Albert Cronkite

Prosecutors say the 17-year-old was shot after handing over a chain. TACOMA, Wash. — New court filings in the killing of 17-year-old Braylon Daniel Diaz describe a short walk home, a red car that doubled back and a robbery that ended with a gunshot after he surrendered his necklace. The documents have moved the Parkland case beyond early sheriff’s statements and into Pierce County Superior Court, where a woman accused of driving the car has …

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Friends described Smith as generous and outgoing while prosecutors detailed a planned killing. OCALA, Fla. — Timothy Smith’s friends remembered him as a joyful health care leader and LGBTQ advocate as the criminal case against his husband ended with a life sentence for murder. The September 2025 conviction of Herbert Swilley brought a legal close to a case that had unsettled people who knew Smith in Ocala and The Villages. Jurors found Swilley guilty of …

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An affidavit says the woman called 911 after her doorbell camera feed went dark. HORIZON CITY, Texas — A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer barricaded herself with her son inside a bedroom after her former boyfriend allegedly followed her home, removed a doorbell camera and appeared near a drone, deputies said. The El Paso County case focuses on the woman’s report of immediate fear inside her home and the steps deputies say followed outside …

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In Massapequa, Robert Carragher’s relatives mourned in court as Kristin Sculley’s lawyer pressed a self-defense claim. MINEOLA, N.Y. — The murder case against Kristin Sculley has left two Massapequa families on opposite sides of a courtroom after Robert Carragher was fatally stabbed inside his parents’ home. Carragher, 28, died June 1 after police said he was stabbed in the neck in his basement bedroom and made it upstairs to his parents. Sculley, 22, has pleaded …

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Deputies say the evidence follows a predawn path from a disabled power panel to a home intrusion. RUTLEDGE, Tenn. — A pellet removed from a school board member’s stomach, a stolen cellphone and a switched off breaker box are central to an attempted murder case in Grainger County, deputies said. Benjamin Mills, 46, is accused of using a power cutoff to draw Steven Ray Blanken outside his home on March 8 before firing at him. …

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Police said one man survived a Charlotte apartment attack days before a separate murder warrant was announced. CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A 79-year-old man survived a strangling and robbery inside his Charlotte apartment, police said, in a case now tied by defendant to a separate homicide investigation involving a 70-year-old Lincolnton man. The Charlotte victim’s account began with an ordinary walk home from a grocery store. The Lincolnton case began with a missing-person report. Together, the …

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The 27-year-old mother had called 911 before the fatal attack at a west Wichita apartment, police said. WICHITA, Kan. — Sinay Y. Leon-Montoya had moved to the United States, worked in Wichita and was raising two young sons before prosecutors said the children’s father killed her inside their apartment. The criminal case in her death is now moving toward sentencing. Edward A. Millan-Volcan, 26, pleaded guilty May 29 to first-degree felony murder and attempted first-degree …

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Police say Margaret Swan was killed shortly after John Elijah Matthews boarded the same northbound train. ATLANTA, Ga. — The fatal stabbing of Margaret Swan on a MARTA train is being examined through a timeline of minutes, from her boarding at 11:21 a.m. to the arrest of the accused man at Oakland City Station. Authorities say Swan, 66, was killed May 30 during a northbound ride that began as a routine trip home. John Elijah …

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Officers found a woman and two young boys dead after a caller raised concern about the home. CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. — A welfare check at an Ellen Drive home led police to the bodies of a mother and two young boys, then into a wider murder case tied to a fatal Buffalo store shooting. Cheektowaga police found 26-year-old Aaisha Abdulla and two children, ages 4 and 3, dead inside the home at about 3:30 p.m. June …

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The images helped investigators reconstruct the final moments before Mark Gaughan was shot while photographing Allysandra Blea. LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Instant photos from a gun-themed shoot became key evidence after Allysandra Blea fatally shot Mark Gaughan outside a Las Vegas home and later pleaded guilty in his death. The images mattered because they captured the seconds around a shooting Blea first described as accidental. Police said Gaughan, 23, was taking pictures as Blea posed …

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