Judge overturns jury’s $3.5M verdict in Chicago police shooting case

Associate Judge Elizabeth Budzinski recently reversed the Cook County jury’s decision to award $3.5 million in damages to the estate of 19-year-old Niko Husband, who was allegedly gunned down by members of the Chicago Police Department in Illinois for no reason in July 2011 near 80th Street and Ashland Avenue. Priscilla Price, Husband’s mother, has...

Murder

December 1st, 2015

Chicago police officer assigned $1.5M bond in Laquan McDonald case

Thirty-seven-year-old Chicago, Illinois police officer Jason Van Dyke, who was charged on Tuesday, November 24 with first degree murder in relation to the killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald on Oct. 20, 2014, was assigned a bond of $1.5 million on Monday, November 30. Local authorities released dash cam video footage showing McDonald walking along a...

Murder

April 21st, 2015

Champaign jury rejects self-defense plea and convicts man in shooting

A jury in Champaign County deliberated for five hours on April 9 before rejecting 30-year-old local Micah Hopkins’ claim that he shot 26-year-old local Allen Redding repeatedly in self-defense, thereby convicting Hopkins of first-degree murder, according to the News-Gazette. Redding suffered eight gunshot wounds in the yard of his cousin’s home at around 5:30 p.m. on...

Murder

April 13th, 2015

Shooting suspect to stand for his defense

Thirty-year-old Champaign, Illinois resident Micah Hopkins was recently tried before the Champaign County Judge Heidi Ladd for charges of first-degree murder, the News-Gazette reported on April 8. This was the same day that Hopkins was slated to stand for his own defense. Hopkins was accused of shooting and killing Allen Redding, 26, who used to be...

Murder

February 23rd, 2015

Chapel Hill triple-murder suspect charged with first-degree murder

A grand jury in Durham County, North Carolina indicted 46-year-old Craig Hicks on three counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of three Muslim college students, identified as 23-year-old Deah Shaddy Barakat, his 21-year-old wife Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, The Herald-Sun reported on February 16. They were reportedly shot on February...

Murder

February 8th, 2014

Man who murdered own mother found not guilty due to insanity

Thirty-two-year-old Champaign, Illinois resident Terry Lee Brownlee was found not guilty by reason of insanity for murdering his mother, 61-year-old Sharon Brownlee last year on Friday, January 31 by Champaign County Judge Heidi Ladd. Brownlee said he also caused a fire that was discovered by the authorities at around 6:10 a.m. He was charged with murder,...