Court Digest

Kansas
Eight members of religious group charged with child abuse
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Federal prosecutors allege eight people connected to a Kansas-based organization conspired to provide unpaid child labor to businesses across the country and physically abused them for years.

The organization, formerly known as the United Nation of Islam and the Value Creators, was labeled a cult by a federal judge in the District of Kansas in 2018.

In an indictment unsealed Tuesday, prosecutors alleged the Kansas City group beat children, imposed severe dietary restrictions and forced children, some as young as 8, to work without pay, The Kansas City Star reported.

Royall Jenkins had been a member of the Nation of Islam until 1978, when he founded the separate United Nation of Islam. He persuaded his followers that he was shown the proper way to rule the Earth after being “taken through the galaxy by aliens on a spaceship,” according to the indictment. At one point, the group had hundreds of followers.

Eight leaders of the organization, including three of Jenkins’ “many wives,” were named in the indictment after they were arrested in cities across the U.S. They are Randolph Hadley, Jacelyn Greenwell, Etinia Kinnard, Dana Peach, Daniel Jenkins, James Staton, Yunus Rassoul and Kaaba Majeed.

They are accused of conspiracy to commit forced labor and forced labor. None of the defendants had an attorney listed in federal court records.

Prosecutors allege that beginning in October 2000, the organization ran businesses such as gas stations, bakeries and restaurants in several states using unpaid labor from group members and their children, some as young as 8.
Parents were encouraged to send their children to an unlicensed school in Kansas City, Kansas, called the University of Arts and Logistics of Civilization, which did not provide appropriate instruction in most subjects.

The indictment said those who didn’t attend the school were forced to work instead.

Some of the child victims worked in businesses in Kansas City, while others were trafficked to businesses in other states, including New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Maryland, Georgia and North Carolina, the indictment alleges.

Prosecutors said the victims also lived in “overcrowded dormitories, barracks, or households of adult members who were not related,” and many were forced to work up to 16 hours per day. Their diet consisted of bean soup, salad, and occasionally fruit, and frequent cleanses were ordered that included only consuming lemon juice for days.

Physical abuse mentioned in the indictment included routine “Fruit of Islam Beatdowns” organized by three of the defendants to punish male members for violating its code by such offenses as stealing food.

The indictment names 10 children who were forced to work for the organization between October 2000 and November 2012. Some worked for 12 years without pay, the indictment says.

In May 2018, U.S. Judge Daniel Crabtree  called the group a cult and ordered it to pay $8 million to Kendra Ross, who said she spent 10 years performing unpaid labor.

California
Guilty plea in three slayings
EUREKA, Calif. (AP) — A 19-year-old Northern California man pleaded guilty to three murders under a plea agreement calling for a sentence of 150 years in prison.

Mauricio Eduardo Sanchez-Johnson entered the pleas in Humboldt County Superior Court on Tuesday and also admitted three special allegations for use of a firearm, the Times-Standard reported.

Forty-year-old Nikki Dion Metcalf, 40-year-old Margarett Lee Moon and 16-year-old Shelly Autumn Mae Moon were slain in Bear River in February in a confrontation that erupted when Nikki Metcalf found Johnson in their home.

A prosecution statement said the plea offer was made by Johnson’s attorney and the sentence means the defendant will have a parole hearing in 25 years.

The statement said the prosecutor’s office considered whether the plea satisfies its public safety mission, that a trial would require testimony from young people who have suffered a tragedy, wishes of victims’ family members, “the retention of hope for the positive transformation of a person 18 years of age at the time of their crime,” and likely changes to California law.

Johnson is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 21, 2022.

Nebraska
Man to be tried again for murders following hung jury
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Douglas County prosecutors say they’ll try an Omaha man again for a 2019 double killing after a jury deadlocked on convicting him this week.

A lone holdout on the jury in the case against 22-year-old Nyir Kuek led to a mistrial being declared Wednesday in his first-degree murder trial, the  Omaha World-Herald reported. Prosecutors relied on circumstantial evidence, including two eyewitnesses, but did not have direct evidence, such as the DNA or fingerprints of Kuek at the crime scene.

Prosecutors promised to try Kuek again for the June 18, 2019, shooting deaths of 50-year-old Tracy Atkins and 57-year-old Michael Sykora in an Omaha home.

That would be the third trial for Kuek in the case. His first ended in mistrial last year when a family member of Kuek’s who was in the courtroom for the trial tested positive for COVID-19.

South Carolina
Man indicted for 1985 murder
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — A grand jury in North Carolina has indicted a man who admitted to an innocence panel that he broke into a woman’s house 36 years ago and killed her, adding that the man sent to prison for the crime was nowhere to be seen that night.

Darren Leak Johnson, 55, confessed to investigators with the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission that he alone killed Blanche Ragins Bryson, according to commission records reported by the Winston-Salem Journal.
On Monday, Johnson was indicted for first-degree murder in Bryson’s death.

Johnson told investigators and Winston-Salem police that Merritt Drayton Williams, who is currently serving a life sentence for Bryson’s death, was not on the scene Dec. 10, 1985. Johnson’s DNA was found on Bryson’s nail clippings.

The Innocence Commission unanimously ruled in June 2019 that there was sufficient evidence that Williams did not kill Bryson. A panel of three superior court judges has to now schedule a hearing to determine whether Williams should be exonerated. According to court papers, the hearing had been scheduled for the week of Nov. 29, but Williams’ attorney, Julie Boyer, has asked that the hearing be rescheduled for February 2022, saying her ability to prepare has been hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Williams, 63, is currently serving two life sentences, plus 10 years in three separate homicides.

Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill has criticized the commission’s work and called it a waste of taxpayer dollars.

Bryson, a 65-year-old retiree who lived alone in a house in Winston-Salem, was found by her son strangled with a lamp cord wrapped around her neck. Her house had been ransacked and her car was found about a mile from her house, the newspaper reported.

The indictment moves Johnson’s case to Forsyth Superior Court, where either a date for a trial will be set or prosecutors and Johnson’s attorneys can negotiate a plea deal. It will be at least a year, if not more due to the pandemic, before the case is resolved.

Even though Johnson made statements to investigators with the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission that he acted alone in killing Bryson and that Williams was not there, Forsyth County prosecutors have contended they believe Williams made consistent statements about his involvement. They also said Johnson has admitted he was on LSD at the time. Prosecutors argue that Johnson and Williams could have broken into Bryson’s house and that Johnson just does not remember because of his drug use.

The only other person convicted in Bryson’s death was Robbin Carmichael, who confessed to his role in Bryson’s murder after he was arrested on unrelated charges. Carmichael had some of Bryson’s stolen items and his fingerprints were on Bryson’s car.

Florida
Over 100 arrested in human trafficking investigation
BARTOW, Fla. (AP) — More than 100 people have been arrested in a Florida human trafficking investigation that focused on victims who might be forced into prostitution, a sheriff said Thursday.

The arrests were the culmination of a six-day undercover operation that involved several law enforcement agencies, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said at a news conference.

Those arrested were charged with a total of 29 felonies and 143 misdemeanors, including solicitation of prostitution and offering to commit prostitution, Judd said. Many had criminal histories that include charges for kidnapping, robbery, aggravated battery, and sex offenses.

Two men are charged with attempting to arrange sex with minors online, the sheriff added. The “minors” were actually undercover law enforcement officers.

“The primary purpose for these operations is to identify victims of human trafficking and those who prey on the victims, as well as the deviant child predators who stalk children online,” Judd said.

The operation used internet ads to arrange meetings between undercover detectives and suspects at a specific location in Polk County.

Florida
Former jail guard guilty of buying guns for others
OCALA, Fla. (AP) — A former Florida jail guard has pleaded guilty to buying firearms and immediately reselling them to someone who hadn’t passed a federal background check.

Kenyari Devaughnte Brewton, 26, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Ocala federal court to making a materially false statement during the purchase of a firearm and causing a federal firearms licensee to maintain false information in its official records, according to court records. He faces up to 15 years in prison.

According to the plea agreement, Brewton purchased multiple firearms from a Marion County gun dealer between March 2020 and April 2021. Brewton certified on each firearm transaction form that he was the “actual transferee/buyer” of these guns. But he actually purchased the firearms on behalf of another person and never intended to keep them, prosecutors said.

Brewton also used his status as a detention deputy in nearby Alachua County to obtain discount prices on some of the firearms.

Brewton purchased a .40 caliber Glock pistol in April that was used six days later by another person during a homicide, officials said. That firearm was later recovered by Ocala police during a traffic stop involving four armed men with masks, gloves and loaded firearms.

Brewton was fired from the Alachua County jail after his August arrest. Investigators said a search of Brewton’s cellphone revealed numerous text conversations between Brewton and the person for whom he had agreed to purchase the firearms.

Montana
Man charged in fitness center killing pleads not guilty
KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) — A Montana man pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges alleging he killed the manager of a Kalispell fitness center after the manager told him he could no longer live in his car in the parking lot.

Jonathan Shaw, 35, pleaded not guilty to deliberate homicide for the Sept. 16 death of Matt Hurley, 27, outside Fuel Fitness, NBC Montana reported.

Shaw also pleaded not guilty to attempted deliberate homicide for shooting at William Keck, a customer who grabbed his weapon out of his vehicle and ordered Shaw to drop his gun. Keck returned fire, badly injuring Shaw, who was booked into jail nearly two weeks after the shooting.

Shaw appeared in court in a wheelchair. He remains jailed with his bail set at $1 million. Shaw’s next court hearing is set for Jan. 19.

Assistant Fuel Fitness manager Matthew Underhill said he and Hurley had gone to Shaw’s car to tell him he couldn’t live in the parking lot and to refund him the remainder of his fitness center membership. Underhill said Shaw demanded more money and when that was denied Shaw responded: “Well, you’re going to die,” and opened fire.

Underhill said he was able to run back into the fitness center.

Indiana
Man asks court to review sentence in wife’s slaying
NEW ALBANY, Ind. (AP) — A southern Indiana man who was sentenced to 65 years in prison last year for killing his wife and dismembering and hiding her body has asked the Indiana Supreme Court to review his sentence.

Judson K. Hoover’s petition to the state’s high court comes after the Indiana Court of Appeals in September upheld the New Albany man’s sentence in the killing of Rebecca Ruth Hoover, citing in part his history of domestic violence, the News and Tribune reported.

Hoover, 51, had pleaded guilty to murder in his 38-year-old wife’s death and was sentenced to the maximum possible sentence.

Rebecca Hoover’s body was found in August 2020 in a storage unit in Louisville, Kentucky.

In his petition filed this month with the state Supreme Court, Hoover’s attorneys argue in part that it was an outlier for the trial court to give him the maximum sentence, given his character before the killing.

“”...Judson’s character is truly revealed by his willingness to plead guilty the same day the murder charge was filed,” the petition read, in part. “This extraordinary act demonstrated that Judson was willing to sacrifice his own freedom for the benefit of his family.”

The high court has not yet filed a decision on whether it will hear Hoover’s case. According to online records from the Indiana Department of Correction, Hoover’s earliest expected prison release date is May 31, 2069.