Father charged with manslaughter after 1-year-old found dead in vehicle, strapped in car seat: Authorities
Logan Keith Chewning is seen in a booking photo. (Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Office)
(BROOKWOOD, Ala.) — An Alabama man has been charged with manslaughter after his 1-year-old child was found dead in a vehicle, still strapped into a car seat, after the father had allegedly been drinking throughout the day while the infant was in his sole care, authorities said.
Multiple agencies responded to a home in Brookwood, in Tuscaloosa County, Wednesday evening after the child’s family reported that the infant was found dead in the vehicle, authorities said.
“Initial investigation shows that the child was in the vehicle for an extended [amount] of time,” Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Office Violent Crimes Unit Capt. Jack Kennedy said in a statement, noting that the temperatures that afternoon were in the mid-90s.
The child, whose name was not released, had been in the “sole care of its father all day,” Kennedy said.
The father, identified by the sheriff’s office as 30-year-old Logan Keith Chewning, allegedly admitted to drinking at different points throughout the day and leaving the residence at one point to buy more alcohol, authorities said.
“The father reported that he believed that the child had been sleeping in its crib but must have been left behind in the vehicle,” Kennedy said.
Chewning was charged with manslaughter following consultation with the Tuscaloosa County District Attorney’s Office, the sheriff’s office said.
He is being held in jail, with a bond to be set by a judge at a later date. It is unclear if he has an attorney at this time.
The child’s exact cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner, authorities said.
Brendan Banfield testifies in his own defense on Jan. 28, 2026, during his double murder trial in Fairfax County, Virginia. (Pool/ABC News)
(FAIRFAX, Va.) — A jury has reached a verdict in the double murder trial of a Virginia man accused of killing his wife and a stranger lured to their home under false pretenses in an elaborate plot to get rid of his spouse so he could be with his au pair, with whom he was having an affair.
Brendan Banfield, 40, is accused of stabbing his wife to death in their home in Fairfax County and fatally shooting a man he allegedly “catfished” on a fetish website. Prosecutors said he pretended to be his wife to lure the man to their home for what was believed to be a consensual fake rape scenario in order to frame that stranger for his wife’s murder.
The jury deliberated nearly nine hours over two days, starting Friday, before reaching a verdict Monday afternoon. The verdict is expected to be read in court at 5 p.m. ET Monday.
The former IRS agent was charged with aggravated murder in 2024 following a monthslong investigation into the deaths of his wife, 37-year-old nurse Christine Banfield, and the man, 39-year-old Joseph Ryan.
Prosecutors accused Brendan Banfield of plotting the murders with the family’s au pair, 25-year-old Juliana Peres Magalhaes, who was initially charged with second-degree murder in connection with the deaths.
Ahead of the trial, Peres Magalhaes pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Under the plea agreement with prosecutors, she will receive time served for testifying against Brendan Banfield.
During closing arguments on Friday, the prosecutor made the case that the murders were premeditated.
“He was in love with Juliana. He can pretend that this was a fling and affair — he’d had them before, no big deal. He was in love with Juliana,” prosecutor Jenna Sands said. “He was afraid of losing her. He needed to get rid of his wife so that they could be together, so that they could marry, so that they could have those babies that he was picking out names for.”
Sands said there was no evidence that Christine Banfield had previously used dating or fetish websites, argued that there were signs that the crime scene had been “manipulated,” and reminded jurors that during the au pair’s testimony, Peres Magalhaes “told us how the plan was crafted and how it played out.”
The defense, meanwhile, pushed back on the catfishing theory, questioned the thoroughness of the investigation and argued that there were conclusions made based on confirmation bias. The attorney, John Carroll, claimed that prosecutors pressured Peres Magalhaes to change her story and that she “secured herself a deal that benefited her.” Carroll also said Brendan Banfield didn’t have to testify, but he did as they sought “to get the truth out there.”
“Is it reasonable, after a six- to eight-week affair, that someone is going to try to get rid of their companion of 19 years, wife of 12 years? Is that reasonable?” Carroll asked the jury. “You heard from my client: He thinks it’s absurd.”
During his testimony, Brendan Banfield called the allegations “absolutely crazy” and said his affair with Peres Magalhaes was just that and nothing more.
He said he came home on Feb. 24, 2023, after the au pair called to alert him about a stranger in the home. He said he went up to his bedroom with his gun drawn and found his wife naked with Ryan and that she called out, “Brendan, he has a knife!”
“I was extremely terrified,” Brendan Banfield told the jury. “I don’t think I’ve ever been more panicked in my life.”
He said he fired his government-issued firearm, striking Ryan in the head, after the man appeared to stab his wife.
Prosecutors said Christine Banfield was stabbed seven times in the neck.
Peres Magalhaes testified that Brendan Banfield expressed his desire to “get rid of” his wife in October 2022, saying, “At first, I thought he was joking.”
She testified that she had helped Brendan Banfield catfish Ryan on the fetish website to lure Ryan to the home.
Peres Magalhaes told the court that Brendan Banfield told her he wanted to marry her and have children with her, and that he didn’t want to divorce his wife because “she would have more money than he would” and because he wanted custody of the couple’s daughter.
Brendan Banfield was additionally charged with using a firearm while committing or attempting to commit murder and child endangerment. The couple’s then-4-year-old daughter was in the house at the time of the killings, in the basement.
“He left her in the basement, knowing that Joe Ryan was upstairs,” Sands said during her closing argument. “He left her in the basement while he shot and killed Joe Ryan. He left her in the basement while he stabbed his wife.”
(CHICAGO) — An 18-year-old student at Loyola University in Chicago was shot and killed while walking with her friends near campus, authorities said.
The group was walking near Tobey Prinz Beach Park, less than 1 mile from the university’s Lake Shore campus, when an unknown male walked up to them at about 1:30 a.m. Thursday, Chicago police said.
The male showed a gun and opened fire toward the friends, police said.
The victim was shot in the head and died at the scene, police said, adding that no one else was injured.
Loyola University president Mark Reed identified the slain student as Sheridan Gorman.
“This is a tragic loss, and our hearts go out to Sheridan’s family, loved ones, and all who knew her,” Reed said in a statement.
Reed said the university is offering counseling services and is in touch with law enforcement.
“Based on the information available to us now, there is no ongoing threat to our campus community,” he said.
Gorman was also a “beloved” student at her former high school in Westchester County, New York.
“We are so deeply shattered by this tragic and senseless loss,” Yorktown Central School District Superintendent Ron Hattar said in a statement. “Sheridan was loved by all who knew her, and her impact on students and staff alike was profound. She was a shining light for so many people.”
Booking photo of Renee Lambert, 34, who was arrested, May 2, 2026, in Fort Myers, Florida, after she allegedly ran onto a football field and assaulted a child during a Pop Warner football game, according to police. (Lee County Sheriff’s Office)
(FORT MYERS, Fla.) — A Florida mother was arrested after police alleged she charged onto a football field over the weekend and repeatedly kicked a 13-year-old player during a youth football game brawl.
The woman, 34-year-old Renee Lambert, was arrested on Saturday on charges of child abuse without great bodily harm and resisting an officer without violence, according to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.
The incident unfolded on Saturday afternoon at Brooks Park in Fort Myers during a Southwest Florida Panthers Youth Football game, according to the sheriff’s office and the league’s president.
During the game, an on-field fight broke out between players, authorities said. As coaches attempted to break up the fight, bystander video captured Lambert — who had been cheering on her son’s team, the Falcons — rushing onto the field. The footage appeared to show her kicking the child on the opposing team while he was on the ground, officials said.
“Witnesses stated that after an incident on the field with the youth players fighting, some parents came onto the field to intervene,” according to a probable cause statement released by the sheriff’s office. “A witness reported seeing the adult female kick a juvenile male multiple times.”
At least two on-duty sheriff’s deputies were at the park patrolling when the altercation occurred, according to the probable cause statement.
The sheriff’s department released body-camera video of deputies detaining Lambert near a concession stand after witnesses pointed her out.
Lambert allegedly became “confrontational” while speaking with deputies, according to the statement.
“Lambert refused to listen and was getting agitated, prompting deputies to give her lawful orders to comply with being handcuffed, at which time, Lambert pushed and pulled away from deputies, refusing to give her hands as they attempted to handcuff her,” the statement alleges.
She was eventually detained and placed in a patrol car, according to the statement.
Child welfare officials were notified because Lambert’s children were present during the incident.
Deputies located the player whom Lambert allegedly kicked, and the alleged victim’s mother signed a document expressing a “desire to prosecute,” according to the statement.
The victim told deputies that he was kicked in the leg, but no visible injuries were detected, according to the sheriff’s office.
ABC News has not been able to reach Lambert for comment.
In the body-camera video, Lambert complained that the player struck her first with his helmet.
“I’m the one who got hit,” Lambert is heard telling a deputy in the body camera footage and asking why the deputies were “mad” at her.
“I’m mad at an adult for attacking a kid,” one of the deputies is heard replying to Lambert in the footage.
The sheriff’s office said they have found no evidence to support Lambert’s claim that she was struck during the altercation.
Lambert complained of head pain following her arrest and she was taken to a hospital to be examined before she was booked at the Lee County Jail, according to the probable cause statement.
Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno told ABC affiliate station WZVN in Naples that “it’s sad” such violence occurred at a youth football game.
“We need to have law and order. We need to protect everyone,” Marceno said. “As sheriff, I’m not going to tolerate it.”
Jose Davila, president of Southwest Florida Panthers Youth Football, released a statement to WZVN, saying, “We have zero tolerance for this type of behavior.”
“One moment does not define the character, values, or integrity of the programs involved,” Davila said. “We want to be very clear, one bad apple does not define who the Fort Myers Falcons are.”
