All Blog Posts from Crimesider

PERUGIA, Italy An Italian jury has reached a verdict in the trial of American Amanda Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, who are standing trial for the murder of Knox' British roommate Meredith Kercher.

The court is expected to announce the verdict at 6 p.m. EST, from the eight members of the jury, including two judges, who were sequestered in a room in the Perugia courthouse.

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NEW YORK - As a child of thirteen, Sanford Clark was sent from his home in Canada to live with his uncle, Gordon Stewart Northcott, on a chicken ranch in Wineville, California. It was there that Sanford discovered that his uncle was evil and a rapist and murderer.

Written by acclaimed crime writer Anthony Flacco, with Jerry Clark, Sanford Clark’s son, providing a primary resource, The Road Out of Hell reveals the untold story of the Wineville murders that are featured in the Clint Eastwood and Angelina Jolie film, Changeling.

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PERUGIA, Italy - As her lawyers make their last efforts to convince a jury of her innocence, Amanda Knox also made a final statement to the court and swore she was not an "assassin" in the 2007 murder of her British roommate Meredith Kercher.

Knox addressed the court in Perugia, Italy Thursday, before the eight members of the jury go into deliberations.

Her voice breaking as she fought back tears, Knox said in Italian she is "scared of having the mask of an assassin forced" onto her.

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SEATTLE - Prosecutors say Darcus Allen drove his old prison buddy Maurice Clemmons to a Seattle café where Clemmons shot four police officers and then, as Clemmons stumbled out with a bullet in his side, Allen helped him escape.

Now, they are considering charging Allen with aggravated first degree murder, which carries the same penalties as if he had shot the officers himself – life without release, or execution.

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CLEVELAND - Anthony Sowell, the former Marine now accused of killing at least 11 women and leaving their remains in and around his Ohio home, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the charges.

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HARTFORD, Conn. (CBS/AP) - Jennifer Hramadka, the fiancee of Raymond Clark III, the Yale University lab technician charged with killing graduate student Annie Le, has been asked to provide a sample of her DNA to authorities, her attorney said Wednesday.

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NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Police say they found blood on the kitchen floor of Raymond Clark III, the Yale lab tech who is charged with killing Yale graduate student Annie Le days before her wedding, and they also witnessed him trying to cover up evidence in the lab where her body was later found, according to search warrant affidavits released Wednesday.

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Paul Michael Merhige sat through three hours of Thanksgiving Day dinner and sing-a-longs around the piano, plotting the moment he would fatally shoot four relatives, his cousin-in-law said Tuesday.

After opening fire, Merhige was heard saying he had waited 20 years to kill them, according to the host of the dinner that turned deadly.

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JUPITER, Fla. - "God packed a lot of sweetness into that little body," heartbroken father Jim Sitton said of his murdered 6-year-old daughter Makayla Sitton. "She's just our life. I don't know how we are ever going to recover."

While the Sitton family tries to make sense of a Thanksgiving massacre that left four people dead including the alleged shooter's pregnant sister, her twin sister, his 79-year-old aunt and his cousin little Makayla, police are now looking in two states for Paul Michael Merhige, the man they believe perpetrated this violence.

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JUPITER, Fla. - A Thanksgiving dinner turned into a violent horror show as three women and a child in bed were shot to death during a family gathering, say Florida police, and now Paul Michael Merhige, the man police say is responsible, is on the run.

Police said 17 relatives were in the house when Paul Michael Merhige, 35, shot to death his twin sisters Carla and Lisa Merhige, 33, aunt Raymonde Joseph, 76, and 6-year-old cousin Makayla Sitton.

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