(FORT WORTH, Texas) — A former U.S. defense intelligence agency analyst convicted of spying for Cuba was released from federal prison on Friday, prison officials confirmed with ABC News.
Ana Montes, 65, was arrested in 2001 for receiving encoded messages from the Cuban government and revealed the names of at least two covert U.S. intelligence officers, according to previous ABC News reporting.
She had been scheduled for release on Sunday. However, when those dates fall on the weekend, the Federal Bureau of Prison usually releases on Friday.
Montes was most recently at a federal facility in Fort Worth, Texas, according to the Associated Press.
Author Jim Popkin, who wrote about Montes in his recently released book “Code Name Blue Wren: The True Story of America’s Most Dangerous Female Spy―and the Sister She Betrayed,” told ABC News that he’s spoken to her family and they believe that she will be moving to Puerto Rico.
“She served her time and [is] free. She’ll have the opportunity to rebuild her life,” Popkin said. “There’s a large community [in Puerto Rico] who consider her to be a hero and, in some cases, a martyr.”
In 2002, she pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit espionage and, as part of a plea deal, was sentenced to 25 years in prison but only served a little over 21 years.
St. Charles County Department of Corrections via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The attack fits a pattern of deadly vehicle attacks throughout Europe over the past two years.
The first federal death penalty trial of the Biden administration opens Monday in New York City, where Sayfullo Saipov is charged with the 2017 killings of eight people when he allegedly plowed a rental truck into pedestrians and cyclists along the West Side Highway.
The truck attack, which was on Halloween, was the deadliest terror attack in New York since Sept. 11, 2001.
Saipov, a native of Uzbekistan who lived in Florida, Ohio and New Jersey following his arrival in the United States, has pleaded not guilty to charges that include murder in the aid of racketeering.
He was allegedly inspired to commit the killings by ISIS videos he viewed, prosecutors said. The rental truck used in the Oct. 31, 2017, attack was decorated with an ISIS flag.
The suspect allegedly drove the truck on a bike lane and pedestrian walkway in lower Manhattan, near Stuyvesant High School. When the truck collided with a school bus, the driver exited the vehicle holding two objects, a paintball gun and pellet gun, prosecutors said.
“Moments after Saipov got out of the truck, he yelled, in substance and in part, ‘Allah Akbar,'” according to charging documents filed in the case.
MORE: Feds interviewed accused NYC truck attacker in 2015 about possible terror ties
Prosecutors alleged Saipov rented the pickup nine days before the attack “so he could practice making turns with the truck in advance of his attack,” prosecutors said.
He chose Halloween to commit the attack, anticipating there would be more civilians on the streets that day, prosecutors alleged.
The attack required “substantial planning and premeditation,” prosecutors said, describing how Saipov carried it out as “heinous, cruel and depraved.”
“Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov caused injury, harm, and loss to the families and friends of Diego Enrique Angelini, Nicholas Cleves, Ann-Laure Decadt, Darren Drake, Ariel Erlij, Hernan Ferruchi, Hernan Diego Mendoza, and Alejandro Damian Pagnucco,” according to court records. Five of the victims were tourists from Argentina.
If Saipov is convicted there would be a penalty phase of the case in which the jury would decide whether he deserves the death penalty or life in prison.
It has been a decade since the Southern District of New York last prosecuted a death penalty case. Its last capital murder case was against Khalid Barnes, who was convicted of murdering two drug suppliers but was ultimately sentenced to life in prison in September 2009.
The last time the death penalty was carried out in a New York federal case was in 1953 when Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a married couple, was executed after being convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage for the Soviet Union during the Cold War two years before.
There is no end in sight for the unrelenting rainfall inundating the West Coast with severe flooding and widespread power outages.
Residents in Wilton, California, who live along the Cosumnes River, are being urged to evacuate immediately amid the storm in anticipation of the river flooding over.
“We are urging residents to get out now while roads are still clear; don’t wait for an evacuation order,” the Sacramento County Office of Emergency Services told residents in its announcement on Sunday.
This same area was slammed by last weekend’s atmospheric river, which led to multiple levee failures along the Cosumnes and inundated much of the area with flooding.
That flooding prompted a shelter-in-place order in Wilton after flood waters cut off routes for residents to evacuate, and three people died in the weather event. They were found in their vehicles.
Nearly 500,000 customers across California were without power on Sunday morning as the state continues to be walloped by an ongoing atmospheric river.
The ground that is typically parched as a result of a decadeslong megadrought has now been overly saturated with moisture that threatens to continue for several days. Some coastal roads have been washed away and homes flooded, and heavy rain and mountain snow continued into Sunday morning.
Northern California will see about a 12-hour break from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. local time on Sunday, with another round of heavy rain and snow to follow Sunday overnight into Monday morning. The region will be afforded with another break from about 7 a.m. Monday to midnight on Tuesday, forecasts show.
Further south, the “fire house” of rain is expected to move down the state, with heavy flooding rains expected to hit the area between San Francisco and Los Angeles with non-stop rain from Sunday evening to Monday evening.
There is no light at the end of the tunnel for Californians hoping to see a break in the rain. The pattern is expected to continue in the coming week and into the next week wave after wave of atmospheric moisture affecting the coast.
Rain totals through Tuesday in northern California and the central coast are expected to be 2 inches to 5 inches in the valleys, up to 7 inches in the hills and between 6 inches and 12 inches in the mountains, forecasts show.
The influx of moisture will likely create more mudslides, debris flows — especially in the burn scar areas — and rapid rises of creeks, streams and rivers.
The San Lorenzo River near Santa Cruz, a coastal town about 90 miles south of San Francisco, is forecast to reach a major flood stage on Monday, nearing 23 feet. At about 21.76 feet, major flooding occurs in the Felton Grove neighborhood, with roadways several feet deep and waters inundating the approaches to the Felton Covered Bridge, according to the National Weather Service.
The Alameda Creek near Niles, about 30 miles southeast, of San Francisco, is forecast to reach near record at 15 feet on Monday. The Alameda Creek in general will be near a record height, not just at this location.
Winds with gusts up to 70 mph will continue to bring down trees and power lines, causing power outages and an unrelenting danger for people and homes within a short distance of trees.
Up to three feet of snow will have fallen in the Sierra Nevada by the time the weekend is over. Another 4 feet is possible in some regions through Tuesday alone, with more to come as the week progresses.
The moisture is also making its way further east, with western Colorado reporting 13 inches of snow over the weekend.
ABC News’ Nicholas Kerr contributed to this report.
(CHARLOTTE, N.C.) — Police searching for a missing North Carolina 11-year-old are seeking information about a Toyota Prius and the girl’s mother possibly visiting a nearby county in the weeks after the girl went missing.
The Cornelius Police Department on Friday released a flyer with images of the girl, Madalina Cojocari, and her mother, Diana Cojocari, 37, who has been charged with a felony for allegedly not reporting her missing.
The girl’s stepfather, Christopher Palmiter, 60, has also been charged. The newly released flyer did not include an image of Palmiter.
The last confirmed public sighting of Madalina Cojocari was on Nov. 22, the FBI’s Charlotte bureau said. Bureau investigators in December released a video they said showed the girl getting off a school bus at her usual stop in Cornelius, a suburb north of Charlotte.
Her mother reported her missing at her school about three weeks later, on Dec. 15, after school officials repeatedly asked why she was absent, police said.
The girl’s parents “clearly” know more than they’ve told investigators, Cornelius Police Capt. Jennifer Thompson said in a video in late December.
Police on Friday said “one of the family members” was in the area of Madison County, North Carolina, between when Madalina was last seen and when she was reported missing, according to a statement posted to Facebook. Madison County is about 150 miles west of Cornelius, where Madison lives and where investigators said she was last seen.
Investigators said they are seeking “firsthand eyewitness information from anyone who may have seen this Toyota Prius” — the newly released poster includes an image of the vehicle — “or white female in the area between the dates of November 22nd, 2022 to December 15th, 2022.”
Both parents were arrested on Dec. 17 and charged under a North Carolina law that requires guardians to notify police within “a reasonable time” when a child goes missing.
Each faces a felony charge of failure to report the disappearance of a child to law enforcement, police said in two statements.
ABC News’ Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.
(ENOCH CITY, Utah) — Residents of Enoch City, Utah, are left grieving after police said a father shot and killed his seven family members before turning the gun on himself.
Their despair stems not only from the sheer tragedy of that Utah father’s alleged murder-suicide but also from its implications: five chairs empty in local schools; local police officers living with the trauma of discovering eight dead bodies during a routine welfare check; a family now perpetually missing from community events.
“No one will probably know what was going through the minds of these individuals,” said city manager Rob Dotson, who attempted to summarize the collective grief of Enoch City. “However, we do know that they were our friends, they were our neighbors, and that we loved them.”
Dotson spoke in front of a crowd of journalists on Thursday alongside the city’s mayor, police chief and a representative from the school district. As they tried to provide updates about the tragedy, their voices shook and their eyes glistened in the lighting of the press conference. “It’s not fear,” Dotson clarified; instead, their public emotions embodied the community’s reaction.
“This is what our public feels. Discussing it, talking to each other about it brings out these emotions,” he said.
A Family Lost
Dotson noted that the investigation is still ongoing.
According to neighbor Aaron Longrifle, the Haight family seemed like “great people.” Enoch City Mayor Geoffrey Chesnut was also a neighbor and described the younger Haights coming to play with his sons in his yard.
According to a press release from Enoch City, the Haight household at the time had eight members. Michael Haight, 42, lived with his wife, Tausha Haight, 40, and Tausha’s mother, Gail Earl, 78. The Haights had five children — three daughters aged 17, 12 and 7, and two sons aged 7 and 4.
Earl was residing in the home to provide “support through the difficulties that they were encountering,” according to Chesnut.
Police Chief Jackson Ames said the local police were “familiar with the family.” He noted that the police were involved in “some investigations with the family” years prior, though he did not provide specifics.
According to Chesnut, Tausha and one of her daughters attended a church event on Tuesday night. When Tausha missed an appointment on Wednesday, a community member requested a welfare check.
“The welfare check to locate Tasha became an effort to find the entire family,” said Dotson.
At 4 p.m. on Wednesday, law enforcement entered the Haight home to find the eight family members dead with gunshot wounds, according to Dotson.
“Evidence suggests that the suspect took his own life after killing seven others in the home,” according to a police press release.
A letter from the Iron County School District (ICSD) on Wednesday informed parents that the five children killed were students in the district.
Since the discovery of the bodies, Enoch City has witnessed an outpouring of support, including from neighboring towns, schools, the National Security Council and President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden, according to Chesnut.
“Too many Americans have lost loved ones or had their lives forever changed due to gun violence, and gun violence remains the leading cause of death for children in America,” said a press release from the White House.
When asked about the motive, Chesnut mentioned that Tausha filed paperwork to begin divorce proceedings on Dec. 21, though he clarified that the investigation was still ongoing.
A statement obtained by ABC News from the Earl family additionally noted that weapons were intentionally removed from the home prior to the incident.
“Protective arms were purposely removed from the home prior to the incident because all adults were properly trained to protect human life,” the statement read.
Terry Earl, one of Gail Earl’s sons, clarified that the weapons were removed by Michael, “which ultimately left my sister and my mother vulnerable to his actions without any means to protect the children or themselves.”
A Community Responds
Chesnut described the small city of roughly 7,500 residents as a large family, even giving the example of one cul-de-sac that contained 55 children at one point.
“The neighbors are good, the people are wonderful and the efforts that we make on one another’s behalf is like family,” he told reporters.
“We all know this family; many of us have served with them in church and community, and gone to school with these individuals,” Dobson said at a press conference on Wednesday night. “And so this community at this time is hurting, they’re feeling loss, they are feeling pain, they have a lot of questions which is natural.”
Though Longrifle described Enoch as a “quiet town,” he said that Wednesday’s tragedy forces him to change his perspective.
“We don’t normally lock our doors; our doors are wide open all hours of the day, all hours of the night,” he said. “Anybody could walk in at any time, you know, but that’s now going to be changing.”
Added neighbor Desi Herring: “All I can say is in all my years living in Enoch, 21 years, I have never seen such a tragedy hit our community.”
Utah’s “Dark Cloud of Suicide”
In the aftermath of the murder-suicide, community members are struggling to comprehend the magnitude of the loss.
For Longrifle, the tragedy exemplified Utah’s suicide problem.
“I believe that Utah is just covered in a dark cloud of suicide,” he said.
A spokesperson for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said the Haight family was a part of its local LDS church. It held a remembrance ceremony for the family Thursday night.
(NEW YORK) — An Arkansas prep school went into lockdown after a man entered the school’s church, destroyed its marble altar, and walked out with multiple 1,500-year-old relics, according to authorities.
The incident happened at the Subiaco Abbey Church in Arkansas, part of a Benedictine monastery and an all-male, college-prep school.
According to Subiaco Abbey and the Logan County Sheriff’s Office, Jerrid Farnam, 31, entered the building between 3 and 4 p.m. on Jan. 5. He used a regular hammer and sledgehammer to destroy a marble altar that housed two brass containers that each stored three sacred relics.
“The altar itself had a very large hole in the middle of the slab that went all of the way through the altar and the altar had large cracks and chips,” Sheriff’s office wrote in a statement. “This is an act of desecration to the altar.”
According to Subiaco Abbey, the man was interrupted after he removed the veil from the church’s tabernacle. In this vessel, Catholic churches store consecrated bread believed to be the body of Jesus Christ.
“The Sheriff reported that the man had wanted to break into the tabernacle but had looked up at the statue of Mary and decided he couldn’t do that to her,” Subiaco Abbey wrote in a Facebook post.
Farnam left the premises with two relic boxes he took from the altar, which contained six relics from saints that dated back to 500 A.D., according to the Sheriff’s office.
According to Subiaco Abbey, the school went into lockdown while the sheriff’s office investigated the incident. After law enforcement left the church, Farnam returned to the church and spoke with a monk. According to the sheriff’s office, officers returned to the church and arrested Farnam, who lives in the Subiaco area.
Subiaco Abbey noted that witnesses were “fairly confident” that Farnam had been seen previously in the church. According to their Facebook, Subiaco Abbey hosts public prayers five times daily.
After Farnam’s arrest, officers found a box containing the relics in his truck along with the dusty sledgehammer and hammer allegedly used to desecrate the altar, according to Subiaco Alley.
Farnam is currently detained at a local jail. The sheriff’s office said he faces charegs of theft, mischief, burglary, breaking and entering, and public intoxication, though the exact charges may change.
The Logan County Sheriff’s Office noted that the other missing relic box was later obtained and returned to Subiaco Abbey.
Meanwhile, Subiaco Monastery wrote that they would use a portable monastery until they could repair the shattered altar.
“Now that the gentleman has been caught and justice will proceed, may we also offer a prayer for him,” they wrote in their statement.
(NEW YORK) — After no ticket matched all six numbers drawn Friday night, the Mega Millions jackpot surged to $1.1 billion, marking the fourth time the prize has surpassed $1 billion in just over four years.
The current prize would be the third-largest jackpot in the game’s history. The largest prize was $1.537 billion, won in South Carolina on Oct. 23, 2018 followed by a $1.337 billion prize won in Illinois on July 29, according to Mega Millions.
The winning numbers for Friday’s jackpot were 3, 20, 46, 59, 63 and the Gold Mega Ball number was 13.
“We are thankful for the support of our customers and retailers, which allows each of our 47 member lotteries to generate funds for good causes within their jurisdiction. As the jackpot grows, we encourage our players to keep within their entertainment budget and enjoy this jackpot run right along with us,” said Ohio lottery director Pat McDonald, lead director of the Mega Millions Consortium, in a statement.
There have been 24 consecutive drawings since Oct. 14 but no grand prize winner has been declared which has ramped up the jackpot.
(NEW YORK) — Pushing through high winds, heavy snow and dangerous road conditions, an organ transporter was able to deliver a kidney on Christmas Eve before time ran out.
Lucas Baker, a transporter for Trinity Medical Solutions’ Midwest division, told ABC News that in his ten years of transporting organs, he’s gone the distance to get organs or medical personnel to patients. But he said his job on Dec. 23 was one of the toughest assignments he’s undertaken because of the blizzard and subzero temperatures that he faced during the 400-mile trek.
“My biggest fear was running out of gas. With the temps being subzero, you don’t last long in that,” Baker told ABC News.
Baker, who is based in Rochester, Minnesota, got the call on Dec. 23 for a kidney transport from Minneapolis to Bismarck, North Dakota. The kidney was being delivered in a container with surgical ice which typically keeps the organ safe and viable for about 18 hours, according to Baker.
For the first leg of the trip, Baker said road conditions were not bad and he was able to make it to Fargo, North Dakota, in about three and a half hours. Things changed soon as the blizzard and cold snap that struck the Midwest that day got worse.
“From Fargo to Jamestown…there were snow drifts about every 50 yards,” he recalled.
Baker said he had to change routes when he reached a roadblock outside of Jamestown and the road conditions got worse.
“I think I only traveled 25 miles in that hour and a half,” he said.
When he tried to get back on the main road, Baker said his car got stuck in a snowbank and he called for help.
Deputy Mercedez Holzworth of the Stutsman County, North Dakota, Sheriff’s Office, was already driving in the area to answer a call of a truck that was also stuck in a snowbank and arrived at Baker’s scene.
Holzworth told ABC News that the situation was personal since she has a sister who received several liver transplants so she knew what was at stake.
“I know there is an urgency to that and I had to make him a priority,” she told ABC News.
The deputy took out a manual shovel and began to dig out Baker’s vehicle before plow trucks arrived.
Baker said he was grateful for Holzworth’s efforts, especially since he saw her being blasted with strong wind gusts.
“I drive a Lincoln Navigator and even I couldn’t open the door easily because the winds were so strong,” he said. “Without her showing up I would have gotten out.”
Baker was able to get out of the snowbank and head to a gas station and refuel before finding another path on the main road. By the morning, the road was more clear and he said he was able to get to Sanford Hospital in Bismarck, where the patient Jerry Bernal, was being prepped for surgery.
“We probably only had three hours remaining,” Baker said of the kidney’s viability.
“Myself and my drivers, anytime we deliver a physical organ to a hospital or drop off a heart team or a lung team at a hospital you know that patient is getting that organ within minutes of stepping in the OR,” Baker added.
Baker’s Christmas Eve delivery turned out to be a success for Bernal who had been on the transplant list since October, in stage 5 kidney failure, according to ABC affiliate KSTP.
“I just keep on remembering what people tell me, ‘Have faith, have faith,'” Bernal told KSTP. “And it had to be God making a path for the driver that night. He could’ve easily called his boss and said, ‘Oh, I can’t get here.’ But I think God touched all of them and made a path to get the kidney here on time.”
Baker said seeing Bernal’s interview with KSTP was the first time he has ever been able to see the face of a patient who received an organ that he transporting, and he was humbled by Bernal’s words.
Still, Baker said he’s been used to doing everything he can to make sure his transports are successful and will continue to do so no matter what obstacle is in his path.
“I know it seems weird at this point it doesn’t crash your mind when you get those calls,” he said. “It’s become almost a daily routine for me.”
(NEWPORT NEWS, Va.) — A teacher was injured in a shooting at an elementary school after a 6-year-old student opened fire during an altercation in Virginia on Friday, police and school officials said.
The unidentified woman was described as being in her 30s and was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries, police said. The teacher was listed in stable condition as of Saturday afternoon, police said.
No students were injured in the shooting, which occurred in a first-grade classroom at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, police and school officials said.
The unidentified suspect is in custody, Newport News Public Schools said in a statement, adding, “All of the students are safe.”
The incident took place during an altercation between the teacher and the student, police said without providing more details.
Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew told reporters Friday evening that the incident was “not an accidental shooting,” and it didn’t appear that the student and teacher knew each other beyond the classroom environment.
“We’re beginning the process to reunite parents with students,” the Newport News Police Department said in a statement. “More information will be released when it is available.”
Drew said officials are looking into how the student obtained the handgun used in the incident.
A representative for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told ABC News the agency is assisting in the investigation by tracing the firearm that was recovered on the scene.
The shooting was reported around 2 p.m. inside the school, Drew told reporters.
“We did not have a situation where someone was going around the school shooting,” Drew said. “We have a situation in one particular location where a gunshot was fired.”
Drew called the response from the school’s faculty and staff “heroic” in moving the students to the gymnasium and keeping everyone calm.
“The No. 1 process right now is to make sure we have counselors with our most precious thing we have, right — our students — and to get them back acquainted with their parents. That’s what we’re doing right now,” Drew said.
Newport News is located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area in southeastern Virginia, near Norfolk.
Newport News Mayor Phillip Jones was on the scene Friday afternoon and said he would be staying overnight at the hospital.
“It’s been a long day for a lot of people, but at the end of the day the children’s safety is our top priority,” he told reporters.
One parent said her “heart stopped” when she heard the news of a shooting at her 9-year-old son’s school.
“I was freaking out, very nervous, just wondering, was that one person my son,” she said. “But he’s OK.”
Newport News Public Schools Superintendent Dr. George Parker said more needs to be done to stop gun violence in schools.
“I’m sounding like a broken record today because I keep reiterating that we need to keep guns out of the hands of our young people,” he told reporters.
The school will be closed on Monday and Tuesday, the district said.
“We are deeply saddened by the events at Richneck Elementary School,” Newport News Schools tweeted Saturday. “Our hearts our with our Richneck family during this difficult time.”
ABC News’ Jianna Cousin, Beatrice Peterson and Benjamin Siu contributed to this report.
Jefferson Siegel/NY Daily News via Getty Images, FILE
(NEW YORK) — Opening statements are scheduled for Monday in the trial of a former Columbia University gynecologist accused of sexually abusing patients, including a minor, two who were pregnant and Evelyn Yang, wife of former presidential candidate Andrew Yang.
Dr. Robert Hadden, 64, pleaded not guilty in September 2020 to six counts of enticing and inducing victims to his medical offices and subjecting them to unlawful sexual abuse. Federal prosecutors alleged Hadden also assaulted “dozens of female patients, including multiple minors” between 1993 and 2012.
Each of the federal charges against Hadden carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
“Hadden allegedly used the examinations of his victims for his own sexual gratification, abusing dozens of victims over a nearly 20-year period, including multiple minor girls, one of whom Hadden had himself delivered. The allegations show that Hadden acted as a predator in a white coat,” said Audrey Strauss, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York at the time the charges were announced.
Hadden tried unsuccessfully to dismiss the indictment, arguing the federal government delayed bringing charges against him for conduct dating from 1997-2012. Hadden said it violated the Due Process Clause because it “severely prejudiced” his ability to defend himself.”
Columbia University announced a $230 million settlement with more than 200 of Hadden’s patients, The Associated Press reported in October.
In 2016, Hadden pleaded guilty of abusing six women in a no-jail plea deal with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, leading to questions over how then-district attorney Cy Vance handled sex crimes. Under current DA Alvin Bragg the office has since reorganized the sex crimes unit.
“Thank you to the US Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York for bringing these charges against Dr. Hadden. They are long overdue. This physician abused dozens of women, including minors, under the guise of practicing medicine and should not be walking free,” Evelyn Yang said in a statement when the federal charges were announced.
According to the criminal charges, Hadden developed a relationship with his victims before engaging in a course of increasingly abusive conduct, which he tried to mask under the guise of legitimate medical care. Hadden invited victims to meet with him alone in his office, sent nurses and medical assistants out of the examination room for periods of time and, according to the indictment, enticed and coerced six particular victims, including a minor, to travel to New York City from another state to engage in illegal sexual activity.
