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South Carolina family of boy, 13, who died by suicide sues Snapchat over sextortion scheme

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South Carolina family of boy, 13, who died by suicide sues Snapchat over sextortion scheme

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This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

A South Carolina mother is suing Snapchat after her 13-year-old son died by suicide last year.

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The family says young Timothy Barnett took his own life April 6, 2023, at his Sumter home after he fell victim to a sextortion scheme on the social media app.

“On April 6 … it was a typical morning,” Betsy Hauptman, Timothy’s mother, told Fox News Digital. “My husband and I were waking up. The alarm went off at about 6:15. My husband got up first. He walked out the door. I was in the bathroom, and I got a phone call, and my husband’s like, ‘Hey, do me a favor, lock the door. Make sure the doors are all locked, and check on the kids.’”

Initially, Hauptman’s husband — Timothy’s stepfather — thought “someone was sleeping in the yard” but later realized it was Timothy.

SOUTH CAROLINA LAWMAKER EXPOSES DANGERS OF ‘SEXTORTION’ AFTER TEENAGE SON’S SUICIDE

Timothy Barnett died by suicide April 6, 2023, after falling victim to a sextortion scheme on Snapchat. (Handout)

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“I woke up in a nightmare,” Hauptman, a mother of three boys and four stepchildren, said.

It wasn’t until about six months later that Hauptman realized her son had been the victim of a sextortion scheme on Snapchat. The FBI describes sextortion as a criminal act in which an offender contacts a victim online and coerces the victim to send explicit images or videos in exchange for either more explicit material or money.

AFTER MICHIGAN TEEN’S SUICIDE, NIGERIAN BROTHERS PLEAD GUILTY TO PLANNING DEADLY SEXTORTION SCHEME

“What happened to Timothy is devastating, and our hearts go out to his family during this unimaginable time,” a Snapchat spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “We have zero tolerance for predators abusing young people on Snapchat and are working constantly to fight this horrific activity. We use proactive detection tools to find and remove these types of criminals and work around the clock to support law enforcement investigations.

“We offer extra safeguards for teens to protect against unwanted contact and don’t offer public friend lists, which helps prevent predators from targeting a teen’s friends. We also want to help young people learn the signs of extortion and have launched in-app education to raise awareness of how to spot and report it.”

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It wasn’t until about six months after Timothy’s death that Betsy Hauptman realized her son had been the victim of a sextortion scheme on Snapchat.  (handout)

The FBI received more than 13,000 reports of online financial sextortion involving at least 12,600 victims between October 2021 and March 2023.

Hauptman said information about the sextortion scheme that resulted in Timothy’s suicide “was buried in the closed suicide case,” and she didn’t find out about it until her inner “mama bear” came out at her local police station.

“I had absolutely no clue what sextortion was.”

— Betsy Hauptman

But she and her husband do not take social media lightly. They did regular and random “spot checks” on their kids’ phones “at least twice a week” to make sure they were being safe on social media. During one such “spot check” on Timothy’s phone in November 2022, Hauptman found an inappropriate video from someone Timothy did not know on Snapchat.

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Betsy Hauptman and her husband did regular and random “spot checks” of their kids’ phones about twice a week. (handout)

“We talked to Timothy about the dangers of doing this. And I really kind of preached the whole sex trafficking aspect of it,” Hauptman said. “I don’t remember if we reported it or not, but I know for certain we blocked that account.”

AI ‘DEEPFAKES’ OF INNOCENT IMAGES FUEL SPIKE IN SEXTORTION SCAMS, FBI WARNS

She also confiscated Timothy’s phone until January, during which time she saw a general improvement in his attitude. When he got his phone back, Timothy “promised” to go to his parents if he ever came across anything like that video again, Hauptman said.

“Hindight’s 20/20, and I really wish that, at least, we wouldn’t have allowed Snapchat.”

— Betsy Hauptman

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Hauptman’s attorney, Joe Cunningham, said “if these type of dangers” on Snapchat “were lurking in an apartment complex or in a neighborhood, they would be flushed out very quickly and effectively.”

About two-thirds of teen users on Snapchat said they’ve been targeted by sextortion scams. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

“Parenting right now does have its own challenges that are distinct from generations past, and to the extent that people are creating communities like Snap and then profiting off them by using children as their products, they have a responsibility to make sure that product is safe and that it does not put children in harm’s way by allowing these types of predators to contact and reach out to them,” Cunningham said.

WARNING SIGNS OF SUICIDE: WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT PREVENTION, RED FLAGS AND HOW TO DEAL WITH THE ISSUE

The wrongful death lawsuit filed in South Carolina federal court argues “Snapchat is defectively designed with features that make the platform unreasonably dangerous for minors like Timothy,” and that “[a]s a direct and foreseeable consequence of Snap’s unsafe design, lack of warnings, and inadequate parental controls, Timothy fell victim to a sexual predator who extorted him by threatening to share sexually explicit images Timothy had been manipulated into sending,” resulting in his suicide.

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The wrongful death lawsuit filed in South Carolina federal court argues “Snapchat is defectively designed with features that make the platform unreasonably dangerous for minors like Timothy.” (handout)

The lawsuit notes that Snapchat allows users to send photos and messages that “disappear” as soon as they are opened, though a user can also choose to make their messages visible for a longer period of time.

FBI WARNS TEEN BOYS INCREASINGLY TARGETED IN ONLINE ‘SEXTORTION’ SCHEMES

“Snapchat’s limited display time … encourages users to send photos depicting deviant behavior. Sexting is a prime example, but cyberbullying, underage alcohol consumption, and illicit use of narcotics are also commonly the subject of Snaps,” the complaint states. 

“A 2016 survey of pre-teens and teens ages 12-17 found that ‘d— pics’ were among some of the unwanted content that users — predominantly females — received while using the app.”

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The complaint also noted that “[d]isappearing Snaps do not operate as advertised.”

Snapchat allows users to send photos and messages that “disappear” as soon as they are opened. (Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto)

“Although designed to disappear after an allotted time, recipients possess the ability to save or record them at will,” the lawsuit says. “This is particularly harmful to adolescents, who rely on Snap’s representations when taking and sending photos, and who only learn after the fact that recipients have the means to save photos or videos. In many cases, this leads to sexual exploitation.”

GROWING SNAPCHAT ‘SEXTORTION’ SCHEMES TARGET YOUNG BOYS, EXPERT WARNS

South Carolina State Rep. Brandon Guffey, who lost his 17-year-old son to suicide after a sextortion scheme in July 2022, has spoken to Hauptman about their similar circumstances. Guffey sued Meta earlier this year after his son met a sextortionist posing as a girl on Instagram.

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“Snap, along with these other social media companies, are allowing kids below 18 to agree to these contract terms. Snap even says it themselves that two-thirds of all of their teen [users] have been targeted for sextortion, and yet they have no protections in place. And not only that, they double down by adding AI, which has amplified the issue.”

South Carolina State. Rep. Brandon Guffey encourages those who may be the victim of sextortion to contact police. (Brandon Guffey)

“I really just want parents to stand up, stand together and voice their concerns,” Guffey said. “And if the big tech companies can’t listen by our voice, then we need to start making moves with our wallets. Stop investing into these companies. … Maybe it needs to be a social justice campaign to make them realize I don’t want to have to legislate all this. I believe in less government. I want the companies to do what’s right. And right now, they are not acting like companies that really give a damn.”

“[T]hey are not acting like companies that give a damn.”

— Brandon Guffey

An investigation into Timothy’s death remains ongoing.

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Hauptman remembered her son as “a 13-year-old rugged and tough, tumbling boy.” He was “the life of the party,” she said.

“He was always the one to light up the room when he walked in. Typical middle child that craved attention. I remember when he was an infant … when his daddy was deployed, and he needed to sleep face to face with mom for those nine and a half months that Dad was gone,” she recalled.

Hauptman remembered her son as “a 13-year-old rugged and tough, tumbling boy.” (handout)

He loved baseball and playing the saxophone. At one point, he declared himself “the man of the house” to his mom and asked her how she took her coffee. From that point on, he took it upon himself to make her coffee in the morning, Hauptman said.

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The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has created a free service called Take it Down, which is meant to help victims of sextortion erase explicit images of victims or get bad actors to stop sharing them online. The tool can be accessed at https://takeitdown.ncmec.org.

The FBI encourages anyone who believes they may be the victim of sextortion or know someone who may be a victim to immediately contact local law enforcement or the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or online at tips.fbi.gov.

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Ex-mayor convicted after son walks in on lewd act at alcohol-infused pool bash

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Ex-mayor convicted after son walks in on lewd act at alcohol-infused pool bash

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A former Louisiana mayor has been found guilty of having sex with a minor after prosecutors revealed her teenage son caught her in the act with his friend at a 2024 alcohol-infused pool party hosted at her home.

Misty Roberts, 43, the former mayor of DeRidder, was convicted of carnal knowledge of a juvenile and indecent behavior with a juvenile on Tuesday, according to KPLC. 

Roberts was subsequently released on a $100,000 surety bond, the outlet reported. 

The verdict followed days of testimony from Roberts’ family members, teenagers at the parties and the victim himself as prosecutors worked to paint a picture of the booze-filled events leading up to the incident.

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Prosecutors charged that Misty Roberts had sex with her son’s 16-year-old friend at a booze-filled house party in 2024. (Misty Roberts/Facebook)

On Tuesday, the victim took the stand to tell the jury he was drunk when he and Roberts – who was serving as mayor at the time – had sex, according to KPLC. 

In closing arguments, Assistant District Attorney Charles Robinson began by saying, “I told ya’ll at the beginning of the trial that ‘a lewd and lascivious photo is worth a thousand words.’ Here, you have it,” the outlet reported. 

Robinson then pointed to a series of evidence exhibits showing Roberts posing with the victim while obscured by furniture, including photos from the night of the incident in which Roberts is seen wearing a bikini as the teen smiles up at her.

TEACHER PLEADS GUILTY TO SEXUALLY ABUSING 15-YEAR-OLD STUDENT WEEKS AFTER GIVING BIRTH: REPORT

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Misty Roberts, the former mayor of DeRidder, has been found guilty of having sex with a minor. (Louisiana Highway Patrol)

However, defense attorney Adam Johnson reportedly attempted to convince the jury that key parts of the case were not properly investigated by police, including potential DNA evidence, witness testimony and video surveillance from Roberts’ home. 

Johnson alleged the investigation was an attempt to “railroad” Roberts by lead investigator Melissa Welch, who previously testified she told the victim’s mother that witnesses need to “get on board or get run over by the train.” 

Earlier in the trial, jurors were shown text messages between Roberts and her teenage son, with the pair discussing what type of alcohol the teens wanted for the party hosted at her home. 

FORMER KANSAS ART TEACHER ACCUSED OF HAVING SEX WITH STUDENT IN JEEP TO STAND TRIAL

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Misty Roberts was serving as mayor of DeRidder at the time of the 2024 pool party, according to KPLC.

In another exchange, Roberts’ son warned her of the victim’s age, texting her, “He is seventeen,” according to the outlet. The victim was 16 years old at the time of the alleged incident. 

Additional text messages from the night of the party show Roberts’ son calling the situation “crazy” and telling her that his younger sister was emotional. 

Upon taking the stand, Roberts’ daughter told the court that she witnessed her mother and the victim “on top of each other” the night of the party, KPLC reported.

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Additionally, prosecutors revealed the victim’s mother texted Roberts to confirm she was not pregnant, with Roberts assuring her she was on birth control. 

Roberts then screenshotted the exchange and sent the messages in a separate group chat, suggesting she would take the emergency contraceptive “Plan B,” the outlet reported. 

A DoorDash driver also previously took the stand to testify that he fulfilled an order from “Misty C” to purchase the emergency contraceptive and leave it at the front door of the home.

FLORIDA TEACHER CHARGED FOR ALLEGED SEXUAL RELATIONSHIP WITH STUDENT WHO LIVED WITH HER

The driver then reportedly heard rumors of the incident and told jurors he believed his delivery was connected. 

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Over the weekend, Roberts’ ex-husband, Duncan Clanton, testified that Roberts admitted to having sex with the teenage boy and revealed that the couple’s children had caught them in the act, the outlet reported.

Text messages between the married couple showed Clanton telling Roberts, “I would deny what happened if you’re approached by anyone at the meeting,” on the day of a city council meeting.

HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL COACH CHARGED WITH RAPING FOSTER DAUGHTER, SERVING VICTIM TEQUILA SHOTS: REPORT

In another exchange, Clanton reportedly testified Roberts texted him, “I need you to deny it, please.”

Clanton added that while he refused to deny the allegations, he avoided talking about the incident. 

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“I can’t keep hurting others, friends and family. Lord knows I’ve done enough,” Roberts reportedly texted Clanton, KPLC reported.

LOUISIANA SCHOOL’S TEACHER OF THE YEAR ACCUSED OF INAPPROPRIATE CONDUCT WITH FORMER STUDENT

Roberts resigned from her position as mayor just days before her arrest in 2024. 

Carnal knowledge reportedly carries a possible sentence of up to 10 years in prison, with indecent behavior carrying a sentence of up to seven years. She will also be required to register as a Tier 1 sex offender, according to KPLC.

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Her sentencing is scheduled for April 17. 

Roberts’ attorney did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

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Trump, BBC agree on mediator for $10 billion lawsuit over Jan 6 documentary editing controversy

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Trump, BBC agree on mediator for  billion lawsuit over Jan 6 documentary editing controversy

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President Donald Trump and The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) agreed on a mediator on Tuesday to help resolve the president’s $10 billion lawsuit. 

The BBC has come under intense scrutiny over a 2024 Panorama documentary about Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, speech delivered before the riot at the U.S. Capitol. Critics called the documentary misleading because it omitted Trump’s call for supporters to protest peacefully. Trump sued the BBC in December for both defamation and for a violation of Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act for $5 billion apiece, seeking $10 billion total. 

While ABC and CBS have both settled lawsuits with Trump in the past year, the BBC has vowed to fight the case. The two sides agreed on John W. Thornton, Esq., to serve as a pretrial mediator, who will seek a resolution. 

President Donald Trump and The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) agreed on a mediator on Tuesday to help resolve the president’s $10 billion lawsuit.  (Patrick van Katwijk/Getty Images)

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“The BBC defamed President Trump by intentionally and deceitfully editing its documentary in order to try and interfere in the Presidential election. President Trump will continue to hold accountable those who traffic in lies, deception, and fake news,” a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team told Fox News Digital. 

The BBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Trump’s suit, filed in the Southern District of Florida Federal Court, was filed in a personal capacity and named the BBC and BBC Studios Productions as defendants. The parties have proposed a mediation session the week of Oct. 26. Mediation, a standard case management step required by the court, is contingent on the outcome of a jurisdictional challenge the BBC is expected to submit later this month. 

“As we have made clear previously, we will be defending this case. We are not going to make further comment on ongoing legal proceedings,” a BBC spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

LEGAL ANALYST PREDICTS TRUMP COULD WIN ‘CONSIDERABLE’ DAMAGES FROM BBC DOCUMENTARY LAWSUIT

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President Donald Trump has tangled in the courts with several media organizations. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

The BBC previously issued an apology for the erroneous edit and said it had pulled the program from its platforms, but a spokesperson for the broadcaster added, “While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim.”

The controversy began with a bombshell report from The Telegraph that featured excerpts from a whistleblower dossier compiled by Michael Prescott, a communications advisor hired by the BBC to review its editorial standards.

The whistleblower revealed that the BBC “Panorama” documentary released in 2024 had a misleading edit of comments Trump made at the rally that preceded the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

The documentary omitted Trump urging his supporters to protest “peacefully” and instead spliced two separate comments made nearly an hour apart, making it appear he was calling for violence.

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“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol. And I’ll be there with you. And we fight — we fight like hell,” the documentary showed Trump saying, with no indication the statements came far apart.

EX-BBC DIRECTOR GENERAL TELLS NETWORK THEY SHOULDN’T AGREE TO PAY TRUMP ANY MONEY

In reality, Trump said, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol. And we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.”  It was 54 minutes later that Trump called on his supporters to “fight like hell” for election integrity.

The New York Times referred to the ordeal as “one of the worst crises in its 103-year history” of the BBC. The blunder led to the resignations of BBC News CEO Deborah Turness and BBC director-general Tim Davie.

Turness insisted in an interview last week that the BBC does not have any institutional bias against Trump. 

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Trump’s legal team suggested the defendants “timed the publication of the Panorama Documentary to be close in time to the 2024 Presidential Election” and the value of the president’s “personal brand alone is reasonably estimated to be worth tens of billions of dollars.”

Fox News Digital’s Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report. 

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Police warned prosecutors 3 times about violent illegal immigrant before he allegedly killed Virginia mother

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Police warned prosecutors 3 times about violent illegal immigrant before he allegedly killed Virginia mother

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Newly uncovered emails show the Fairfax County Police Department warned the county’s commonwealth attorney about a criminal illegal migrant with more than 30 previous arrests at least three times before he allegedly stabbed a mother to death in the Washington, D.C., area.

Abdul Jalloh, 32, was charged with murder after allegedly stabbing 41-year-old Stephanie Minter to death at a bus stop in Fairfax County, Virginia, in late February. 

Jalloh, an illegal immigrant from Sierra Leone in West Africa who had lived in Virginia since the age of 9, was arrested at a liquor store one day after the stabbing when an employee called 911 to report Jalloh was shoplifting.

Abdul Jalloh, 32, is accused of killing Stephanie Minter, 41, at a Virginia bus stop.  (Fox 5 DC)

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According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Jalloh entered the country in 2012 and has more than a dozen arrests in northern Virginia. 

His criminal history includes more than 30 arrests for charges of rape, malicious wounding, assault, drug possession, identity theft, trespassing, larceny, firing a weapon, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and pick-pocketing, yet his charges were dropped by local prosecutors almost every time, according to DHS.

Emails obtained by WJLA showed the Fairfax County Police Department (FCPD) warned Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano’s office about Jalloh on at least three occasions, but no action was taken to remove him from the country.

In an email to Fairfax County Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Jenna Sands, a Fairfax County police major said he wanted to bring Jalloh’s release to her attention because he “is one of the repeat (and violent) offenders” they had previously discussed.

Abdul Jalloh on a bus in Virginia (Fairfax County Police Department)

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DHS RIPS DEM-RUN COUNTY AFTER ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT MURDERER RELEASED: ‘BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS’

“I wanted to get your background on why he is out so soon and ask if his prior suspended sentence (of I believe 5 years) was pursued by your office? Unfortunately, based on MTV Station’s numerous dealings with him, it is not a question of if, but rather when he will maliciously wound (or worse) again. My role of keeping the public safe, prompts me to follow up on his status,” the major wrote.

In another email discussing a bond alert from August 2025, a FCPD employee told Assistant Police Chief Brooke Wright that Jalloh had more than 100 incidents with FCPD resulting in multiple charges spanning from theft to violent crimes, according to the outlet.

“JALLOH’s offenses began with domestic violence incidents and escalated to assaulting other victims and threats with weapons (knives),” the employee wrote in the email. “He has been involved in multiple stabbing incidents with victims identifying him as the offender in these cases. This year JALLOH has been the offender in a malicious wounding where he stabbed a man in May 2025, in which he received a bond on July 31, 2025 — three weeks later, this incident occurred where he assaulted an older male and stomped his head into the ground.”

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The employee added a list of Jalloh’s criminal history to the email, which included:

2014: Assault on family member (nolle prossed)

2015: Assault on family member (nolle prossed)

2017: ID theft to avoid arrest (guilty)

2017: Assault (guilty)

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2018: Possession of marijuana (guilty)

2018: Destruction of property (guilty) — Original charge: malicious shoot/throw occupied building

2018: Contributing to the delinquency of a minor (nolle prossed)

2018: Rape (nolle prossed)

2018: Grand larceny (nolle prossed)

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2022: Trespassing (nolle prossed)

2023: Trespassing (guilty)

2023: Disorderly conduct (guilty)

2023: Possession of a schedule three substance (guilty) — Original charge: possession of a schedule one or two substance

2023: Malicious wounding (nolle prossed)

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2023: Malicious wounding (guilty) — Sentenced to seven years, with five years suspended to probation

2023: Stealing property from a person (nolle prossed)

2024: Petit larceny (nolle prossed)

2024: Trespassing (nolle prossed)

2024: Petit larceny (nolle prossed)

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2024: Disorderly conduct (nolle prossed)

2024: Malicious wounding (nolle prossed)

2024: Failure to appear in court (dismissed)

2025: Malicious wounding

*Nolle pressed refers to a prosecutor’s formal decision to drop criminal charges.

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In response to the email, Wright said Sands “had a specific conversation regarding them prosecuting without a victim in court for the stabbing given the circumstances, and she was on board with a victimless prosecution.”

In a May 2025 email obtained by WJLA, police emailed Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano’s office — including Sands and other prosecutors — warning that Jalloh “has a history of stabbing community members and was on probation during the most recent assault.”

“For those reasons and the reasons outlined in the document, we ask that you argue he continues to be held at the ADC,” an officer wrote.

The email also explained a May 4, 2025, incident in which Jalloh allegedly stabbed a man in the leg while he was sleeping with his girlfriend.

“Without hesitation, the Victim stated that Jallow was the person who stabbed him. Jalloh has been charged with numerous Malicious woundings and been convicted of one in 2023 and [is] currently out on probation for the aforementioned crime and living in an OAR provided motel room,” the officer wrote.

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OAR is a nonprofit in Fairfax County that provides “alternatives to incarceration” for criminals.

VIRGINIA MURDER SUSPECT IN BUS STOP STABBING HAD LENGTHY CRIMINAL HISTORY, MULTIPLE DROPPED CHARGES

Similar to the other email, the officer included a list of prior police involvement, including an incident from April 14, 2024, during which Jalloh allegedly stabbed a homeless man in the head and upper body while he was sleeping at a bus stop, telling him, “get up, you can’t sleep here.”

Later that same day, Jalloh allegedly stabbed a woman in the head after attacking her and stealing her money, according to the email.

Other incidents included Jalloh allegedly choking a woman, stomping on her, burning her chest and raping her in October 2018, stabbing a person inside a McDonald’s in January 2023 and stabbing an elderly man in February 2023.

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The email also said police had a record of 178 incidents, citing Jalloh as a known shoplifter and noting he “is often intoxicated/high and located w/narcotics on his person.”

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger has said DHS would need to provide a signed judicial warrant from a local judge to ensure that Jalloh is deported. (Department of Homeland Security/Getty Images)

DANGER This individual has a long history of stabbing community members and is currently on probation for doing that very thing,” the officer wrote. “He has shown a blatant disregard for human life and is a danger to the community.”

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said his department “respect[s] the criminal justice system and the distinct roles and responsibilities of each entity within it.”

“In previous cases involving this defendant, our officers and detectives conducted thorough investigations, made lawful arrests, and presented evidence for prosecution,” Davis wrote. “The court outcomes are in no way related to any shortcomings associated with the FCPD. This defendant must be held accountable for his actions. We remain committed to our role to ensure that happens.”

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DEM GOVERNOR UNDER FIRE AFTER ILLEGAL ALIEN ALLEGEDLY STABS WOMAN TO DEATH AT BUS STOP: ‘HEINOUS’

Despite Jalloh’s criminal history and the recent killing of Minter, Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger said she would not honor a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer, which is a written request for law enforcement to maintain custody of a person for up to 48 hours after their scheduled release to allow for transfer to ICE custody.

A governor’s spokesperson told WJLA that DHS would need to provide a signed judicial warrant from a local judge to ensure that Jalloh is deported.

“Sanctuary [Gov. Abigail Spanberger] is fighting to protect a MURDERER over American citizens,” DHS wrote in an X post. “This monster is responsible for fatally stabbing Stephanie Minter. ICE does NOT need judicial warrants to make arrests. 

“The heroes of ICE will continue to arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens across the Commonwealth while Governor Spanberger RELEASES them from jails into Virginia communities to commit more crimes and create more victims.”

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In early February, Spanberger ended cooperation with state agencies and federal immigration authorities through an executive directive, claiming she had “serious concerns that chaotic federal law enforcement actions across the country are eroding years of trust,” adding immigration enforcement “contributes to a culture of fear and distrust.”

A Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office spokesperson told Fox News Digital the office “was aware of Jalloh’s criminal history and shared police concerns about potential future dangerousness. That is why our Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney personally handled these cases.”

The spokesperson said prosecutors “will often explore many different pathways to successful prosecution, but, at the end of the day, our decisions are constrained by what testimony is available and what is legally permissible and practicable in Fairfax courts.”

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Spanberger’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

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Fox News Digital’s Preston Mizell contributed to this report.

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