Idaho
Prosecutors say suspect bought a knife on Amazon months before student stabbings
Prosecutors said they have evidence that the man charged in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students bought a knife and knife sheath online in the months before the killings, newly released court documents show.
Prosecutors in Bryan Kohberger’s trial filed a motion asking a judge to allow them to present his Amazon shopping activity as evidence during trial.
They also sought permission to show that a housemate of the victims saw a man with bushy eyebrows wearing a ski mask in the house in the early hours of Nov. 13, 2022, when killings took place. In a court filing, prosecutors said they would present a photograph of Kohberger taken from his phone hours after the killings and let the jury decide whether he has bushy eyebrows.
Kohberger is charged with four counts of murder in the deaths of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves. The students were killed in the early morning at a rental home near their school’s campus in Moscow, Idaho.
A judge previously entered a not-guilty plea on Kohberger’s behalf. Kohberger’s trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 11 and expected to last more than three months. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty if he is convicted.
Prosecutors have said they matched “touch DNA” found on a knife sheath near one of the victims to DNA taken from Kohberger. A defense attorney pushed to have the DNA evidence thrown out, but Judge Steven Hippler denied that request last month.
Court documents filed Monday said the state obtained a search warrant for Kohberger’s Amazon activity pertaining to knives and accessories, his payment methods and details of items he added and removed from his cart.
Prosecutors said that search warrant was narrowly tailored to March 20 to March 30, 2022, the time they said Kohberger was known to have bought a Ka-Bar knife with sheath and sharpener from Amazon, and between Nov. 1 and Dec. 6 that year, dates falling weeks before and after the killings.
In arguing the judge should admit the evidence, prosecutors said Kohberger’s Amazon activity showing the purchase of a Ka-Bar knife and sheath before the homicides made it more probable that the Ka-Bar sheath found at the crime scene was his.
Thousands of pages of court documents have been filed in the complicated case as attorneys on both sides attempt to set the ground rules for what will and won’t be presented to jurors.
New Mexico
Jury convicts failed political candidate in drive-by shootings at officials’ homes
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A jury has convicted a failed political candidate of numerous federal charges in connection with a series of drive-by shootings at the homes of state and local lawmakers in Albuquerque in the aftermath of the 2020 election.
Former Republican candidate Solomon Peña had pleaded not guilty to 13 charges including conspiracy, weapons-related charges and interference with federally protected activities in connection with the shootings in December 2022 and January 2023 on the homes of four Democratic officials, including the current state House speaker.
The attacks took place as threats and acts of intimidation against election workers and public officials surged across the country after President Donald Trump and his allies called into question the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
Prosecutors allege that Peña resorted to violence in the belief that a “rigged” election had robbed him of victory in his bid to serve in the state Legislature.
The shootings targeted the homes of officials including two county commissioners after their certification of the 2022 election, in which Peña lost by nearly 50 percentage points. No one was injured, but in one case bullets passed through the bedroom of a state senator’s 10-year-old daughter.
Defense attorneys say Peña was not involved in the shootings and that prosecutors were relying on the testimony of two men who bear responsibility and accepted plea agreements in exchange for leniency.
Peña faces a possible sentence of life in prison. His legal team plans to appeal.
“The verdict this evening is a travesty,” attorney Nicholas Hart said in a statement. “The evidence showed that Mr. Peña had nothing to do with these shootings. Solomon Pena was prosecuted because of his political beliefs, and because he advocated that the 2020 election was stolen and rigged.”
Jurors listened to more than a week of testimony from elected officials who were targeted, investigators and Peña’s co-conspirators. Demetrio Trujillo and son Jose Trujillo previously pleaded guilty to federal charges in connection with the shootings.
Peña was arrested in January 2023 and held since then in state and then federal custody. The weapons charges included allegations that Peña fired a machine gun in relation to a crime of violence.
Florida
Technician says thrill ride operator ignored safety concerns before fatal fall
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A maintenance technician alleged on Wednesday that he raised safety issues with the operators of a central Florida amusement ride before a 14-year-old boy fell to his death, but his concerns were never addressed.
Austin Campbell-Alexander said in the state whistleblower lawsuit that the Orlando Free Fall ride at Icon Park had sensors which were modified to accommodate people whose height or weight were outside safety limits. He also alleged that overheated cylinders prevented seats from securing properly and that the drop ride’s metal structure had cracks in its joints. Campbell-Alexander also said he and his colleagues weren’t given any training on ride maintenance or patron safety.
“He brought these concerns to his manager and the owner of the ride, and basically they didn’t do what they should have done,” Greg Schmitz, one of his attorneys, said in a phone interview.
Trevor Arnold, an attorney for the ride operators, said in an email that Campbell-Alexander’s claims were in direct conflict with statements he provided after the accident.
“Our clients promptly investigated the tragic accident that resulted in the death of Tyre Sampson. Upon discovering that Mr. Campbell-Alexander adjusted the sensors that resulted in the accident, he was suspended and relieved of any further involvement or access to any rides,” Arnold said. “Upon learning of Mr. Campbell-Alexander’s and other employees’ conduct, we proactively notified investigating authorities.”
Tyre Sampson fell 70 feet (21 meters) to his death on March 24, 2022. A football standout who stood 6 foot, 2 inches tall (1.9 meters) and weighed 380 pounds (172 kilograms), he was visiting Orlando on spring break from the St. Louis area.
Sampson went with friends to the amusement park on International Drive in the heart of the region’s tourism district, and they rode the Orlando Free Fall, which placed 30 riders in seats attached to a tower. Each passenger was secured with a shoulder harness before the ride lifted them up the tower and then dropped them 430 feet (131 meters).
Because of Sampson’s size, the harness didn’t lock properly and he was ejected from his seat when the ride braked, authorities said.
Campbell-Alexander wasn’t present during the accident, but he has suffered depression and anxiety since then, Schmitz said.
He said that after Sampson’s death, he was asked to backfill blank maintenance logs showing that tasks had been performed in the weeks before the accident. Campbell-Alexander refused and was put on paid administrative leave for a year and not permitted to return to the property, the lawsuit said.
After Sampson’s family reached a settlement with the ride’s operators, Campbell-Alexander was fired. His attorneys said it was retaliation for the safety concerns he had flagged. Sampson’s family also won a $310 million verdict against the attraction’s Austrian builder last year.
The lawsuit filed in state court in Orlando said Campbell-Alexander is seeking more than $50,000. Schmitz said it should include back pay, compensatory damages and punitive damages.
“It was just very traumatic from his perspective, working there,” Schmitz said.
North Dakota
Jury: Greenpeace must pay over $660M over Dakota Access protest activities
MANDAN, N.D. (AP) — Environmental group Greenpeace must pay more than $660 million in damages for defamation and other claims brought by a pipeline company in connection with protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline’s construction in North Dakota, a jury found Wednesday.
Dallas-based Energy Transfer and subsidiary Dakota Access had accused Netherlands-based Greenpeace International, Greenpeace USA and funding arm Greenpeace Fund Inc. of defamation, trespass, nuisance, civil conspiracy and other acts.
Greenpeace USA was found liable for all counts, while the others were found liable for some. The damages owed will be spread out in different amounts over the three entities.
Greenpeace said earlier that a large award to the pipeline company would threaten to bankrupt the organization. Following the nine-person jury’s verdict, Greenpeace’s senior legal adviser said the group’s work “is never going to stop.”
“That’s the really important message today, and we’re just walking out and we’re going to get together and figure out what our next steps are,” Deepa Padmanabha told reporters outside the courthouse.
The organization later said it plans to appeal the decision.
“The fight against Big Oil is not over today,” Greenpeace International General Counsel Kristin Casper said. “We know that the law and the truth are on our side.”
She said the group will see Energy Transfer in court in July in Amsterdam in an anti-intimidation lawsuit filed there last month.
The damages total nearly $666.9 million. The jury found Greenpeace USA must pay the bulk of the damages, nearly $404 million, while Greenpeace Fund Inc. and Greenpeace International would each pay roughly $131 million.
Energy Transfer called Wednesday’s verdict a “win” for “Americans who understand the difference between the right to free speech and breaking the law.”
“While we are pleased that Greenpeace has been held accountable for their actions against us, this win is really for the people of Mandan and throughout North Dakota who had to live through the daily harassment and disruptions caused by the protesters who were funded and trained by Greenpeace,” the company said in a statement to The Associated Press.
The company previously said the state court lawsuit was about Greenpeace not following the law, not free speech.
In a statement, Energy Transfer attorney Trey Cox said, “This verdict clearly conveys that when this right to peacefully protest is abused in a lawless and exploitative manner, such actions will be held accountable.”
The case reaches back to protests in 2016 and 2017 against the Dakota Access Pipeline and its Missouri River crossing upstream of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation. For years the tribe has opposed the line as a risk to its water supply.
The multistate pipeline transports about 5% of the United States’ daily oil production. It started transporting oil in mid-2017.
Cox had said Greenpeace carried out a scheme to stop the pipeline’s construction. During opening statements, he alleged Greenpeace paid outsiders to come into the area and protest, sent blockade supplies, organized or led protester trainings, and made untrue statements about the project to stop it.
Attorneys for the Greenpeace entities had said there was no evidence to the claims and that Greenpeace employees had little or no involvement in the protests and the organizations had nothing to do with Energy Transfer’s delays in construction or refinancing.
Prosecutors say suspect bought a knife on Amazon months before student stabbings
Prosecutors said they have evidence that the man charged in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students bought a knife and knife sheath online in the months before the killings, newly released court documents show.
Prosecutors in Bryan Kohberger’s trial filed a motion asking a judge to allow them to present his Amazon shopping activity as evidence during trial.
They also sought permission to show that a housemate of the victims saw a man with bushy eyebrows wearing a ski mask in the house in the early hours of Nov. 13, 2022, when killings took place. In a court filing, prosecutors said they would present a photograph of Kohberger taken from his phone hours after the killings and let the jury decide whether he has bushy eyebrows.
Kohberger is charged with four counts of murder in the deaths of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves. The students were killed in the early morning at a rental home near their school’s campus in Moscow, Idaho.
A judge previously entered a not-guilty plea on Kohberger’s behalf. Kohberger’s trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 11 and expected to last more than three months. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty if he is convicted.
Prosecutors have said they matched “touch DNA” found on a knife sheath near one of the victims to DNA taken from Kohberger. A defense attorney pushed to have the DNA evidence thrown out, but Judge Steven Hippler denied that request last month.
Court documents filed Monday said the state obtained a search warrant for Kohberger’s Amazon activity pertaining to knives and accessories, his payment methods and details of items he added and removed from his cart.
Prosecutors said that search warrant was narrowly tailored to March 20 to March 30, 2022, the time they said Kohberger was known to have bought a Ka-Bar knife with sheath and sharpener from Amazon, and between Nov. 1 and Dec. 6 that year, dates falling weeks before and after the killings.
In arguing the judge should admit the evidence, prosecutors said Kohberger’s Amazon activity showing the purchase of a Ka-Bar knife and sheath before the homicides made it more probable that the Ka-Bar sheath found at the crime scene was his.
Thousands of pages of court documents have been filed in the complicated case as attorneys on both sides attempt to set the ground rules for what will and won’t be presented to jurors.
New Mexico
Jury convicts failed political candidate in drive-by shootings at officials’ homes
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A jury has convicted a failed political candidate of numerous federal charges in connection with a series of drive-by shootings at the homes of state and local lawmakers in Albuquerque in the aftermath of the 2020 election.
Former Republican candidate Solomon Peña had pleaded not guilty to 13 charges including conspiracy, weapons-related charges and interference with federally protected activities in connection with the shootings in December 2022 and January 2023 on the homes of four Democratic officials, including the current state House speaker.
The attacks took place as threats and acts of intimidation against election workers and public officials surged across the country after President Donald Trump and his allies called into question the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
Prosecutors allege that Peña resorted to violence in the belief that a “rigged” election had robbed him of victory in his bid to serve in the state Legislature.
The shootings targeted the homes of officials including two county commissioners after their certification of the 2022 election, in which Peña lost by nearly 50 percentage points. No one was injured, but in one case bullets passed through the bedroom of a state senator’s 10-year-old daughter.
Defense attorneys say Peña was not involved in the shootings and that prosecutors were relying on the testimony of two men who bear responsibility and accepted plea agreements in exchange for leniency.
Peña faces a possible sentence of life in prison. His legal team plans to appeal.
“The verdict this evening is a travesty,” attorney Nicholas Hart said in a statement. “The evidence showed that Mr. Peña had nothing to do with these shootings. Solomon Pena was prosecuted because of his political beliefs, and because he advocated that the 2020 election was stolen and rigged.”
Jurors listened to more than a week of testimony from elected officials who were targeted, investigators and Peña’s co-conspirators. Demetrio Trujillo and son Jose Trujillo previously pleaded guilty to federal charges in connection with the shootings.
Peña was arrested in January 2023 and held since then in state and then federal custody. The weapons charges included allegations that Peña fired a machine gun in relation to a crime of violence.
Florida
Technician says thrill ride operator ignored safety concerns before fatal fall
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A maintenance technician alleged on Wednesday that he raised safety issues with the operators of a central Florida amusement ride before a 14-year-old boy fell to his death, but his concerns were never addressed.
Austin Campbell-Alexander said in the state whistleblower lawsuit that the Orlando Free Fall ride at Icon Park had sensors which were modified to accommodate people whose height or weight were outside safety limits. He also alleged that overheated cylinders prevented seats from securing properly and that the drop ride’s metal structure had cracks in its joints. Campbell-Alexander also said he and his colleagues weren’t given any training on ride maintenance or patron safety.
“He brought these concerns to his manager and the owner of the ride, and basically they didn’t do what they should have done,” Greg Schmitz, one of his attorneys, said in a phone interview.
Trevor Arnold, an attorney for the ride operators, said in an email that Campbell-Alexander’s claims were in direct conflict with statements he provided after the accident.
“Our clients promptly investigated the tragic accident that resulted in the death of Tyre Sampson. Upon discovering that Mr. Campbell-Alexander adjusted the sensors that resulted in the accident, he was suspended and relieved of any further involvement or access to any rides,” Arnold said. “Upon learning of Mr. Campbell-Alexander’s and other employees’ conduct, we proactively notified investigating authorities.”
Tyre Sampson fell 70 feet (21 meters) to his death on March 24, 2022. A football standout who stood 6 foot, 2 inches tall (1.9 meters) and weighed 380 pounds (172 kilograms), he was visiting Orlando on spring break from the St. Louis area.
Sampson went with friends to the amusement park on International Drive in the heart of the region’s tourism district, and they rode the Orlando Free Fall, which placed 30 riders in seats attached to a tower. Each passenger was secured with a shoulder harness before the ride lifted them up the tower and then dropped them 430 feet (131 meters).
Because of Sampson’s size, the harness didn’t lock properly and he was ejected from his seat when the ride braked, authorities said.
Campbell-Alexander wasn’t present during the accident, but he has suffered depression and anxiety since then, Schmitz said.
He said that after Sampson’s death, he was asked to backfill blank maintenance logs showing that tasks had been performed in the weeks before the accident. Campbell-Alexander refused and was put on paid administrative leave for a year and not permitted to return to the property, the lawsuit said.
After Sampson’s family reached a settlement with the ride’s operators, Campbell-Alexander was fired. His attorneys said it was retaliation for the safety concerns he had flagged. Sampson’s family also won a $310 million verdict against the attraction’s Austrian builder last year.
The lawsuit filed in state court in Orlando said Campbell-Alexander is seeking more than $50,000. Schmitz said it should include back pay, compensatory damages and punitive damages.
“It was just very traumatic from his perspective, working there,” Schmitz said.
North Dakota
Jury: Greenpeace must pay over $660M over Dakota Access protest activities
MANDAN, N.D. (AP) — Environmental group Greenpeace must pay more than $660 million in damages for defamation and other claims brought by a pipeline company in connection with protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline’s construction in North Dakota, a jury found Wednesday.
Dallas-based Energy Transfer and subsidiary Dakota Access had accused Netherlands-based Greenpeace International, Greenpeace USA and funding arm Greenpeace Fund Inc. of defamation, trespass, nuisance, civil conspiracy and other acts.
Greenpeace USA was found liable for all counts, while the others were found liable for some. The damages owed will be spread out in different amounts over the three entities.
Greenpeace said earlier that a large award to the pipeline company would threaten to bankrupt the organization. Following the nine-person jury’s verdict, Greenpeace’s senior legal adviser said the group’s work “is never going to stop.”
“That’s the really important message today, and we’re just walking out and we’re going to get together and figure out what our next steps are,” Deepa Padmanabha told reporters outside the courthouse.
The organization later said it plans to appeal the decision.
“The fight against Big Oil is not over today,” Greenpeace International General Counsel Kristin Casper said. “We know that the law and the truth are on our side.”
She said the group will see Energy Transfer in court in July in Amsterdam in an anti-intimidation lawsuit filed there last month.
The damages total nearly $666.9 million. The jury found Greenpeace USA must pay the bulk of the damages, nearly $404 million, while Greenpeace Fund Inc. and Greenpeace International would each pay roughly $131 million.
Energy Transfer called Wednesday’s verdict a “win” for “Americans who understand the difference between the right to free speech and breaking the law.”
“While we are pleased that Greenpeace has been held accountable for their actions against us, this win is really for the people of Mandan and throughout North Dakota who had to live through the daily harassment and disruptions caused by the protesters who were funded and trained by Greenpeace,” the company said in a statement to The Associated Press.
The company previously said the state court lawsuit was about Greenpeace not following the law, not free speech.
In a statement, Energy Transfer attorney Trey Cox said, “This verdict clearly conveys that when this right to peacefully protest is abused in a lawless and exploitative manner, such actions will be held accountable.”
The case reaches back to protests in 2016 and 2017 against the Dakota Access Pipeline and its Missouri River crossing upstream of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation. For years the tribe has opposed the line as a risk to its water supply.
The multistate pipeline transports about 5% of the United States’ daily oil production. It started transporting oil in mid-2017.
Cox had said Greenpeace carried out a scheme to stop the pipeline’s construction. During opening statements, he alleged Greenpeace paid outsiders to come into the area and protest, sent blockade supplies, organized or led protester trainings, and made untrue statements about the project to stop it.
Attorneys for the Greenpeace entities had said there was no evidence to the claims and that Greenpeace employees had little or no involvement in the protests and the organizations had nothing to do with Energy Transfer’s delays in construction or refinancing.
