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Trump win moves slain cheerleader's mom to tears as illegal immigrant faces murder trial

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Trump win moves slain cheerleader's mom to tears as illegal immigrant faces murder trial

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EXCLUSIVE — The mother of a 16-year-old Texas girl who was brutally murdered, allegedly by an illegal immigrant from Mexico, in her own home last December says Trump’s victory last week made her tear up.

“When I heard the news in the morning that he won, I teared up,” Jacqueline Medina told Fox News Digital. “I teared up because I thought about my daughter. The Biden-Harris administration failed us terribly.”

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Medina’s “beautiful, loving, bubbly, funny” 16-year-old daughter, Lizbeth Medina, was murdered on Dec. 5, 2023. Rafael Govea Romero, the 24-year-old man charged with capital murder in connection with the attack, is scheduled to face trial next month.

“With [Trump] winning, I’m really hoping that there are stricter laws so we can protect our kids, our children, our families, our loved ones from this happening to them again,” Medina said.

TEXAS TEEN LIZBETH MEDINA MURDER: WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT MURDER SUSPECT RAFAEL GOVEA ROMERO

Jacqueline Medina came home to find her daughter, Lizbeth Medina, 16, dead in the bathtub of their home on Dec. 5, 2023. (Instagram)

Medina said she knows stricter policies won’t bring back her daughter, but she is hoping they will “prevent this from happening to another child.”

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 “We don’t want another Lizbeth. We don’t want another Laken Riley.”

— Jacqueline Medina

Medina had left their apartment for work early on Dec. 5, 2023. Her daughter typically left for school shortly afterward, but that day she did not make it to school or the Christmas parade that her cheer team was supposed to be practicing for.

Rafel Govea Romero

A Jackson County grand jury indicted Rafael Govea Romero on a capital murder charge in connection to Lizbeth Medina’s stabbing death. (FOX 26 Houston)

When Medina showed up to the Christmas parade and did not see her daughter, she knew something was wrong and frantically contacted friends and family for help finding the 16-year-old girl.

MOM OF TEXAS TEEN ALLEGEDLY KILLED BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SUSPECT CALLS FOR CHANGE AFTER LAKEN RILEY MURDER

Medina returned home that evening after no one had heard from or seen Lizbeth and found her dead with an apparent stab wound in the bathtub of their Edna apartment.

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Edna police arrested Romero in Schulenburg, Texas, five days after Lizbeth’s death, according to authorities.

Liz Medina

Jacqueline Medina hopes Trump’s election win will help prevent other families from going through what her family endured when Lizbeth was killed. (Facebook)

Romero had a criminal history in Texas and was on probation at the time of his arrest in connection to Lizbeth’s murder, Edna Police Chief Rick Boone previously told Fox News Digital.

The murder suspect was reportedly on probation for a 2022 burglary in Schulenburg, about 60 miles from Edna, the Fayette County Record first reported. Edna police said Romero may also be tied to a burglary that occurred at Lizbeth’s home about a month before her killing.

TEXAS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT INDICTED ON CAPITAL MURDER CHARGE IN CHEERLEADER’S BEATING, STABBING DEATH

Neither Medina nor Lizbeth knew Romero, but Medina noted that their house had been burglarized on Nov. 13, about a month before the teenager’s murder. Edna police officers believe Romero may have been involved in the burglary and may have stalked Lizbeth before allegedly attacking and killing her.

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“I’m still lost. I still feel like I don’t know what to do with my life.”

— Jacqueline Medina

“My whole life was my daughter,” Medina said. “And I’m still finding it very difficult to find myself, to find what direction I need to take in life. The only thing right now that is keeping me strong is the fact that we still need to get justice for her. Also, we’re trying to keep busy to gather funds … for her scholarship fund that we brought up for the cheerleaders in Edna. And we donate to specific child advocacy funds in her name.”

Liz Medina

The Edna Police Department is investigating Liz Medina’s death as capital murder. (Facebook)

Medina said she wants her daughter to be remembered for the kind and accomplished young woman she was rather than for her tragic death.

“But at the same time, I do want everybody to hear her story so they can understand why things need to change,” Medina said. “That’s the only way people will know why we want things changed.”

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Romero’s trial is scheduled to begin on Dec. 3 in Jackson County, Texas.

A trial for Jose Ibarra, the illegal immigrant suspect in the February murder of Georgia college student Laken Riley, begins this week. Medina said she will watch Ibarra’s trial and keep Riley’s family in her thoughts.

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Los Angeles, Ca

Newlyweds family home, wedding keepsakes destroyed in Mountain Fire

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Newlyweds family home, wedding keepsakes destroyed in Mountain Fire

Just days after the happiest day of their lives, a newly married couple learned that their family’s Camarillo home burned to the ground during the Mountain Fire, destroying everything in sight, including irreplaceable keepsakes from their wedding.  

Brittany Berret and Jaime Sifontes were on top of the world after celebrating their nuptials in Paso Robles, something they’d been working toward for a long time.  

Then, four days after their wedding, while they were in Monterey for their honeymoon, Berret’s parents called to tell the couple about the Mountain Fire.  

“We were supposed to leave anyway on Wednesday to come home,” Berret explained. “We had planned to stay the entire day, but got a call from my mom in the morning letting us know there was a fire nearby in the canyon but typically we don’t worry about that because it’s never really jumped the 118.”  

  • Camarillo newlyweds
  • Camarillo newlyweds
  • Camarillo newlyweds
  • Camarillo newlyweds
  • Camarillo newlyweds
  • Camarillo newlyweds
  • Camarillo newlyweds

About two hours into their drive home, her parents learned on KTLA that their house had gone up in flames. They broke the heartbreaking news to the newlyweds. 

“It felt like the longest car ride in my entire life,” Berret recalled. “There wasn’t really much we could do, so you just start thinking about everything that’s in that house, all the memories. That’s the only house I’ve ever known.”  

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Sifontes and Berret lost everything from their wedding day.  

“My wedding dress, all of our registry gifts. We had been living with them, kind of saving everything that we didn’t have space for in their house,” Berret said. “Like, everything we were saving and building for our future.”  

For his part, Sifontes, who lived at the family home for five years, said his memories of the home are very strong as well.  

“It felt like a home to me. I’m very close with my wife’s family, obviously,” he said.  

After learning what happened to the young couple, their wedding planner organized a GoFundme campaign to help them, and their family rebuild their home and their lives.  

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“I’m immensely grateful for the family I have, helping them. I’m so grateful to Camarillo and just working to move forward,” Sifontes said.  

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Southwest

FBI arrests Houston man for alleged ISIS ties, terror plot on US soil

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FBI arrests Houston man for alleged ISIS ties, terror plot on US soil

A Texas man is in FBI custody on Thursday after authorities say he attempted to support ISIS and planned a terrorist attack on American soil — all from his apartment in Houston.

Authorities said 28-year-old Anas Said was searching for ways to commit violent acts on behalf of the Islamic State in the Houston area. He has been charged with attempting to provide material support to the terrorist group.

Said was arrested last week at the apartment complex where he lived, according to FBI Special Agent in Charge Douglas Williams. 

US FORCES STRIKE 9 IRAN-LINKED MILITIA TARGETS IN SYRIA: ‘OUR MESSAGE IS CLEAR’

FBI Special Agent in Charge Doug Williams addresses the media from the Houston field office on Jan. 19. (Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)

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Williams said that while in custody, Said admitted to researching how to conduct an attack on local military recruiting centers, offering his home as sanctuary for ISIS operatives, bragging that he would commit a “9/11-style” attack if he had the resources and attempting to produce ISIS propaganda.

“We stopped a potential terrorist attack from happening right here in Houston! Any day we can publicly say that is a good day,” FBI Houston said. 

Said is being held in custody but appeared in court for a preliminary hearing on Tuesday, his attorney, Balemar Zuniga, told Fox News Digital. 

“The indictment only alleges that he supported a terrorist group through the production of videos and propaganda,” he said, noting that federal prosecutors mentioned the plotting of terror acts but have not charged him with such. “None of that is alleged.”

READ THE DOJ DETENTION MEMO LAYING OUT ALLEGATIONS AGAINST SAID — APP USERS, CLICK HERE:

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Said has been on the FBI’s radar since the bureau received a tip in 2017 about him purchasing two stickers: “one containing an image of the Dome of the Rock2 with an ISIS flag overlaying the image, and another showing the white silhouette of a man holding a rifle with the caption, “Winning the Islamic Nation.” 

“Does it seem a bit excessive? Yes,” Zuniga said. 

Said was interviewed by the FBI four times in 2018 in relation to the sticker purchases.

“During an interview conducted on or about January 29, 2018, the Defendant admitted both stickers were meant to show support for ISIS,” though he did not support killing in the name of ISIS at the time, according to a detention memo laying out the allegations against Said. Said began supporting the ISIS ideology in 2015 when his family returned to the U.S. from Lebanon.

Said was born in the United States and moved to Lebanon with with family as a child, Zuniga said. He returned to the U.S. in 2014. 

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Despite Said’s alleged crimes, he doesn’t have any negative feelings about the U.S., said Zuniga. 

“I would not say that at all,” he said. “I think that he is certainly passionate about protecting his Islamic religion. I don’t think he has any particular animosity toward the United States itself.”

In a 2019 FBI interview, Said claimed “he no longer consumed radical Islamic propaganda and only used the internet for schoolwork and for watching sports,” according to the memo. 

doj insignia

The Department of Justice seals is seen during a news conference at the DOJ office in Washington, May 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

That wasn’t true, according to the DOJ.

“On or about October 18, 2023, pursuant to legal process, FBI received information from Meta Platforms, Inc. (‘Meta’) regarding 11 Facebook accounts used by the Defendant that showed he continued to support ISIS and the violent attacks carried out in its name,” according to the DOJ.

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His family members “expressed their concerns” in FBI interviews, and “subsequent analysis of the Defendant’s electronic devices revealed multiple encrypted messaging applications containing records of his efforts to create and disseminate propaganda that glorified ISIS’s ongoing violence, the evidence underlying the material support offense charged in the indictment,” the department alleged.

Said allegedly refused to comply with FBI agents who executed a search warrant against him last Friday, and he smashed his cellphone.

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Los Angeles, Ca

Knott's Soak City to undergo 'water park refresh' in 2026

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Knott's Soak City to undergo 'water park refresh' in 2026

Knott’s Soak City will soon undergo a “water park refresh” during the 2026 operating season, Six Flags Entertainment Corporation, the parent company of Knott’s, announced on Thursday.

“Knott’s Soak City will receive a water park refresh and aesthetic enhancements,” a news release said, but details on what exactly will be updated or changed weren’t released.

The “refresh” is part of Six Flags Entertainment Corporation’s $1 billion investment to enhance the guest experience.

“Our capital investment plans for the next two years reinforce our commitment to providing unmatched thrills, immersive entertainment and lifelong memories to guests of all ages,” Six Flags president & CEO Richard A. Zimmerman said in a statement. “The new Six Flags has a unique opportunity to refresh and renew the guest experience, one so compelling that a visit to one of our parks will be viewed as an indispensable choice in family entertainment.”

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The $1 billion investment will be used on “new rides, attractions, themed areas, dining upgrades, and technology enhancements,” according to company officials.

Cedar Fair, the former parent company of Knott’s Berry Farm, and Six Flags merged in an $8 billion deal earlier this year.

Company officials said that more information about the water park refresh will be shared in summer 2025.

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