West braces for more storms bringing rain, wind, high surf and snow
ABC News
(NEW YORK) — Nine states are on alert for wind, snow, avalanches and high surf as new storms hit the west.
Parts of Oregon and Northern California could see 4 to 8 inches of rain over the next four days.
A high wind alert is in effect for the Pacific Northwest, where winds could gust near 70 mph.
A high surf warning was issued in Oregon, where waves could reach 35 feet, and a high surf advisory was issued as far south as Southern California, where waves could reach 15 feet.
Snow is also on the way.
A winter storm warning is in effect from Utah to Washington, where some areas could see up to 3 feet of snow. An avalanche warning was issued in Washington and Oregon.
These storms will continue to bring heavy rain and snow to the West Coast and the Rockies into the weekend. The West will get a break from the stormy weather early next week.
Meanwhile, in the South, a new storm system is bringing damaging winds, large hail and possibly tornadoes Thursday afternoon and evening.
The highest threat for severe weather will be in Texas, Louisiana and into Arkansas, including Dallas, Houston, Austin and Shreveport, Louisiana.
(NEW YORK) — A Manhattan jury found Daniel Penny not guilty in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely, following nearly a week of deliberations.
Penny, a former Marine and architecture student, was initially charged with manslaughter and negligent homicide. Prosecutors alleged that Penny killed Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man who had previously been a Michael Jackson impersonator, when he placed him in a six-minute-long chokehold on a subway car in May 2023, holding Neely for at least 51 seconds after his body went limp. The city’s medical examiner concluded Penny’s chokehold killed Neely.
The defense told jurors that Penny “acted to save” subway passengers from a “violent and desperate” Neely, who was acting erratically, and that Penny continued to hold on because he feared Neely would break free, though he didn’t intend to kill Neely. The defense argued Neely died from a genetic condition and the synthetic marijuana found in his system.
The jury deliberated for more than 24 hours across five days before acquitting Penny of criminally negligent homicide on Monday. They were previously deadlocked on the more serious charge of second-degree manslaughter, which Judge Maxwell Wiley dismissed on Friday at the request of prosecutors.
Penny pleaded not guilty to both charges.
The jury submitted several questions to the court during the course of their deliberations, giving some insight into their thinking.
Day 1
A little more than an hour after beginning deliberations, the jury on Tuesday asked for a readback of a portion of the judge’s instructions on the law. The jury was interested in the part about justified use of force.
Day 2
The jury asked to see key videos shown during the trial — police body camera footage, Penny’s interrogation video and a bystander’s video on Wednesday.
Later that day, the jury asked for a readback of testimony. The jury wanted to hear part of the cross-examination of the city medical examiner who concluded Penny’s chokehold killed Neely. Dr. Cynthia Harris, who was the final witness for the prosecution during the trial, determined that Neely died from compression to the neck.
During an intense cross-examination, Harris had pushed back against the defense suggestion that the public sentiment surrounding the trial influenced her conclusion that “there are no alternative reasonable explanations” for Neely’s death other than Penny’s chokehold.
“No toxicological result imaginable was going to change my opinion,” she testified.
Day 3
The jury heard more testimony read back from the cross-examination of Harris.
The jury subsequently requested to see two bystander videos capturing the moments when Penny placed Neely in a chokehold. The jury had already requested one of the two bystander videos the previous day.
Wiley allowed the jury to access a laptop with the videos so they could watch the requested videos as many times as they’d like.
Later that day, the jury requested the definitions of criminal negligence and recklessness.
“We the jury request that Judge Wiley read the definition of recklessness and negligence. Please read it more than once,” the note read. “Could the jury have the definitions in writing?”
The jury was considering two counts – second-degree manslaughter, which carries a maximum 15-year sentence, and criminally negligent homicide, which has a four-year maximum. To convict Penny of manslaughter, the jury must be convinced Penny acted recklessly and grossly deviated from how a reasonable person would behave knowing the risk his conduct posed.
Day 4
The jury told the judge on Friday they were “unable to come to a unanimous vote” on whether Penny committed manslaughter.
“We the jury request instructions from Judge Wiley. At this time, we are unable to come to a unanimous vote on court one,” the note said.
The verdict form asked the jury to decide the first count — second-degree manslaughter — before potentially moving to the second count of criminally negligent homicide. Only if they found Penny not guilty on the first count could they consider the second count.
About 20 minutes after the judge encouraged them to continue deliberating despite their deadlock, the jury sent back another note requesting more information about the term “reasonable person” in their instructions.
“Ultimately what a reasonable person is up to you to decide,” Wiley told the jury in response to their note, referring them to a two-part test in jury instruction.
“Would a reasonable person have had the same honestly held belief as the defendant given the circumstances and what the defendant knew at that time?” Wiley asked, referring to the second part of the test.
Several hours later, Wiley dismissed the top charge of second-degree manslaughter at the request of prosecutors.
The judge encouraged the jury to continue deliberating on Monday the lesser charge of whether Penny committed criminally negligent homicide.
Day 5
The jury announced Monday morning they had reached a unanimous decision on count two — finding Penny not guilty of criminally negligent homicide.
The courtroom broke out in a mix of cheers, clapping, and jeers as soon as the verdict was read.
Neely’s father cursed in anger shortly after the verdict and was forcibly removed from the courtroom by a court officer. Others in the gallery shouted, and one woman broke down in tears.
Penny, walking out of the courtroom, flashed a brief smile before returning to his stone-faced demeanor. His lawyers embraced one another while seated at the counsel table.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office prosecuted the case, thanked the jury and vowed to respect their verdict.
“The jury has now spoken. At the Manhattan D.A.’s Office we deeply respect the jury process and we respect their verdict,” he said in a statement.
(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) — The owner of a day care where a 1-year-old boy died of fentanyl poisoning and three other children were sickened pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal charges, resolving a case that horrified New York City and underscored the scourge of the nation’s fentanyl epidemic.
Grei Mendez pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death and serious bodily injury, one count of possession with intent to distribute narcotics resulting in death and one count of possession with intent to distribute narcotics resulting in serious bodily injury. The three counts carry a minimum of 20 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison.
Prosecutors said the children were poisoned because Mendez, her husband and a co-conspirator chose to operate a large-scale fentanyl packaging and distribution facility inside her day care, which she ran out of a small apartment in the Bronx.
On the afternoon of Sept. 15, 2023, when 1-year-old Nicholas Dominici and another child became unresponsive, prosecutors said Mendez placed a series of phone calls: first to the community center that had referred the children to the day care, then to her husband, and then 911.
Moments after Mendez called 911, but before emergency personnel arrived, prosecutors said her husband was seen on surveillance camera rushing through the front door and then leaving out of the back of the building with two heavy bags.
Nicholas died from the fentanyl and three other children — ranging in age from 8 months to 2 years — were hospitalized and treated with Narcan, police said.
At the day care, authorities discovered a one-kilogram brick of fentanyl, two kilo press machines and two trap doors that revealed concealed compartments under the floor tiles of the playroom, authorities said.
Inside the traps were more than 11 kilograms of drugs, including fentanyl and heroin, as well as tools used to brand, package, distribute and traffic narcotics, the indictment said.
Federal prosecutors said they have surveillance footage and a voice message in which Mendez said that running a day care is not her “thing” in order to prove that the facility was a front for the narcotics operation.
“Grei Mendez has just admitted she conspired to maintain and distribute large quantities of dangerously toxic fentanyl in a Bronx Daycare center, a place where parents expected their children would be protected and safe,” Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement Tuesday.
“This case has shown the senseless collateral damage caused by the fentanyl epidemic, and should remind us all that the demand for illegal narcotics so often puts innocent bystanders at risk while drug traffickers ruthlessly pursue profits,” Williams added.
Earlier this month, Mendez’s husband, Felix Herrera Garcia, was sentenced to 45 years in prison after pleading guilty to federal drug charges. The third co-conspirator has also pleaded guilty.
