(LOS ANGELES) — Firefighters in Maui are battling a brush fire burning above Kaanapali, Hawaii, on Monday.
The fire is near the old Sugar Cane Train warehouse, the Maui Emergency Management Agency said.
Both lanes of Honoapiʻilani Highway between Puʻukoliʻi Road and Lower Honoapiʻilani Highway have been shut down amid firefighting efforts, according to the agency.
The Maui County Fire Department said in an update on X that the fire “is slowly being contained.”
Officials asked motorists to avoid the area. “Smoke continues to impact the highway, necessitating the continued road closure,” the department said.
The blaze is just a couple of miles north of where the devastating Lahaina wildfires occurred nearly two years ago.
The fires, which became the fifth deadliest in U.S. history, left over 100 people dead, destroyed thousands of structures and parched the local landscape.
(MOSCOW, Idaho) — In a series of final rulings ahead of Bryan Kohberger’s capital murder trial, Judge Steven Hippler said lawyers for the man who could be executed, if convicted, won’t be permitted to present to the jury the theory that some unknown person is the real killer.
The trial in the Idaho college killings case will begin Aug. 18, a week later than originally planned, a judge ruled Thursday.
With jury selection starting on Aug. 4, a series of final rulings has cleared the path for the trial of Bryan Kohberger as Judge Steven Hippler said lawyers for the man who could be executed, if convicted, won’t be permitted to present to the jury the theory that some unknown person is the real killer.
However, Kohberger’s defense will be allowed to press investigators on whether they followed up on all plausible leads enough, beyond simply pursuing Kohberger, the judge said.
“Nothing links these individuals to the homicides or otherwise gives rise to a reasonable inference that they committed the crime; indeed, it would take nothing short of rank speculation by the jury to make such a finding,” the judge said.
Kohberger’s lawyers had offered the judge, under seal, what they said were four other people who might have killed Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin in an off-campus house on Nov. 13, 2022.
Kohberger’s attorneys — who insist he is innocent — did acknowledge that they didn’t have enough to pursue that strategy at the trial’s outset and wanted the judge to give them “latitude” in building that theory when they cross-examine the prosecution’s witnesses.
The judge rejected the proof they offered as paper-thin at best, and “entirely irrelevant.”
“At best, [Kohberger’s] offer of proof can give rise to only wild speculation that it is possible any one of these four individuals could have committed the crimes,” Judge Steven Hippler said, adding the defense can’t “merely offer up unsupported speculation that another person may have committed the crime, which is all [Kohberger] has done here.”
In his ruling, Hippler said allowing the defense to indulge that theory would risk leading the jury “astray” and waste their “precious time,” the judge said.
Kohberger’s defense previously suggested there could be someone else behind the killings, pointing to the other unidentified male DNA samples found in the crime scene area. But, the judge noted, each of the four people proffered as alternates had cooperated with authorities, provided their DNA and fingerprints and that forensics had already excluded their DNA from the samples taken from the crime scene and victims.
The fourth individual offered as an alternate had a “passing connection” to one of the victims, the judge said: he “noticed her shopping at a store approximately five weeks prior to the homicides.”
“He followed her briefly out the exit of the store while considering approaching her to talk. He turned away before ever speaking to her,” the judge said.
Hippler added that the event was “captured on a surveillance camera,” and that this man had cooperated with authorities. His DNA had already been excluded from those taken from the crime scene.
In another new filing just posted to the docket, Judge Hippler also denied the defense’s attempt to further delay the trial.
Kohberger “has not made a showing that there is good cause to continue the trial,” Hippler said.
Kohberger’s lawyers had pushed for another delay, citing a massive trove of records turned over by the prosecution in such a high-stakes case, the “inflammatory” media coverage potentially biasing the jury, and because they needed more time to prepare their case for sentencing, should he be convicted.
The judge itemized the extensive investigation that Kohberger’s lawyers had already done to prepare for a possible sentencing phase that show an “expansive understanding” of who the man is and the world he’s been living in.
The list includes his educational, medical and mental health records; his father’s military records; “multiple” interviews with Kohberger himself as well as family members, two of his fourth-grade teachers, his former boxing coach, and a psychologist who evaluated Kohberger in 2005; interviews with his former Masters’ degree professor/advisor; and letters and jail calls between Kohberger and his family.
There is also a lengthy redacted section discussing “speculation” Kohberger’s lawyers want to “chase down,” which the judge calls “unsupported suspicions” that “smacks of tactical gamesmanship and delay.”
If they were “truly struggling” to be ready for an August trial, they should have said so sooner, before all the deadlines had passed, the judge said. Kohberger’s lawyers have “robustly litigated” this case so far, amassed dozens of experts and other team members and filed numerous briefs.
The judge also said he doubted the national media attention on the case would decrease with a delay.
“Four college students in a small Idaho college town were brutally stabbed to death by an unknown perpetrator,” the judge said. “It was an immediate media sensation and garnered widespread attention that not only continues to persist, but continues to grow.”
(NEW YORK) — A dangerous derecho is expected to form in parts of the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest on Monday, with wind gusts over 75 mph likely.
A moderate threat for severe storms is in place for parts of South Dakota and Minnesota on Monday afternoon into the evening due to the threat of a derecho, a wind storm that can cause significant damage.
A derecho is a long-lived, damaging wind storm. To be classified as a derecho, wind damage must extend about 250 miles long with wind gusts of at least 58 mph along most of its length — including several gusts of 75 mph or greater, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The storm, which is most common in the warm season, can be more destructive than a tornado, leaving significant damage to property, trees and power lines in its wake.
The derecho is expected to form over parts of eastern South Dakota by Monday evening and then surge east over a wide and long-track area into parts of southern Minnesota and northern Iowa, according to the National Weather Service.
Pockets of winds up to 80 to 90 mph are possible, according to the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Severe hail and a few tornadoes are also possible in the region.
Additionally, there will be a “heavy rainfall component to the derecho threat,” and isolated instances of flash flooding are also possible in portions of the Northern Plains into the Upper Midwest, the NWS said.
(NEW YORK) — Formal charges are expected to be announced Tuesday against Tyler Robinson, the person accused of assassinating conservative influencer Charlie Kirk during an event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.
Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray is set to hold a news conference to announce the charges against Robinson after they are filed in the late morning, according to Utah County officials.
Robinson is also scheduled to make his first court appearance on Tuesday.
Robinson was arrested last week for felony discharge of a firearm, aggravated murder and obstruction of justice, according to probable cause documents and was booked into the Utah County Jail.
Investigators are continuing to assess evidence, including looking at electronic devices the suspect may have had access to, as federal charges could be announced in the coming days, law enforcement officials told ABC News.
A motive has not been revealed by officials, despite Vice President JD Vance saying “left-wing extremism” is “part of the reason” Kirk was killed.
Discord, a group chat messaging platform, confirmed on Monday that Robinson sent messages two hours before he was taken into custody admitting he shot the conservative influencer.
“Hey guys, I have bad news for you all…It was me at UVU yesterday. im sorry for all of this,” one of the messages read.
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, FBI Director Kash Patel said the FBI is investigating “anyone and everyone involved in that Discord chat.”
Patel said there are “a lot more” than 20 people linked to Robinson on Discord and that the FBI is “running them all down.” He added that a “number of individuals” are currently being investigated.
Robinson was apprehended after his father recognized him in photographs released by authorities, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said last week. His father told Robinson to turn himself in, with the 22-year-old initially saying no, but later changing his mind, officials said.
In a press briefing from the Oval Office Monday evening, President Donald Trump said it appeared Robinson became radicalized on the internet.
“Something happened to him over a fairly short period of time. It looks like he was radicalized over the internet, and it’s radicalized on the left. He’s a left,” Trump claimed.
Robinson is alleged to have had an “obsession” with the conservative influencer, based on the alleged shooter’s digital footprint, FBI Co-Deputy Director Dan Bongino said Monday on Fox News.
Bongino said the suspect appeared to have exhibited “multiple warning signs.”
“I believe co-workers stated he had detached himself when the topic of politics came up and walked away,” Bongino said on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.”
Bongino said they are looking into whether anyone knew the shooting could happen and didn’t alert authorities, referring to the Discord chats Robinson allegedly had about Kirk.
“Did they … hear it and think it was a joke? That is what we’re trying to find out now,” he told Fox News. “If there is a larger network here, we will get that out to the public as soon as we can.”
