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Alabama fugitive corrections official Vicky White died of suicide, coroner’s office says

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Alabama fugitive corrections official Vicky White died of suicide, coroner’s office says
White, 56, who authorities mentioned freed inmate Casey White in late April from the Alabama jail the place she labored, died of a single gunshot wound to the pinnacle, the coroner’s workplace in Indiana’s Vanderburgh County mentioned.

Additional particulars concerning the workplace’s findings weren’t accessible. A spokesperson mentioned the coroner’s workplace is not going to launch the total report as a result of it is a part of an ongoing investigation.

The chase ended a multistate manhunt that began April 29, when authorities say Vicky White, then the assistant director of corrections at a jail in Alabama’s Lauderdale County, checked Casey White out of the detention heart beneath the pretense of taking him to a courthouse.

Investigators imagine the 2 fostered a romantic relationship whereas Casey White, who was usually housed in a state jail, was periodically transferred to the Lauderdale County jail to attend hearings associated to the 2015 stabbing dying of Connie Ridgeway, for which White is dealing with capital homicide costs. The county sheriff has mentioned the 2 maintained communication when he was transferred again to state jail.

On Wednesday, Evansville officers launched audio of a 911 name they are saying Vicky White made throughout Monday’s chase — audio that provides some perception into the seconds resulting in her dying however doesn’t by itself seem to make clear how or when she sustained the gunshot harm.

What the 911 name reveals

As officers have been chasing a Cadillac pushed by Casey White on Monday afternoon, they rammed the Cadillac right into a ditch, and the automobile rolled over, authorities mentioned. Investigators imagine Vicky White shot herself “as soon as the automobile crashed,” Vanderburgh County Sheriff Dave Wedding ceremony mentioned Tuesday.

The 911 audio seems to begin close to the tip of the chase. It begins with somebody saying one thing indiscernible, and the dispatcher saying “Evansville 911.” Nobody seems to deal with the dispatcher, who says, “911” and “hiya” seemingly with out being answered.

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As an alternative, a girl’s voice — which authorities say is Vicky White’s — is heard throughout the first six seconds saying issues together with, “Cease,” and “Wait, cease … air luggage going to go off and kill us.”

Twelve seconds in, a loud noise is heard — the primary of at the least 4 loud noises to occur in about 15 seconds. It is unclear in every occasion what the noises symbolize, and it is unclear from the audio when the automotive was rammed, when it rolled over, and when a gun was fired.

A timeline of the 11-day escape and capture of Vicky White and Casey White

“God,” the lady says after the primary noise. “Air luggage are going off. Let’s get out and run.” She mentions a lodge.

The second noise is heard, and the lady shrieks. No less than two extra noises come, adopted — now 30 seconds into the tape — by one other shriek.

For the following 30 seconds, typically solely muffled sounds of sirens are heard. A minute into the recording, a gentle voice is heard — maybe a moan — but it surely’s not clear whose voice it’s.

Shortly after, distant voices are heard, together with occasional motion, although it is unclear whether or not it is inside or exterior the automobile. About one minute and 40 seconds into the recording, somebody begins repeatedly saying phrases like “she is respiration” and “acquired a gun in her hand.”

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The cellphone line stays open as officers work to get the pair out of the automobile.

Vicky White was transported to a hospital, the place she died, the US Marshals mentioned.

Casey White indicated he wanted a shootout, but wreck prevented it, sheriff says
On Tuesday, Wedding ceremony informed CNN that Vicky White had indicated in a name with police dispatchers that she had a gun. Additionally, in dispatch audio from Evansville police launched earlier this week, the dispatcher might be heard advising regulation enforcement models “we may hear her on the road saying she had her finger on the set off.”

The 911 recording doesn’t seem to disclose Vicky White mentioning a gun or her finger on a set off. Nonetheless, different individuals within the recording — presumably responding officers — might be heard saying her finger was on the set off once they discovered her.

CNN has sought remark from the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Workplace about find out how to reconcile the 911 audio with the remarks by the sheriff and the dispatcher.

No regulation enforcement officers fired any photographs through the chase, based on Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton.

When officers pulled Casey White out of the automotive and took him into custody, he reportedly informed them to assist “his spouse” who had shot herself within the head and insisted he did not do it, based on US Marshal Marty Keely, who mentioned to their information, the pair was not married. Authorities beforehand mentioned the officer and inmate weren’t associated.

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Casey White indicated he meant to have a shootout with regulation enforcement if his automotive had not been rammed right into a ditch, Wedding ceremony mentioned Tuesday, citing White’s interviews with investigators after his seize.

“(Casey White) mentioned he was most likely going to have a shootout, on the stake of each of them shedding their lives,” Wedding ceremony mentioned.

The scene at the end of the police chase in Evansville, Indiana.

What’s going to occur to Casey White?

Casey White was returned to Alabama Tuesday evening to attend an arraignment in Lauderdale County.

Decide Ben Graves informed White on the listening to he shall be charged with escape within the first diploma, along with capital homicide costs he was already dealing with associated to Ridgeway’s dying. White allegedly confessed to killing her however later pleaded not responsible by motive of madness, authorities mentioned.
Casey White is now in custody at the William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility in Alabama.

After the listening to, White was transferred on to the William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility, a state jail in Bessemer, Alabama, slightly extra 100 miles south of Lauderdale County.

White was already serving a 75-year sentence for a sequence of crimes he dedicated in 2015, together with a house invasion, carjacking and police chase, based on the US Marshals Service.

White’s homicide trial is at present set for June. Throughout Tuesday’s courtroom look, White’s lawyer, Jamy Poss, mentioned he can be submitting a change of venue movement, which the choose mentioned he would take into account.

CNN’s Melissa Alonso, Jamiel Lynch, Eric Levenson, Jaide Timm-Garcia and Nadia Romero contributed to this report.

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Drone Collision Grounds Firefighting Plane in Los Angeles

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Drone Collision Grounds Firefighting Plane in Los Angeles

A firefighting plane flying over the Palisades fire in Los Angeles collided with a civilian drone on Thursday, officials said, putting the plane out of service and further stretching the resources available to battle the raging fires in Southern California.

The plane landed safely after the incident, said the Federal Aviation Administration, which will investigate the episode. The collision punctured a wing and put the plane out of commission, said Chris Thomas, a Cal Fire spokesman.

The blazes that broke out this week in the Los Angeles area were fueled by fierce winds that initially prevented aircraft from taking off safely. Once conditions improved, dozens of helicopters and planes joined the fight to contain the fires. More were on the way Thursday night, the authorities said.

The plane involved in the collision on Thursday is a Canadair CL-415 Super Scooper, leased by the Los Angeles County Fire Department from the Canadian province of Quebec, said Kenichi Haskett, a department spokesman. The department said on social media that the collision on Thursday, at around 1 p.m., involved a civilian drone.

The CL-415 can fly very low and scoop up water to dump on fires, according to its maker, De Havilland Aircraft of Canada. Mr. Thomas, the Cal Fire spokesman, said the Super Scooper holds 1,600 gallons and can refill in about five minutes.

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In an hour, even if a refill takes 10 minutes, “that’s six water drops,” he said while discussing the setback to firefighting efforts. “So whose house is not going to get that water to protect it?”

The F.A.A. has imposed temporary flight restrictions in the Los Angeles area while firefighters work to contain the fires. The agency said Thursday that it has not authorized anyone who is not involved in the firefighting operations to fly drones in the restricted zones. Despite that, many videos of wildfire areas that appear to be from drones have been posted on social media this week.

Flight restrictions are often imposed by the F.A.A. when wildfires break out, and the authorities have warned for years about the threat posed by drones to firefighting aircraft. In September, at least two drone incursions were reported as firefighters battled the Line fire in Southern California.

Drone sightings force the authorities to ground firefighting aircraft for a minimum of 15 minutes and for as much as 30 minutes while they confirm it is safe to fly again, Mr. Thomas said.

“We have a saying: ‘If you fly, we can’t,’” he added. “But I don’t know how effective it is because everybody thinks it’s so cool to fly a drone up through the fire.”

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Disrupting firefighting on public lands is a federal crime, punishable by up to 12 months in prison, according to the F.A.A., which said it can also impose a civil penalty of up to $75,000 on a drone pilot who interferes with efforts to suppress wildfires.

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Vladimir Putin is ready for summit with Donald Trump, says Kremlin

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Vladimir Putin is ready for summit with Donald Trump, says Kremlin

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Russia’s president Vladimir Putin is ready to meet Donald Trump but has yet to agree a date, the Kremlin said on Friday, after the US president-elect said the two sides were preparing a possible summit.

The comments by Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesperson, came after Trump answered questions about a possible meeting with Putin by saying “we’re setting it up”, while adding he would prefer to wait until after his inauguration on January 20.

“President Putin has repeatedly declared his openness to contacts with international partners, including the US president and Donald Trump”, Peskov told the press, according to the Interfax news agency.

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He added: “It looks like some progress will be made after Mr Trump takes the Oval Office.”

Outgoing US President Joe Biden cut off direct communication with Putin following the start of the Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Asked about a possible summit at his Mar-a-Lago Florida resort or elsewhere, Trump said after a meeting with Republican governors on Thursday: “President Putin wants to meet — he’s said that even publicly — and we have to get that [Ukraine] war over, that’s a bloody mess.”

The president-elect described the death toll as “staggering” and added: “It’s a war that I’m going to try really to stop as quickly as I can.”

Pushing back his campaign pledge to end the war in “24 hours”, Trump suggested this week that six months was a more realistic target to bring hostilities to an end.

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European leaders and officials have been making the case to the president-elect and his team that continued US military aid is needed to put Kyiv in a stronger position for peace talks and help bring Moscow to the negotiating table.

According to a former senior Kremlin official and another person who has discussed the issue with the Russian president, Putin’s main goal in any talks is new security agreements to ensure Ukraine never joins Nato and that the US-led military alliance pulls back from some eastern deployments.

“He wants to change the rules of the international order so there are no threats to Russia. He is very worried about how the world will look after the war,” the former Kremlin official said. “Trump wants to roll back Nato anyway. The world is changing, anything can happen.”

Western officials including Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte have sought to stress the importance of Trump ensuring “peace through strength” in Ukraine, and avoiding a defeat for Kyiv that would embolden Putin and his allies in China, Iran and North Korea.

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Trump set for sentencing in his New York felony conviction

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Trump set for sentencing in his New York felony conviction

President-elect Donald Trump looks on during Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest at the Phoenix Convention Center in December 2024 in Phoenix, Ariz.

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After months of legal twists and turns, Donald Trump’s most active criminal case is finally reaching a conclusion.

The former and future president is scheduled to appear in a Manhattan courtroom on Friday for his sentencing on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a payment to an adult film star.

Trump on Thursday exhausted his last legal maneuver to stop the sentencing, after a narrow majority of Supreme Court justices declined to intervene.

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The hearing comes just 10 days before Trump is expected to be sworn in as the 47th president of the United States. He had argued the sentencing would interfere with his ability to govern.

In light of that, New York state Judge Juan Merchan has indicated he does not plan on sentencing Trump to prison or even probation, and is instead likely to offer an “unconditional discharge,” meaning the president-elect must do nothing, but the conviction will remain on his record.

Prosecutors have signaled the hearing could be short — less than an hour — and that Trump is expected to attend the hearing virtually.

“There’s nothing else that the defendant has to do, and therefore it’s the least restrictive in terms of how it could impede in any way on the president-elect as he takes office,” Anna Cominsky, director of the criminal defense clinic at New York Law School, said about the expected sentence of an unconditional discharge.

“It certainly makes sense that there be some finality to this case because as a nation, we should want to move on, in particular as he assumes the role of president, and be able to look forward to the next four years without this sentence pending,” Cominsky said. “There has to be an end.”

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Of course, Trump’s legal team is likely to appeal the conviction and sentence again — as they have done throughout the legal proceeding. Appeals could stretch on for years.

Since Trump’s conviction in May, Merchan has postponed the sentencing several times, including to avoid any perception of political bias ahead of Election Day, and then to allow Trump to argue he had immunity in the case, based on a Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.

Merchan ultimately denied the immunity claims, and the dismissal, paving the way for the hearing on Friday.

Fundraising haul

In May, Trump became the first former or sitting U.S. president to be tried on criminal charges and be convicted.

The jury in Manhattan state court heard from 22 witnesses during about a month of testimony in Manhattan’s criminal court. Jurors also weighed other evidence — mostly documents like phone records, invoices and checks to Michael Cohen, Trump’s once loyal “fixer,” who paid adult-film star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about her story of an alleged affair with the former president.

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After about a day-and-a-half of deliberations, the 12 jurors said they unanimously agreed that Trump falsified business records to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels in order to influence the 2016 presidential election.

But the conviction appeared to have little impact on Trump’s popularity — and ultimate electoral victory during the 2024 presidential election. He has used the legal drama to mobilize donations for his campaign and mounting legal fees.

Within 24 hours of the guilty verdict, Trump’s campaign boasted of raising millions of dollars.

And 49% of the nation’s voters in November’s election ultimately chose to bring Trump back to the White House.

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