All Blog Posts from Crimesider

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Alyssa Bustamante pleaded not guilty Tuesday to killing her 9-year-old neighbor, Elizabeth Olten, who police say was slain because the teen wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone.

The 15-year-old Missouri girl sat silently as an attorney entered a not guilty plea on her behalf to first-degree murder and armed criminal action in Olten's Oct. 21 death.

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NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. A Pasco County Judge has ruled that the state must pay a cosmetologist up to $150 a day during John Allen Ditullio's trial for murder and attempted murder charges to apply makeup to cover up the elaborate tattoos that cover his neck and face.

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TUCSON, Ariz. - Kumari Fulbright, the former beauty queen accused of kidnapping and torturing former boyfriend Josh Conway in December 2007, has plead guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping and aggravated assault Tuesday in Pima County Superior Court.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Lenny Sullivan, a road manager for rock legend Bruce Springsteen, died from an accidental drug overdose, a Missouri medical examiner has found.

Sullivan, a cousin of the rock veteran, was assistant road manager to Springsteen's E Street Band.

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TACOMA, Wash. - A procession of 2,000 cars followed the flag-draped caskets of four slain police officers to a memorial service Tuesday as thousands of mourners, mostly members of law enforcement from across the country, lined the streets.

They came to honor Sgt. Mark Renninger and Officers Ronald Owens, Tina Griswold, and Greg Richards, who were gunned down in a Seattle-area coffee shop at the end of November.

Lori Lightfoot and Sheila Chandler, police detectives from Fresno, Calif., were among officers who traveled from as far away as New York, Chicago and Canada.

The pair said the deaths of the four Lakewood officers brought back memories of four Oakland police officers killed during a traffic stop and a shootout in March.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. - North Carolina police have charged Gwendolyn Brown-Johnson, a community activist known for helping disadvantaged children, with selling moonshine out of her day care center.

The Charlotte Observer reported Tuesday that North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement arrested the 57-year-old woman last week at Parkview Community Center in Charlotte, N.C.

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ROLLING HILLS ESTATES, Calif. - Jeffrey Tidus, a well-known Los Angeles attorney with a long list of high profile clients including a defunct subprime lender and Isuzo Motors, died Tuesday after he was shot in the head outside his California home.

Tidus was shot Monday around 8:30 p.m. as he was getting a laptop from his car.

His wife heard a single gunshot ring out and rushed outside to find him lying in the driveway behind his blue Toyota Prius, sheriff's homicide Lt. Dave Dolson said.

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WOODBRIDGE, Va. - Northern Virginia Community College was on lockdown yesterday as SWAT teams swarmed the campus, after a student, Jason Michael Hamilton, opened fire in a classroom with a high-powered rifle, according to police.

Hamilton did not hit anyone and no injuries were reported following the afternoon shooting at the school's Woodbridge campus, about 25 miles south of Washington, D.C.

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NEW YORK - Five years ago, New Jersey resident Biurny Peguero said she was visciously gang-raped by three men in a van after a night of drinking in upper Manhattan. Her testimony sent William McCaffery to jail despite a lack of DNA evidence linking him to the crime.

Now, on the advice of her priest, Peguero has admitted it was all a hoax. On Monday in a Manhattan court, she pled guilty to perjury charges and could face seven years in jail. As a result of her new testimony McCaffery, the man convicted of raping her in 2005, was released from prison and is now awaiting final dismissal of the charges.

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LAUDERDALE LAKES, Fla. ― The Broward Sheriff's Office has a pretty good lead on a burglar who stole several guns from a Lauderdale Lakes pawn shop. That's because the suspect, described by officials as athletic, was caught on camera breaking into the pawn shop on Friday.

Surveillance cameras rolling inside the Peoples Pawn Shop captured his every move. Detectives say the suspect climbed onto the roof of the Florida store. He cut a hole in the roof and threw a rope down into the store to make his descent.

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