Southwest
Texas murder suspect released on bond 4 days after arrest for 2021 fatal stabbing
A Texas man, suspected in a 2021 cold case, was arrested last week for the deadly stabbing of a victim in Austin before being released on bond four days after he was booked into jail.
Mithovar Christopher Antoine Jr., now 22, is accused of fatally stabbing Nikolas Martinez, 23, near the victim’s apartment complex in South Austin in July 2021, according to Fox 7.
Martinez was playing video games with his nephew on the day of the incident when he took a break to take laundry out of his apartment complex’s communal facility before he was stabbed.
He then called 911 to report that he had been stabbed and drove himself to a nearby gas station for help, where he later succumbed to his injuries.
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Martinez’s parents said two years ago they were upset with the lack of information disclosed about who killed their son.
“We know nothing’s going to bring [him] back,” Martinez’s father, Martin Martinez, told Fox 7. “Nothing’s gonna make it better, but just not knowing is just killing us.”
“We think it was something random that just happened, and we don’t know why,” Martinez’s mother, Wendy Martinez, told the outlet. “So if anybody saw anything, just come forward.”
This June, Austin Police received an anonymous tip saying they had witnessed Antoine Jr. stabbing Martinez near a South Austin apartment complex, according to an arrest warrant, Fox 7 reported.
Police executed another search warrant and discovered the suspect had been searching for news articles related to stabbings in Austin just days after Martinez’s death.
Law enforcement found Antoine Jr. in Temple last week, and he was arrested and booked into the Bell County Jail. A judge set his bond at $150,000, and he was bonded out of jail four days later.
Bell County officials told Fox 7 the suspect was released without being extradited to Travis County.
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Antoine Jr. was arrested for unauthorized use of a vehicle and burglary of a habitation in the two years before Martinez’s death, court documents show, according to Fox 7. He bonded out of jail two months before Martinez’s murder.
Since he was out on probation, Bell County could revoke probation and seek additional warrants for his arrest, which would land him back in jail.
A grand jury in Travis County will still need to indict Antoine Jr. for Martinez’s murder.
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Southwest
Texas man convicted after saying he mutilated victims, ate human heart as part of 'ritualistic sacrifices'
A Texas man was convicted of killing three people, dismembering them and burning their bodies after admitting to investigators that he was called to “commit sacrifices.”
Jason Thornburg was found guilty of capital murder on Wednesday and now, the same Tarrant County jury that convicted him must determine whether he receives a death sentence or if he will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to Fox 4.
In September 2021, Thornburg killed three people, dismembered their bodies and stored them under his bed at a motel in Euless, Texas, before lighting the bodies on fire inside a dumpster in Fort Worth.
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Thornburg confessed to investigators that he felt a compulsion to commit “ritualistic sacrifices” and that he ate a victim’s heart and other parts of the victims’ bodies.
His attorneys argued he was insane when he carried out the murders and suffered from a severe mental disease.
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When he was arrested on murder allegations, Thornburg confessed to police he killed his roommate in May 2021 during a suspicious home explosion and his girlfriend in Arizona back in 2017.
These two previous murders were brought up in court on Thursday when the punishment aspect of the trial began.
The victims’ families cannot speak publicly until the punishment phase is finished.
Read the full article from Here
Los Angeles, Ca
Vehicle, 2 occupants plunge into crowded Southern California harbor
Two people were taken to the hospital after a vehicle they were inside plunged into the harbor Sunday night in Marina Del Rey, officials confirmed to KTLA.
Details are limited and It’s unclear exactly how the incident occurred, but authorities with the Los Angeles County Fire Department responded to 4675 Admiralty Way just after 6 p.m. on reports of the vehicle in the water.
L.A. County Fire Department Public Information Officer Marco Rodriguez said the two occupants were able to get themselves out of the vehicle after it went into the water.
Both were examined by medical personnel with the fire department and taken to a nearby hospital in unknown condition.
Rodriguez said that two L.A. County Lifeguard divers were deployed to ensure there were no other occupants trapped in the vehicle.
A witness, Johnny Hamcheck, told KTLA that a third person, a woman, exited the vehicle before it went into water, though officials did not confirm that detail.
Footage of the recovery effort showed crews attaching large yellow floating devices to the vehicle as it was anchored to a crane and eventually pulled out of the water and loaded onto a tow truck.
The vehicle showed heavy front-end damage, presumably from crashing through the steel railing and into the water.
An investigation into the crash is ongoing and no further details were provided.
Southwest
24 states' attorneys general call on Supreme Court to keep biological boys out of girls sports
Attorneys general from 24 states are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling and uphold an Arizona law to prohibit biological boys from competing on girls’ sports teams.
The petition comes after a federal appeals court ruled that the law likely violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.
“Sports teams are divided by sex to begin with to give girls a level playing field so they’re not competing against boys,” South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said in a news release. “Arizona’s law restricting girls’ sports teams to biological females is just common sense, and it protects girls from competing against bigger, stronger males who identify as females.”
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In addition to Wilson, the attorneys general supporting the petition are those from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming.
The petition notes that these states have laws similar to Arizona’s that restrict girls’ sports to biological females.
It also argues that the Equal Protection Clause does not prohibit states from offering separate sports teams for men, women, boys and girls.
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“In sports, equal access means a level playing field,” the attorneys general write in their brief. “And a level playing field usually means sports teams divided by sex so that girls can compete against other girls.”
“Basing the distinction on biology rather than gender identity makes sense because it is the differences in biology—not gender identity—that call for separate teams in the first place: Whatever their gender identity, biological males are, on average, stronger and faster than biological females. If those average physical differences did not matter, there would be no need to segregate sports teams at all,” they continued.
The attorneys general are asking the high court to “make it clear that the Constitution does not prohibit states from saving women’s sports from unfair competition and providing meaningful athletic opportunities for girls and women,” according to Wilson’s news release.
Read the full article from Here
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