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(LONDON, Ky.) — An AR-15 rifle investigators believe was used in a Kentucky freeway shooting Saturday evening that left seven people injured and nine vehicles with bullet holes was found Sunday afternoon near the crime scene as a search for a person of interest continued, authorities said.

The person of interest wanted for questioning was identified as 32-year-old Joseph A. Couch, who the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office said is “considered armed and dangerous and should not be approached.”

The sheriff’s office released a photo of Couch, who allegedly fled the freeway shooting near London, Kentucky, and is believed to still be in the area, Laurel County Sheriff’s Deputy Gilbert Acciardo said during a news conference Sunday morning.

“We’re not listing him as a suspect at this point, but he probably will more than likely be a suspect before day’s end,” Acciardo said.

On Sunday afternoon, Acciardo said Couch’s vehicle was located in the area of the shootings Saturday night. He also said officers searching the area found an AR-15 rifle in the woods near the interstate.

The weapon, which investigators believe was used in the freeway shooting, was discovered in an area where a shooter could have “shot down upon the interstate from that wooded location,” Acciardo said.

“It’s a random act,” Acciardo said when asked about a possible motive for the shooting.

Police have received more than 100 calls from people reporting they may have spotted Couch, Acciardo said. He said authorities believe Couch is hiding in the woods near the interstate.

Acciardo described the shooting as “sniper-like” and said it was not the result of road rage. He said investigators do not believe the shooter knew any of the victims or had contact with them before the shooting.

Acciardo said that up to 60 members of law enforcement searched the area of the shooting until 3 a.m. Sunday before halting the search out of safety concerns, saying it was pitch black on the highway and describing the terrain where the search was being conducted as very rugged.

The search for Couch resumed at 9 a.m. local time Sunday, Acciardo said.

The FBI, the U.S. Marshal’s Service and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are assisting local authorities in the investigation, officials said.

The shooting unfolded about 5:30 p.m. local time on Interstate 75, near exit 49 about eight miles north of London, officials said.

Arriving deputies found nine vehicles had been shot in both the north and southbound lanes of I-75, Laurel County Sheriff John Root said at a news conference late Saturday night.

Root said deputies found five people with serious gunshot wounds, including one who was shot in the face. He said one vehicle contained two people who were shot.

Acciardo said Sunday that none of the victims suffered life-threatening injuries and were all in stable condition.

“A couple of our deputies, because of the severity of the injuries, loaded the people up, the injured persons, and transported them to London Hospital,” Root said.

Two additional people were injured in a car crash that occurred during the shooting, authorities said.

Root said I-75 was immediately shut down in both directions, saying that at the time, deputies didn’t know where the bullets came from.

“We couldn’t risk somebody else being shot,” Root said.

The sheriff declined to say why Couch is a person of interest in the shooting but did say it is “based on our investigation at the scene.”

He said initial reports that the shooting stemmed from a road rage incident were not accurate.

Root said Couch has an address in Woodbine, Kentucky, and the sheriff’s office described him as about 5-foot-10-inches tall and 154 pounds.

Interstate 75 was closed for more than three hours after the shooting as law enforcement officers worked to secure the scene and collect evidence.

Root did not immediately disclose the type of weapon investigators believe was used in the crime.

A motive for the shooting remained under investigation.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said in a statement on X that he is monitoring the situation.

In an interview Sunday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Christina Dinoto said she was driving with a friend southbound on I-75, heading to Tennessee, when the shooting erupted.

“All of a sudden we just heard this loud, deafening sound,” Dinoto said. “And my ear, my right ear, started ringing, and we didn’t know what the sound was, but we both looked at each other and said, was that a gunshot?”

Dinoto said that when she pulled off the interstate in Knoxville, she discovered damage to her vehicle that she suspects was caused by a bullet that may have ricocheted off another car.

The Kentucky shooting came less than a week after six people were injured in six shootings that occurred on Sept. 2 on Interstate 5 in the state of Washington between 8:26 p.m. and 11:01 p.m. local time, officials said. A suspect whose vehicle was sought in connection with several of the shootings was arrested in the Tacoma area on Sept. 3, police said.

ABC News’ Alex Presha contributed to this report.

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(JOPPA, Md.) — A 16-year-old student allegedly shot a 15-year-old boy during an “altercation” in the boys’ bathroom at Joppatowne High School in Joppa, Maryland, on Friday, authorities said.

The 15-year-old was attended to by school nurses and the principal, and then airlifted to a trauma center where he is in serious condition, Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler said at a news conference.

The 16-year-old suspect left the school and fled to nearby houses, the sheriff said. He was apprehended “within minutes” thanks to community members, Gahler said.

The shooting unfolded on the suspect’s first day at the school, though it’s now four days into the school year, Gahler said.

It appears one shot was fired in the incident, the sheriff said, noting that the gun has not been recovered.

Authorities don’t know what the apparent argument was about, the sheriff said.

The suspect is known to law enforcement and police have previously responded to calls for service involving the teen, authorities said.

More than 100 police officers responded to the scene in Joppa, about 35 miles northeast of Baltimore, Gahler said.

“We’re just devastated to be a part of this awful group of schools that have experienced things like this,” Harford County Public Schools Superintendent Sean Bulson said. “And we’re going to do everything we can, working with this community, to make sure this absolutely never happens again.”

The school does not have metal detectors, officials said.

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(NEW YORK) — The judge in former President Donald Trump’s criminal hush money case has delayed his sentencing from Sept. 18 until Nov. 26 — after the presidential election.

The decision, issued in a court filing Friday, means Trump will not face consequences for falsifying business records related to a hush payment to Stormy Daniels before voters choose the next president.

Judge Juan Merchan also said he would now rule on Trump’s motion to set aside the verdict on Nov. 12.

Trump is seeking to have the case dismissed on the grounds of presidential immunity, after the Supreme Court ruled in blockbuster decision that Trump is entitled to immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts undertaken while in office.

“The public’s confidence in the integrity of our judicial system demands a sentencing hearing that is entirely focused on the verdict of the jury and the weighing of aggravating and mitigating factors free from distraction or distortion,” Merchan wrote in his ruling Friday. “The members of this jury served diligently on this case, and their verdict must be respected and addressed in a manner that is not diluted by the enormity of the upcoming presidential election.”

Merchan appeared to arrive at the decision reluctantly, ruling that sentencing would be “adjourned to avoid any appearance — however unwarranted — that the proceeding has been affected by or seeks to affect the approaching Presidential election in which the Defendant is a candidate.”

Merchan’s opinion noted that any conflict was of Trump’s own making as the former president repeatedly sought to delay the proceedings.

“Notably, had Defendant been sentenced on July 11, 2024, as originally scheduled, there would of course have been no cause for delay,” the judge wrote.

Merchan also chided Trump for attempting to bolster his argument with “a litany of perceived and unsubstantiated grievances from previous filings that do not merit this Court’s attention.”

Trump was found guilty in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.

He has denied all wrongdoing and has said he will appeal the decision.

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(NEW YORK) — For the second year in a row, summer in the Northern Hemisphere ranked as the warmest on record with extreme heat bringing persistent, dangerously hot conditions across several continents, according to a new report by Copernicus, the European Union’s Climate Change Service.

Summer 2024 (June through August) was the warmest summer on record for the Northern Hemisphere, beating the previous record set in 2023 by .66 degrees Celsius, or 1.19 degrees Fahrenheit, the report found. The Northern Hemisphere’s top 10 warmest summers on record have all occurred within the past 10 years, according to Copernicus.

Last month also registered as the joint-warmest August on record globally, tying the value observed in 2023, the report, released Thursday, found.

As the planet continues to set new global temperature records, parts of the West Coast continue to experience record-breaking heat. While much of the region typically experiences the warmest temperatures of the year on average during the month of September, the current round of hot weather impacting millions is reaching dangerous levels.

Extreme last-season heat is impacting major cities up and down the West Coast. Heat alerts were in effect across parts of six western states, from Arizona to Washington on Wednesday, including more than 65 million Americans. Several major cities could see records challenged in the coming days.

This latest round of extreme heat comes as major cities in the West such as Phoenix, Arizona, and Las Vegas, Nevada, experienced their hottest summers on record, according to the National Weather Service.

“The temperature-related extreme events witnessed this summer will only become more intense, with more devastating consequences for people and the planet unless we take urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Samantha Burgess, deputy director of Copernicus, said in a statement.

Researchers at Copernicus said that it remains likely that 2024 is going to be the warmest year on record, beating out the new record set just last year. The year-to-date global average temperature anomaly through the end of August currently ranks .23 degrees Celsius, or .41 degrees Fahrenheit, warmer than the same period in 2023.

The average anomaly for the remaining months of this year would need to drop by at least .30 degrees Celsius, or .54 degrees Fahrenheit, for 2024 not to be warmer than 2023. This has never happened in the organization’s ERA5 dataset.

The last time Earth recorded a cooler-than-average year was in 1976, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Organization (NOAA).

August 2024 ended up tied with August 2023 as the warmest August on record globally, registering an average surface air temperature of 16.82 degrees Celsius, or 62.28 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the report. This is .71 degrees Celsius, or 1.28 degrees Fahrenheit, above the 1991-2020 average for the month.

The global average temperature over the past twelve months, September 2023 through August 2024, was 1.64 degrees Celsius, or 2.95 degrees Fahrenheit above the pre-industrial average, the report found.

The Paris Agreement goals aim to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius higher than pre-industrial levels.

Scientists say that it is important to note that exceeding the 1.5 degree Celsius warming threshold temporarily is not seen as a failure under the Paris Agreement since the agreement looks at the climate average over multiple decades. However, short-term breaches of the threshold are an important signal that those higher averages are likely to happen in the next decade if emissions aren’t reduced significantly.

Global daily sea surface temperatures across most of the world’s oceans remain well above average. The average global sea surface temperature for August 2024, between the latitudes of 60 degrees south and 60 degrees north, was 69.64 degrees Fahrenheit, the second-highest value on record for the month and just slightly below the record value set last year, the report found.

Persistent marine heatwaves are keeping sea surface temperatures at near-record levels across parts of the globe, including the Atlantic Basin. These unusually warm conditions were one of the primary factors that led NOAA to forecast a very active Atlantic hurricane season this year.

While the season got off to an impressive start with storms like record-breaking Hurricane Beryl and weeks of above-average activity earlier in the summer, the Atlantic Basin is now seeing a stretch of remarkably quiet conditions with the peak of the season just days away.

The past three weeks in the Atlantic Basin have been notably quiet with no named storm formations since Ernesto on Aug. 12.

However, toward the middle of September, large-scale environmental conditions look to become more favorable for tropical cyclone activity. This is particularly concerning for forecasters tracking the tropics because as many of the factors that have been inhibiting tropical activity begin to ease, any potential systems that begin to develop will have an ample supply of fuel to not only form but potentially go under rapid intensification.

Antarctic sea ice extent dipped to its second-lowest value on record for the month of August, 7% below average. Arctic sea ice extent was 17% below average for the month, ranking as the fourth lowest value on record and noticeably lower than the August values observed in the previous three years, according to Copernicus.

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(WINDER, Ga.) — Colt Gray, the 14-year-old suspect in the Apalachee High School shooting, is set to face a judge Friday for his arraignment.

This will mark the first court appearance for the teenager, who authorities allege killed four people, including two teachers and two students, at his high school and injured nine others. The Georgia Bureau of Investigations previously said he will be tried as an adult.

He has been charged with four counts of felony murder, with additional charges expected, the GBI said. Gray surrendered at the scene to the school resource officers, according to the GBI.

He was taken into custody on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. ET, seven minutes after the initial service call went out, according to the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office, which employs the school resource officers.

On Thursday night, Colin Gray, the father of the 14-year-old, was arrested and charged with murder in connection with the deadly shooting, the GBI said.

Colin Gray, 54, was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, the GBI said.

At a news conference on Thursday evening, Chris Hosey, director of the GBI said that the father was arrested for “knowingly allowing his son, Colt, to possess a weapon.”

It is currently unclear when Colin Gray is expected to appear in court or whether he has obtained legal counsel following his arrest.

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(WINDER, Ga.) — Colt Gray, the 14-year-old accused of opening fire at his Georgia high school, made his first court appearance on Friday, where the judge informed him of the charges against him and ordered him held without bond.

Gray is charged with four counts of felony murder for allegedly shooting and killing two teachers and two students at Apalachee High School on Wednesday.

Another seven students and two teachers were injured. All of the injured victims are expected to make full recoveries, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said.

More charges against Gray are expected, the GBI said.

The 14-year-old will be tried as an adult, authorities said. His preliminary hearing is set for Dec. 4.

The teen’s father, Colin Gray, 54, was arrested Thursday and charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, the GBI said.

Colin Gray is accused of “knowingly allowing his son, Colt, to possess a weapon,” GBI Director Chris Hosey said Thursday.

Investigators believe that Gray received the AR-style gun used in the shooting as a Christmas present from his father, according to sources.

Colin Gray also made his first appearance on Friday, in the same courtroom as his son.

A motive has not yet been determined and it is unknown if the victims were targeted, investigators said.

Gray’s aunt, Annie Brown, said her nephew was “begging for help from everybody around him.”

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(WINDER, Ga.) — The teenager suspected in the shooting at Apalachee High School on Wednesday that left four dead had an apparent affinity for mass shooters, multiple sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News.

Investigators are currently scouring social media posts that mention prior mass shootings and those who carried them out from accounts associated with the suspect, who officials previously identified as 14-year-old Colt Gray, the sources said.

Over a year before Wednesday’s incident — back in May 2023 — the FBI reached out to the local authorities at the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office after a Discord user alerted the Bureau about a possible threat of a shooting at a middle school.

The 2023 FBI tip about online threats that were traced to Colt Gray included a user profile written in Russian, sources said. Investigators with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department said at the time that the translation of the Russian letters spells out the name Lanza, referring to Adam Lanza, the mass shooter at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

The 2023 documents released Thursday reflect how Colt Gray’s father, Colin Gray, was very concerned about his son being “picked on” and “ridiculed” day after day at school.

Gray said that was why he repeatedly visited his son’s school in 2023.

When the deputy spoke with Colt Gray, the then-13-year-old told the officer that he had a Discord account but had deleted it months earlier, before they moved to a new home.

“I promise I would never say something [like that],” Colt Gray said of the reported school shooting threat, according to a transcript of his interview with the officer.

The officer then told Colt, “I gotta take you at your word, and I hope you’re being honest with me.”

“Oh yes, sir,” Colt responded.

According to the 2023 interview, his father Colt Gray told the deputy that the family — and Colt Gray in particular — were going through a hard time, with Colt Gray’s mother moving away with two of Colt’s younger siblings after the whole family was evicted from their home.

On Thursday, in a brief exchange ABC News had with Annie Brown, the aunt of Colt Gray, she said that her nephew was “begging for help from everybody around him.”

Colt Gray’s maternal grandfather, Charles Polhamus, told ABC’s Vera Drymon on Thursday that he believes the teenager’s father, Colin Gray, bears some responsibility.

“I put the blame where it belongs. His father should be convicted as well,” he said.

Colin Gray was arrested Thursday and charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children. He is currently in custody, and no information on a court date was immediately available.

Colt Gray was taken into custody on Wednesday at the school. He was charged with four counts of felony murder, with additional charges expected, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said. He will be in court on Friday.

ABC News couldn’t immediately determine if Colt or Colin Gray had legal representation.

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(WINDER, Ga.) — As students hid behind desks and doors during the latest deadly school shooting in the United States, they pulled out their cell phones.

It was just before 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, that Becky Van Der Walt received a text message from her son that no parent wants to receive.

“I think there’s a school shooting,” Van Der Walt’s son, Henry, a junior at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, wrote, according to text messages shared with ABC News. “We heard gunshots and the police shouting … We’re all in hard lockdown.”

Around eight minutes later, Henry sent another text to his mom with three simple words, “I love you.”

Around the same time Wednesday, Erin Clark, also a parent of an Apalachee High School student, saw a concerning text message pop up on her phone from her son, Ethan.

“School shooting rn .. i’m scared,” Ethan, the high school student, wrote to his mom. “pls i’m not joking.”

When Clark responded that she was leaving work, Ethan, too, responded with just three words: ” I love you.”

Sonya Turner was home for less than an hour Wednesday after dropping off her 15-year-old daughter at Apalachee High School when she too got a worrisome text.

“There’s a real lockdown,” Turner’s daughter Abby, a sophomore, wrote to her mom from biology class. “idk how to explain it … i heard shots but i don’t anymore.”

While Abby and her fellow classmates were texting their parents Wednesday morning, not knowing what would happen, a 14-year-old student had allegedly opened fire at Apalachee High, killing four people and injuring nine.

The 14-year-old student accused of opening fire at the school has been charged with four counts of felony murder, with additional charges expected, Georgia Bureau of Investigation officials said Thursday. A motive is not known.

Two teachers and two students were killed in the shooting: math teacher and football coach Richard Aspinwall, 39; math teacher Cristina Irimie, 53; and students Mason Schermerhorn, 14, and Christian Angulo, 14, according to officials.

Eight students and one teacher were injured, officials said, but all are expected to survive.

Becky Van Der Walt told ABC News it was “terrifying” to receive a text message about a school shooting from her son, with whom she reunited later in the day.

Ethan Clark also survived the shooting, as did Turner’s two daughters, Abby and Isabella, a 14-year-old freshman at Apalachee High.

Turner told ABC News that as soon as texts from her daughters about gunshots came in just before 10:30 a.m., she called her husband to go to the school, telling him, “It’s real. Go. Go. Go.'”

For the next hour, Turner, also the mom of a 9-year-old son, said she stayed glued to her phone, keeping her daughters calm, making sure they had safe places to hide and praying with them.

“Where are you hiding,” Turner asks in one text message, with Abby responding, “I’m behind a long desk.”

“Is there an additional closet or anything you can get in,” Turner asks Abby in a later message.

“No I can’t move … I’m not aloud to mo[v]e,” Abby replies, leading Turner to tell her, “Ok. Pray …,” while also texting prayers.

In another message, Turner asks her daughters to simply keep communicating with her so she knows they’re alive, writing to them, “Keep talking to me.”

Isabella, just a few weeks into her first year of high school, texted her mom, “I love you. Mommy im scared.”
Grief counselors from Columbine, Parkland, Sandy Hook describe what happens after a school shooting

Turner said over the course of the morning, she received text messages not only from her daughters inside the school, but from fellow parents who were also communicating with their kids and helping each other as they intermittently lost communication.

“[A friend] has two kids [at Apalachee High School], and she couldn’t get one of them on the phone, and he turned out to be in the classroom of the first teacher that was pronounced dead,” Turner said. “She’s texting and texting and couldn’t get him and couldn’t get him, and that’s because he was trying to save his teacher.”

In another instance, Turner said she temporarily lost communication with Isabella.

“That was a total freak-out moment but her phone had gotten taken, the whole class, they took their phones,” Turner said, adding. “But when they ushered them all out onto the football field, she got to a friend who was able to text me … so I knew she was safe.”

Turner, who is recovering from abdominal surgery, said she ended up walking over one mile from her home to the high school, where, after several hours, she was able to reunite with her daughters.

“Abby just keeps hearing the gunshots, and their question now is, how do we go back to school,” Turner said. “Izzy’s stuff is all in her classroom right where she left it, and she’s like, ‘Mommy, I don’t want to go get it. I don’t want to go back into that room.’’

ABC News’ Caroline Guthrie contributed to this report.

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(SPRINGFIELD, Ill.) — Newly released police body camera footage shows Sonya Massey interacting with police officers 16 hours before she was fatally shot in her Illinois home on July 6, when deputies responded to her 911 call of a suspected prowler.

In the course of the video, which was obtained by ABC affiliate WICS and is about 45 minutes long, an upset Massey is seen outside of a home on July 5, the day before Sean Grayson, the now-former Sangamon County deputy, shot her.

“I don’t know where they at,” Massey said in the video, referring to her children.

“They’re at their dad’s house,” an officer said to Massey. “They’re worried about you too. Everybody just wants you to be OK. That’s all it is.”

That encounter happened after Massey’s mother Donna called 911 to report that her daughter was having a mental health episode. In the video, Sonya Massey appeared to be troubled about the utilities being turned off at her home.

“When I got home, I ain’t got no hot water, ain’t got no lights,” Sonya Massey said in the footage. “I had to throw away all of the food.”

At one point in the video, Sonya Massey told officers she had been taking her medicine.

“When’s the last time you took your medicine?” one of the respondents asked.

“Last night,” Sonya Massey responded.

When Donna Massey called 911 on July 5, she pleaded with the law enforcement not to hurt her daughter.

“She’s been mentally, having a mental breakdown,” Donna Massey said on the 911 call obtained by ABC News. “She thinks everybody’s after her.”

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump was retained by Sonya Massey’s family soon after her death.

“Sonya Massey’s family is devastated by this new footage, which shows clearly that she was in the midst of a mental health crisis,” Crump told ABC News in a statement on Thursday. “Deputy Sean Grayson’s decision to use deadly force against a woman in distress remains inexcusable, unacceptable, and criminal. Grayson must continue to be held responsible for his actions that killed Sonya, who was in desperate need of help.”

Hours later, at 12:49 a.m. on July 6, Sonya Massey called 911 herself to report a disturbance.

“It sounds like somebody was banging on the side of my house. I don’t know,” Sonya Massey said when calling 911. “Could y’all come and see?”

Grayson, 30, and a second, unnamed Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office deputy responded to her 911 at her Springfield home.

Body camera footage showed Massey, who was unarmed, saying “Please, don’t hurt me,” to the two responding deputies once she answered their knocks on her door.

“I don’t want to hurt you, you called us,” Grayson said.

Seen later in the video, while inside Massey’s home as she searched for her ID, Grayson pointed to a pot of boiling water on her stove.

“We don’t need a fire while we’re in here,” he said.

Massey then poured the water into the sink.

“I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” she said.

Grayson then shouted at Massey and threatened to shoot her, the video shows, and Massey apologized and ducked down behind a counter, covering her face with what appears to be a red oven mitt. She briefly rose, at which time Grayson shot her three times in the face, the footage shows. The former deputy failed to render aid.

Grayson said he feared for his life during his encounter with Massey, according to documents released by the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office last month.

“While on scene, I was in fear Dep. [redacted] and I were going to receive great bodily harm or death. Due to being in fear of our safety and life, I fired my duty weapon,” Grayson wrote in his field case report.

Grayson is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct. He is being held without bond and has pleaded not guilty.

According to police records, Grayson worked at six police departments in four years, was charged with two DUIs and was discharged from the army for serious misconduct. Grayson’s next court appearance is Oct. 21.

“The biggest question is: How did this man ever get hired in law enforcement?” James Wilburn, Sonya Massey’s father told ABC News in an interview in July. “But here’s a man who, in four years, he’s been in six different departments.”

ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin and Kimberly Randolph contributed to this report.

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(LOS ANGELES) — After hours of legal wrangling on Thursday, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to nine tax-related charges in a last-minute bid to avoid a lengthy and potentially embarrassing trial, abandoning an earlier proposal to plead guilty while maintaining his innocence on the underlying conduct.

U.S. Judge Mark Scarsi accepted Hunter Biden’s guilty plea to his nine-count tax case. Sentencing in the case is scheduled for Dec. 16.

Scarsi clarified that Hunter Biden faces a maximum sentence of 17 years in prison and a fine of as much as $1.35 million.

“Do you agree that you committed every element of every crime alleged…in the indictment?” Judge Scarsi asked.

“Yes,” Hunter Biden said before pleading guilty to each count of the indictment.

It was perhaps the most stunning twist in a legal drama that has for years been defined by unexpected turns – and immediately raised the specter of a presidential pardon, despite President Joe Biden’s previous assurance that he would not grant his son clemency.

Prosecutors accused Hunter Biden in December of engaging in a four-year scheme to avoid paying $1.4 million in taxes while spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on exotic cars, clothing, escorts, drugs and luxury hotels.

Hunter Biden had originally pleaded not guilty to a nine-count indictment that includes six misdemeanor charges of failure to pay, plus a felony tax evasion charge and two felony charges of filing false returns.

But on Thursday, just moments before prospective jurors were to be summoned into the Los Angeles courtroom where his trial was scheduled to begin, Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Hunter Biden, announced his intention to submit a so-called “Alford plea,” which would allow Hunter Biden to plead guilty on all counts but preclude him from acknowledging guilt on the underlying conduct.

When prosecutors opposed that path – and Judge Scarsi expressed some hesitation in granting it – attorneys for Hunter Biden said he would enter a traditional guilty plea.

“Mr. Biden is prepared to proceed today and finish this,” Lowell said Thursday afternoon in court.

In pleading guilty to the tax charges, Hunter Biden managed to avoid what was expected to be a grueling and potentially embarrassing weekslong trial, during which prosecutors had planned to examine interludes from his time suffering drug addiction and his overseas business ventures.

Attorneys in special counsel David Weiss’ office had planned to introduce more than two dozen witnesses, including Hunter Biden’s ex-wife and her sister.

Dressed in a dark suit and thick-rimmed glasses, Hunter Biden on Thursday addressed the court to acknowledge that he understood the potential consequences of a guilty plea. His voice showed little emotion and he occasionally glanced into the gallery, where his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, was seated.

Prosecutor Leo Wise, who earlier in the day called the Alford plea proposal “an injustice,” then read the entire 56-page indictment aloud in court to establish a factual record.

Thursday’s court appearance comes three months after Hunter Biden was convicted by a Delaware jury on three felony charges related to his purchase of a firearm in 2018 while allegedly addicted to drugs. His sentencing in that case is scheduled for Nov. 13.

What did prosecutors allege?

In their 56-page indictment, prosecutors alleged that Hunter Biden willfully avoided paying taxes by subverting his company’s own payroll system, that he failed to pay his taxes on time despite having the money to do so, and that he included false information in his 2018 tax returns.

“[T]he defendant spent this money on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes,” the indictment alleged.

Prosecutors also highlighted millions of dollars that Hunter Biden received from overseas business in Ukraine, China, and Romania in exchange for “almost no work.”

Although Hunter Biden eventually paid back all his back taxes and penalties with the help of a third party — identified by ABC News as Hunter Biden confidant Kevin Morris — Judge Scarsi blocked defense attorneys from introducing that information to the jury.

“Evidence of late payment here is irrelevant to Mr. Biden’s state of mind at the time he allegedly committed the charged crimes,” Scarsi wrote in an order last week.

Last June, Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor offenses, acknowledging that he failed to pay taxes on income he received in 2017 and 2018. The deal also allowed him to enter into a pretrial diversion agreement to avoid criminal charges related to his 2018 firearm purchase.

Had the deal worked out, Hunter Biden would have likely faced probation for the tax offenses and had his gun charge dropped if he adhered to the terms of his diversion agreement.

However, the plea deal fell apart during a contentious hearing before U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who took issue with the structure of the deal.

By September, the special counsel had unsealed an indictment in Delaware charging Hunter Biden for lying on a federal form when he purchased a firearm in 2018.

The federal indictment in Los Angeles for the tax crimes followed in December.

ABC News’ Olivia Rubin contributed to this report.

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