True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Long Island Grave Digger Dies After Being Buried Alive in Cemetery Mishap

By HardBoiledNews Staff

MOUNT SINAI, New York — A cemetery worker was killed when a grave he was digging collapsed on him, burying him under several feet of dirt, police said.

Rodwin Allicock, 42, of Coroam, was working at the bottom of a 7-foot-deep grave at Washington Memorial Park in Mount Sinai, N.Y., when the walls collapsed, Suffolk County police said.

Allicock’s co-workers raced to dig him out but were unable to reach him in time and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officials from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration are investigating.

Vet Gets 80 Years in Fatal Fight Over Whether Army or Marines are Better

By HardBoiledNews Staff

BILLINGS, Montana — A 69-year-old Army vet was resentenced to 80 years in prison following his second conviction in a brutal stabbing during a drunken argument over whether the Army or the Marine Corps are better.

William Earl Cunningham was first convicted of deliberate homicide in Montana in 2015 in the death of 40-year-old Nathan Horn, the year before.

The stabbing came after two nights of drunken arguments over which military branch was superior. Horn had claimed at the time to have served in the Marines, although he never did.

Ultimately Cunningham blew his top and repeatedly slashed Horn across his neck and face, killing him, authorities had said. Prosecutors said Cunningham had a long history of drunkenyl assaulting people with a knife. 

The Montana Supreme Court overturned Cunningham’s conviction and 80-year sentence in 2018, saying he was denied the chance to question the professional history and credibility of a state witness and not allowed to fully testify about why he was afraid of Horn. He testified he killed Horn in self-defense.

Cunningham didn’t testify at his retrial last summer.

Cunningham told a pre-sentence investigator that Horn’s death was an accident and that he believed he had served enough prison time.

Cunningham’s attorney asked for a 40-year sentence with 20 years suspended, which would have made Cunningham immediately eligible for parole. Prosecutors again sought the 80-year sentence.

Mom Who Disappeared on Road Trip Found Dead Near Joshua Tree

By HardBoiledNews Staff

WONDER VALLEY, California — A months-long search for a California mom who had vanished  after leaving home for a “pandemic road trip” to Joshua Tree National Park, has ended in tragedy after her body was found.

The family of Erika Lloyd confirmed in a Facebook post on Thursday that human remains found by hikers in a desert field in Wonder Valley were those of the 37-year-old single mother. She was identified by her dental records.

“There is no easy way for me to tell you all this and there’s no easy way for any of us to receive it,” her brother, Colin Lloyd, wrote.

“My wish is that we can all lean in a little closer, hold each other up, and remind each other more often that we’re here for one another with open arms and endless love; it’s what she would have wanted; it’s the spirit of who she was.”

Lloyd was last seen alive on June 13 leaving her Walnut Creek home for a solo road trip. Family members had told KESQ-TV that she’d grown restless during the pandemic after losing her job and planned a trip to Joshua Tree National Park.

Loved ones last heard from her on June 16, the same day California Highway Patrol officers discovered her car near Twentynine Palms.

Her brother thanked law enforcement officers in addition to everyone else who has offered support and assisted in the search efforts.

“Erika adored everyone; she left a bright smile on everyone’s heart; she would remind you of who you truly were and how important and loved you were; she warmed your soul. Let us hold her spirit dearly, and allow it to work through us to serve others (what she would want us to do).”

The cause and manner of death remain under investigation.

MIT Researcher Eyed in Fatal Shooting of Yale Grad Student

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Qinxuan Pan (L) is wanted for questioning in the murder of Kevin Jiang (R)

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut — Cops have launched a nationwide manhunt for a MIT researcher eyed in the cold-blooded shooting of a Yale grad student.

Police in New Haven say they wanted to question Qinxuan Pan, a 29-year-old artificial intelligence researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the weekend shooting of Kevin Jiang outside his house.

Jiang, 26, studied at the Yale School of the Environment and had just gotten engaged to be married to Zion Perry a week before he was shot multiple times. Perry is also a grad student at Yale and had previously studied at MIT.

Police have believed that Jian had been targeted, instead of being a victim of a random act.

Police believe Pan was “in the area” at the time Jiang was killed. The department considers Pan a person of interest and he is not officially suspected of committing the shooting.

“We are not prepared to identify him as the shooter in this investigation. At this point, the only information we can put out is that he is a person of interest,” said New Haven Police Chief Otoniel Reyes.

Asked about the MIT connection to Jiang’s fiancee, Reyes said “we are exploring every angle related to this investigation and every person involved,” but that the department was not ready to discuss any such connections. They were not ruling out a prior relationship between Perry and Pan, he said.

Jiang had gotten engaged to Zion Perry a week before the shooting

Reyes said Pan should be considered armed and dangerous. He is thought to have fled Connecticut and authorities believe he may be in Georgia.

Police say they had contact with Pan shortly after Jiang’s killing, after receiving a call about a man acting suspiciously near some railway tracks. At the time, the officers were unaware at that time that a killing had taken place and Pan was let go.

It was later determined that Pan had been driving in a car that had been stolen in Massachusetts and he is wanted on a warrant for allegedly possessing a stolen car.

The FBI is also investigating the case.

New York Ice Cream Heist Leaves Thief Dangling in the Wind

By HardBoiledNews Staff

NEW YORK — This ice cream thief’s getaway was stopped cold.

Cops say a man who made off with at least eight pints of ice cream from a Manhattan store, ended up having to be rescued after getting caught clinging to the side of a building during his failed escape.

“After stealing 8 pints of Häagen-Dazs from a local business, this man’s getaway didn’t go as planned. We found him, rescued him & brought a safe conclusion to this precarious icecapade in #EastHarlem,” cops from the NYPD’s 23rd Precinct wrote on Twitter with a pic of the man dangling from a narrow ledge.

The wild chase began when police responded to a theft call from a CVS in Harlem. When officers arrived, they gave chase after a 30-year-old male who fit the description of the reported ice cream thief.

Police say that officers followed the man through the courtyard of a building where he hopped a fence that led to a long drop to an alleyway below. The man apparently tried to get down to the alleyway and got stuck on a small ledge, police said. The emergency services unit was called and the man was rescued and subsequently taken into custody.

According to cops, 10 cartons of Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream were recovered from the man’s backpack. He was identified as Anthony Pastore from Staten Island and he was charged with petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.

YouTube Prank Ends With 20-Year-Old Shot Dead in Nashville

By HardBoiledNews Staff

NASHVILLE, Tennessee — A man was killed in the parking lot of a Tennessee trampoline park after trying to stage a prank robbery for a YouTube channel and the “victim” pulled a gun and shot him dead, police said.

Nashville police say Timothy Wilks, 20, and a friend armed with butcher knives, approached a group of people in the parking lot of Urban Air Trampoline and Adventure Park while participating in a “prank” robbery for a YouTube video. 

David Starnes, 23, then pulled a gun and shot Wilks dead. When officers arrived at the scene around five minutes later, 23-year-old David Starnes Jr. admitted to shooting Wilks.

Starnes, who told officers he was unaware of the prank, said he shot Wilks in defense of himself and others, cops said.

Metro Nashville police said its homicide unit was investigating the claim of self-defense in the shooting and no charges had yet been filed.

Gun Man Sticks Up Chicken Shack After He’s Denied Service for No Mask

By HardBoiledNews Staff

PASADENA, California — A man who got into a fight with staff at a California chicken shack because he wouldn’t wear a mask, pulled out a gun and stole a bag of chicken and several other people’s orders before leaving, cops said. 

Pasadena police say the man walked into a local branch of Roscoe’s House of Chicken and got angry when told he had to wear a mask to be inside.

Instead of leaving, the man whipped out a gun, walked into the kitchen and told the cooks to “put all the chicken in the bag.” He then walked out.

No injuries were reported.

Restaurant employees say the robber drove off in a dark-colored, four-door sedan.

Pennsylvania Squirrel Hunters Busted for Hunting While High

By HardBoiledNews Staff

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, Pennsylvania — That’s nuts.

Two men who smoked a doobie before heading out to hunt squirrels in western Pennsylvania were busted by game warden for hunting while high.

Douglas Litz, 32, and Bryan Post, 34, both of Williamsport, were arrested after a game warden stumbled upon their minivan parked on state game lands, stinking of weed and with a glass pipe in plain view on the console.

When the men returned to the car with guns in tow, the game warden asked why they too smelled of pot, Poust began to fidget and lit a tobacco cigarette, NorthCentralPA.com reported. 

“Poust stated that they did not have anything,” the warden wrote in his report..

When asked if they’d been around anyone smoking marijuana, the report said that “Litz then looked down at the ground and Poust stated that they had smoked before leaving Litz’s house.”

“Litz stated that yes, they did smoke at his house before they left to go hunting,” the report continued.

A search of the vehicle turned up a blue and white glass pipe, a baggie of marijuana, a box of wrapping papers and a baggie of blue pills believed to be DayQuil.

Each man was charged with hunting under influence of a controlled substance and use and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Rhode Island Boy Scout Leader Sentenced to 40 Years in Sex Assaults of Young Scouts

By HardBoiledNews Staff

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island — A former Boy Scout leader has been sentenced to 40 years in prison after admitting he sexually assaulted six young men in Rhode Island, including one with developmental disabilities, prosecutors said.

James Glawson, 76, said in court that it made him “sick to think of what I have done,” and that he prayed that his victims could find peace.

Five of the assaults dated back to the 1980s, when Glawson served as a scout leader but the most recent, involving the disabled young man, occurred in 2019, prosecutors said.

“When a person sexually assaults a child whose safety has been entrusted to them, we know the consequences – they are severe and long-lasting” said Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha. “The defendant’s criminal conduct here, over a long period of time and involving multiple sexual assaults against multiple victims, warrants the long sentence imposed by the court..”

The Rhode Island State Police began investigating Glawson in 2019 following reports from staff at a Rhode Island group home of inappropriate contact between him and an 18-year-old resident there. The resident later told investigators that he was victimized by Glawson multiple times throughout the years.

Under questioning, Glawson admitted he had sexually assaulted the developmentally disabled victim, but also that he had victimized several other young men while he was a scout leader with the Boy Scouts during the 1980’s.

During the investigation, five victims came forward and pressed charges against Glawson. Glawson’s illegal conduct occurred as far back as 1981, prosecutors said.

Two 14-Year-Olds Charged in Murder of Texas Uber Eats Delivery Woman

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Ryan Munsie was a mother of three

HALTOM CITY, Texas — A pair of 14-year-old boys have been arrested in the stabbing death of an Uber Eats delivery woman in Texas in what cops say appears to have been a robbery gone awry.

The body of 31-year-old Ryan Munsie was discovered at a Haltom City apartment complex on Saturday by a resident, who found her lying in a breezeway with “obvious signs of trauma,” police said.

Investigators say Munise died from a fatal stab wound to the neck.

Authorities arrested two 14-year-old boys Wednesday in connection with the killing. Their names are not being released because they are juveniles. 

“Robbery appears to be the motive in the case,” police said.

Munsie leaves behind a husband, Camaron Graham, and three children, ages 5, 10 and 11. 

Graham told WFAA-TV that the couple worked hard for years to make ends meet. They began as “basically homeless” and worked to live in a hotel and then an RV and eventually a decent apartment.

“She’s just the nicest person I’ve ever met in my life. I’d give anything to give her anything she ever wanted and she’s the same way,” Graham told the outlet. “She wanted to make everyone happy, she wanted to work, and she wanted to make sure our kids had a set future.”

Munsie’s main job was as an ambulance driver for those with special needs, but she also made handcrafted tumblers. In total she worked four jobs; she’d started with Uber Eats after a COVID-19-related cut to the family’s income, her sister stated in a Facebook post.

“The most important thing about her was her work ethic and her love for her children,” Graham said, “I don’t wish that pain on anyone. My worst enemy shouldn’t feel this pain.”

Both teens face capital murder charges, police said. 

Fang-Tooth Felon Out on Bail Charged With Killing 12-Year-Old in Drunken Wreck

By HardBoiledNews Staff

CHICAGO — A man who sports teeth sharpened into fangs and is out on bail for three felonies, allegedly killed a 12-year-old girl in a drunken crash in which his blood-alcohol level was five times the legal limit, prosecutors said.

Daniel Regalado, 27, was driving in South Cicero with two passengers when he crossed the median and plowed into an oncoming Cadillac Escalade, cops said. 

The collision killed Cire Robinson, a 12-year-old girl riding with her father, Prosecutors say that five seconds before the crash, Regalado was driving 66 miles per hour in a 30 mile per hour zone.

Regalado’s girlfriend was ejected from his Chevy Impala’s passenger seat and suffered a broken femur, facial fractures, and other injuries. She was hospitalized in critical condition. She allegedly told police that Regalado was the driver and was responsible for the crash, CWB Chicago reported.

A passenger riding in the back of Regalado’s car and Robinson’s father were also hospitalized as was Regalado himself. Prosecutors said Regalado’s blood-alcohol level was .457 when he arrived at Stroger Hospital after the crash.

Judge David Navarro said Regalado’s alleged intoxication level “is, I’ll say, the highest I have seen with an individual who is still alive.”

At the hearing, Regalado tried to explain himself. “I was running away. I was running away because I was being shot at,” he told the judge via video. “This has been on-going…this isn’t fair. This isn’t fair at all.”

Lying in a hospital bed with his head and neck braced, Regalado insisted, “they were chasing us!”

When the judge cautioned Regalado against speaking without an attorney present, he continued talking.

“I don’t need an attorney. People that need an attorney are guilty. I don’t need an attorney. Why would I need an attorney? For what?”

Prosecutors charged Regalado with reckless homicide with a motor vehicle, aggravated DUI causing death, and two counts of DUI.

Navarro set his bail at $500,000. But the judge also ordered Regalado held without bail for violating the terms of bond in three separate pending felony cases.

In one pending matter, Regalado is charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and reckless discharge of a firearm stemming from a July 2018 incident that prompted a SWAT stand-off in Oak Park. In January 2019, prosecutors charged him with felony manufacture-delivery of cannabis. 

Seven months later, with both of those cases still pending, Regalado was again arrested and charged with being a felon in possession of another gun, court records show.

In each case, he was released on a few hundred dollars bail

In December 2015, Regalado was indicted on five counts of attempted murder, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, and possessing a defaced firearm, but Cook County prosecutors dropped the case two years later

FBI Investigating Bomb Explosion at California Anti-Gay Church

By HardBoiledNews Staff

EL MONTE, California — The FBI and local authorities are investigating an explosion apparently caused by a bomb at a Los Angeles-area church that had been the target of protests for its anti-gay views.

Officers responding around 4:30 a.m. Saturday initially thought a vandal had broken the windows of First Works Baptist Church in El Monte, police there said. Then officers noticed smoke coming from inside the building.

“Then we realized that the windows were not smashed, that they had actually blown out from some type of explosion,” Lt. Christopher Cano said.

No one was in the church at the time and no injuries were reported. The extent of the damage to the building was unclear.

The FBI said it appeared the damage was the result of an improvised explosive device.

Protestors have repeatedly targeted the church headed by Pastor Bruce Mejia, who has condemned same-sex relationships.

A statement on it website says: “We believe that homosexuality is a sin and an abomination which God punishes with the death penalty.”

Mejia’s sermons and the church’s stance were called hate speech during public comments at an El Monte City Council meeting, according to the Mercury News.

The Southern Poverty Law Center listed the church on its 2019 watch list of “anti-LBGTQ hate groups.”

The church had been the target of protests in the city, and more than 14,000 people have signed an online petition calling on El Monte’s mayor to recognize the church as a hate group and force them to leave town.

The church is part of the New Independent Fundamental Baptist Movement, a network of 30 churches known for calling for the government to round up and execute gay people.

The network’s leader, Steven Anderson, is an Arizona pastor who has drawn widespread condemnation for celebrating the 2016 shooting at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., where 49 people were killed.

Mr. Anderson also gained notoriety in 2009 for saying in a sermon that he had prayed for the death of President Barack Obama, and was criticized by the Anti-Defamation League in 2014 for what it called his “history of anti-Semitism.”

Two Upstate NY Teens Indicted for Murder of Bystander in Halloween Party Shooting

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Cheyenne Farewell

LOCKPORT, New York — A pair of teens from Upstate New York have been indicted on murder charges for firing through a garage door into a Halloween party, killing an innocent bystander and wounding five others, authorities said.

They are accused of firing eight rounds from a handgun through a metal door on the side of a garage at 43 S. Niagara St.

Cheyenne Farewell, 20, of Medina, died on her way to the hospital. Five others, ranging in age from 15 to 21, were wounded, two of them seriously.

Prosecutors say Farewell was not part of the dispute that allegedly led to the Oct. 17 shooting. “She was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Niagara County District Attorney Caroline Wojtaszek said.

The defendants, ages 16 and 17, pleaded not guilty to all charges. 

Farewell’s family said she was a student at the College of Brockport and was working toward becoming a therapist.

“Her life’s work wanted to be reaching out to people that needed help,” her mother, Rochelle Horner told WIVB-TV.

“The one thing that she really wanted to do when she decided to switch her major to become a therapist was to work with inner city kids,” Horner told the outlet. “It always hurt her that – and she had a lot of friends that were in this boat, of not being able to afford a therapist. They’re expensive.”

Because the alleged gunmen aren’t adults, the court hasn’t released their names. Both defendants face two counts of second-degree murder; four counts of first-degree assault; five counts of second-degree assault; and one count of first-degree reckless endangerment.

The 17-year-old also was charged with two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, while the 16-year-old faces one count of the weapons charge.

Doreen M. Hoffmann, Niagara County first assistant district attorney, said the indictment includes two theories of murder: intentional killing and killing with “depraved indifference to human life.”

Horner said her daughter would have forgiven the suspects.

“I know right now she would not only forgive them. She’d be worried about if they’re doing okay, if they’re hurting, if they went through something as children that made them turn to this kind of life.”

Her mother says she, too, forgives the suspects.

“I’m in a place where I want to forgive them. I do forgive them. I’m at peace with that,” Horner said.

In early January, cops arrested 21-year-old Jonathan Frey, a level 3 sex offender from Lockport, and charged him with hindering prosecution for allegedly driving the shooters to and from the crime scene.

Good Samaritan Gets Robbed and Stabbed While Trying to Help

By HardBoiledNews Staff

ASHEVILLE, North Carolina — Being a Good Samaritan isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be.

Police in Asheville, North Carolina say a person who stopped to help a man who was lying motionless on the side of the road, got robbed and stabbed for his trouble.

The bizarre encounter unfolded on Monday evening when the victim stopped their car on an exit ramp from the I-40 and spotted a person not moving by the side of the road, cops said.

The driver rolled down their window and asked if the man needed help and when the person didn’t respond, the driver got out and walked over.

When he got close, the suspect demanded his wallet. When the man refused, the man on the ground stabbed him in the leg and ran toward the wooded area. 

The victim transported themselves to a local hospital where he was treated for non-life threatening injuries.

The suspect is described as a white male, 6-feet-tall, and approximately 180 pounds. He has a beard and light brown hair down to his shoulders.

Identical Twin Sisters Eyed in Arkansas Shooting Slay

By HardBoiledNews Staff

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas — Cops are hunting for a pair of identical twin sisters they believe shot and killed a man on his front porch in Arkansas.

Police say Chamisha and Chamacia Rogers, both 19, of North Little Rock, are also suspects in an earlier aggravated robbery, cops said.

They are being eyed in the shooting death of Terrance Harris last Friday. He was found slumped over in a pool of blood on the front porch of a North Little Rock home, cops said.

A motive for the killing was not immediately clear.

Husband Charged in Murder of Pregnant Schoolteacher Wife

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Richard Guichelaar

KENTWOOD, Michigan — A Michigan man has been charged with murder for allegedly strangling his pregnant school teacher wife in their bed, police said.

Richard Guichelaar, 35, was ordered held on $2 million bail for the Nov. 16 slaying of his 32-year-old wife, Amber, in their home in Kentwood, Michigan.

At the time of her death, Guichelaar called the cops to say he found his wife — a teacher at Kentwood Public Schools — dead in their bed. The couple had two kids and Amber was pregnant with their third.

Investigators said they immediately found the scene suspicious and eventually the medical examiner ruled that Amber had been strangled and had injuries consistent with having been assaulted. 

Detectives determined that her husband was the only one in the house at the time capable of strangling his wife and that his explanations of what had happened didn’t add up.

Guichelaar, who works for a landscaping and snow plowing business, argued at his arraignment that he was not a flight risk.

“Just know that I will show up for everything I’m supposed to and I’m not a risk, your honor,” he said, according to MLive.com.

His lawyer argued for some bail as his client had strong ties to the community.

BUM-bling Burglars Busted After Butt-Dialing Police Mid-Robbery

By HardBoiledNews Staff

STOKE-ON-TRENT, United Kingdom — This gives whole new meaning to the phrase BUM-bling burglars.

A pair of extremely unlucky thieves had the bad fortune of accidentally butt-dialing police right as they were in the middle of burglarizing a home in England.

An operator reported the call to police and stayed on the line while authorities rushed to the scene.

“Whilst committing a burglary one of the bungling burglars has accidentally sat on his phone & dialled 999,” Staffordshire Police Chief Inspector John Owen posted on Twitter. “We received a call detailing all of their antics up to the point of hearing our patrols arrive to arrest them.”  

Owen then mocked the pair with a GIF from the film “Home Alone,” which showed one of the film’s hapless burglars sticking his head through a doggy door.

Police arrested two men, aged 49 and 42, in connection with the incident.

Family Renovating S.C. Home Find Baby’s Remains Hidden in Wall

By HardBoiledNews Staff

The bones were found hidden in the wall of this house

PACOLET, S.C. — A family remodeling a house in South Carolina found bones from a baby inside a wall, the county coroner said.

Authorities gathered the remains on Saturday from the home in Pacolet, an old mill town. and will send them to a forensic anthropologist to study, Spartanburg County Coroner Rusty Clevenger said in a statement.

It wasn’t immediately apparent how long ago the baby died, or how old it was at the time. The coroner described the bones as “fetal human skeletal remains.”

“Based on our limited information, it is believed the remains have been concealed for a long period of time,” Clevenger said.

Coroner’s Office investigators will work with an anthropologist to determine the identity of the baby, how the child might have died and how the remains ended up inside the wall of the home.

It will likely take several months to finish the work, the coroner said.

Canada Cabbie Drives Maskless Passenger Straight to Jail

By HardBoiledNews Staff

VICTORIA, Canada — He breathed on the wrong cabbie. 

A taxi driver whose drunken New Year’s Day passenger refused to wear a mask, drove straight to a police station where the man was arrested and hit with a whopping fine.

Police in Victoria, British Columbia say the driver called 911 just after 1 a.m. to report that his passenger was refusing to wear a mask and was touching the driver’s face and “belligerently” refusing requests to adhere to Covid-19 guidelinest, police said.

When the cabbie pulled into the Victoria Police Department’s headquarters, officers were waiting. The passenger then refused to leave the vehicle and was removed by force and taken into custody, according to the Powell River Peak.

The man was fined $690 in total for failing to wear a facial covering, abusive or belligerent behaviour, and failing to comply with the direction of an officer. He was also ticketed for being intoxicated in a public place and was jailed until he sobered up.

Ky. Gas Station Employee Hit With Terror Charges Over Bomb Threat Prank

By HardBoiledNews Staff

DRAFFENVILLE, Kentucky — It was a bad call.

A woman who decided to play a prank on a coworker by sending her messages threatening to blow up the Kentucky gas station where they worked has been hit with terrorism charges.

The Marshall County Sheriff’s office says they received a report of a bomb threat at the FiveStar gas station in Draffenville, after an employee began getting threatening messages from an unknown number. 

The messages threatened to blow up the business. That triggered a call to the  Kentucky State Police bomb squad, which shut the business down.

No explosive device was found, but Sheriff Eddie McGuire said they took the threat seriously, especially in light of  the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville, about 125 miles away.

“You always worry about copycats anytime something like that gets media attention,” McGuire told WPSD-TV. “You always worry about  distressed individuals that want some type of attention for some type of cause.” 

Investigators soon linked the threatening messages to 21-year-old Amber Carr, of Paducah, who works at the gas station. She said she meant the messages as a prank, but was charged with making a terroristic threat, disorderly conduct, harassing communications and wanton endangerment.

Man Dives Into River to Get Away from Cops, Disappears

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Lights of police car in night time. Night patrolling the city, crime scene. City lights at night background. Abstract blurry image.

LOWELL, Massachusetts — It was not the cleanest of getaways.

A Massachusetts man who fled police disappeared after jumping in the Concord River in sub-freezing temperatures to avoid arrest and hasn’t been seen since.

Lowell Police say they arrived at a home Saturday to investigate a domestic violence and vandalism incident when they man took off and dove into the water.

Officers began a search and called in the state police and the Lowell Fire Department, but found no trace of him.

They then called in boats, divers, sniffer dogs and even a drone but could still not find any sign of the man.

“This is not the desired outcome, regardless of the circumstances that led to police involvement with this individual,” said Lowell Police Commissioner Kelly Richardson. “Life and safety are our primary concerns, and right now our main preoccupation is with finding this person.”

Police say they have been in regular contact with the missing man’s family.

Florida Heart Doc Who Saved 50 Cent’s Life Admits Stealing $29 Million With Unneeded Surgeries

By HardBoiledNews Staff

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — A fiendish Florida heart doctor famed for saving rapper 50 Cent’s life when he was shot nine times two decades ago, admitted performing unnecessary surgeries on hundreds of patients to bilk insurance companies out of at least $29 million.

Dr. Moses deGraft Johnson, a 46-year-old dual citizen of the United States and Ghana, pleaded guilty in a Florida federal court to running the con from 2015 until 2020 in which he subjected at least 845 patients to unneeded heart procedures in order to run up the bill to the insurance company.

Prosecutors said deGraft-Johnson also did significant harm to hundreds of patients by listing procedures in their medical records that he did not perform, running the risk that doctors in the future might follow a mistaken course of medical treatment for many patients.

“deGraft-Johnson’s unscrupulous behavior placed the lives of his many patients at risk while siphoning funds from vital health care programs for personal gain,” said Omar Pérez Aybar, Special Agent in Charge for the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In 2000, deGraft-Johnson pulled nine bullets out of the rapper 50 Cent after he’d been shot in Queens.

“Got Damn, Doc! WTF. you got my name is this bulls**t for scammer. The f**k wrong with you. Lol,” 50 Cent wrote on his Twitter feed.

In all, prosecutors believe deGraft-Johnson fraudulently obtained at least $29 million – and very likely more — through the scam. Prosecutors are moving to seize his assets in the U.S. and overseas, including luxury vehicles; jewelry; homes in Manhattan, Southampton, New York, Miami, and the Houston area; and more than $1 million in cash.

“The United States will continue to work to recover the ill-gotten gains of de-Graft-Johnson’s criminal behavior, to identify information that will help his victims correct their important medical records, and to identify how he gained access to his victims so we can make sure nothing like it ever happens again,” said U.S. Attorney for northern Florida, Lawrence Keefe.

Authorities say deGraft-Johnson owned and operated Thorvasc PA, a Florida corporation doing business as the Heart and Vascular Institute of North Florida in Tallahassee.

As part of his plea, deGraft-Johnson acknowledged engaging in a scam in which he would perform two invasive diagnostic angiography procedures – one on each leg – on hundreds of his patients, whether medically needed or not. 

When his patients returned for follow-up office visits, deGraft-Johnson submitted fraudulent claims to their insurance companies stating he performed athrectomies during the appointments when he did not. 

Using this scheme, deGraft-Johnson admits he falsely claimed to have performed over 3,000 of these surgical procedures to clear blockages in arteries in as many as 845 of his patients’ legs He’d then bill $27,000 for each procedure.

Prosecutors say deGraft-Johnson trawled for vulnerable victims by establishing relationships with churches, nursing homes, a hospital, and an outreach organization. 

“The United States Attorney’s Office is working to uncover all aspects of the methods he used to identify and exploit his former patients, many of them in underserved communities,” prosecutors said in a statement. 

They also said they were seeking to contact patients who had their medical records falsified so they could receive proper treatment going forward.

He pleaded guilty to 56 counts of health care fraud, conspiracy to commit health care fraud, and aggravated identity theft.  He faces up to 10 years in prison and will be ordered to pay back all that he stole.  Sentencing is scheduled for April 8.

Man Sentenced to Life for $20 Marijuana Sale Set Free After 12 Years

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Fate Winslow got out of prison with help from the Innocence Project

NEW ORLEANS —  A homeless Louisiana man who was sentenced to life in prison for selling a $20 bag of marijuana to an undercover cop has been freed after 12 years behind bars.

Fate Winslow had been sentenced under the state’s repeat offender law, even though he had only committed nonviolent crimes. Has case attracted attention due to the harshness of his sentence for a minor crime. He spent more than a decade incarcerated at the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.

“I was so happy to get out,” Winslow told WWL-TV after his release. “A life sentence for two bags of weed? I never thought something like that could happen.”

In 2008, Winslow was approached in Shreveport by undercover officers who asked him where they could get some marijuana. Winslow borrowed a bike, went and found some marijuana and came back to give it to the officers who then gave him $5 so he could buy some food, according to his attorneys at the Innocence Project New Orleans.

He had no history of selling drugs and his supporters said he was simply hungry and trying to get some food.

But Winslow had already been convicted of three previous non-violent crimes stretching from when he was a 17-year-old to when he was 36, making him susceptible to the state’s repeat offender law.

The Innocence Project New Orleans took up his case, appealing his life sentence on the grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel. He was eventually re-sentenced to time served. 

The director of the Innocence Project New Orleans, Jee Park, said Winslow received an “obscenely excessive sentence given his life circumstances and crime, and today, we are correcting that unconstitutional, inhumane sentence.”

Maine Maniac Holds Up McDonald’s at Chainsaw Point

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Alice Sweet

WESTBROOK, Maine — They must have had the McRib.

A maniac in Maine marched into a McDonald’s with a chainsaw, leapt over the counter and began menacing employees before walking off with some food and a drink, cops said.

Police in Westbrook, Maine say they received numerous 911 calls that a lunatic was on the loose, chasing people with a chainsaw at McDonald’s.  

Every on-duty officer in the department immediately responded to the area and quickly located the suspect at a tire shop nearby. The suspect, identified as 26-year-old Alice Sweet, of Portland, ran from officers, but was quickly caught and arrested without further incident.

Investigators say Sweet entered McDonald’s with the chainsaw, went behind the counter where the employees were actively preparing food, revved the chainsaw intermittently, and stole a drink and some food.

When the manager confronted Sweet in the parking lot, he began chasing the manager with the chainsaw. Sweet also used the chainsaw to damage two vehicles that were at the restaurant. 

Sweet was charged with robbery, criminal mischief and refusing to submit to arrest.

California Cop Does Pizza Duty for Busted Delivery Driver

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Anyone hungry?

MURRIETA, California — Call it law and deliver the order.

A California cop went beyond the call of duty by transporting a pizza to a hungry customer after the delivery driver was arrested during a traffic stop.

The Murrieta Police Department says Officer Datil was working a traffic enforcement shift when he spotted a pizza delivery man driving recklesslyon his way to deliver a pie. After pulling the driver over, the officer discovered the motorist had an outstanding felony warrant for his arrest.

After slapping the cuffs on the driver, Officer McCarthy stepped in to fill the delivery driver’s shoes and get the pizza to its destination.

“The smile on the hungry citizens face was all the “tip” needed to know we are doing our job,” the department said.