(NEW YORK) — The vast majority of American families with children will automatically receive up to $300 per month, per child, beginning Thursday, the IRS and Treasury Department have announced.
The IRS said families who qualify for the Child Tax Credit, which was expanded as part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, will receive monthly payments without taking any further action. Initial eligibility will be based on 2019 or 2020 tax returns.
The changes increased the child tax credit from $2,000 to $3,000 for children over 6, and to $3,600 for children under 6.
According to the IRS: “For tax year 2021, the Child Tax Credit is increased from $2,000 per qualifying child to: $3,600 for children ages 5 and under at the end of 2021; and $3,000 for children ages 6 through 17 at the end of 2021.”
In a nutshell: Families making less than $150,000 a year and single parents making less than $112,500 are now eligible for a credit of up to $3,600 per child. Payments will be going out to 39 million households, according to the IRS.
The IRS also added on its website: “The $500 nonrefundable Credit for Other Dependents amount has not changed.”
Biden will mark the rollout of checks and direct deposits from the child tax credit with a White House event featuring Americans who will benefit.
“We have seen projections that the child tax credit, the implementation or the extension of child tax credit could reduce — could cut child poverty in half,” press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday. “And this is just extra money that’s going into people’s bank accounts who need help the most. So, the president felt it was important to elevate this issue, to make sure people understand this is a benefit that will help them as we still work to recover from the pandemic and the economic downturn.”
In a June 21 statement, the president called the program the “largest-ever child tax credit.”
“For parents working to make ends meet and raise their children with greater security, dignity, and opportunity, help is here,” Biden said.
The Biden administration also launched a website with details about the tax credit.
The benefits will be paid monthly, according to the IRS. People can register for the program even if they did not fully file taxes.
Set to expire after a year, Biden has proposed extending the program through 2025.
In the meantime, this calculator from ABC News’ data journalism team tells you how much you may receive from the Child Tax Credit program using the guidelines spelled out in the bill based on your most recent tax form. The information you enter will not be stored or saved in any way.
(SURFSIDE, Fla.) — Nearly two dozen 911 calls released by the Miami-Dade Police Department Wednesday convey the confusion, panic and disbelief among residents and neighbors after the partial collapse of the 12-story Champlain Towers South condominium in the beachside town of Surfside, Florida, in the early hours of June 24.
“I’m in the Champlain Towers, something is going on here. You gotta get us out of here.”
“It seemed like there was an earthquake.”
“Oh my God, the whole building collapsed.”
Frantic 911 calls came in from residents who were trapped inside after approximately 55 of the oceanfront complex’s 136 units were destroyed in the collapse at around 1:15 a.m.
“Half the building’s gone!” a panicked woman told the operator from her apartment.
A woman calling from the second floor told the operator that she couldn’t find an exit.
“We didn’t know which stairs we can get out,” she said.
A man on the same call told the operator he heard people yelling from the collapsed portion of the building.
“There’s people yelling, saying that they’re stuck,” he said.
“Is it safe for us to stay here?” he later asked.
The operator stayed with him on the phone as he and his family went down to the basement looking for a way out.
“The entire garage is flooded,” he said, updating the operator that they were going to try to go back to the second floor and that other people had joined his family.
“There are people in the rubble yelling, by the way,” he later said, softly.
One person called 911 from the flooded garage.
“A bunch of us are in the garage but we cannot get out,” the caller said. “We’re going back up the stairwell, the garage is inundated with water. We don’t know where the water is coming from.”
A distressed woman called from outside the parking garage asking to be rescued.
“Can somebody help me get out?” she asked. “I was able to escape but I’m in the parking lot. If the building comes down it will come down on my head.”
Other calls came in from family members of those who lived in the condo begging for help.
“My sister lives there,” one person said. “I don’t know, something happened to it. I don’t know, half of the building isn’t there anymore. She is alive and she is there, she’s in apartment [muted]. If someone can get her out through the balcony.”
Witnesses who heard the collapse and saw the aftermath also called 911.
“What are you seeing sir because we are getting a lot of calls over there?” an overwhelmed operator asked in one call.
“A very large building collapse, like the building next to us is gone,” the caller replied.
Another caller a block and a half away reported hearing an explosion.
Others reported seeing smoke and flames following the collapse.
“A building collapsed a block away from me and there is major smoke everywhere. We don’t know if anybody is hurt,” a caller said. “I heard the explosion all the way and the building is collapsing.”
Several callers described hearing what sounded like an earthquake, as well as an explosion from the garage.
“I woke up because I was hearing some noise,” one caller said. “I looked outside and the patio area started sinking down.”
“The building just went into the sinkhole,” the caller said a few seconds later. “There will be many, many people dead.”
The full toll of the disaster still remains to be seen; after nearly three weeks of search efforts, at least 95 people have been confirmed dead, while 14 people remain unaccounted for, officials said Tuesday. The cause of the partial collapse is under investigation.
Documents released by the city of Surfside show there was structural damage to the concrete slabs on the condo building’s pool deck and failed waterproofing in parts of the tower, and that the pool deck and the ceiling of the underground parking garage beneath it had needed repairs as early as 1996.
ABC News’ Benjamin Stein contributed to this report.
(JACKSON, Miss.) — As the delta variant spreads rapidly across the U.S., Mississippi officials are warning about hospitalizations of children with severe cases of COVID-19.
Of the seven children currently in the intensive care unit due to COVID-19, two are on ventilators, according to State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs.
“Delta Surge – be careful,” Dobbs said in a terse tweet Tuesday, while sharing the updates on the latest hospitalizations.
Dobbs initially said 12 children statewide were in the ICU due to COVID-19, though later revised that to a smaller number after a hospital corrected its report.
“Please be safe and if you are 12 or older – please protect yourself,” he said.
The ages ranged from under 1 to 17, Dobbs said in a statement to ABC News Wednesday.
Children are less likely than adults to have serious COVID-19 infections. Most have mild symptoms, if any, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, though in rare instances, they have developed severe cases that led to hospitalization or death.
It is not clear if any of the seven chilidren have underlying health conditions that would put them at greater risk for severe illness from COVID-19.
Dr. Alan Jones, associate vice chancellor for clinical affairs at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, told ABC News Wednesday that his facility was seeing a “significant increase” in pediatric patients over the last several weeks.
The medical center is currently treating five children with confirmed COVID-19 cases, two of whom are in the ICU. Two other children at the hospital are being investigated for potential COVID-19 infections, he said.
The children, who are in stable condition, range from infants to teenagers, Jones said. He could not share any further details about the cases but said that many patients within his hospital who are currently in the ICU do have some chronic, underlying comorbidity diseases that would put them at a higher risk of having a more severe illness associated with COVID-19.
The state has been seeing a “pretty alarming” increase in the number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, Dobbs said during a press briefing last Friday, as the highly contagious delta variant, which was initially identified in India, has quickly become the dominant variant in the state.
“We have seen pretty much an entire takeover of the delta variant for our transmission,” Dobbs said during the briefing, noting that the current cases in the state are “pretty much all delta.”
Between June 15 and July 9, the delta variant accounted for 80% of all specimens sequenced in the state, according to Dobbs.
Hospital systems are not currently overwhelmed, but Dobbs said there are “concerns about it going forward, as has been seen in other states” due to delta, which has become the dominant variant nationwide.
Mississippi’s daily COVID-19 case average has more than doubled in the last three weeks. Less than three weeks ago, there were under 100 patients receiving care for COVID-19 in Mississippi. As of July 11, there were nearly 200. Hospital admissions have also increased by 26.7% in the last week.
The state has seen an increase in COVID-19 outbreaks as well, particularly among youth, in summer activities and nursing homes, Dobbs said.
Jones said his hospital’s pediatric patients seem to be more symptomatic than the children who became ill earlier in the pandemic, which he attributed to the delta variant.
“These seem to be more classic COVID symptoms — fever, cough, respiratory illness,” he said. “I suspect that’s probably because this delta variant is importing a little more severe illness in the pediatric population than those earlier strains that were circulating.”
The delta variant is surging as Mississippi has the second-lowest vaccination rate in the country, with approximately one-third of the state’s total population fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. The “vast majority” of cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the state now are in unvaccinated people, Dobbs said.
Due to the low vaccination rate, the state health department advised Friday that those who are ages 65 and older or have chronic medical conditions avoid mass indoor gatherings for several weeks.
“Our collective under-vaccination in the state has put us all at risk, especially the most vulnerable,” Dobbs said.
Editor’s Note: A state health officer has issued a correction revising the number of children hospitalized with severe COVID-19 cases from 12 to seven.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden lunched with Democrats on Capitol Hill Wednesday as the party proceeds with the delicate task of crafting two separate pieces of legislation worth a combined $4.1 trillion in new spending.
Biden’s attendance at the lunch comes following a late-night announcement from Democratic Senate leaders that they had agreed on a $3.5 trillion budget resolution, the first step in unlocking a process that could allow Democrats to pass some of Biden’s American Families plan priorities without any Republican support.
In an hour-long lunch meeting behind closed doors, Senate Democrats peppered Biden with questions about the new budget blueprint and the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package, according to numerous attendees.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, along with the chairman of the Budget Committee, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and panel member Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who has fought to reign in the broader legislation, walked the president and caucus through the outlines of the $4.1 trillion in proposed new spending.
According to a senior Democratic aide, the budget proposal includes an extension of the child tax credit expansion first carved out in March’s COVID-19 relief bill. Families with children under 6 years old receive $3,600 per year per child under that expansion and families of older children receive $3,000 per child.
The resolution also includes funding for a variety of climate initiatives, support for universal Pre-K, affordable child care, community college and paid family leave, and investments in affordable housing and small businesses, among other provisions.
Sanders said there is also “at least $120 billion” for immigration reform expected in the final product.
To pay for the massive package, Democrats are proposing raising taxes on the wealthy and big corporations, but won’t tax families making under $400,000, the aide said.
Sanders praised the resolution Wednesday as “the most consequential program in modern history of this country,” but the plan does fall significantly short of the $6 trillion he initially insisted on.
One senator who attended lunch with the president said Sanders gave an effusive speech regarding his former rival, saying he never imagined Biden would be “so progressive.”
“It was a freaking lovefest,” the senator told ABC News Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott of the speech.
During the lunch Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who seriously contemplated jumping into the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, thanked Biden for using the word “union” repeatedly, though the context was not clear, according to the Democratic senator.
“You are the first president in the 30 years I’ve been in Washington that I still like. He said, ‘You haven’t sold us out yet’,” the senator paraphrased Brown as saying.
Biden addressed both the bipartisan and reconciliation infrastructure deals, but most senators were struck by the broader, sweeping message — that the president doesn’t want his neighbors in Scranton, Pennsylvania, being hurt by anything they would do. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said Biden “made an incredibly compelling case that this is the moment to go big.”
But not all Democrats are on board with the plan yet, and details of the budget proposal are still coming together.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., told reporters he has a number of concerns with the proposal.
“I’m concerned about inflation. And so I want to see more of the details of what’s going on. I’m concerned also about maintaining the energy independence of the United States of America,” the moderate Democrat said.
And Murphy, a progressive, said he’s concerned that the $3.5 trillion is not big enough, particularly to take care of modernizing the northeastern corridor rail service.
Any single Democratic defection could be a serious obstacle for Democratic leadership. Reconciliation requires a simple majority, which means every Democratic vote plus the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris will be required to move this bill over the finish line.
Republicans have been clear from the onset they won’t support spending beyond the bipartisan infrastructure package being negotiated separately.
“To me that $3.5 trillion that was announced last night really is the extreme Democrats’ freight train to socialism,” said Sen. John Barrasso, the number three Senate Republican. “This is something that they are going to need every Democrat to pass because there is not a single Republican in the House or in the Senate who is going to support this level of taxing and spending.”
Despite the Republican blowback to the budget resolution, members of the bipartisan group working on negotiating the separate, $1.2 trillion bipartisan plan, said they are not concerned about the budget proposal throwing their package off course.
“There are two very different bills that are totally separate tracks — one is bipartisan, responsible, no tax increases, the other is, you know, a huge spending spree at a time when we’re already at record levels of deficit and debt,” said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who has been leading bipartisan negotiations on behalf of Republicans. “So I’m concerned about it, but they don’t relate to one another.”
“I think it’s a real mistake what they’re doing but it doesn’t affect us at all,” Portman said.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., another member of the bipartisan group, said their efforts are “totally separate.”
“They’re not linked, it is going to increase our debt or else increase taxes, but in terms of our effort it shouldn’t have an impact,” he said.
Bill text is not yet available for either the budget deal or the bipartisan infrastructure plan and senators face fast-approaching deadlines, set by Biden, for swift action before the August recess.
Schumer has said he intends to hold a vote on both the bipartisan deal and the budget package before the Senate takes its summer break.
ABC News’ Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration will begin evacuation flights in late July for Afghans who have aided the U.S. military and diplomatic missions, according to a senior administration official.
President Joe Biden earlier this month said all U.S. combat forces will be out of Afghanistan by Aug. 31 and defended his decision to leave the country in the face of Taliban gains in the area.
The top U.S. general in Afghanistan, Scott Miller, returned from Afghanistan to Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday after he handed over his command at a ceremony in Kabul on Monday.
The evacuation effort, dubbed Operation Allies Refuge, will relocate Afghans who have applied for a U.S. Special Immigrant Visa and their families to a safe third country, but it is still unclear how many of these translators, guides and other contractors will be moved and to exactly where.
“Our objective is to get individuals who are eligible relocated, out of the country, in advance of the removal — of the withdrawal of troops at the end of August,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday.
The administration also has not specified when flights will depart, citing security concerns, but the senior administration official told ABC News that they will meet Biden’s commitment to begin flights by late July.
“Our message to those women and men is clear: There is a home for you in the United States if you so choose, and we will stand with you just as you stood with us,” Biden said in an address on Afghanistan on Thursday.
Earlier this month, a U.S. official told ABC News that Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan — Afghanistan’s neighbors to the north — have all been under consideration as third-country options, while a second official said the list includes the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, both of which are home to U.S. military facilities where Afghans could be brought.
Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby confirmed that the administration is also now considering using U.S. military installations in the continental U.S. “for short-term use,” as well as U.S. military installations in other countries that have “appropriate temporary residences and associated support infrastructure,” he said.
At this point in time, however, no final decision has been made yet, Kirby added.
This week, the president’s homeland security adviser Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall and Zalmay Khalilzad, the special representative for Afghanistan, are leading a delegation to Uzbekistan to discuss security and economic development opportunities for Afghanistan and other countries in the region, the White House announced Wednesday.
There are approximately 18,000 Afghans who have applied for Special Immigrant Visas, with many of them now fearing for their lives as the Taliban gain more districts in a summer offensive against the Afghan government. Within that group, 9,000 still have to complete their applications while the other half are having their cases adjudicated now, according to a State Department spokesperson.
At least 300 Afghan interpreters have been killed since 2014 because they worked for the U.S., according to the advocacy group No One Left Behind, although the Taliban have said in recent weeks that they will not harm them as they pursue power.
In April, Biden announced the withdrawal of all remaining U.S. forces from Afghanistan before the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks that brought them there — although last Thursday he bumped that deadline up to Aug. 31.
But as U.S. and NATO forces exit, the Taliban have seized dozens of districts in a summer offensive that has killed hundreds of Afghan service members or seen them surrender. The Pentagon said this week it seems apparent the militant group is intent on taking power by force, even as the State Department calls for them to return to negotiations with the Afghan government, hosted by Qatar in its capital Doha.
The Biden administration has tried to reinvigorate those talks, which have been all but dead since the two sides agreed on an agenda late last year.
The senior administration official said Wednesday that the U.S. “remains confident that Afghanistan’s Armed Forces have the tools and capability to defend their country and that the conflict will ultimately have to be resolved at the negotiating table.”
But advocates say that time is running out for these Afghan interpreters and other contractors, while analysts warn that the country could be headed for civil war. The United Nations refugee agency warned Tuesday that the country is facing “imminent humanitarian crisis,” calling for an urgent end to violence.
The White House’s announcement Wednesday is “a vital step forward in honoring the promise we made to Afghan allies who faithfully served our mission,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, one of the country’s largest refugee resettlement agencies.
But “there are still far too many questions left unanswered, including who exactly and how many people are eligible for evacuation,” she added. “With partners estimating that 49% of those at risk reside outside of Kabul, how will those outside the capital access safety?”
(WASHINGTON) — For the first time in history, some Senate Democrats on Wednesday moved to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level, proposing to the remove cannabis from the federal list of controlled substances.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, one of the leaders of the effort, promised to use his “clout” to make decriminalization a Senate priority.
“This is monumental,” Schumer told reporters. “At long last we are taking steps in the Senate to right the wrongs of the failed war on drugs.”
While Schumer conceded that Democrats do not yet unanimously support the draft decriminalization bill he unveiled, he said the announcement marks an important step in combatting injustice, especially among communities of color.
“The war on drugs has really been a war on people, particularly people of color,” Schumer said. “The waste of human resources because of the historic over-criminalization has been one of the great historical wrongs for the last decades and we are going to change it.”
Schumer said the draft bill, being proposed with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. also aims to expunge criminal records and create banking systems that give small and minority businesses a seat at the table.
Wyden called the bill, “cannabis common sense.”
Booker, who has long advocated for decriminalization, said the need for such a bill is urgent.
“Lives are being destroyed every single day and the hypocrisy of this is that, right here in the Capitol now, people running for Congress, people running for Senate, people running for president of the United States, who readily admit that they’ve used marijuana, but we have children in this country people all over this nation, our veterans, black and brown people, low income people, now bearing the stain of having a criminal conviction for doing things that half of the last four presidents admitted to doing,” he said.
To date, some 18 states have legalized the recreational use of marijuana and 37 states, along with the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, now allow the medical use of the drug.
“The Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act will ensure that Americans — especially Black and Brown Americans — no longer have to fear arrest or be barred from public housing or federal financial aid for higher education for using cannabis in states where it’s legal,” the discussion draft reads. “State-compliant cannabis businesses will finally be treated like other businesses and allowed access to essential financial services, like bank accounts and loans. Medical research will no longer be stifled.”
But a number of Republicans, led by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., oppose legalization.
“I do not have any plans to endorse the legalization of marijuana,” McConnell said in 2018 when he announced his support for legalizing hemp, noting that they are “entirely separate plants.”
The federal legislation would allow states to craft their own cannabis laws, just as states do with alcohol. It would end the confusion in some states that have legalized the product in various forms, but where consumers of marijuana could face potential civil and criminal penalties.
A new federal excise tax would also be created by the legislation similar to alcohol and tobacco.
Cannabis would be taxed at 10% in the first year after the legislation becomes law. That rate “would increase annually to 15 percent, 20 percent, and 25 percent in the following years. Beginning in year five and thereafter, the tax would be levied on a per-ounce rate in the case of cannabis flower, or a per-milligram of THC rate in the case of any cannabis extract,” according to the discussion draft.
The legislation, if approved, would have an immediate effect on the lives of many, freeing some in prison for non-violent offenses.
“The bill automatically expunges federal non-violent marijuana crimes and allows an individual currently serving time in federal prison for non-violent marijuana crimes to petition a court for resentencing,” the draft states.
It would also reinvest new federal tax revenue into minority communities most affected by the 1980’s “War on Drugs” and ensure that no past marijuana-related crimes are used to refuse someone federal public assistance.
The proposed legislation would incentivize states and localities with federal aid to expunge criminal records for cannabis offenses in exchange for funding under two new Small Business Administration programs designed to help hard-hit communities.
“The Cannabis Opportunity Program will provide funding to eligible states and localities to make loans to assist small businesses in the cannabis industry owned by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals. The Equitable Licensing Grant Program will provide funding to eligible states and localities to implement cannabis licensing programs that minimize barriers for individuals adversely affected by the War on Drugs,” the draft says of the two new SBA programs.
Research into the effects of marijuana would be improved, as well, according to sponsors.
“Researchers have stated that the cannabis produced for research is not comparable to cannabis used in adult-use and medicinal markets nationwide, and that the (Drug Enforcement Agency)’s past failures to expand federally-approved production of cannabis have further limited the productivity of their research,” the draft states.
The House passed legislation last year removing marijuana from the controlled substances list and the legislation was reintroduced in May.
(BALTIMORE) — A Baltimore judge has shut down efforts by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan to put an early end to enhanced pandemic unemployment benefits.
Judge Lawrence P. Fletcher-Hill of the Circuit Court for Baltimore issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday ordering that immediate action be taken to ensure Maryland residents continue to receive “any and all” expanded unemployment benefits available to them through federal programs.
The legal action came in response to multiple cases challenging Hogan’s decision, which was announced in early June. The Republican governor said at the time that many businesses were facing “severe worker shortages” and “we look forward to getting more Marylanders back to work.”
Fletcher-Hill wrote the plaintiffs demonstrated that they “will suffer irreparable harm” if the injunction was not issued, and have shown that the issuance of it “is in the public interest.”
Federal pandemic unemployment benefits include an extra $300 a week and also expand eligibility to allow more people who may not have previously qualified (such as independent contractors) to receive jobless aid. The bolstered federal unemployment insurance programs were set to last through early September, though Hogan sought to cut them off in July.
A slew of states have similarly sought to curtail the enhanced federal unemployment benefits programs. Many Republican governors, including Hogan, have argued these benefits are dissuading people from seeking work as the economy begins to bounce back from the pandemic-induced downturn. An apparent labor shortage in the restaurant industry as many businesses reopen at once has also left some employers struggling to find staff.
Many economists have refuted the argument that enhanced unemployment benefits are preventing people from working. Low hiring numbers have also sparked a debate about dismal wages in the service industry.
A spokesperson for Hogan’s office did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment Wednesday, but told The Baltimore Sun that the governor won’t challenge the decision.
“While we firmly believe the law is on our side, actual adjudication of the case would extend beyond the end of the federal programs, foregoing the possibility of pursuing the matter further,” Michael Ricci, Hogan’s director of communications, told the local outlet.
(NEW YORK) — A judge has delayed the sentencing of a man convicted of murdering University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts after defense attorneys filed court documents accusing prosecutors of failing to disclose that police were investigating a sex trafficking “trap house” involving a man linked to a missing 11-year-old boy.
Instead of sentencing Cristhian Bahena Rivera, who was expected to receive life in prison without the possibility of parole, Judge Joel Yates will hold a hearing on Thursday on a defense motion to set aside the verdict and schedule a new trial.
A jury convicted Bahena Rivera, a 27-year-old Mexican national farmworker, in May of first-degree murder in the 2018 abduction and killing of the 20-year-old student.
On Tuesday, Bahena Rivera’s attorneys filed a motion, alleging prosecutors failed to disclose a separate investigation was occurring at the time of Tibbetts’ disappearance involving a man allegedly operating a sex trafficking “trap house” in New Sharon, Iowa, 27 miles from Brooklyn, Iowa, where Tibbetts went missing on July 18, 2018.
The 50-year-old man the defense attorneys identified by name in their motion was once the live-in boyfriend of the mother of 11-year-old Xavior Harrelson, who vanished from a rural Iowa trailer park on May 27, a day before the jury found Bahena Rivera guilty.
The motion also claimed that an investigation by the defense found that, in the past few years, at least 10 children have been reported missing in or near Poweshiek County, Iowa, the same county where Tibbetts was stabbed to death and dumped in a cornfield.
The defense attorneys filed court papers last week asking for a new trial based on information from two witnesses who came forward to law enforcement in May saying they independently spoke to a man who claimed he and a 50-year-old sex trafficker killed Tibbetts and framed Bahena Rivera.
One of the new witnesses purportedly claimed the real killer — who was in jail with the witness at the time — told him that he first saw Tibbetts bound and gagged at a sex trafficking “trap house” owned by his alleged accomplice. The man claimed, according to the defense motion, his alleged accomplice grew worried after federal authorities searching for Tibbetts showed up at a house next door to his.
“That Mexican shouldn’t be in jail for killing Mollie Tibbett, because I raped her and killed her,” the witness claimed the confessed killer told him, according to the earlier defense motion.
In their motion filed Tuesday, defense attorneys attached a police search warrant affidavit for the New Sharon home that they say “corroborates the ‘trap house’ account.”
A second individual contacted the Mahaska County, Iowa, Sheriff’s Office with a similar story involving the same man who reportedly confessed, but deputies said the witness appeared to be under the influence at the time and dismissed the story as not being credible.
Both witnesses contacted investigators within hours of each other on May 26, the same day Bahena Rivera testified at his trial that he was kidnapped by two masked men who forced him to drive them to where Tibbetts was expected to be jogging. He claimed that when they found Tibbetts, one of the men stabbed her to death, put her body in the trunk of Bahena Rivera’s car and made him drive to a cornfield, where the young woman’s badly decomposed remains were discovered a month after she went missing.
Bahena Rivera admitted on the witness stand that he placed Tibbetts’ body in the cornfield but was not involved in her murder. Bahena Rivera claimed during his testimony that he didn’t tell investigators about the masked men because they threatened to harm his former girlfriend, the mother of his daughter, if he did.
In his closing argument, prosecutor Scott Brown called Bahena Rivera’s testimony a “figment of his imagination.” A jury deliberated seven hours over two days before finding Bahena Rivera guilty.
Following the verdict, prosecutors informed the defense attorneys that the two witnesses had come forward.
The defense motion filed Tuesday argued that Bahena Rivera’s “claim based on newly discovered evidence has turned into a due process violation arising from the prosecution’s failure to turn over reports involving trap houses and kidnappings in or near the Poweshiek County area.”
Prosecutors from the Iowa State Attorney General’s Office have yet to comment on the new developments but are expected to file a response to the defense motion for a new trial on Wednesday.
(ANNAPOLIS, Md.) — An arrest has been made in the slaying of a Houston mom who was shot and killed while in Maryland to drop off her son at the U.S. Naval Academy, authorities announced Wednesday.
Angelo Harrod, 29, allegedly shot Michelle Cummings, 57, while she sat on an Annapolis hotel patio in the early hours of June 29, according to Annapolis police.
Harrod was confined to home detention on May 3 and allegedly cut off his ankle bracelet before the shooting, Annapolis Police Chief Edward Jackson said at a news conference Wednesday.
A warrant had been out for Harrod for absconding home detection and authorities had been looking for him, Jackson said.
Harrod was identified as a suspect in the Cummings case after police reviewed videos and photos from the crime scene, according to the chief.
“The minute we knew he was wanted … we were looking for him and we just happened to find him on June 30,” Jackson said.
Cummings was not the intended target of the shooting, police said. The shots were fired on Pleasant Street and traveled a short distance, hitting Cummings, police said.
Charges filed Wednesday against Harrod include first-degree murder, second-degree murder and attempted murder.
The attempted murder charges are because the suspect allegedly attempted “to murder two other citizens that night on Pleasant Street,” the chief said.
Harrod is being held without bond, Jackson added.
Cummings and her husband were in Annapolis at the time of her slaying to bring their son, Midshipman Candidate Leonard Cummings III, to the U.S. Naval Academy. Their son, who goes by Trey, is an incoming freshman for the Naval Academy Class of 2025, the Academy said.
Jackson said he was desperate to solve this case.
“Some nights I couldn’t sleep. I felt rage,” he said.
Jackson said he called Cummings’ husband Wednesday morning with the news. Jackson said her husband “paused,” and then said, “Thank you, chief.”
Naval Academy Superintendent Sean Buck said at the news conference, “When Trey is ready … we will welcome him back with open arms.”
(FORT HOOD, Texas) — A woman accused of helping Fort Hood soldier Vanessa Guillen’s suspected killer dismember and dispose of Guillen’s body last year has been indicted by a grand jury.
Cecily Ann Aguilar was indicted Tuesday on 11 federal charges including accessory after the fact, destruction of records in a federal case, conspiracy to tamper with documents, tampering with documents and issuing false statements in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.
The charges come one month after a Texas judge denied a motion from Aguilar asking her confession in the crime be thrown out.
Guillen was a Fort Hood Army specialist who disappeared in April 2020. Her remains were found along the Leon River in late June that year.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Texas said Guillen was bludgeoned to death with a hammer by fellow soldier Aaron David Robinson in the arms room of the Killeen, Texas, military base, according to the criminal complaint. He later died by suicide in July when confronted by police after Guillen’s remains were found.
Aguilar was his girlfriend at the time, according to the criminal complaint, and was taken into custody. In July 2020, she was charged with one federal count of conspiracy to tamper with evidence.
The Tuesday indictment stated Aguilar “did unlawfully and knowingly combine, conspire, confederate, and agree with another person to corruptly alter, destroy, mutilate, and conceal any record, document and other object,” such as Guillen’s body, “with the intent to impair its integrity and availability for use in an official proceeding.”
The documents stated she and Robinson dismembered Guillen’s body, destroyed some of it and concealed what was left of her remains. They further said she made false statements “to prevent” Robinson and herself “from being charged with and prosecuted for any crime.”
Lawyers for Aguilar did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Natalie Khawam, the attorney for Guillen’s family, told ABC News they are hoping for a “maximum sentence” for Aguilar.
“My clients, the Guillen family, and I believe that Cecily Aguilar is guilty. When the U.S. Attorney called me yesterday to tell us the news, we felt some relief knowing that justice is underway,” Khawam said. “We pray that this trial does not drag on but rather is put on a speedy trial calendar so that justice is not delayed. Vanessa was brutally murdered, in a way no one should ever be taken from this Earth.”
