An Indiana teenager has been found guilty of murdering six members of his family and attempting to murder his younger brother, who survived the horrific incident. Raymond Ronald Lee Childs III, who was 17 at the time of the crime, was tried as an adult. His first trial ended in a mistrial after a witness questioned him about his motives. However, in the second trial, the jury in Marion County convicted him on six counts …
A 23-year-old man from Hesperia, California, is facing a lifetime in prison for the murder of a former classmate he held responsible for his expulsion from high school. Owen Skyler Shover was found guilty of the murder of 16-year-old Aranda Isabel Briones, who disappeared in January 2019. Despite extensive searches, Briones’ remains have yet to be discovered. The jury convicted Shover of first-degree murder, with the added special circumstance of lying in wait. Under California …
A California man, Steven Ronald Schlapia, 60, was found guilty on Wednesday for the heinous killing of Jimmy Wade Schwerdt, 47, in a dispute over a stolen motorcycle. Court documents reveal that Schlapia was convicted of first-degree murder, torture, mayhem, assault with a semiautomatic firearm, arson, possession of a firearm by a felon, and possession of ammunition. The events leading to Schwerdt’s death began on March 15, 2022, when Schlapia took Schwerdt’s motorcycle without his …
An 83-year-old Colorado man, Reginald MacLaren, was convicted on Friday for the brutal murder and dismemberment of his wife and disabled daughter, according to the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office. MacLaren was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, tampering with a deceased body, and false reporting. MacLaren used an ax to kill his wife, 70-year-old Bethany MacLaren, and his 35-year-old daughter, Ruth Jennifer MacLaren. He then dismembered their bodies with a saw and …
James A. Merritt, a 35-year-old man from Morehouse, Missouri, has been sentenced to life imprisonment plus an additional 29 years and a $25,000 fine for the murder of 18-year-old Haley Marie Decker. The young woman’s remains were found in a suitcase in an Illinois wildlife refuge in 2020. Decker, originally from Normal, Illinois, had been reported missing 22 days prior to the discovery of her body. Merritt was convicted in January on charges of second-degree …
Shannon Hopkins, the father of a 24-year-old woman from Missouri who was brutally murdered, has spoken out about the horrifying moment he discovered his daughter’s lifeless body. His daughter, Mackenzie Hopkins, was found beaten to death in her bathtub, with her 4-year-old daughter Bella nearby. The incident occurred on January 15, 2022, in her Kansas City home. In his first public statement since the conviction of his daughter’s killer, Hopkins recounted the chilling scene he …
A Washington state man has been convicted for the brutal murders of four individuals, including a mother, her son, her brother, and his girlfriend. The 24-year-old, Maleke Pate, was found guilty on Friday for the deaths of Maria Nunez, 42, her son Emery Iese, 19, Nunez’s brother Raymond Williams, 22, and Williams’ girlfriend Natasha Brincefield, 22. The Pierce County attorney, Sunni Ko, described the killings as “execution style,” stating that Pate had “gunned them down …
A Florida man was found guilty on Friday for the fatal shooting of his former wife and her adult son, a crime he committed in the presence of the son’s young children, according to the Volusia County prosecutors. The man, identified as Michael D. Williams, 48, had argued that he acted in self-defense when he killed Marsha Ebanks-Williams, 48, and Robert Adams, 28. However, the prosecutors noted that Williams’ injuries were minor, consisting of a …
A California resident with a record of domestic abuse has been found guilty of murdering his wife in a church on Palm Sunday. Wyn Leung, aged 47, attacked his wife, Jieyun Zhou, 37, with a knife, stabbing her over a dozen times before inflicting wounds on himself. He then returned to his wife to continue the assault, resulting in a total of 20 stab wounds. On Thursday, Leung was convicted by a jury of his …
A man from Florida has been convicted of first-degree murder in a case involving the death of his wife, a dispute that originated from disagreements over home renovations in their high-end Orlando home. The man, David Tronnes, was found guilty of killing his wife, Shanti Cooper-Tronnes, after a six-day trial where the jury deliberated for nearly five hours. The conviction was announced by the Office of the State Attorney of the Ninth Judicial Circuit of …