that hadn’t been previously released. In the photo, released on social media, he is wearing a green shirt and has a different haircut and facial hair. The post did not say when or where that photo was taken.
Wedding has been on the run for several years. He is believed to be in Mexico, being protected by the Sinaloa cartel, authorities said.
The Department of State is offering a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Wedding, whose aliases include James Conrad King, Jesse King, “Giant”, “Public Enemy,” “Boss,” “Buddy,” “Grande,” “El Jefe,” “El Guerro” and “El Toro,” according to the FBI.
FBI Director Kash Patel has called Wedding a “modern-day” Pablo Escobar.
The fugitive was previously indicted in Los Angeles federal court on multiple charges, including running a continuing criminal enterprise, committing murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and assorted drug crimes.
He and his alleged second-in-command are accused of ordering the murders of multiple people in Canada to achieve the aims of the criminal organization, the FBI said.
New charges announced last month allege he ordered the killing of a witness in the federal case. The victim was shot in the head multiple times at a restaurant in Colombia in January, according to U.S. Attorney for the Central District of Los Angeles Bill Essayli.
Wedding and 18 others, including his lawyer, were charged in the new indictment with orchestrating the murder, according to the DOJ.
Wedding competed for Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, where he placed 24th in the parallel giant slalom, before allegedly running the billion-dollar cocaine operation from Mexico for more than a dozen years, officials said.
(NEW YORK) — At least four rivers in Washington state are now at major flood stage — the highest level — and 11 others are forecast to reach the same level in the next day or two as an atmospheric river delivers heavy rain in the Pacific Northwest
The multiday event from Washington to Oregon is swelling rivers to near-record levels.
The event is forecast to bring up to 7 inches of rainfall in parts of Washington.
Stampede Pass, at an elevation of 3,600 feet in Washington’s Cascade Mountains, recorded more than 7 inches of rain on Monday. Usually, this would be snow, but due to the well-above-average temperatures plaguing the West, it’s been all rain so far.
More than 1 inch of rain has fallen at Seattle–Tacoma International Airport and more than 1.5 inches was recorded at Portland International Airport in Oregon.
Some rivers may break records. Already, overnight into Tuesday, the Naselle River near Naselle, Washington, has gone from its normal 5 foot depth to nearly 20 feet deep, growing by 10 feet in 12 hours and coming within less than 1 foot of the historical record.
While Washington was the hardest hit on Monday, the atmospheric river has shifted slightly south on Tuesday and will hit Oregon the hardest.
The atmospheric river is expected to retreat north again Tuesday night and into Wednesday and deliver more rain to Washington state.
The rain will continue Thursday and Friday, but it will be much lighter for western Washington and Oregon.
Total rainfall accumulation through the event is still expected to reach over a foot of rain at high elevations and 3 inches or more at some of the lowest elevations.
Midwest winter storm
The Midwest will see a break in the brutal cold over the next couple days until the next shot of Arctic air plunges into the Midwest by Friday and digs in through the weekend. It will reach the Northeast by Sunday morning.
A strong low pressure system is moving through the Upper Midwest and creating dangerous wind and snow conditions on Tuesday.
A widespread area of damaging wind has led to high wind warnings across at least seven states from Montana to Minnesota to Colorado where gusts up to 65 mph are generally expected Tuesday. Higher elevations in the mountains of Colorado could have gusts up to 90 mph.
This could dislodge even hardened snow on the ground and create ground blizzard conditions.
Anyone driving in these areas should use extreme caution. High-top vehicles like semis can be overturned in these conditions. Power outages are also possible. Plus, there will be low visibility with any blowing snow.
Meanwhile, some areas will see falling snow, too.
A winter storm warning is in place with 2 to 7 inches of snow possible from parts of North Dakota through parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Minneapolis could see 2 to 4 inches of snow and gusts up to 35 mph Tuesday afternoon and overnight.
A winter storm warning is in place for parts of South Dakota, southern Minnesota and central Iowa because gusts up to 60 mph Tuesday night and Wednesday could lead to blizzard conditions by dislodging snow already on the ground, along with minor new snow accumulations.
On Wednesday, this storm will bring rain and snow to the Northeast.
Luigi Mangione appears for a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Criminal Court on December 8, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Stephen Yang-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — One year after his arrest on Dec. 9, 2024, the pretrial hearing in the case of accused CEO killer Luigi Mangione is in its fifth day in a lower Manhattan courtroom.
Attorneys for Mangione, who is accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk last December, are seeking to exclude from trial critical evidence that they say was illegally seized from his backpack without a warrant after officers apprehended him in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s five days after the shooting.
Tuesday’s first witness, Altoona police officer Stephen Fox, participated in the backpack search and is heard on body camera footage saying it was a “search incident to arrest” — the term that authorizes the search of an individual upon arrest in Pennsylvania.
After officers formally placed Mangione in custody, Fox is heard asking Mangione, “Anything in that bag we need to know about?”
Fox testified that he suspected the backpack contained a weapon.
“We were dealing possibly with the New York shooter,” he said on the witness stand.
Fox said he and his colleagues commenced the search of Mangione, consistent with “every arrest I make.” When asked by the prosecutor, Joel Seidemann, if he ever asked for a search warrant, Fox replied, “No.”
When his colleague, patrolman Christy Wasser, pulls out a loaded magazine wrapped in gray underwear, Fox is heard in the body camera video uttering, “It’s f—— him, dude.”
Fox expressed familiarity with the fatal shooting of Thompson.
“It appeared to be a clear, targeted assassination of an individual in the hierarchy of healthcare,” Fox testified. “I knew it was a violent act of cowardice that targeted a defenseless human being.”
Fox is seen in the footage patting down Mangione, whose back is to the officer with his hands against the wall.
“I felt uneasy based on the way he was sitting there. He wasn’t making eye contact,” Fox testified. “This was most likely the New York shooter we were dealing with. I wanted to make sure he was clear of any weapons.”
Fox read Mangione his Miranda rights and handcuffed him at the restaurant.
Nearly a dozen witnesses have testified in the hearing’s five days so far. Their testimony will help Judge Gregory Carro determine what evidence is allowed at trial and what, if any, evidence should be omitted.
The McDonald’s manager who called 911 said her customers recognized the young man seated in the back corner eating a Steak McMuffin and hash brown because of the distinctive eyebrows, which were visible even as a surgical mask and hood concealed much of his face.
On a slip of paper police said they pulled from his backpack, Mangione had reminded himself on Dec. 5, 2024, to “pluck eyebrows.”
On the reverse side of the paper is a crudely drawn map and a reminder to “check Pittsburgh red eyes, ideally to Columbus or Cincin (get off early).” Another reminder said, “keep momentum, FBI slower overnight.”
The piece of paper had not been seen publicly until it was shown during the ongoing hearing at which Mangione’s attorneys are trying to exclude everything taken from the backpack, including the alleged murder weapon, two loaded magazines, a silencer and a cell phone in a Faraday bag designed to conceal its signal.
They argue that officers from the Altoona Police Department skipped steps and violated Mangione’s constitutional rights against illegal search and seizure because they were eager to help crack a big case.
The district attorney’s office said the officers legitimately feared the backpack could contain something dangerous and their search complied with Pennsylvania law.
A man is facing murder charges after a social worker he allegedly attacked and stabbed repeatedly in a ward at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center died from her injuries, Dec. 6, 2025, according to police. (Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(LOS ANGELES) — Charges have been upgraded to murder against a man who allegedly attacked and repeatedly stabbed a social worker last week inside a San Francisco hospital after first allegedly threatening a doctor, according to prosecutors.
The charges against Wilfredo Jose Tortolero Arriechi, 34, were amended from attempted murder to murder on Monday after the victim died on Saturday, two days after he was stabbed repeatedly inside Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, according to the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office.
The San Francisco Sheriff’s Office described the victim as a 51-year-old University of California, San Francisco, social worker. The victim’s age was initially reported by police as 31.
Arriechi is scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday afternoon at San Francisco’s Hall of Justice, according to the District Attorney’s Office, which said it will move to have the suspect held without bail pending a trial.
The attack unfolded around 1:39 p.m. local time on Thursday in the hospital’s Ward 86, which, according to the medical facility’s website, is an HIV/AIDS clinic on the facility’s sixth floor.
Before the attack, a sheriff’s deputy was called to the hospital after the suspect, who was at the hospital for a scheduled appointment, allegedly threatened a doctor, according to an earlier sheriff’s department statement.
“While providing security for the doctor, our sheriff’s deputy heard a disturbance unfolding in the hallway involving the suspect, who was attacking a social worker,” according to the sheriff’s office statement. “The deputy intervened immediately, restraining the suspect and securing the scene.”
The District Attorney’s Office released new details about the attack on Monday, alleging Arriechi went to the hospital with a concealed knife.
“Allegedly Mr. Tortolero Arriechi appeared calm and engaged in a in a conversation with a social worker and was advised to leave. Allegedly he and the victim walked to the elevator together when he suddenly grabbed the victim from behind and stabbed him numerous times,” the District Attorney’s Office said in their statement.
The victim, according to he sheriff’s office, suffered multiple stab wounds to the neck and shoulder.
A five-inch kitchen knife believed to have been used in the attack was recovered at the scene, according to the sheriff’s office.
UPTE-CWA 9119, the union representing professional and technical employees at the University of California, released a statement on social media Saturday, demanding a “full investigation and reliable, consistent, and transparent safety protocols that ensure every worker comes home safely at the end of their shift.”
“We at UPTE-CWA 9119 are devastated to learn of the death of a remarkable, compassionate, and dedicated social worker, who was beloved by their family, friends, colleagues, and fellow union members,” Dan Russell, UPTE president, said in the statement.
The San Francisco Deputy Sheriff’s Association union also released a statement, criticizing the San Francisco Department of Public Health (DPH), which runs the hospital, for recently reducing the number of deputy sheriffs assigned to the hospital and shifting to a “response-only” security model.
“This was not a random unforeseeable incident,” Ken Lomba, president of the deputy sheriff’s union, said in a statement.
Lomba added that the hospital’s own data shows “years of serious assaults and weapons on campus.”
In a statement to ABC News on Sunday, the San Francisco Department of Public Health said, “Keeping our staff, patients, and community safe is our highest priority.”
DPH said it has taken steps to bolster security at the hospital, including adding more security officers, limiting access points and speeding up the installation of weapons detection systems.
“We are also conducting a full investigation and are committed to making both immediate and long-term safety improvements at all our facilities,” DPH said. “This tragic event underscores the urgency of our ongoing efforts to strengthen protections for every member of our workforce.”
The agency added, “We are committed to doing everything necessary to ensure that no one fears for their safety while providing care to the people of San Francisco.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is seen during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for judicial nominees in Dirksen building, November 19, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — For several years, as U.S. authorities have struggled to stop online extremist networks like “764” from pushing teens to livestream acts of violence or self-harm, including their own suicide, the Justice Department has faced what authorities and victims both say is a vexing challenge: Such coercion is not a federal crime.
That could change if the Republican chairman and the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees the Justice Department, have their way.
Ahead of a committee hearing Tuesday on the evolving threat of online predators, Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, introduced a first-of-its-kind piece of legislation that would explicitly criminalize the intentional coercing of minors to physically harm themselves or others, including animals.
Under their proposal, called the Ending Coercion of Children and Harm Online Act, some perpetrators could face life in prison.
“When offenders are eventually caught by law enforcement, prosecutors charge them with the most appropriate charges,” Grassley said in the hearing. “However, there are no specific laws to address the terrible and shocking acts conducted by gore groups such as 764 and those engaged in sextortion.”
Grassley and Durbin’s proposed legislation comes in the wake of several recent reports from ABC News about the growing threat of 764, including an extended interview with the parents of Jay Taylor, a 13-year-old from outside Seattle who in 2022 took his own life — and aired it live on social media — after allegedly being manipulated by a member of 764 in Germany.
“It’s almost biblical in its definition of evil, what happened,” Jay’s father, Colby Taylor, said in the ABC News interview. “Ten minutes of murder.”
That’s why the U.S. needs “to have something in our actual laws that allows us to prosecute” cases as “digital homicides,” he said.
The FBI has described 764 as one of the greatest current threats to teens online, with members finding vulnerable victims on popular platforms, eliciting private information and intimate sexual images from them, and then using that sensitive material to blackmail victims into mutilating themselves or taking other violent action — all while streaming it on social media so others can watch and then disseminate recordings of it.
According to authorities, Jay Taylor is just one of many victims pushed to suicide.
German law explicitly criminalizes such coercion, so the young man allegedly behind Jay Taylor’s death — calling himself “White Tiger” online — has been charged in Germany with murder, along with 203 other offenses involving more than 30 other victims.
According to former FBI agent Pat McMonigle, who helped uncover “White Tiger” and what he allegedly did, making online coercion a federal crime in the United States “would be very helpful.”
“This is truly a bipartisan thing that … could effect some change,” he recently told ABC News.
According to Grassley’s office, the Ending Coercion of Children and Harm Online Act — or “ECCHO Act” — would “specifically go after” networks like 764, creating a penalty of up to life in prison for those who intentionally coerce someone into even just attempting to die by suicide or who coerce someone into taking action that results in the death or killing of another person.
The bill would also create a 30-year maximum penalty for other harmful conduct that does not involve a death, Grassley’s office said.
“Because of modern technology, child predators from anywhere in the world can target American kids online,” Durbin, the second-highest ranking Democrat in the Senate as the Democratic whip, said in a statement. “As technology has evolved, so have online child predators.”
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children says it received more than 2,000 reports of abuse tied to 764 or similar networks in the first nine months of this year.
As ABC News has previously reported, the FBI is investigating more than 350 people across the United States with suspected ties to 764 or similar networks. And the Justice Department has already publicly charged at least 35 such people in recent years.
Their victims have been as young as nine years old, according to authorities.
FBI Director Kash Patel recently called 764 “modern-day terrorism in America.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on Tuesday will include testimony from an executive director of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a former federal prosecutor who retired from the Justice Department earlier this year, and the mother of a teenage son who was victimized by sextortion and then took his own life, unrelated to 764.
Some states have enacted laws aimed at helping to protect children online. And in May, President Donald Trump signed into law the TAKE IT DOWN Act, which prohibits the nonconsensual publication of sexually-explicit images and pushes online platforms to remove violative material.
Several lawmakers — from both sides of the aisle — have introduced additional pieces of legislation in both the House and Senate that could help fight online predators.
But those laws and proposals don’t specifically address the coerced self-harm that is emblematic of 764 and similar online networks.
On Tuesday, Grassley and Durbin are expected to introduce two other pieces of legislation to help protect children online, including the Stop Sextortion Act, which would amend existing laws to address offenders who use threats to distribute sexually-explicit material to extort and coerce minors, according to Grassley’s office.
“I’m proud to introduce these bills to protect children from online abuse, hold dangerous criminals accountable and secure much needed justice for victims and their families,” Grassley said in his statement.
Durbin similarly said he was “proud to join” Grassley’s effort.
At least one other top Democrat in the Senate, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Virginia, has previously expressed support for such legislation, recently telling ABC News that online coercion is “a total crime,” even if “it’s through a digital connection.”
Still, it’s unclear how successful Grassley and Durbin’s effort will be.
One high-profile piece of legislation aimed at protecting children online, the Kids Online Safety Act, passed overwhelmingly in the Senate last year — by a vote of 93 to 1 — only to languish in the House, largely due to First Amendment concerns.
“This is a problem that is going to continue to morph, and if we don’t do something, potentially could get worse,” Sen. Warner told ABC News.
Luigi Mangione appears for a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Criminal Court on December 8, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Stephen Yang-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — One year after his arrest on Dec. 9, 2024, the pretrial hearing in the case of accused CEO killer Luigi Mangione enters its fifth day in a lower Manhattan courtroom.
Attorneys for Mangione, who is accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk last December, are seeking to exclude from trial critical evidence that they say was illegally seized from his backpack without a warrant after officers apprehended him in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s five days after the shooting.
On a slip of paper police said they pulled from his backpack, Mangione had reminded himself on Dec. 5, 2024, to “pluck eyebrows.”
The McDonalds manager who called 911 said her customers recognized the young man seated in the back corner eating a Steak McMuffin and hash brown because of the distinctive eyebrows, which were visible even as a surgical mask and hood concealed much of his face.
On the reverse side of the paper is a crudely drawn map and a reminder to “check Pittsburgh red eyes, ideally to Columbus or Cincin (get off early).” Another reminder said, “keep momentum, FBI slower overnight.”
The piece of paper had not been seen publicly until it was shown during the ongoing hearing at which Mangione’s attorneys are trying to exclude everything taken from the backpack, including the alleged murder weapon, two loaded magazines, a silencer and a cell phone in a Faraday bag designed to conceal its signal.
They argue that officers from the Altoona Police Department skipped steps and violated Mangione’s constitutional rights against illegal search and seizure because they were eager to help crack a big case.
The district attorney’s office said the officers legitimately feared the backpack could contain something dangerous and their search complied with Pennsylvania law.
Nine witnesses have testified so far. Their testimony will help Judge Gregory Carro determine what evidence is allowed at trial and what, if any, evidence should be omitted.
(PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla.) — A 6-year-old girl died after she was injured in a go-kart accident at a trampoline adventure park in Florida, police said.
First responders were dispatched to an Urban Air Trampoline and Adventure Park in Port St. Lucie on Saturday shortly before 9 p.m. for a “medical run” after staff at the facility reported a go-kart accident involving a child, according to local police.
The girl was airlifted to a hospital in Fort Pierce and died from her injuries on Sunday, according to the Port St. Lucie Police Department.
“Detectives are actively investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident,” the Port St. Lucie Police Department said in a statement on Monday.
The medical examiner’s findings are pending, a police department spokesperson said in a statement earlier Monday.
Police did not release any additional details on the incident, including the nature of the injuries, citing the ongoing investigation.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has also been notified, “as required,” police said.
ABC News has reached out to the franchise location for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
The Port St. Lucie location includes a number of attractions in addition to trampolines, including go-karts, bumper cars, a zip line and laser tag.
Masked ICE agents were seen stalking the corridors on the 12th floor of Lower Manhattan’s immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza, New York City, USA on September 8, 2025. (Photo by Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — An asylum seeker who fled Afghanistan last year after being persecuted by the Taliban is at risk of being deported back to his home country, according to his attorney.
Attorney Elora Mukherjee told ABC News that despite having no criminal record and having future asylum hearings scheduled, her client was apprehended by immigration authorities last Wednesday during a routine “check in” at 26 Federal Plaza in New York City.
Mukherjee and her client’s family requested his name not be used due to fear of threats.
The asylum seeker’s arrest comes after President Donald Trump directed his administration to suspend all Afghan immigration cases in response to a shooting earlier this month that killed one National Guard member and left another in critical condition in Washington, D.C. The administration has accused the Biden administration of not properly vetting asylum seekers.
The suspected shooter is an Afghan refugee named Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who previously worked with the U.S. government, including the CIA, in Afghanistan. He has pleaded not guilty.
Since the shooting, immigrant advocates and attorneys say Afghan asylum seekers and refugees have been targeted for detention and deportation.
Mukherjee told ABC News that her client applied to enter the United States through the Customs and Border Protection’s One app and received an appointment to enter the country in May 2024.
According to a habeas petition filed by Mukherjee, her client fled Afghanistan “after being subject to forced eviction and threats of potential death by the Taliban.”
The man was held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody for six months and then released on parole, according to court documents. Shortly after being released, he appeared before immigration court and applied for asylum, withholding of removal, and Convention Against Torture relief.
Mukherjee said her client has attended all of his immigration hearings and has one scheduled for February 2026.
But last Wednesday, Mukherjee told ABC News, her client received a notification from ICE to appear at 26 Federal Plaza, the government building that has become an epicenter for clashes between immigrants and immigration authorities, for a “check in.”
After the man entered the ICE waiting room, Mukherjee said, he was apprehended by immigration authorities and taken to a detention center in New Jersey.
“I tried to stay by his side, but officers insisted on separating us … in fact, they took [him] and detained him,” said Mukherjee.
Mukherjee told ABC News she filed a habeas petition challenging his detention.
“He’s not done anything wrong,” she said. “He has complied with all of his immigration check-in requirements. Filed a timely asylum application. He was persecuted by the Taliban and he will be very seriously harmed, tortured and killed by the Taliban if he’s forced to return to Afghanistan.”
ABC News reviewed federal and state court records and did not find a criminal record for the man.
During a hearing on Friday, a federal judge ordered the government to answer to the habeas petition by Wednesday and Mukherjee to respond by Thursday.
A representative of the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
“He was not safe in his home country,” said the man’s brother, who also asked that his name not be used due to fear of threats to him and his family. “So he came to the United States and he feels safe over here, and he wants to establish a secure life for his future.”
He told ABC News that his brother was working and taking English classes before he was detained.
“Being returned to Afghanistan is on everyone’s mind,” his brother said. “I’m very worried.”
Alex Murdaugh sits during an evidentiary hearing at the Richland County Courthouse in Columbia, South Carolina, on Jan.16, 2024. (Tracy Glantz/The State/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A former South Carolina court clerk who served during the double murder trial of Alex Murdaugh pleaded guilty on Monday to criminal charges stemming from the case — including for releasing sealed court exhibits to the press and then lying about it, and over the promotion of her book about the high-profile trial.
Former Colleton County Clerk of Court Mary Rebecca “Becky” Hill pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, perjury and misconduct in office.
“I take full responsibility for my actions, and I know I have let down this Court, my community, and the people who placed their trust in me,” Hill said in court. “There is no excuse for my mistakes. I am ashamed of them, and I will carry that shame with me for the rest of my life.”
Judge Heath Taylor said he doesn’t believe Hill deserved incarceration and sentenced her to three years’ probation and 100 hours of community service.
Taylor said Hill has been “humiliated throughout this whole ordeal.”
“A lot of folks got swept up in the hoopla that was that trial,” Taylor said while handing down the sentence. “A lot of folks probably made a lot of money, but you didn’t.”
Hill was arrested in May, more than two years after Murdaugh was found guilty of brutally murdering his wife, Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, 52, and younger son, Paul Murdaugh, 22, who were found dead from multiple gunshot wounds near the dog kennels at the family’s hunting estate in 2021.
According to the arrest warrants filed against Hill, investigators found she obstructed justice during the 2023 trial and then committed perjury during a hearing amid Murdaugh’s bid for a new trial last year.
Investigators found she obstructed justice in February 2023 during the trial by releasing or making available “‘scaled evidence’ photographs to a third party or parties, such act occurring in violation of a written court order issued to protect the ‘sealed evidence’ photographs, in violation of the law of the State of South Carolina,” the arrest warrant stated.
She then gave “false and misleading testimony” during a hearing on Jan. 29, 2024, in Richland County, as part of Murdaugh’s appeal, when she denied that she allowed anyone from the press to view the sealed exhibits in February 2023, according to the arrest warrant.
She was also charged with misconduct for using her office to promote a book she co-authored about the trial on social media, “such act being for her own financial gain and in violation of her duties, in violation of the laws of the State of South Carolina,” the arrest warrant stated. The book, “Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders,” was ultimately pulled from publication over accusations of plagiarism.
The probe also found she received financial bonuses totaling nearly $12,000 between September 2021 and March 2024 for her own financial gain, “in violation of her duties, and further in violation of the laws of the State of South Carolina,” according to the arrest warrant.
Hill said in court Monday that she has “already begun the hard work of rebuilding the relationships I damaged by accepting responsibility, seeking forgiveness from those I love, and repaying any improper bonus I received.”
“I am committed to making amends, to being honest, and to living in a way that reflects the values I failed to uphold,” she said.
Her attorney, William Lewis, said they respect the judge’s decision and found the probationary sentence to be “appropriate.”
The Colleton County Clerk’s Office said it does not have any comment on Hill’s case.
Hill resigned as the Colleton County clerk of court in March 2024, amid the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division’s investigation into allegations she may have abused her government position for financial gain.
In the wake of the double murder trial, the South Carolina State Ethics Commission filed 76 counts of ethics violations against Hill over allegations she improperly sought financial gain through her position.
Alex Murdaugh sits during an evidentiary hearing at the Richland County Courthouse in Columbia, South Carolina, on Jan.16, 2024. Tracy Glantz/The State/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — A former South Carolina court clerk who served during the double murder trial of Alex Murdaugh pleaded guilty on Monday to criminal charges stemming from the case — including for releasing sealed court exhibits to the press and then lying about it, and over the promotion of her book about the high-profile trial.
Former Colleton County Clerk of Court Mary Rebecca “Becky” Hill pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, perjury and misconduct in office.
“I take full responsibility for my actions, and I know I have let down this Court, my community, and the people who placed their trust in me,” Hill said in court. “There is no excuse for my mistakes. I am ashamed of them, and I will carry that shame with me for the rest of my life.”
Judge Heath Taylor said he doesn’t believe Hill deserved incarceration and sentenced her to three years’ probation and 100 hours of community service.
Taylor said Hill has been “humiliated throughout this whole ordeal.”
“A lot of folks got swept up in the hoopla that was that trial,” Taylor said while handing down the sentence. “A lot of folks probably made a lot of money, but you didn’t.”
Hill was arrested in May, more than two years after Murdaugh was found guilty of brutally murdering his wife, Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, 52, and younger son, Paul Murdaugh, 22, who were found dead from multiple gunshot wounds near the dog kennels at the family’s hunting estate in 2021.
A judge imposed two sentences of life in prison, to be served consecutively for the murders.
According to the arrest warrants filed against Hill, investigators found she obstructed justice during the 2023 trial and then committed perjury during a hearing amid Murdaugh’s bid for a new trial last year.
Investigators found she obstructed justice in February 2023 during the trial by releasing or making available “‘scaled evidence’ photographs to a third party or parties, such act occurring in violation of a written court order issued to protect the ‘sealed evidence’ photographs, in violation of the law of the State of South Carolina,” the arrest warrant stated.
She then gave “false and misleading testimony” during a hearing on Jan. 29, 2024, in Richland County, as part of Murdaugh’s appeal, when she denied that she allowed anyone from the press to view the sealed exhibits in February 2023, according to the arrest warrant.
She was also charged with misconduct for using her office to promote a book she co-authored about the trial on social media, “such act being for her own financial gain and in violation of her duties, in violation of the laws of the State of South Carolina,” the arrest warrant stated. The book, “Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders,” was ultimately pulled from publication over accusations of plagiarism.
The probe also found she received financial bonuses totaling nearly $12,000 between September 2021 and March 2024 for her own financial gain, “in violation of her duties, and further in violation of the laws of the State of South Carolina,” according to the arrest warrant.
Hill said in court Monday that she has “already begun the hard work of rebuilding the relationships I damaged by accepting responsibility, seeking forgiveness from those I love, and repaying any improper bonus I received.”
“I am committed to making amends, to being honest, and to living in a way that reflects the values I failed to uphold,” she said.
Her attorney, William Lewis, said they respect the judge’s decision and found the probationary sentence to be “appropriate.”
The Colleton County Clerk’s Office said it does not have any comment on Hill’s case.
Hill resigned as the Colleton County clerk of court in March 2024, amid the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division’s investigation into allegations she may have abused her government position for financial gain.
In the wake of the double murder trial, the South Carolina State Ethics Commission filed 76 counts of ethics violations against Hill over allegations she improperly sought financial gain through her position.
