(NEW YORK) — Bryan Kohberger, the suspect in the murder of four University of Idaho students late last year, has been indicted by a grand jury.
The multicount indictment includes first-degree murder, the Latah County District Court clerk confirmed to ABC News.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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(NEW YORK) — A member of the Idaho jury that convicted Lori Vallow Daybell in the murders of her two youngest children is speaking out for the first time.
“Growing up, you talk about good and bad, god and evil. And I think for the first time in my life, I put a face to evil,” juror Saul Hernandez told ABC News in an exclusive interview that aired Wednesday on Good Morning America.
Lori and her husband, Chad Daybell, were both charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the 2019 deaths of her two youngest children, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old Joshua “J.J.” Vallow. The children were last seen alive in September 2019 and were reported missing by extended family members that November. Their remains were found on Chad’s property in eastern Idaho’s Fremont County in June 2020, according to authorities.
The couple were also charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the death of Chad’s ex-wife, 49-year-old Tamara Daybell, who died of asphyxiation of in October 2019, less than a month before Lori and Chad married. Chad was also charged with his former wife’s murder.
Both Lori and Chad pleaded not guilty to their charges. Last month, a Fremont County judge allowed their cases to be tried separately, with Lori’s first and Chad’s expected to start at a later date.
Lori was deemed fit to stand trial last year following a 10-month stint at an Idaho mental health facility. Her defense attorneys had said they did not plan to raise a mental health defense at the guilt-phase portion of the trial.
During Lori’s six-week trial, prosecutors argued that she and her husband thought the children were zombies and murdered them. Chad has authored many religious fiction books and is Lori’s fifth husband. The couple both reportedly adhered to a doomsday ideology, with Lori at one point claiming she was “a god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ’s second coming in July 2020” and didn’t want anything to do with her family “because she had a more important mission to carry out,” according to court documents obtained by ABC News.
The defense characterized Lori as a devoted mother who loved her children and Jesus, but that all changed near the end of 2018 when she met Chad.
As a juror, Hernandez said he felt Lori’s beliefs began with “curiosity” but were solidified “once Chad came into the picture.”
“They wanted to believe something that only applied and benefited them, only applied and benefited those people they liked, their circle that they liked and they wanted to be around,” Hernandez told ABC News.
Prosecutors argued that Lori set a plan for the children’s murder in motion in October 2018 “using money, power and sex,” and that she and her husband “used religion to manipulate others.” Lori was additionally charged with grand theft related to Social Security survivor benefits allocated for the care of her children that prosecutors said were appropriated after they were reported missing and ultimately found dead. Meanwhile, Chad was additionally charged with two counts of insurance fraud related to life insurance policies he had on Tamara for which prosecutors said he was the beneficiary.
Prosecutors also shared photographs of Lori and Chad dancing on a beach during their wedding in Hawaii when her children’s bodies were buried in his backyard. Hernandez told ABC News that he was “disgusted” by the images while sitting in the jury.
“I didn’t want to look at them,” he said. “I just couldn’t believe how someone can be that happy when your kids are in the ground. And the person that was key in all of this is sitting across from you, smiling at you and dancing with you on the beach.”
Last Friday at a Boise courthouse, the 12-member jury reached a verdict after two days of deliberations, finding Lori guilty on all charges. The defense declined to comment on the verdict at the time.
Hernandez revealed that the deliberations took two days because he was the only juror holding out on one of the murder charges.
“I just didn’t feel like at that timeline with Tylee, we were quite there yet,” he told ABC News. “And if we were, I perhaps was missing it.”
But on the second day, after reviewing the evidence, Hernandez agreed that Lori was guilty.
“I don’t think, as a human being, you are ever really prepared to experience this,” he told ABC News. “As the case progressed, as the evidence came to light, testimony was shared, it was harder to look at her.”
Lori faces up to life in prison without parole. The judge had granted the defense’s motion to dismiss the death penalty in her case.
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(RALEIGH, N.C.) — The North Carolina Legislature voted Tuesday night to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of a 12-week abortion ban.
Republican lawmakers passed the bill along party lines last week, which reduced the state’s ban on abortion from 20 weeks to the end of the first trimester, but it was quickly blocked by the Democratic governor.
However, Republicans hold a super majority in both the Senate and the House after Rep. Tricia Cotham switched from the Democratic party to the GOP in April and were able to nullify Cooper’s veto.
The bill, known as “The Care for Women, Children and Families Act,” offers exceptions in cases of rape and incest up to 20 weeks’ gestation and for fetal anomalies up to 24 weeks’ gestation.
The current exception that allows an abortion if the life of the mother is in danger will remain in place.
Before an abortion is performed, pregnant people must receive a consultation in-person at least 72 hours prior to the procedure about the potential risks of receiving an abortion and other options, including adoption or that the father is liable to pay child support.
Research has shown that abortions performed in a clean area with properly trained staff are very safe. Between 2013 and 2018, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the national case-fatality rate was 0.41 abortion-related deaths per 100,000 legal abortions.
The pregnant person must also receive an ultrasound prior to the abortion as well as a notice that they can look at “the remains” after the procedure is completed.
Providers who perform an abortion past 12 weeks will be required to provide information to the state Department of Health and Human Services, including “the probable gestational age” of the fetus, its measurements and an ultrasound image as well as how the provider determined the pregnancy fell into one of the exceptions.
Any physician who violates the bill will be subject to discipline from the North Carolina Medical Board, which includes potentially being placed on probation, public reprimanding, paying a fine, educational training or having their license revoked.
Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade over the summer, 15 states have ceased nearly all abortion services.
Florida will be the 16th state once a new six-week abortion ban is implemented — but only if the state’s current 15-week ban is upheld as legal challenges play out in court.
Additionally, Utah passed a bill earlier this year banning abortion clinics in the state. Starting May 3, the state’s health department would not be allowed to grant new licenses, but it was blocked by a state judge Tuesday.
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(KEENE, Texas) — A man and a 12-year-old boy were charged with murder after the pre-teen allegedly shot and killed a Sonic Drive-In employee in Texas, according to authorities.
Police responded to 911 calls Saturday night about a shooting at the fast-food restaurant in the 300 block of South Old Betsy Road in Keene, Texas, the Keene Police Department said.
Police allege that 20-year-old Angel Gomez was behaving disorderly in the parking lot of Sonic when he was confronted by Matthew Davis, 32, an employee at Sonic.
ABC News reached out to Sonic for comment but have not yet received one.
According to Keene police, the argument between Davis and Gomez turned physical, leading the 12-year-old, who was a passenger in the vehicle Gomez arrived in, to allegedly grab a gun and shoot Davis.
Gomez and the 12-year-old allegedly fled the scene after the shooting, police said.
Upon arriving at the scene, police found Davis on the ground suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He was airlifted to Harris Methodist Hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to law enforcement officials.
During the police investigation into the shooting, Gomez returned to the scene and was arrested, Keene police said.
The ongoing investigation led authorities to find the juvenile suspect in the town of Rio Vista and take him into custody. Police also discovered multiple firearms.
Davis’ family set up a GoFundMe to help with funeral costs and according to the page, Davis leaves behind a 10-year-old son.
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(WASHINGTON) — Nearly half of all vehicle passengers killed on U.S. roads in 2021 were not wearing a seatbelt — the highest number in 10 years, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data released Tuesday.
NHTSA said of the 26,325 passenger vehicle occupants killed in traffic crashes during 2021, 11,813 were unrestrained.
The majority of those killed when not buckled up were in the driver’s seat, according to the agency.
“Being in a crash without wearing a seatbelt can have deadly consequences, fatalities have skyrocketed in the last few years,” Jessica Cicchino, vice president of Research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) said in an interview with ABC News. “If more people wore belts, we would see thousands of lives saved.”
The report comes as NHTSA kicks off its annual “Click It or Ticket” campaign “to encourage drivers and passengers to buckle up, reminding everyone that seat belts save lives.”
“Putting on your seat belt only takes two seconds, but it can save your life,” NHTSA Chief Counsel Ann Carlson said. “Whether you’re in the front seat or the back, use your seat belt on every trip, every time.”
For traffic crashes in 2021, 60% of pickup drivers who were killed were unrestrained, compared to 49% of SUV drivers, 47% of passenger car drivers, and 44% of van drivers, the report said.
That same year, 17,303 male occupants in passenger vehicles were killed — nearly twice the number of female occupants killed. The agency found that of those numbers, 8,367 men and 3,426 women were not wearing seat belts.
The report also showed that, of the more than 26,000 car passengers killed in 2021, 11,820 people were wearing seatbelts at the time of the crash.
“We need to be doing everything that we can to prevent fatalities, and seatbelts can make a big difference if you survive a crash or not,” Cicchino said. “We also need to be looking at what we can do to bring down speeding and also bring things down like alcohol impaired driving – all of those things can contribute to your risk of dying in the crash.”
NHTSA says frontal airbags used in combination with seat belts “offer effective safety protection for passenger vehicle occupants.” Frontal airbags reduce fatalities by 14% when no seat belts were used, and 11% when seat belts were used in conjunction with frontal airbags, the agency said.
“Airbags can be really useful also at protecting you when you’re in a crash,” Cicchino said. “But seatbelts can also add to that protection and so we don’t want people to think that they don’t need to wear seatbelts because their vehicles have airbags, all of those things can help save your life.”
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(NEW YORK) — The Smith County district attorney, where three sets of remains that belong to Rasheem Carter were found, disputed that a fourth set were part of his remains but said they were animal bones.
Carter’s family’s attorney Ben Crump held a press conference on May 11 demanding answers from Mississippi officials on whether the fourth set of remains belonged to Carter.
“One day after the press conference, I was given oral confirmation by the Mississippi Crime Laboratory that the bones, as suspected, were animal bones. There was never any reason or evidence to suggest that the bones found in Simpson County, Mississippi, were related to Rasheem Carter’s case,” District Attorney Chris Hennis said in a statement on Monday.
This was Hennis’ first official statement since Carter, a 25-year-old Mississippi Black man who went missing last October.
Local officials originally said that they believed there was no foul play in the disappearance. The cause of death remains undetermined. Carter’s family believes that doesn’t hold water.
“Unlike Attorney Ben Crump, my office, as well as law enforcement, has a responsibility to the Carter family, and to the public, to base the investigation on facts and evidence developed during the investigation not on reckless speculation and conjecture,” Hennis said in the statement. “Such misinformation only serves to slow down and hinder the ongoing investigation.”
According to Hennis, the local sheriff notified Rasheem Carter’s family on May 4 that the most recent remains found were suspected to be animal bones.
“Mr. Crump’s statement questioning my office and law enforcement’s dignity and respect towards Rasheem Carter’s family by not notifying them of new remains was not only completely baseless,” Hennis said in the statement. “It also appears to be callously made to inflame public opinion.”
On Nov. 2, 2022, the first set of remains were found in Smith County. Carter’s skull and spinal cord were located in separate locations classifying them as two sets of remains, according to Crump’s office.
Another set of remains that matched Carter’s DNA were found on Feb. 23, also in Smith County, according to Crump’s office.
Attorneys representing Carter’s family are calling for a federal probe into his death, arguing that the Smith County Sheriff’s Department’s original conclusion that there was no foul play seemed dubious.
“I am overwhelmed with the oppression that this state have caused in our lives. I want something done, and I want it done immediately. I’m tired of waiting,” Tiffany Carter, Rasheem’s mother, said at the press conference with Crump last week. “I know I can’t change what has happened, but we can make the change that this doesn’t happen to another family.”
On the day of his disappearance, Rasheem Carter allegedly sent a text to his mother saying that he was afraid for his safety and that men in trucks yelling racial epithets were after him, his family has said.
Crump said Mississippi officials didn’t notify the family of the fourth set of remains. He said a bystander filmed police retrieving the remains and sent the video to the Carter family.
“There is no excuse for bystanders coming showing video to the family, and officials not having the dignity and respect to notify the family immediately, and say ‘we found more human remains in the vicinity where your son head and spinal cord and other bodily remains were found,'” Crump said at the press conference.
Smith County Sheriff Joel Houston told ABC News that the sheriff’s department stands behind its earlier determination that no foul play was involved in Carter’s death. Earlier evidence “didn’t suggest anything,” he said.
According to an autopsy report on the first two sets of remains, a copy of which was obtained by ABC News, most of what was found was bone and the cause of death was undetermined.
“Nothing is being swept under the rug,” Houston said. “There’s nothing to hide.” Houston added that the department is awaiting results of search warrants before ruling out foul play.
“Mississippi, all America’s watching to see if you’re going to do right by Rasheem Carter,” Crump said. “His brokenhearted mother has nightmares at night about what her son must have been doing as a result of this lynching in 2022.”
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(NEW YORK) — For some people, a parking spot is a nightmare and for others it’s a status symbol tied to their homes and vehicles.
Slate reporter Henry Grabar, who wrote the book “Paved Paradise How Parking Explains the World,” however said that that piece of concrete or a spot inside a garage has wide ranging impacts on the environment, health, and even policy.
He spoke with ABC News Live about what he found in his research.
ABC NEWS LIVE: All right. Right off the top, people are going to say, why did you write a book about parking? Why should it matter to us?
HENRY GRABAR: Well, I’m a reporter, so I spent a lot of time looking into stories about housing, about transportation, about the environment, infrastructure, architecture, all these subjects. And it seemed to me that whatever the question, the answer was always parking. Which is to say, cars have obviously had an enormous effect on the American landscape. The car spends 95% of its time parked. There’s more land used for parking in this country than there is for housing.
ABC NEWS LIVE: And I read some reviews of the book that I want to just showcase here. “Parking is the primary determinant of the way the place you live, looks, feels and functions.” And also this one, “A parking space is nothing less than the link between driving and life itself.” So in simple terms, explain why parking is so central to the lives of everyday Americans.
GRABAR: Well, because we live in a country where almost all of us have to drive almost all of the time to get wherever we want to go. So when I say a parking spot is the link between driving and life itself, what I mean is you can’t do whatever you set you set out to do in the car until you can park. You can’t get out of the car until you can find a parking space. So, of course, parking functions as a kind of third rail in American politics.
ABC NEWS LIVE: And you do have some funny little stories, anecdotes in there about a man who called 911 in Utah because he can’t find a parking spot [and] a lady who lost 11 pounds because she didn’t want to lose her parking spot, and so she walked everywhere instead. You also talk more seriously, though, about how there have been crimes and murders committed because of parking. How did we get here to that extreme?
GRABAR: Well, again, we live in a place where most of us are dependent on parking. So to some extent, I’m not surprised that people have become so emotional about this subject. At the same time, the degree to which we prioritize great parking sometimes at the expense of everything else means we’ve lost out on some other things that we also care about deeply as a society. Things like affordable housing, nice architecture [and] walkable neighborhoods, all of those things have been sacrificed to create enough parking.
ABC NEWS LIVE: Explain to us the idea of parking minimums and how that determines who gets or I should say, which buildings get built and where.
GRABAR Sure. In most cities and suburbs in the United States, the city code requires that every building come with a certain number of parking spaces. So that means you want to open a restaurant, you are obligated to provide a certain number of parking spaces dependent on your square footage you want to open. You want to build some housing, you have to provide a certain number of parking spaces. And the reason this is important is because parking and for one takes up a lot of space.
And number two is very expensive to build. So when you put these restrictions on builders in terms of what they could do with an existing property or an old building or something like that, you’re putting a massive imposition on the types of results that we can get in terms of the built environment and also just an enormous cost that’s added on to everything we build.
ABC NEWS LIVE: So what’s the solution here? How do we solve all of this?
GRABAR: Well, I think we could start by saying to builders, you can decide to build however much parking you want to build. You think that your tenants or your clients or the people who are buying your apartments, you think they want parking? Well, then you should build enough parking for them.
But what we’ve seen in the United States, in places that have begun to reform these policies, is that there are builders who have decided that, in fact, many people would actually prefer to pay less in rent and figure out the parking situation themselves.
I talked to a developer in Charlotte, North Carolina, which is nobody’s idea of a particularly walkable place, but nevertheless, he said, I could build the building with parking and it’ll be $75 million, or I can build it without parking and it will be $60 million and the rents will be $200 lower a month, and the tenants can figure out what they want to do with their cars themselves.
But at the very least, it’s not going to be bundled into their rent.
ABC NEWS LIVE: Do you think that there is a way that cities can be re-imagined, perhaps, where we don’t need this reliance on parking garages?
GRABAR: One thing we’ve done is we’ve created a cycle where the more parking we build, the more people drive. And that’s both because it functions as a subsidy for driving. If you buy a house and it was required to include a two-car garage, you’ve made it essentially a down payment on car ownership and in fact, a down payment on owning two cars. So that’s an incentive for driving.
And the other one is that when we build all this parking, we create an environment where it’s really hard to walk around or bike or it just feels unsafe and dangerous. And so there is also a virtuous cycle that can be unlocked if you create.
Places where parking is deprioritized, where the parking lot is behind the building instead of in front of it. Where there’s slightly, slightly less room for parking and slightly more room for buildings and for people. People are going to want to walk.
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(FARMINGTON, N.M.) — At least 150 rounds were fired by an 18-year-old gunman and responding officers during an apparently random shooting in a neighborhood in northwestern New Mexico on Monday, authorities said.
Three people driving through the area were killed shortly after the gunman opened fire at approximately 10:56 a.m. local time in a residential area of Farmington, about 15 miles south of the border with Colorado, police said.
The suspect — identified by police Tuesday as Beau Wilson, a student at Farmington High School — was shot dead by officers at 11:06 a.m., police said.
A motive remains unclear at this stage in the investigation, police said.
“This incident appears to be purely random,” Farmington Deputy Chief Kyle Dowdy told reporters Tuesday. “It had no specific targets or motives to be identified at this time.”
Most of those shot were driving through the area, Farmington Deputy Chief Baric Crum said. Those killed included a woman in her 90s and the victim’s daughter, who was in her 70s, Crum said. The third victim was also in her 70s, he said.
The deceased victims were identified by police Tuesday as Shirley Voita, Melody Ivie and Gwendolyn Schofield.
Two of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene, while a third died at a hospital, police said. Six other victims, including two police officers, were treated at San Juan Regional Medical Center and have since been released, the hospital said. Other victims were treated at the scene, authorities said.
Police have not found any links between the suspect and the victims, police said.
“We’ve discovered nothing that leads us to believe that this suspect knew any of the people,” Dowdy said. “That we’re pretty confident in, because this was pretty random. Because the shooting was arbitrary and up and down the street.”
The suspect walked through the neighborhood, shooting “indiscriminately” at houses and cars, Dowdy said. At least six houses and three cars were hit by gunfire over the course of a nearly quarter-mile crime scene, Dowdy said.
Hundreds of 911 calls came in during the incident, Dowdy said.
Four officers engaged the suspect in a firefight, and the suspect was ultimately killed, Crum said.
At least 150 rounds have been found at the crime scene so far, though investigators do not know who fired what yet, Dowdy said.
“We’re still counting — that’s legitimately going to go up,” he said. “At this point, we’ve got approximately 150 [rounds] exchanged between everyone.”
One of the wounded officers was shot while responding to the scene, while the second was shot during the firefight with the gunman, Crum said. The two injured officers — one from the Farmington Police Department and one from New Mexico State Police — have since been released, officials said.
The suspect was armed with multiple firearms, including an assault-style rifle, police said. Dowdy said the suspect purchased one firearm in November 2022, a month after he turned 18, and police believe he obtained the others from a family member.
Wilson had “minor infractions” as a juvenile, though nothing in his history would have led him to be on their radar, Dowdy said.
Farmington Mayor Nate Duckett thanked residents for their help in supporting law enforcement amid the response.
“There were many acts of bravery that occurred yesterday,” Duckett said.
ABC News’ Ivan Pereira, Matthew Fuhrman and Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.
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(LOS ANGELES) — The early season heat wave in the West is causing complications up and down the coast.
The Pacific Northwest is in the midst of a record-breaking streak of high temperatures for this time of year, with Portland seeing multiple days of 90-degree temps.
More record highs are possible Tuesday in Portland, Spokane, Washington, and Boise, Idaho. The high temperatures have arrived more than a month ahead of usual.
The scorching temperatures have continued further south and east as well. In California, triple-digit temperatures are forecast in some cities. Palms Springs is forecast to hit 103 degrees on Tuesday.
The rapid melting is causing some complications, with rushing water from mountain ranges such as the Sierra Nevadas, the Colorado Rockies and the Cascades posing danger for flooding, mudslides and landslides.
In Huntsville, Utah, some people had to evacuate their homes on Sunday due to flooding of the Ogden River.
A portion of State Road 504 in Cowlitz County, Washington, was completely destroyed by a fast-moving mudslide off the Cascade Mountains.
Campgrounds at Yosemite National Park were closed starting on Monday over flooding threats as the snow continues to melt at a fast pace.
Heavy water flows from the Sierra Nevadas could be seen rushing into the park. The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch in the region until Friday.
Yosemite was forced to close in February after more than 15 feet of snow fell during a blizzard. Olympia, Washington, hit a record 92 degrees on Monday, surpassing the previous record of 85 degrees set in 1958.
Last month, storm runoff caused flooding of several agricultural fields in the San Joaquin Valley due to an overflowing Lake Tulare Basin.
But the major melt of the massive snowpack has yet to occur, according to the California Department of Resources.
The flooding is expected to be so severe that the National Weather Service has advised people in the region to avoid swimming in river water this summer, especially in the San Joaquin and Merced rivers.
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(ASHEVILLE, N.C.) — A girl abducted in Illinois in 2017 when she was 9 has been found safe in North Carolina.
Kayla Unbehaun, 15, was located by police in Asheville, North Carolina, after a store employee called the police after recognizing the teen’s mother, who allegedly abducted her daughter in 2017, according to the Asheville Police Department and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
“It was the right thing to do,” the employee who said she called the police, told ABC News, requesting her identity and store not be published.
After investigating the kidnapping, officers consulted with the South Elgin Police Department to identify Heather Unbehaun, who kidnapped her daughter Kayla Unbehaun nearly six years ago, according to the Asheville Police Department.
“It is unusual, but it’s good that when someone does suspect that they recognize someone, no matter how old the story might be, that they are not afraid to give us a call so we can come to investigate,” Asheville Police Lt. Diana Loveland told ABC Asheville affiliate WLOS.
Her father, Ryan Iskerka, last saw then-9-year-old Kayla Unbehaun in 2017 after her mother, who did not have custody of the child, abducted Kayla Unbehaun on July 5, 2017, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
“I’m overjoyed that Kayla is home safe,” Iskerka said in a statement shared by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. “I want to thank @ElginPDFD, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and all of the law enforcement agencies who assisted with her case. We ask for privacy as we get to know each other again and navigate this new beginning.”
The case received attention in news reports and social media in the six years since the abduction. A photo of both Kayla and Heather Unbehaun was featured on an episode of Netflix’s “Unsolved Mysteries,” in an episode devoted to abductions by parents.
“When I found out you were gone, my heart was shattered into a million pieces….But there is nothing I want more than to have you back in my life,” Iskerka wrote in a public note on his daughter’s 12th birthday in 2020.
Heather Unbehaun was wanted in Illinois for child abduction, with an outstanding extradition warrant for her arrest. She is being held in the Buncombe County Detention Facility in North Carolina with a $250,000 bond, according to the Asheville Police Department.
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