Man who allegedly beat 84-year-old with dementia, set him on fire is charged with murder
Los Angeles County District Attorney placard. (Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
(LOS ANGELES) — A man is charged with murder for allegedly beating an 84-year-old man with dementia and setting him on fire, Los Angeles prosecutors said.
The victim, Bang Cho, had wandered away from a senior care home when he was attacked just before midnight on Sunday in downtown LA, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office said.
The incident unfolded when Cho walked behind the suspect, Lavonta Wilder, and grabbed a bag Wilder was carrying, prosecutors said.
Wilder, a 40-year-old experiencing homelessness, allegedly “viciously” punched and kicked Cho, then lifted the elderly man over his shoulder and slammed him to the ground, and then set him on fire, prosecutors said.
Cho was taken to a hospital where he died the next day, prosecutors said.
Wilder is charged with murder and faces a special allegation of having a prior serious felony, prosecutors said. He’s due in court for an arraignment next month.
“The level of violence alleged here is brutal, callous and extreme,” LA County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement.
Cho “was disoriented and living with dementia, conditions that made him particularly vulnerable,” Hochman said. “Our thoughts are with the victim’s family as they endure this unimaginable tragedy.”
Kilmar Abrego Garcia arrives for his first check-in at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Baltimore Field Office the day after a federal judge ordered his release from a detention in Pennsylvania, on December 12, 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge on Friday dismissed the criminal human smuggling case brought by the Department of Justice against Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw granted Abrego Garcia’s motion to dismiss, finding that the federal government failed to rebut Abrego Garcia’s “presumption of vindictiveness.”
Abrego Garcia, who had been living in Maryland with his wife and children, was deported in March of last year to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison — despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution — after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which he denies.
He was brought back to the U.S. in June to face human smuggling charges in Tennessee, after which U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis released him from ICE detention while he was awaiting trial.
Judge Crenshaw, in his decision Friday, wrote that the timing of a DHS agent’s decision to reopen a closed investigation of a November 2022 traffic stop, and that “now unrebutted public statements tying the reopened investigation to Abrego’s successful lawsuit taints the investigation with a vindictive motive.”
“Because the presumption of vindictiveness remains unrebutted, the indictment must be dismissed,” Crenshaw said.
The criminal charges in Tennessee stem from a 2022 traffic stop that was disclosed in an April 2025 press release issued by the Department of Homeland Security, which said it had a “bombshell investigative report” regarding the stop, alleging that Abrego Garcia was a suspected human trafficker. The release included a screengrab of body camera video from the traffic stop.
Abrego Garcia was not charged or arrested during the traffic stop, which lasted for more than an hour. Body camera footage showed Tennessee troopers — after questioning Abrego Garcia — discussing among themselves their suspicions of human trafficking because nine people were traveling in the vehicle without luggage.
“Instead of investigating the November 2022 traffic stop to identify who was responsible for the human smuggling, Blanche started the investigation to implicate Abrego,” Crenshaw wrote, referring to now-Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “He did so to justify the Executive Branch’s decision to remove him to El Salvador.”
A Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement following the order, “Another activist judge has placed politics above public safety. The judge’s order is wrong and dangerous, and we will appeal.”
“Justice is a big word and an even bigger promise to fulfill, and I am grateful that today, justice has taken a step forward,” Abrego Garcia said in a statement released by CASA, an immigrant advocacy group that represents him.
“Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a victim of a politicized, vindictive White House and its lawyers at what used to be an independent Justice Department,” Abrego Garcia’s criminal attorneys told ABC News in a statement. “We are so pleased that he is a free man.”
In Friday’s dismissal order, Judge Crenshaw mentioned the involvement in the case of high-ranking DOJ officials including Associate Deputy Attorney General Aakash Singh, who called the case a “top priority” in emails to prosecutors. He also mentioned a Feb. 5, 2025, memo from then-Attorney General Pam Bondi warning DOJ staff of potential termination if they refused to advance the administration’s goals.
Judge Crenshaw concluded that while there was insufficient evidence to prove actual vindictiveness, the government could not justify its sudden shift from wanting to deport Abrego Garcia to prosecuting him.
“The evidence it labels as newly discovered was available to be obtained with due diligence long before April 2025,” the judge wrote. “Even more, it does not explain the Government’s change in position to remove Abrego and not prosecute him to then prosecute and not remove him.”
In his order, Crenshaw quoted former Attorney General Robert H. Jackson: “Therein is the most dangerous power of the prosecutor: that he will pick people that he thinks he should get, rather than pick cases that need to be prosecuted.”
Abrego Garcia had been scheduled to go to trial on the Tennessee charges, to which he pleaded not guilty, in January.
He is still fighting his deportation case in Maryland, where U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis has blocked the government from re-detaining him.
ABC News’ Alexander Mallin contributed to this report.
d4vd looks on during his arraignment for the murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez at Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center on April 20, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Ted Soqui – Pool/Getty Images)
(LOS ANGELES) — The 14-year-old girl whose dismembered remains authorities say were found decomposing in the singer D4vd’s towed Tesla last year died by “multiple penetrating injuries,” according to the newly unsealed medical examiner’s report.
D4vd — a 21-year-old Los Angeles resident whose legal name is David Burke — has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of the teen, Celeste Rivas Hernandez, officials said. The “Romantic Homicide” singer was arrested last week following a monthslong investigation.
The Los Angeles County medical examiner found she had two penetrating wounds of her torso, including injury to her liver, and reported evidence of traumatic injury. There were presumptive positives for benzodiazepines and meth/MDMA in her system, the report stated.
There was severe postmortem change to her body based on how long she had been dead.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Alex Murdaugh is found guilty on all counts for the murder of his wife and son at the Colleton County Courthouse on Thursday, March 2, 2023. (Joshua Boucher/The State/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Alex Murdaugh is suing the former court clerk who served during his double murder trial in South Carolina, alleging she denied him a fair trial before an impartial jury, his attorneys announced days after the state’s top court overturned his murder convictions.
Murdaugh’s wife, Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, 52, and younger son, Paul Murdaugh, 22, were found dead from multiple gunshot wounds near the dog kennels at the family’s hunting estate in 2021.
Murdaugh was convicted in 2023 of murdering them following a six-week trial, with jurors deliberating for nearly three hours before reaching a guilty verdict.
Last week, the five-member South Carolina Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Murdaugh must have a new trial, citing the “breathtaking and disgraceful effort” of former Colleton County clerk Mary Rebecca “Becky” Hill to “undermine the jury process.”
“With the South Carolina Supreme Court’s ruling, it has been adjudged as a matter of state law that she deprived Alex of his constitutional rights, deprived him of a right to a fair trial, and as a result we’ve got to do it all over again, which nobody wants to do,” Murdaugh’s attorney, Jim Griffin, said during a press briefing on Monday announcing the lawsuit.
The lawsuit is seeking at least $600,000, Griffin said. The civil complaint notes that Murdaugh spent $600,000 on his trial defense, according to the filing.
“The South Carolina Supreme Court has ruled that Ms. Hill’s actions — motivated by her own desire to profit from the trial — caused these funds to be lost,” the filing stated.
Griffin said they are seeking “accountability” with the lawsuit.
“Now, let me be clear. Alex Murdaugh owes a lot of people a lot of money. None of this money that is recovered will go to him personally,” he said. “The purpose of this lawsuit is to hold Becky Hill accountable for what she did.”
ABC News has reached out to Hill’s attorney for comment.
In its opinion filed last Wednesday, the state supreme court stated that Hill “egregiously attacked Murdaugh’s credibility and his defense, thus triggering the presumption of prejudice, which the State was unable to rebut.”
“As noted at the outset, Hill’s shocking jury interference was accomplished outside the presence and knowledge of the outstanding trial judge and superbly competent and professional counsel for the State and the defense,” it continued.
In the murder trial, prosecutors made the case that Murdaugh, who comes from a legacy of prominent attorneys in the Lowcountry region, killed his wife and son to gain sympathy and distract from his financial wrongdoings, while the defense argued that police ignored the possibility that anyone else could have killed them.
Murdaugh’s defense claimed that Hill influenced the verdict through remarks heard by some jurors during the trial, including in one instance to watch Murdaugh’s body language during his testimony, according to court filings.
Murdaugh has continued to deny having anything to do with the deaths of his wife and son.
Following the decision, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said his office will “aggressively” seek to retry Murdaugh for the murders “as soon as possible” — possibly by the end of this year.
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.
Her book, “Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders,” was ultimately pulled from publication over accusations of plagiarism.
She pleaded guilty in December 2025 to obstruction of justice, perjury and misconduct in office for showing photographs that were sealed court evidence to a reporter during the trial and then later lying about doing so on the stand during a hearing related to Murdaugh’s bid for a new trial. She was sentenced to three years of probation and 100 hours of community service.
The charges did not allege any jury tampering, and she denied any tampering with the jury during her testimony.
Murdaugh was also convicted on several financial crimes following the murder trial and is serving a 27-year sentence on state charges and a 40-year sentence on federal charges related to those crimes.
In its opinion, the state supreme court found that the trial court acted within its discretion in admitting some evidence of the financial crimes, which supported the state’s theory of motive, though it noted that the evidence could have been presented in a “fraction” of the time. If admitted on retrial, the evidence must be presented “efficiently,” the opinion stated.
