Hard Boiled News

True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Cops Find Massive Stash of 553 Illegal Guns at Ex-Con’s California Home

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This stash of guns gives new meaning to the word arsenal

AGUA DULCE, California — He was ready to be an army of one.

Police in California were stunned to discover over 550 firearms stashed in the home of an ex-con after receiving a tip that he was amassing a large arsenal of weapons.

Officers from the Los Angeles County Sheriff found the weapons cache last week when they executed a search warrant at the home of Manuel Fernandez in a rocky, mountainous community 45 miles north of LA.

In the first search, cops uncovered 432 handguns, long rifles and assault rifles at the 60-year-old Fernandez’s home. Fernandez is a convicted felon and is therefore barred from legally possessing guns.

A warrant executed at a second home belonging to a female acquaintance of Fernandez’s netted another 30 illegal firearms. A subsequent search of Fernandez’s home revealed an additional 91 guns that were hidden within the house.

Detectives also seized computers, cell phones, and hard drives from the residence.

Due to the large number of firearms found, detectives called in the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms to help trace where they all came from.

Fernandez has been charged with felony possession of firearms, possession of an assault rifle, felon in possession of ammunition and possession of a large capacity magazine. He was released on bond.

 

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Air Force Captain Who Disappeared With Top Secrets Found After 35 Years

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Air Force Capt. William Hughes deserted in 1983 and had been feared to have defected to Russia

FAIRFIELD, California — An Air Force captain with top secret clearance whose disappearance 35 years ago raised the specter he had given sensitive missile secrets to the Russians, has been found, authorities said.

Capt. William Howard Hughes, 66, was declared missing in 1983 after failing to return to Kirtland Air Force base in Albuquerque, New Mexico following  a temporary assignment at NATO headquarters in the Netherlands.

A probe revealed that Hughes had withdrawn $28,500 from his accounts at 19 different bank locations in Albuquerque before he disappeared. His car was found at the Albuquerque airport.

He was finally located on June 5, when investigators conducting a passport fraud probe in California interviewed a man who claimed to be Barry O’Beirne. But after questioning him about inconsistencies in his story, he admitted he was Hughes.

He told investigators that at the time of his disappearance, he had been depressed about being in the Air Force and decided to leave. He said he moved to California and had lived there since as Barry O’Beirne.

 

At the time of his disappearance, Hughes had top secret security about matters relating to NATO. His family told reporters at the time that they thought he had been abducted.

In 1984, a report in the Los Angeles Times speculated that Hughes had possibly defected to the Soviet Union and given them sensitive information about NATO defense systems.

Authorities say they have no reason to believe at this point that Hughes had given information to the Russians but were continuing to investigate.

He is being held at Travis Air Force Base in California.

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Lovesick Killer Charged With Gunning Down Fiance of Woman He Tried to Woo

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Airport worker Kevin Prasad was quietly obsessed with Thandel Seinn and shot her fiance to profess his love

DALY CITY, California — A lovelorn airport worker gunned down the fiance of a colleague he was smitten with in a bizarre bid to win her heart, prosecutors said.

Kevin Prasad, 31, had spent months trying to convince Thandel Seinn, a fellow security worker at San Francisco International Airport, to dump her boyfriend and date him instead, the San Mateo District Attorney’s office said.

Seinn consistently told him she wasn’t interested and pointing out she had a 3-year-old child with her long-time boyfriend, Mark Mangaccat.

“We were friends. At the airport we work in same job; [my] boyfriend, me and him, we were friends,” she told KPIX-TV.

But a day before she and Mangaccat were preparing to move to Las Vegas to start a new life, prosecutors say Prasad lay in wait outside his love interest’s home and shot her  fiance in the driveway.

“As our victim was backing the car in, with his girlfriend in the car, Mr. Prasad jumped out of the car and came running up and fired through the window while they were both there,” said San Mateo District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe. “It is just through great fortune that she wasn’t also struck by one of the five or six bullets that were fired.”

Prasad was fixated on Thandel Seinn (l) and wasn’t going to let Mark Mangaccat (r) stand in his way

Seinn said it didn’t immediately occur to her that Prasad could be the killer as he had seemed so harmless.

“He just tell me, ‘Don’t go’ and ‘I want to be with you,’”  she said. “He would just say something like a friendly joke.”

Prasad and his pal, Donovan Rivera, who served as a getaway driver, have been charged with murder and could face life in prison if convicted.

 

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2nd Mistrial in Rape Case Where Woman Told Navy Commander to Stop 90 Times

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Former Navy Commander John Neuhart said he thought he had permission to enter the woman’s home and have sex

SAN DIEGO — A second mistrial has been declared in the trial of a former Navy commander accused of raping a junior officer who was captured on tape telling him 90 times to stop trying to have sex with her.

John Neuhart, 41, was accused of forcing his way into the woman’s San Diego home in 2016 and attacking her. He fled when her screams attracted the attention of a neighbor. He was later caught after he fell into a canyon and broke his leg while trying to get away.

The judge declared a mistrial after the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on the top three counts against Neuhart, An earlier trial also ended with a hung jury in December. Prosecutors said they would review the case before deciding whether to try again.

Neuhart was relieved of his command following his arrest but is still in the Navy. He testified at the first trial but didn’t take the stand during the retrial.

Neuhart had testified in the earlier trial that the woman, a helicopter pilot who had been a lieutenant under his command in Guam, had given him permission to come to her home and have sex.

The two had repeatedly hugged and kissed each other earlier in the night, according to surveillance footage from a hotel they visited and testimony from a taxi driver that took them to the woman’s apartment, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

He said the woman told him earlier in the night that if she said “no” to him, she meant “yes.” During the encounter, Neuhart turned his cellphone’s camera on, he said to record the episode in case she later accused him of rape.

Jurors said they were hopelessly deadlocked 10-2 for guilty on the charge of attempted rape. They split 7-5 for guilt on a charge of assault with intent to commit rape during a burglary and 2-10 for guilt on a charge of resisting or delaying an officer.

 

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Secret Service Agent Held Up at Gunpoint in Phony Money Sting

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Two forgers discovered the hard way that they were shaking down an undercover Secret Service agent

LOS ANGELES — Two California money forgers were arrested for an alleged gunpoint robbery of an undercover Secret Service who was working to bust up their counterfeit cash ring.

Federal prosecutors say Richard “Profit” Taron Henderson, and Tyre “Reckless” Jordan Simmons, both 22, had been under investigation for months for forgery when an undercover agent for the Secret Service arranged to meet them in late March to buy $40,000 in bogus notes.

On March 26, Henderson arrived at a rendezvous spot in South Los Angeles with a bag stuffed with clothes to stand in for a sack of money, prosecutors said. When the agent showed up, Simmons allegedly pulled out a 9mm handgun and pointed it in the officer’s face.

The pair then made off with $4,500 the agent had brought along for the bogus deal. They also stole the agent’s secret service vehicle.

Simmons had served time after being convicted of robbery in the Los Angeles in 2016.

 

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Drunk Driver Convicted of Going a Mile With Dead Homeless Man in Her Windshield

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Esteysi Sanchez apparently didn’t notice the dead homeless man who ended up in the passenger seat

VISTA, California — A dead-drunk motorist who hit and killed a homeless man and then drove for over a mile with his lifeless body hanging halfway through her windshield before stopping, has been convicted of murder.

Esteysi “Stacy” Sanchez, 31, had twice the legal blood alcohol limit when struck and killed Jack Ray Tenhulzen in Oceanside, California in June 2017, prosecutors said, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

They said she hit Tenhulzen’s so hard, he was knocked out of his pants and shoes and flew through the windshield, landing on her passenger seat. He was killed instantly and had one of his legs severed near the foot by the impact.

But Sanchez apparently didn’t immediately notice Tenhulzen’s body sitting right next to her, and she drove more than a mile, parking around the block from her house and then walking home.

Sanchez’s attorney had argued that his client had fallen asleep at the wheel and then panicked when she discovered Tenhulzen’s body in the car next to her.

Prosecutors had sought a second-degree murder charge in the case, because friends of Sanchez’s had warned her that she was too drunk to drive and that she shouldn’t get behind the wheel. They argued that showed she had a conscious disregard for life.

She faces a minimum 15-years-to-life behind bars.

 

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Ex-MLB Pitcher Awarded $2.3M in Career-Ending Fist Fight With Man High on LSD

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Greg Reynolds claimed his career was cut short when he broke his pitching hand in a fight with an intruder

SAN MATEO, California — A one-time top major league pitching prospect whose career was derailed when he broke his hand punching a drugged-up intruder has been awarded $2.3 million in damages by a California jury.

Greg Reynolds, 32, who was drafted second overall by the Colorado Rockies in the 2006 draft ahead of stars like Clayton Kershaw, Tim Lincecum and Max Scherzer, broke knuckles in his pitching hand after getting in a scrape with a naked man high on LSD.

Dominic Pintarelli, 19, had been partying at the home of Reynolds’ neighbor, Connor Pope, in January 2016, when he wandered out naked and began trashing Reynold’s mail box. When Reynolds confronted him, Pintarelli began swinging, leading Reynolds to punch back.

“I only hit him one time, and it was bad enough to where I knew immediately it was broken,” Reynolds told the San Jose Mercury News. “The biggest problem was that I broke my index finger knuckle, the most important finger for throwing the ball. It affected all my pitches.”

Reynolds said he was never able to regain the ability to make his fastball move through the strike zone after the injury, effectively ending his career.

The San Mateo jury found both Pintarelli and Pope liable for Reynold’s injury, and ordered they pay him and his wife $2.3 million in damages.

Reynolds made his major league debut with the Rockies in 2008 and bounced back and forth between the big leagues and the minors with a stint in Japan until his career ended in 2016. He finished with a record of 6-and-11 and an ERA of 7.01 in 33 big league games.

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Lotto Winner-Turned Junkie Pleads Guilty to Bank Robbery Spree

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James Allen Hayes’ life took a dark turn after his big lotto win

LOS ANGELES — Winning the lotto was a life-changing event for James Allen Hayes in more ways than one.

The man who took home a $19 million lotto jackpot back in 1998, faces up to 20 years behind bars for a string of bank robberies he committed after he blew his fortune on a soul-crushing heroin habit.

Hayes, 55, pleaded guilty to committing multiple bank heists between April and September in southern California last year in which he handed over threatening notes to tellers and walking out with thousands in cash, prosecutors said.

Authorities dubbed him the PT Cruiser Bandit, for the car he drove to his heists, or the Seasoned Bandit, for his salt and pepper hair.

Hayes was working as a Ventura security guard supervisor on the graveyard shift in January of 1998 when he won a $19 million SuperLotto jackpot.

“I’m not going to blow the money,” Hayes told the Los Angeles Times back in 1998. “I know I’ll change. But only for the better. … Mainly what I want to do is help out my family and friends in need.”

While it seemed a godsend, things went downhill quickly for Hayes.

His ex-wife took half the jackpot and left, with Hayes ending up with a $6 million lump sum. He then developed a $1,000-a-week heroin habit.

When h was arrested by the FBI in October, he was living in an abandoned garage, the FBI said.

 

He is scheduled to be sentenced in June.

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Man Killed By Fatal Blow in Friendly Punching Game With Pal at Bar

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One man died after he and a pal got into booze-fueled punching game

SAN DIEGO — And these guys are supposed to be friends?

A 27-year-old man died suddenly after he and a pal exchanged repeated blows to the face during a punching game at a San Diego bar, police said.

The two men were friends and began roughhousing during a night of drinking at the Jolt’n Joe’s Gaslamp bar.

“We’re not sure exactly what the arrangement or what the game was, all we know is that they were exchanging punches, mutually,” San Diego Police Lt. Matt Dobbs told KNSD-TV.

Witnesses told cops that after exchanging numerous blows, the 27-year-old man collapsed. Bystanders attempted to perform CPR, but the man was later declared dead at a local hospital.

The man’s friend remained at the bar and was later taken to the hospital after complaining of chest pains. It was not immediately clear if he would face charges in his friend’s death.

Sean Kisner, director of operations for Jolt’n Joe’s, told the TV station that the victim was attending a friend’s birthday party and appeared to be having a good time before the fatal fisticuffs.

“At one point, while they were roughhousing, one of them collapsed,” Kisner said.

He said the victim worked in the local bar and restaurant industry and was well-known in the area.

 

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LA Sex Worker Known as ‘Pretty Hoe’ Charged with Underage Sex Trafficking

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The sex worker known as “Pretty Hoe” has been charged with trafficking underage girls

LOS ANGELES —  A southern California sex worker known who built an online following as “Pretty Hoe,” has been indicted on federal sex trafficking charges for soliciting underage girls to become prostitutes.

Melanie Denae Williams, 22, who calls herself “the most hated hoe in LA,” was hit with five counts of recruiting young girls online to sell sex for cash.

In one episode, prosecutors say Williams allegedly ordered an underage victim to strip off her clothes, and then threw bleach on her and beat her with her hands and a broomstick.

The victim told police Williams had forced her to sell sex but kept all the money. When the woman tried to leave, Williams threatened to kill her and her family, prosecutors said.

Williams also allegedly forced the woman to tattoo “Melanie” on her wrist and face to show she was her property, prosecutors said

A video recovered from Williams’ phone, showed a gun pointed at the alleged victim and a voice, believed to be Williams, asking her if she planned to leave.

Other videos on YouTube showed Williams beating unknown young women and also threatening them with a gun.

Williams has amassed a substantial online following through her twerking videos and tales of her run-ins with the law. On Snapchat she has 150,000 followers, plus 75,000 on Instagram.

One post on Snapchat, Williams wrote: “I’m not scared of jail so stop telling me anything about the MF police.”

On Instagram, under Williams’ handle was written: “Who 18+ & wanna make some legit money?”

If convicted, Williams would face a potential life sentence or a minimum of 10 years on any of the five counts against her, prosecutors said.

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