Kansas
Woman pleads guilty to embezzling from county court
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas woman pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to stealing about $1.1 million from the Johnson County District Court.
Dawna Kellogg, 61, of Williamsburg, was manager of the court’s accounting department.
She stole cash the court received, such as bail bond payments, and either spent or deposited the money into her personal accounts, the U.S. Attorney’s office said in a news release.
Kellogg pleaded guilty to wire fraud and subscribing to a false tax return.
As part of her plea agreement, Kellogg agreed the total amount lost was about $1.1 million, including $359,296 from 2007 through 2009 and $776,691 from 2010 through June 2017.
Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 16.
Minnesota
Duluth officer on trial for shooting unarmed man in 2020
DULUTH, Minn. (AP) — A prosecutor in the St. Louis County trial of a Duluth police officer who shot an unarmed man through the door of his apartment told jurors the defendant repeatedly fired his weapon even as he heard the victim begging for his life.
Prosecutor Aaron Welch told jurors Tuesday during opening statements that Officer Tyler Leibfried had time to think and made a choice to shoot again and again, injuring Jared Fyle on Sept. 12, 2020.
But Leibfried’s attorney, Paul Engh, told the jury the officer was defending himself against what he believed to be the sound of gunshots.
“He thought he was about to be killed,” Engh said. “He fired back. He kept firing to remove the threat. He had a right to defend himself.”
The 30-year-old Leibfried is facing several felony charges, including second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, after shooting Fyle who was on the other side of the closed door at the downtown Kingsley Heights Apartments.
Leibfried and another officer were helping Fyle’s girlfriend retrieve some belongings from the apartment. Fyle, who prosecutors say was not aware the officers were on scene, clicked the deadbolt and used a hatchet to pound the apartment door closed.
Engh told jurors that it sounded like gunshots to Leibfried who had been on the scene of a 2019 standoff where a colleague was shot and a police dog was killed, the Star Tribune reported.
The trial is expected to continue at least through Friday.
West Virginia
Ex-finance director at airport pleads guilty to theft
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) — An Ohio woman who was finance director for a West Virginia airport has pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $49,500 in federal funds from the facility.
Melissa Sue Hall, 46, of South Point, Ohio, pleaded guilty Tuesday to theft from programs receiving federal funds, U.S. Attorney Will Thompson’s office said. Hall admitted that between May 2020 and January 2021 she stopped depositing all of the money she collected from vending machines at the Huntington Tri-State Airport into airport accounts and also took money meant to be deposited into ATMs, Thompson’s office said in a news release.
Hall is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 15 and faces up to 10 years in prison. She agreed to pay restitution, the prosecutor’s office said.
California
Man sentenced for killing mother and uncle
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles man who shot his uncle and strangled his mother, then staged her suicide, has been sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison.
Marcel Gradvohl, 38, was sentenced Monday after pleading no contest to two counts of first-degree murder, prosecutors said.
Police were called to the family home in the Sylmar area in November 2021, where Gradvohl told them he had found his mother, 67-year-old Maureen Gradvohl, hanging from a rope in the garage.
However, authorities said the woman’s injuries weren’t consistent with suicide. Investigators also found a body buried in the backyard after learning that Gradvohl had been seen digging there several days earlier.
Police said Gradvohl confessed that he shot and killed his uncle, Edward Steckel, 58, during an argument, strangled his mother, then buried Steckel the next day and staged his mother’s suicide.
California
Man sentenced to 10 years in rapper’s drug death
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man who admitted supplying the dealer who sold Mac Miller the drugs that killed the rapper has been sentenced to more than 10 years in prison.
Ryan Michael Reavis, 39, pleaded guilty last year to a single count of distribution of fentanyl.
Reavis knowingly supplied counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl to co-defendant Cameron James Pettit, 30, of Los Angeles, according to a plea agreement. Pettit sold the pills and other drugs to Miller, who two days later suffered a fatal overdose, according to prosecutors.
Another co-defendant, Stephen Andrew Walter, 48, of Los Angeles, also agreed to plead guilty to one count of distribution of fentanyl. Prosecutors said Reavis supplied the pills to Pettit at the direction of Walter.
Reavis received a 131-month sentence on Monday, according to Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.
Walter is scheduled to be sentenced May 16, McEvoy said. The case against Pettit is pending.
Miller’s assistant found the rapper unresponsive in his Los Angeles home on Sept. 7, 2018, and he was declared dead soon after.
Miller was a Pittsburgh native whose real name was Malcolm James Myers McCormick. “Circles,” his sixth and final studio album, was released posthumously in 2020.
California
Man charged with setting fire at Home Depot
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A man charged with setting a fire that gutted a Northern California Home Depot, prompted hundreds to flee and filled the sky with smoke was trying to cover up a theft of tools, authorities said Tuesday.
Dyllin Jaycruz Gogue, 27, of San Jose, was arrested last Friday. He appeared in court Tuesday and was given a public defender and a June 1 court date to enter a plea. He was being held without bail.
Gogue is accused of setting a fire that began in the lumber section of the Home Depot in South San Jose on April 9. He was trying to create a distraction while making off with a cart full of tools but drove off without taking them, prosecutors said.
The five-alarm fire destroyed the store, causing an estimated $17 million in damage to the store contents. The fire, which took about 100 firefighters six hours to control, sent up a huge black plume of smoke. People in nearby homes and businesses were told to stay inside out of concerns that the smoke might contain toxic chemicals.
The fire burned near hundreds of homes and was so hot that it was seen by satellites, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said at a news conference.
Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said the fire erupted on a weekend when the store was full of shoppers and he was thankful that his office “is not prosecuting a multiple murder case today.”
“Miraculously no one was hurt,” he said. “But it came close — far, far too close — to causing many injuries and deaths.”
Gogue allegedly stole items from a Bass Pro Shop before the fire, and he went on to steal from a Macy’s store afterward, authorities said.
In addition to aggravated arson, he also is charged with grand theft and petty theft involving shoplifting at six South San Jose stores between last October and April 2.
The new theft charges span from October 2021 to April 2, involving $17,000 worth of items from six South San Jose retailers. He could face a potential life sentence if convicted of all charges, prosecutors said.
Florida
Roommate accused in death of gay rights advocate
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The roommate of a Florida gay rights activist is accused of strangling him and dumping his body in a rural Florida landfill, officials said.
Steven Yinger, 37, who has an extensive criminal history, was indicted by a grand jury in Leon County last week. Yinger was being held without bond Tuesday in the Leon County Jail on multiple charges including first-degree murder in the death of Jorge Diaz-Johnston.
Yinger was rooming with Diaz-Johnston, 54, at the time of the killing, prosecutors said. Diaz-Johnston was the brother of former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and the uncle of former University of Miami football coach Manny Diaz II.
In October, Yinger was released from prison, and he moved in with Diaz-Johnston, who was known to help people in recovery, the Tallahassee Democrat reported. He was also an advocate in the legal fight for marriage equality.
Diaz-Johnston was last seen alive Jan. 3, and reported missing Jan. 7, police and court records show. His body was found Jan. 8 at a landfill in Jackson County, which is near Tallahassee.
Yinger was arrested Jan. 13 in Leon County on unrelated charges.
“I do appreciate the hard work of the grand jury, and we’re going to work hard to get justice for him and his family,” Leon County State Attorney Jack Campbell said last week.
The Leon County Public Defender’s Office, which is representing Yinger, did not respond to an email about the case.
Diaz-Johnston and Don Johnston sued the Miami-Dade County Clerk of Courts for the right to marry and won in 2015. They had separated before Diaz-Johnson’s death.
Tennessee
Woman charged in crash death of former pro basketball player
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A woman who crashed her car into a Memphis house has been charged with vehicular homicide in the death of a former college and pro basketball player found dead in the home, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Miracle Renee Rutherford, 19, was indicted in the death of Galen Young, who was inside the house when the crash occurred June 5. the Shelby County district attorney’s office said. Rutherford was speeding at about 2:45 a.m. that night when she lost control of her car, went airborne and crashed, investigators said.
No injuries were initially reported. Investigators said a woman in the house told police that she lived there with her adult son, but that he was not home.
Hours later, other family members arrived to help remove items from the crash site and found the body of the son, identified as Young, 45, authorities said.
Young played high school basketball in Memphis and began his college career at Northwest Mississippi Community College. Young then played two years at UNC-Charlotte, where he led the 49ers to two NCAA Tournament appearances and earned All Conference-USA honors.
Young was drafted by the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks in 1999. He played 13 seasons of pro basketball in the Continental Basketball Association and abroad, including in Japan and Australia.
Rutherford’s lawyer did not immediately return a call seeking comment Tuesday on the indictment, which alleges Rutherford drove recklessly and created a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury.
