A New York man who killed a teen girl decades ago will spend the next 25 years behind bars. Joseph Belstadt, 46, was found guilty of the death of 17-year-old Mandy Steingasser last week. The incident happened in Niagra Falls in September 1993 after Beldstadt broke into the victim’s car before strangling and beating her. …
The family of an Ohio girl killed by a registered sex offender in 2017 received a $1 million legal settlement after suing the city of Cleveland and other entities. A Cuyahoga County Probate Court approved the $1 million settlement after the parents of 14-year-old Alianna DeFreeze sued for wrongful death. As CrimeOnline previously reported, convicted …
Earlier this month, an Illinois judge reversed an 18-year-old man’s sexual assault conviction — finding that the 148 days he spent in jail was “plenty of punishment.” Drew Clinton had turned 18 two weeks before sexually assaulting Cameron Vaughan, 16, at a graduation party on May 30. Vaughan, who waived her anonymity, told WGEM that …
Justin Ross Harris, a Georgia man serving a life sentence for killing his toddler son, Cooper, is scheduled to have his appeal heard next week in state Supreme Court. Defense lawyers plan to argue that “errors related to its evidentiary decisions” were made during Harris’ 2016 trial when he was found guilty of killing his …
The parents of missing Washington girl Oakley Carlson pleaded not guilty this week to accusations that they neglected to give their other child a doctor-prescribed medication. Jordan Bowers and Andrew Carlson are both suspects in the disappearance of their daughter, 5-year-old Oakley. They have yet to face charges for her disappearance, according to The Chronicle, …
On Wednesday, a federal judge in New York ruled that Prince Andrew must face a lawsuit that accuses him of sexually abusing a woman when she was 17. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan said Virginia Roberts Giuffre, 38, can pursue a lawsuit in which she alleges Andrew, now 61, and late billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein …
The man who allegedly purchased the firearm that Kyle Rittenhouse used in the August 2020 protest shooting in Wisconsin that left two demonstrators dead accepted a plea deal on Friday that would spare him from jail. According to the Kenosha County Eye, Dominick Black, 20, agreed to plead no contest to contributing to the delinquency …
Three Georgia men who were found guilty of killing Ahmaud Arbery in February 2020 were sentenced on Friday to life in prison, with only one of them getting the possibility of parole. Father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael, 64 and 34, were sentenced to life without parole for felony murder, plus 20 years for …
On the two-year anniversary of an Alabama woman Paighton H0uston’s death, a lawsuit was filed against several businesses and individuals. According to the lawsuit, the family of Paighton Houston has filed suit against the Tin Roof Acquisition Company, the City of Birmingham, and suspect Fred Hampton for wrongful death. As CrimeOnline previously reported, police said …
A juror in Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial reportedly answered negatively to a query on the juror questionnaire asking if he, a friend, or family member had ever been a victim of sexual abuse, harassment, or assault, Fox News reports. The juror, identified only as Scott David, later told reporters he had revealed his own childhood sexual assault during deliberations and helped persuade other members of the panel to convict Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend, as CrimeOnline previously reported. Prosecutors have asked Judge Allison Nathan to hold a hearing on Scotty David’s comments, while defense attorneys asked for the convictions to be thrown out. Nathan has set a briefing schedule for the issue.
Prosecutors in Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking trial have asked the judge to launch an inquiry about statements made by one of the jurors in the case, but Maxwell’s attorneys said Judge Alison Nathan should just order a new trial. A member of the panel told Reuters that he shared his experiences with sexual abuse with …
A Colorado mother admitted that she faked her 7-year-old daughter Olivia Gant’s terminal illness, causing multiple unnecessary surgeries and medications that led to her death. On Monday, Kelly R. Turner, 43, pleaded guilty to negligent child abuse that caused her daughter’s 2017 death, along with felony theft and charitable fraud. According to the Denver Post, …
