(KENOSHA COUNTY, Wis.) — Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers made a plea for peace as protesters gathered outside the Kenosha County Courthouse while awaiting a verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse homicide trial.
After hearing two weeks of testimony and closing arguments, the Kenosha County Circuit Court jury started deliberating Tuesday in the closely watched trial.
Amid the wait for a verdict, Evers called for people to assemble “safely and peacefully” in Kenosha.
“Kenoshans are strong, resilient, and have worked hard to heal and rebuild together over the past year,” he tweeted Tuesday. “Any efforts to sow division and hinder that healing are unwelcome in Kenosha and Wisconsin. Regardless of the outcome in this case, I urge peace in Kenosha and across our state.”
Ahead of the verdict, Evers had previously authorized about 500 National Guard troops to be on standby to support public safety efforts if needed.
Local authorities said they “recognize the anxiety” surrounding the trial, but are not issuing a curfew or road closures at this time.
“Our departments have worked together and made coordinated efforts over the last year to improve response capabilities to large scale events. We have also strengthened our existing relationships with State and Federal resources,” the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department and Kenosha Police Department said in a joint statement Tuesday. “At this time, we have no reason to facilitate road closures, enact curfews or ask our communities to modify their daily routines.”
Rittenhouse has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree intentional homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide and two felony counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety.
The charges stem from the fatal shootings of Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and a shooting that left 27-year-old Gaige Grosskreutz wounded during riots that erupted in Kenosha last year over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Those gathering outside the courthouse have included members of Blake’s family and Black Lives Matter activists, calling for justice for the three men shot, as well as Rittenhouse supporters — among them Mark and Patricia McCloskey, a St. Louis couple who pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters outside their home last year.
ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson and Whitney Lloyd contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 764,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 68.9% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Latest headlines:
-Pfizer asks FDA for COVID-19 pill authorization
-21 states see at least 10% jump in daily cases
-US sees increase in pediatric cases for 2nd week in a row
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Nov 16, 2:10 pm
Pfizer asks FDA for COVID-19 pill authorization
Pfizer has asked the Food and Drug Administration to authorize its COVID-19 pill, the company announced in a press release Tuesday.
Both Merck and Pfizer are working on pills that appear very effective at keeping patients out of the hospital, according to the companies.
The Merck medication could be FDA authorized, recommended and available by the end of the year. The FDA’s advisory committee is slated to discuss the Merck application on Nov. 30.
Authorization for Pfizer is not expected until early next year.
ABC News’ Sony Salzman
Nov 16, 1:59 pm
21 states see at least 10% jump in daily cases
The U.S. daily case average has surged to more than 80,000 — a 27% jump in three weeks, according to federal data.
Over the last two weeks, 21 states have seen at least a 10% uptick in daily cases: Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.
Last week marked the first national increase in total hospitalizations in nearly 10 weeks, according to federal data. There are now more than 48,000 patients with COVID-19 currently receiving care, up by about 3,000 patients from a week ago.
Twelve states (and Washington, D.C.) have seen an increase of 10% or more in hospital admissions over the last week: Alaska, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, South Dakota, Vermont and Wisconsin.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Nov 16, 12:01 pm
DC to lift indoor mask mandate on Monday
Washington, D.C., will lift its indoor mask mandate on Monday.
“Instead of following a blanket mandate, residents, visitors, and workers will be advised to follow risk-based guidance from DC Health that accounts for current health metrics and a person’s vaccination status,” Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office said in a statement
Private businesses can still require masks.
Masks will still be required in places including public transportation, schools, childcare facilities and nursing homes.
ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson
Nov 16, 11:36 am
Times Square reopening to vaccinated revelers for New Year’s Eve
Times Square is reopening this New Year’s Eve after being closed last year due to the pandemic.
Revelers must bring proof of full vaccination and a photo ID.
“This has been a heroic city fighting through COVID. We are turning the corner. We’ve got a lot to celebrate. It’s going to be a big moment in Times Square on New Years Eve,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said, ABC New York station WABC-TV reported.
(NEW YORK) — Over 1 foot of rain pummeled the Pacific Northwest in five days, bringing rivers into major flood stages and flooding roads and neighborhoods.
In Whatcom County, Washington, in the northwest part of the state along the Canadian border, about 500 people were displaced Monday due to flooding, the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office said.
In Bellingham, in Whatcom County, the flooding and mudslides closed Interstate 5 overnight.
Flooding also shuttered Highway 5 in British Columbia, with one official calling the conditions “a disaster waiting to happen.”
High winds — with gusts up to 77 mph — toppled trees and knocked out power. An 18-wheeler was nearly knocked off a bridge.
Tuesday morning, the rain and snow showers will begin to taper off, with conditions improving by the afternoon. But major river flooding will still be an ongoing threat, and a flood watch remains in effect through Tuesday afternoon in parts of western Washington.
Three rivers are in major flood stage: Bogachiel, Nooksack and Skagit. The Skagit River in Mount Vernon is expected to rise to a crest of 37.6 feet by Tuesday afternoon, topping the 1990 record crest of 37.4 feet.
A winter weather advisory is also in effect; over 1 foot of snow possible in the highest elevations — above 1,500 feet — in western Washington.
Although nearly the entire western U.S. is in a drought, western Washington is the only area that is drought-free. Seattle has seen rain every day this month and parts of western Washington have received 40 inches of rain in the last 30 days.
The Pacific Northwest will dry out over the next few days, before more rain arrives later this week.
(NEW YORK) — Julius Jones has spent the past 20 years fighting for his life on death row, but on Friday a federal appeals court rejected his final appeal.
As of now, Jones will be executed this week on his scheduled execution date of Nov. 18 unless the Oklahoma governor decides to grant him clemency.
In September, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board recommended commuting Jones’ sentence to life in prison with the possibility of parole to Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt.
The decision still remains with Stitt, who said in September in a news release that he was waiting to make a decision based on the clemency hearing.
“I am not accepting the Pardon and Parole Board’s recommendation to commute the sentence of Julius Jones because a clemency hearing, not a commutation hearing, is the appropriate venue for our state to consider death row cases,” Stitt said in a Sept. 28 press release.
On Nov. 1, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted to recommend clemency for Jones in a 3-1 favor. As of Tuesday, Stitt hasn’t publicly announced a decision.
“Nightline” spoke to Jones’ family in September. Jones’ mother, Madeline Davis-Jones, said the parole board’s decision instilled renewed hope for her son’s survival and called the news “magical.”
“I’m still in shock, because it’s not over, you know? We still have so much ground [to] cover,” Jones’ sister, Antoinette Jones, said. “I don’t know. I can’t explain it, but it was a good feeling.”
Antoinette Jones said her brother was calm when he heard the parole board’s recommendation, as he knows work still has to be done to secure his freedom.
“He said, ‘I’m good. I’ll be even better when I get out and I can hug y’all and we can start helping change the world,'” Antoinette Jones said. “It was a relief. I could breathe a little bit easier.”
Jones’ sister remains hopeful that he will be freed, and said she can picture justice for her brother.
“Julius being able to feel the sun on his skin, the natural sun on his skin. It looks like him having no chains [on] when he gets to go outside,” she said. “It looks like freedom.”
Julius Jones was 19 years old when he was arrested for the 1999 murder of Oklahoma businessman Paul Howell, and sentenced to death in 2002. What followed were decades of public scrutiny and relentless work from his legal team.
“We think Julius was wrongfully convicted and that Oklahoma is at risk of executing an innocent man,” Jones’ attorney, Amanda Bass, said.
Now 41 years old, Jones has spent most of his life behind bars. Even after so many years, his sister and mother have yet to give up hope.
Before he was in prison, friends and teachers knew Jones as a champion high school basketball player who attended the University of Oklahoma on an academic scholarship.
That all changed in 1999 when Howell, 45, was shot in his family’s driveway after a car-jacking in the wealthy suburb of Edmond, Oklahoma.
Howell’s GMC Suburban went missing and his sister, Megan Tobey, was the only eye-witness.
“Megan Tobey described the shooter as a young black man wearing a red bandana, a white shirt, and a stocking cap or skullcap. She was not able to identify the shooter’s face because it was covered,” Bass told ABC News in 2018.
Two days after Howell was killed, police found his Suburban parked in a grocery store parking lot. They learned later that a man named Ladell King had been offering to sell the car.
King named Chris Jordan and Julius Jones to investigators and said the two men had asked him to help them sell the stolen Suburban.
“Ladell was interviewed by the lead detectives in this case. He told the police that on the night of the crime, a guy named Chris Jordan comes to his apartment. A few minutes later, according to Ladell King, Julius Jones drives up,” attorney Dale Baich told ABC News in 2018.
King accused Jordan of being the driver and claimed that he and Jones were looking for Suburbans to steal, but it was Jones who shot Howell.
“Both Ladell King and Christopher Jordan were directing police’s attention to the home of Julius Jones’ parents as a place that would have incriminating items of evidence,” Bass said.
Investigators found a gun wrapped in a red bandana in the crawl space of Jones’ family home. The next day, Jones was arrested for capital murder.
Jones’ attorneys say the evidence police found could have been planned by Jordan. They say Jordan had stayed at Jones’ house the night after the murder, but Jordan denied those claims during the trial.
In the years since, Jones’ defense team has argued that racial bias and missteps from his then public-defense team played a role.
Jones’ team has submitted files to the parole board that they said proved his innocence, including affidavits and taped video interviews with inmates who had served time in prison with Jordan. They said they allegedly heard Jordan confess to Howell’s murder.
In a statement to ABC News, Jordan’s attorney, Billy Bock, said that “Chris Jordan maintains his position that his role in the death of Paul Howell was as an accomplice to Julius Jones. Mr. Jordan testified truthfully in the jury trial of Mr. Jones and denies ‘confessing’ to anyone.”
Jordan served 15 years in prison before he was released.
In 2020, Jones’ story was thrown back into the spotlight when unlikely legal ally Kim Kardashian drew public attention to his case. Kardashian, who is studying to take California’s bar exam, has been vocal on the issue of the death penalty and prison reform and has campaigned to free a number of men and women who were incarcerated.
“Kim Kardashian, I felt like maybe one of my sorority sisters … she was down to earth,” Davis-Jones said.
Antoinette Jones said Kardashian put in the effort to help her brother.
“She sat down and she broke down my brother’s case. That means that she actually did the work,” Jones said. “She did the work to go back and check certain things, to point out certain things.”
“The fact that she told me that she was able to go see my brother, it was almost like she took a piece of him and brought it to us and then we could feel like he was there with us,” Jones added.
But despite all the efforts, Julius Jones’ execution date is still in place.
His family said they have to just wait to see if Stitt will agree with the parole board’s recommendation and commute Jones’ November death sentence. Three members of the Pardon and Parole board were appointed by the governor, a fact that gives Davis-Jones some hope.
“I’d like for [Stitt] to do the right thing, because the truth will set you free,” Davis-Jones said. “But most of all, being in leadership, I know sometimes it’s hard … to make decisions, [but] you have to try to make the right decisions.”
(LARIMER COUNTY, Colo.) — A small fire has sparked mandatory evacuations in a popular Colorado ski resort town as wind gusts threaten to fan the flames.
The Kruger Fire broke out Tuesday morning near Kruger Rock in Larimer County, just outside Estes Park, a mountain town with about 6,000 residents, fire officials said. The fire had reached 20 acres before 9 a.m., according to the Estes Valley Fire Protection District.
Red flag warnings have been issued throughout Colorado over high wind gusts topping 40 mph. Videos posted to social media show the fire crowning, indicating the possibility that it could spread quickly.
Last year, Estes Park was wedged between the two largest fires in state history– the East Troublesome Fire and the Cameron Peak Fire — but a snowstorm in October 2020 halted the fires in their tracks.
The neighborhoods of Little Valley Drive, Hermit Park and Uplands of Fish Creek Road were ordered to evacuate on Tuesday morning.
Additional information was not immediately available.
ABC News’ Jeffrey Cook contributed to this report.
(KENOSHA COUNTY, Wis.) — In a trial that began with the judge playing Jeopardy with prospective jurors, Kyle Rittenhouse participated in a game-show-style process on Tuesday of randomly selecting the 12 jurors to decide his fate.
Just after 10 a.m., the 18 members of the Kenosha County, Wisconsin, Circuit Court panel who heard evidence in the nationally televised trial of the 18-year-old had their juror numbers written on pieces of paper and placed in a metal raffle drum, which a clerk spun with the crank of a handle.
Judge Bruce Schroeder then instructed Rittenhouse to draw six numbers from the tumbler in a process that is a standard practice in Wisconsin. The teenager, seated at the defense table and dressed in a blue suit, reached in and pulled out six numbers one at a time.
A clerk then read aloud the numbers of jurors No. 11, 58, 14, 45, 9 and 52 who will serve as alternates during the deliberations conducted by the remaining panelists.
The alternates were immediately instructed to follow a bailiff into a back room as Schroeder gave the rest of the jury final instructions.
“All right, members of the jury, it is for you to determine whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty of each of the offenses charged,” Schroeder said.
After telling the jurors to send notes through the bailiff if they need to communicate with him, Schroeder said, “All right folks, you can retire to consider your verdicts.”
Schroeder then asked the alternate jurors to return to the courtroom. Quoting Shakespeare, the judge said, “Parting, as they say, is such sweet sorrow.”
“You’ve been wonderful jurors, and we couldn’t have asked for a higher quality jury, better jurors, more attentive jurors, more prompt jurors,” Schroeder said to the alternates.
He explained that there have been “rare instances” in high-profile cases where alternate jurors have been restored to the jury deliberating after being dismissed.
“That is conceivable in this case. It’s not likely. In fact, it’s quite unlikely, but it’s possible,” Schroeder told the alternates.
He asked them to adhere to his order not to discuss the case with anyone and to continue to avoid media reports about the trial. He also asked them to stick around the court in case they are needed.
The trial initially began with 20 jurors, but one was removed for health concerns and another was dismissed after acknowledging in court that he told a tasteless joke to a deputy sheriff about Jacob Blake, the 29-year-old Black man paralyzed in a Kenosha police shooting that set off days of violent protests that led up to the shootings Rittenhouse claims he committed in self-defense.
Rittenhouse has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree intentional homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide and two felony counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety.
If convicted on all felony charges, Rittenhouse faces a sentence of life in prison.
Prior to closing arguments on Monday, Schroeder instructed the jury that they will be allowed to consider lesser charges against Rittenhouse if the panel decides the prosecution failed to meet its burden to prove the original charges.
Schroeder also granted a defense motion to dismiss a charge of possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18 after the prosecution agreed that the rifle Rittenhouse used in the shooting did not meet the required standard of an illegal short-barreled rifle under the law.
The charges stem from the fatal shootings of Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and a shooting that left 27-year-old Gaige Grosskreutz wounded during an Aug. 25, 2020, protest in Kenosha.
During his testimony on Thursday, Rittenhouse said he shot all three men with an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle in self-defense after they each attacked him.
“I didn’t intend to kill them. I intended to stop the people who were attacking me,” Rittenhouse repeatedly said, at one point breaking down and sobbing on the witness stand.
(AURORA, Colo.) — Six high school students are in the hospital after they were shot at a park near their Aurora, Colorado, school, police said.
All injuries are non-life-threatening, Aurora police Chief Vanessa Wilson said at a news conference. School resource officers put a tourniquet on one victim who is in surgery, she said.
The students, who all attend Aurora Central High School, are ages 14 to 18, Aurora police said.
There are believed to be “multiple” suspects who are all at large in the wake of the shooting, which took place just north of Aurora Central High School, at Nome Park.
The shooting appeared to be a drive-by, Wilson said, adding that people may have also fled on foot.
The parents of all victims have been notified, Wilson said.
Wilson urged residents in the area to send authorities their home surveillance footage to help police with the investigation.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Details have emerged in the criminal case against the mother of a 14-year-old who went missing in October from her home in New Jersey before being sound safe nearly a month later in New York. According to officials, she ran away in order to escape abuse at home.
The criminal complaint against 40-year-old Jamie Moore, filed Friday in Essex County Court, describes several instances of alleged abuse against the young girl, including “stabbing the victim to her shoulder causing a laceration that is still visible, spraying bleach in her eyes, pulling her braids out” and striking her with several objects, including a frying pan.
According to the complaint, Moore also allegedly struck her daughter with her hands and put her knees on her neck and back, “causing her to struggle to breathe.”
MORE: Mom of missing New Jersey teen charged with child endangerment
Moore is also accused of “educational neglect.” Officials stated in the criminal complaint that she forced the 14-year-old to not attend virtual learning classes during the 2020/2021 school year and did not enroll her in the 2021/2022 school session.
The charges against Moore were announced last week in a press release from acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens and East Orange Police Chief Phyllis Bindi. Police said her daughter had run away from home and did not want to return.
Moore was arrested Friday and is being held at the Essex County Correctional Facility. Attempts to find a lawyer for Moore were unsuccessful. Her detention hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
Moore’s daughter reportedly ran away Oct. 14 after stopping at Poppies Deli Store in East Orange, New Jersey, after Moore allegedly verbally scolded and cursed her for misplacing a grocery card, grabbed her by the neck, scratched her and physically assaulted her, according to the complaint.
The complaint stated that Moore told her daughter not to come back home until she found the card. Officials say she said did not return because her “mom would beat her and leave her all bruised up.”
At a Nov. 5 press conference, Moore tearfully recounted a different narrative about the grocery card than the one that was filed in the criminal complaint: “So, I said, ‘Baby backtrack your steps, because you lost it before and found it. So it’s probably right outside or when you went in your pocket, it probably fell out.’ So she did. She left, she backtracked her steps. That was the last time I saw her.”
“I cannot imagine what she might be going through just being away from us this long, being away from her family who loves her very much,” Moore said at the time. “If anybody knows anything, please, please come forward.”
The 14-year-old — who was found at a women’s shelter in New York after a weekslong search by local officials — and her 3-year-old brother have been removed from Moore’s custody.
(NEW YORK) — The Consumer Product Safety Commissions (CPSC) announced on Nov. 10 a voluntary recall on the “ABUS Mountz Youth Helmets,” citing that the products pose a risk of head injury.
The recall involves the ABUS ACM (MountZ) youth medium-sized helmets and were sold in “velvet black” and “polar white” color,” according to the ABUS press release.
ABUS ACM (MountZ) youth helmets are pictured in velvet black and polar white colors.
No injuries have been reported, but CPSC urged consumers to return the helmets for a refund.
“Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled helmets and return them to ABUS’s Recall Administrator, Sedgwick, free of charge, for a full refund,” said the press release.
The helmets were manufactured in March 2020 or October 2020 and were sold at independent bike shops nationwide from April 2020 through October 2021 for about $81, according to CPSC.
The recall does not affect any other ABUS products.
(NEW YORK) — Controversial radio and TV personality Alex Jones was found liable Monday for damages in a lawsuit brought by the parents of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims.
Judge Barbara Bellis found Jones liable for damages by default because Jones and his companies, like Infowars, showed “callous disregard” for the rules of discovery. She previously faulted the Infowars host for failing to comply with requests for documents and other procedures.
The ruling sends the case to a jury to award the families damages without a civil trial. It is legal a victory for eight parents of Newtown victims who sued Jones for defamation after he called the elementary school shooting massacre a hoax.
The plaintiffs earlier alleged a “yearslong campaign of abusive and outrageous false statements in which Jones and the other defendants have developed, amplified and perpetuated claims that the Sandy Hook massacre was staged and that the 26 families who lost loved ones that day are paid actors who faked their relative’s deaths.”
The judge agreed with the families that Jones, Infowars and his other companies failed to turn over documents to the families that they would need to prove their case, as required by law.
“The defendants were ordered to produce the documents,” Bellis said during Monday’s hearing, which was conducted remotely. “Discovery is not supposed to be a guessing game. What the Jones defendants have produced by way of analytics is not even remotely full and fair compliance.”
Jones was similarly defaulted in Texas for failing to turn over documents.
The U.S. Supreme Court had declined to take up a petition from Jones earlier in April, who had challenged legal sanctions imposed on him by a court in Connecticut.
“This callous disregard of their obligations to fully and fairly comply with discovery and court orders on its own merits a default against the Jones defendants,” Bellis said.
“While the families are grateful for the Court’s ruling, they remain focused on uncovering the truth. As the Court noted, Alex Jones and his companies have deliberately concealed evidence of the relationship between what they publish and how they make money,” Chris Mattei of Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder, which represents the eight families suing Jones, said.
“Mr. Jones was given every opportunity to comply but, when he chose instead to withhold evidence for more than two years, the Court was left with no choice but to rule as it did today. While today’s ruling is a legal victory, the battle to shed light on how deeply Mr. Jones has harmed these families continues,” Mattei said.
The judge in Connecticut will hold a hearing in August to determine how much Jones will have to pay in damages.
Twenty children and six staff members died in the Dec. 14, 2012, shooting at the Newtown, Connecticut, school at the hands of gunman Adam Lanza.
