Mom charged with murder for allegedly drowning 7-year-old daughter: DA
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(LOS ANGELES) — A California mom has been charged with murder for allegedly drowning her 7-year-old daughter, prosecutors said.
Graciela Castellanos, 37, allegedly killed her daughter at an apartment in Van Nuys on April 11, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
First responders pronounced the 7-year-old dead at the scene, prosecutors said.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman called the allegations “profoundly tragic and deeply unsettling.”
“Our sympathy goes out to the family and loved ones of this young girl, whose life was cut short far too soon,” Hochman said in a statement Tuesday.
Castellanos pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges of murder and assault on a child under 8 years old causing death. She’s due to return to court on June 17.
(COLCHESTER, Vt.) — A federal judge in Vermont set a hearing for next Wednesday to decide whether to release Mohsen Mahdawi, the Columbia student who was arrested last week, while his case proceeds.
Mahdawi, who was arrested last Monday during his citizenship interview, was present during the hearing.
U.S. District Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford kicked off Wednesday’s hearing by asking Mahdawi if he was being treated well in the deletion facility in Vermont.
“I’m grateful for the kindness of the state, your honor,” Mahdawi said.
Before briefly discussing the motion from Mahdawi’s attorneys to release him, Judge Crawford extended the temporary restraining order that was issued by a separate judge last week to keep Mahdawi in Vermont.
“I don’t want Mr. Mahdawi to be whisked away to another state,” Judge Crawford said.
Mahdawi, who co-founded a university organization called Palestinian Student Union with detained Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, is a permanent resident of the U.S. and was taking his last step in the process for him to become a U.S. citizen before his arrest, his attorneys said.
In a court filing on Monday, Mahdawi’s attorneys said that he is not a flight risk or a danger to the community.
Mahdawi’s attorneys said his release is necessary to avoid “what is a devastating punitive consequence of Mahdawi’s continued detention, namely, the disruption of his education.”
During the hearing Wednesday, attorneys for Mahdawi argued that the federal judge in Vermont should preserve the court’s jurisdiction in the case and said that an immigration court “does not have the authority to address the egregious violation of his First Amendment.”
The judge seemed to agree with Mahdawi’s attorneys and pointed out that Mahdawi is a Vermont resident and that he was arrested in the state.
“If he’s moved to another state, it creates a second tier of issues,” Judge Crawford said. “He’s a Vermont resident, he was arrested in Vermont.”
The judge said that he will give the government until Monday to reply to Mahdawi’s attorneys’ motion for release.
During the hearing, Michael Drescher, the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Vermont, said he was not authorized to “justify” the extension of the TRO to keep Mahdawi in Vermont. Drescher also requested an opportunity to respond to Mahdawi’s attorney’s motion from Tuesday requesting his release.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately reply to ABC News’ request for comment.
(NEW YORK) — Air India announced on Wednesday it will reduce international service on widebody aircraft by 15% starting June 20 through at least mid-July.
The decision comes less than a week after an Air India airliner carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members en route to the United Kingdom crashed into a building shortly after takeoff on June 12, leaving 246 dead and at least one surviving passenger, local officials and the airline said at the time.
The airline said it’s reducing service due to the safety inspection of aircraft and ongoing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, which have disrupted operations, resulting in 83 flight cancellations over the past six days.
“Given the compounding circumstances that Air India is facing, to ensure stability of our operations, better efficiency and to minimise inconvenience to passengers, Air India has decided to reduce its international services on widebody aircraft by 15% for the next few weeks,” the airline said in a press release.
Passengers will have the option to either reschedule their flights at no additional cost or receive a full refund.
Air India also said 26 out of the 33 Dreamliners in its fleet have now been returned to service following the required safety inspections by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
The airline is also performing “enhanced safety checks” on its Boeing 777 fleet as a precaution and is cooperating with authorities.
The victims of the deadly Air India crash included 241 passengers and crew members, as well as five medical students who were inside the medical college and hospital the aircraft crashed into, according to hospital officials.
Many others inside the building were injured — some seriously — and received treatment, hospital officials said at the time. The Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad confirmed to ABC News that Vishwaskumar Ramesh, one of the passengers, was the sole survivor who was aboard the aircraft during the crash.
The plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashed in the Meghaninagar area near Ahmedabad airport, in India’s Gujarat state, the city’s Police Commissioner G.S. Malik said at the time.
Boeing’s Dreamliner planes had not previously been involved in an incident where passenger fatalities were reported.
This plane had more than 41,000 hours of flying time, which is considered average for this aircraft, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics firm.
(BOCA GRANDE, Fla.) — A 9-year-old girl was attacked by a shark while snorkeling off the Florida Gulf Coast, with the animal nearly biting her entire hand off, her family said.
At approximately 12 p.m. on Wednesday, 9-year-old Leah Lendel was swimming in Boca Grande, Florida, near the shore, with her mother and two younger siblings about 4 feet away from her, Leah’s family said in a statement provided to ABC News.
Leah then went underwater to snorkel, but as she came up, “she screamed,” the family said.
Her mother, Nadia Lendel, looked over and saw her daughter’s right hand “up to the wrist all in blood and mostly torn off,” the family said.
As the mother screamed for help, she attempted to get Leah and her other children out to shore, with her husband — who was snorkeling “some distance away” — swimming “as fast as possible to shore,” the family said.
Once Leah made it to the shore, nearby construction workers who were on their lunch break assisted the family by calling for paramedics and putting a towel “to make a tourniquet and stop the blood loss,” the family said.
One of the construction workers, Alfonso Tello, told ABC Southwest Florida affiliate WZVN the shark that attacked Leah was about 8 feet long.
“Everybody was in shock,” Tello told WZVN.
After paramedics arrived on scene, they decided to airlift Leah to Tampa General Hospital for treatment, the Boca Grande Fire Department told ABC News in a statement.
Leah underwent a “long surgery” once at the hospital, the family said.
“We ask for mostly prayers and privacy at this time so we can process the situation,” the family said in a statement.
The status of Leah’s condition as of Thursday remains unclear.
