North Carolina
Ex-Marine charged in mass shooting to undergo psychiatric treatment
BOLIVIA, N.C. (AP) — A judge on Tuesday ordered that a Marine veteran charged with three counts of first-degree murder in a mass shooting at a North Carolina waterfront bar last year undergo psychiatric treatment after it was determined he is unable to understand his legal proceedings enough to help his lawyers.
The case of Nigel Max Edge had been scheduled for a Brunswick County court hearing in which the local prosecutor was slated to reveal whether he intended to seek the death penalty. But District Attorney Jon David said in a news release that part of the case was set aside because questions about Edge’s “capacity to proceed” were raised by multiple mental health professionals.
“The defense has presented evaluations from two experts, and this office requested an independent evaluation by a state forensic examiner,” David said. “All three evaluations conclude that Mr. Edge currently lacks the capacity to proceed to trial.”
Superior Court Judge Jason Disbrow ordered that Edge be transferred to Cherry Hospital, a state psychiatric facility in Goldsboro, David said.
David said the state’s mental expert found that Edge “may be restored to capacity through appropriate treatment, including medication and counseling.” With such a restoration, the legal case against Edge would resume.
Voicemail and email seeking comment were left for Edge’s public defender, Matthew Geoffrion.
Authorities allege Edge, 41, piloted a small motorboat up to a dockside cocktail bar in Southport last Sept. 27 and opened fire with a short-barreled semiautomatic rifle.
Three people were killed, and several others were injured.
Edge, who faces additional charges, was serving with an elite sniper unit in Iraq when he was shot four times, including once in the head. Friends and family say he has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and still has a bullet lodged in his brain.
Tuesday’s action has “the practical effect of suspending further litigation unless and until the defendant’s capacity is restored,” David said, adding the state could still seek the death penalty “should the facts and law warrant this designation.”
Edge will remain in custody during treatment, which David said would be for an “indeterminate” amount of time.
Massachusetts
Judge: Officer improperly canceled visa of scholar charged with frog embryo smuggling
A U.S. judge on Tuesday ruled that a customs officer improperly canceled the visa of a Russian-born scientist and Harvard University researcher charged with smuggling frog embryos in the U.S.
The opinion said Customs and Border Protection officers have limited authority to cancel visas and can’t do so for suspected smuggling of biological samples. The cancellation of Kseniia Petrova ‘s visa was arbitrary and capricious, U.S. District Court Judge Christina Reiss said in her written ruling.
“The undisputed facts reveal that Ms. Petrova’s visa was impermissibly canceled because of the frog embryo samples and for no other reason,” Reiss wrote.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which includes Customs and Border Protection, didn’t immediately return an email message seeking comment.
In February last year, Petrova was returning from a vacation in France, where she had stopped at a lab specializing in splicing superfine sections of frog embryos and obtained a package of samples for research. She was questioned about the samples while passing through a customs checkpoint at Boston Logan International Airport.
After an interrogation, Petrova was told her visa was being canceled.
Petrova was briefly detained by immigration officials in Vermont, where she filed a petition seeking her release. She was later sent to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Louisiana.
She told The Associated Press in an interview last year that she did not realize the samples needed to be declared and was not trying to sneak anything into the country. Petrova has been back in her Harvard lab since January after successfully petitioning a court for the right to return to work, her attorney, Gregory Romanovsky, said.
Tuesday’s ruling was an important step toward “correcting what should never have happened in the first place,” Romanovsky said in a statement.
Petrova’s case is being closely watched by the scientific community, with some fearing it could impact recruiting and retaining foreign scientists at U.S. universities.
Georgia
Soldier faces court-martial for base shootings after pleading to some charges
FORT STEWART, Ga. (AP) — An Army sergeant accused of shooting and wounding five co-workers at a Georgia base last summer faces a trial by court-martial June 15 after he pleaded guilty to some of the charges against him.
Sgt. Quornelius Radford told a military judge at his plea hearing last week that he used a personal handgun to shoot four fellow soldiers in his supply unit at Fort Stewart on Aug. 6 following an argument with his romantic partner, a civilian who was also among the victims.
Bystanders disarmed and restrained Radford before police arrived.
Radford, 29, pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated assault and domestic violence, WTOC-TV reported. The judge then scheduled him to stand trial this summer on the remaining charges of attempted murder.
Defense attorneys had previously told the judge that Radford also planned to plead guilty to two counts of attempted murder. Instead, the accused soldier insisted during his March 31 plea hearing he’s not guilty of those charges, telling the judge that he had no intent to kill anyone.
Radford testified he fired at his co-workers in hopes that he would be killed in a shootout with military police, WSAV-TV reported.
The largest Army post east of the Mississippi River, Fort Stewart is home to thousands of soldiers assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division. It is located about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southwest of Savannah.
Radford served as a supply sergeant in the division’s 2nd Armored Brigade. Army records show he enlisted in 2018.
Washington
Alito fell ill at a March event and was treated for dehydration
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito fell ill at an event in Philadelphia last month and was treated for dehydration before returning home to suburban Washington, the court’s spokeswoman said Friday.
Alito’s illness did not require an overnight hospital stay and he was back on the bench the following Monday, spokeswoman Patricia McCabe said in a statement.
Alito was an active questioner during arguments that day in an important case about mailed ballots and participated in all the court’s hearings over the ensuing two weeks.
Alito, who turned 76 on Wednesday, is the second-oldest member of the court, after 77-year-old Justice Clarence Thomas.
The episode was first reported by CNN, which also said the treatment was administered at a Philadelphia hospital. The court did not say where Alito had been taken.
The incident is the latest example of the justices’ reticence to discuss their health, at least until the news somehow leaks.
In 2020, the court confirmed that Chief Justice John Roberts had spent a night in the hospital after a fall that required stitches in his forehead, only after the Washington Post reported it first.
Alito was driven by his security detail from Washington to what CNN said was a dinner following a Federalist Society panel that looked at his 20 years on the court.
When he didn’t feel well in the evening, “he agreed with his security detail’s recommendation to see a physician before the three-hour drive home” to northern Virginia, McCabe said. He was given fluids for dehydration, she said.
While the justice has not said anything about retirement, speculation has swirled that Alito might soon step down, which would give President Donald Trump the chance to appoint a fourth justice, after the three who were confirmed during his first term.
While Alito is young by Supreme Court standards, he might not want to stay around and gamble on the possibility of Democrats flipping the Senate in the November elections and seeing a Democrat capture the White House two years later.
Retiring in the summer would allow Trump to name a similarly conservative but much younger replacement who would almost certainly win confirmation from the Republican-led Senate.
Washington
Man who co-founded Mexican drug cartel pleads guilty to conspiracy charge
WASHINGTON (AP) — A California man who co-founded one of Mexico’s most powerful and violent drug cartels pleaded guilty on Tuesday in the U.S. to a federal narcotics conspiracy charge.
Erick Valencia Salazar formed the Jalisco New Generation Cartel with Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, the drug lord known as “El Mencho” who was killed by the Mexican army in February.
Valencia Salazar, 49, of Santa Clara, California, faces a mandatory-minimum prison sentence of 10 years and a maximum of life in prison after pleading guilty in Washington, D.C., to one count of conspiring to distribute cocaine for U.S. importation. Chief Judge James Boasberg is scheduled to sentence him on July 31.
Valencia Salazar was a member of the Milenio Cartel before he and Oseguera Cervantes founded the Jalisco cartel, which is known by its Spanish-language acronym CJNG. Hundreds of CJNG members reported to Valencia Salazar, whose duties included recruitment and obtaining information about cartel rivals, prosecutors said.
Valencia Salazar, also known as “El 85,” formed his own cartel, La Nueva Plaza, after parting ways with “El Mencho,” who led the CJNG until his death.
A. Tysen Duva, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s criminal division, said the CJNG has inflicted “immeasurable damage” on the U.S.
“Valencia Salazar was also responsible for furthering the rampant violence in Mexico, at the expense of people’s lives and the safety of communities, that helped destabilize the region and allow crime to flourish,” Duva said in a statement.
A grand jury indicted Valencia Salazar on the conspiracy charge in 2018. In February 2025, Mexican authorities sent him to the U.S. as part of an initial group of 29 drug lords.
Last year, President Donald Trump’s administration designated the CJNG and other cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
Valencia Salazar was arrested twice in Mexico. The first time was in 2012, when he was detained by the military in the municipality of Zapopan, near Guadalajara, the capital of the state of Jalisco.
Five years later, he was released from prison by order of a judge who cited alleged procedural flaws. In 2022, the Army recaptured him in the town of Tapalpa, the same place where “El Mencho” was captured and killed.
The U.S. State Department had offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to Valencia Salazar’s arrest or conviction.
Ex-Marine charged in mass shooting to undergo psychiatric treatment
BOLIVIA, N.C. (AP) — A judge on Tuesday ordered that a Marine veteran charged with three counts of first-degree murder in a mass shooting at a North Carolina waterfront bar last year undergo psychiatric treatment after it was determined he is unable to understand his legal proceedings enough to help his lawyers.
The case of Nigel Max Edge had been scheduled for a Brunswick County court hearing in which the local prosecutor was slated to reveal whether he intended to seek the death penalty. But District Attorney Jon David said in a news release that part of the case was set aside because questions about Edge’s “capacity to proceed” were raised by multiple mental health professionals.
“The defense has presented evaluations from two experts, and this office requested an independent evaluation by a state forensic examiner,” David said. “All three evaluations conclude that Mr. Edge currently lacks the capacity to proceed to trial.”
Superior Court Judge Jason Disbrow ordered that Edge be transferred to Cherry Hospital, a state psychiatric facility in Goldsboro, David said.
David said the state’s mental expert found that Edge “may be restored to capacity through appropriate treatment, including medication and counseling.” With such a restoration, the legal case against Edge would resume.
Voicemail and email seeking comment were left for Edge’s public defender, Matthew Geoffrion.
Authorities allege Edge, 41, piloted a small motorboat up to a dockside cocktail bar in Southport last Sept. 27 and opened fire with a short-barreled semiautomatic rifle.
Three people were killed, and several others were injured.
Edge, who faces additional charges, was serving with an elite sniper unit in Iraq when he was shot four times, including once in the head. Friends and family say he has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and still has a bullet lodged in his brain.
Tuesday’s action has “the practical effect of suspending further litigation unless and until the defendant’s capacity is restored,” David said, adding the state could still seek the death penalty “should the facts and law warrant this designation.”
Edge will remain in custody during treatment, which David said would be for an “indeterminate” amount of time.
Massachusetts
Judge: Officer improperly canceled visa of scholar charged with frog embryo smuggling
A U.S. judge on Tuesday ruled that a customs officer improperly canceled the visa of a Russian-born scientist and Harvard University researcher charged with smuggling frog embryos in the U.S.
The opinion said Customs and Border Protection officers have limited authority to cancel visas and can’t do so for suspected smuggling of biological samples. The cancellation of Kseniia Petrova ‘s visa was arbitrary and capricious, U.S. District Court Judge Christina Reiss said in her written ruling.
“The undisputed facts reveal that Ms. Petrova’s visa was impermissibly canceled because of the frog embryo samples and for no other reason,” Reiss wrote.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which includes Customs and Border Protection, didn’t immediately return an email message seeking comment.
In February last year, Petrova was returning from a vacation in France, where she had stopped at a lab specializing in splicing superfine sections of frog embryos and obtained a package of samples for research. She was questioned about the samples while passing through a customs checkpoint at Boston Logan International Airport.
After an interrogation, Petrova was told her visa was being canceled.
Petrova was briefly detained by immigration officials in Vermont, where she filed a petition seeking her release. She was later sent to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Louisiana.
She told The Associated Press in an interview last year that she did not realize the samples needed to be declared and was not trying to sneak anything into the country. Petrova has been back in her Harvard lab since January after successfully petitioning a court for the right to return to work, her attorney, Gregory Romanovsky, said.
Tuesday’s ruling was an important step toward “correcting what should never have happened in the first place,” Romanovsky said in a statement.
Petrova’s case is being closely watched by the scientific community, with some fearing it could impact recruiting and retaining foreign scientists at U.S. universities.
Georgia
Soldier faces court-martial for base shootings after pleading to some charges
FORT STEWART, Ga. (AP) — An Army sergeant accused of shooting and wounding five co-workers at a Georgia base last summer faces a trial by court-martial June 15 after he pleaded guilty to some of the charges against him.
Sgt. Quornelius Radford told a military judge at his plea hearing last week that he used a personal handgun to shoot four fellow soldiers in his supply unit at Fort Stewart on Aug. 6 following an argument with his romantic partner, a civilian who was also among the victims.
Bystanders disarmed and restrained Radford before police arrived.
Radford, 29, pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated assault and domestic violence, WTOC-TV reported. The judge then scheduled him to stand trial this summer on the remaining charges of attempted murder.
Defense attorneys had previously told the judge that Radford also planned to plead guilty to two counts of attempted murder. Instead, the accused soldier insisted during his March 31 plea hearing he’s not guilty of those charges, telling the judge that he had no intent to kill anyone.
Radford testified he fired at his co-workers in hopes that he would be killed in a shootout with military police, WSAV-TV reported.
The largest Army post east of the Mississippi River, Fort Stewart is home to thousands of soldiers assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division. It is located about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southwest of Savannah.
Radford served as a supply sergeant in the division’s 2nd Armored Brigade. Army records show he enlisted in 2018.
Washington
Alito fell ill at a March event and was treated for dehydration
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito fell ill at an event in Philadelphia last month and was treated for dehydration before returning home to suburban Washington, the court’s spokeswoman said Friday.
Alito’s illness did not require an overnight hospital stay and he was back on the bench the following Monday, spokeswoman Patricia McCabe said in a statement.
Alito was an active questioner during arguments that day in an important case about mailed ballots and participated in all the court’s hearings over the ensuing two weeks.
Alito, who turned 76 on Wednesday, is the second-oldest member of the court, after 77-year-old Justice Clarence Thomas.
The episode was first reported by CNN, which also said the treatment was administered at a Philadelphia hospital. The court did not say where Alito had been taken.
The incident is the latest example of the justices’ reticence to discuss their health, at least until the news somehow leaks.
In 2020, the court confirmed that Chief Justice John Roberts had spent a night in the hospital after a fall that required stitches in his forehead, only after the Washington Post reported it first.
Alito was driven by his security detail from Washington to what CNN said was a dinner following a Federalist Society panel that looked at his 20 years on the court.
When he didn’t feel well in the evening, “he agreed with his security detail’s recommendation to see a physician before the three-hour drive home” to northern Virginia, McCabe said. He was given fluids for dehydration, she said.
While the justice has not said anything about retirement, speculation has swirled that Alito might soon step down, which would give President Donald Trump the chance to appoint a fourth justice, after the three who were confirmed during his first term.
While Alito is young by Supreme Court standards, he might not want to stay around and gamble on the possibility of Democrats flipping the Senate in the November elections and seeing a Democrat capture the White House two years later.
Retiring in the summer would allow Trump to name a similarly conservative but much younger replacement who would almost certainly win confirmation from the Republican-led Senate.
Washington
Man who co-founded Mexican drug cartel pleads guilty to conspiracy charge
WASHINGTON (AP) — A California man who co-founded one of Mexico’s most powerful and violent drug cartels pleaded guilty on Tuesday in the U.S. to a federal narcotics conspiracy charge.
Erick Valencia Salazar formed the Jalisco New Generation Cartel with Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, the drug lord known as “El Mencho” who was killed by the Mexican army in February.
Valencia Salazar, 49, of Santa Clara, California, faces a mandatory-minimum prison sentence of 10 years and a maximum of life in prison after pleading guilty in Washington, D.C., to one count of conspiring to distribute cocaine for U.S. importation. Chief Judge James Boasberg is scheduled to sentence him on July 31.
Valencia Salazar was a member of the Milenio Cartel before he and Oseguera Cervantes founded the Jalisco cartel, which is known by its Spanish-language acronym CJNG. Hundreds of CJNG members reported to Valencia Salazar, whose duties included recruitment and obtaining information about cartel rivals, prosecutors said.
Valencia Salazar, also known as “El 85,” formed his own cartel, La Nueva Plaza, after parting ways with “El Mencho,” who led the CJNG until his death.
A. Tysen Duva, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s criminal division, said the CJNG has inflicted “immeasurable damage” on the U.S.
“Valencia Salazar was also responsible for furthering the rampant violence in Mexico, at the expense of people’s lives and the safety of communities, that helped destabilize the region and allow crime to flourish,” Duva said in a statement.
A grand jury indicted Valencia Salazar on the conspiracy charge in 2018. In February 2025, Mexican authorities sent him to the U.S. as part of an initial group of 29 drug lords.
Last year, President Donald Trump’s administration designated the CJNG and other cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
Valencia Salazar was arrested twice in Mexico. The first time was in 2012, when he was detained by the military in the municipality of Zapopan, near Guadalajara, the capital of the state of Jalisco.
Five years later, he was released from prison by order of a judge who cited alleged procedural flaws. In 2022, the Army recaptured him in the town of Tapalpa, the same place where “El Mencho” was captured and killed.
The U.S. State Department had offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to Valencia Salazar’s arrest or conviction.
