Marcellus Williams executed by lethal injection in Missouri after SCOTUS denied appeals

(NEW YORK) — Nearly 43 million people are under red flag warnings across eight states as the fire danger remains elevated in the Northeast.

Relative humidity as low as 20% coupled with wind gusts up to 40 mph could help accelerate the spread of any fires.

While Sunday brings a slight improvement in fire weather conditions, the overall fire risk will continue into next week across much of the Northeast.

There is no measurable rain in the forecast for the next several days in this area, although there are some signs that much-needed rain may arrive in the region late Wednesday into Thursday. At this point, it doesn’t look like a complete soaker, but any bit of rain will help.

The lack of rainfall will only exacerbate the moderate to extreme drought conditions across the area.

Storm out west

In the Pacific Northwest, a strong storm system will be moving onshore this weekend, bringing periods of rain and significant mountain snow.

Winter alerts are in effect for much of the Cascades and northern Rockies, covering portions of six states from Washington to Utah. At least 1 to 2 feet of snow is possible in the mountains, especially above 2,000 feet in elevation.

Severe threat to Texas

A new storm will be forming in the Southern Plains on Sunday, bringing a severe weather potential to portions of Texas.

Both Sunday and Monday have a slight risk for severe storms with damaging winds, large hail, and isolated tornadoes.

Tropical Storm Sara

Tropical Storm Sara has been drenching much of Honduras over the last couple of days, with an increasing threat for mudslides and potentially catastrophic flash flooding. Rainfall amounts of 15 to 25 inches are expected, with localized amounts up to 35 inches due to this slow-moving storm.

Sara is forecast to drift across Belize and the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, dissipating into a remnant trough by early Monday.

The threat of this storm redeveloping into a tropical system in the Gulf of Mexico is slim due to unfavorable conditions, so a U.S. landfall from this tropical system is not likely at all.

There will be some impacts to the U.S. in the form of tropical moisture being fed into passing front, leading to a good chance for heavy rain along the Gulf Coast and into Florida on Tuesday and Wednesday.

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(NEW YORK) — Two boys, ages 12 and 13, have been arrested and charged in a street attack last week on former New York Gov. David Paterson and his 20-year-old stepson that unfolded on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, according to officials.

The two children, whose names were not released, were arrested around 8 p.m. Saturday after turning themselves in at a police precinct with their parents, the New York Police Department said.

A third child initially wanted in the attack also turned themself in but was not charged after officers determined he was not involved, officials said.

The 12-year-old suspect was arrested on a charge of second-degree gang assault while the 13-year-old was charged with third-degree gang assault, according to the NYPD.

“Governor Paterson and his family are glad to see the suspects turned themselves in,” Sean Darcy, spokesperson for Paterson, told New York ABC station WABC. “We hope that the young people involved learn something from this unfortunate encounter.”

The attack occurred around 8:35 p.m. on Friday on 2nd Avenue near 96th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, according to the NYPD.

The confrontation began as a “verbal altercation” between the suspects and the 70-year-old former governor and his stepson, the NYPD said. Police initially said that up to five suspects were involved in the attack.

The suspects had had “a previous interaction” with the stepson, Paterson’s spokesperson told WABC, noting that the attack took place near the victims’ home.

The suspects hit the victims in the face and body, police said.

Paterson and his stepson managed to fight off the attackers, the spokesperson said, and the suspects fled on foot, according to police.

The investigation of the attack is ongoing and more arrests could be made, police said.

Paterson and his stepson were both taken to the hospital in stable condition, police said, and they’ve since been released, the former governor’s spokesperson said.

Paterson, a Democrat, served as governor of New York from 2008 to 2010. He was New York’s first African American governor and the nation’s first legally blind governor.

ABC News’ Matt Foster and Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.

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(DELPHI, Ind.) — Delphi, Indiana, double murder suspect Richard Allen self-reported being at the crime scene in the days after the killings, but the tip sheet “fell in the cracks,” leaving him “hiding in plain sight” in the small town for years, the sheriff told the jury at Allen’s trial.

Best friends Libby German, 14, and Abby Williams, 13, were walking along a Delphi hiking trail when they were killed on the afternoon of Feb. 13, 2017. Allen, a Delphi resident, was arrested in October 2022 and has pleaded not guilty to murder.

Kathy Shank, a volunteer file clerk who arranged boxes of information and tips in the case, testified Thursday that on Sept. 21, 2022 — weeks before Allen’s arrest — she came across a file folder that was not with the others she was managing.

The sheet said that on Feb. 16, 2017 — three days after the murders — a person listed as “Richard Allen Whiteman” self-reported being on the trails between 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. on the day of the crime. According to Shank, the self-reporter listed seeing three girls.

Shank testified that she wrote a lead sheet and changed the name to Richard Allen. Allen lived on Whiteman Drive, so she said she believed the names were transposed and it was misfiled.

She said she notified the sheriff after finding Allen’s tip sheet.

Allen’s defense attorney asked Shank, “There was no other tip, to your knowledge, that involved Richard Allen?” Shank replied, “To my knowledge, no.”

Carroll County Sheriff Tony Liggett acknowledged on the stand that Allen was never a suspect from 2017 to 2022 and said the tip sheet generated about him was marked “clear.” When pressed by Allen’s defense on how that could have happened, Liggett responded, Allen “got lost” and “fell in the cracks.”

The sheriff also conceded that Allen came forward on his own and never left town. “He was hiding in plain sight,” Liggett said to defense attorney Andrew Baldwin.

When Allen was arrested, Liggett was running for sheriff, which Allen’s attorneys argued was good timing for his campaign. Liggett denied the two were linked.

“This was about the murders of two little girls,” he said. Indiana State Police investigator Jerry Holeman testified about his conversation with Allen during the search of Allen’s home in the fall of 2022.

Holeman said, as the two sat in his police car, he told Allen that once the search was done he could file a claim for any damage to his house.

Holeman claimed that Allen replied, “It doesn’t matter. It’s over.”

Holeman said he didn’t record that conversation even though Allen was considered a suspect at the time. Defense attorneys pushed back on Holeman’s story, saying the jury could only take his word for it.

Indiana State Police trooper David Vido, who helped administer the search warrant at Allen’s home, testified there was no physical evidence in Allen’s car or on his jacket that linked him to the crime scene.

Prosecutors said police analysis of Allen’s gun determined that the .40-caliber unspent round discovered by the girls’ bodies was cycled through Allen’s gun.

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