Escaped California inmate wanted for killing Mexican police commander in shootout, officials say
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
(DELANO, Calif.) — An escaped California inmate is now wanted for killing a Mexican police commander who hunts down foreign fugitives — also known as a “gringo hunter” — during a shootout in Tijuana, officials said.
Abigail Esparza Reyes, who was part of a specialized Mexican state police unit responsible for locating foreign fugitives who cross the border, was killed on Wednesday while trying to arrest Cesar Hernandez, an escaped inmate from Southern California, officials said.
Marina del Pilar, the governor of Baja California State, confirmed Reyes’ death in a statement on Wednesday.
“To the family and loved ones of Agent Abigail, we recognize their courage and dedication to the service of their state,” Pilar said on X. “Our wishes for prompt resignation are with you, Abigail’s life will be honored and her death will not go unpunished.”
The shooting took place two days after Hernandez’s 35th birthday.
Surveillance footage shows an individual, who authorities identified as Hernandez, changing into bright yellow worker’s clothing, seeming to blend in after the shooting.
Hernandez escaped from custody on Dec. 2, 2024, shortly after arriving for a court appearance in Delano, California, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Upon arrival, Hernandez “evaded staff custody, jumped out of the van and is currently at large,” officials said at the time.
He was arrested in 2019 and sentenced to 80 years to life in prison with the possibility of parole, officials said. He received 25 years for first-degree murder, a sentence “doubled because it was a second strike,” and discharging a firearm during the crime, officials said. Hernandez also received five years for a prior offense, officials said.
Before his escape, Hernandez was housed at the Kern Valley State Prison in Delano, officials said.
Hernandez is still on the run after the shootout that killed Reyes, officials said.
Reyes was featured in a “Nightline x Impact” episode in 2024 that highlighted the “gringo hunters” and their work to catch fugitives who evade law enforcement by fleeing to Mexico.
In the episode, Reyes is seen leading a mission to arrest a fugitive charged with murder who was found in Tijuana.
ABC News’ Sara Sandrick, Ellie Kaufman, Jen Watts and Alondra De La Cruz contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The first major heat wave of the summer will bring another day of dangerously high temperatures to the East Coast on Wednesday before relief moves in.
The oppressive heat shattered records across the Northeast on Tuesday. New York City and Philadelphia hit 99 degrees, breaking the city’s daily record highs. Baltimore and Newark, New Jersey, soared to 104 degrees and 101 degrees, respectively, also setting new daily records.
On Wednesday, more than 120 million Americans from Louisiana to New Hampshire remain under heat alerts.
Excessive heat warnings are in effect for a number of cities, including Washington, D.C.; Pittsburgh; Philadelphia; Richmond, Virginia; Charleston, West Virginia; and Wilmington, North Carolina.
Overall, the heat won’t be as extreme as Monday and Tuesday, but Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia could still break records with highs close to 100 degrees.
The heat index — what temperature it feels like with humidity — is forecast to reach 99 degrees in New York City, 105 in Philadelphia, 108 in D.C. and Wilmington, 104 in Charleston, South Carolina, and 106 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Relief from the oppressive heat will arrive on Thursday.
Click here for what you need to know to stay safe in the heat.
(NEW YORK) — Harvey Weinstein has been convicted on one count of engaging in criminal sex but acquitted on a second count in his sex crimes retrial in New York.
The Manhattan jury was unable to reach a verdict on the third count of rape. The judge dismissed the jurors for the day but instructed them to keep deliberating on that count Thursday.
The split verdict comes after some apparent discord in the jury room during deliberations.
Earlier Wednesday, the jury foreperson sent a note telling Judge Curtis Farber he “cannot go back inside with those people.” That followed a closed-door conversation during which the foreperson complained to the judge that the jurors were “attacking” one another — adding, “I don’t like it” — according to a transcript.
Without the jury present, Weinstein addressed the judge on Wednesday and complained that the jury behavior is depriving him of a fair trial.
“We’ve heard threats, we’ve hear fights, we’ve heard intimidation,” Weinstein said. “This is not right for me, the person on trial here.”
Farber had proposed a cooling-off period, then the jury came back in saying they had a verdict on the two counts.
In dismissing the jury on Wednesday, Farber reminded jurors to be respectful to one another.
Weinstein was being retried for sexually assaulting two women, Mimi Haley and Jessica Mann, after an earlier conviction was overturned on appeal. He is also charged with sexually assaulting a third woman, Kaja Sokola, who was not part of the first trial.
The jury convicted Weinstein of engaging in a criminal sex act with Haley but acquitted him of engaging in a criminal sex act with Sokola.
The jurors will resume deliberations on the rape count involving Mann on Thursday.
All three women have publicly come forward and testified during the trial.
Weinstein, 73, pleaded not guilty and has said his sexual encounters were consensual. He did not testify during the trial.
Prosecutors said Weinstein “preyed on three women” as “he held unfettered power for over 30 years” in Hollywood, while the defense countered the producer did not coerce the women and claimed they were using him for his connections.
“Harvey Weinstein had enormous control over those working in television and film. He decided who was in and who was out,” the prosecutor, Shannon Lucey, told the jury of seven women and five men at the start of the trial. “He held the golden ticket. The chance to make it or not.”
Lucey claimed that “no” was “not a word the defendant was used to hearing.”
Weinstein’s defense attorney, Arthur Aidala, agreed with prosecutors that Weinstein was a powerful man in the television and film industries, but he told the jury Weinstein did not coerce the women he’s accused of assaulting. Instead, Aidala claimed Weinstein engaged in “mutually beneficial relationships” that the attorney said have been going on in Hollywood for a hundred years.
“They’re fooling around with him consensually,” Aidala claimed. “The casting couch was not a crime scene.”
In detailing the alleged sexual assaults, Lucey claimed that when Haley went to Weinstein’s Crosby Street apartment in July 2006 to discuss a production role on “Project Runway,” he allegedly “held her down” and subjected her to forcible sexual conduct.
Sokola was 16 when she first met Weinstein in 2002 at a restaurant in the West Village shortly after signing a modeling contract to come to New York from Poland. Several years later, in 2006, Weinstein cast Sokola as an extra in “The Nanny Diaries.” After a lunch at a Manhattan hotel that year, Weinstein allegedly “pressed on her shoulders with enough force to get her down on the bed” and forced oral sex on the 19-year-old as she said, “Please do not do this,” Lucey claimed.
Lucey also claimed Weinstein allegedly forced Sokola to touch his genitals in a Manhattan apartment when she was 16. Weinstein is not charged in that alleged 2002 incident in the indictment, as it is outside the statute of limitations. But the judge has allowed Sokola to testify about it during the trial, along with a second alleged incident involving Weinstein she says occurred in 2004. Sokola previously filed a lawsuit in New York under the Child Victims Act over the alleged 2002 incident, which prosecutors said has since been settled.
In 2013, Weinstein allegedly subjected Mann to sex without her consent at a hotel, according to Lucey. Mann testified that Weinstein raped her after finding out she had a serious boyfriend who was an actor. Lucey claimed Mann had also engaged in sexual encounters with Weinstein that were not coerced out of fear of his power in the industry.
The new trial comes after the New York Court of Appeals overturned Weinstein’s initial 2020 conviction last year, finding the trial judge “erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes.”
Weinstein has also appealed his conviction in December 2022 on sex offenses in Los Angeles. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison there.
(SEATTLE) — A fugitive who has been on the run for more than six weeks after escaping authorities at an airport while being transported across state lines has been captured, authorities said.
The incident began almost seven weeks ago on May 4 when 29-year-old Sedric Stevenson was in the custody of contracted agents at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and was being transported to Kentucky so he could face outstanding warrants that had been issued to him there when he vanished, according to a statement from the U.S. Marshals Office of Public Affairs in the Western District of Washington.
Stevenson, who was wanted in the State of Kentucky on multiple charges — including convicted felon in possession of a firearm, assault in the third degree and enhanced possession of a controlled substance in the first degree (methamphetamine) — subsequently managed to avoid law enforcement for 45 days before he was caught on Wednesday in Seattle by U.S. Marshals while they were serving an arrest warrant in the 1400 block of Madison Street, police said.
“This arrest sends a clear message: no matter how long it takes or how far someone runs, justice will catch up with them. Our deputies and taskforce officers worked tirelessly and with unwavering dedication to bring Stevenson back into custody. The community can rest easier, knowing a dangerous fugitive is no longer on the streets” said U.S. Marshal Donrien Stephens.
Stevenson’s arrest was a collaborative effort between state and local partners along with the U.S. Marshals Service Western Kentucky Fugitive Task Force, officials said.
