A Northern California Sheriff Deputy Devin Williams Jr has been charged with the double murders of a husband and wife in Dublin California. According to police reports Devin Williams Jr went to the Dublin home where he shot and killed Benison and Maria Tran before fleeing the area. Devin Williams Jr would later turn himself over to authorities. According to Devin Williams Jr mother he had been having a relationship with Maria Tran who he believed was unmarried. However when Devin Williams Jr learned the truth the murders would happen. Devin Williams Jr has yet to enter a plea.
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A Northern California sheriff’s deputy was charged Friday in the killings of a husband and wife who were shot inside their home, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors charged Devin Williams Jr., a deputy with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, with two counts of murder and with the special circumstance of avoiding lawful arrest after he fled the Dublin home of Benison and Maria Tran, Alameda County Dist. Atty. Nancy O’Malley said in a statement.
Williams, 24, surrendered to law enforcement hours after he was accused of the slayings. Williams appeared in court Friday but didn’t enter a plea. His attorney, Jesse Garcia, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Benison Tran, 57, was a civil engineer. He retired last year after working nearly 29 years for the city of Santa Clara, said Michelle Templeton, a city spokeswoman.
Maria Tran, 42, was a nurse whom Williams met at John George Psychiatric Hospital in San Leandro, where she worked
The couple was fatally shot inside their Dublin home Wednesday. Four other relatives who were in the home, including their child, were unharmed, said Lt. Ray Kelly, a spokesperson with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office.
A relative of the Trans who saw the slayings called police and identified Williams as the gunman, Kelly said.
Kelly said investigators are still trying to determine the motive.
Williams’ mother, Anitra Williams, told KTVU-TV that her son had been in a romantic relationship with Maria Tran since January and that he believed she was 35 and unmarried.
Anitra Williams said she had warned her son against being with Tran but that her son was “blinded by love.”
“She told him she loved him. They were on a 10-day trip,” Anitra Williams said.
Williams made it 160 miles south to the city of Coalinga, where he called police in Dublin to say he wanted to surrender, Kelly said.
Williams had been with the sheriff’s office since September and was still on probation. He had been assigned to the Oakland courthouse, and there were no concerns about his job performance, Kelly said.
Taahviya Chapman is a woman from Ohio who attempted to murder her baby’s father by running him over with a vehicle however she killed an innocent bystander instead. According to police reports Taahviya Chapman would aim her car at her baby’s daddy and managed to hit him but also struck an innocent bystander who would later die from his injuries. Taahviya Chapman has been charged with a series of crimes including: murder, felonious assault and child endangerment.
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A Cincinnati woman appeared in court again on charges stemming from a deadly incident in a grocery store parking lot.
Taahviya Chapman, 24, stood in front of the judge Friday, now charged with murder, felonious assault and child endangerment.
“The victim’s brother said her callousness and lack of consideration for other people and her willingness to do violence to someone else has not taken someone from who was so important to hundreds and hundreds of people for no reason absolutely no reason,” Dave Wood, an assistant prosecutor in Hamilton County, said.
On Thursday, Chapman’s bond was set to $20,000 without the murder charge. Once Griffith died, Judge Tyrone Yates increased the bond to $500,000.
Myles Sanderson the second suspect in the Saskatchewan Stabbing spree that left ten dead and eighteen injured is dead. According to police Myles Sanderson (photo left) was taken into police custody and shortly after he was found in medical distress and rushed to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead. Since he died in police custody an inquest will be held. Myles Sanderson brother Damien Sanderson was found dead the day following the attack which has been called the worst mass murder in Saskatchewan history. Myles Sanderson had been taken into custody following a report that he had stolen a car, police would be involved in a short chase that ended with Myles crashing his vehicle in a ditch.
Myles Sanderson More News
The second suspect connected to a mass stabbing spree died shortly after being taken into police custody, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have confirmed.
In a press conference, the RCMP said that Myles Sanderson went into what was described as “medical distress” shortly after being detained earlier Wednesday afternoon. He was taken to a hospital in Saskatoon and pronounced dead, Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore told reporters. She said she could not provide further detail about his death, except to say that “all life-saving measures were taken.”
There will be an investigation launched into the circumstances surrounding his death, Blackmore said, and an autopsy will be conducted later this week.
Along with his brother Damien, Myles Sanderson was a suspect in a series of stabbings that killed 10 people in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. His death comes two days after Damien Sanderson was found dead with wounds that did not appear to be self-inflicted, according to authorities.
Myles Sanderson was arrested after police received reports that a man matching his description had stolen a vehicle, Blackmore said, which culminated in a car chase. Police “directed” his vehicle into a ditch, she said.
The stabbings took place Sunday morning in 13 locations across the James Smith Cree Nation and the nearby village of Weldon. A motive has not yet been determined; police said they believe some of the victims were attacked at random, while others were singled out.
Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore said that, before Sanderson’s arrest, she had visited James Smith Cree Nation, where many told her they were still frightened by the prospect he might attack again.
“I hope that this brings them some closure in that they can rest easy tonight knowing that Myles Sanderson is no longer a threat to them,” Blackmore said.
Before their deaths, the two Sanderson brothers had been charged with a total of four counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted murder and two counts of breaking and entering a residence.
Cleotha Abston has now been officially charged with the murder of Eliza Fletcher. As early reports revealed that a body had been found near the brother of Cleotha Abston has now been identified as missing woman Eliza Fletcher. According to police reports Eliza Fletcher was kidnapped as she jogged near the University of Memphis. Cleotha Abston had been arrested and charged with aggravated kidnapping and tampering with evidence. However after the remains of Eliza Fletcher was found his new charges included murder. I would not be surprised that the Tennessee prosecutors announce that they are seeking the death penalty in this case. Cleotha Abston who spent two decades in prison for a previous kidnapping has plead not guilty to all charges.
Cleotha Abston More News
Police in Tennessee have found the body of missing heiress Eliza Fletcher. The 34-year-old mother-of-two was forced into a black SUV in a “violent” manner while being abducted and a pair of sandals left at the scene led the police to her alleged abductor, Cleotha Abston, who reportedly stalked her and waited for her to run past him on her morning jog before he could ambush her.
A former FBI investigator said Fletcher’s murder might be connected to a previous kidnapping in which Abston was involved. According to court records, Abston, 38, pleaded guilty to the aggravated kidnapping and robbery of lawyer Kemper Durand in 2000. He was sentenced to 24 years and 11 years in prison respectively but reportedly served only 20 years.
The former investigator, Jennifer Coffindaffer, revealed that Durand worked in the same law firm as Fletcher’s uncle, Michael Keeney. “I think this is a very significant clue, and I’m sure certainly that the FBI, the US Marshalls and the TBI is looking closely at this relationship,” Coffindaffer said, according to the Daily Mail.
Fletcher had run from her home in the Central Gardens neighborhood to an area near the University of Memphis campus. After Fletcher’s abduction, one Miles Fortas was riding his bike when he found Fletcher’s cell phone and a pair of Champion slide sandals in the area where the kidnapping took place. He turned them over to authorities. “DNA found on the shoes matched DNA for Cleotha Abston”, and it was already in a police database, an affidavit said. The car used during the kidnapping reportedly belongs to a local cleaning service where Abston was employed. Officers arrested him soon after. “He attempted to flee but was taken into custody,” police document said.
“The deceased victim that was located yesterday in the 1600 block of Victor has been identified as 34-year-old Eliza Fletcher,” the Memphis Police Department said in a tweet. “Additional charges for 38-year-old Cleotha Abston have been added for First Degree Murder and First Degree Murder in Perpetration of Kidnapping.
Abston approached lawyer Kemper Durand on May 25, 2000, from behind on Beale Street in Memphis. He robbed him and forced him into the trunk of his car, according to the Memphis Flyer. Abston drove Durand around for several hours, eventually taking him to an ATM and ordering him to draw cash. Abston fled after Durand spotted a housing authority officer and shouted for help. Durand said in his victim impact statement, “‘It is quite likely that I would have been killed had I not escaped.
Abston was convicted for Durand’s kidnapping and robbery, and was in jail until his release in 2020, according to the Tennessee Department of Corrections. Durand died in February 2013 aged 73. In a tribute article later published in the Commercial Appeal, he was quoted as saying that Durand, who would often joke about his kidnapping, argued for leniency for Abston and his accomplice, 12. Durand said he did not wish to ‘wallow in’ the fear he had felt.
Years ago, Abston even faced charges that included aggravated assault and rape. According to court documents obtained by Fox News Digital, he told investigators that he dropped out of school after ninth grade. However, there is no evidence that he attended his stated high school at all.
After Fletcher’s kidnapping, a witness said she saw Abston “cleaning the interior of the GMC Terrain with floor cleaner” just before 8 am Friday morning and reported to police that “he was behaving oddly.” He was also seen washing his clothes in a sink. The day before the kidnapping, authorities found footage of him wearing Champion slides. His cell phone had also pinged near the site of the abduction.
Authorities have yet to confirm Fletcher’s cause of death. Fletcher was an elementary school teacher and the granddaughter of a hardware company billionaire, late Joseph Orgill III.
After the discovery of Fletcher’s body, her family issued a statement saying, “Liza was a such a joy to so many – her family, friends, colleagues, students, parents, members of her Second Presbyterian Church congregation, and everyone who knew her.” They added, according to BBC News, “Now it’s time to remember and celebrate how special she was and to support those who cared so much for her.”
Angel Bumpass was thirteen years old when prosecutors said that she would murder a man during a robbery. Angel Bumpass would go on trial years later as apparantly they found a fingerprint on a piece of duct tape that was used during the robbery. Angel Bumpass would go on trial with Mallory Vaughn who was thirteen years her elder and at the end of the trial she would be found guilty of robbery and murder and he was found not guilty on both charges. Since her incarcerated, life in prison, Angel Bumpass and her many supporters have been fighting to get her back in front of a judge for a new trial and finally that was awarded. The Supreme Court ruled in her favor on several factors and have ruled that she deserves another chance to prove that she is innocent of the charges.
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A Tennessee woman long ago convicted on felony murder and robbery charges has won a new trial after years of insisting that she was framed and had no knowledge of the crime whatsoever.
In 2009, 68-year-old Franklin Bonner was tied to a table and chair during an alleged robbery attempt in Chattanooga. Officers found him dead, his home in a state of chaos, and with little evidence pointing to a killer. The case went cold and stayed that way for nearly a decade.
Angel Bumpass, 27, was tied to Bonner’s death in 2019 and tried alongside a co-defendant, 40-year-old Mallory Vaughn. At the time of trial, Bumpass was 24; Vaughn was 37; she was convicted; he was found not guilty on both counts. Bumpass was later sentenced to life in prison. The condemned young woman, and her legions of defenders online, have consistently maintained she was wrongfully convicted.
Key to the defense is another piece of time-age information; at the time of Bonner’s murder, Bumpass was a 13-year-old eighth grader.
According to court records, the defendant was largely convicted because her fingerprints were a match for partial fingerprints on duct-tape that had been used to restrain Bonner when he died.
In a late August ruling and order, a Hamilton County Criminal Court noted several errors and other deficiencies with the defendant’s trial. Enough of those problems, the court noted, piled up during the relatively quick proceedings and, therefore, demanded a new trial – but stopped just short of overturning her conviction entirely.
“[T]he Court reaffirms its finding that the evidence is legally sufficient to support the Defendant’s convictions,” Judge Tom Greenholtz writes. “However, the Court agrees that the cumulative effect of errors by the Court and the parties support the granting of a new trial. Accordingly, the Court grants the Defendant’s motion for a new trial.”
The court explains that a series of small errors that would not otherwise have marred a trial, may, over time, do exactly that, especially during a trial process that is particularly short-lived, as was the case here, where “jury selection began on October 1 [2019], and the jury’s verdict occurred two days later on October 3 [2019].”
The reviewing court found that jurors should have been sequestered during the questioning of a defendant’s family member – or that at least the trial court should have issued a curative instruction. During her testimony, she said the evidence “didn’t look good” for Bumpass. Notably, the defendant’s original attorney objected to this testimony on relevance grounds but never later objected after being initially overruled.
“This statement was repeated three times by Mr. Smith before the inquiry moved to other topics, and this statement communicated to the jury that even members of the Defendant’s own family believed that the proof at the trial demonstrated her guilt,” Greenholtz noted.
Another minor but compounded error was the way in which the defendant’s yearbook photo was treated. After quite a bit of legal back-and-forth, jurors were finally allowed to see it, but it was never treated as an official exhibit in the case. That should have been corrected by the trial court as well.
“[W]hile the Court should have allowed the photograph to be tendered as an exhibit, the Court does not believe that the exclusion of the photograph from the evidence of the case, by itself, would warrant a new trial, particularly with the later mitigating efforts taken,” the judge notes. “However, the Court does recognize that the photograph was an important part of the presentation of the defense.”
Another error cited was the prosecution asking an investigator whether, in the court’s words “the defense had requested DNA analysis on a hair follicle found near the Defendant’s fingerprint.”
Essentially, the court found that the prosecutor asked a loaded question – and had done so despite the co-defendant’s own attorney objecting to a substantially similar question just minutes before.
“No further objection was raised by the Defendant to this question, but the Court believes that the question, particularly in retrospect, elicited information that the Court ruled was inadmissible,” Greenholtz explained. “The Court does not find that this line of inquiry by itself would have affected the outcome of the trial, but the conclusion suggested by the inquiry, along with arguments on different but related issues, tended to suggest that the Defendant had a burden to prove her innocence.”
The judge then listed several instances in which he found the state’s presentation deficient, including the lack of “a connection” between Bumpass and Bonner, and the lack of any link between the defendant and her co-defendant at the time of Bonner’s death.
“In summary, the weight of the evidence supporting the Defendant’s intention to commit the underlying felony was not significant beyond its minimum evidentiary sufficiency,” Greenholtz noted. “In many cases involving claims of cumulative error, the claim often falls short due to the overwhelming nature of the evidence against the defendant. That is not the case here.”
In comments to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, the defendant’s current attorney, William Massey, praised the court’s ruling.
“I’m absolutely thrilled, I’m sure when I relay this information to Angel she would be thrilled as well,” Massey said. “It was particularly hard for her, she’s always maintained her innocence in this. We won a battle at this point, but we still have a war in front of us. The state has 60 days to file an appeal. It’s not a done deal yet.”
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