InfoWars reporter shot dead outside his apartment after possibly interrupting burglars: Police
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(AUSTIN, Texas) — A homicide investigation is underway after a reporter for InfoWars, the website run by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, was shot dead outside his apartment complex in Austin, Texas, according to police.
The victim, Jamie White, 36, was found lying on the ground in the parking lot around 11:56 p.m. Sunday, Austin police said. Infowars is based in Austin.
The suspects may have been burglarizing White’s car when White interrupted them, police said.
The suspects fled the scene after the shooting, police said.
Jones wrote on X, “We pledge that Jamie’s tragic death will not be in vain, and those responsible for this senseless violence will be brought to justice.”
Anyone with information about this shooting should call police at 512-974-TIPS, or submit a tip to Crime Stoppers at 512-472-8477.
(CHANDLER, AZ) — Lori Daybell, the mother convicted of murdering two of her children in a so-called doomsday plot, has now been found guilty of conspiring with her brother to kill her fourth husband.
The jury in Maricopa County, Arizona, was handed the case Monday afternoon before reaching a verdict Tuesday afternoon.
Lori Daybell, 51, represented herself in the Phoenix trial. She did not take the stand or call any witnesses.
Dubbed the “doomsday mom,” Lori Daybell has maintained that her brother shot her then-husband of 13 years, Charles Vallow, in self-defense in her home in Chandler, Arizona, in July 2019. Her brother, Alex Cox, died from natural causes months after the shooting.
She had pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, said the shooting was a ploy for Daybell to get rid of her estranged husband so she could get his $1 million life insurance policy and be with her current husband, Chad Daybell, whom she married four months after the shooting.
Prosecutors further said she invoked their “twisted” religious beliefs as justification for the murder and gave her brother “religious authority” to kill Vallow because they believed he was possessed by an evil spirit they referred to as “Ned.”
Over two weeks, the state called more than a dozen witnesses, including Daybell’s other brother, Adam Cox, who testified that he had “no doubt” his two siblings conspired to kill Vallow upon learning that his brother had fatally shot him.
In her closing argument, Maricopa County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Treena Kay said the evidence at the scene showed that Vallow was not shot in self-defense, but was “executed” and the scene “staged.” She recounted text messages sent from Lori Daybell to her husband, Chad, seven days after Vallow was killed, discussing her now-deceased husband’s life insurance policy. Kay said that, upon learning she was no longer the beneficiary of the plan, the defendant messaged Chad that “Ned” probably changed it “before we got rid of him.”
The prosecutor also discussed a text message the defendant sent Alex Cox days before the deadly shooting in which she said they could “be like Nephi,” a prophet in the Book of Mormon who God commanded to kill Laban.
“Lori Vallow wanted the million dollars, and she wanted Chad Daybell, and she and Alex used that twisted religious beliefs they had so that they could kill the evil, possessed Charles and ‘be like Nephi,'” Kay said.
Three jurors who spoke to reporters following the verdict said the text message evidence in the case had stood out while they were deliberating. The jurors said they had no knowledge of Lori Daybell’s prior convictions, which were not discussed during the Phoenix trial.
Members of Vallow’s family expressed relief at the guilty verdict.
“I’m ready to move on,” Vallow’s sister, Kay Woodcock, told reporters outside the courthouse.
“This was thrust upon us, and our lives just went into, like a tornado, for a long time,” she said.
Following the guilty verdict, Lori Daybell agreed to several aggravating factors in the case, instead of having a jury make a finding on them. Among them, she agreed that this was a dangerous offense and that it involved the presence of an accomplice. When asked if she agreed that as a result of her conduct, the victim or the victim’s family “suffered emotional or financial harm,” she said, “Absolutely.”
She will be sentenced following another upcoming trial in Maricopa County, where she is further accused of scheming with her brother Alex Cox to kill Brandon Boudreaux, the ex-husband of her niece.
Three months after the shooting of Vallow, Boudreaux called 911 to report that someone driving by in a Jeep shot at his vehicle outside his home in Gilbert, Arizona.
She has pleaded not guilty in that case.
Both Lori and Chad Daybell were found guilty of first-degree murder for the deaths of her children, Joshua “J.J.” Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 16, who went missing months after Charles Vallow was killed. In separate trials in 2023 and 2024, prosecutors argued the couple thought the children were possessed zombies and murdered them so that they could be together. The children’s remains were found on an Idaho property belonging to Daybell in June 2020 following a monthslong search.
Lori Daybell is currently serving life in prison without parole for the murders of her two children. She has denied killing them.
Chad Daybell was sentenced to death after being convicted of murdering the two children, as well as his first wife, Tamara Daybell, and now awaits execution on Idaho’s death row.
(WASHINGTON) — A female fencer was disqualified from a competition for refusing to compete against a transgender opponent, USA Fencing said in a statement to ABC News on Thursday.
The incident occurred last month at a USA Fencing-sanctioned regional tournament where fencer Stephanie Turner decided to remove her mask and take a knee instead of competing against Redmond Sullivan, a transgender woman.
Following the act of protest, the referee of the University of Maryland match — which was not an NCAA tournament — issued a black card to Turner, removing her from the competition.
USA Fencing’s current transgender and non-binary athlete policy was enacted in 2023 and allows athletes to participate in sanctioned events “in a manner consistent with their gender identity/ expression, regardless of the gender associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.”
USA Fencing told ABC News on Thursday that the decision to disqualify Turner from the tournament was “not related to any personal statement” but because she refused to fence an “eligible opponent.”
Sullivan transferred to the Wagner College women’s fencing team from the men’s team in 2024.
“We understand that the conversation on equity and inclusion pertaining to transgender participation in sport is evolving,” USA Fencing said in a statement, adding that the organization “will always err on the side of inclusion, and we’re committed to amending the policy as more relevant evidence-based research emerges, or as policy changes take effect in the wider Olympic & Paralympic movement.”
In a statement to ABC News on Thursday, Turner detailed the moment she took a knee and decided not to compete against Sullivan.
“As a woman fencing in a women’s tournament, I do not believe men should fence in my category. I was not aware Mr. Sullivan was registered until the night before the tournament. I prayed about it and decided if Mr. Sullivan and I were to fence face-to-face, then I would peaceably protest by taking a knee,” Turner said, misgendering Sullivan.
Turner said she has previously refused to fence in tournaments in which she knew a transgender athlete was going to compete, including the 2023 Summer Nationals.
“I want to thank God for trusting me with this mission to fight for female-exclusive sports and putting me in a place to effectively protest,” Turner added.
ABC News has reached out to Redmond Sullivan for a comment. The University of Maryland declined to comment on the incident.
The incident between Turner and Sullivan comes amid a wider debate surrounding transgender athletes in women’s and girls’ sports.
In February, President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports, fulfilling a promise that was at the center of his 2024 campaign.
Titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” the order mandates immediate enforcement, including against schools and athletic associations that “deny women single-sex sports and single-sex locker rooms,” according to the document, and directs state attorneys general to identify best practices for enforcing the mandate.
Opponents of the federal order said at the time that Trump’s action would lead to increased discrimination and harassment.
“This order could expose young people to harassment and discrimination, emboldening people to question the gender of kids who don’t fit a narrow view of how they’re supposed to dress or look,” Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson said in a statement at the time. “Participating in sports is about learning the values of teamwork, dedication, and perseverance. And for so many students, sports are about finding somewhere to belong. We should want that for all kids — not partisan policies that make life harder for them.”
Proponents say, however, Trump’s federal direction brings clarity at the federal level.
“We’re a national governing body and we follow federal law,” NCAA President Charlie Baker told Republican senators at a hearing in December. “Clarity on this issue at the federal level would be very helpful.”
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from deporting noncitizens to countries other than their place of origin without due process.
U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy issued an injunction that bars the Trump administration from deporting any noncitizen to a country not explicitly mentioned in their order or removal without first allowing them to raise concerns about their safety.
“Defendants argue that the United States may send a deportable alien to a country not of their origin, not where an immigration judge has ordered, where they may be immediately tortured and killed, without providing that person any opportunity to tell the deporting authorities that they face grave danger or death because of such a deportation,” Judge Murphy wrote.
“All nine sitting justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, the Assistant Solicitor General of the United States, Congress, common sense, basic decency, and this Court all disagree.”
The ruling throws a roadblock in the Trump administration’s policy of removing noncitizens to countries like El Salvador, Honduras, or Panama, even if the noncitizens lack an order of removal to those countries.
The Trump administration last month invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport two planeloads of alleged Venezuelan gang members to the CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador with little-to-no due process.
Judge Murphy noted that the Trump administration officials “have applied and will continue to apply the alleged policy of removing aliens to third countries without notice and an opportunity to be heard on fear-based claims — in other words, without due process.”
He said his order prevents the irreparable harm of noncitizens being sent to countries where they might face persecution, torture, or death without having the chance to challenge their removal in court.
“The irreparable harm factor likewise weighs in Plaintiffs’ favor. Here, the threatened harm is clear and simple: persecution, torture, and death. It is hard to imagine harm more irreparable,” he wrote.
Judge Murphy’s order requires that the Trump administration provide noncitizens written notice before they are removed to a third country, as well as a “meaningful opportunity” to raise concerns about their safety, including providing at least 15 days to reopen their immigration proceedings.
He also certified a class — meaning the order applies not only to the plaintiffs in the case, but also any noncitizen with a final order of removal.
Separately, Judge Murphy is considering whether the Trump administration violated his temporary order when it removed at least three men to El Salvador without allowing them to raise concerns about their safety. He is still considering that issue.
