(NEW YORK) — Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford has announced felony charges against six so-called “fake electors” for their alleged role in efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, his office announced Wednesday.
Among those charged are some of the top officials from the Nevada Republican Party, including Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald, Nevada Republican Party National Committeeman Jim DeGraffenreid, Clark County Republican Party Chairman Jesse Law and Storey County Clerk Jim Hindle, as well as Republican operatives Shawn Meehan and Eileen Rice.
The six defendants were indicted by a grand jury in the Eighth Judicial District Court in Nevada for falsely portraying themselves as Nevada’s presidential electors after the last presidential election, the attorney general’s office said.
Each of the defendants have been charged with felonies including offering a false instrument for filing, offering a forged instrument, and offering a false instrument titled “Certificate of the Votes of the 2020 Electors from Nevada” to the President of the Senate; the Archivist of the United States; the Nevada Secretary of State; and the United States District Court for the District of Nevada.
Several of them met with the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, and McDonald and DeGraffenreid reportedly testified before a federal grand jury that was empaneled in Washington, D.C., to investigate Jan. 6 earlier this year.
“When the efforts to undermine faith in our democracy began after the 2020 election, I made it clear that I would do everything in my power to defend the institutions of our nation and our state,” Ford, a Democrat, said in a statement. “We cannot allow attacks on democracy to go unchallenged. Today’s indictments are the product of a long and thorough investigation, and as we enter into litigation, I am confident that our judicial system will see justice done.”
DeGraffenreid and Law declined to comment to ABC News. McDonald, Law, Hindle, Meehan and Rice could not be immediately reached for comment.
This is the third criminal indictment state attorney generals have filed against so-called “fake electors,” who allegedly pledged false electoral votes to Donald Trump in their respective states during the 2020 election, despite Joe Biden winning those states.
Three such “fake electors” were among the 18 co-defendants charged, along with Trump, in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia. Defendants Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell, Jena Ellis and Scott Hall subsequently took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants, while all other defendants have pleaded not guilty.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel in July charged 16 “alternate electors” for conspiracy to commit forgery, among other charges. Nine subsequently entered not guilty pleas.
(NEW YORK) — A suspect is dead following a fatal shooting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, on Wednesday, according to authorities and sources.
There is at least one fatality, according to multiple sources. Sheriff Kevin McMahill said there were three victims in unknown conditions, adding, “That number could change.”
UNLV said shots were reported at Beam Hall, home to the business school, as well as the student union, which is next door.
The shooting was reported at 11:45 a.m. and police responded and “engaged” the suspect, authorities said.
A ground stop was initiated at Las Vegas’ Harry Reid International Airport on Wednesday due to the close proximity of the airport runways to UNLV, and because of the police response to the shooting, which included helicopters, according to an official briefed on the incident.
UNLV said police were working to evacuate buildings one at a time and students were urged to shelter in place.
Authorities said there is no further threat to the university, which has been closed for the rest of the day.
(NEW YORK) — A suspect is dead after reports of an active shooter at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
University police said shots were reported at Beam Hall as well as the school’s student union.
There “appears to be multiple victims,” according to police.
Beam Hall is home to the university’s business school. The student union is located one building over from Beam Hall.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — The Advanced Placement African American Studies course that sparked controversy among some conservative lawmakers has been revised and was released by the College Board on Wednesday. The updated curriculum is now set to launch in the 2024-25 school year.
“This is the course I wish I had in high school,” Brandi Waters, senior director and program manager of African American Studies in the Advanced Placement Program, said in a statement.
College Board revised its curriculum multiple times as the program was being piloted in schools, and decided in April of this year to “listen to the diversity of voices within the field” to make final changes to the course, it said.
When asked Wednesday if these revisions were impacted by the criticism the course faced from some state leaders, Waters told ABC News: “We’d hope that every student that’s interested in taking this course has access to it. We really can’t speculate what any state would do.”
The course had initially rendered “too much essential content as optional,” Waters told ABC News, and the revision process brought “even more of these foundational perspectives from the field.”
AP African American Studies received intense public scrutiny from some conservative leaders, such as Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who criticized the curriculum’s retelling of U.S. racial history.
DeSantis’ administration rejected the course in January, with the Florida Department of Education saying the version of it at the time was “inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.” Several Florida students said they planned to sue the state if it refused to implement the curriculum and the White House criticized the state’s decision.
Florida, through the Stop WOKE Act, has restrictions on race-related education in public schools.
“If the course comes into compliance and incorporates historically accurate content, the department will reopen the discussion,” a Florida DOE official told ABC News in January. ABC News has reached out to the Florida DOE for comment on the new version of the course.
The Arkansas Department of Education also moved to remove the AP African American Studies pilot program in August due to concerns about whether the course would be applicable for college credit and whether it would be impacted by state race-related education restrictions.
The course reached 60 schools in the first pilot year, the 2022-23 school year, but its implementation has grown to cover roughly 700 schools and 13,000 students in its second year, according to College Board.
The course takes students through the origins of the African diaspora, the subsequent slavery and fight for freedom, the challenges and success of community development post-slavery, and the political and social movements that later evolved, according to College Board.
The curriculum will also mention major figures such as then-NFL player Colin Kaepernick, whose 2016 kneeling protest during national anthems sparked controversy, and critical race theory scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, who founded the term “intersectionality” in the Black feminist movement.
Revisions to the course also included efforts to balance introduction-level topics with time for further exploration, create a robust and diverse source base for students, and align course content with college courses for credit, College Board says.
The course has been in development for three years with the input of nearly 300 African American Studies scholars, high school AP teachers and experts, according to College Board.
(NEW YORK) — NASA and its astronauts are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the International Space Station being in orbit.
The federal space agency broadcast a live conversation between the Expedition 70 crew and NASA Associate Administrator Robert Cabana and Joel Montalbano, space station program manager on Wednesday afternoon.
The ISS launched on Nov. 25, 1998, but it was on Dec. 6 that year that one of the first elements of the ISS, Unity, was attached to the already orbiting Zarya module, according to NASA.
Unity connected the American and Russian segments of the station and is currently where crew eat meals together.
Cabana was the commander of the mission to connect the two modules and the first American to enter the ISS.
“I cannot believe it was 25 years ago today that we grappled Zarya and joined it with the Unity node. Absolutely amazing,” he told the crew. “We really appreciate what you guys are doing up there, all the science, the investigations to make life better here on Earth and prepare us for exploring beyond our home planet.”
The station has since grown to the size of an American football field made up of six sleeping quarters, two bathrooms and a gym as well as multiple areas to perform scientific research.
The space station has been continuously occupied for more than 23 years, “testing technologies, performing science, and developing the skills needed to explore farther from Earth,” NASA said in a press release.
According to NASA, the station has been visited by 273 people from 21 countries and has conducted more than 3,300 investigation.
During the call, the crew described some of the experiments they are performing, studying physiology and psychology in space and how the human body adapts in space to help improve the health of astronauts on long duration missions.
“The other thing that we’ve all been getting to work on … is a couple of different experiments in the life sciences glove box,” NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara, one of the flight engineers of the crew, said during the call. “And those experiments are all studying aging, so aging process of the human body and our immune system and how that’s impacted as we age.”
She continued, “Believe it or not, we all get older faster when we’re on orbit and so that essentially speeds up time for researchers so they can study the phenomenon that happens in our cells at a faster rate than they could on Earth. And again, the goal of that is helping improve the health of astronauts on longer duration missions to the moon and Mars but also to help improve life on Earth for people in terms of tissue degradation as we age.”
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center praised the milestone on Wednesday in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter).
“Since the connection of the Zarya and Unity modules in 1998, we have supported 80 of the 275 launches for ISS construction, resupply, and crew support, including … 37 Space Shuttle[s], 33 cargo resupply and 10 crewed spacecraft,” the post read.
However, the space station program will be coming to an end eventually, NASA officials have said. NASA has noticed signs of weakening and aging in components, specifically its modules, radiators, and central trusses.
The constantly arriving and departing vehicles as well as extreme heating and cooling cycles the ISS experiences for every obit around the Earth has put wear and tear on the station.
As NASA focuses more of its efforts on programs as such as Artemis, to return astronauts to the moon, which will require more funds and is the “clear congressional priority,” NASA is looking to transition its operations in low orbit to commercially owned and operated space programs.
NASA has committed to utilizing and operating the space station through 2030. In 2031, NASA plans to deorbit the ISS and as it naturally descends, will target the component to splashdown in a remote, unpopulated area of the ocean.
(AUSTIN, Texas) — A 34-year-old suspect was identified Wednesday morning in a series of shootings in Texas on Tuesday that left six dead and injured several others, including two police officers, authorities said.
Austin police investigators “strongly believe” the suspect, Shane James, is connected to the violent incidents and was charged with capital murder, authorities said, adding that more charges were pending.
Interim Police Chief Robin Henderson said the incidents occurred at different locations in Austin over an eight-hour period on Tuesday, beginning with the shooting of an Austin Independent School District police officer.
Investigators are actively working to determine any relationship James may have had with the people who were shot and what prompted the violence. The two victims found at the home in San Antonio are believed to be family members of the alleged shooter, though that is not yet confirmed by detectives.
“Based on the information obtained over the course of these investigations, we strongly believe one suspect is responsible for all of the incidents,” Henderson said at a news conference Tuesday night.
Austin police officers said they were investigating whether the suspect had been involved in the shootings throughout the city. Two of the injured were police officers, law enforcement said.
Additionally, law enforcement officials in Bexar County said they were investigating whether another shooting that left two dead in a “grisly” crime scene near San Antonio was connected to the Austin shootings.
The series of shootings in Austin began at about 10:43 a.m. on Tuesday, when a resource officer was shot and injured near Northeast Early College High School, police said.
About two hours later, a man and a woman were fatally shot near Shadywood Drive on Austin’s south side, police said.
A cyclist then called 911 at about 5 p.m. to report he’d been shot and injured near the 5700 block of West Slaughter Lane, police said.
Officers then responded to a possible burglary just before 6 p.m. on Tuesday near the 5300 block of Austral Loop. Police and the suspect exchanged gunfire and one of the responding officers was hit multiple times, police said. The officer was later transferred to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to officials.
The suspect then allegedly led officers on a high-speed vehicular pursuit that ended in a crash of the vehicle the suspect was driving, police said, adding that the suspect was arrested with a firearm in his possession.
While the pursuit was in progress, officers went inside the residence that was allegedly burglarized on Austral Loop and discovered two people dead from gunshot wounds, officials said.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said he was contacted by Austin police officers on Tuesday evening and was told the suspect had a connection to a residence in San Antonio.
When deputies arrived at that residence, they forced entry and found two additional people, believed to be in either their 40s or 50s, with fatal gunshot wounds, police said. The bodies were wedged inside a very small room. Officials described the scene as “grisly.”
Sheriff Salazar said it wasn’t yet clear if the suspect had any connection to the people found dead in the house. He said officials believed the killings near San Antonio happened first and then the suspect went to Austin.
(NEW YORK) — Record-breaking rainfall has inundated the Pacific Northwest — and more rain is on the way.
Some areas in western Washington state saw 6 to 10 inches of rain in less than 24 hours — on top of the snow melt and the 6 inches of rain from over the weekend.
In western Washington, homes flooded, roads closed, drivers were rescued from their cars and some rivers rose to record levels.
Most rivers have already begun to recede, but another round of heavy rain is on the way for Washington and the Pacific Northwest.
The next storm arrives in the Pacific Northwest Wednesday night into Thursday with rain stretching from Seattle to Portland to Medford, Oregon.
Yet another storm system will move into Washington and Oregon by Saturday, with more rain hitting the coast and heavy snow falling in the mountains.
An additional 6 inches of rain is possible from Wednesday through this weekend for the Pacific Northwest.
(AUSTIN, Texas) –Police in Texas said they were investigating possible connections between a series of shootings in Austin and a fatal shooting near San Antonio that left six dead in total and injured several others on Tuesday.
A suspect in his 30s was booked into the Travis County Jail and charged with capital murder on Tuesday night, the Austin Police Department said. His name has not been released. Additional charges are pending, officials said.
Austin officers said they were investigating whether the suspect had been involved in shootings at four locations throughout the city that left four dead and three injured on Tuesday. Two of the injured were police officers, law enforcement said.
Law enforcement officials in Bexar County also said they were also investigating whether another shooting that left two dead in a “grisly” crime scene near San Antonio was connected.
The series of shootings in Austin began at about 10:43 a.m. on Tuesday, when a resource officer was shot and injured near Northeast Early College High School, the Austin Police Department said.
About two hours later, a man and a woman were fatally shot near Shadywood Drive on Austin’s south side, police said.
Officers then responded to a possible burglary just before 6 p.m. on Tuesday near the 5300 block of Austral Loop. Police and the suspect fired at each other, and one of the responding officers was hit multiple times, police said. The officer was later transferred to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.
The suspect then allegedly led officers in a high-speed pursuit that ended in a crash of the vehicle the suspect was driving, police said. The man was arrested with a firearm in his possession, police said.
While the pursuit was in progress, officers went inside the residence that was allegedly burglarized on Austral Loop and discovered two people dead from fatal gunshot wounds, officials said.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said that he was contacted by Austin police officers on Tuesday evening and was told that the suspect in custody for the Austin shootings had a connection to a residence in San Antonio.
When deputies arrived at that residence, they forced entry and found two additional people, believed to be in either their 40s or 50s, with fatal gunshot wounds, police said. The bodies were wedged inside a very small room and officials described the scene as “grisly.”
The sheriff said it wasn’t yet clear if the suspect had any connection to the people found dead in the house. He said officials believed the killings near San Antonio happened first and then the suspect went to Austin.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is on trial in New York in a $250 million civil lawsuit that could alter the personal fortune and real estate empire that helped propel Trump to the White House.
Trump, his sons Eric Trump and and Donald Trump Jr., and other top Trump Organization executives are accused by New York Attorney General Letitia James of engaging in a decade-long scheme in which they used “numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation” to inflate Trump’s net worth in order get more favorable loan terms. The trial comes after the judge in the case ruled in a partial summary judgment that Trump had submitted “fraudulent valuations” for his assets, leaving the trial to determine additional actions and what penalty, if any, the defendants should receive.
The former president has denied all wrongdoing and his attorneys have argued that Trump’s alleged inflated valuations were a product of his business skill.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Dec 05, 5:04 PM EST
Defense expert quotes John Lennon, compares Trump to MLK
Prior to his brief cross-examination, real estate valuation expert Lawrence Moens quoted John Lennon’s “Imagine” and compared Donald Trump to Martin Luther King Jr. at the conclusion of his direct testimony.
“You may say I am a dreamer, but I’m not the only one,” Moens said, quoting the “Imagine” lyrics before comparing Trump to Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King Jr.
“He’s a dreamer for sure. If you have a dream and are a great American, I don’t think that’s a bad thing,” Moens said of Trump, whose Mar-a-Lago estate he praised as “something breathtaking” and “amazing to see.”
Moens’ cellphone went off during his testimony, and he briefly interrupted his direct examination to answer a call.
“I’ll call you right back … love you,” Moens said in a quiet tone as Judge Engoron watched in disbelief.
Moen apologized to the judge, explaining that the call was from his elderly father.
Court was adjourned for the day after Moens stepped off the witness stand.
Dec 05, 4:45 PM EST
Mar-a-Lago valuation expert is also Mar-a-Lago member
During a short cross-examination of the defense’s real estate valuation expert, Lawrence Moens, state attorney Kevin Wallace attempted to highlight flaws in Moens’ analysis that valued Mar-a-Lago at $1.2 billion in 2021.
Wallace noted that Moens’ analysis added over $100 million in membership dues to the value of the property, while Trump’s own statements of financial conduction didn’t include the membership fees since they’re refundable.
“Some get paid back, and some are nonrefundable,” Moens said in response. “I don’t know what their methodology is in those numbers.”
Wallace also asked if Moens had a membership in the club he had been paid to value.
“Are you a member at the club?” Wallace asked.
“I am,” Moens said, adding that he joined in 1995 or 1996.
“I don’t go too often. I don’t like clubs,” he said.
Moens described his process for valuing properties as comparable to a baker making a cake by taste, rather than a recipe. By his own admission, the process was not replicable or scientific.
“You’re not running a process that is recreatable … is that fair?” Wallace asked.
“That’s fair,” Moens said.
Like during his direct examination, Moens appeared confident and playful on the stand, even taking a job at the profession of a colleague mentioned in an email.
“I think he is still a liar — I mean a lawyer,” Moens said. “Sorry, I apologize, it was really low.”
Dec 05, 3:51 PM EST
Eric Trump will not be called as defense witness
Defense attorney Clifford Robert said the defense team was able to “streamline” their case and cut Eric Trump from their witness list.
After being called to the stand by the state last month, Eric Trump had been scheduled to testify for the defense on Wednesday, but now he will not appear.
Trump lawyer Chris Kise also requested that Judge Engoron postpone Donald Trump’s testimony until the New York Court of Appeals rules on Trump’s appeal of the case’s gag order.
“He is not capable of fully testifying because he is subject to the gag order,” Kise said.
Engoron flatly denied the request to delay Trump’s testimony, which is scheduled for Monday.
“Absolutely not. No way, no how. It’s a nonstarter,” Engoron said. “If he is going to testify, it’ll be Monday, and that’s that.”
Dec 05, 3:03 PM EST
Defense expert says Mar-a-Lago was worth $1.2 billion
Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club was worth more than $1.2 billion in 2021 — roughly double the value listed in Trump’s statement of financial condition — according to defense expert Lawrence Moens.
Describing Mar-a-Lago as a castle nestled on 17.6 acres of waterfront property, Moens said he determined the value by considering nearby properties and adding the total value of the club’s 500 memberships, which in 2021 cost $350,000 each.
Between 2011 and 2021, Moens’ analysis found that Trump undervalued Mar-a-Lago in his statements of financial condition — but his analysis appeared to be based on Trump being able to sell the property to an individual to use it as a private residence, which the New York attorney general says Trump is prohibited from doing based on a 2002 deed he signed that would “forever extinguish their right to develop or use the Property for any purpose other than club use.”
Judge Engoron only qualified Moens as an expert on the value of residential real estate.
Moens spoke with confidence about his ability to value real estate in Palm Beach, saying that he has sold billions of dollars of real estate since his first sale as a broker in 1982. Asked if any broker has sold more Palm Beach real estate than he has, Moens replied, “They don’t exist.”
“I am on the front lines everyday of selling properties, and I have a pretty good handle of what is going on currently in the market,” Moens said.
He later added, “My numbers are usually right.”
Moens also put together a seven-minute promotional video about Mar-a-Lago, which was played during his testimony. Set to relaxing music, the video included high-resolution drone shots and dramatic panning shots of the property’s amenities. After the video played, Moens highlighted details such as hand-carved stones, gold decorations that cost millions to construct, and other details that required years of work from tradesmen.
“I invited the attorney general’s office to come see it anytime. The offer still stands,” Moens said. “I will make sure he is not there when you come,” he said of Trump.
Engoron appeared attentive to Moen’s testimony — but once Moens left the courtroom, he indicated that he wasn’t as concerned about Mar-a-Lago’s specific value as he was about whether it was misrepresented.
“I see this case about the documents — whether the defendants used false documents when transacting business,” Engoron said. “I am not trying to figure out what the value is … I don’t necessarily consider it relevant.”
Dec 05, 12:31 PM EST
Mar-a-Lago would be residence if club was abandoned, expert says
Defense expert John Shubin attempted to explain that a 1993 agreement preserved Donald Trump’s right to sell his Mar-a-Lago social club as a private residence.
The testimony came after Judge Engoron prevented Shubin from sharing his own conclusion about whether Mar-a-Lago was a residence, leading Shubin to read into the record several documents involving the issue.
Shubin suggested that a 1993 agreement between Trump and the town of Palm Beach included a provision that Trump’s property would revert from a social club to Trump’s private residence if the club was ever abandoned, despite Trump’s 2002 deed restricting the property’s use to a social club.
Shubin also read into the record documents related to a 2021 Town of Palm Beach town meeting concerning whether Trump could continue to live at Mar-a-Lago as his residence.
“In sum, it is argued that Mar-a-Lago is either a private residence or a club, but cannot be both,” Palm Beach Town Attorney John C. Randolph wrote in a report read by Shubin.
“If he is a bona fide employee of the Club, absent a specific restriction prohibiting former President Trump from residing at the club, it appears the Zoning Code permits him to reside at the Club,” Randolph’s report concluded.
According to Shubin, no action was taken by the town after the meeting, suggesting Town officials concluded that Trump had the right to use the club as a residence.
New York Attorney General Letitia James has accused Trump of valuing the property as a residence worth upwards of half a billion dollars in Trump’s financial statements, while treating it as social club worth between $18 million and $28 million for tax purposes.
Dec 05, 11:03 AM EST
‘No prohibition’ on using Mar-a-Lago as residence, expert says
Introduced as an expert on land use, planning, entitlements and zoning, a witness for the defense immediately pushed back on New York Attorney General Letitia James’ chief argument that Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property was restricted to use as a social club — a claim that Judge Engoron called the “ultimate issue on Mar-a-Lago.”
“There is absolutely no prohibition on the use of Mar-a-Lago as a single-family residence,” said defense witness John Shubin.
Engoron barred Shubin from testifying about legal conclusions and immediately sustained an objection from the state regarding the testimony.
“It absolutely is a legal conclusion,” Engoron said, prompting defense lawyer Clifford Robert to unsuccessfully try to rephrase his question.
“Why don’t we just look through the documents and run backwards?” defense lawyer Chris Kise suggested.
Shubin’s testimony runs contrary to evidence presented by state lawyers that Trump signed a 2002 deed that surrendered his right to develop the property “for any purpose other than club use.”
Dec 05, 9:36 AM EST
Defense focusing on value of Mar-a-Lago
Donald Trump’s lawyers plan to call two experts, Lawrence Moens and John Shubin, to testify on Trump’s valuation of his Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Florida.
Moens is a well-known real estate broker in Palm Beach, and Shubin is an expert on deeds and land restrictions.
The value of the property has been bitterly contested by Trump’s lawyers since the start of the trial, after Judge Arthur Engoron, in his pretrial partial summary judgment determined that Trump overvalued the property by at least 2,300%. When Trump testified in the trial in November, he repeatedly lashed out at Engoron for what he called a “crazy” assessment of the property.
“He said in his statement that Mar-a-Lago is worth $18 million and it’s worth 50 times to 100 times more than that, and everybody knows it. And everybody is watching this case. He called me a fraud and he didn’t know anything about me,” Trump said on the stand.
According to evidence shown at trial, Trump agreed in a 2002 deed to “forever extinguish [his] right to develop or use the Property for any purpose other than club use.” While Trump Organization executives were aware of the limited use of the property, they allegedly valued the property as a residence in Trump’s financial statements while treating it as a social club for tax purposes, according to New York Attorney General Letitia James.
In Trump’s statements of financial condition, he valued the property between $426 million and $612 million, despite a local tax assessor appraising the market value of the property between $18 and $27 million. Engoron, in his summary judgment ruling, wrote that James had proven that Trump was liable for a false valuation of the property.
Trump has repeatedly argued that Engoron misunderstood the purpose of a tax assessment, going as far as to call Engoron’s finding “fraud.”
“Are you paying taxes on an $18 million valuation of Mar-a-Lago or $1.5 billion?” state attorney Kevin Wallace asked Trump during his direct examination.
“You know that assessments are totally different from the valuation of property,” Trump responded.
(NEW YORK) — A man has been sentenced to four years in prison after a 6-minute video that his 9-year-old child took of him beating and injuring his wife emerged, authorities said.
Miguel Lazaro-Castillo was sentenced to the maximum term allowed on his charges of four years in prison last Friday by Yuba County Judge Julia Scrogin after pleading no contest in October to charges of felony domestic violence, false imprisonment and misdemeanor child abuse, according to the Yuba County District Attorney’s Office, located north of the state capital of Sacramento.
Lazaro-Castillo’s sentencing stemmed from an incident that took place on Oct. 9 shortly before 2 a.m. when the Yuba County Sheriff’s Department received a 911 call from one of Lazaro-Castillo’s children.
“When deputies arrived six minutes later, they located Lazaro-Castillo’s wife lying face-down on the floor, surrounded by bloody napkins. Lazaro-Castillo was sitting on top of her, and their three minor children, ages 15, 14, and 9, were also present,” said the Yuba County District Attorney’s Office.
Lazaro-Castillo initially denied striking his wife and claimed he had no idea where all the blood had come from when police arrived on scene.
However, it didn’t take long for deputies to discover that his youngest child had actually filmed the attack in a video that lasted over six minutes.
“Deputies discovered that the youngest of the children had videotaped the beating,” said the district attorney’s office. “The video lasted over six minutes and showed Lazaro-Castillo repeatedly hitting his wife in the head and face. One of the children tried to protect her mother, shielding her with her hands. Lazaro-Castillo slapped the child on the leg and continued assaulting his wife. Lazaro-Castillo turned his wife onto her stomach and forced her face down into the carpet for an extended amount of time.”
Lazaro-Castillo, his wife and one of the minor children were intoxicated at the time of the incident, according to the district attorney’s office.
Yuba County Sheriff’s Deputy Bonifacio Paredes placed the children into protective custody and arrested Lazaro-Castillo at the time of the incident.
“Despite Lazaro-Castillo not having a prior criminal record, he received the maximum sentence for felony domestic violence based on the brutality of his actions and his utter disregard for his children,” the district attorney’s office said.
“Thank you to Deputies Paredes, Manion, and Jones, for you work to keep the victim and children safe,” the district attorney’s office continued. “Thank you to Yuba County Chief Deputy Shiloh Sorbello for prosecuting this case to the full extent of the law.
