Murders, Attempted Murders and Homicides

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      50 Years After Killing, a Berlin Court Convicts a Stasi Officer of Murder

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      The court handed down a guilty verdict and a 10-year sentence to a former officer of East Germany’s dreaded secret police, in a case straight out of the Cold War.It was a brutal act from another time, almost another world, when the Cold War was hot and Germany was divided: An officer of East Germany’s feared secret police shot and killed a man trying to cross into the West.Half a century later, a German court on Monday found the 80-year-old former officer, Manfred Naumann, guilty of murder and sentenced him to 10 years in prison, one of the harshest penalties meted out for the reign of terror by the secret police, known as the Stasi.Over several days in March and April of this year, the only known living witnesses to the shooting faced the defendant in a high-security courtroom in Berlin, testifying to what they saw on March 29, 1974.The witnesses — then schoolgirls, now retired women — all said that seeing a killing so young affected them for the rest of their lives. Trim and neatly dressed, Mr. Naumann, who lived for years in comfortable anonymity in a house in Leipzig, Germany, looked on in silence.The trial, almost 35 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, was a reminder of the pervasiveness and impunity of the dreaded Stasi, and of the dark sides of the oppressive Communist regime, which many people in the East now view with some nostalgia.In November 1989, when the wall fell, the Stasi had an estimated 91,000 employees and 180,000 part-time spies, using coercion and violence to keep the Communists in power for four decades. It pressed ordinary people into spying on their co-workers, neighbors, friends, even their families, and building dossiers on millions of people.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      2 Men Accused of Killing 72-Year-Old While Posing as Utility Workers

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      Two men who said they were looking for a gas leak killed the man in his basement in suburban Detroit and bound his wife with duct tape before taking her watch and phone, prosecutors said.Two men posing as utility workers looking for a gas leak killed a man and bound his wife with duct tape after being admitted to their home in an upscale Detroit suburb on Friday, the authorities in Michigan said.One man, Carlos Jose Hernandez, 37, of Dearborn, Mich., was arrested after being stopped by the police in Shreveport, La., on Saturday, according to a news release from the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office. The other, whose name has not been released, was stopped and arrested in Plymouth Township, Mich., on Monday, according to a Facebook post from the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.Killed in the attack was Hussein Murray, 72, a business owner. His wife, also 72, was briefly hospitalized and was later released, according to the sheriff’s office. The woman’s phone and watch were taken during the attack, according to Karen McDonald, the Oakland County prosecutor.The authorities said that the two intruders, in search of valuables, had first tried to talk their way into the home in Rochester Hills, Mich., about 10 p.m. Thursday but that the couple had not admitted them. The men indicated that they would return in the morning and then did so, Ms. McDonald said.Footage of the Thursday night encounter released by the sheriff’s office from the couple’s Ring camera shows a man who the authorities said was Mr. Hernandez at the couple’s doorstep in a yellow vest and a mask and holding a clipboard. The other man, also in a yellow vest, stands facing away from the camera.In the video, the man the authorities identified as Mr. Hernandez says they are with DTE, an energy company based in Detroit, and turns his clipboard toward the camera to show a form with the DTE logo.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Trump’s Return to Scene of Attack Is a Do-Over in More Ways Than One

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      Donald J. Trump returned to Butler, Pa., on Saturday for a massive rally at the fairgrounds where he was struck in July by a would-be assassin’s bullet, an event envisioned by his campaign as a show of strength and a memorial for the former volunteer fire chief who was killed during the attack. His speech quickly swung from a somber commemoration of the slain firefighter, Corey Comperatore, to a somewhat subdued, sanded-down version of his standard attacks on his opponent, complete with exaggerations and falsehoods. Mr. Trump commended his own performance in the face of adversity and brought out one of his biggest backers, the billionaire Elon Musk, who jumped up and down on the stage. For Mr. Trump, who has been jarred by the changes in the presidential race since he was attacked in Butler on July 13, the rally served another purpose: It offered him a chance to seek something of a do-over after a series of major events reshaped the contest just as the Republican convention in Milwaukee ended. The rally’s stagecraft and programming — with singers, family members and friends serving as “character witnesses” — echoed the convention’s grandiosity, down to the same opera singer who closed out the proceedings in Milwaukee performing a handful of songs.President Biden announced he was dropping his 2024 bid three days after Mr. Trump’s nominating convention, swamping all news coverage of the former president’s near-death experience and resetting the race with a new, younger Democratic opponent almost immediately. So in Butler on Saturday, Mr. Trump sought to recapture the same spirit that engulfed him in Milwaukee, where he was riding high in the polls as he was nominated for a third time just five days after the shooting. We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      In Retrial, Man Convicted of Murder of Transgender Woman

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      Rasheen Everett strangled Amanda Gonzalez-Andujar in her Queens apartment. His 2013 conviction was thrown out because of a judge’s error.For the second time, a Manhattan man has been found guilty in the 2010 murder of a transgender woman.The man, Rasheen Everett, was first convicted in 2013 of murdering Amanda Gonzalez-Andujar, 29, but a mistake by the judge overseeing the case led an appeals court to toss the conviction in 2021, forcing prosecutors to retry the case.On Thursday, a jury in Queens found Mr. Everett, 43, guilty of second-degree murder and of tampering with evidence. The killing was just one example of what the American Medical Association has declared an “epidemic” of violence against people who are transgender.In a statement, the Queens district attorney, Melinda Katz, said that prosecutors had been determined to pursue the case regardless of the years that had passed since Ms. Gonzalez-Andujar’s killing.“Upon a reversal of a conviction through no fault of the prosecutors, my office built a strong case against this individual once again, and we successfully proved that he callously murdered a young woman 14 years ago,” Ms. Katz wrote.On a March morning in 2010, Mr. Everett strangled Ms. Gonzalez-Andujar, who had advertised her services as a prostitute, in her apartment in Glendale, Queens. Then, prosecutors said, he doused her body in bleach in an attempt to destroy evidence of his crime and stayed in her apartment for more than a dozen hours. He also stole a camera, a laptop, a coat, a cellphone and keys from her apartment and fled to Las Vegas, according to prosecutors, where he was arrested days later. Prosecutors said that his DNA was found under Ms. Gonzalez-Andujar’s fingernails.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Mexican Military Fatally Shoots Six Migrants

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      The country’s defense ministry said the military officers who opened fire might have mistaken the migrants for cartel members.At least six migrants were killed in southern Mexico on Tuesday night after military officers shot at the vehicle they were traveling in. The episode called attention to a growing concern in Mexico — ever more powerful armed forces that operate with little oversight — and a continuing one, the dangers faced by migrants in the country.Mexico’s defense ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that the officers were doing “ground reconnaissance” in the state of Chiapas when they spotted a pickup truck traveling fast, and that the truck’s driver tried to evade the soldiers. Behind the pickup truck were two vehicles that the military said were similar to those organized crime groups in the region use: stakebed trucks, small flatbeds with fencing in the cargo area.The officers may have mistaken the migrants for cartel members, according to the ministry defense ministry.The military said the officers “heard explosions,” so two of them opened fire, bringing one of the trucks to a stop. It was carrying a group of 33 migrants from around the world. Four people died at the scene and two at a hospital, officials said. Ten others were injured. The rest were handed over to Mexican immigration officials.The military did not say whether the migrants were armed.The authorities did not immediately release the identities of the victims. A collective of migrant rights groups said in a statement that among the dead were four men, a woman and a girl. The targeted migrants, the statement added, came from Nepal, India, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Cuba.“These facts are neither accidental nor isolated,” the collective said. “They are a direct consequence of ordering military deployment to contain migratory flows under a logic of persecution and not of protection.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Video Footage Shows Fatal Shooting of Kentucky Judge

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      A preliminary hearing in the case against a former sheriff yielded details about his interactions with the slain judge before he was killed.Video of the fatal shooting of a judge in Kentucky was played in court on Tuesday, as prosecutors presented evidence of their case against the ex-sheriff charged with carrying out the killing on Sept. 19.In the footage, a man is seen opening fire on the judge, Kevin Mullins, who is pictured in his robes, sitting in his chambers in the Letcher County Courthouse in Whitesburg. When the judge tumbles out of his chair, the gunman walks around the desk and fires additional shots.“Multiple gunshot wounds,” Detective Clayton Stamper of the Kentucky State Police said in court on Tuesday afternoon.Prosecutors say that Shawn Stines, who had been the Letcher County sheriff for several years, was the shooter. The hearing on Tuesday was to determine whether there was probable cause for the murder charges filed against Mr. Stines after he was arrested. He pleaded not guilty last week during a virtual arraignment.As Jackie Steele, the prosecutor handling the case, played the soundless, minute-long clip of footage from a security camera, the judge’s relatives and friends seated in the courtroom sobbed.After his arrest, Mr. Stines, who is known as Mickey, announced through his lawyers that he was retiring, at age 43, “to allow for a successor to continue to protect his beloved constituents while he addresses the legal process ahead of him.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Man Found Guilty in Shooting Death of Rapper Young Dolph

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      The man, Justin Johnson, was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday for the fatal 2021 shooting of Young Dolph, who was gunned down outside a Memphis cookie shop in broad daylight.A man was found guilty on Thursday and sentenced to life in prison in the 2021 shooting death of Young Dolph, an emerging Memphis rapper who was regarded as one of hip-hop’s most promising artists.The man, Justin Johnson, was accused of shooting Young Dolph, 36, outside a cookie shop in the rapper’s hometown, Memphis, in November 2021. The Associated Press reported that a co-defendant in the case had testified that Young Dolph’s killing was tied to a battle between rival record labels.After just four hours of deliberation, a jury found Mr. Johnson guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and of being a felon in possession of a firearm, the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.In a statement, Steve Mulroy, the district attorney of Shelby County, said the case had generated “extra public interest because Young Dolph was a prominent and beloved member of the community.”“We will continue to fight hard to make sure that all of those responsible for his death are brought to justice,” Mr. Mulroy said.Justin Johnson in court in Memphis on Thursday.Pool photo by Mark WeberWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘He Saved Many Lives’: Small Kentucky Community Mourns Slain Judge

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      The fatal shooting of the judge has rocked the town of Whitesburg. On Sunday, friends, family and community members gathered to remember the victim.As a rural Kentucky town reeled from the fatal shooting of a judge, residents over the weekend mourned the victim whom many saw as a kind man who loved his community.The judge, Kevin Mullins, 54, was remembered by many for providing second chances to people struggling with drug addiction in Letcher County, Ky., a tight-knit Appalachian community located about 150 miles southeast of Lexington. Tributes to Judge Mullins poured in on social media over the weekend, from friends, relatives and others who simply knew him as a judge. Some posted memories of him chatting with colleagues outside the courthouse on smoke breaks and talking about his love for his wife and two daughters. “Kevin was a lot of things to a lot of people,” his wife, Kimberly Mullins, wrote on Facebook. “But he was Everything to me and my girls.” Ms. Mullins said on Sunday that she could not comment further.But the mystery around what transpired between Judge Mullins and Shawn Stines, the sheriff who is accused of shooting him, was still top of mind for many in the community.On Thursday afternoon, Judge Mullins and Sheriff Stines, also known as Mickey, ate lunch together before meeting in the judge’s chambers in the Letcher County Courthouse in Whitesburg. According to investigators, the two men got into an argument and, around 3 p.m., Sheriff Stines shot Judge Mullins multiple times in the chest before surrendering to the police. Sheriff Stines is facing a charge of first-degree murder and being held in the nearby Leslie County Detention Center.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More