(DALLAS) — A jury has begun the sentencing phase Friday for former police officer Aaron Dean, one day after he was found guilty of manslaughter in the death of Atatiana Jefferson.
The same jury decided to convict Dean on Thursday for manslaughter as opposed to a harsher murder charge during roughly 13 hours of deliberations. Manslaughter is a second-degree felony, according to the Texas penal code. It’s punishable by two to 20 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.
Jefferson, a 28-year-old Black woman, was fatally shot by Dean, a white police officer, in her Fort Worth, Texas, home on Oct. 12, 2019.
Dean and another officer responded to a nonemergency call to check on Jefferson’s home around 2:30 a.m. because a door was left open to the house.
Dean did not park near the home, knock at the door or announce police presence at any time while on the scene, according to body camera footage and Dean’s testimony.
Dean testified that he suspected a burglary was in progress due to the messiness inside the home when he peered through an open door. When Dean entered the backyard, body camera footage showed Dean looking into one of the windows of the home.
Jefferson and her young nephew Zion were playing video games when they heard a noise, according to Zion’s testimony. Zion said his aunt had left the door open because they burned hamburgers earlier in the night and were airing out the smoke.
Jefferson grabbed her gun from her purse before approaching the window, Zion testified. Police officials have said Jefferson was within her rights to protect herself.
Dean’s lawyers argued during the trial that he was confronted by deadly force when he saw Jefferson with the gun and was within his right to respond with deadly force. However, Dean admitted on the stand that his actions constituted “bad police work.”
In body camera footage, Dean can be heard shouting, “Put your hands up, show me your hands,” and firing one shot through the window, killing Jefferson. According to a forensics video expert, there was half a second between his commands and when he shot Jefferson.
Dean resigned from the police department before his arrest. Fort Worth Chief of Police Ed Kraus has said Dean was about to be fired for allegedly violating multiple department policies.
(WASHINGTON) — A follower of the QAnon conspiracy theory movement who led members of the pro-Trump mob that chased Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman during the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol is set to be sentenced Friday following his conviction of multiple felony and misdemeanor offenses for his actions during the riot.
Doug Jensen, 43, became one of the more recognizable figures in early pictures that emerged from the Capitol assault and was one of the first rioters to breach the building after scaling a 20-foot wall on the West Front of the complex.
In their sentencing memo requesting Judge Timothy Kelly sentence Jensen to more than five years in prison, prosecutors describe Jensen as a “ringleader” during the attack who later expressed pride in becoming a “poster boy” of Jan. 6.
A jury convicted Jensen in September of five felony offenses including assaulting a law enforcement officer and obstructing an official proceeding, after a trial which featured testimony from Officer Goodman himself.
Goodman described the harrowing moment he was chased by Jensen and other rioters up a stairwell inside the Capitol where he managed to divert them away from the Senate Chamber and into the Ohio Clock Corridor where other officers joined him to provide backup.
Capitol Police Inspector Thomas Lloyd said in a new letter to Judge Kelly this week that the quick thinking by Goodman likely prevented a shootout inside the Capitol to prevent rioters from reaching Senators who were at the time sheltering in place.
“Thankfully, the Defendant was able to walk out of the Capitol Building on January 6. He can thank Officer Goodman,” Lloyd said. “If Officer Goodman had not led the Defendant and the rest of the mob away from the Senate Lobby and an attempt was made to breach those doors, there would have been tremendous bloodshed.”
Even after Goodman was joined by his fellow officers, Jensen continued to confront them — demanding they “back up” and arrest Vice President Mike Pence. Prosecutors later revealed he had been carrying a knife in his pocket with a three-inch blade.
After the riot, when Jensen was first interviewed by the FBI, he was asked by agents if he regretted his actions and told them “it would have been worth it” if former President Trump was able to stay in power as a result of the attack, prosecutors say.
And while his attorneys said leading up to his trial that he was reformed and no longer believed in the QAnon conspiracy theory movement, he was later caught using an unauthorized cell phone to stream Mike Lindell’s so-called “Cyber Symposium” that propagated more conspiracy theories about the 2020 election being stolen.
(NEW YORK) — A Nor’easter is pummeling millions in the Northeast with snow, ice and rain as a major storm continues to sweep its way across the country.
This storm started in the west and the south, with 58 reported tornadoes slamming Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida.
In the north, up to 4 feet of snow fell in western South Dakota, while up to 30 inches slammed Duluth, Minnesota. Blizzard warnings are ongoing for Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota and Montana.
Part of that massive storm has redeveloped into a Nor’easter that’s pounding the Northeast.
A winter storm warning is in effect from Pennsylvania to Maine. Almost 10 inches of snow fell so far in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains while up to 4.2 inches snow hit Syracuse, New York.
Freezing rain is coating roads from Virginia to Pennsylvania.
Heavy rain and powerful winds up to 50 mph are slamming the coast from New York City to Boston.
This storm moves out of the Northeast Friday night. But with gusty, chilly winds behind the storm, up to 3 feet of lake effect snow is expected near Buffalo, New York, this weekend.
(NEW YORK) — Americans are gearing up to hit the roads and the skies for the holidays — and airlines are bracing for a packed travel season.
Here’s what you need to know before hitting the road or heading to the airport:
Best, worst days to drive
Nearly 102 million Americans — 90.4% of travelers — will drive to their holiday destinations, according to AAA.
The worst days to be on the road are Dec. 23, Dec. 27, Dec. 28 and Jan. 2, according to transportation analytics company INRIX.
But if those are your planned travel days, the best times for motorists are 2 p.m. or earlier and after 8 p.m. The best times on Jan. 2 are before 3 p.m. or after 8 p.m., INRIX said.
The best days to drive are Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, according to INRIX.
Based on average ticket prices, the most expensive day to leave town for Christmas is Thursday, Dec. 22, followed by Saturday, Dec. 17, and Friday, Dec. 23, according to Expedia.
The cheapest day to fly before Christmas is Dec. 19.
When planning your return trip, avoid flying back on Mon. Dec. 26. Instead, book for Dec. 27 or Dec. 28, according to Expedia.
Looking for the ultimate budget-friendly day? Book a flight for New Year’s Eve, according to Expedia, when ticket prices are more than $200 cheaper than average for the holiday period (Dec. 17 to Jan. 1).
Jan. 2 will be United’s busiest day
United is planning for more than 8.3 million travelers over the holidays — about 1.9 million more than last year.
But thanks to remote work, United said the holiday travel period is getting longer and demand is less concentrated on peak days.
Jan. 2 will likely be United’s busiest day, when more than 480,000 travelers are expected. The airline said it anticipates setting a new post-pandemic travel record.
Chicago O’Hare will be United’s busiest hub, followed by Denver, Newark and Houston, according to the airline.
Dec. 22, Dec. 23 and Dec. 27 peak days for Delta
Delta said it expects about 9 million customers from Dec. 16 to Jan. 3 — just shy of its 2019 numbers, when the airline had about 9.3 million customers.
Delta’s largest hub, Atlanta, will have more than 800 daily flights on average.
Delta forecasts its peak travel days to be Thursday, Dec. 22, Friday, Dec. 23, and Tuesday, Dec. 27.
Dec. 22 is American’s biggest day
American Airlines predicts to see more than 10 million passengers from Dec. 16 to Jan. 2.
American said its busiest day is Dec. 22 with 5,520 departures, followed by Dec. 15 with 5,514 departures.
(NEW YORK) — More than 30 years after allegedly fatally stabbing a man during a fight in Massachusetts, the primary suspect was captured by law enforcement over 3,000 miles away at a shrimp farm in Guatemala.
Mario R. Garcia has been wanted for the Nov. 16, 1991, homicide of Ismael Recinos-Garcia, according to the Massachusetts State Police. The two had gotten into a fight in Attleboro, Massachusetts, during which Recinos-Garcia was fatally stabbed. Garcia subsequently evaded police detection for over 30 years, earning a spot on the Massachusetts State Police Most Wanted List in 2021.
Garcia’s most wanted poster noted that he has ties to Connecticut, Utah, and Georgia, as well as being a native of Guatemala. He was wanted for not only the murder of Recinos-Garcia but also for an unrelated charge of assault and battery in Attleboro, according to authorities.
Massachusetts State Police touted a multi-agency investigation “that spanned more than 30 years and two continents,” which finally resulted in the capture of the 50-year-old Garcia — who was 19 at the time of the alleged homicide — in a press release published on Wednesday,
The press release credited Detective Lieutenant Curtis Cinelli with tracking Garcia to a shrimp farm in Guatemala where he was arrested. Cinelli was originally a case officer for the State Police Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section in 2014 when he first began tracking Garcia to Guatemala.
Despite now being in a different unit, Cinelli developed new information earlier this year that indicated Garcia was working on a shrimp farm in Iztapa, Guatemala. That information was then used by the U.S. Marshals Service and U.S. Department of State to locate and apprehend Garcia, according to the release.
“Garcia attempted to evade capture by jumping into a body of water at the shrimp farm but was apprehended and placed into custody,” according to the Massachusetts State Police,
U.S. and Guatemalan authorities are now working on extraditing Garcia so that he may eventually face prosecution in Bristol County, Massachusetts.
(MEDFORD, Ore.) — A day after Alejandra, which is not her real name, arrived for a job harvesting marijuana at a farm near Medford, Oregon, she says things took a harrowing turn when armed guards prevented workers from leaving.
“Holding a gun, one of them said, ‘No one goes out. No one goes out until you’re done trimming the pot. No one goes out and no one comes in,’” the undocumented mother of three told ABC News.
“You feel horrible. You feel humiliated, trampled on. You feel like dying,” Alejandra said.
Pot was legalized for recreational use in Oregon in 2015. The goal was to generate tax revenue for the state while curbing the black market. But years later, foreign drug cartels have taken advantage of the limited oversight by running illegal farms on the backs of exploited migrant workers, officials told ABC News.
On these unlicensed farms in southern Oregon, estimated to be in the thousands, workers like Alejandra are often forced to live and work in deplorable conditions as they tend to the crops.
“We were prisoners, because we couldn’t go out. We worked very long hours, sometimes until 2 or 3 in the morning. They were constantly pushing us to work faster, to trim the pot,” Alejandra said.
The work was supposed to take 15 days, but ended up lasting an entire month, Alejandra said. “I feared for my life, because [the guards] would act really crazy. I kept thinking about my kids, my mother. Wishing I could see them again. That’s all I could think about.”
Over the past year, ABC News has been tracking the underbelly of marijuana legalization in southern Oregon, where federal, state and local law enforcement are working together to combat the growing problem of “narco slavery.” The three-part investigation, “THC: The Human Cost,” is airing this week on “ABC News Live.”
Special Agent-in-Charge Robert Hammer leads the initiative to root out Oregon’s illegal pot farms for Homeland Security Investigations’ Pacific Northwest Office. Last August, the news of a dying man left at a gas station set off alarm bells for Hammer and his team.
“We were able to track that [person] back as a worker on one of the farms,” Hammer said.
“We’re not trying to look at it as, ‘Oh, this is just another marijuana operation.’ We’re really trying to focus on the fact that this is the exploitation of people. This is the destruction of the environment through illegal pesticides,” Hammer said.
“The marijuana black market is out of control in the United States and threatens the integrity of the already struggling regulated cannabis industry,” said Terry Neeley, founder and managing director of West Coast AML Services, which creates risk management programs for financial institutions to safely bank marijuana-related businesses. “This crime of human slavery is not unique to the U.S. Narco slavery will spread around the world like a cancer as other countries legalize marijuana. Tough drug laws need to be in place at the state level and aggressively enforced to curb the narco-slave epidemic,” he said.
ABC News embedded with HSI on a joint raid with local authorities in October. On a property about 20 miles outside of Medford, agents found 17 workers and a 2-year-old toddler.
A total of three neighboring properties were also raided. At one site, law enforcement says they counted a little over a hundred illegal greenhouses, more than 8,500 black market marijuana plants and 7,000 pounds of processed illegal cannabis.
After each raid, authorities bulldoze and demolish the grow site in order to keep the illegal farms from resurfacing. A nongovernmental organization called Unete steps in to make sure workers, who are mostly undocumented, have access to food and shelter.
Many workers arrive to the U.S. from Mexico and Central America desperate for work, Unete co-director Kathy Keese told ABC News. Keese said the workers’ vulnerability makes them easy targets for human trafficking and exploitation by the cartels.
“You can’t talk about it, because you don’t know who you can be talking to, and they might seek retaliation with your family. So it’s better to stay silent,” said Maria, which is not her real name. She also worked on a cartel-run pot farm in Oregon.
Both Alejandra and Maria asked for their real names not to be used, because they fear retaliation from the cartels.
Maria said she heard about the job through someone who called themselves a contractor. She was told they paid well, and they didn’t check her immigration status.
“They told us, it’s like you were going to harvest grapes – you’ll come and go. But when we got there, it wasn’t like that,” Maria said.
Like Alejandra, once Maria began working on the farm, armed guards prevented her from leaving until the harvest was over. She said there were no bathrooms or beds for the more than 200 workers there. She slept on the floor or on an air mattress.
In the summer heat, she and others were forced to work from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., Maria said. The guards would determine when they would wake up, eat and sleep.
When police raided the farm, Maria said she ran into the mountains and hid for 12 hours because she feared she would be thrown in jail or deported. When she returned to the camp, everything — and everyone — was gone.
Last year, Oregon lawmakers agreed the problem with illegal pot farms is out of control, recognizing the cartels had infiltrated the industry and migrants were being trafficked to work the fields.
But help can’t come fast enough.
Currently, 21 states and Washington, D.C., have legalized the recreational use of marijuana. Some advocates say it needs to be decriminalized nationally to prevent cartels from smuggling cannabis to buyers in states where it’s still illegal.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., blames the problem on “dysfunctional federal policy.”
“The states have been forced to step up and do it themselves. People who try to play by the rules are dramatically disadvantaged. They face higher costs. There’s no effective regulation for the people who cheat. In fact, the incentives are for the black market,” Blumenauer told ABC News.
Meanwhile, officers in Oregon are hoping to combat labor exploitation by creating more incentives for farm workers to come forward.
“The law is very clear. If you’re a victim of human trafficking, the law is on your side. There are various protections that can be put in place in order to mitigate any type of immigration concern that victims would have,” Hammer said.
Alejandra and Maria both said they never got paid for their work. The contractors vanished, leaving the women with nothing but bad memories and the fear it will happen again.
“A lot of people have gone through the same, and even worse; they are no longer with us to tell their stories,” Alejandra said.
(FORT WORTH, Texas) — A jury has found former police officer Aaron Dean guilty of manslaughter in the death of Atatiana Jefferson, a 28-year-old Black woman who was fatally shot in her Fort Worth, Texas, home in 2019.
The jury considered both a murder charge and a lesser charge of manslaughter during its deliberations, according to Judge George Gallagher. Manslaughter is a second-degree felony according to Texas penal code. It’s punishable by two to 20 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.
Dean’s sentence will be decided by the jury. The sentencing phase will begin Friday morning at 10 a.m. Eastern time.
Throughout the five days of testimony, the jury heard from Jefferson’s now-11-year-old nephew Zion Carr, who was in the room when she was shot.
Jurors also heard from Dean’s partner that night, Officer Carol Darch, the call center operator who gave Dean and Darch the information about Jefferson’s home that they received that night, and Dean himself. Additionally, Jurors heard from Richard Fries, the deputy medical examiner in Tarrant County, several other Fort Worth officers and detectives, a forensics video expert and law enforcement experts.
On Oct. 12, 2019, Dean and another officer responded to a non-emergency call to check on Jefferson’s home around 2:30 a.m. because a door was left open to the house.
Dean did not park near the home, knock at the door or announce police presence at any time while on the scene, according to body camera footage and Dean’s testimony.
Dean testified that he suspected a burglary was in progress due to the messiness inside the home when he peered through an open door. When Dean entered the backyard, body camera footage shows Dean looking into one of the windows of the home.
Jefferson and Zion were playing video games when they heard a noise, according to his testimony. Zion said in testimony his aunt had left the door open because they burned hamburgers earlier in the night and were airing out the smoke.
Jefferson grabbed her gun from her purse before approaching the window, Zion testified. Police officials have said Jefferson was within her rights to protect herself.
In body camera footage, Dean can be heard shouting, “Put your hands up, show me your hands,” and firing one shot through the window, killing Jefferson.
Dean resigned from the police department before his arrest. Fort Worth Chief of Police Ed Kraus has said Dean was about to be fired for allegedly violating multiple department policies.
ABC News’ Lisa Sivertsen contributed to this report.
(ALBANY, N.Y.) — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation Thursday banning the sale of dogs, cats and rabbits in retail pet stores throughout the state.
Animal activists have been calling for such a ban for years contending that pet stores are often stocked with animals that are bred and abused in “puppy mills” and other mass breeding centers.
“Dogs, cats and rabbits across New York deserve loving homes and humane treatment,” Hochul said in a statement.
Under the law, which goes into effect in 2024, retail stores that previously sold pets can still operate and sell pet supplies and other accessories. They also have the option to charge shelters and rescue groups rent to use their space for adoptions.
Store owners face a $1,000 fine for violating the new rules.
State Sen. Michael Gianaris, who co-sponsored the bill, said that puppy breeding mills have been known to keep animals in unsanitary conditions, where they’re abused and neglected.
“Today is a great day for our four-legged friends,” he said in a statement.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has pushed the governor and other state leaders to do more against the puppy mill pipeline and go after stores that sell animals from those facilities. A report released this year by the ASPCA found that 1 out of 4 of puppies shipped to New York state pet stores came from dog brokers who buy puppies from licensed and unregulated breeders and resell the animals to stores.
California was the first state to ban the sale of pets in 2019 and four other states, Washington, Maine, Maryland and Illinois, have followed suit.
“We are hopeful that this enormous step by New York State may encourage other states to take similar action to stop the cruel commercial breeding industry from supplying pet stores within their borders,” Matt Bershadker, the president and CEO of the ASPCA, said in a statement.
Some pet shop owners, however, criticized the governor and state legislature for the bill, saying the move hurts their businesses without going after the root problem.
“We have policies like this where everybody just makes the assumption that every single breeder that a pet store works with looks like the ones you see on TV that are filthy and the [dogs] are dying, and that just simply isn’t the case,” Emilio Ortiz, the manager of the New York pet store CitiPups, told NY1.
Gianaris, however, argues that there isn’t a single New York pet store that hasn’t been touched by the puppy mill industry.
“That’s why we should ban it outright. There is no such thing as a responsible retail sale of animals in New York,” he told WABC, ABC News’ New York station.
(SAN DIEGO, Calif.) — A father is warning about how serious the flu can be, especially for children, as his 10-year-old son remains hospitalized with the virus.
Cory Tamborelli, from Ramona, California — about 34 miles northeast of San Diego — said his son, Tristan, first started experiencing flu symptoms about a week and a half ago.
‘A fever and a little bit of a runny nose,” he told ABC News local affiliate KGTV.
However, the young boy’s condition rapidly deteriorated and within 48 hours, Tristan was unresponsive.
“He was limp, couldn’t move, couldn’t talk. It was the most scared I’ve ever been in my life,” Tamborelli said.
Tristan was life-flighted to Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, where he tested positive for two strains of flu, according to an update from his aunt, Sara Presley Scott.
Doctors discovered that Tristan’s liver and kidney were failing. He was rushed to the pediatric intensive care unit, where he was sedated and placed on a ventilator.
His aunt said he needed to be placed on dialysis to help support his non-functioning kidney.
“It was so bad. I was scared he wasn’t going to make it. You feel helpless,” Tamborelli said. “Nothing you can do.”
Hospitals across the country have been reporting that they are at capacity or near capacity as the flu season has started earlier than usual.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some children are at higher risk of developing flu-related complications including infants, those up to age 5, American Indian/Alaskan Native children, and those up to age 18 with chronic health problems.
Tristan falls into that latter category. Tamborelli told KGTV that his son suffered a stroke as an infant and, as a result, has several underlying conditions including epilepsy and a blood clotting disorder.
“Each year, millions of children get sick with seasonal flu, thousands of children are hospitalized and some children die from flu,” according to the CDC.
Currently, children age 4 and under are being hospitalized at a rate of 42.3 per 100,000 and children between ages 5 and 17 at a rate of 17.9 per 100,000 — the highest rates recorded since the 2009-10 season, which was the year of the swine flu outbreak, CDC data shows.
Additionally, at least 21 pediatric deaths have been recorded so far this season.
Tristan has since come off the ventilator and his condition is starting to improve, although doctors told his family it will likely be a long road to recovery.
Now, Tamborelli is urging families to make sure their children are vaccinated as the U.S. heads into the colder weather months.
According to CDC data, about 42.5% of all children have been vaccinated as of the week ending Nov. 26, the latest date for which data is available.
This is similar to the 40.9% of children who were vaccinated this time last year but less than the 46.9% who were in 2020.
This year, a CDC study — conducted alongside other experts — found that flu shots were 75% effective against life-threatening influenza.
Tamborelli said Tristan’s flu shot from his pediatrician was delayed last month but is advising other parents not to delay and to be on the lookout for flu symptoms.
“Keep an eye out. If they get sick, and you’re not sure, take them to the hospital,” he told KGTV. “I’d hate to have anyone else go through this.”
(WASHINGTON) — The District of Columbia Bar association’s disciplinary counsel called Thursday for Rudy Giuliani’s disbarment after a preliminary finding that Giuliani violated at least one rule of attorney practice when, as the attorney for then-President Donald Trump, he pressed a baseless, failed legal challenge to the 2020 election results in Pennsylvania.
“This case, the seriousness of the misconduct, calls for only one sanction and that is a sanction of disbarment,” Phil Fox, a lawyer for the D.C. Bar, said at a disciplinary hearing in Washington. “I think it was a fundamental harm to the fabric of the country that could well be irreparable.”
Thursday’s hearing is only a step in a long process that could lead to Giuliani’s disbarment in the nation’s capital. His law license has already been suspended — but not revoked — in New York, where a court last year found he made “demonstrably false and misleading statements” about his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Giuliani has appealed the decision.
Giuliani’s attorney, John Leventhal, said Thursday that Giuliani’s service to the nation mitigated the need for the District of Columbia to disbar him.
“Let’s take politics out of this equation and treat Mr. Giuliani like any other lawyer,” said Leventhal.
“A letter of reprimand or private admonition” would be more appropriate, Leventhal said.
Fox called Giuliani’s previous service as United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and as mayor of the city of New York “admirable,” but told the disciplinary committee it did not justify a sanction less than disbarment.
“It’s like it’s two different people,” Fox said during the hearing. “There’s the person who responded the way very few people could have responded to 9/11 … and there’s the person who tried to undermine the legitimacy of a presidential election without a basis to do so.”
“I would like to personally object to Mr. Fox’s attack on me as having tried to undermine American democracy when there’s not a single fact in the record to support that argument,” Giuliani responded as Leventhal and another defense attorney, Barry Kamins, urged him to stop. “It is a typical unethical cheap attack.”
A decision from the disciplinary committee is expected in late February or early March. The D.C. Court of Appeals would make a final decision on whether Giuliani would be disbarred, a determination that could have consequences on his ability to practice law in other places.
