Crime
A jury has convicted a white Florida woman of fatally shooting her black neighbor during an ongoing dispute.
A white Florida woman was convicted Friday of murder within the shooting death of her black neighbor, after a jury rejected her claims that she fired shots through a metal door in self-defense during an ongoing dispute over children playing in front of her home.
An all-white jury in Ocala, Florida, found 60-year-old Susan Lorincz guilty after deliberating for two.5 hours. Lorincz faces as much as 30 years in prison at sentencing. She claimed she was acting in self-defense when she fired a single shot from a .380-caliber handgun through her front door on June 2, 2023, killing 35-year-old Ajike “AJ” Owens.
The confrontation was the newest in a dispute between the 2 neighbors over Owens’ children playing in a grassy area near their homes. Prosecutors said Owens got here to Lorincz’s home after her children complained she allegedly threw roller skates and an umbrella at them during a prolonged outburst of anger over their noisy play outside.
Lorincz told detectives in a taped interview that she feared for her life as Owens screamed and banged on her door.
“I thought I was in imminent danger,” she said.
Lorincz also said she was harassed for many of the three years she lived in the world.
Family members of the victim burst into tears as Lorincz left the courtroom with deputies. She showed no response or emotion as the decision was announced.
District Judge Robert W. Hodges didn’t immediately set a sentencing date but ordered a background report on Lorincz.
Anthony Thomas, an attorney for the Owens family, said they may push for the utmost sentence of 30 years in prison. Owens’ mother, Pamela Dias, said she found comfort within the guilty verdict.
“We got some justice for Ajike. My heart is a little lighter,” Dias told reporters outside the courthouse. “It’s been a long journey to get to this point, to reach this verdict. I find some peace in this verdict.”
District Attorney William Gladson, whose office prosecuted the case, said it was a “tragic reminder” of the results of gun violence.
“The defendant’s choices left four young children without a mother, a loss they will feel for the rest of their lives,” Gladson said in a statement. “While today’s verdict will not bring AJ back, we hope it brings some measure of justice and peace to her family and friends.”
During closing arguments, prosecutor Rich Buxman said there was no evidence Owens posed an imminent physical threat to Lorincz.
“It’s not a crime to bang on someone’s door. It’s not a crime to yell,” Buxman told jurors. “There was no imminent threat when she fired that gun.”
Lorincz’s attorney responded that she was terrified by Owens’s aggressive actions and had the precise to fireplace her weapon under Florida’s “stand and fight” law. An autopsy revealed that Owens weighed about 290 kilos (130 kilograms), making her significantly larger and younger than Lorincz, and the 2 had had prior confrontations.
“She can defend herself,” said Amanda Sizemore, an assistant public defender. “She had a split second to decide whether to fire her weapon.”
Lorincz didn’t testify, but said in an interview with detectives that was played for jurors that she never intended to harm Owens. Still, in a single 911 call, Lorincz told a dispatcher, “I’m sick and tired of these kids.”
“She wasn’t scared. She was angry,” Buxman said.
Owens’ family expressed surprise that no black jurors were chosen for the trial, given the racially sensitive nature of the case. Protests erupted within the black community when prosecutors took weeks to accuse Lorincz of murderwhich is a less severe charge than second-degree murder, which carries a penalty of life imprisonment.
The district court clerk’s office said in an email that eight black people were among the many 70 people within the initial group of jurors. There were 49 white jurors, while 10 were listed as Latino, two as Asian and one as “other,” the clerk’s office said, based on documents provided by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
Ocala is about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northwest of Orlando in central Florida. Marion County’s black population is about 12 percent, in line with census data.
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Crime
Sean “Diddy” Combs faces five new sexual assault trials
Several more plaintiffs got here forward this week accusing rap mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs of sexual abuse. On November 19, three men and two women filed separate complaints against the Bad Boy Records founder through Tony Buzbee, a lawyer who previously said he would represent greater than 100 clients accusing Combs of misconduct.
“For years, Combs and his companies have engaged in a persistent and pervasive pattern of violence against women, men and minors,” the entire complaints read: in keeping with People magazine. “This abuse was at times verbal, emotional, physical and sexual. As part of his pattern of molestation, Combs manipulated both men and women into participating in highly orchestrated performances of sexual activity, with both prostitutes and unsuspecting partygoers.”
The new plaintiffs include an unidentified man who claims the rapper sexually assaulted him when he was 39 years old. At a house party in New York in 2022, the plaintiff alleged that he was given a drink that left him feeling disoriented and uncontrolled. his body, which ultimately caused him to lose consciousness.
When he regained consciousness, he recalls being in a “dark bedroom with black walls, on a bed with black sheets”, where he realized that Combs was “sodomizing him”. The plaintiff claims he fought with the rapper before leaving the party.
Other male plaintiffs, including an unnamed former actor, remember feeling disoriented, passing out and waking up as Combs sexually assaulted them. With allegations dating back to 2001, all five complaints said Combs’ alleged abuse was “shockingly typical” since the star believed he was “above the law.”
“That said, Mr. Combs vehemently and categorically denies as false and defamatory any claim that he sexually abused anyone, including minors,” attorney Erica Wolff added in a press release. “He looks forward to proving his innocence and defending himself in court where the truth will be determined by evidence, not speculation.”
Combs is currently in federal custody awaiting trial on criminal charges including sex trafficking and racketeering. The star’s trial is scheduled to happen in May 2025.
Crime
Founder of an AI Tech startup accused of fraud and combining numbers with investors
Joanna Smith-Griffin, 33, CEO of startup AllHere Education, Inc. dealing with AI education accused of defrauding investors.
The Southern District of New York prosecuted Smith-Griffin securities fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. The grand jury indictment alleged that Smith-Griffin lied concerning the education platform’s funds and posed as a financial consultant to supply false information to investors. While acting as a financial consultant for AllHere Education, Smith-Griffin is accused of falsifying the corporate’s financial records mislead potential investors and inflate the worth of her company and its revenues.
AllHere Education is an AI-powered learning platform utilized in primary and secondary schools. Smith-Griffin has had little success integrating the K-12 platform into individual school districts in California and Georgia. However, the principal didn’t secure long-term contracts with school districts. She used these short-term partnerships to misrepresent to investors the reach and financial success of AllHere Education.
Smith-Griffin told potential AllHere investors that AllHere generated about $3.7 million in revenue in 2020, about $2.5 million in money and has major school district customers similar to New York City Department of Education (“NYC DOE”) and Atlanta Public Schools. In fact, AllHere generated roughly $11,000 in revenue in 2020, had roughly $494,000 in money, and had no contracts with many of the clients it represented, including the NYC DOE and Atlanta Public Schools.
Smith-Griffin continued to boost capital to support the startup, raising one other $10 million in funding. When the corporate collapsed financially, Smith-Griffin allegedly used the money injection to pay for an extravagant three-day wedding in Florida and a residence in North Carolina.
FBI Deputy Director James E. Dennehy commented on Smith-Griffin’s decision to prioritize her personal aspirations over the needs of an educational platform.
“Her alleged actions impacted the potential to improve the learning environment in core school districts by selfishly prioritizing personal expenses,” he said.
Smith-Griffin faces a compulsory two years in prison for the identity theft charge and a maximum of 20 years for every fraud charge. AllHere Education is currently in Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Crime
Prosecutors say Sean “Diddy” Combs is trying to obstruct justice by heading to prison
NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs was trying to reach potential witnesses and influence public opinion while in prison in a bid to influence potential jurors in an upcoming sex trafficking trial, prosecutors said in a court filing during which they urged a judge to deny his latest bail request.
The government charges were filed Friday evening in federal court in Manhattan, which opposed the music mogul’s latest offer of $50 million bail. A bail hearing is scheduled for next week.
Prosecutors wrote that a review of recorded phone calls Combs made while in prison shows that he asked relations to contact potential victims and witnesses and urged them to create a “narrative” to influence the jury pool. They say he also encouraged the use of promoting strategies to influence public opinion.
“The defendant has demonstrated time and time again – even while in custody – that he’ll flagrantly and repeatedly disregard the foundations so as to improperly influence the consequence of his case. In other words, the defendant has demonstrated that he can’t be trusted to abide by the terms and conditions,” prosecutors wrote in a press release containing redactions.
Prosecutors wrote that from his behavior it might be inferred that Combs wanted to blackmail victims and witnesses into remaining silent or providing testimony helpful to his defense.
Combs’ lawyers didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Prosecutors said Combs, 55, began breaking the foundations almost immediately after being taken into custody Metropolitan Prison Center in Brooklyn after his September arrest.
He pleaded not guilty to the costs brought against him he abused and molested women for years with the assistance of a network of collaborators and employees, while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
Two judges found he was a danger to the community and a flight risk.
His lawyers recently filed a 3rd bail application after rejecting two previous attempts, including a $50 million bail offer.
In their motion, they cited modified circumstances, including latest evidence, that they believed justified Combs’ release so he could higher prepare for his May 5 trial.
However, prosecutors said defense lawyers created the most recent bail proposal based on evidence provided to them by prosecutors, and the brand new material was already known to defense lawyers after they submitted previous bail applications.
In their presentation to the judge, prosecutors said Combs’ behavior in prison shows he must remain locked up.
For example, they said, Combs asked relations to plan and execute a social media campaign around his birthday “with the intent of influencing a potential jury in this criminal proceeding.”
He encouraged his children to post a video on their social media accounts of them gathering to have a good time his birthday, he added.
He then monitored statistics on the jail, including audience engagement, and “explicitly discussed with the family how to ensure the film would have the desired impact on potential jury members in this case,” they said.
The government also alleged that Combs made clear in other conversations that he intended to anonymously publish information that he believed would help him defend against the costs.
“Defendant’s efforts to impede the fairness of these proceedings also include his persistent efforts to contact potential witnesses, including victims of violence, who could provide strong testimony against him,” prosecutors wrote.
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