Category: Security

At 6:01 p.m. Friday, in a crack of rifle shots, Mikal Mahdi was executed inside of the Broad River Road Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina. The convicted double murder let out a groaning yell as the bullets struck his chest, followed 80 seconds later by a deep guttural moan as the life seemed to leave him. He was pronounced dead around 6:05 p.m.

“There was some agony in the cries,” said Jeffrey Collins with the Associated Press. Collins, who has witnessed 12 executions, said that it was the first time he had heard an audible expression of pain from a condemned person.

Mahdi was sentenced to death following a 2004 crime spree across five states. In Winston Salem, North Carolina, Mahdi shot and killed Christopher Boggs, a gas station clerk before ambushing and executing Orangeburg Department of Public Safety Capt. James Myers at his home in Calhoun County. Mahdi was sentenced to death for Myers’ murder after pleading guilty in 2006. He was also serving a life sentence for Boggs’ murder.

Mahdi chose to die by firing squad, making him just the second person in South Carolina to select that method of execution. He was just the fifth person in the United States executed by firing squad since 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court reinstituted the death penalty.

Mahdi is the second person on South Carolina’s death row to choose to die by firing squad. In March, Brad Sigmon, who was sentenced to death for the murders of his ex-girlfriend’s parents, also chose to die by firing squad.

Both men chose the firing squad as concern has grown over South Carolina’s secretive lethal injection protocol, one of the other methods of execution along with the electric chair. Lawyers for both have said that autopsies showed fluid in the lungs of two inmates executed using the state’s pentobarbital protocol. This is evidence of a pulmonary edema, which lawyers say might cause excruciating pain similar to drowning.

Mahdi was served his last meal on Wednesday evening: a ribeye steak cooked medium, mushroom risotto, broccoli, collard greens, cheesecake and sweet tea.

On Friday afternoon, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up Mahdi’s appeal, and around 6 p.m., Gov. Henry McMaster declined to issue a pardon.

In addition to Collins, two other members of the media were in attendance: Martha Rose Brown from the Orangeburg Times and Democrat and Brian McConchie with WACH-Fox in Columbia. Also in attendance was Mahdi’s attorney, David Weiss, a representative of the First Circuit Solicitors Office, which prosecuted the case, Calhoun County Sheriff Thomas Summers and an unidentified member of Myers’ family.

The curtain separating the death chamber from the witness room rose shortly before 6 p.m., according to the media witnesses. Mahdi, dressed in black with a white target on his chest, was strapped to a metal chair with a leather strap holding his head in place. Witnesses say that he stared straight forwards, not acknowledging anyone in the witness room. He gave no final statement before a hood was placed over his head.

At 6:01 p.m., shots were fired with no warning from gun ports in the walls, witnesses say. Mahdi made a noise somewhere between a yell and a groan as the three .308 rounds hit him in the chest, according to witnesses. The white paper target appeared to be sticking out of the wound in his chest, said Collins. Over the next 80 seconds, he gave several short breaths and moaned twice again before giving a final deep gasp. Seconds later a doctor examined Mahdi with a stethoscope and pronounced him dead at 6:05 p.m..

Mahdi is the fifth person to be executed in South Carolina since the state resumed executions in September 2024.

From the ages of 14 to 21, Mahdi was largely confined in either juvenile detention or prison. During that time he spent 10 months in solitary confinement.

The deadly crime spree began only months after Mahdi was released from prison. Just days before murdering Myers, Mahdi left his home in Virginia. Driving through North Carolina, Mahdi shot and killed Boggs, a gas station clerk, over a can of beer. He then carjacked a vehicle in Columbia, South Carolina, before fleeing to Calhoun County.

Mahdi ambushed Myers, 56, as the officer returned from celebrating his daughter’s birthday at the beach. Mahdi, 21 at the time, was hiding in a shed on Myers’ property in Calhoun County.

First Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe, who tried Mahdi, described him as “evil,” with “no regard for human life,” while Mahdi’s defense attorneys argued he was psychologically damaged by an abusive childhood compounded by long periods of isolation.

Mahdi shot Myers, a 30-year veteran firefighter and law enforcement officer, repeatedly with a rifle before setting his body on fire and fleeing with the police officer’s guns. Myers’s body was discovered by his wife the next day.

When Mahdi was caught following a manhunt in Satellite Beach, Florida, he told arresting officers that the only reason he hadn’t shot them was he believed that he wouldn’t be able to kill them all.

Violence followed Mahdi in prison. In 2009, Mahdi and another inmate stabbed a death row guard with improvised metal knives. The guard survived the stabbing, which took place inside of the Lieber Correctional Institution in Ridgeville.

In an opinion upholding Mahdi’s sentence in a previous appeal, state Supreme Court Justice Jean Toal wrote, “in my time on this Court, I have seen few cases where the extraordinary penalty of death was so deserved.”

Sentencing judge never heard childhood trauma, attorneys say

But before his senseless murders, Mahdi lived a life defined by instability, violence and institutionalization.

For much of his childhood he was under the control of his father, Shareef Mahdi, a violent schizophrenic who hated white people and who beat his sons, forced them to live in the woods with him and conducted survivalist drills to prepare them to fight a coming “New World Order,” according to court filings.

From a young age, Mahdi expressed a desire to kill himself. Sent to a psychiatric facility at the age of 9, Mahdi said he wanted to shoot himself with a gun or a bow and arrow, according to legal filings.

In an affidavit, his third grade teacher said that Mahdi was a “withdrawn” child who slowly flourished when away from his family. He began to express an interest in art and poetry, the teacher said.

But as he grew older, Mahdi fell into first the juvenile and then the adult justice systems. He racked up disciplinary infractions, which his attorneys argued were often normal acts of teenage rebellion, like refusing to tuck in his shirt, participate in exercise or stand up when guards conducted morning counts. But this led to him being sentenced to months in solitary confinement.

During a period after Mahdi was released at the age of 16, his father refused to take him to court hearings leading to a standoff with police.

In last minute appeals, his attorneys said that new research on impacts of isolation on brain development indicate that Mahdi was deeply traumatized by these long periods of isolation during his adolescence.

In 2016, President Barack Obama signed an executive order banning the use of solitary confinement on juveniles in the federal prison system citing the potential for “devastating, lasting psychological consequences.”

But this evidence was never presented to Judge Newman. Mahdi’s lawyers say that his original legal team put up a defense that lasted barely 30 minutes.

“Things just went sideways in a really bad way at his trial,” attorney David Weiss, a federal public defender who represented Mahdi, told The State.

In filings, Weiss and Mahdi’s other attorneys argued that his original trial lawyers were poorly equipped to handle a death penalty trial. Mahdi pleaded guilty after being caught with a homemade handcuff key. The sentencing phase of his trial was conducted without a jury in front of Newman, who oversaw the murder trial of former Hampton County attorney Alex Murdaugh, who was convicted for killing his wife and son.

Defending a death penalty case is unique, Weiss said, because the questions are often not whether the person killed someone, but whether death is right punishment.

“It requires a little bit more of a human understanding and just how a person’s experiences shape who they are,” Weiss said. This includes a specialized understanding of family dynamics including mental health history within families, as well as the impact of systems, like prison and mental health institutions, on an individual.

In the early 2000s, many of the attorneys appointed to represent indigent defendants in death penalty trials lacked this specialized knowledge, Weiss said. In 2008, two years after Mahdi’s trial and a year after the General Assembly passed reforms to the public defender system, South Carolina’s Commission on Indigent Defense formed the Capital Trial Division to argue death penalty cases.

Since then, only four people have been sent to death row, according to the South Carolina Association of Defense Lawyers.

While the state unofficially suspended executions in 2013 when it ran of the drugs needed for lethal injections, the defense association argued in a legal filing supporting Mahdi’s appeal that had the Capital Trial Division existed in 2006, “there is every reason to believe Mr. Mahdi would have benefited from a comprehensive mitigation investigation, resulting in a robust presentation of mitigating evidence.”

“Folks who are put on capital trials have gone through extraordinary trauma in their lives, and that hurt that they’ve experienced then tragically gets acted out onto other people and causes tremendous pain to victims and their families. Our job is just to try and help people to understand that,” Weiss said. “Our clients can and should be punished very, very harshly, but their lives don’t need to be taken.”

___

© 2025 The State.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Most lay people wouldn’t know that honor guard work at military grave sites involves more than donning a freshly pressed uniform and white gloves.

But the Meriden Antique Veterans Honor Guard Post #1 members know all the potential pitfalls — including the sinking soil at cemeteries when it’s wet, storing the rifles in the van and how far to be from the family with the rifle salute — and are ready for action when a fellow vet dies.

The Post #1 stands for the only one, group members said. The volunteer military honor guard brings at least a dozen members who make up the rifle squad, two buglers, flag folders and a color guard. They also provide musical selections appropriate for each service branch and have a flag presentation to the family.

“Its a fitting burial ceremony of which every vet would be proud,” according to a description on the city’s website. One member said it was the same as the ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.

It’s the reason the Meriden Antique Veterans, now called the Meriden Veterans Honor Guard, and its 17 members were honored last month by the Meriden Lion’s Club as Citizen of the Year, in addition to events at nursing homes, schools, parades and fundraising efforts.

“We honor our veterans, we honor the families, and we honor the city of Meriden,” Commander Clark Doehr said. “I still can’t believe they gave that to us. It shows we are appreciated by people outside our organization.”

The Meriden Antique Veterans Honor Guard was founded in March 1996 when veterans noticed the state government cut back on funding military burials. Veterans from all branches can still contact the military for burial service appearances. But while a family might get two service members to show up. The Antique Veterans bring a squad and doesn’t charge.

The group started tracking events in 2001 and report 1,927 burials in Meriden, Southington, Wallingford and Middletown. All proceeds are donations from families and civic groups.

“One name rose to the top,” said City Councilor Michael Zakrzewski, who presented the honor. “Antique Veterans of Meriden Honor Guard is the pride of our city and we can think of no group more deserving of our award.”

Any veteran of any age or gender who is honorably discharged from any military branch is welcome to join the group.

But recruitment has become a challenge after most of the group’s World War II veterans have died in recent years. Henry Muszynski, of Meriden, a World War II veteran who dedicated the later years of his life to paying fellow veterans final respects, was among the last WWII veterans.

According to his obituary, after serving in Europe with the U.S. Army’s 88th Glider Infantry Regiment, Muszynski volunteered for many years with the Meriden Antique Veterans color guard, providing formal honors to veterans at their funerals.

“That’s where he found his passion,” his son, Ray Muszynski, said at the time.

A review of local obituaries for many veterans shared the same sentiment. The families of vets who participated at the solemn events said the affiliation provided the veteran with a sense of purpose and comradery.

Members are hoping a name change might help attract some of the younger veterans to share this sentiment.

Doehr said the group has outgrown the WWII-era “antique” moniker and the word is problematic when recruiting. Doehr said when the group of older vets was forming in 1996 to fill in service gaps, it needed a name. Since they were older they called themselves antiques.

But he and other members said the Vietnam veterans who served in the 1960s and 1970s don’t see themselves as antiques and have declined membership for that reason. There also aren’t any members from the Gulf or Afghanistan wars. Two months ago, the group voted to change the name to Meriden Veterans Honor Guard because there is no age requirement.

“It turned a lot of people off,” Doehr said.

The group is also dropping “antique” from its materials and branded merchandise. Although, there is a push on recruitment, there is no urgency because the numbers of military burials have decreased in recent years. The group also works with civic groups and the American Legion Post #45 on its events and fundraisers for veterans and their families.

___

© 2025 Journal Inquirer

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Actor Manuel Masalva, known for his work in Netflix’s “Narcos: Mexico,” is hospitalized in a medically induced coma in Dubai after contracting a highly infectious bacteria while vacationing.

Manager Jaime Jaramillo Espinosa confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that the 43-year-old had been in the Philippines but arrived in the United Arab Emirates city on March 18 when he began having “internal discomfort and pain” that worsened.

Masalva had emergency surgery on March 26. During his hospital stay, doctors discovered the infection, which had reached his lungs.

He remains in critical but stable condition in a Dubai hospital.

Espinosa said his client’s lungs appear to be recovering after the type of bacteria was discovered and treated with a specific antibiotic.

A GoFundMe campaign was launched to help cover Masalva’s expenses, already raising more than $1.05 million in Mexican pesos, within three days.

Close friend and fellow actor Mario Morán took to social media to share the news of his status.

“My brother is fighting for his life far from home. I want to ask for your help in this very difficult moment,” Morán said in a Spanish-language video on Instagram. “As was made known yesterday, Manuel Masalva — who is one of my best friends (and) who is really like a brother to me — fell victim to an aggressive bacteria while he was on vacation. This led to him being in an induced coma and now his situation continues to be delicate.”

In a follow-up post, Morán shared that Masalva’s “condition is still delicate,” while thanking fans for their support.

Masalva portrayed Ramón Arellano Félix in the wildly popular Netflix show, which also starred Diego Luna, Michael Peña and Bad Bunny.

___

© 2025 New York Daily News.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Tracey Ingleston has thought about his brother every day for the last 55 years.

On March 29, 1970, U.S. Army Sgt. Staret “Star” John Ingleston was killed in the Vietnam War. The 20-year-old was one of 14 American lives lost in an attack by North Vietnamese forces that morning at Firebase Jay in the southwest part of the country. Speaking with The Citizen days before the anniversary of his brother’s death, Tracey said Star opened fire, but did not survive.

“He went out a hero,” Tracey said.

Tracey, who was growing up in the hamlet of Martville, remembers his family getting the news in a telegram. Ever since, he has wanted to make sure his brother’s life and sacrifice are acknowledged.

To do that, Tracey is now working with Amy Lamouroux, director of the Port Byron Library, and the office of U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney to name the post office on Route 104 in Martville after Star. Tracey said the effort was suggested by someone from Tenney’s office, and Lamouroux has launched a change.org petition to build support for the change. It currently has 35 signatures.

“This ain’t too much to ask for somebody that gave his life for freedom,” Tracey said. “It’s important for communities and local people to remember the veterans and their sacrifices all across the country.”

Tracey remembered his brother and best friend as fearless. Star participated in more than 50 helicopter missions, and during his military career received a Bronze Star Medal, two Purple Hearts, two Air Medals and two Commendation Medals. After his death, he was awarded the Silver Star Medal. Tracey learned that, and the details of his brother’s death, through Army documents he obtained.

Three years to the day Star was killed, American forces left Vietnam. March 29 has since become National Vietnam War Veterans Day. Star is one of 29 men from Cayuga County who died in the war.

“My thoughts and wishes are that each and every veteran is never, ever underrecognized and always remembered in some way,” Tracey said.

As Tracey sought further acknowledgement of his brother, a veteran suggested a few years ago that he submit a recommendation for the Medal of Honor. But the nation’s highest military award requires sworn statements about the nominee’s actions from two eyewitnesses, and Tracey has only been able to find one. The Port Byron resident is still hopeful he can find another.

Tracey thanked his wife, Sylvia, as well as Lamouroux, Tenney and her office for their help with the name change effort. He noted that the Martville post office is aware of it.

Lamouroux told The Citizen that Tracey asked the library for help with his Medal of Honor recommendation a few years ago, and she knew him because his wife is a volunteer there.

The library director was happy to help, noting that she has service members in her family.

“It’s such a big sacrifice that folks in the military give, especially when they lose their life,” she said. “They deserve every recognition that is possibly available to them.”

___

© 2025 The Citizen

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Michael Hurley, the eccentric singer and songwriter who pioneered the “freak-folk” movement and inspired generations of artists, has died. He was 83.

“It is with a resounding sadness that the Hurley family announces the recent sudden passing of the inimitable Michael Hurley,” Hurley’s family said in a statement to Rolling Stone. “The ‘Godfather of freak folk’ was for a prolific half-century the purveyor of an eccentric genius and compassionate wit. He alone was Snock. There is no other. Friends, family, and the music community deeply mourn his loss.”

The family did not offer cause of death or a list of survivors.

Hurley, born in Pennsylvania, honed his cracked perspective on bluegrass, blues and folk in the Greenwich Village folk scene in New York in the ’60s, after producer and folklorist Fred Ramsey picked him up on a hitchiking ramble. He released his debut album, 1964’s “First Songs,” on Folkways, the acclaimed home of Woody Guthrie and curator Harry Smith’s “Anthology of American Folk Music.”

Hurley’s talents were manifold — he designed and illustrated most of his charming hand-drawn album art, and learned a diversity of instruments including banjo and fiddle. His songs had a stark, strange quality that could be both beautiful (as on “Be Kind to Me” and “Valley of Tears”) and surreal (“What Made My Hamburger Disappear?” or “You’re a Dog; Don’t Talk to Me”). He was a childhood friend of future Youngbloods singer Jesse Colin Young, who would champion Hurley’s skewed vision by releasing 1971’s “Armchair Boogie” and 1972’s “Hi Fi Snock Uptown” on his Warner Bros. imprint Raccoon.

1976’s “Have Moicy!” became an underground cult favorite, and his rapidly expanding catalog would grow to more than 30 LPs. Along the way, indie rockers and like-minded singer songwriters like Lucinda Williams and Cat Power (who hauntingly interpreted his single “Werewolf” on her classic 2003 LP “You Are Free”) would champion his work. Devendra Banhart released Hurley albums on his Gnomonsong label, and Hurley appeared in the 2018 film “Leave No Trace,” where he performed “O My Stars.”

“Calling me an outsider artist … yes, I think it’s apt,” he told the Guardian in 2021. “It’s taken me a long time to join the gang… I didn’t enjoy the process of applying for gigs, that determination to penetrate things, all this trouble you had to go through. I preferred playing parties. Little gatherings. Drinking with friends, hopping across the river.”

Hurley lived in rural Oregon in his final years, releasing his last album, “The Time of the Foxgloves,” in 2021. He continued to write and perform at gigs including the Big Ears festival in Tennessee just days before his death.

___

© 2025 Los Angeles Times.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Witnesses reported exploding vehicles, gunshots and a suspect fleeing from a Las Vegas Tesla service center to a nearby getaway car, according to a series of recently released 911 calls.

“There is a person that’s setting off cars, exploding them. It’s literally in flames, and I think he might be armed, because he’s firing shots,” one of the first callers, a neighbor, told a dispatcher on March 18.

Early that morning, multiple Teslas were reported vandalized in the parking lot of a Tesla service center at 6260 Badura Ave., near South Jones Boulevard and the 215 Beltway. Authorities later told reporters that someone shot a gun inside vehicles and lit them on fire with Molotov cocktails.

“They’re exploding right now,” the caller said in a recording released by the Metropolitan Police Department. “This guy must have hated Tesla or something.”

The caller added that afterward, the person ran down the street toward Jones, wearing a black hoodie and a backpack.

Half a dozen people, most of whom said they lived at nearby residences, called to report the fires.

One woman said that when she first saw a person in the lot, she thought they were a worker trying to extinguish the flames. When he fled, she told the dispatcher, she knew something was wrong.

She also said that, about 10 minutes after she heard shots fired at the Tesla property, footage from her home security camera captured the suspect leaving in a car parked down the street.

“I did see a guy get in the car shortly after hearing all of this. He left already,” the caller said. “I did see they were taking clothes off as they were getting into the car.”

The part of the audio where the caller gave additional vehicle descriptions was redacted.

Like other callers, she said she could not tell the person’s gender or race.

Paul Hyon Kim, 36, arrested a week later, faces federal and local charges, including arson, possession of an unregistered gun, and possessing, manufacturing, or disposing of an explosive or fire device.

Authorities have said surveillance footage shows Kim shooting a gun at security cameras and inside multiple Teslas, and setting three vehicles on fire using the Molotov cocktails. Someone also spray-painted “Resist” across the facility, according to the footage.

In recent weeks, protesters around the country have targeted Teslas because Elon Musk, the company’s CEO, serves as a special adviser to President Donald Trump and heads the Department of Government Efficiency, which has sought to shrink the federal government.

___

© 2025 Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

A rain-swollen stream left about 50 hikers stranded overnight at a Kauai waterfall, Hawaii rescuers reported.

The hikers called for help from the Kalalau Trail at about 11:55 a.m. Thursday, April 3, the Kaua‘i Fire Department said in a news release.

“When they got up to the waterfall, they turned around and this one guy tells me he stepped back into the water to make the crossing and he looked upstream and saw a wall of water coming down,” resident Megan Wong told Hawaii News Now.

When firefighters arrived at about 2:25 p.m., they discovered rain had made the Hanakāpī‘ai Stream across the trail too dangerous to cross, officials said.

The National Weather Service had issued a flood advisory for that part of Kauai earlier that day, firefighters said.

Rescuers advised the hikers to shelter in place overnight until the stream was safe to cross, firefighters said.

“They huddled together, most of them. They were damp but in good spirits. The ones who came from the waterfall. The guy told me he stayed up all night and just did squats because he was getting so cold,” Wong told Hawaii News Now.

The stranded visitors were able to safely hike out on Friday, April 4, firefighters said. No injuries were reported. Officials closed the trail.

“We strongly advise all hikers to avoid entering trail systems when inclement weather is in the forecast. Flooding in stream areas can occur rapidly and without warning, putting lives at risk,” said Kauai Fire Department Chief Michael Gibson in the release.

___

© 2025 The News Tribune

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

When David Siegel bought the then-LVH hotel-casino in 2014, he was advised it would be wise to shut down the hotel for extensive upgrades.

Siegel authorized the work. But he wasn’t locking the doors as the hotel turned over to the Westgate.

“That would have put 2,000 people out of work, and we thought we’ll work around the operation,” Siegel said at the time. “It’ll cost more, but it will save a lot of jobs.”

The founder of Westgate Resorts and owner of one of Las Vegas’ most famous hotels, Westgate Las Vegas, has died. He was 89.

The company announced Siegel’s death in a memo to staff and on social media Saturday morning. No cause was reported, but he had been battling cancer.

A famous Vegas resort

Siegel was the company’s founder and executive chairman. Siegel purchased LVH, formerly known as the Las Vegas Hilton and the International Hotel, in July 2014.

The 3,261-room resort was built by gaming legend Kirk Kerkorian and opened in 1969. The resort was famous for its rotation of superstar headliners, notably led by Elvis Presley who performed there from 1969 to 1976.

Siegel’s parents, Sid and Sadelle, were frequent visitors to Las Vegas. David’s affection for the city, and his nostalgic feel, was evident as the hotel is named Sid’s Cafe. The couple’s story is featured on the menu.

When Siegel purchased LVH from investment bank Goldman Sachs in 2014, he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal he would hug his new employees, saying, “That’s just the way I do business, it’s like a big family.” He replaced the “L” on the hotel’s 279-foot marquee with a “W” as the sign was changed to “WESTGATE.” After that splashy photo op, Siegel joked, “I’m the next Vanna White.”

A warrior against the opioid crisis

In his latter years, Siegel focused on the opioid crisis, after the death of his daughter Victoria, who died of what was ruled an accidental overdose in 2015 at age 18. He and his wife, Jackie, founded the Victoria’s Voice Foundation and held annual fundraising events in Las Vegas beginning in 2019.

Siegel was a fierce proponent of naloxone, sold under the brand name Narcan, the nasal spray that rapidly arrests the effects of an opioid overdose. Victoria’s Voice Foundation has raised funds to provide the medicine to first responders and families.

“When (Victoria) overdosed, she was still alive,” Siegel said in a 2019 interview. “By the time she got to the hospital, she had died. I am a big advocate that if a family has a child who might be using drugs, they should have Narcan in their homes.”

Siegel was with family members in his final days.

“David’s last months were spent surrounded by his loving wife Jacqueline, his children, and his extended family and closest friends,” the company said in a statement forwarded by Siegel’s son Richard. “Throughout his life, as well as in his last years, David’s passion for our company, our industry and the hospitality we create was always at the forefront of his mind.”

Siegel died in Orlando, Florida, and last visited the Westgate in December. Siegel founded a timeshare company in 1982 in Kissimmee, Florida.

‘Timeshare component’

Westgate Las Vegas is the company’s only hotel-casino. Because of his failing health, Siegel stepped down as CEO of Westgate Resorts last year. After leaving that post, he remained as the company’s executive chairman of the board and president. Jim Gissy was appointed CEO in March 2024.

Some 2,000 employees worked at the Las Vegas hotel, and more than 8,500 overall at 22 properties nationwide.

Westgate Las Vegas stood alone in that collection, the only Westgate property to offer a casino. As Siegel explained, “This is a hotel-casino with a timeshare component.”

His was the largest privately owned timeshare company in the U.S. He recently announced an expansion of more than 44 resort destinations, set to close this year, with the acquisition of Vacation Ownership Sales, the management and development company of VI Resorts.

Westgate Las Vegas President Cami Christensen was in daily contact with Siegel and said she feels “profound sadness” in Siegel’s passing.

“David was not only a visionary leader, but also a mentor and dear friend to many of us. Las Vegas always held a special place in his heart. When he acquired the Westgate Las Vegas resort, he immediately recognized the legendary status of the property and the outstanding potential of its people,” Christensen said in a statement. “His passion for hospitality transformed Westgate Las Vegas into the iconic resort it is today. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Siegel family during this difficult time.”

Davis as a resident

Siegel became an important friend and ally to Raiders owner Mark Davis, who moved into the Westgate when the team was relocating from Oakland, California.

“David welcomed me to Las Vegas totally, and for five or six years I lived at the hotel. It’s a hell of a property with a great history,” Davis said in a phone chat Saturday morning. “He treated me like a king. He opened his house to me, basically. David was the owner of the entire company, and made all of the decisions, which is rare these days.

“I feel for his family, and of course Cami, who is such a special person in my life and in the Westgate family.”

‘Queen’ lives on

The Siegels were the center of the infamous 2012 documentary “The Queen of Versailles,” which chronicled the couple’s attempt to build the largest and most expensive house in the United States. The doc has been turned into a musical, with Kristen Chenoweth cast as Jackie and F. Murray Abraham as David.

“The Queen of Versailles” musical will make its Broadway premiere at St. James Theatre this fall.

David Siegel winced a decade ago, when talking of the documentary, saying, “It was 25 percent wrong and 75 percent right. After the documentary, I don’t want cameras near me.”

Siegel was a customer at Las Vegas Hilton for decades, including during Barron Hilton’s era of ownership. But he preferred to own the building rather than hit the tables.

“I don’t gamble in casinos,” he reminded. “The house always wins.”

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Victoria Siegel Foundation to further David’s battle against the drug pandemic that claimed the life of his daughter Victoria at victoriasiegelfoundation.org.

___

© 2025 Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

A convicted rapist has been rearrested in Ventura on suspicion of spray-painting swastikas throughout the city and then documenting the hate crimes on social media in an effort to sow fear, authorities said.

John Williams, 30, was arrested Sunday and booked at the Ventura County Jail on suspicion of vandalism, a hate crime and a parole violation after officers connected him to at least five reports of spray-painted swastikas, according to the Ventura Police Department.

“It appeared that Williams was spray painting swastikas and then taking photos of them and uploading to social media in an effort to give the appearance that other people were committing hate crimes and spreading fear,” the department said in a statement.

Williams was convicted of forcible rape in 2019 after pleading guilty to the 2015 crime, according to court records. At the time of his most recent arrest, he was on parole for the rape conviction, Police Department spokesperson Cmdr. Sarah Heard confirmed.

The suspected serial swastika spray painter has a history of parole violations, court records show. Just 10 days before his most recent vandalism arrest, he was booked into Ventura County Jail on a parole hold, according to the county’s inmate log.

On Sunday morning, the department received a call from a business in the 1000 block of East Front Street near downtown Ventura reporting that someone had spray-painted a swastika on a wall of their property. Officers reviewed surveillance camera video of the crime and identified the suspect as Williams, police said.

Then they received four more calls regarding swastikas spray-painted on public and private property throughout the city.

While investigating the first vandalism, officers spotted Williams riding an electric scooter near Main and Ash streets. They said they made an enforcement stop and found evidence connecting him to the crimes.

Williams is being held on $250,000 bail and is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday, according to the county’s inmate log.

He was booked on four counts of felony vandalism, one count of misdemeanor vandalism, one count of misdemeanor hate crime, one felony count of violating parole and one misdemeanor count of being in possession of a stun gun with a prior felony conviction, according to the inmate log.

The U.S. has seen a significant surge in antisemitic hate crimes and vandalism in recent years.

In the 12-month period after the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, 2023, the Anti-Defamation League reported more than 10,000 antisemitic incidents in the U.S. — a 200% increase from previous years and the highest number recorded. This included more than 1,840 incidents of antisemitic vandalism.

L.A. County saw a 91% increase in anti-Jewish hate crimes from 2022 to 2023, the latest year for which data are available. The number of incidents rose to an all-time high of 242 from 124.

In 2023, a Los Angeles man was charged with spray-painting swastikas on more than a dozen vehicles. Swastika graffiti have also been found in Santa Monica, West Hollywood, San Dimas, Calabasas and on the campuses of USC and UCLA.

___

© 2025 Los Angeles Times.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Police arrested a man who stabbed a 57-year-old woman in the face early Friday morning at the World Trade Center Memorial, cops said.

Just before 2 a.m. Amir Thompson walked up to the victim near Liberty St. and Greenwich St. in lower Manhattan and reportedly said, “I know you from somewhere,” before punching her and then stabbing her with a knife in the cheek and right shoulder, according to police.

Police officers nearby saw what happened and arrested Thompson.

Before he was arrested, Thompson, 23, menaced the officers with the knife and said, “What are you going to do?” according to a police source. One of the officers pulled his gun and Thompson dropped the knife, according to the source.

EMS transported the woman to Bellevue Hospital in serious condition.

Thompson was residing at the Bowery Mission on Lafayette St., according to police. He is charged with assault, weapons possession and menacing, plus attempting to assault an officer, police said.

___

© 2025 New York Daily News.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.