Southwest
City in Oklahoma to pay more than $7M to former death row inmate exonerated after nearly 50 years in prison
A city in Oklahoma has agreed to pay a settlement of more than $7 million to a former death row inmate who was exonerated after nearly 50 years in prison over his wrongful incarceration.
Glynn Ray Simmons, 71, was the longest-serving inmate to be deemed innocent of a crime. He had been convicted of robbing a liquor store and fatally shooting the clerk, but has maintained that he was in Louisiana when the crime occurred.
The Edmond City Council voted last week to settle the lawsuit Simmons brought against the city and a former police detective for $7.15 million, according to The Associated Press.
“Mr. Simmons spent a tragic amount of time incarcerated for a crime he did not commit,” Simmons’ attorney, Elizabeth Wang said in a statement. “Although he will never get that time back, this settlement with Edmond will allow him to move forward” with his life.
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Glynn Ray Simmons, 71, was the longest-serving inmate to be declared innocent of a crime. (Getty Images)
Police allegedly falsified a report by saying that a witness who was wounded in the shooting identified Simmons and co-defendant Don Roberts as the suspects who robbed the store and shot the clerk, according to the lawsuit, which also says police withheld evidence showing that the witness identified two other people as suspects.
Simmons was freed from prison in July of last year after a judge vacated his conviction and sentence and ordered a new trial.
Oklahoma County District Attorney Vickie Behenna said two months later that she would not retry the case since there is no longer physical evidence against Simmons.
A judge exonerated Simmons in December, stating that there was “clear and convincing evidence” that he was innocent.
Simmons received $175,000 from the state of Oklahoma for his wrongful conviction.
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A judge exonerated Glynn Simmons in December, stating that there was “clear and convincing evidence” that he was innocent. (Getty Images)
He served 48 years, one month and 18 days in prison, making him the longest serving inmate in the U.S. to be exonerated, according to The National Registry of Exonerations.
Simmons and Roberts were both convicted in 1975 of the 1974 murder of 30-year-old liquor store clerk Carolyn Sue Rogers, and both were sentenced to death.
Their sentences were reduced to life in prison in 1977 following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling declaring capital punishment unconstitutional, which led the Oklahoma Supreme Court to rule that all death penalty sentences before July 24, 1976, should be commuted to life in prison without parole.
Roberts was released on parole in 2008.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department is looking for more victims of a man who allegedly molested a girl for two years.
Gerardo Palestino, 64, was arrested at his Adelanto home on Saturday, one day after a girl reported to authorities that she had been molested by a relative for the past two years, the Sheriff’s Department said in a news release.
“During the investigation, Detective C. Bennington was able to corroborate the victim’s allegations,” the release added.
Palestino faces charges of orally copulating with a minor, continued sexual abuse of a child, lewd and lascivious acts on a child under 14, and sexual penetration by force. The Sheriff’s Department also listed a charge of incest, though it was not reflected in jail records.
Palestino is being held at the High Desert Detention Center in lieu of $500,000 bail. He’s due to appear in Victorville Superior Court on Tuesday.
Investigators “have reason to believe there could be additional victims,” and anyone with information is asked to call Bennington at 760-552-6800.
To report information anonymously, call WeTip at 800-78CRIME or visit wetip.com.
A small, family-owned computer store in Orange County is reeling after burglars break-in to their shop for the second time in two months.
In the most recent incident, thieves hit Mac Computers in Anaheim in the early morning hours of Aug. 12 and break everything they can think of in hopes of silencing the blaring alarm.
In surveillance footage of the incident, thieves can be heard drilling through the locks of a sturdy steel backdoor, then cut their way through a rolling door and a gate, but before the three masked suspects appear on the store’s cameras, the video freezes.
Melissa Delgado, who manages the store, told KTLA’s Rachel Menitoff that the burglars likely disarmed the shop’s Wi-Fi and disrupted security cameras for a short period of time.
“Usually, they don’t get this far,” Delgado explained. “It just makes us rethink what we need to do to secure the location again.”
Unfortunately, the crooks destroyed everything they could think of that might stop the blaring alarm, though ultimately, they were undeterred by the noise.
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Surveillance cameras captured thieves breaking into Mac Computers in Anaheim on Aug. 12, 2024. (viewer image) -
Surveillance cameras captured thieves breaking into Mac Computers in Anaheim on Aug. 12, 2024. (viewer image) -
A piece of the store’s security damaged as burglars attempted to silence the alarm on Aug. 12, 2024. (viewer image)
In another camera angle, the suspects are seen loading up on Apple AirPods, camera gimbles, Nintendo Switches, as well as unknowingly making off with empty boxes.
In her experience, the Mac Computer Store manager said these types of professional burglars know exactly how much time they have before authorities arrive.
“That’s usually the thing,” she explained. “They’re in and out in six minutes and it was cutting into that time. Maybe they ran out of time and just left.”
In May, the last time the store was broken into, a thief gained entrance by cutting through the drywall of a vacant shop next door. In that case, police were able to find the person and all the stolen merchandise, but Delgado said that in most cases, the culprits are not caught.
“If police can’t get here soon enough to arrest anyone, I know it’s really tough on their side and it’s tough on our side,” she said. “What can really happen?”
For their part, the owners of Mac Computers kcontinue to strengthen their surveillance, hoping to wear down any future thieves looking to loot the store.
“It’s really had to sleep at night,” Delgado said. “You never know if the alarm is going to go off.”
The latest robbery caused at least $5,000 in damage to the store.
So far, those responsible for this break-in have yet to be captured.
Southwest
Authorities seek public’s help identifying suspected Texas serial killer after DNA links person to 2 murders
The Austin Police Department (APD) is requesting the public’s help to identify a suspected serial killer whose DNA was linked to the murders of two women in the metropolitan area.
At about 4 p.m. June 21, police responded to a call from someone who reported seeing what appeared to be a body at a home in the 2600 block of Metcalfe Road.
When officers arrived, they found a dead woman, later identified as 34-year-old Alyssa Rivera, inside an abandoned house.
A brief investigation conducted by homicide detectives and crime specialists led investigators to believe Rivera was murdered at the home by an unknown suspect.
SUSPECTED TEXAS SERIAL KILLER WARNS POLICE THERE ARE MORE VICTIMS
The Austin Police Department is asking for the public’s help identifying a suspect in the murders of Alyssa Rivera and Alba Jenisse Aviles. (Austin Police Department)
On July 3, police released video and images of a person of interest in Rivera’s murder. The videos showed what appeared to be a Hispanic male walking next to a woman who was taller than he was.
As the investigation continued, investigators learned of a DNA connection between Rivera’s case and the April 14, 2018, unsolved murder of Alba Jenisse Aviles in the 300 block of Old San Antonio Road in Bastrop County, Texas.
The Bastrop County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the murder of Aviles, who left Club Caribe on Felter Lane in Austin on the night she was murdered.
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The Austin Police Department is asking for the public’s help identifying a suspect seen on surveillance. (Austin Police Department)
The club is just over 3 miles away from where Rivera was murdered, police said, and both homicides appear to be sexual in nature.
Police said while no suspect has been identified in either case, DNA evidence shows the suspect to be the same in both cases.
Austin is notorious for its share of serial killers.
Last year, Texas police and U.S. Marshals announced the arrest of Raul Meza Jr., 62, in the murders of former probation officer Jesse Fraga, 80, who had given Meza a place to stay for years, and Gloria Lofton, 66, who was found dead in her home in 2019.
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Raul Meza, 63, allegedly killed at least two people, but law enforcement said he’s connected to at least 10 homicides in Texas. (Austin Police Department)
Meza is a convicted child killer who has bounced in and out of prison for decades.
On May 20, 2023, he allegedly strangled Fraga with a belt, stabbed him and severed his spine, prompting a manhunt that ended with the suspect apparently calling police and turning himself in.
Meza has a lengthy rap sheet that goes back to 1982, when he sexually assaulted and strangled an 8-year-old girl outside an Austin elementary school.
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In 1982, Raul Meza raped and killed 8-year-old Kendra Page before dumping her body behind Langford Elementary School in Southeast Austin, FOX 7 reported. (FOX 7 Austin)
He served 11 years of a 30-year sentence before his release. He violated parole in 1994, went back to prison and was released in 2002. Meza was on parole until 2016.
In January, law enforcement issued a search warrant for Meza’s Google account from Nov. 1, 2016, to May 29, 2023, hoping to find information tying him to a 2018 Austin cold case, as well as information that links him to at least two homicides in San Antonio.
“Meza committed additional sexual assaults after his supervised release ended in 2016, and believe data associated with the Google LLC account herein will assist investigators in corroborating Meza as a suspect in the murder of Gloria Lofton, Jesse Fraga and the shooting he admitted to in San Antonio as well as additional cold case homicides,” the search warrant said, according to a report by the Austin American-Statesman.
There is speculation one of Meza’s victims is college student Nicole Coleman, whose naked body was found in a wooded area of Austin in 2018 with signs of trauma.
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Raul Meza Jr., 62, has been tied to several murders since 1975, but police are looking at other murders that may bare his signature, according to police and local news. (Pflugerville Police Department)
Her unsolved homicide has been like a hovering storm cloud over the city for years.
Meza’s arrest made him Austin’s first known serial killer since the “Servant Girl Annihilator,” who was believed to have killed eight women in 1885, according to city authorities, though the killer was never captured.
Police were looking at Meza in other deaths in Austin, though they told Fox News Digital at the time the deaths were not linked to a series of drownings at Lady Bird Lake near Rainey Street, where four men were found dead in a span of weeks.
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WATCH
Detectives also said at the time that they had found no evidence of a serial killer or foul play in the Rainey Street and Lady Bird Lake incidents.
Still, independent investigators, concerned residents, web sleuths and tens of thousands of members of a Facebook group following the string of incidents have voiced concerns of a possible murderer on the loose in the deaths of men on Rainey Street, which is home to a strip of bars a block or so from the water’s edge.
The APD told Fox News Digital Thursday the deaths of Rivera and Aviles are not linked to the deaths near Lady Bird Lake.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE TRUE CRIME
Austin Police homicide and missing persons detectives, a lake patrol unit and crime scene specialists responded to investigate at Lady Bird lake last year. A body was discovered in the lake Monday. (FOX 7 Austin)
Police said the homicide unit investigates each death in the city to determine if it is suspicious, and after initial investigations, a medical examiner does a hands-on body exam to determine if there are any signs of physical injuries. After that, a toxicology exam is conducted, which could take months.
“Through this process, one death near Lady Bird Lake in December 2022 was ruled a homicide,” police told Fox News Digital. “In that particular case, the victim was shot as he was driving by two groups that had been arguing. The other deaths in and around Lady Bird Lake are not considered suspicious due to the results of these investigations.”
Police also said there is a possibility there could be more homicides linked to the suspect in the Rivera and Aviles murders. However, the APD said, it “does not have any unsolved murders that match the modus operandi” of what happened to the two women.
Criminal defense attorney Daniel W. Betts, who is running against the George Soros-supported Travis County district attorney, Jose Garza, told Fox News Digital on Thursday that once a suspect is arrested, the district attorney should keep the death penalty on the table as an option for punishment.
The death penalty is legal in Texas, and while Betts – who is a Republican – does not like the penalty, he acknowledged its importance in the case of murderers.
“I think it is important to leave it on the table and to not telegraph to criminals what we’re going to do on cases,” he said. “For cases like this in Texas, when you murder multiple people, you become eligible…for the death penalty, and if you don’t have that, and I’m not saying it’s warranted here, but leaving it off the table and saying we will never consider it like the current DA has, it’s such a horrible precedent.
“The victims here were sexually assaulted and murdered,” Betts added. “So, as district attorney, I would absolutely leave it on the table.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Garza’s office for comment on the matter.
Investigators are continuing to seek leads regarding the person of interest shown in the video and ask anyone with information to contact them at 512-974-TIPS.
Anyone wishing to remain anonymous can contact Capital Area Crime Stoppers by visiting austincrimestoppers.org or calling 512-472-8477. Tips leading to an arrest could result in a reward of up to $1,000.
Fox News Digital’s Chris Eberhart and Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.
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