Midwest

Indiana man pleads guilty to all charges in elderly couple's 2021 killings

Published

2 years ago

June 1, 2024

Indiana man pleads guilty to all charges in elderly couple's 2021 killings

A southwestern Indiana man has pleaded guilty to murder and other charges in the shooting and robbery of an elderly couple in their home.

Austin Kusturin, 30, of Mount Vernon admitted to all 11 charges on Wednesday, a day after a jury was selected for his trial in the deaths of John and Elizabeth “Betty” Hall, both 74. His sentencing is set for July 18.

Posey County Prosecutor Thomas Clowers said the plea deal with Kusturin spares the Halls’ relatives the burden of sitting through a trial that would put his “heinous and senseless crimes” on display. He said Kusturin could face a prison sentence of up to 170 years.

ALABAMA CONVICT WHO ROBBED, KILLED ELDERLY COUPLE GETS EXECUTION DATE

“My office will be seeking the maximum sentence, which would effectively be life in prison,” Clowers said in a statement.

An Indiana man has pleaded guilty to murder and other charges in the shooting and robbery of an elderly couple.

A relative checking on the Halls’ welfare found their bodies in November 2021 in their home in Mount Vernon, an Ohio River town west of Evansville. Indiana State Police were able to recover their cellphones near Kusturin’s residence. A gun belonging to John Hall was found in a storage unit Kusturin shared, and Kusturin’s thumbprint was found on John Hall’s phone, an affidavit said.

Kusturin’s attorney, Glenn Grampp, said his client told him he had decided to plead guilty Wednesday morning before opening statements were set to begin. He said Kusturin did not elaborate on why.

Grampp said that while his client’s guilty plea means he won’t face the possibility of life in prison without parole, Kusturin “is looking at a substantial amount of time” in prison.

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Milwaukee, WI

Doug Gottlieb goes on postgame tirade after Milwaukee beats Green Bay late

Published

3 minutes ago

February 16, 2026

Press Room

Doug Gottlieb goes on postgame tirade after Milwaukee beats Green Bay late

Because the whistles had been so plentiful, Stevie Elam’s defense in the waning moments had to be perfect.

It was ‒ depending on who you ask.

As a foul-ridden contest between rivals came to a close at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena on Feb. 15, UW-Green Bay guard Preston Ruedinger wisely attacked the rim with his team trailing by a point and the clock under 10 seconds. Expecting at the very least to draw some contact and a whistle, all he instead encountered was Elam stripping the ball away.

The freshman stripped Ruedinger, then sank two free throws to ice a 75-72 win for the Panthers to avoid what would have been the first sweep to their in-state foes since 2018-19.

“He had to get that ball pretty clean,” Milwaukee head coach Bart Lundy said. “They were driving with force. We had a couple plays before that where it looked like we stopped them and we did get whistled. But Stevie Elam’s strength as a true freshman, his hand strength is off the charts; it’s probably NFL-level.”

Lundy’s counterpart disagreed, to say the least.

“The last play of the game, just to get the ball they were grabbing us and holding us,” Phoenix head coach Doug Gottlieb said. “Again, I understand if you’re not calling that, that’s fine. You had the exact same play at both ends in the last play of the game.”

Gottlieb paused, ever so briefly, then aggressively slammed his fists into the table atop the dais.

“The exact same [expletive] play,” Gottlieb yelled. “The exact same play.”

Gottlieb was fed up with the officiating crew from the afternoon after receiving a technical foul and seeing his team shoot 18 free throws compared to Milwaukee’s 37. He specifically called out the technical he received in the second half with just under 7 minutes to play and his team up three, as well as a loose-ball foul on CJ O’Hara with 4:25 to go and his team up four.

“I need the new commissioner of the Horizon League to explain to me what a technical foul is when I don’t leave the box, I don’t curse, I’m not demonstrative,” Gottlieb said. “There was nothing, nothing that should have been called a technical foul. I know when I earn one. I did not earn one. The CJ play, we’re up [four] points, that dramatically changed the [trajectory] of the game.”

Postgame tirades aside, the Panthers had to overcome a huge night from Green Bay’s Marcus Hall to do so, as the junior from Schofield, Wisconsin, had 32 points and seven rebounds.

Central to Milwaukee’s efforts in doing so: free throws and Chandler Jackson, who scored 23 points.

Twenty-four of the Panthers’ free throws came in the second half, and they hit 22 of them – despite being one of the worst free-throw shooting teams in the country at 68.5% entering the day.

Milwaukee led for only 1 minute, 53 seconds in total.

After cutting the lead to one three times prior in the final minutes, the Panthers took the lead with 69 seconds left when Esyah Pippa-White was fouled going for a defensive rebound and hit a pair of free throws.

On the other end, Hall corralled his own miss and laid it back up with 45 seconds left to put the Phoenix up 72-71.

But Amar Augillard wisely drove to the basket on the other end, where he drew a foul much to Gottlieb’s chagrin and hit Milwaukee’s 19th and 20th free throws of the half.

“Our end, [if] you don’t want to call a foul, he drove into traffic, whatever,” the Phoenix second-year coach and former radio host said. “It’s the exact same play as the other end. Could not be more similar. And yet every time they drove in there it was a foul, and every time we did it was a miss.”

Milwaukee shot 19 more free throws than Green Bay despite drawing only five more fouls.

Jackson went 8 for 8 from the stripe as he finished two points shy of his career-high of 25 points, which he set in Milwaukee’s most recent game, Feb. 10 at IU Indy.

Initially thought of as a likely redshirt candidate, Jackson has become arguably the heavily injured Panthers’ most-consistent scorer of late. He’s averaging 14.1 points over his past eight games.

“To see Chandler from June to where he is now, he’s just a different guy, different player,” Lundy said. “When we inserted Chandler, we really inserted him for his communication. He helps everyone get better defensively. That’s what got him the opportunity and everything has grown from that. It wasn’t like he was in practice scoring at will on everyone. He talked. He communicated. He cared.”

Elam was the only other Milwaukee player to reach double-digit scoring, finishing with 11 points.

With the win, the Panthers moved a half-game clear of Youngstown State and Cleveland State for eighth place in the Horizon League, which matters because the 10th and 11th place teams face off in a play-in for the conference tournament.

Green Bay left the building, meanwhile, in a tie for third – and forcefully demanding answers from the conference.

“All we ask is that there’s a fair game. That’s what we ask,” Gottlieb said. “CJ O’Hara goes and gets an offensive rebound, their player dives at his legs and CJ gets called for a foul. I need [Jill Bodensteiner] at the league, our new commissioner, to explain to me the disparity in the officiating. That’s what I need explained to me.

“I have no problem with their team, their staff. They played hard. They did what they do. They played tough and they played aggressive. I need somebody to explain to me, just those two. There are others I have massive issues with, including every time we touched them there was a foul in the second half.”

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Minneapolis, MN

How Minneapolis is tallying the cost of ICE; Report says small businesses lost up to $81M in January

Published

15 minutes ago

February 16, 2026

Press Room

How Minneapolis is tallying the cost of ICE; Report says small businesses lost up to M in January

Minneapolis is facing significant financial losses due to immigration enforcement operations, with a reported $200 million economic hit in January.

On Friday, Mayor Jacob Frey said that small businesses and restaurants in the city lost as much as $81 million in revenue. Minneapolis is home to over 1,200 restaurants and bars, not including other small businesses. To understand how these losses were calculated, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS spoke with Erik Hansen, the city’s Director of Community Planning and Economic Development (CPED).

Lake Street businesses impacted by ICE surge charting economic path forward

“There’s a little bit of a squishiness to the number,” said Hansen when asked about tracking the financial impact on Tuesday, as the city was finalizing its preliminary impact report, which estimated Minneapolis small businesses collectively lost up to $81 million in January.

He said those calculations are based on conversations and a survey sent out a couple of weeks ago. Hansen explained that the survey was anonymous, with about 150 respondents as of Tuesday.

“It’s an anonymous poll. We have about 150 respondents to that so far, and we asked them questions about, like, what kind of impacts have you had since the beginning of the year? Can you attribute that to the Operation Metro Surge? And then, what have been the financial consequences?” said Hansen.

According to the preliminary impact report released on Friday, based on that survey and existing business summary and licensing data, the city could assume more than half — or 750 — restaurants and bars “…are experiencing major losses of $20,000 per week.” And the entire industry “…is likely experiencing a minimum loss of $15 million per week.”

The report said the city used a similar framework to add up losses for grocery, retail, entertainment, and more, concluding that “January 2026 revenue losses for small, consumer-facing businesses in Minneapolis could be as high as $81 million.”

“We are getting the best data we can, because we’ll never really, truly be able to quantify the impacts of the operation,” Hansen said.

The financial impact may be difficult to quantify, but it’s evident, especially on historically busy days. Paul Wu, owner of Jade Dynasty on West Lake Street, said, “Friday, for example, we normally do $20-25,000 a night, and we did $8,000. And that’s lucky.”

“It’s a big loss. We don’t make any money,” Wu added.

Immigrant-owned businesses in Minnesota struggle with reduced hours

Earlier this month, Gina Christ, owner of The Black Forest Inn, told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, “It bottomed out after Christmas, right? It was, it was just like a trap door opened.”

Hansen said that current business financial aid proposals from state and city officials would make up for a drop in the bucket of need.

He also emphasized the broader impact on the community, stating, “What’s important for us at the city right now is to articulate what the true need is in the community. And it’s not just the businesses. It’s also household budgets [that] are being impacted. People have lost wages. They’re more insecure in their housing stability… And so as we’re looking at that, once we have a better scale of what the problem is, we can start to look at resources. And those resources won’t always be money.”

The city plans to continue tracking the impact and updating the numbers, according to the preliminary impact report.

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Indianapolis, IN

IHSAA girls basketball semi-state pairings set for Saturday

Published

21 minutes ago

February 16, 2026

Press Room

IHSAA girls basketball semi-state pairings set for Saturday

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Girls basketball teams still alive in the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) State Tournament learned their semi-state round matchups on Sunday.

The IHSAA held its semi-state pairings show on Sunday afternoon. The pairings were determined by a random draw.

Each semi-state site this upcoming Saturday will have four teams from the same class. Each site will have two semifinal games and a championship game with the site’s winner advancing to its respective state championship game later in the month.

Here’s a look at the semi-state matchups on Saturday:

Class 4A at LaPorte