Woman set on fire on New York City subway ID’d by police
(NEW YORK) — A woman who died after being set on fire on a New York City subway train this month has been identified, according to police.
The woman was identified as 61-year-old Debrina Kawam of Toms River, New Jersey, according to the New York Police Department.
Kawam was sleeping on a stationary F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn on Dec. 23 when she was set on fire allegedly by a 33-year-old Guatemalan citizen who entered the U.S. illegally, according to police.
The suspect, Sebastian Zapeta, has been charged with murder and arson. He has yet to enter a plea.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(LOS ANGELES) — A 23-year-old college student was found murdered at her off-campus apartment in a “senseless and violent act,” authorities said, who are now seeking to identify a person of interest in the homicide.
Menghan Zhuang, who also went by Emily King, was discovered unresponsive by her roommate at their Santa Clarita apartment the evening of Feb. 4, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.
Her roommate called 911 and first responders found Zhuang suffering from multiple injuries to her upper body, according to Lt. Michael Modica, who did not disclose the nature of her injuries amid the investigation. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Authorities are now seeking the public’s help in identifying a person of interest in the case. Investigators learned that Zhuang had a “male companion” at her apartment the night of Feb. 3 who was then captured on video exiting from her second-story bedroom window the following afternoon, on the day she was discovered deceased, Modica said.
“It is clear this was not a random act of violence and Zhuang somehow knew the person of interest, evident by bringing that person into her apartment,” Modica said during a press briefing Thursday.
The sheriff’s department released photos of the suspect from the video of him leaving the apartment at the Vistas condominium complex in Newhall. He was described as a man in his 20s, wearing a black shirt and black pants, who appears to be of Asian descent, authorities said.
Modica stressed that Zhuang’s roommate is not a suspect in the homicide.
“I want to make it clear that her roommate is helping us in this case,” he said.
Zhuang was a senior undergraduate at the California Institute of the Arts, studying art, the school said.
“Our community is devastated by this loss, and our heartfelt condolences go out to her family, friends, classmates and teachers,” CalArts said in a statement on Friday.
CalArts is cooperating in the investigation and “were instrumental” in getting investigators in contact with the family of Zhuang, a Chinese national, Modica said.
Her family has requested privacy at this time, said CalArts, which is working with her family to plan an event in honor of Zhuang and to share her art.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is expected to approve a $20,000 reward for information in the case during its Feb. 18 meeting, which would retroactively go into effect on Feb. 13, Modica said.
“We hope people will have the courage to come forward and help investigators identify the individual responsible for this senseless and violent act and help bring justice and a sense of closure to the family,” he said.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department at 323-890-5500 or Los Angeles Regional Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477.
ABC News’ Jennifer Watts and Alex Stone contributed to this report.
Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The Mega Millions jackpot surged to $1.15 billion on Wednesday after no ticket matched the numbers drawn on Tuesday, the lottery said.
The next drawing will take place on Friday at 11 p.m. ET, with the cash value of the jackpot estimated to be $516.1 million.
The numbers drawn on Christmas Eve were 11, 14, 38, 45, 46 and gold Mega Ball 3.
The estimated jackpot would make it the seventh-largest in the game’s history and its seventh billion-dollar prize.
It would also be the largest ever won in December, if a ticket matches all six numbers drawn.
The last time the jackpot was won was at $810 million in Texas on Sept. 10. No one has won the grand prize in the last 29 drawings, as the jackpot has ballooned.
The Mega Millions jackpot has only been won on Christmas Eve once before, according to the game. A $68 million jackpot was won in New York on Dec. 24, 2002, though it was never claimed.
The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350, according to Mega Millions.
Mega Millions is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tickets are $2 for one play.
(NEW YORK) — In a major ruling, the judge overseeing the case of the man charged with killing four Idaho college students in 2022 has denied a request to exclude potentially key DNA and other evidence from his upcoming capital murder trial.
Lawyers for Bryan Kohberger had sought to suppress DNA evidence that was seen as a linchpin of prosecutors’ case against him — evidence they say directly links Kohberger to the crime scene. In addition, lawyers sought to exclude data obtained from various online accounts like Apple, Google and Amazon belonging to Kohberger; his apartment in Washington; and his parents’ Pennsylvania home.
Judge Steven Hippler, in a sweeping series of rulings on Wednesday, denied the defense requests, paving the way for prosecutors to present to a jury their case against the former criminology Ph.D. student.
The judge ruled Kohberger’s constitutional rights were not violated, and that police behaved properly. He said the evidence investigators obtained throughout the investigation, which led them to Kohberger, is not tainted and can be admitted at trial.
“The Court finds suppression is not warranted on any of these issues,” Hippler wrote.
Prosecutors allege that in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, Kohberger, then a student at nearby Washington State University, broke into an off-campus home and stabbed four University of Idaho students to death: Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21.
After a six-week hunt, police zeroed in on Kohberger as the suspect, arresting him on Dec. 30, 2022, at his family’s home in Pennsylvania. He was indicted in May 2023 and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. At his arraignment, he declined to offer a plea, so the judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
The trial is set for August. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.
On the critical DNA evidence, the judge wrote Kohberger’s lawyers “failed to demonstrate his constitutional rights were” violated by detectives’ use of the controversial new technique known as investigative genetic genealogy, which involves building out a family tree to zero in on a suspect.
The use of genetic genealogy helped point investigators in the direction of their suspect, using the DNA taken from a button snap on the sheath of a knife found at the crime scene. That sample was critical, police said, in cracking the case and later was shown to be a “statistical match” for Kohberger, authorities said. The murder weapon — police believe it to be a knife — has not been found.
The judge also said authorities did not act improperly collecting trash from the Pennsylvania home of Kohberger’s parents, which yielded items with Kohberger’s father’s DNA that authorities said was confirmed to be a match with Kohberger’s cheek swab later.
The judge, setting out a detailed timeline, also cast aside the issues raised by Kohberger’s lawyers, who had argued the way he was arrested was unnecessarily aggressive.
“Law enforcement believed [Kohberger] was potentially destroying evidence from the vehicle that was related to the homicides” and they also knew he had a Glock handgun, “prompting a concern over officer safety,” the judge wrote.
That prompted them to descend on the home more swiftly and make the arrest “without incident in a bedroom,” the judge said.
While monitoring the home at 12:33 a.m. the night of his arrest, snipers “observed a kitchen light turn on and saw a taller, young, white male wearing a black hoodie standing near the glass sliding door leading out to the deck,” whom they were able to identify as Kohberger. About 20 minutes later the light came on in the garage and “lights flashed in the garage as if the vehicle was being locked or unlocked by a key fob.”
A few minutes later Kohberger “was seen in the kitchen of the home, this time wearing rubber gloves and handling a plastic baggie,” the judge wrote — adding, “It was 1:09 a.m. in the morning, a time when most people would not be removing items from their car with rubber gloves.”
