Man wanted for allegedly stabbing estranged wife to death outside elementary school
Metropolitan Nashville Police Department
(NASHVILLE) — A man is at large after allegedly stabbing his estranged wife to death outside the elementary school where she worked, Nashville police said.
Niurka Alfonso-Acevedo, 52, was attacked Monday morning outside Chadwell Elementary when she arrived for her custodian job, according to the Metro Nashville Police Department. The stabbing occurred before students had arrived for the school day, police said.
Detectives believe her estranged husband, 54-year-old Candido Raul Rubio-Perez, was lying in wait for her in the parking lot, according to police. He fled the scene after the attack.
A school staff member found Alfonso-Acevedo — who had worked at the school since October — lying in the parking lot and called 911, according to police and the school district.
“Our thoughts are with the victim’s family, friends, and the entire Chadwell Elementary community during this time of loss,” Metro Nashville Public Schools said in a statement.
“There is no ongoing threat to the safety of students or staff,” the school district added.
Rubio-Perez is wanted for criminal homicide, police said.
Anyone with information about Rubio-Perez’s whereabouts is urged to call Crime Stoppers at 615-742-7463. A reward up to $5,000 is available, police said.
More than 110 million Americans are under alerts Sunday for flooding, mudslides and strong winds as dangerous winter weather left tens of thousands without power throughout the South and caused multiple deaths in Kentucky.
Heavy rain continued to produce serious flooding across parts of the Southern United States on Sunday morning, where rapidly rising floodwaters inundated roadways and spurred some evacuations. Meanwhile, snow and sleet made for messy weather in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic.
Throughout Saturday and into Sunday, there were numerous flash flood warnings issued across parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia and North Carolina.
The impact from flooding in his state is “massive,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Sunday in a statement on X, and there have been hundreds of water rescues and multiple fatalities.
“Evacuations are continuing as this event will continue through today,” Beshear said. “Please be careful if you have to travel.”
More than 300,000 customers spread across Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi and Virginia were without power Sunday morning, according to Poweroutage.us.
In advance of the heavy rainfall and widespread flooding, Beshear issued a state of emergency, saying Saturday that the entire state would be under significant threat through at least Sunday morning.
Parts of western Kentucky and northwestern Tennessee reported receiving 4 to 7 inches of rain Saturday night into Sunday. The area around Clarksville, Tennessee, northwest of Nashville, reported getting around 7.6 inches of rain.
Beshear also said he wrote to President Donald Trump “requesting an emergency disaster declaration for Kentucky due to the severe weather and impacts across our state,” which would release federal funds to aid the response.
The governor said he had also spoken to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and the acting director of FEMA.
Serious flooding around Panbowl Lake in Jackson — about 85 miles southeast of Lexington — led to the evacuation of a nursing home and a hospital as precautions.
The Louisville Metro Police Department said its river patrol and diving teams were working with local fire departments to conduct water rescues “throughout the city,” with almost 30 such rescues completed and more expected. Authorities in Simpson County, Kentucky, also reported water rescues.
Areas along the border between Kentucky and Tennessee reported the highest reported rain totals, with between 4 and 7 inches of rain.
In Tennessee, more than 50 residents of a nursing home in Macon County, about 65 miles northeast of Nashville, were evacuated to higher ground after rising water began to approach, according to the Macon County Emergency Medical Services.
Joe Pitts, the mayor of Clarksville, Tennessee, said in a statement that close to 4 inches of rain caused “alarming scenes of flash flooding” in the area. Up to 2 more inches of rain is expected through the day and into Sunday evening, Pitts said.
The National Weather Service extended a flash flood emergency for several counties in West Virginia and in southwestern Virginia until 8 a.m. Sunday, calling the flash flooding an “extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation.”
In the town of Richlands, in southwestern Virginia’s Tazewell County, residents of many areas were encouraged to evacuate, according to the local police department.
“Multiple areas of the town are currently experiencing flooding, with the river expected to rise even higher,” the police department said in a Facebook post on Saturday afternoon. “Residents in previously flooded areas are strongly advised to evacuate at once. Evacuation should not be postponed.”
Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears said National Air guardsmen and soldiers had been deployed to help the response. “Don’t try to outrun a flood or anything,” she wrote in a Facebook post. “Get the higher ground if you need to.”
In West Virginia, Gov. Patrick Morrisey declared a state of emergency in 10 counties. Evacuations were underway in southern West Virginia, with the Blue Stone River experiencing major flooding near Spanishburg.
In areas affected by heavy rain, landslides and rockslides are possible.
Storms with damaging winds and flash flooding were the main threats, but there was also the possibility of tornadoes.
Residents were urged to pay attention to severe weather warnings overnight, as the tornado risk continued into Sunday morning for parts of Georgia. Warnings could be extended east to the Atlantic coastline as the storms progress.
Snow and ice in the Northeast
Meanwhile, snow moved into portions of the Northeast and mid-Atlantic on Saturday afternoon, and conditions were expected to deteriorate.
The snow is expected to change to sleet and rain as this system moves through the Northeast into Sunday.
The switch from snow to sleet and rain will create slushy conditions and hazardous travel.
Snow totals could be topping a foot across parts of central and northern New England and northern New York state. For cities like Hartford and Boston, a slushy 3 to 6 inches is likely before rain falls and compacts the snow.
86 million under wind alerts
High wind alerts are in effect for more than 86 million people across 22 states for Sunday and Monday.
Gusts of up to 60 mph are possible in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic through Sunday night, while gusts of up to 45 mph are possible in the Southeast.
A severe thunderstorm warning was issued for Atlanta at 4:30 a.m. on Sunday. Wind gusts at the city’s Mercedes Benz Stadium were recorded up to 71 mph.
More than 215,000 customers were without power in Georgia as of the early hours of Sunday morning.
ABC News’ Victoria Arancio and Josh Richardson contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A federal judge on Friday said he has a strong suspicion that the Trump administration deported a 2-year old U.S. citizen to Honduras “with no meaningful process.”
The U.S. citizen, identified in the filings as “V.M.L” was initially detained with her undocumented mother and sister at a routine immigration check-in in New Orleans earlier this week. After the father of the 2-year old learned that his family was detained, his lawyer called immigration officials to inform them that V.M.L is a U.S. citizen and could not be deported, according to court documents.
“Around 7:30 p.m. the same day, V.M.L.’s father received a call from an ICE officer, who spoke to him for about a minute,” according to a court filing submitted by the father’s attorney. “The officer said that V.M.L.’s mother was there, and that they did not have much time to speak to each other and that they were going to deport his partner and daughters.”
According to the court filing, when the father reached out to an official for Immigration and Customs and Enforcement, he was told that he could try to pick up V.M.L but that he would also be taken into custody.
On Thursday, an attorney for a family friend, who had been given temporary provisional custody of the child, filed for a temporary restraining order, requesting the immediate release of the 2-year-old, saying she was suffering irreparable harm by being detained.
In response to that motion, lawyers with the Justice Department said it was in the best interest of the minor that she remain in legal custody of her mother and added that she was not at “risk of irreparable harm because she is a U.S. citizen.”
“V.M.L. is not prohibited from entering the United States,” the DOJ lawyers said in the court filing.
Before the court responded to the habeas petition and a motion for temporary restraining order, the 2-year old, along with her mother and sister, were deported to Honduras, according to court filings.
“That family filed a habeas corpus petition and motion for a temporary restraining order, which was never ruled on because of their rapid early-morning deportation,” the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement.
The ACLU said that the 2-year old and two other U.S. citizen children in a separate case, were deported from the U.S. “under deeply troubling circumstances that raise serious due process concerns.”
In his April 25 order, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty said he tried to reach the 2-year-old’s mother over the phone, to ascertain whether she, in fact, wanted her child deported with her, as the government had contended, but was told by government attorneys that wouldn’t be possible because the mother had just been released in Honduras.
Doughty scheduled a hearing in the case for May 16, saying he was taking the step in “the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the Government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process.”
(LOS ANGELES) Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said he’s asked the court to deny the Menendez brothers’ habeas corpus petition, which aims to get a new trial or the case tossed out.
Erik and Lyle Menendez filed the habeas corpus petition in 2023 for a review of new evidence not presented at trial.
Two new pieces of evidence are at the center of the petition.
One is a letter Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin Andy Cano eight months before the murders detailing his alleged abuse from his father. The cousin testified about the alleged abuse at trial, but the letter — which would have corroborated the cousin’s testimony — wasn’t found until several years ago, according to the brothers’ attorney.
The second piece is allegations from a former member of the boy band Menudo, Roy Rossello, who revealed in 2023 that he was raped by the brothers’ father, Jose Menendez.
Hochman explained that the standard for a successful habeas petition has multiple requirements: You must show that it’s new evidence; you must show thats it’s timely and the evidence could not be discovered at the time of the trial; you must show you didn’t engage in a delay by the time you learned of the evidence and brought your motion; the evidence must be credible; and the evidence must be admissible.
Hochman argues the letter to Cano is not credible evidence.
“If this letter truly existed, the defense counsel would have absolutely used it at the trial because it would help corroborate” testimony from Cano and Erik Menendez, Hochman said.
Erik Menendez at his second trial testified for seven days about graphic descriptions of his sexual abuse from ages of 6 to 18 and also talked about the sexual abuse his brother experienced from their father, the district attorney said.
Asked who he disclosed to, Erik Menendez said he told Cano when he was 12 or 13 years old.
Cano — who died in 2003 — testified in the 1990s and relayed that same information: that Erik Menendez mentioned abuse six years before the murders and that was the only communication they had about the sexual abuse, the district attorney said.
That letter was never discussed at either of the two trials, Hochman said.
Erik Menendez claimed he didn’t know about the letter until a 2015 Barbara Walters special published it, but this habeas motion was not filed until 2023, Hochman said.
The defense in this habeas motion argued that to resolve this case jurors had to decide if the brothers were sexually molested by their father — but the jury never had to resolve that question, Hochman said. Instead, the jury had to determine if the brothers conspired to kill their parents, if they killed them, what their state of mind was, and if they did so, if they acted in self-defense, Hochman said.
Hochman said Rossello’s claims fail the admissibility standard for the habeas petition because the brothers didn’t know about Rossello’s allegations until recent years, so it couldn’t have influenced their state of mind during the crime and “couldn’t play a role in self-defense or premeditated murder.”
The brothers were convicted in 1996 of the 1989 murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez.
Lyle and Erik Menendez, who were 21 and 18, respectively, at the time, admitted to gunning down their parents in the family’s Beverly Hills home. The defense claimed the brothers acted in self-defense after enduring years of sexual abuse by their father, but prosecutors alleged they killed for money.
Lyle and Erik Menendez were sentenced to two consecutive life prison terms without the possibility of parole.
Besides the habeas corpus petition, the brothers have been pursuing two other paths to freedom.
One other path is through resentencing, which Hochman said his office will deal with in the coming weeks.
In October, then-LA County District Attorney George Gascón announced that he was recommending the brothers’ sentence of life without the possibility of parole be removed, and they should instead be sentenced for murder, which would be a sentence of 50 years to life. Because both brothers were under 26 at the time of the crimes, they would be eligible for parole immediately with the new sentence.
The DA’s office said its resentencing recommendations take into account many factors, including rehabilitation in prison and abuse or trauma that contributed to the crime. Gascón praised the work Lyle and Erik Menendez did behind bars to rehabilitate themselves and help other inmates.
Weeks after Gascón’s announcement, he lost his race for reelection to Hochman.
Hochman said in January that he was still reviewing the facts of the case and hadn’t yet decided if he’s in support of the brothers’ bid for freedom. He said he was reviewing thousands of pages of confidential prison records, trial transcripts and court filing, as well as speaking to all the prosecutors and defense attorneys involved.
The brothers’ next resentencing hearing is on March 20 and 21.
The third path to freedom is through clemency.
The brothers submitted a request for clemency to California Gov. Gavin Newsom. In November, Newsom said he’d defer to Hochman’s “review and analysis of the Menendez case prior to making any clemency decisions.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
