Virginia
Man charged with participating in march with flaming torch has pleaded guilty to lesser charge
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Another man charged with carrying a flaming torch with the intent to intimidate during a 2017 rally at the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville has agreed to a plea deal.
Dallas Jerome Nicholas Medina, 32, of Ravenna, Ohio, was originally indicted on a felony intimidation charge, but pleaded guilty on Oct. 31 in Albemarle County Circuit Court to a reduced charge of misdemeanor disorderly conduct and will not serve any jail time, The Daily Progress reported.
“It seemed like a reasonable outcome for everybody, a reasonable compromise,” Medina’s lawyer, Mike Hallahan, told The Daily Progress after the hearing.
Medina’s case is among more than a dozen stemming from an event on Aug. 11, 2017. That’s when a group of white nationalists carrying torches marched through the campus of the University of Virginia, some chanting, “Jews will not replace us.” He was the fourth participant to enter a plea deal.
In addition to the four misdemeanor pleas, six people have been convicted of felonies and one case ended with a mistrial after jurors failed to reach a verdict.
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Lawton Tufts, who prosecuted Medina, said in court that three factors warranted the lesser charge: he had no prior criminal record, he was not accused of assaulting anyone and he helped stop a fight.
When asked if he wanted to comment, Medina was reticent.
“I got to go home,” he told The Daily Progress. “Sorry.”
Tennessee
Fugitive accused of killing a man, lying about bear chase is caught
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A fugitive accused of killing a man in Tennessee and trying to pass off the body as someone else’s by calling 911, identifying himself as that person and saying he had fallen off a cliff while being chased by a bear has been captured in South Carolina, authorities said.
In a social media post Sunday, the Columbia Police Department said Nicholas Wayne Hamlett, 45, was recognized by an employee at a hospital in the South Carolina city. Authorities confirmed his identity with a fingerprint scanner and he’s in the temporary custody of the U.S. Marshals Service while awaiting extradition to Tennessee.
Authorities in Monroe County, Tennessee, and elsewhere had been looking for Hamlett since last month.
“After observing Hamlett at a local hospital, a good citizen alerted the authorities and brought this manhunt to a peaceful end,” Monroe County Sheriff Tommy Jones said in a social media post.
The sheriff’s office said last month that Hamlett called 911 on Oct. 18 claiming to have fallen off a cliff while running from a bear. Using the name Brandon Andrade, Hamlett claimed he was injured and partially in the water, authorities added.
When emergency responders searched the area near a highway bridge in Tellico Plains, where the call had come from, they found the body of a man with Andrade’s ID on it.
However, authorities determined that the man was not Andrade, whose ID had been stolen and used multiple times. The person using Andrade’s stolen identification was Hamlett, who was wanted in Alabama for a parole violation, the sheriff’s office said. Andrade was alive and well, authorities confirmed.
Forensics officials also determined that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head, which isn’t consistent with a high fall or a bear attack, Jones said.
Hamlett likely fled his Tennessee home before police could verify his real identity, authorities said. That set off a manhunt for Hamlett, who was considered armed and dangerous. The U.S. Marshals Service had been offering a reward of up to $5,000 for help finding him.
On Oct. 31, law enforcement officers searched Chapin, South Carolina, with helicopters and police dogs after getting information that Hamlett was in the area, telling residents to lock their doors on Halloween night. He was spotted near a high school in the city the next day.
On Nov. 4, the Tennessee sheriff’s office identified the dead man as 34-year-old Steven Douglas Lloyd, of Knoxville. It said Hamlett had befriended Lloyd, then lured him into the woods to kill him and take his identity.
According to the sheriff, Lloyd’s family said he was diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder and would leave home and live on the streets, but remained in touch with his family.
“Steven loved the outdoors and was so helpful when it came to others,” Jones wrote in a Nov. 4 social media post. “The family was shocked to learn that their beloved son’s life had been taken by someone that Steven trusted.”
South Carolina
State doesn’t set date for the next execution after requests for a holiday pause
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina’s Supreme Court has not set a date for the state’s next execution after lawyers for four inmates out of appeals asked them to postpone deaths until after Christmas and New Year’s.
The justices typically issue notices on Fridays because it gives the maximum amount of time of 28 days to prepare for the execution which by law is to be carried out on the “fourth Friday after the receipt of such notice.”
The Supreme Court also promised in August to space out the executions in five week intervals to give prison staff and defense lawyers, who are often representing several condemned inmates, time to handle all the legal matters necessary. That includes making sure the lethal injection drugs as well as the electric chair and firing squad are ready and researching and filing last minute appeals.
South Carolina’s death chamber has a backlog because of a 13-year pause in executions in part because the state couldn’t obtain the drugs needed to carry out lethal injections until the General Assembly passed a law keeping the name of the provider secret.
Six inmates ran out of appeals during that time. Two have been executed and four are awaiting their fate.
The justices could have issued a death warrant this past Friday for Marion Bowman Jr. that would have been carried out on Dec. 6.
But the day passed with no word from the Supreme Court, including what the justices thought of the request from the inmates last Tuesday to take a break from executions until early January.
Man charged with participating in march with flaming torch has pleaded guilty to lesser charge
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Another man charged with carrying a flaming torch with the intent to intimidate during a 2017 rally at the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville has agreed to a plea deal.
Dallas Jerome Nicholas Medina, 32, of Ravenna, Ohio, was originally indicted on a felony intimidation charge, but pleaded guilty on Oct. 31 in Albemarle County Circuit Court to a reduced charge of misdemeanor disorderly conduct and will not serve any jail time, The Daily Progress reported.
“It seemed like a reasonable outcome for everybody, a reasonable compromise,” Medina’s lawyer, Mike Hallahan, told The Daily Progress after the hearing.
Medina’s case is among more than a dozen stemming from an event on Aug. 11, 2017. That’s when a group of white nationalists carrying torches marched through the campus of the University of Virginia, some chanting, “Jews will not replace us.” He was the fourth participant to enter a plea deal.
In addition to the four misdemeanor pleas, six people have been convicted of felonies and one case ended with a mistrial after jurors failed to reach a verdict.
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Lawton Tufts, who prosecuted Medina, said in court that three factors warranted the lesser charge: he had no prior criminal record, he was not accused of assaulting anyone and he helped stop a fight.
When asked if he wanted to comment, Medina was reticent.
“I got to go home,” he told The Daily Progress. “Sorry.”
Tennessee
Fugitive accused of killing a man, lying about bear chase is caught
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A fugitive accused of killing a man in Tennessee and trying to pass off the body as someone else’s by calling 911, identifying himself as that person and saying he had fallen off a cliff while being chased by a bear has been captured in South Carolina, authorities said.
In a social media post Sunday, the Columbia Police Department said Nicholas Wayne Hamlett, 45, was recognized by an employee at a hospital in the South Carolina city. Authorities confirmed his identity with a fingerprint scanner and he’s in the temporary custody of the U.S. Marshals Service while awaiting extradition to Tennessee.
Authorities in Monroe County, Tennessee, and elsewhere had been looking for Hamlett since last month.
“After observing Hamlett at a local hospital, a good citizen alerted the authorities and brought this manhunt to a peaceful end,” Monroe County Sheriff Tommy Jones said in a social media post.
The sheriff’s office said last month that Hamlett called 911 on Oct. 18 claiming to have fallen off a cliff while running from a bear. Using the name Brandon Andrade, Hamlett claimed he was injured and partially in the water, authorities added.
When emergency responders searched the area near a highway bridge in Tellico Plains, where the call had come from, they found the body of a man with Andrade’s ID on it.
However, authorities determined that the man was not Andrade, whose ID had been stolen and used multiple times. The person using Andrade’s stolen identification was Hamlett, who was wanted in Alabama for a parole violation, the sheriff’s office said. Andrade was alive and well, authorities confirmed.
Forensics officials also determined that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head, which isn’t consistent with a high fall or a bear attack, Jones said.
Hamlett likely fled his Tennessee home before police could verify his real identity, authorities said. That set off a manhunt for Hamlett, who was considered armed and dangerous. The U.S. Marshals Service had been offering a reward of up to $5,000 for help finding him.
On Oct. 31, law enforcement officers searched Chapin, South Carolina, with helicopters and police dogs after getting information that Hamlett was in the area, telling residents to lock their doors on Halloween night. He was spotted near a high school in the city the next day.
On Nov. 4, the Tennessee sheriff’s office identified the dead man as 34-year-old Steven Douglas Lloyd, of Knoxville. It said Hamlett had befriended Lloyd, then lured him into the woods to kill him and take his identity.
According to the sheriff, Lloyd’s family said he was diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder and would leave home and live on the streets, but remained in touch with his family.
“Steven loved the outdoors and was so helpful when it came to others,” Jones wrote in a Nov. 4 social media post. “The family was shocked to learn that their beloved son’s life had been taken by someone that Steven trusted.”
South Carolina
State doesn’t set date for the next execution after requests for a holiday pause
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina’s Supreme Court has not set a date for the state’s next execution after lawyers for four inmates out of appeals asked them to postpone deaths until after Christmas and New Year’s.
The justices typically issue notices on Fridays because it gives the maximum amount of time of 28 days to prepare for the execution which by law is to be carried out on the “fourth Friday after the receipt of such notice.”
The Supreme Court also promised in August to space out the executions in five week intervals to give prison staff and defense lawyers, who are often representing several condemned inmates, time to handle all the legal matters necessary. That includes making sure the lethal injection drugs as well as the electric chair and firing squad are ready and researching and filing last minute appeals.
South Carolina’s death chamber has a backlog because of a 13-year pause in executions in part because the state couldn’t obtain the drugs needed to carry out lethal injections until the General Assembly passed a law keeping the name of the provider secret.
Six inmates ran out of appeals during that time. Two have been executed and four are awaiting their fate.
The justices could have issued a death warrant this past Friday for Marion Bowman Jr. that would have been carried out on Dec. 6.
But the day passed with no word from the Supreme Court, including what the justices thought of the request from the inmates last Tuesday to take a break from executions until early January.
