Documents

After her controversial 2011 acquittal for the murder of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee, Casey Anthony filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and has been litigating the action for years. The documents at this link deal with that litigation. Meter reader Roy Kronk has sued Anthony and wants a potential judgment to be protected in this bankruptcy matter. In May 2016, an affidavit by Anthony’s former private investigator Dominic Casey, alleging misconduct on the part of Anthony and her attorney Jose Baez, was widely reported. Baez denies the claims.
Convicted in May 2013 of murdering Travis Alexander on June 4, 2008. The jury in the first trial deadlocked 8 for death, 4 for life. In the penalty phase retrial which began in October 2014, the jury deadlocked again but this time 11 for death, 1 for life. On April 13, 2015, Arias received a sentence of life without parole. She plans to appeal. Click here to go to the Arias home page.
Steven Avery is the subject of the hit Netflix series, “Making a Murderer.” In 2003, Avery was exonerated for a sexual assault he did not commit. He was released from prison after 18 years. Avery filed a $36 million lawsuit against the Manitowoc, Wisconsin police and county for his false imprisonment. While that case was pending, Avery was arrested in 2005 for the murder of Theresa Halbach whose charred remains were found in a pit behind Avery’s garage. Avery always maintained his innocence. He was convicted after a trial in 2007 and is serving a life sentence. The links here are to the complete transcript of his murder trial.
Soon after Freddie Gray died from a spinal injury sustained while in a Baltimore police wagon in April 2015, the city erupted in riots as protesters demanded justice for Gray’s death. The incident also put a spotlight on police and community relations. Within a few weeks, a Baltimore grand jury indicted six police officers with crimes ranging from misconduct in office to manslaughter and murder. The six officers are being tried separately. The trial of the first officer, William Porter, ended with a deadlock in mid-December. The next three trials were acquittals by the judge after the defendants waived their right to a jury trial. On July 27, 2016, the State dropped all charges against the remaining three defendants. Before the criminal trials, the city settled a civil law suit with Gray’s family for $6.4 million. Click here to go to the Baltimore Cops home page.
Blankenship, Donald
Blankenship, former CEO of Massey Energy, is charged with fraud and related crimes in operation of Massey Energy coal mines. An explosion in April 5, 2010 killed 29 miners allegedly because of safety violations. Jury selection in his trial began Oct. 1, 2015 in Charleston, West Virginia. On Dec. 3, 2015, he was convicted of conspiring to violate safety regulations. He faces a maximum of one year in prison. Blankenship was acquitted of two other charges. He was sentenced on April 6, 2016.
James Bradley is charged with murdering a co-worker, Shannon Rippy Van Newkirk. She’s been missing since April 5, 2014; her body has never been found. In fact, not only is there no body, there’s no murder weapon, no confession, no crime scene. But Bradley has murdered before. He spent 23 years in prison for the murder of his 8-year-old stepdaughter and was released the year before Van Newkirk disappeared. There’s more–authorities believe he also killed another woman after his release from prison and before Van Newkirk’s disappearance. He has since been charged with that murder — after the Van Newkirk murder charges were filed.
Brown, Cameron
Convicted in 2015 of murder after 3rd trial for throwing his 4 year-old daughter off a cliff in LA County in 2000. Sentence: LWOP
Michelle Carter, 18, is accused of Involuntary Manslaughter for encouraging her boyfriend Conrad Roy III, 18, to commit suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning in July 2014 in Massachusetts. Carter was not with Roy when he killed himself but numerous text messages and phone calls reveal that she encouraged him from afar to carry out the plan. On April 7, 2016, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard oral arguments on whether the case should be dismissed. Carter’s briefs are listed here; the Commonwealth’s brief has been sealed by the court. On July 1, 2016 the Massachusetts SJC held that Carter’s indictment was proper so the case will move forward. That decision is also listed here. If prosecuted as an adult, Carter faces up to 20 years in prison.
On August 30, 2006, 18-year-old Alvaro Castillo shot and killed his father, then went to his former high school in Hillsborough, NC to shoot students. Fortunately, was tackled in the school parking lot before he could seriously hurt anyone. Two students were injured; no one died at the school. Castillo had a documented history of mental illness. He had a fascination with the Columbine massacre in Colorado. Castillo’s insanity defense failed at trial in August 2009. He is serving life without parole. His journals reveal a lot about his life, thoughts, and disease.
Charlton, John
John Charlton is charged with murdering and dismembering Ingrid Lyne, a mother of 3, he says he’d been dating about a month. Lyne went missing April 9, 2016 from Renton, WA, a Seattle suburb. On the same day, a man in Seattle discovered body parts in garbage bags. The body parts—a head, foot, arm & hand—were identified as Lyne. Charlton was arrested on April 11. He denies he murdered Lyne.
On December 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman shot and killed John Lennon outside of Lennon’s apartment in the famed Dakota building near Central Park. John Lennon’s wife, Yoko Ono, was at his side when he was murdered. The documents here are parole hearing transcripts. He faces the New York State Parole Board every two years. The next hearing will be in 2018.

Hollywood stars, business leaders, college coaches, and standardized test administrators are among fifty people who stand accused of participating in a scheme to admit students to leading institutions as honors students and athletes regardless of their abilities. The parents include television star Lori Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, actor Felicity Huffman, and Napa vintner Augustin Huneeus Jr. The scandal is possibly the largest college admissions scam ever prosecuted.

Cosby, Bill
Cosby is fighting allegations and lawsuits that he drugged then sexually assaulted women for decades. Criminal charges are pending in Pennsylvania. The majority of documents here relate to the civil and criminal cases of Andrea Costand who alleged a sexual assault in 2004 while she worked for Temple University. Click here to go to the Cosby home page.
Dippolito, Dalia
Dippolito was convicted in 2011 of solicitation to commit 1st degree murder of her husband. She received a 20-year prison sentence but her conviction was overturned in 2014. Her retrial finally took place in December 2016 but the jury deadlocked 3-3. She faces yet another trial in 2017. If convicted, Dippolito could be sentenced up to 30 years in prison. Click here to go to the Dippolito home page.
Durst is a killer three times over, according to many. His wife of nine years disappeared in 1982. In December 2000, Durst’s close friend, Susan Berman, was shot in her LA home. In October 2001, Durst killed his Galveston, TX neighbor and was acquitted at trial after asserting self-defense. In March 2015, Durst was charged with Berman’s murder in LA. On February 3, 2016, Durst pled guilty to possession of a gun in federal court in Louisiana. He has since been transferred to a California prison where he awaits a state court trial for murder. His health is reportedly declining. Click here to go to the Durst home page.
Ferguson, MO
After a thorough grand jury presentation, Ferguson, MO PO Darren Wilson was not indicted for the shooting death of  Michael Brown. Read the grand jury transcript.
The murder conviction of Ryan Ferguson in Columbia, MO was reversed. Ferguson served 10 years of a 40-year sentence for a crime he did not commit. He was freed in late 2013.
Thirty-two officials of FIFA’s executive committee and regional federations, as well as marketing executives, have been charged with racketeering, fraud & more related to selling their votes to (& taking bribes from) nations seeking to host the World Cup.
Former Subway spokesman Fogle was charged in Indiana with child porn and engaging in sex acts with minors. He reached a plea agreement and was sentenced on Nov. 19, 2015 to 188 months (about 15 years, 7 months), a sentence that exceeded the government’s request. Fogle will serve about 13 years before parole eligibility.
Graswald is charged with the murder of her fiance, Vince Viafore, while they were kayaking in New York State on April 19, 2015. The defense fought to have Graswald’s statements to police thrown out. After a lengthy hearing and an even longer time to decide, the bulk of those statements will be heard by a jury at her 2017 trial. Graswald maintains Viafore’s drowning was accidental. Click here to go to the Graswald home page.
Harris is charged with murder after leaving his toddler son to die in a hot car in Georgia on June 18, 2014. Harris maintains it was an accident. Jury selection began on April 11, 2016. After three weeks–and many opinionated potential jurors—the judge granted a motion to change the venue. In mid-June the court announced the new venue for the trial: Brunswick, In early March 2016, a Cobb County grand jury returned a second indictment against Harris for sexual exploitation of children and disseminating harmful material to minors. In the fall of 2016, Harris was convicted of malice murder, felony murder, sexual exploitation of children and more. He was sentenced to life in prison. Click here to go to the Harris home page.
Kendra Hatcher Murder
Dallas dentist Kendra Hatcher, 35, was shot to death in her parking garage on September 2, 2015. Her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend, Brenda Delgado, is charged with capital murder for allegedly hiring a hitman to kill her. The hitman and getaway driver are both charged. Delgado had fled to Mexico but was captured in April 2016. She will be extradited to the U.S. but prosecutors may have to drop death in order to get her back to Dallas. Click here to go to the Hatcher home page.
Harold Henthorn was accused of pushing his second wife, Toni, off a cliff in Sept. 2012. Her “accidental” death led investigators to reopen the “accidental” death of his first wife, Lynn, in 1995. In Sept. 2015, he was convicted of first degree murder of Toni’s death in Colorado federal district court. On December 8, 2015, Henthorn was sentenced to life without parole.
Former NFL New England Patriot was convicted in 2015 of the murder of Odin Lloyd on June 17, 2013 in Massachusetts. He received a sentence of life without parole. The documents posted here relate to that trial. In a separate case, Hernandez is awaiting trial in Boston for a 2012 double homicide.
Hernandez, Pedro
Hernandez was charged in 2012 with the 1979 murder of 6-year-old Etan Patz in lower Manhattan. Convicted child molester Jose Ramos was an early suspect but never charged with the crime. In 2015, a Manhattan jury deadlocked 11-1 for conviction against Hernandez. Hernandez’s retrial is scheduled for September 2016. Etan Patz was one of the first missing child to appear on milk cartons. His body was never found. Click here to go to the Hernandez page.
Herring, Jody
Herring is charged with the August 7, 2015 murder of DCF social worker Lara Sobel in Vermont, and faces life without parole. A day after Herring’s August 7 arrest, the bodies of three more victims were discovered, all shot to death: two cousins and an aunt. Herring is charged with their murders also. In July 2017, Herring pled guilty to all four murders. There will be a sentencing hearing in October 2017 where she could face life without parole but it is no longer a mandatory sentence, based on the plea agreement.
Nick Hillary is accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend’s 12-year-old son, Garrett Phillips, in 2011. There’s no forensic evidence linking him to the murder. Hillary has always denied it, and says he has alibi witnesses. His trial, which took place in August and September of 2016, gained national attention as it pitted an aggressive prosecutor whose successful campaign included a promise to seek justice for Garrett Phillips against a man who adamantly denied any involvement in the murder. In late September, Hillary was found not guilty.
Beth Holloway, Natalee Holloway’s mother, is suing Oxygen Media and a production company for the 6-part series that led viewers to believe the case of her missing daughter may be solved.
Holmes, James
Holmes was convicted of murdering 12 and attempting to murder 70 in a crowded movie theater on July 20, 2012 in Aurora, Colorado. The trial took place in 2015. His sentence was 12 sentences of life without parole plus 3,318 years. Click here to go to the Holmes home page.
Jackson, Michael
On June 25, 2009, music superstar Michael Jackson died at home after his personal doctor set up a primitive intravenous drip of a surgical anesthetic to help Jackson sleep. The contraption malfunctioned, killing Jackson. The doctor was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson’t untimely death. The autopsy report details the pathologist’s findings.
In 2008, Mark Jensen was convicted of murdering his wife Julie. Julie was found dead on Dec. 3, 1998. She had anti-freeze in her system and was also asphyxiated. After a lengthy investigation, Mark was arrested on March 19, 2002 and charged with murder. He claimed that his wife was depressed and suicidal, and set up her suicide to look like a homicide (and frame him). Meanwhile, Mark was having an extramarital affair with a woman named Kelly LaBonte, and Julie was telling police and neighbor that she believed Mark was going to kill her. Among the documents here is a letter Julie wrote two weeks before her death. It was used at her trial and resulted in Jensen receiving a new trial in late 2012. He is currently in jail awaiting a retrial.
Todd Kendhammer was accused of beating his wife of 25 years to death in the car as he drove her to work on a remote Wisconsin road. He claimed that a pipe had come off the bed of a truck in front of them and gone through the windshield of the couple’s car, impaling his 46-year-old wife. Investigators tried to recreate the accident, and were apparently unsuccessful. An autopsy showed that Barbara Kendhammer died from multiple blunt force trauma injuries including lacerations in the back of her head, a broken nose, a skull fracture and lip contusions–injuries inconsistent with a pipe passing through the windshield and hitting her. Moreover, there were inconsistencies in Kendhammer’s story, and video surveillance was unable to locate the truck he described. Todd Kendhammer was arrested and charged with murder. His case went to trial in December 2017. He was convicted of first degree intentional homicide and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years. Kendhammer maintains his innocence and is appealing.
Lazarus, Stephanie
Former LAPD detective Stephanie Lazarus was convicted in 2012 of the 1986 murder of Sherri Rasmussen, wife of her ex-boyfriend. In 1986, Lazarus was a young police officer; she was a detective when she was arrested years later. Lazarus is serving a 27 years to life sentence, and is appealing the conviction.
Merritt is charged with murdering the McStay family of four in February 2010 in San Diego County.  The family remains were found in shallow graves in Nov. 2013 in San Bernardino County. Merritt denies the charges and is in jail, awaiting trial in San Bernardino, CA.  Click here to go to the Merritt home page.
Comedian Tracy Morgan suffered serious injury during a traffic accident in June 2014. Fellow comedian James McNair died in the crash; 3 others were injured. Morgan sued Wal-Mart whose truck hit his SUV. In May 2015, Wal-Mart settled the lawsuit. Criminal charges against the Wal-Mart driver, Kevin Roper, are still pending in NJ.
A fraternity and 18 of its members at Penn State University were charged in the death of a 19-year-old student who fell multiple times after consuming toxic levels of alcohol. The student, Timothy Piazza, was not given aid until the next morning; he died at a hospital on February 4, 2017. 

A Centre County grand jury heard testimony for several weeks then issued a detailed report with recommendations of charges. The fraternity and eight students were charged with involuntary manslaughter and other crimes. Ten other students face charges ranging from tampering with evidence to hazing and providing alcohol to a minor.

Former Bolingbrook, Illinois police sergeant, Drew Peterson, stood trial for the murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, more than six years after her death. Savio was found dead in her bathtub the evening of March 1, 2004. At the time, a coroner’s jury concluded that her death was an accident. It was only after Peterson’s fourth wife, Stacy, went missing in late October 2007, that authorities took another look at Savio’s death. Her body was exhumed and reexamined in November 2007. This time, a forensic pathologist concluded it was a homicide. After a lengthy investigation and the passing of a new law, Peterson was indicted by a Will County, Illinois grand jury in May 2009. He went to trial in the summer of 2012 and was convicted of first-degree murder. Peterson is serving a 38-year sentence. Meanwhile, Stacy Peterson has never been located, dead or alive. Peterson has lost all his appeals, thus far, and is seeking another appeal.
Peterson was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife Laci and their unborn son Conner in late Dec. 2002 in Modesto, CA. His trial was in 2004; the jury sentenced him to death. The judge imposed the death sentence in March 2005. Peterson is currently in San Quentin’s death row and is appealing the convictions.
Oscar-winning film director Roman Polanski hasn’t stepped foot on U.S. soil since he fled the country in February 1978, on the eve of his sentencing for sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl in Los Angeles in 1977. Polanski had pled guilty and believed he was going to get time served (42 days) or another light sentence. Fearful that the judge wasn’t going to follow a sentencing agreement, Polanski fled the country. Periodically since 1978 the U.S. has requested that Polanski’s host countries extradite him to face sentencing and, to date, has failed. Poland, one of two countries where Polanksi has citizenship, is now considering the latest extradition request.
As the 20th anniversary of the unsolved murder of six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey approaches, renewed interest in the case is evident from numerous television documentaries and movies. JonBenet was found dead in the basement of her parents’ Boulder, Colorado home on December 26, 1996. Before her father found her body, a rambling ransom note was discovered leading the family and police to believe she had been kidnapped. It’s a mystery whether the child’s murder was a kidnapping gone bad or a murder staged to look like a botched kidnapping. In 2008, then-District Attorney Mary Lacy exonerated the Ramsey family based on DNA tests that indicated an unknown person’s DNA was on JonBenet’s underwear and long johns. The DNA reports here, released in Nov. 2016, raise questions about the conclusion that Lacy reached.
 Dharun Ravi is the former Rutgers University student convicted of setting up a webcam to spy on his gay roommate. The roommate later committed suicide. On Friday, September 9, 2016, a NJ appellate court overturned his conviction and dismissed 5 of the 15 counts. It ordered a new trial on 10 counts.
On November 22, 2014, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was playing with a toy gun in a Cleveland, Ohio park. A bystander called 911. Within seconds of police arriving, Rice was fatally shot. A grand jury investigated the shooting and declined to vote charges against the two officers involved. The Rice family has questioned the decision not to vote charges.
Roberts, Richard Warren
In March 2016, Terry Mitchell filed a federal civil complaint against Richard Warren Roberts, a federal judge, for repeated sexual assault against her in 1981 when she was a 16-year-old witness in a case Roberts was prosecuting. The trial was of serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin. Franklin murdered two of Mitchell’s friends; she was injured in the shooting. Roberts allegedly forced his star witness to have sex with him repeatedly before and during the trial at his hotel. Roberts went on to become a federal judge but suddenly retired a day before the complaint was filed.
Roof is charged with nine counts of murder for killing parishioners at a Bible study meeting in a Charleston, South Carolina church on June 17, 2015. The State is seeking the death penalty. A January 2017 trial date has been set in the State murder case. Roof also faces 33 counts in a federal indictment of hate crimes and other related charges. His federal trial began in November 2016 with hearings and jury selection. After a sealed competency hearing, the judge found Roof competent. Then Roof decided to represent himself at his federal trial where he faces the death penalty.The State murder case will follow the federal trial.
Mark Sievers is accused of hiring his childhood friend, Curtis Wayne Wright, and Jimmy Rodgers to murder his wife at the Sievers home in Bonita Springs, Florida home on June 28, 2015. Wright and Rodgers were arrested in Missouri soon after the murder but it wasn’t until February 2016 that law enforcement arrested Mark Sievers. Sievers was arrested on the same day that Wright entered a guilty plea to second-degree murder. The State cut a deal with Wright in order to prosecute Sievers. That means the childhood friend will now be the State’s key witness against Sievers.  Rodgers was extradited to Florida in February 2016 after first serving a 6-month sentence for a federal probation violation in Missouri. A Florida grand jury indicted Sievers and Rodgers for first degree murder on May 4, 2016.  Click here to go to the Sievers home page.
Kennedy nephew Michael Skakel was convicted in 2002 of bludgeoning to death his Greenwich, CT neighbor Martha Moxley in 1975 when they were both 15 years old. Connecticut attorney Mickey Sherman (who used to be a regular guest on Court TV) represented Skakel. Skakel appealed and argued, among other points, that Sherman was ineffective. In October 2013, a Connecticut appeals court agreed with Skakel, vacated the murder conviction, and ordered a new trial. Skakel was released after serving 11 years of a 20-year sentence. But the State appealed that decision to the Connecticut Supreme Court. In late December 2016, the State’s highest court reinstated Skakel’s conviction.
Johnny Small, 44, spent 27 years in prison for a crime he always denied. He was 16 years old when he was convicted in North Carolina of the 1988 murder of Pamela Dreher. A key witness later recanted. After a four-day hearing in August 2016, a judge vacated Small’s conviction. He still faces a possible retrial but is out of prison, at least for now.

Read more from North Carolina’s Star News reporter Fran Norton.

Adnan Syed was convicted of the 1999 murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee. They were both still in high school in Maryland at the time of her death. Syed has always denied he killed her. He was the focus of NPR’s first season of its Serial podcast in 2014/15. The immense interest in the podcast is likely the reason why Syed was granted a post-conviction hearing in early Feb. 2016 based, in part, on evidence the jury never heard. On June 30, 2016, Syed was granted a new trial.
Starlet Natalie Wood, wife of actor Robert Wagner, drowned in 1981 off the California coast. Though initially ruled to be an accident, the manner of her death is still in dispute.
In a retrial, Young was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife in 2006 in Raleigh, NC. The Court of Appeals reversed and ordered a new trial but, on 8/21/15, the NC Supreme Court disagreed. Young will not get a third trial unless the the Court of Appeals finds new grounds.