Eleven-year-old Sarah Foxwell was kidnapped in the middle of the night by a man she knew, but her younger sister’s observations helped detectives identify a suspect. Foxwell was found dead on Christmas morning after a dayslong search for the young girl.
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Tag: Americas
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Holiday horror: 11-year-old girl snatched and killed by registered sex offender
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A teen was gunned down while on his way to do homework. His death is still unsolved.
Bryan Herrera was on his way to do homework at his friend’s house when he was gunned down in broad daylight. A decade later, police and his family are still searching for answers as neighbors and witnesses struggle to come forward.
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Appeals court overturns conviction of woman who beat mom with skillet and stabbed her to death
AKRON, Ohio (TCN) — A state appeals court overturned the murder conviction of a 24-year-old woman who bludgeoned her mother with a skillet and fatally stabbed her over 30 times after she got kicked out of college.
The Ohio Ninth Judicial District Court of Appeals released the decision on Thursday, Dec. 26, arguing Sydney Powell was not given a chance to present a rebuttal after an expert testified about Powell’s mental state at the time she killed her mother, Brenda Powell. The higher court’s opinion said the denial of her rebuttal violated her right to due process. Powell and her attorneys were arguing that she was not guilty by reason of insanity.
At the trial, a defense team brought up an expert who said Powell “was suffering from a first episode of schizophrenia and a major depressive disorder, single episode, which he characterized as both severe and accompanied by psychotic features” at the time of her mother’s killing.
According to court records, Powell attended Mount Union College but was placed on academic probation following her freshman year. Her grades failed to improve her second year, so the school put her on academic suspension. Powell, however, reportedly did not inform her family or friends about the suspension, and she moved back into her residence hall after winter break “as though nothing had happened.”
School officials got in touch with Powell, who initially argued she was not suspended. Later, she admitted to knowing about it, and the school gave her a timeline to move out of the dorms. Powell stayed on campus, and the associate dean told her she had to leave. She failed to move a second time, then ultimately left when school staff told her they would contact her parents. Powell reportedly stayed in hotels and went to her parents’ house when they weren’t home.
On March 3, 2020, Powell’s father called the school because he could not access his parent financial portal. Mount Union told him that Powell was no longer a student, and they told him to speak with her. He saw on his phone’s location sharing that Powell was home when she shouldn’t have been. He spoke with Powell, and she reportedly “expressed frustration that her friends seemed to have figured out their lives while she had not.”
Her father told Powell to talk to her mother about it. Brenda Powell drove home and phoned the dean of students and associate dean. The Mount Union officials reportedly “heard a ‘thump’ or a ‘thud’ that was ‘accompanied by a pretty large scream.’”
The sound of an “expulsion of air, like the air was knocked out of somebody,” went through the phone, as well as “a number of thumping sounds” for about 15 seconds. The call ended, and the deans attempted to call back. On their third try, Powell picked up the phone and sounded “very calm” but hung up when the deans called her by name. They dialed the Akron Police Department and requested a welfare check at Powell’s house.
Powell’s father received a call from a longtime friend, who is also a detective, who told him police were heading to his house. He called his daughter, who said her mother was on the phone with the school. When her father said police were on their way, Powell reportedly “lost her composure and told him that someone had broken into the house.”
Police arrived and found Powell inside the house crying. Powell told responding officers that “after hearing a noise, her mother told her to leave the house.” Powell had blood and cuts on her hand as well. Officers found Brenda Powell in a bedroom with a knife, skillet, and cellphone near her body.
Medics transported Powell to a hospital for evaluation, and she was charged with two counts of murder, one count of felonious assault, and one count of tampering with evidence. She pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. A jury convicted her in September 2023.
Powell could face a new trial.
For more information about the case, check out the “True Crime News” video above.
MORE:
- State of Ohio v. Sydney Powell
- Ohio woman sentenced for beating mom with cast-iron skillet, fatally stabbing her with steak knife, 10/4/2023 – TCN
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Man awaiting trial for allegedly killing 9-year-old convicted in the 1986 deaths of 2 women
FREMONT, Calif. (TCN) — A 63-year-old man faces 50 years to life in prison for killing two best friends almost four decades ago and leaving their naked bodies in a remote area.
The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office announced Dec. 20 that a jury found David Misch guilty on two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Jennifer Duey and Michelle Xavier. Misch is set to be sentenced on Jan. 21, 2025.
According to the Fremont Police Department, on Feb. 2, 1986, at approximately 12:30 a.m., a motorcyclist driving on Mill Creek Road found the bodies of 18-year-old Xavier and 20-year-old Duey and called law enforcement. The victims had been shot and stabbed hours before the discovery.
Police said Xavier and Duey went to a birthday dinner for a relative earlier that evening and were last seen at approximately 8 p.m. at a convenience store. Xavier’s vehicle was reportedly found about 6 miles from the crime scene in a shopping center parking lot, but the victims’ other personal belongings weren’t located. Investigators identified several people of interest at the time, but detectives later ruled most of them out, and the case went cold.
In 2016, police created a position in the Crimes Against Persons Unit to help solve cold cases. According to prosecutors, officials found DNA under Duey’s nails in 2001 and confirmed it belonged to Misch. In 2003, while serving a life sentence for killing someone in 1989, Misch reportedly called police and said he had seen the “two young women being kidnapped at gunpoint and tried to save them.” The district attorney’s office said this was Misch’s “explanation for the presence of his DNA in this case.”
In a statement, Chief Assistant District Attorney Royl Roberts said, “Mr. Misch was charged by this office 32 years after murdering Jennifer Duey and Michelle Xavier. He was found guilty by a jury four years later. This conviction is a testament to this office’s commitment to seeking justice for victims and their families, even if it takes decades. I only wish we could have delivered justice sooner for these two families.”
According to KTVU-TV, in a separate case, Misch allegedly kidnapped and killed 9-year-old Michaela Garecht from a grocery store parking lot in 1989 and is awaiting trial.
MORE:
- Misch Faces 50 Years to Live in Prison – Alameda County District Attorney’s Office
- David Emery Misch charged with two counts of murder in 1986 double homicide cold case, 3/5/2018 – Fremont Police Department
- Convicted killer found guilty of murdering 2 Fremont woman nearly 40 years ago – KTVU
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The Christmas Eve killing: Man hunts down and murders his ex
A family’s Christmas Eve turned into a nightmare when Clifford Burns fatally stabbed his estranged wife, Patricia, at her home while she was preparing a holiday dinner. Her daughter was injured trying to protect her mother in the deadly attack.
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Trump Wins The Lawfare War!
Trump Wins the Lawfare War
Happy New Year!Trump Wins the Lawfare War
The Left hasn’t caught on yet that Donald Trump is a fighter who doesn’t fold easily. As our chief investigative reporter, Micah Morrison, reports, Trump’s win at the polls helped lead to wins in the courts.
Pundits and historians will be a long time sorting out the magnitude of Donald Trump’s electoral victory but one thing already is clear: Trump not only triumphed in the presidential contest, he also won the lawfare war. The latter—a victory for the constitutional foundation of the country —may prove as consequential as the former.
“Lawfare” is a political war fought by other means: partisan warfare conducted in the courts and the media. Trump spent the entire Biden presidency battling lawfare cases brought by Democrat-allied prosecutors and judges—by Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis, New York State Attorney General Letitia James, New York judges Juan Merchan and Arthur Engoron, and others.
Trump fought back in the courts and in the court of public opinion. His election win not only deals death blows to the Democrat-aligned lawfare cases, but possibly to the practice of lawfare itself. Let’s take a moment to survey the legal landscape:
Jack Smith Goes Down
In November 2022, President Joe Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, appointed prosecutor Jack Smith as special counsel for two Justice Department investigations: the January 6, 2021, events at the U.S. Capitol, and separately, alleged Trump mishandling of classified documents. It was a particularly brazen lawfare move because by that time, the outline of the 2024 presidential contest was clear: Donald Trump was the frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination and Joe Biden was signaling that he would run for re-election. The Biden Justice Department investigating the GOP presidential candidate seemed an outlandish and illegal proposition, but Garland and Smith pressed on. In July, Judge Aileen Cannon had seen enough and dismissed the classified documents case on the grounds that the special counsel was unlawfully appointed. In November, after the election, the Justice Department threw in the towel, moving to drop all January 6 charges against Trump on the grounds that a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime. Trump rightfully claimed victory. “I persevered, against all odds, and WON,” he wrote on Truth Social. He added, “These cases, like all of the other cases I have been forced to go through, are empty and lawless, and should never have been brought,”
Bragg’s New York Criminal Case in Death Spiral
Deep blue New York produced a cadre of lawfare warriors in pursuit of the once and future Republican president. One of its chief combatants was Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who campaigned for office on an anti-Trump platform, reminding voters that he had “sued Trump more than a hundred times.” Before charging Trump in April 2023 with thirty-four felony counts of falsifying business records—generally a low-level misdemeanor—Bragg had led a civil lawsuit against the Trump Foundation and criminal cases against the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer. Trump was convicted in May on the business records charges, but his lawyers are asking that the case be thrown out on numerous grounds, including that any sentencing would unconstitutionally interfere with Trump’s conduct of a second term in the presidency. Bragg recently petitioned the court to put the case on ice for the entirety of Trump’s second presidential term—a move the Trump team ridiculed as “a total failure of the prosecution” signaling that the case is “effectively over.”
Lawfare Judges Under Pressure
Presiding over the flurry of appeals in the business-records case is Justice Juan Merchan, another New Yorker with a lawfare pedigree. Earlier this month, Merchan threw out Trump’s appeal to dismiss the case on the basis of presidential immunity. Like most New York judges, Merchan rose through the ranks of the Democratic Party’s political machine, which plays a significant role in state judicial appointments. Before becoming a judge, Merchan served as a prosecutor in the Manhattan DA’s office and worked for the New York attorney general. In 2006, Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed him to a family court judgeship, and he was elevated to criminal court in 2009. In July, Merchan received a “caution letter” from the New York Commission of Judicial Conduct warning him about donations to Joe Biden and other Democratic causes. Merchan’s daughter, Loren, is president of the left-wing digital advertising firm, Authentic Campaigns. Juan Merchan will have plenty of power over the Trump appeals in the coming months, but he will not have the final word. Trump can appeal to higher New York courts and, ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court.
Trump also faced a high-stakes legal assault from New York State Attorney General Letitia James in a civil fraud case presided over by Justice Arthur Engoron. James and Engoron both came up through the progressive ranks of the New York Democratic Party. Like Alvin Bragg, James used Trump as a punching bag in her campaign for political office. She denounced Trump as an “illegitimate president” and vowed to “shine a bright light into every corner of his real estate dealings.” Engoron, a longtime Democrat, protested the Vietnam War at Columbia University and has been a member of the ACLU for three decades. Engoron presided over a non-jury civil fraud trial related to real-estate valuations by the Trump Organization and stunned legal observers on both sides of the political aisle in February with a guilty verdict ordering Trump to pay a staggering $335 million penalty—plus rapidly growing interest and additional fines. Trump immediately vowed an appeal and at a September hearing, New York appellate judges signaled skepticism about the Engoron ruling.
The Georgia Case Collapses
Meanwhile, in Georgia, Fulton County DA Fani Willis’s case against Trump for allegedly conspiring to change the outcome of the 2020 election has collapsed. A state appeals court removed Willis and her entire office from the Trump prosecution over a conflict of interest involving a romantic relationship between Willis and another member of her team. The Georgia Court of Appeals panel said the “appearance of impropriety” was so powerful that “this is the rare case in which disqualification is mandated and no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings.” Willis, a longtime Democrat, can appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court, but the legal tides are running against her. Trump’s Georgia lawyer issued a statement saying that the decision “puts an end to a politically motivated persecution of the next President of the United States.”
Judicial Watch has been investigating the lawfare against Trump for years. Our own Tom Fitton was dragged into a Jack Smith grand jury for, as he noted on X, “four hours of harassing questions about First Amendment-protected activity and debates about electors, tweets, what I ate for lunch at the White House, and whether I watched Trump’s election night speech. It was all about politics.”
At Judicial Watch, we continue to closely track lawfare developments, push for more accountability, and report to the public. Among our recent moves, we’re seeking a special master in our lawsuit for Fani Willis’s communication with lawfare warriors Jack Smith and the House January 6 Committee; earlier this month, Willis admitted communicating with the January 6 Committee, but released only one already public letter. In February, we protested a Biden Administration move to keep secret the names of top Jack Smith staff. In 2023, we sued the Justice Department for records of funding and assistance between Smith’s office and Willis’s office, and we obtained information showing Manhattan DA Bragg hiring high-priced lawyers to beat back Congressional inquiries into his Trump prosecutions.
There’s more to come. Stay tuned.
Happy New Year!
‘Get going. Move forward. Aim high.’
This quote, attributed to President-elect Donald Trump, certainly describes his activity since the election.
He has wasted no time in naming his cabinet and announcing his goals for border control, health policy and environmental regulations. In fact, given our current absentee White House occupant, Trump is now our de-facto president.
As he wrote in his book, The Art of the Deal, “I like thinking big. I always have. To me, it’s very simple: if you’re going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big.”
Here at Judicial Watch, we are equally resolute as we enter the new year. Just this month we:
- Asked a court to appoint a special master to oversee District Attorney Fani Willis’ search for records in our lawsuit for communications she had with Special Counsel Jack Smith and the House January 6 Committee.
- Sued the Department of Homeland Security for records on former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard being targeted for surveillance under the Transportation Security Administration terrorist watch program.
- Appeared in court on behalf of Palatine, Illinois, tenured high school teacher Jeanne Hedgepeth, who was fired after posting comments on Facebook criticizing the riots, violence, and lootings in Chicago in the aftermath of the May 25, 2020, killing of George Floyd.
These are a small portion of our growing portfolio of cases – currently at 172 – aimed at ensuring clean elections, secure borders, and transparency in government – as well as protection against the Left’s attack on our constitutional republic, the freedoms it protects, censorship of free speech, and abuse of power. We appreciate your support in 2024 as we have pursued these lawsuits and pledge to fight aggressively on your behalf in 2025. As we close the year, I encourage you to renew (or begin!) your support of Judicial Watch!
Happy New Year!
Until next week,
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Ballerina shoots husband for sole custody; Teens' bodies staged after they were murdered on hike
In this episode of True Crime News The Sidebar Podcast: Joshua Ritter breaks down the biggest cases of the year. He gives his thoughts on the prosecution of Alec Baldwin and Hannah Gutierrez-Reed for the on-set shooting that killed Halyna Hutchins, Karen Read’s upcoming retrial in the death of her Boston Police officer boyfriend John O’Keefe (8:14), Ashley Benefield’s conviction for manslaughter in the fatal shooting of her husband Doug Benefield (13:53), the conspiracy theories surrounding Richard Allen’s murder of Abigail Williams and Liberty German after the court proceedings were kept from the public (16:54), and the growing legal troubles for Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs as the hip-hop mogul faces federal charges (22:21).
YouTube: Ballerina shoots husband for sole custody; Teens’ bodies staged after they were murdered on hike
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California man allegedly beheaded 1-year-old son after fight with his wife
SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. (TCN) — A 28-year-old father is in custody after deputies reportedly found a 1-year-old boy’s severed head in a “gruesome discovery.”
According to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, on the morning of Dec. 20, deputies responded to a home on Versailles Way to a report of a family disturbance. A woman outside the residence told authorities that her husband, 28-year-old Andrey Demskiy, had assaulted her and her mother.
Demskiy’s mother-in-law was transported to a hospital via ambulance for non-life-threatening injuries.
Deputies tried to make contact with Demskiy, but he refused to comply or surrender. Authorities learned Demskiy might have thrown his 1-year-old son, identified by KCRA-TV as Micah Demskiy, so they forced entry. When deputies attempted to take Demskiy into custody, he was “uncooperative and became physically resistive.”
While apprehending Demskiy in a bedroom, the sheriff’s office said they found the child’s severed head. Investigators allege Demskiy “was initially involved in a domestic violence incident with his wife and mother-in-law.” When the victims exited the house and waited for authorities, Demskiy allegedly beheaded his son with a knife.
A spokesperson for the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, Sgt. Amar Gandhi, reportedly said this is “one of the most horrific” cases he’s worked on, and deputies were “visibly shaken.”
Detectives arrested Demskiy and booked him into the Sacramento County Jail. He remains held on charges of murder, assault using force likely to cause great bodily injury, corporal injury on spouse or cohabitant, and assault resulting in death of a child under 8. He is ineligible for bail.
According to KCRA, Demskiy first appeared in court for a hearing on Dec. 24 and allegedly had a smile on his face. Demskiy was reportedly wearing blue clothing, showing that he is in the psychiatric treatment area of the jail. His next court date is set for March 13.
MORE:
- Father Kills His One-Year-Old Son in Gruesome Homicide – Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office
- Sacramento County Jail
- Antelope man accused of killing his 1-year-old son has ‘significant’ mental health issue, public defender says – KCRA
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Houston woman allegedly zip-tied girl, taped her mouth, and locked her in cage next to Christmas tree
HOUSTON (TCN) — A 55-year-old woman is facing charges after she allegedly restrained a 7-year-old girl and locked her in a cage next to a Christmas tree for several hours.
Harris County court records show Rose Anderson was charged Dec. 22 with unlawful restraint of a child under 17 and injury to a child. Prosecutors allege Anderson, who is the girl’s sole caretaker, zip-tied the victim, duct-taped her mouth shut, and put her in a dog crate on or around Dec. 13.
Anderson also allegedly kicked the girl and neglected to give her food, water, or access to a bathroom. As a result, the girl urinated on herself because she was left alone “for hours on end.”
The court documents say Anderson did this to punish the girl “for her behavior at school.”
Anderson posted bond following her arrest.
MORE:
- State of Texas vs. Rose Marie Anderson
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4 injured in shooting at Phoenix airport food court on Christmas
PHOENIX (TCN) — Two people are in custody after a shooting incident involving a family at the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport left four people injured.
On the evening of Dec. 25, Phoenix Police announced they were investigating a shooting in Terminal 4 at the city’s Sky Harbor Airport, but there were no active threats to the rest of the area.
According to KSAZ-TV, when officers responded to the airport, they reportedly located one adult female with life-threatening injuries and two other injured adult males. They were all transported to area hospitals. The men are reportedly in stable condition.
Sgt. Mayra Reeson reportedly said there were five people involved in the fight, and they all knew each other.
Reeson said, “No community members or visitors were hurt outside of this group of individuals. They did not go through TSA yet. I do not recommend bringing guns to an airport.”
She believes “this was a family dispute that escalated.”
Police located another adult male and juvenile female who they suspect were involved. The man in the parking lot reportedly sustained a stab wound, and he was hospitalized in stable condition.
Incidents continued in Terminal 4 that evening. KTVK-TV reports that about two hours after the food court situation unfolded, 21-year-old Cole Nenon arrived at the airport with guns because, according to Reeson, he “received a text message that he believed there was an active shooter at Sky Harbor.”
Reeson said there was “not an active shooter. There never was.”
Nenon reportedly gave his firearms up to an airport employee before police arrived. When officers approached, he allegedly told them to “arrest me” and then said, “Kill me, kill me.”
An officer pushed Nenon to the ground after he started “acting irate.” Nenon reportedly punched the officer and tried pushing him off, but a bystander stepped in and helped. The officer was not injured in the scuffle.
Reeson said Nenon’s actions were not connected to the earlier shooting. Nenon was arrested on a charge of aggravated assault on a police officer.
MORE:
- Shooting Update – Phoenix Police Department
- Sky Harbor Airport Christmas shooting: Shelter-in-place lifted at Terminal 4; 2 people detained – KSAZ
- 4 injured, 2 detained in shooting inside Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport on Christmas night – KNXV