Hard Boiled News

True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Man Driving Lawnmower Dies After Plunging Off Cliff

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WEBSTER, New York — A man was killed when the riding lawnmower he was driving plunged off a cliff and tumbled 30 feet down an embankment, police said.

The 79-year-old man, whose name was not immediately released, was riding the mower on a property overlooking the Lake Ontario shoreline on Sunday when he went over the edge, the Webster police department said.

He was later discovered at the bottom of a steep bluff by family members who had last seen him cutting the grass late in the afternoon.

“It is a lakeshore property,” Lt. Dennis Kohlmeier of the Webster Police Department told WHEC-TV. “The embankment, a 30 foot vertical embankment, provides challenges to the recovery.”

The cause of death and exact time of the fatal fall were not immediately determined and it was unclear if stormy weather in the area Sunday afternoon played any role. Kohlmeier said.

Rap Podcaster Taxstone Pleads to Gun Charges in Fatal T.I. Concert Shooting

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Daryl “Taxstone” Campbell pleaded guilty to gun charges in the 2016 fatal shooting

NEW YORK — A hip hop podcast host has pleaded guilty to federal gun charges stemming from the fatal shooting of a bodyguard at a concert by the rapper T.I. last year.

Daryl Campbell, who goes by the name Taxstone, pleaded guilty to illegally possessing a Keltec 9mm handgun he brought to the Irving Plaza nightclub in New York on May 25, 2016, that was used to fatally shoot Ronald “Banga” McPhatter.

Campbell, 31, had a prior felony conviction which made it illegal for him to possess a firearm. He faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced.

The melee broke out in the green room of the music venue when Campbell confronted the rapper Troy Ave. with whom had had a long-running beef, prosecutors said. Troy Ave., whose real name is Roland Collins, and two innocent bystanders were also wounded in the exchange.

Prosecutors said that DNA from Campbell, Collins and McPhatter was found on the murder weapon, and video surveillance footage from the club showed Troy Ave. also firing the gun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n23zWBary8w

Prosecutors told the judge they believe Campbell fired the fatal shot. Collins, who was shot again on Christmas Day as he sat behind the wheel of his Maserati in Brooklyn, has been charged in state court with attempted murder for his role in the club shooting.

Collins’ lawyer has argued that his client was not the aggressor and had acted in self-defense, having fired only after wrestling the gun away from Campbell.

 

Troy Ave. proclaimed his innocence in a rap song he recorded over the phone from Rikers Island

“I’m innocent, unless you charging me with being real from the very beginning,” he rapped. “I’m innocent. That’s a fact though.”

Roland “Troy Ave.” Collins had a long-standing beef with Campbell

 

 

 

 

 

Cops Seek Avocado-Hurling Men Who Broke Deli Clerk’s Jaw

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NEW YORK — A pair of rifle-armed hooligans shattered the jaw of deli clerk by hurling a hail of avocados and bananas at his face in a fight over a food order.

Cops say the two men had gone into the Stadium Gourmet Deli near Yankee Stadium in the Bronx over Memorial Day weekend to order food but had trouble communicating with the deli clerk who spoke limited English.

They became angry and the 21-year-old clerk tried to kick them out which led them to grab at piles of fruit stacked up near the counter.

Video shows one man wind up and hurl an avocado directly into the clerk’s face. His pal then joins in, angrily firing fruit in all directions at other employees.

The clerk suffered fractures and cuts to his face and a broken jaw, police said. WNBC-TV reported that he had to have surgery to his eyes.

The New York Police Department said they are still hunting for the two assailants, who they described as being in their 20s.

Tin Man Busted for Drunk Driving in Upstate New York

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Nicholas Sherman has been hired to play the Tin Man at event before his arrest

SULLIVAN, New York — He’s off to see the courthouse.

An upstate New York man with his face painted like the Tin Man from the “Wizard of Oz,” was busted for drunk driving after showing up at man;s house and refusing to leave when asked, cops said.

Nicholas Sherman, 31, told the New York State Police that he had come from an event in the village of Chittenango on Sunday afternoon where he had been hired to dress up as the Tin Man character.

Chittenango is the birthplace of L. Frank Baum, author of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” the book that was the basis for the famed film. Every year, the town hosts a festival celebrating his life and work called, “Oz-Stravaganza which ran from June 2 to June 4 this year.

Afterwards, Sherman drove drunk with another man to a home in nearby Sullivan, where he was asked to leave but refused, so police were called, cops said.

Investigators say Sherman had a blood alcohol content of 0.19% — more than double the legal limit — so he was charged with aggravated DWI.

 

 

 

School Guard Busted in Quadruple Homicide and Cocaine Conspiracy

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Joseph Biggs worked as school guard by day/ alleged killer by night

WHITE PLAINS, New York — A school security guard has been charged in a quadruple homicide case that has already ensnared a cop and led a retired officer to commit suicide as the FBI was closing in.

Joseph Biggs is the second suspect arrested in the slayings of the four men who investigators say were killed over a drug debt. Their bodies were found on the Otisville, New York property of Nicholas Tartaglione, a retired Briarcliff Manor cop who was arrested in December.

Biggs, who works as a school security guard in Hastings-On-Hudson, New York, is alleged to have been working with Tartaglione to sell five kilograms of cocaine.

He allegedly helped Tartaglione lure the four victims to a Chester, New York bar, the Likquid Lounge, where they were each shot in the back of the head, gangland style a part of a cocaine deal gone wrong, authorities said.

“Murders are always frightening, but when allegedly committed by people entrusted with the safety of others, it is all the more disturbing,” said acting U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim.

Federal prosecutors were closing in on Biggs in March but were forced to take a step back after another suspect, ex-NYPD officer and international strongman competitor, Gerard “The White Rhino” Benderoth, shot himself to death as he was being pulled over by the FBI.

Biggs was charged with 17 counts, including kidnapping, narcotics conspiracy and unlawful use of firearms. He pleaded not guilty and faces life in prison if convicted.

Prison Guards Charged With Repeatedly Raping Female Inmates

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The Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn was the scene of many sex assaults by guards, prosecutors say

NEW YORK — Three sadistic federal prison guards have been charged with repeatedly raping female prisoners under their watch, prosecutors said.

The arrested followed a yearlong investigation into allegations of sex abuse of female prisoners at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Lt. Carlos Richard Martinez, Lt. Eugenio Perez, and Officer Armando Moronta have all been charged with sex abuse charges and civil right violations and have been suspended without pay, officials said. All three have pleaded not guilty.

“Those charged today trapped their victims in a cycle of fear and intimidation while carrying out various acts of sexual abuse,” stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney. “This type of conduct is never acceptable, especially at the hands of those who misuse the power afforded them as public servants.”

Authorities say that Martinez repeatedly targeted a specific inmate, raping her regularly over a period of five months last year, and threatening to send her to a special housing unit or get her sentence extended if she didn’t comply.

Perez is accused assaulting five different women over the course of three years, luring them into isolated areas of the prison and forcing them to perform oral sex on him.

Moronta allegedly forced three female inmates to perform oral sex on him on numerous occasions between May and June 2016, prosecutors said.

 

Worker Installing Cesspool Killed By Giant Sinkhole Collapse

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HUNTINGTON, New York — A worker helping install a cesspool was killed when a giant sinkhole ruptured the ground beneath him, burying him beneath 15-feet of dirt, police said.

It took rescue crews more than six hours to get to Edward Sinnott, 59, but by that time it was too late, the Suffolk County police said.

Sinnott had been directing a crane that was lowering the cesspool into a hole that had been dug out of the front yard of a home in Huntington on Long Island when the ground opened up underneath him. THe hole spread across much of the homeowners front yard and driveway.

As the hole opened, it pouted 15-feet of dirt on top of Sinnott, authorities said. A second worker managed to escape by grabbing onto some equipment and pulling himself free from the hole.

Rescue crews brought in another crane and machine that suction out dirt, but workers were unable to quickly find Sinnott.

Ex-Guyana Health Minister Sentenced in Illegal New York Pain Pill Enterprise

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Noel Blackman was Guyana’s health minister from 1985-1992

NEW YORK — A Long Island pain doctor who had once been the minister of health for Guyana, was sentenced to 50 months in prison for illegally prescribing hundreds of thousands of powerful pain pills to addicts.

Noel Blackman, who served as the health minister of the South American country in the late 1980s and early 1990s, ran a number of pain management clinics in Queens, Brooklyn and Long Island, from which he wrote prescriptions for oxycodone in exchange for $300, federal prosecutors said.

In total, the 68-year-old Blackman had been charged with writing 1,920 prescriptions for 365,000 30-milligram pills. Authorities said the pills had a street value of approximately $57,000.

He was arrested in February 2016 by Homeland Security agents who took him off a plane bound for Guyana. A search of his bags revealed $30,00 in cash tucked inside.

He pleaded guilty last August. In addition to the jail time, Blackman was ordered to pay $536,000 in fines.

“Blackman violated his professional oath to put his patients’ legitimate medical needs first, and instead chose to line his pockets with the proceeds of sales from oxycodone, which has ravaged communities in New York City and on Long Island,” said acting U.S. Attorney Bridget Rohde.

News outlets in Guyana said Blackman was headed back there to become the  Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation. He is also the co-owner of Guyana’s Channel 9 television station, which is also known as HBTV, or Hoyte-Blackman Television.

Trio of Heroin Addicts Busted in Machete-Point Ice Cream Shop Robbery Spree

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Shane Cashmore, (l), Juliana Pantaleone and Paul Drab

HUNTINGTON STATION, New York — Three machete-wielding thieves have been arrested for a string of ice cream parlor robberies they allegedly perpetrated to feed their heroin addictions, authorities said.

Police finally were able to track the trio down following a three-month spree in which 18 shops were robbed across two counties on Long Island, to fuel their drug habits.

“They were using the proceeds of the robberies to fuel their heroin addiction,” Suffolk County Police Commissioner Timothy Sini said at a joint press conference with Nassau County officials.

One of the three thieves, Juliana Pantaleone, 31, of Levittown, was caught shooting up inside their getaway vehicle when cops arrested her and the others after they had robbed a Carvel ice cream shop in Huntington Station on Monday.

The alleged ringleader, Shane Cashmore, 30, and Paul Drab, 26, both of Levittown, were also arrested.

“I’m sorry,” Cashmore said as he was led from the station house on Tuesday. “I am a heroin addict.”

Cops caught up to the trio after identifying the unusual model car they used as a getaway vehicle, a 2006 Hyundai Tiburon. Only 200 such cars are registered in the region near where the robberies took place.

“There was some video of the car, and through old-fashioned police work, we were able to find a car (matching) the one on the video,” Sini said.

 

Dog Used As Mule to Smuggle $1 Million of Heroin Into U.S.

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Cops say this sad pooch was turned into a mule for drugs

NEW YORK — Two men were busted attempting to smuggle $1 million worth of heroin stashed in the bottom of a carrier for a dog that had flown to New York on  a flight from Puerto Rico.

Prosecutors say the dog, a cream-colored shepherd, arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Friday with 10 kilos of drugs tucked into a hidden compartment beneath its feet. The dog was not harmed.

“It’s alleged that man’s best friend was used in an attempt to smuggle drugs into the city, but great police work led to the seizure of more than 10 kilograms of heroin concealed within the dog crate,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.

Cops later arrested Samuel Seabrook, 35, of the Bronx, and Carlos Betancourt-Morales, 27, of Carmel, N.Y. when they came to pick the dog up. Both men met at a nearby IHOP before heading to the American Airlines cargo pickup center where Betancourt-Morales signed for the dog. The pair were arrested as he wheeled the 86-pound crate out of the building to his car.

When cops opened the hidden compartment at the bottom of the crate, they recovered 10 brick-shaped packages, covered in plastic with Nike swoosh logos and five-pointed stars emblazoned on them.

Both men were charged with possession of a controlled substance and conspiracy and were held on $500,000 bond. They both face 20 years in prison if convicted.

The dog was put into the custody of the ASPCA.