Menendez brothers resentencing decision to come this week: DA
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(LOS ANGELES) — After it was announced last week that Erik and Lyle Menendez might have their case reevaluated, based on the emergence of new evidence, the Los Angeles district attorney on Tuesday clarified that the decision would likely come by the end of the week.
In an unrelated news conference on Tuesday evening, LA District Attorney George Gascon answered a prompt for an update on the brothers’ potential resentencing by saying, “As I said 10 days ago, I would make a decision within 10 days or so. I plan to make the decision by the end of this week.”
He concluded by saying, with some finality: “Yes, the end of this week.”
The Menendez brothers have served more than 30 years in prison for gunning down their parents, José and Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989.
The brothers were sentenced to life in prison at their second trial after the first was declared a mistrial.
They have never denied committing the crime; it is the motivation for the crime that has divided opinions over the decades.
Erik was 18 and Lyle was 21 at the time of the murders. At their first trial, their attorney argued that they killed their parents in self-defense.
She argued that the brothers feared their parents would kill them if they disclosed the years of alleged molestation they had suffered at their father’s hands.
The newest legal filing expands upon the abuse that the brothers allegedly endured from José Menedez.
New evidence includes a letter that Erik wrote to his cousin prior to the murders, detailing what his father was doing to him, according to the brothers’ attorneys.
Another potential victim has also come forward: Roy Rosselló, a former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, who has alleged that he was abused by José Menendez when he was 14.
Additionally, the passage of time has helped to cast their motive in a new light. A growing base of supporters argue that the Menendez brothers are victims themselves, and the crimes they committed out of a traumatic response should be reconsidered with a 21st-century lens on the psychology of male sexual assault.
Currently, the next court date for the Menendez brothers is scheduled for Nov. 26, 2024.
(NEW YORK) — A man was arrested Wednesday for threatening utility workers who were restoring power in Hillsborough County, Florida, following mass outages caused by Hurricane Milton, according to officials.
Crews were working on a road repair when the man allegedly verbally threatened them and drove his vehicle toward them in an intimidating manner.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office has identified the suspect as 57-year-old Kenneth Ray Velasco.
When the incident occurred, a power line crew was working on a road that was closed for repairs, creating a traffic delay. The man was in his vehicle and grew impatient.
He backed into a utility pole and fence, causing an estimated $1,000 in damage, according to official reports, and then attempted to flee the scene.
When the linemen tried to prevent him from leaving, he drove toward them in a deliberate manner that caused them to jump out of the way and also threatened to shoot them, officials said.
“Linemen have been working tirelessly to restore power after the storm,” said Sheriff Chad Chronister. “For this person to threaten their lives and deliberately endanger them, all because of a traffic delay, shows a disturbing lack of regard for the safety of others and the critical work being done.”
Velasco was pulled over in a traffic stop and charged with aggravated assault and felony criminal mischief for vandalism of property, according to the sheriff’s office.
He was arrested without incident, officials said.
“We’re grateful no one was seriously hurt, and this suspect will face the full extent of the law for his egregious crimes,” the sheriff said.
As of Wednesday evening, nearly 20,000 residents of Hillsborough County are without power.
The investigation into the incident is ongoing.
ABC News’ Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.
(ATLANTA) — A comprehensive audit of Georgia’s voter rolls found that just 20 noncitizens were registered to vote on a registration list of over 8 million, according to an announcement Wednesday from Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
All 20 of those registrations have been canceled and referred to the authorities for investigation and potential prosecution, Raffensperger said.
An additional 156 registrations were flagged for a “human investigation” that is now underway.
“Georgia has the cleanest voter list in the entire country,” Raffensperger, a Republican, said of the audit. “Georgia can trust in their elections.”
The result of the audit stands in stark contrast to claims being pushed by some Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, that large numbers of noncitizens are going to vote in the 2024 election.
“Our elections are bad,” Trump said at last month’s ABC News presidential debate as part of his criticism of Democrats. “And a lot of these illegal immigrants coming in, they’re trying to get them to vote. They can’t even speak English, they don’t know even know what country they’re in practically, and these people are trying to get them to vote, and that’s why they’re allowing them to come into our country.”
Gabriel Sterling, the COO for the Georgia secretary of state’s office, pushed back on people promoting those claims.
“One of the reasons the secretary ordered this noncitizenship audit is to prove to people that — while there are ways that some can potentially get on — it is increasingly rare,” Sterling said Wednesday. “There is no proof that there is this overwhelming number of noncitizens on the rolls.”
The 20 noncitizens found on the voter rolls were located across seven different counties, Sterling said. They were found in part because they had signed affidavits attesting that they were not citizens in order to get out of jury duty.
Sterling said the 20 have been referred to local prosecutors, and that there are some instances “where they probably should be prosecuted, but that’s not our call.”
Sterling also forcefully pushed back on anyone claiming that voting machines are generating fraud in the election, saying there is “zero evidence of a machine flipping an individual’s vote.”
Sterling said they have seen situations where there are “elderly people whose hands shake and they probably hit the wrong button slightly, and they didn’t review their ballot properly before they printed it.”
He directly called out anyone suggesting otherwise, saying, “There is literally zero — and I’m saying this to certain congresspeople in the state — zero evidence of machines flipping votes. And that claim was a lie to 2020 election and it’s a lie now.”
(SAPELO ISLAND, G.A.) — The “catastrophic failure” of an aluminum ferry gangway caused the deaths Saturday of seven people who were attending an annual cultural event on historic Sapelo Island off the coast of Georgia, officials said Sunday.
Three other people were critically injured and remained hospitalized Sunday afternoon, Commissioner Walter Rabon of the Georgia Department of Natural Resouces said during a news conference.
Among those killed was 77-year-old Charles Houston of Darien, Georgia, the chaplain for both the DNR and the Georgia State Patrol, Rabon said.
Rabon said the aluminum gangway, which was installed at the Marsh Landing Dock on Sapelo Island in November 2021, gave way in the middle under the weight of people boarding the ferry to leave the island.
“One end of the gangway was in the water. One end of the gangway on the landward side was still attached,” Rabon said, adding that the gangway was supported by two standing platforms, and that at the time of the incident, the ferry Annemarie was moored to a stationary dock next to one of the platforms.
In addition to Houston, those who perished were identified Sunday by McIntosh County Coroner Melvin Amerson as Jacqueline Crews Carter, 75; Cynthia Gibbs, 74; Carlotta McIntosh, 93; and Isaiah Thomas, 79. They were all from Jacksonville, Georgia. Also killed, according to Amerson, were William Johnson, Jr., 73, and Queen Welch, 76, both of Atlanta.
Rabon said it remains under investigation how many people were on the gangway when it collapsed. He said at least 20 people ended up in the water and another 20, including DNR staff and good Samaritans, jumped in to try to save people.
Rabon said that while the gangway was routinely inspected, “I can’t say that we get up under it and inspect it daily.”
“The initial findings of our investigation at this point show the catastrophic failure of the gangway causing it to collapse,” Rabon said.
In a statement Sunday, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources confirmed that the gangway was inspected less than a year ago, in December 2023, by Crescent Equipment Company.
On Saturday, the number of visitors to the island swelled to more than 700 from a normal daily average of less than 100, Rabon said. He said the Gullah Geechee people, descendants of enslaved Africans who were brought to the southeastern United States, were holding an annual cultural day on the Island on Saturday when tragedy struck.
Rabon said a second ferry and additional runs were added on Saturday to accommodate the large crowd.
When asked by reporters if the extra stress from the added ferry runs could have been a factor in the collapse, Rabon said, “At this time, I would not rule out anything as being a possibility.”
As part of the investigation, officials were reviewing the maintenance records of the gangway, he said.
“What I can say is that it is a structure failure. There should be very, very little maintenance to an aluminum gangway like that, but we’ll see what the investigation unfolds,” Rabon said.
During Sunday’s news conference, J.R. Grovner, a Sapelo Island resident and tour guide, spoke up, claiming that four months ago he complained to one of the ferry captains about the condition of the gangway.
“I brought it up to one of the ferry captains that the gangway wasn’t stable. I brought up concerns about the railing on the boat, that the railing is not locking properly down in the slot,” Grovner said, adding that he also complained to the U.S. Coast Guard about ferries being over capacity.
Rabon said, “At this time, I’m not aware of any complaints.”
Authorities received the first 911 call about the gangway collapse at the visitor’s landing dock at about 3:50 p.m., officials said. The incident sparked a large emergency response that included local authorities, the Georgia State Patrol, the U.S. Coast Guard, and sheriff’s deputies from McIntosh County and neighboring Camden County, as well as the McIntosh County Fire Department.
Emergency crews used boats equipped with sonar and helicopters to attempt to find and rescue people who fell into the water.
Everyone who went into the water has been accounted for, Rabon said Sunday.
An engineering and construction team was expected to help in the investigation.
The White House released a statement late Saturday from President Joe Biden.
“We are heartbroken to learn about the ferry dock walkway collapse on Georgia’s Sapelo Island,” Biden said in the statement. “What should have been a joyous celebration of Gullah-Geechee culture and history instead turned into tragedy and devastation. Jill and I mourn those who lost their lives, and we pray for the injured and anyone still missing. We are also grateful to the first responders at the scene. My team is in touch with state and local officials, and we stand ready to provide any assistance that would be helpful to the community.”
Vice President Kamala Harris is also “praying for all those who were killed or injured in the collapse of the ferry dock walkway on Georgia’s Sapelo Island,” she said in a statement Saturday.
“Our administration is in close touch with state and local officials, and we have offered any federal support the community might need. As always, we are deeply grateful for the heroism of our first responders,” Harris said in the statement.
She added that in the face of this tragedy, they will “continue to celebrate and honor the history, culture and resilience of the Gullah Geechee.”
In a statement posted on X, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said he was heartbroken by the tragedy and asked for prayers.
Sapelo Island is located about 70 miles south of Savannah, Georgia.
The Georgia Department of National Resources manages Sapelo Island, which is home to a research reserve and the Hog Hammock community, a small enclave made up of a few dozen full-time residents who are the descendants of enslaved African Americans.
The Gullah Geechee people are descendants of enslaved Africans who were brought to the southeastern U.S., primarily in coastal areas and who, because of their relative isolation, preserved many of their indigenous African traditions, according to the National Park Service.
Husband and wife Beverly and Irvin Jones told ABC News they were among those on the gangway when it collapsed. Irvin Jones said he felt the gangway slipping and made a split decision to jump onto the floating dock.
“We got almost to the boat and I felt it start to slide, like going backward,” Irvin Jones said. “So, I leaped and jumped. The two girls behind me, they fell in. The whole ramp fell in and collapsed.”
Irvin Jones added, “It happened so fast, people couldn’t react. It was sad. It was so sad. It was horrible. Not even 8 feet from me, I see one guy already drowned. One lady just jumped in to try to save a baby.”
Beverly Jones said she saw people in the water trying to hold on to their children.
“It was just horrific,” Beverly Jones said. “They were trying to hold on. There was nothing to hold on to.”
ABC News’ Laryssa Demkiw, Michelle Stoddart and Faith Abubéy contributed to this report.
