UPDATE 8 p.m.: Union County N.J. officials announced Thursday evening that Philadelphia Police apprehended Caleb Lawrence McGillvary, AKA Kai the Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker, at the Greyhound Bus Terminal in Philadelphia.

McGillvary has been charged in the murder of Clark, N.J. man Joseph Galfy Jr.

According to a news release, McGillvary will be processed in Philadelphia and returned to New Jersey. He will be lodged in the Union County Jail in Elizabeth.

“I am grateful for the overwhelming response and dedicated effort by the public and law enforcement that led to this arrest,” said Union County Prosecutor Theodore J. Romankow in a news release. “I believe that everyone is a little safer with this person off the streets.”

McGillvary received Internet fame earlier this year after he gave a lively television interview depicting how he used a hatchet to repeatedly strike a man who purposefully ran over a utility worker and also tried to beat up a woman who intervened. The video went viral. McGillvary had hitched a ride with the assailant before the incident.

ORIGINAL REPORT: Kai the Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker, who rose to Internet fame earlier this year after giving a lively interview on TV about how he used a hatchet on a man who was trying to beat up a woman, is wanted for the murder of New Jersey man, officials with the Union County Prosecutor’s Office said today.

Kai, whose real name is Caleb Lawrence McGillvary, was apparently last seen at the Patco station in Haddonfield, Camden County, N.J.

Officials with the Union County Task Force and the Clark Police Department issued an arrested warrant for McGillvary in the May 12 homicide of Clark man Joseph Galfy Jr., according to a press release.

Officials said Galfy was found inside his home May 13 after a welfare check. After a May 14 autopsy, it was determined Galfy died of blunt force trauma.

McGillvary, 23, is homeless, but has referred to himself as “homefree,” said Union County Prosecutor Theodore J. Romanhow in a release.

In February, McGillvary hitched a ride with a driver who then, on purpose, ran over a utility worker in California. The driver, who proclaimed to be Jesus Christ, tried to beat up a woman who intervened to help. McGillvary told a local television station he grabbed a hatchet and hit the assailant.

McGillvary was then known as Kai the Hitchhiker and the local news report with his interview went viral. He made an appearance on national media outlets including Jimmy Kimmel Live.

New Jersey officials said McGillvary cut his hair to alter his appearance and is still at-large. He is considered armed and dangerous.

Caleb Lawrence McGillvary AKA Kai the Hitchhiker. Credit Union County Prosecutor’s Office

Union County Crime Stoppers is offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to his arrest.

McGillvary has been charged with murder and his bail has been set at $3 million.

Officials wrote: All tips are kept anonymous and may be called into (908) 654-TIPS (8477), www.uctip.org, or text UCTIP plus a message 274637.

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Police have arrested a 20-year-old man in connection with the murder of a teen girl whose body was found on Gerritsen Beach in January.

Christian Ferdinand allegedly killed Shaniesha Forbes, 14, cops said. The two were in a relationship, and Ferdinand told cops he killed Forbes because he thought she was pregnant, the New York Post reports.

Forbes was not in fact pregnant. Ferdinand allegedly suffocated the Brooklyn teen inside his apartment. He then stuffed her body into a suitcase a few days later, brought it to the beach and set it on fire, the Post reports.

Cops arrested Ferdinand in Maine, where he had fled after the killing.

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A New Jersey man who confessed to the 1979 killing of Etan Patz should stand trial for murder and kidnapping in the 6-year-old boy’s disappearance, a judge ruled on Wednesday.

An attorney for Pedro Hernandez, 51, of Maple Shade, New Jersey, had asked the judge to throw out the indictment, arguing that the confession alone was not legally sufficient to support the charges. Under New York law, a confession must be corroborated by some evidence that the crime in question occurred, though the statute is considered by legal experts to set an extremely low bar.

But in a very brief hearing, Justice Maxwell Wiley ruled in state Supreme Court in Manhattan that the trial may proceed, finding there is enough evidence to try Hernandez on the felony charges.

Police said Hernandez in May 2012 confessed to a chilling crime that has long haunted New Yorkers, saying he had lured the boy near his family home in Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood and strangled him on May 25, 1979.

Hernandez, who worked in the 1970s at a nearby deli, no longer admits to the crime, said his lawyer, Harvey Fishbein.

Patz had disappeared while walking alone for the first time to a school bus stop, and his case helped focus national attention on the issue of missing children. He was one of the first missing children to have their photograph posted on the side of a milk carton as part of an appeal for information from the public.

Patz’s body was never found but he was legally declared dead in 2001.

In the months after Hernandez’s confession, a grand jury indicted him on two counts of second-degree murder and one count of first-degree kidnapping.

Fishbein asked the judge to throw out the indictment, noting that authorities appear to have no physical evidence to corroborate Hernandez’s confession.

“You can’t support the indictment solely with these statements,” Fishbein has said. “There is no crime scene here. There were no witnesses to a crime.”

He has also said the confession is false and that Hernandez suffers from mental illness, including hallucinations.

A spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, Erin Duggan, has said prosecutors believe Hernandez’s confession will withstand scrutiny.

After the court hearing on Wednesday, Fishbein said he would argue the confession should be thrown out because it was obtained in violation of Hernandez’s constitutional rights.

“There will be a hearing to find out if the statements were constitutionally taken. He was held for seven, eight hours before he was told he had the right to remain silent. He has a psychiatric condition and he has a low IQ,” Fishbein told reporters.

For years, Jose Ramos, a friend of Patz’s babysitter, was the prime suspect in the case, although he was never criminally charged. Ramos was found liable for Patz’s death in a 2004 civil case.

Ramos, 69, was released in November from a Pennsylvania prison after serving 20 years for molesting children but was immediately rearrested on other charges.

Fishbein has maintained that Ramos remains a “far more likely” suspect in Patz’s disappearance than Hernandez.

(Additional reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Cynthia Osterman)

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An Arizona jury found Jodi Arias guilty on Wednesday of first-degree murder in the death of her ex-boyfriend in a sensational capital case that has snared media attention since January. Arias teared up as the verdict was announced. Family members of victim Travis Alexander embraced each other in the courtroom.

Arias, 32, could face the death penalty now that she is convicted of murdering 30-year-old Alexander, whose body was found in the shower of his suburban Phoenix home in June 2008. He had been shot in the face, stabbed multiple times and his throat had been slashed.

Arias has admitted to killing Alexander, but said it was in self-defense after he attacked her because she had dropped his camera while taking photos of him in the shower.

The jury reached its verdict on the third full day of deliberations. Judge Sherry Stephens, who gave them the case on Friday afternoon, had instructed jurors that they could consider the charges of first- and second-degree murder or the lesser charge of manslaughter, and that they should reach a unanimous verdict. First-degree murder requires proof of premeditation.

The trial, which began in early January and was punctuated by graphic testimony and evidence including a sex tape, was streamed live on the Internet and drew widespread media attention.

During the trial, the court heard how the petite, dark-haired Arias met and began dating Alexander, a businessman and motivational speaker, in 2006.

During 18 days of often gripping and salacious testimony, Arias said that she and Alexander continued to have sex despite their break-up from a relationship that was marked by emotional and physical abuse.

Arias said Alexander had made her feel “like a prostitute” and that he kicked and attempted to choke her, although she admitted never reporting the alleged abuse to the police, seeking medical treatment or documenting it in her journal.

Defense attorney Kirk Nurmi said Arias had snapped in the “sudden heat of passion” in the moments between a final photograph she took showing Alexander alive and taking a shower and a subsequent picture showing him covered in his own blood.

ARIAS PORTRAYED AS MANIPULATIVE

Prosecutor Juan Martinez painted a different picture of Arias, portraying her as manipulative and prone to jealousy in previous relationships, and said she had meticulously planned to kill Alexander.

“Nothing indicates that this is anything less than a slaughter,” he told jurors in his summing up on Friday, asking them to return a verdict of felony first-degree murder.

Martinez accused Arias of bringing the pistol used in the killing, which has not been recovered, with her from California, and said she rented a car, removed its license plate and bought gasoline cans and fuel to conceal her journey to the Phoenix suburbs to kill Alexander.

Martinez said that Arias lied after the killing to deflect any suspicion that she had been involved in his death, leaving a voicemail on Alexander’s cellphone, sending irises to his grandmother and telling detectives she was not at the crime scene before changing her story.

The jury had more than 100 questions for Arias. They grilled her on her claims that her mind went blank after she shot Alexander, and wanted to know why she had not called emergency responders – questions she struggled to answer.

The defense called a psychologist who testified that Arias’ memory lapses stemmed from post-traumatic stress as a result of Alexander’s alleged abuse and the killing itself – claims disputed by prosecutors.

In closing arguments, Martinez told the jury Alexander had sent an instant message weeks before his death saying he was “extremely afraid” of Arias because of her “stalking behavior.”

Nurmi also reminded the jury that Arias was charged with murder and not with lying.

“Did she lie? Of course she did, but that’s not in your verdict instructions,” he said.

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Gun deaths in the city declined by more than 30 percent between 2000 and 2011, a new Health Department study shows.

There were 524 firearm-related murders in 2000, compared with 366 in 2011, according to the study. The nation overall saw no decline during the same period, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in his radio address Sunday.

“Our success at keeping guns off our streets has meant that our city’s overall firearms fatality rate is less than half the rate in the rest of the country, and it’s markedly lower than that of other major cities,” Bloomberg said.

The number of injuries caused by guns during the same 11-year period also declined, falling 21 percent.

The mayor credited the city’s tough gun possession laws for the declines, as well as the “smart, proactive policing that makes it much more likely that if you break our city’s gun laws, you’ll be caught.”

Despite the fall in firearm deaths, gun violence remains a serious problem in the city, Bloomberg noted. Neighborhoods such as East New York, Crown Heights, Central Harlem and the South Bronx have the highest numbers of firearm deaths and injuries in the city, with rates twice the city’s average, the study found.

Firearms are also the leading cause of death for men aged 15 to 24 in those communities.

“We’re working every day to address this epidemic by targeting police resources where they’re most needed and implementing the same proactive law enforcement strategies that have proven so effective citywide,” the mayor said.

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Police have arrested a suspect who allegedly shot and killed a Bronx man in broad daylight Thursday.

Gregory Forbes, 24, has been charged with the killing of 28-year-old Mario Thomas, cops said.

Police officers responded to the call about a man shot about 2 p.m. at 731 E. 161st St. in Morrisania. They discovered Thomas with a gunshot wound to his head. He was taken to Lincoln Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

A dozen bullets were fired by multiple gunmen during the shootout that took place in a courtyard, DNAinfo.com reports.

Forbes also faces charges of criminal use of a firearm and criminal possession of a weapon.

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The manager of Tick Tock Diner, a popular eatery in Clifton, N.J., with a second location near Penn Station in Manhattan, was arrested Wednesday for allegedly plotting to have his uncle — a co-owner of the restaurant — killed.

Georgios Spyropoulos, 45, hired a hit man to “torture, rob and kill” Alexandros Sgourdos because he resented the man’s power over the Clifton restaurant, The Daily News reports. The hit man was actually an undercover cop.

The nephew gave the undercover cop a $3,000 down payment along with a gun and a map to his uncle’s house. He wanted the hit man to torture his uncle, 57, for the combination to his safe that contained cash. He then wanted the man to dispose of the body so it appeared that Sgourdos had gone missing, The News reports.

The New Jersey diner was made famous when it was featured on The Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” in 2007.  Sgourdos is also the manager of the Manhattan location.

Spyropoulos has been charged with conspiracy to commit murder, attempt to commit murder and unlawful possession of a weapon.

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The white supremacist group Aryan Brotherhood may be behind the weekend killings of a Texas district attorney and his wife, which occurred months after an assistant prosecutor was shot dead in the same county, a Texas lawmaker said today.

“I believe it is a group. It could possibly be the Aryan Brotherhood,” Texas Congressman Ted Poe, a Republican and veteran former judge and prosecutor in his state, told CNN.

Poe did not elaborate on his hypothesis about the killings, or say what exactly his information was based on. But he stressed that only 13 prosecutors have been murdered across the United States in the last 30 years and said the Texas killings had all the hallmarks of a brazen campaign of fear and intimidation, “specifically aimed at certain people in particular roles in law enforcement.”

Investigators have not named any suspects in the case.

“It seems to me that a scenario may be developing that the district attorney’s office was investigating this gang, or another gang, and they wanted to prevent that investigation,” Poe added.

Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were discovered with fatal gunshot wounds at their home near Forney, Texas, on Saturday. Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse was gunned down in January.

Kaufman County Sheriff David Byrnes said on Sunday that the FBI, Texas Rangers and other law enforcement officials were investigating the double homicide.

The Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office was notified shortly before 6 p.m. Saturday that the two bodies had been found in their rural home just outside Forney, about 20 miles from Dallas, Byrnes said.

While he would not discuss possible suspects in the case, law enforcement officials are widely believed to have focused on the prison-based Aryan Brotherhood in the still unsolved Hasse killing. Kaufman County is considered a regional stronghold of the gang, which Poe said was heavily involved in drugs and prostitution and “anything for money.”

Hasse was shot and killed on January 31 in a gangland-style killing just outside the Kaufman County courthouse. The killing came on the same day the U.S. Justice Department released a statement saying the Kaufman County District Attorney’s Office was involved in a racketeering case against the Aryan Brotherhood.

In an indictment unsealed in November, the Texas arm of the Aryan Brotherhood was described as a gang responsible for murders, arson, assault and other crimes, and prone to “extreme violence and threats of violence to maintain internal discipline and retaliate against those believed to be cooperating with law enforcement.”

Kaufman County Judge Bruce Wood told Reuters the last known contact with the McLellands was about 7 p.m. on Friday.

Wood described McLelland as a friend and colleague and said he and McLelland had spoken regularly about Hasse and the investigation.

“This is not just an attack on two very fine people, but an attack on the justice system,” Wood told Reuters.

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A man was released from prison Thursday after he was wrongfully convicted of killing a Brooklyn rabbi more than 20 years ago.

David Ranta, 58, was finally freed after a year-long investigation determined that the case against him had been flawed.

Ranta was convicted in 1991 of shooting Chaskel Werzberger, a Hasidic rabbi, and stealing his car after he unsuccessfully tried to rob a diamond courier in February 1990.

“The evidence no longer establishes the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” said Assistant District Attorney John O’Mara, chief of the conviction integrity unity of the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office.

The investigation headed by O’Mara found that a key witness, a teenager who said he saw Ranta near the murder site, had not told the truth.

The witness said he did not recognize Ranta but selected him from a lineup after a detective told him to “pick the guy with the big nose.”

A jailhouse informant and his girlfriend also admitted that they made up a story for a favorable plea deal.

Ranta was originally sentenced to 37 years in prison and had lost his previous appeals.

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A 48-year-old woman was found shot dead inside a Brooklyn apartment building Wednesday afternoon, police said.

Maryanne Rinato was found at 6713 19th Ave. in Bensonhurst just before 3 p.m. She had a gunshot wound to her head, cops said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.

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The man wanted for the killing of a Staten Island mother while she was on vacation in Istanbul earlier this year made his confession to police Monday and described his brutal actions in detail.

Sarai Sierra, 33, was taking pictures near railroad tracks on Jan. 21 when she encountered the accused killer, a vagrant known as Ziya T. The suspect tried to kiss Sierra, but she hit him with her cell phone, causing his nose to bleed, The New York Post reports. Angered by her action, Ziya T. then punched Sierra and sent her rolling down an embankment.

The Staten Island wife and mother of two tried to fight off her killer for 30 minutes. At one point, she hit him with a rock. Ziya T. then picked up a rock and hit her in the head multiple times. He left her to die.

The suspect returned the next day, covered her body and discarded her belongings. He later fled to Syria but recently decided to turn himself in because he knew authorities were closing in.

Turkish investigators have linked DNA from Ziya T’s relatives to matter from under Sierra’s fingernails, the Post reports.

Sierra had left for Turkey on Jan. 7. Her body was found on Feb. 2.

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A 34-year-old Brooklyn man has been charged with murder in connection with two bodies that were found in a fire in Howard Beach last week, according to the Queens District Attorney’s office.

Rogelio Rodriguez of Brooklyn is charged with second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter, criminal possession of a weapon and tampering with evidence.

The bodies of Gary Lopez and Rudy Superville, both of Brooklyn, were found in a fire in a grassy area off the Belt Parkway in Howard Beach on March 6 after firefighters had responded to a call about a fire. The Medical Examiner said both men sustained blunt force trauma as well as gunshot wounds. Superville also sustained stab wounds to the back and neck.

Police said they believe the victims were trying to steal drugs from Rodriguez’ apartment when they were attacked, according to The New York Times.

Sometime after midnight on March 7, Rodriguez dumped seven firearms in Newton Creek in Maspeth, Queens, including two weapons that were used in the murders of Lopez and Superville, according to the District Attorney’s office.

Police are still searching for at least three other suspects who were involved in the murders.

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A woman has been arrested and charged with murder after police found her boyfriend shot to death in their Staten Island home on Sunday.

Police discovered the body of Christopher Bonafede, 39, around Sunday evening at 471 Ridgewood Ave. in the Arden Heights section of Staten Island. Bonafede had a gunshot wound to his head, police said.

Lisa McQuade, 38, was taken into custody. She has been charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon.

McQuade reportedly turned herself into police officers at Port Authority Bus Terminal after riding aimlessly on the subway for a few hours, according to the New York Post. She told police that her boyfriend had been beating her for a long time.

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Two young men have been charged after they robbed and killed a Queens man before they set his apartment on fire to cover up their crimes this weekend, according to the Queens District Attorney’s office.

Stephen Peters, 22, and Jason St. Hill, 17, went to the apartment of Azeem Ali, 43, in the Richmond Hill section of Queens just after midnight on Sunday. After they arrived, Peters allegedly punched and pistol whipped the victim and then tied his hands and feet with electrical cord.

Peters also allegedly took Ali’s ATM card and demanded his PIN number before shooting him in the head. He then poured gasoline around the apartment and set it on fire. The two men allegedly headed to an ATM machine at a nearby gas station where they withdrew $200 from Ali’s account.

The accused men were arraigned in Queens Criminal Court Thursday evening. They are charged with murder, kidnapping, burglary, arson, and robbery, among other charges. They were held without bail and ordered to return to court on March 14.

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A woman who faces multiple counts of murder after she purposely pushed an innocent man in front of an oncoming train in December was found fit for trial for the second time.

Erika Menendez, 31, killed 46-year-old Sunando Sen at a No. 7 train station in Sunnyside. She said she pushed him because he looked Muslim and she hates Muslims. Sen was not Muslim.

Menendez also fired her family lawyer on Wednesday, insisting that she only wants her court-appointed attorney, the New York Post reported. The family lawyer said that even though Menendez was found fit for trial, she suffers from severe psychiatric issues, stemming from problems with her family.

In statements read by an assistant district attorney on Wednesday, Menendez said, “I don’t have mental illness. I hate my family, I don’t care, I don’t want your medicine, I know what I am doing.”

She also allegedly said, “I just pushed him in front of the train because I thought it would be cool.”

Her attorney has entered a not guilty plea on her behalf and plans to submit a bail application for her at her next hearing on April 18.

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A Brooklyn man who forced his daughter into an arranged marriage in Pakistan was arrested on charges of visa fraud and communicating threats. (Credit: Getty Images)

A Brooklyn cabdriver who forced his daughter into an arranged marriage in Pakistan may be responsible for ordering the murder of two relatives in Pakistan on Monday, federal authorities say.

Amina Ajmal, 22, says she was held against her will in Pakistan for three years and forced to marry a Pakistani man, The New York Times reported. Ajmal was able to escape last month to a secret location in the U.S. with the help of the American Embassy. But when she spoke with her father on the phone, he demanded that she return to their home in Flatbush and that if she didn’t, he would arrange for her relatives in Pakistan to be killed.

Pakistani police reported on Monday that two of Ajmal’s relatives had been shot to death and another had been injured.

Mohammad Ajmal Choudhry, 60, was arrested outside of his home on Monday and charged with communicating threats and visa fraud. He appeared in court on Tuesday and was held without bail.

Prosecutors said the mother of one of the victims in Pakistan identified Choudhry’s brother as the shooter.

Ajmal said she was held in Pakistan under death threats and forced to marry a Pakistani man, according to a complaint filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.

Choudhry was charged with filing a fraudulent visa application for his daughter, who is a U.S. citizen, and her groom, who lives in Pakistan and was trying to earn legal status into the U.S.

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Oscar Pistorius’s elder brother faces trial for killing a woman in a traffic incident five years ago, the family said on Sunday, confirming a report that dominated South African media two days after the “Blade Runner” athlete was bailed for murder.

Carl Pistorius is charged with culpable homicide in the death of a motorcyclist in 2008; the case is unrelated to the Valentine’s Day shooting of his younger brother’s girlfriend.

However, it was not widely known of until local television e-News Channel Africa reported it on Sunday. A family statement said Carl appeared before a judge on Thursday and would be in court again in late March. His younger brother was freed on bail on Friday after a week of hearings watched by the world’s media.

Carl Pistorius declined comment as he entered the home of an uncle in Pretoria on Sunday. The house is where Oscar, 26, has been staying since being granted bail on Friday until his trial for the premeditated murder of model Reeva Steenkamp on February 14.

The family statement quoted lawyer Kenny Oldwage as saying:

“There is no doubt that Carl is innocent and the charge will be challenged in court. Carl deeply regrets the accident.

“Blood tests conducted by the police at the time proved that he had not been under the influence of alcohol, confirming that it was a tragic road accident after the deceased collided with Carl’s car.”

Contacted by Reuters, Oldwage declined further comment. The family statement said charges had at one stage been withdrawn but then reinstated.

Athlete’s trial

Carl Pistorius attracted little publicity until the arrest of his younger brother propelled the family into the glare of a global media spotlight. He and their younger sister Aimee and father Henke, appeared in court to support Oscar, who denies the charge, saying he believed he was shooting at an intruder.

The younger Pistorius brother was born lacking bones in his lower legs, leading to amputation and carbon fibre blades. As the Paralympian “Blade Runner”, who competed with able-bodied athletes at last year’s London Olympics, reaching the semifinal of the 400 meters, he became a symbol of triumph over adversity.

In his native South Africa, he has also been seen as a rare hero for both blacks and whites, transcending racial divides that persist 19 years after the end of apartheid.

The trial has drawn attention to South Africa’s judicial system. Defence counsel criticized police witnesses during the bail hearings and, in a development that prompted further headlines, the lead detective was replaced after it emerged he himself was facing attempted murder charges.

On Saturday, Steenkamp’s father said that if Oscar Pistorius was telling the truth about mistakenly opening fire then “maybe I can forgive him one day”. But he added that if the track star were lying “he will have to live with his conscience”.

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The lead detective in the Oscar Pistorius murder case is himself facing attempted murder charges for firing on a minibus full of passengers, South African police said on Thursday as prosecutors argued in court to deny the athlete bail.

Hilton Botha, who took the stand against Pistorius at the Paralympic and Olympic track star’s bail hearing earlier this week, is due to appear before a judge in May over the 2011 shooting, police spokesman Brigadier Neville Malila said.

“Botha and two other policemen allegedly tried to stop a minibus taxi with seven people. They fired shots,” Malila told Reuters.

It was unclear why the charges were reinstated against Botha, or how the latest twist in Pistorius’s sensational four-day bail hearing will affect the athlete’s chances of securing release from custody pending his trial.

At the time of the taxi bus shooting, Botha – a detective with 24 years on the force – was chasing a man accused of murdering a woman and disposing of her dismembered body down a drain, local media said.

The charges against him were provisionally withdrawn but reinstated on February 4 – 10 days before the shooting of 29-year-old model and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp in a locked toilet at Pistorius’s Pretoria home, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said.

“The decision to reinstate was taken on February 4, way before the issue of Pistorius came to light or the murder of Reeva was committed,” NPA spokesman Medupe Simasiku told Reuters. “It’s completely unrelated to this trial.”

Malila said now that the court had decided to charge Botha, there would be an internal disciplinary investigation which would decide whether to keep him on the case: “At this stage there are no plans to take him off the Pistorius case.”

Pistorius, a double amputee dubbed “Blade Runner” because of his carbon fiber racing blades, faces life in prison if convicted of the premeditated murder of Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine’s Day.

Sportswear giant Nike, which uses the famous “swoosh” logo, froze its contract with Pistorius on Thursday saying the athlete should be “afforded due process”.

JUSTICE ON TRIAL?

The revelation about Botha capped a troubling 24 hours for South Africa’s prosecution service.

Under cross-examination at the bail hearing on Wednesday, the lead detective was accused of contaminating the crime scene in Pistorius’s house and had to backtrack on details such as the distance of witnesses from the athlete’s home.

Grilled by lead defense counsel Barry Roux, he also had to concede that Pistorius’s version of events – that he fired into the toilet door in a blind panic thinking an intruder was lurking behind it – was plausible.

The bail hearing resumed on Thursday with prosecutors immediately admitting they had only just found out about the charges hanging over Botha.

Pressing home the defense’s advantage to argue for Pistorius’s release, Roux said: “The poor quality of evidence presented by the chief investigating officer exposed disastrous shortcomings in the state’s case.”

The 26-year-old runner denies murder and was more composed in court after repeatedly breaking down in previous hearings.

His uncle, Arnold Pistorius, said his nephew was eating again after consuming nothing for six days and had spent much of his time in police custody reading the Bible.

A full trial is likely to take many months, and even if he is acquitted, Pistorius faces a huge challenge in rebuilding his career and image in the eyes of the millions around the world who saw him as the epitome of triumph over adversity.

SOUTH AFRICA AGOG

The proceedings have gripped South Africans, who have found themselves debating the finer points of police forensics and the ins and outs of the criminal justice process.

As public opinion has swayed back and forth, schoolchildren have come to blows in playgrounds over the athlete’s innocence or guilt, and on Thursday “Hilton Botha” was a top-trending topic on Twitter in South Africa.

“We talk about the case every day. It’s all over the news. You can’t ignore it,” said Happy Ngwenya, a taxi driver waiting for rides in Johannesburg’s Sandton financial district.

“He must face his music but the thing is, here in South Africa, criminals have so many rights.”

With massive international media interest in the case against a global celebrity, many South Africans feel the apparent hiccups on the part of the state prosecution were hurting the country’s image in the eyes of the world.

“Bring someone from outside to sort out this mess,” said businessman Godfrey Baloyi. “The whole justice system needs an overhaul.”

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Ever since “Blade Runner” Oscar Pistorius’s girlfriend was shot dead in his Pretoria home last week, South African papers have printed lurid details of the killing which, if true, pose major challenges to the Paralympic star’s defense team, experts say.

Initial reports of the shooting in the early hours of Thursday suggested Pistorius, 26, a double amputee who became one of the biggest names in world athletics, may have mistaken law graduate and model Reeva Steenkamp for an intruder.

A statement released by his family dismissed the charge of murder laid on Friday in “the strongest terms”. His bail hearing resumes in a Pretoria magistrate’s court on Tuesday.

Within hours of the shooting, police confirmed that Steenkamp had been killed by more than one gunshot, that Pistorius was the only suspect, that neighbors had heard earlier disturbances, that there were no signs of a break-in and that a 9mm pistol had been recovered from the two-storey home.

Since then, police have released no more details.

The same cannot be said of the South African media, part of a global publicity machine that built up Pistorius into the ultimate sporting tale of triumph over adversity – a man who rose to the pinnacle of world athletics, racing at the Olympics despite having no lower legs.

Some of the most widely reported local media allegations are that Steenkamp was in the bathroom when she was shot, was hit by four rounds – in the head, hand, hip and chest – and that shots were fired through the bathroom door.

In addition, leading Sunday newspaper City Press said investigators had found a blood-stained cricket bat in Pistorius’ bedroom. The paper said police had not yet worked out whose blood it was, but said Steenkamp’s head was “crushed”.

The newspaper also alleged that Steenkamp, who will be buried on Tuesday, had slept in the same bed as Pistorius that night – Valentine’s Day eve – and that her iPad was on the bedroom floor along with an overnight bag.

The ENCA television channel said CCTV footage from the gated community showed Steenkamp arriving at the complex shortly after 6 p.m. on the previous evening.

Police have declined to comment on any of the reports, saying official details will only emerge in court.

However, the allegations – if true – undermine the legal argument of self-defense, as well as the suggestion that Pistorius was taken by surprise by a would-be stranger in his house in the middle of the night.

“If what the media says is in fact the truth, I cannot see that any defense based on self-defense can, by any stretch of the imagination, succeed,” said Eddie Classen, a partner at BDK Attorneys, one of South Africa’s biggest criminal defense firms.

“ROID RAGE”?

Under the white-minority rule that ended in 1994, South Africa had relatively lax curbs on the use of lethal force, not only in self-defense but also in making arrests. Put bluntly, if the only way to stop a fleeing robber was to shoot him, you could.

However, the laws were tightened up after the end of apartheid when the “right to life” became enshrined in the new constitution of Nelson Mandela’s “Rainbow Nation”, making it permissible to use lethal force only when your life is directly threatened.

Furthermore, when the immediate threat is gone – a shot intruder, say, goes down with a bullet in the leg – the self-defense argument ends.

“The law says that you have to stop the moment that you have repelled an attack, so normally one shot will suffice,” said Steven Tuson, a professor of criminal law at Johannesburg’s Wits University.

If Pistorius’s lawyers choose to avoid the self-defense avenue, another option may be to argue temporary insanity based on chemical stimulants, a defense irreverently referred to in sports-mad South Africa as “roid rage”, short for ‘steroid’.

This is why Pistorius was taken for blood tests immediately after the shooting, Tuson said, “to exclude that defense”. Classen also said the “roid rage” defense could only succeed in “extraordinary circumstances”.

One other possible avenue is for Pistorius to argue “putative self-defense” – that he thought he was being attacked even if he wasn’t. Even then, Classen said the content of the media reports, if true, curtailed his chances of success.

“The facts of the matter – and I caution again because I am only reading them from the media – suggest something totally different,” he said.

The post Oscar Pistorius murder defense team faces few options appeared first on Metro.us.

South African ‘Blade Runner’ Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee who became one of the biggest names in world athletics, broke down in tears on Friday after he was charged in court with shooting dead his girlfriend in his Pretoria home.

The 26-year-old Olympic and Paralympic superstar stood with head bowed in front of magistrate Desmond Nair to hear the charge that he had murdered model and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp.

Pistorius then started sobbing, covering his face with his hands. “Take it easy,” Nair told him. “Come take a seat.”

The case has stunned a nation that revered ‘the fastest man on no legs’ as a hero who managed to compete at the highest levels of sport despite being born without a fibula in either leg.

Prosecutors told the Pretoria court the shooting of 30-year-old Steenkamp in the early hours of Thursday was pre-meditated.

Pistorius faces life in prison if found guilty.

He did not enter a plea but a statement issued by his family and London-based agent said the charge was disputed “in the strongest possible terms”.

“He (Pistorius) has made it very clear that he would like to send his deepest sympathies to the family of Reeva,” the statement said, in the first message attributed to him since his arrest.

Steenkamp was found shot dead in Pistorius’s plush home in the middle of a heavily guarded gated complex in the northern outskirts of the capital, police said.

The Afrikaans-language Beeld newspaper said she was hit four times, in the head, chest, pelvis and hand.

“The security guards found Pistorius by Steenkamp’s body in the bathroom,” the paper said on its website, citing a neighbor. “The door had bullet holes right through it.”

Defense lawyer Kenny Oldwage said his client had an “extremely traumatized state of mind”. He did not request bail before proceedings were adjourned until February 19.

GOLDEN BOY LOSES SHINE

Early reports of the shooting suggested Pistorius may have mistaken Steenkamp for an intruder, but police said neighbors had heard noises before the shots and there had been previous “domestic” incidents at the house.

Pistorius said nothing during the 40-minute hearing.

His father, Henke, and brother, Carl, sat directly behind him in the packed court-room, occasionally leaning forward to give him a pat on the shoulder.

His mother died in 2002 when he was 15 years old – a tragedy that he said spurred him on in his quest to compete as an able-bodied athlete.

Along with Lance Armstrong’s recovery from testicular cancer to win the Tour de France – an achievement now brought low by his admission of doping – Pistorius’ tale of triumph over adversity was one of the most powerful in the history of sport.

South African newspapers plastered Steenkamp’s killing across their front pages, reflecting shock and dismay at the fall of a man who commanded rare respect on all sides of the racial divides that persist in Nelson Mandela’s “Rainbow Nation” 19 years after the end of apartheid.

“Golden Boy Loses Shine” ran a front page headline in the Sowetan, beside a picture of Pistorius, head bowed in a grey hooded tracksuit being led away from a police station.

Callers to morning radio shows expressed grief at the death of Steenkamp, who had been due to give a talk at a Johannesburg school this week about violence against women.

There was also widespread disbelief at the fate of a sportsman regarded as a genuinely “good guy”.

“How is it possible for one so high to fall so low so quickly?” Talk Radio 702 host John Robbie said.

ADVERTS PULLED

South Africa’s M-Net cable TV channel immediately pulled adverts featuring Pistorius off air but most of his sponsors, including sports apparel group Nike, said they would not make any decisions until the police investigation was completed.

Pistorius’ endorsements and sponsorships, which also include British telecoms firm BT, sunglasses maker Oakley and French designer Thierry Mugler, are thought to be worth as much as $2 million a year.

He reached the pinnacle of his fame in London 2012 when he became the first double amputee to run in the Olympics, reaching the 400-metres semi-finals.

In last year’s Paralympics he suffered his first loss over 200 meters in nine years. After the race he questioned the legitimacy of Brazilian winner Alan Oliveira’s prosthetic blades, but was quick to express regret for the comments.

Near the home, people who knew Pistorius paid tribute to a much-loved local hero.

“Some of us were in tears,” said Precious, who works at a petrol station where Pistorius used to fill up his McLaren supercar, signing autographs and picking up the tab for people in the convenience store.

“He was just so kind to everyone,” said Precious, who declined to give her family name.

The post ‘Blade Runner’ Oscar Pistorius sobs in court after murder charge appeared first on Metro.us.

South African “Blade Runner” Oscar Pistorius, a double amputee who became one of the biggest names in world athletics, was charged on Thursday with shooting dead his girlfriend at his home in Pretoria.

Police said they had opened a murder case after a 30-year-old woman was found dead at the track star’s house after an incident in the upmarket Silverlakes gated complex on the outskirts of the capital.

“At this stage he is on his way to a district surgeon for medical examination,” police brigadier Denise Beukes told reporters outside the heavily guarded residential complex.

Pistorius and his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, had been the only people in the house at the time of the shooting, Beukes, said, and witnesses had been interviewed about the incident, which happened in the early hours of the morning.

“We are talking about neighbors and people that heard things earlier in the evening and when the shooting took place,” she said. Earlier, police said a 9mm pistol had been found at the scene.

“When a person has been accused of a crime like murder they look at things like testing under the figure nails, taking a blood alcohol sample and all kinds of other test that are done. They are standard medical tests,” Beukes said.

Pistorius is due to appear in a Pretoria court after 1200 GMT.

Before the murder charge was announced, Johannesburg’s Talk Radio 702 said the 26-year-old may have mistaken Steenkamp for a burglar.

South Africa has some of the world’s highest rates of violent crime, and many home owners have weapons to defend themselves against intruders, although Pistorius’ complex is surrounded by a three meter high wall and electric fence.

In 2004, Springbok rugby player Rudi Visagie shot dead his 19-year-old daughter after he mistakenly thought she was a robber trying to steal his car in the middle of the night.

VALENTINE’S DAY

Steenkamp, a model and regular on the South African party circuit, was reported to have been dating Pistorius for a year, and there had been little to suggest their relationship was in trouble.

In the social pages of last weekend’s Sunday Independent she described him as having “impeccable” taste.

“His gifts are always thoughtful,” she was quoted as saying.

Some of her last Twitter postings indicated she was looking forward to celebrating Valentine’s Day on Thursday with him.

“What do you have up your sleeve for your love tomorrow???” she posted.

However, Beukes said the police were aware of previous incidents at the house of a “domestic nature”, and recent media interviews with Pistorius revealed he kept an assortment of weapons in his home.

“Cricket and baseball bats lay behind the door, a pistol by his bed and a machine gun by a window,” Britain’s Daily Mail wrote in a profile published last year.

He was arrested in 2009 for assault after slamming a door on a woman and spent a night in police custody. Family and friends said it was just an accident and the charges were later dropped.

Steenkamp’s colleagues were distraught.

“We are all devastated. Her family is in shock,” Steenkamp’s agent, Sarita Tomlinson, told Reuters, in tears. “They did have a good relationship. Nobody actually knows what happened.”

TRACK STAR

Pistorius, who races wearing carbon fiber prosthetic blades after he was born without a fibula in both legs, was the first double amputee to run in the Olympics and reached the 400 meter semi-finals in London 2012.

Respected worldwide for triumphing over his disabilities to compete on a level playing field with able-bodied athletes, his sponsorship deals are thought to be worth $2 million a year.

In last year’s Paralympics he suffered his first loss over 200 meters in nine years. After the race he questioned the legitimacy of Brazilian winner Alan Oliveira’s prosthetic blades, though he was quick to express his regret for the comments.

Pistorius is sponsored by British telecoms firm BT, sunglasses maker Oakley, sports apparel maker Nike and French designer Thierry Mugler.

“We are shocked by this terrible, tragic news. We await the outcome of the South African police investigation,” a BT spokeswoman said before Pistorius was charged.

A Nike spokesman in London said before hearing of the murder charge that the company was “saddened by the news, but we have no further comment to make at this stage”.

Pistorius also has a sponsorship deal with Icelandic prosthetics manufacturer Ossur.

“I can only say that our thoughts and prayers are with Oscar and the families involved in the tragedy,” Ossur CEO Jon Sigurdsson told Reuters. “It is completely premature to discuss or speculate on our business relationship with him.”

Neighbors expressed shock at the arrest of a “good guy”.

“It is difficult to imagine an intruder entering this community, but we live in a country where intruders can get in wherever they want to,” said one Silverlakes resident, who did not want to be named.

“Oscar is a good guy, an upstanding neighbor, and if he is innocent I feel for this guy deeply,” he said.

The post ‘Blade Runner’ Oscar Pistorius charged with murdering girlfriend appeared first on Metro.us.

Police said the shooting at the Country House Diner on Fulton Street occurred around 5 a.m., after which the unidentified victim was transported to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead. A suspect was taken into custody at the scene.

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Kwasi Olatunji was gunned down around around 3:30 a.m. in front of the Flavor Lounge, located on Hillside Avenue in Richmond Hill, according to police.

A second victim, 27, is in stable condition after being stabbed in the leg. Police said Sunday that no arrests had been made yet.

The post Flavor Lounge: Police investigating shooting death outside Queens nightclub appeared first on Metro.us.

Belcher shot and killed his girlfriend in front of his mother at their Kansas City home on Saturday, then drove to the team’s practice facility, where he committed suicide in the parking lot as head coach Romeo Crennel and General Manager Scott Pioli watched.

The tragedy dampened the normally festive atmosphere at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium before the game and tempered the joy of the victory, which snapped an eight-game losing streak and improved Kansas City’s record to 2-10.

“You relied on your faith to help get you through this, and we got through it,” Crennel told the team in the locker room after the game. “Everybody made a contribution, everybody helped, and that’s what a team is about.”

Quarterback Brady Quinn said the tragedy weighed heavily on the players and the victory was meaningful because it showed “how guys clung together.”

“This will stick with us the rest of the year,” Quinn told FM 101.1 radio.

Tight end Tony Moeaki credited Crennel and Pioli for demonstrating leadership after witnessing the suicide and supporting the team.

“You can’t put it into words what we went through as a team,” Moeaki told the radio. “They really stayed strong for us and that was key.”

Kansas City fans are known for their elaborate pre-game tailgating parties, but many said the mood was subdued on Sunday. A moment of silence for all victims of domestic violence was held before the game.

“It is a sad situation, but to me, ultimately, the man committed murder,” Chiefs’ fan Tony Alonzo said. “The big picture is that it was a murder.”

Fans lamented the death of Kasandra Perkins, 22, and turned their thoughts to the couple’s 3-month-old daughter.

“That is who you feel for, this 3-month-old child,” fan Ira Thomas said before the game. “She has to grow up without her parents and, as she gets older, someone in the family will tell her what happened and that might set her back a few years.”

By coincidence, a Cleveland Browns employee committed suicide on Saturday, the Browns said. The body of assistant groundskeeper Eric Eucker, 42, was found at the Browns’ training facility, the Cuyahoga County coroner’s office said. Eucker hanged himself, Cleveland’s WEWS NewsChannel 5 reported.

The suicide of Belcher followed a recent string of former National Football League players who have taken their own lives, including Junior Seau in May, Ray Easterling in April and Dave Duerson last year.

Those deaths heightened growing concerns about the risk of brain injury from repeated concussions suffered by veteran NFL players in a game that some critics say has grown too aggressive, although there was no immediate evidence Belcher suffered significant head trauma.

After discussions with the league, Chiefs Chairman and CEO Clark Hunt left the decision about whether to play with Crennel and the team. They decided the game should go on.

“Romeo called the team captains yesterday afternoon … and they all wanted to play the game,” Hunt told ESPN on the field before the game. “And I asked coach Crennel, ‘Do you think the right thing is to go forward?’ and he said, ‘I do. Under the circumstances, it’s going to be tough.’”

Hunt visited the team on Saturday night.

“I wanted to tell them that I love them and I understand what they are going through,” Hunt said.

Kansas City Mayor Sylvester James likened the tragedy to “your worst nightmare.”

“It’s unfathomable,” James told reporters. “It’s something that you would love to wash away from your mind, but you can’t do it. There is nothing like it. Think about your worst nightmare and multiply by five.”

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Yoselyn Ortega, 50, is facing charges of first- and second-degree murder after 6-year-old Lucia Krim and 2-year-old Leo Krim were brutally stabbed to death in their family’s Upper West Side apartment Oct. 25. Ortega also suffered stab wounds police deemed self-inflicted.

The children’s mother, Marina Krim, discovered the gruesome scene when she returned home with one of her other children. Ortega was taken to the hospital, where she remains.
 
“Yoselyn Ortega is charged with taking the lives of two innocent children who were incapable of defending themselves,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said. “My heart goes out to the family of those beautiful young children, and I hope that, with time, this family will heal.”

Four days after the horrific tragedy, a Facebook page supporting Ortega and declaring her innocent began making waves. The administrator of “Support Innocence of Nanny Yoselyn Ortega” calls for information leading to the “real killer” and has posted photos of Ortega posing with the Krim children. The page has garnered more than 100 “likes” but is riddled with violent threats and viscious insults against its creator.   

The page’s administrator would not reveal his or her identity to Metro, citing personal safety. When asked why he or she so strongly believed Ortega to be innocent, the page’s administrator could not give concrete reasons, but argued that she must be innocent because she is a hardworking mom.

“She wanted a future for her son, Jesus, and brought him to the USA for a better life and future,” the administrator said in a Facebook message. “She would never throw away her life by killing Lucia and Leo and putting her son Jesus’ life in trouble.”

“She is a highly educated woman,” the administrator said, adding that Ortega has a college degree in accounting. “She has not history of mental instability.”

The administrator has posted a theory that Marina Krim murdered her own children after discovering an affair between her husband and Ortega, but would not address the question when asked whether he or she possessed proof of the affair.

The post Yoselyn Ortega: Nanny pleads not guilty to murdering kids, Facebook supporter speaks out appeared first on Metro.us.

According to NYPD, the body of a black man was found in the Forest Park Bandshell parking lot at 4:30 a.m Thursday. He had stab wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police have ruled his death a homicide.

Another body was found just hours later at 9:30 am at Beach 13 of Rockaway Beach. Police said the victim had two gun shot wounds to his head and was also declared dead at the scene.

Both homicide investigations are ongoing and no suspects have yet been named.

The post NYPD: Two bodies found in parks, both ruled homicides appeared first on Metro.us.

A grand jury today indicted Pedro Hernandez, 51, on two counts of murder in the second degree and one count of kidnapping in the first degree. He was first arrested by the NYPD in May, after a member of his family told police he was responsible for Patz’s murder.

In custody, Hernandez told police he lured the boy into SoHo basement on May 25, 1979, by offering him a soda. He confessed to strangling Patz and then wrapping his body in plastic wrap and putting it in the trash. Shortly after, Hernandez moved from his West Broadway apartment, eventually to Maple Shade, N.J., where he was living at the time of his arrest.

Police said Hernandez told family members over the years he had “done a bad thing and killed a child in New York,” prompting one relative to turn him in.

His own attorneys have raised the question as to whether mental health issues led him to make a false confession, but the Manhattan district attorney’s office said Hernandez’s confession will stand.

“This indictment is the outcome of a lengthy and deliberative process, involving months of factual investigation and legal analysis. We believe the evidence that Mr. Hernandez killed Etan Patz to be credible and persuasive, and that his statements are not the product of any mental illness,” Erin Duggan, a spokesperson for the Manhattan DA, said in a statement. “The grand jury has found sufficient evidence to charge the defendant, and this is a case that we believe should be presented to a jury at trial.”

Hernandez’s attorney, Harvey Fishbein, insists his client has an I.Q. in the “borderline-to-mild mental retardation range.”

“Nothing that occurs in the course of this trial will answer what actually happened to Etan Patz,” Fishbein said. “The indictment is based solely on statements allegedly made by my client, who has, in the past, been repeatedly diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia, and who has, over the last six months, been found to suffer from schizotypal personality disorder, which is characterized by, among other things, unusual perceptual experiences, commonly referred to as hallucinations.”

Patz’s disappearance on his first walk alone to the school bus stop grabbed national headlines in 1979.  His face become one of the first to appear on a milk carton in an effort to garner information leading to his whereabouts.

Potential prosecution problems

Paul Callan, former deputy chief of homicide in the Brooklyn district attorney’s office, said it’s unusual for a suspect to be indicted six months after an arrest, and it could suggest some holes in the case.

“It’s a real uphill battle to get a conviction in such an old case,” Callan said. “Witnesses’ memories fade, physical evidence doesn’t exist anymore.”

In New York, a defendant cannot be convicted solely on a confession. Prosecutors must present corroborating evidence, which could prove challenging, Callan suggested, especially because Patz’s body was never found.   

“The defense will come in and say they don’t even know that Etan Patz was murdered, maybe he was kidnapped,” Callan said.

One point the prosecution might argue, he predicted, is that Hernandez confessed the crime to multiple people over the years with consistent detail, suggesting truthfulness. Jurors may also be more eager to reach a resolution in such an iconic cold case.        

“This is the case that put child predators on the radar screen of mothers in America. A jury will like to convict and punish the person responsible,” Callan added. 

The post Pedro Hernandez: Former bodega clerk indicted in Etan Patz murder appeared first on Metro.us.

The administrator of “Support Innocence of Nanny Yoselyn Ortega” not only declares Ortega innocent, but even suggests that the children’s own mother murdered her son and daughter after finding out about an affair between her husband and Ortega.

Police said Ortega, 50, stabbed 6-year-old Lucia Krim and 2-year-old Leo Krim to death in the bathroom of their UWS apartment on October 25 before stabbing herself in the neck multiple times. The children’s mother, Marina Krim, returned home to the horrific scene with one of her other children.

The Facebook page calls for information leading to “the real killers or killer.”

“This site is to show support for the innocence of Nanny Yoselyn Ortega,” the page states. “The death of the Lucia & Leo Krim is tragic, please post any information that you believe will help to prove her innocence and bring the real killer or killers to be arrested.”

In one comment, the page’s creator suggests that Marina Krim murdered her own children after learning that Ortega slept with her husband, CNBC executive Kevin Krim.

“They probably had an encounter here in New York at some point. Kevin maybe decided to break it off and scorned her,” the page’s administrator wrote. “Could there be a possibility that Marina found out about this affair and decided to get even with husband and killed her kids and in the process of Yoselyn trying to defend them she stabbed her in her neck then claimed otherwise?”

The page features photos of Ortega, including one of her with the Krim children. Users have posted hundreds of furious comments, demanding that the page, which had 21 “likes” Friday afternoon, be removed.

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?,” one user commented. “HOW DARE YOU FIRST OF ALL, POST THE KIDS PICTURES ON THIS PAGE!!??”

One commenter with the user name TheKrimfamily Krim posted, “What a
sad person you must be! As previously mentioned, YOU’RE FILTHIER THAN A
NEW YORK RAT”

“You’re treading on shallow water — abusing a family who has suffered an unimaginable grief which will likely cause them anxiety and shatter them for the rest of their lives,” another fumed. “How can you allow this to go on?”

The administrator alludes to being a family member of Ortega, though several commenters claim to know his or her real identity and insist the administrator is not related to the former nanny. Messages to the page’s administrator went unanswered.

Ortega, who had been in a medically-induced coma after the incident, did not speak with police until November 3. She reportedly admitted to having financial woes and disagreements with Marina and Kevin Krim about her work performance. After speaking with police, she was formally arrested and charged with the murders of both children.

The post Facebook page supporting accused killer nanny Yoselyn Ortega sparks outrage appeared first on Metro.us.

Peterson was convicted of first degree murder in the death of Savio in 2004 during a contentious divorce, and then staging her death to look like an accident. Savio was found dead in a bathtub, and the death was initially ruled accidental. Suspicions were raised when Peterson’s fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, disappeared in 2007.

“They got the murdering bastard,” Mitch Doman, the brother-in-law of Savio said following the verdict.

Peterson was stoic as the verdict was read and he was led from the courtroom in handcuffs.

The conviction followed several requests from the jury to the judge over two days of deliberations. Shortly before the verdict was read, the jury had asked the judge to clarify the meaning of “unanimous.”

Will County Judge Edward Burmila replied that unanimous meant “its common meaning” that all 12 jurors would have to agree on a verdict.

Peterson, a former Chicago-area police sergeant, waged a high-profile public relations campaign asserting his innocence both in the death of Savio and the disappearance of Stacy Peterson, who has never been found and is presumed dead. Drew Peterson is the only suspect in her disappearance.

During closing arguments on Tuesday, the prosecution had asked the jury of seven men and five women to use common sense and consider witness testimony that Peterson threatened Savio, tried to hire a hit man and said he could make her death look like an accident.

The defense argued that he should be acquitted because of the lack of physical evidence of his involvement in her death.

The Peterson case was the inspiration for a popular Lifetime television network movie based on the case, “Untouchable,” starring Rob Lowe.

Peterson will be sentenced on November 26. His first and second wives have remarried.

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Chapman, who shot and killed former Beatle John Lennon 32 years ago, had his seventh parole hearing this week, New York state’s Department of Corrections said on Saturday.

Chapman’s interviews with the parole board took place at Wende Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in Alden, New York, where he is being held, she said.

Chapman, 57, is serving a prison sentence of 20 years to life for shooting Lennon four times in the back outside the musician’s New York City apartment building on December 8, 1980. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

He has come up for parole every two years since 2000 and has been turned down each time.

After his last hearing in 2010, the three-member parole board cited in written comments to Chapman, the “disregard you displayed for the norms of our society and the sanctity of human life.”

Ahead of that hearing, the parole division received dozens of letters arguing against Chapman’s release, including one from Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono, who said she believed Chapman posed a risk to her, Lennon’s two sons, the public and himself.

Chapman was transferred in May to Wende from Attica Correctional Facility, where he had been held for 31 years.

A corrections spokesman said at the time that Chapman was placed in protective custody at Wende but the reason was not made public. Wende is located in western New York state, east of Buffalo.

The post Mark David Chapman: John Lennon’s killer denied parole for seventh time appeared first on Metro.us.