After Thelma Gaston disappeared, her companion was convicted of second-degree murder

Authorities in southern California announced this week that, after more than 40 years, they had identified the remains of a Los Angeles millionaire missing since 1981.

The Riverside county sheriff confirmed in a statement that investigators, using genetic genealogy and dental records, had determined the remains found in a rugged area near Sugarloaf Mountain were those of Thelma Gaston.

The R&B singer was found guilty of racketeering, sex trafficking and producing child abuse images, with his lawyer lobbying the US president for more than a year

R Kelly has formally appealed to the US president, Donald Trump, for a reduction of his 31-year prison sentence for racketeering, sex trafficking and child abuse images, in a filing to the Department of Justice.

The 59-year-old R&B singer, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was found guilty in 2021 of leading a criminal enterprise that recruited women and underage girls for illegal sexual activity and pornography, for which he was sentenced to 30 years in prison. In 2022 he was found guilty on three counts of child abuse images and three counts of child enticement and sentenced to 20 years in prison, which he is serving nearly entirely concurrently but for one additional year.

Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organizations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 802 9999. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

Arrested suspect tells police he ‘intends to kill Muslims’ after alleged attack on kiosk worker at West Valley City mill

A man was arrested in Utah for stabbing a Muslim ⁠man multiple times and ⁠stated that he targeted ​the victim because of the victim’s religion, police said in court records on Tuesday.

Police said the suspect told them he “intends to kill Muslims” and that ⁠he constituted “a substantial danger to the public if released based on his violent actions ... ideologies and pre-planned mass casualty events”.

Police say suspect stole three-and-a-half-month-old tuxedo kitten Magnolia before attempting to rob a PNC bank

Law enforcement agencies are accustomed to dealing with cat burglars – but now a Maryland police department is saying it grappled with a cat-wielding bank robber.

The Prince George’s county police department said its officers arrested a man suspected of stealing a cat and then taking the animal with him to a PNC bank branch in the local community of Beltsville to rob the establishment on Monday morning.

Clarence Frazier Jr charged with murder over killing of Drew Hanson and could face death penalty if convicted

A federal agent was fatally shot while trying to help authorities capture a man who failed to show up to his sexual battery trial in Louisiana, according to the US justice department.

Clarence Frazier Jr, 48, was charged with murder in the killing of deputy US marshal Drew Hanson, authorities said. Frazier could face life imprisonment or the death penalty if he is eventually convicted of murdering Hanson.

Rae Walberg of WWL Louisiana, a Guardian reporting partner, contributed

A boy, 16, and girl, 15, were charged with murder after the family members were shot at three different locations

Two teenagers were charged with murder Tuesday in the killings of five members of an Illinois family who were shot at three different locations.

A 16-year-old boy will be prosecuted as an adult, while the case against a 15-year-old girl will start in juvenile court before a possible transfer to the St Clair county criminal court, the county prosecutor’s office said.

Rapper paid JM Burkman & Associates $600,000 to push for president’s pardon but firm says no partial refund promised

Louisiana rapper Boosie Badazz is reportedly looking to claw back $300,000 from a firm of Washington DC lobbyists after they failed to secure a Donald Trump pardon that he hired them to pursue over his conviction on charges of possessing a loaded weapon at music video shooting in 2023.

Boosie – whose legal name is Torence Hatch and who hails from his home state’s capital of Baton Rouge – paid JM Burkman & Associates $600,000 in 2025 to advance his push for a pardon from the US president, according to a report on Monday from Notus, which covers the federal government.

Suspects, aged 15 and 16, taken into custody but not formally charged in ‘targeted mass shooting’ in East St Louis

Two teenagers were arrested on Sunday in connection with a “targeted mass shooting” that killed five members of the same family and wounded two others in East St Louis, Illinois, according to state police.

The 15- and 16-year-old suspects were taken into custody at Holten state park, a recreation area east of the city, the Illinois state police director, Brendan Kelly, said at a Sunday news conference – but they had not immediately been formally charged with a crime.

Colt Gray, now 16, expected to change plea after pleading not guilty to 55 criminal counts in Apalachee shooting

The teenager accused of killing two students and two teachers during a 2024 shooting at Apalachee high school in Georgia has been scheduled to appear in court later in July for a “non-negotiated” plea hearing, according to records.

Documents filed on Friday in Barrow county superior court in Winder, Georgia, show that Colt Gray is expected to change his plea at a hearing on 24 July, with the court scheduled to hold proceedings for both the plea and sentencing, as the Associated Press reported.

Miller takes indefinite leave after arm amputation and questions of possible financial improprieties

An on-air analyst for a top US sports broadcaster says he is pulling back from his role indefinitely as he heals from a car crash in Missouri that forced him to undergo a life-saving amputation – and while he reportedly faces a law enforcement investigation into possible financial improprieties connected to what he billed as side charity work.

Matt Miller’s announcement on Friday that he was taking indefinite leave from ESPN provided only the latest twist in an unusual case that has drawn significant attention from both media as well as the substantial number of American football fanatics who follow his area of expertise: the process by which NFL teams select, or draft, collegiate prospects.

Advocacy group calls on acting attorney general to lead ‘thorough, transparent federal investigation’

The deaths in recent days of two Black men in Tennessee, one in the custody of police and the other at the hands of national guard troops, has prompted the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to demand the suspension of the so-called Memphis Safe Task Force, Donald Trump’s anti-crime alliance of federal, state and local law enforcement.

In a letter to the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, on Friday, the NAACP also demanded “a thorough, transparent federal investigation” into the actions of the taskforce, which it said has surged federal and military officers into Memphis with insufficient training for civilian policing.

Tyler Robinson is accused of shooting the far-right activist at Utah Valley University last year

A five-day preliminary hearing to determine whether the case against Tyler James Robinson, the man charged with killing Charlie Kirk, will advance to trial came to a close on Friday.

Final arguments are set to take place in September. US district judge Tony Graf will sift through the evidence presented by the state and Robinson’s defense team before issuing a ruling.

Group accused of planning sniper and drone attack on Donald Trump’s UFC cage-fighting show in June

Eight men were indicted on murder and terrorism conspiracy charges Thursday for their alleged roles in a thwarted drone and sniper attack on the UFC cage-fighting show staged at the White House in June.

The indictment, returned in Ohio, charges all eight in two separate conspiracies, one to provide material support to terrorists and a second to commit murder on federal government territory and to murder a federal government official.

Testimony from Lance Twiggs heard in court on fourth day of hearing to determine whether case can proceed to trial

Tyler Robinson, the 23-year-old charged with murdering the far-right pundit Charlie Kirk, told his roommate a day after the fatal shooting that he wished “he hadn’t done it”, according to testimony heard on Thursday in court.

On the fourth day of a hearing to determine whether the case against Robinson has probable cause to proceed to trial, the state presented video of a prosecutor interviewing Lance Twiggs, Robinson’s then roommate, with whom he was romantically involved.

David Hearn is accused of destroying ‘American flag blue’ lining material on the bottom of the reflecting pool

David Hearn, a former Olympic canoe racer, pleaded not guilty on Thursday to damaging Washington’s reflecting pool after a $14.7m renovation project.

Hearn, a three-time US Olympian, was indicted last week on a single felony count of property destruction. He appeared in local superior court in Washington DC to enter the plea after he was criminally charged over the incident in mid-June.

Mark Gatz was arrested at illegal campsite in June and had faced multiple citations for residing in Tonto national forest

A man in Arizona has pleaded guilty to violating federal fire restrictions and unlawfully residing in a national forest, after authorities said he spent years living at a makeshift campsite surrounded by what officials described as “approximately 1,000 pounds of trash”.

Mark Aaron Gatz was arrested on 25 June at his illegal campsite in Arizona’s Tonto national forest, according to court records. A United States Forest Service (USFS) officer wrote in documents submitted to court that Gatz had been operating an “illegal campsite” with a “hot wood burning campfire” despite fire restrictions and that he had told investigators that he had been living in the forest for about eight years.

Modern forensic analysis leads to arrest in murder of traveling salesman John Warren, authorities say

Items that were found discarded behind a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Georgia in 1985 have led to charges against a suspect in an Ohio killing committed at about that time, investigators announced recently.

As told by authorities, the case centering on killed traveling salesman John Warren is among the latest in the US criminal justice system to illustrate how the application of modern forensic testing techniques on evidence collected decades earlier can lead to closure of cold murder cases.

Defense attorneys say prosecutors coerced Anthony, 19, into waiving his right to testify, and cite additional reasons

Karmelo Anthony’s legal team is seeking a new trial and the recusal of a state judge a month after a Texas jury convicted the 19-year-old of murder and sentenced him to 35 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of Austin Metcalf, 17, at a track meet in 2025.

In a Tuesday motion, Anthony’s defense attorneys argued that their client’s conviction should be overturned because prosecutors coerced him into waiving his right to testify, among other reasons.

Utah county attorney’s office says evidence against Tyler James Robinson is sufficient for case to move to trial

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Utah prosecutors showed video footage on Tuesday allegedly depicting Tyler James Robinson entering the campus of Utah Valley University on the day of Charlie Kirk’s killing and climbing on to a roof from where they say he fired a fatal shot at the conservative commentator.

The Utah county attorney’s office presented the evidence on the second day of a week-long preliminary hearing in which prosecutors must prove to state district judge Tony Graf that there was enough evidence for the case to move to trial.

Chokwe Antar Lumumba had previously called FBI sting while mayor of Jackson a ‘political prosecution’

The former mayor of Mississippi’s capital city pleaded guilty on Monday to bribery, wire fraud and money laundering, after saying a corruption case brought against him two years earlier was a “political prosecution”.

Chokwe Antar Lumumba was the mayor of Jackson in November 2024 when he was indicted by a federal grand jury after an FBI investigation and sting operation in which he and two other elected Democrats allegedly accepted illegal payments to secure a real estate deal.

Andrea Shaw and husband appeared on RFK Jr-linked podcast after deaths in May last year of 18-month-olds

An Idaho mother who said her 18-month-old twins died last year after receiving three vaccines has been charged with murder in their deaths, officials said last week.

Andrea Shaw, 23, was indicted on two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her toddlers, Tyson and Dallas, who were found dead in a shared bed on 1 May last year.

At least 43 killed and many wounded, including woman and child hurt at World Cup gathering in Los Angeles

A weekend of celebrations as the US marked its semiquincentennial was marred by outbreaks of gun violence that claimed dozens of lives and left multiple other people wounded.

Those hurt included a woman and a child among four shot during a gathering of Mexico soccer supporters in Los Angeles following their team’s World Cup elimination on Sunday night.

Authorities claim Tyrin Johnson, 20, pulled gun on officers controversially deployed at instigation of Trump

National guard soldiers on patrol in Memphis shot and killed a man that authorities in the Tennessee city said turned and pulled a gun on the troops during a chase.

The shooting took place at about 4am on Sunday as the soldiers responded to a report of gunfire.

Paul Pelosi could face misdemeanor charges over crash in California that left car with ‘major’ damage, authorities say

The husband of the former House speaker Nancy Pelosi was involved in a hit-and-run car crash in California that left a parked vehicle with “major” damage, authorities said on Saturday – and he could face misdemeanor charges.

Paul Pelosi was driving his brown convertible on Friday in Yountville, a town in the heart of wine country, when he struck a legally parked car on the side of the road, briefly stopped and then drove away, the Napa county sheriff’s office said in a statement. No injuries were reported.

Incident took place late in the evening on Independence Day, reports say, with woman said to be in critical condition

At ⁠least eight people, including four children, were shot and wounded on Saturday during the Fourth of July holiday in New York City’s Coney Island section, according to police.

The shooting happened ​at about 10.35pm on the Brooklyn neighborhood’s West 30th Street – not far from a boardwalk where a fireworks display had been set less than an hour earlier.

Pardons issued to nine people charged with violating Clean Air Act as extreme heat smothers much of US

Donald Trump on Friday issued pardons to 11 men – two convicted fraudsters and nine charged with having violated the federal Clean Air Act by disabling or otherwise modifying trucks’ emissions controls.

Those executive pardons – coming amid US semiquincentennial celebrations blanketed in extreme heat exacerbated by greenhouse gas emissions – were among a broader wave of acts of clemency from Trump during his second presidency, chiefly for those he considers to be aligned with him.

A fight between two groups of young people who knew each other escalated into gunfire, police said

A shooting altercation between two groups of young people at a shopping mall in Dearborn, Michigan, left two people dead and a third injured over what is typically the most violent weekend of the year in the US, police said.

The shooting occurred as the US began celebrating the Fourth of July, historically a holiday weekend that sees higher rates of gun violence across the country. In 2024, the Gun Violence Archive reported more than 500 shootings over Independence Day weekend.

Tesla said Michael Butler disabled his car’s self-driving mode before it plowed into Martha Avila’s home in June

A man whose Tesla Model 3 was allegedly in self-driving mode when it crashed into a home near Houston and killed a 76-year-old woman inside recently has been jailed on a count of manslaughter.

Michael Butler’s arrest in the 19 June death of Martha Avila was announced late on Wednesday in a Facebook post by the sheriff of Harris county, Texas, Ed Gonzalez.

Republican Liz Murrill was indicted for the alleged intimidation of New Orleans elected officials

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Louisiana’s highest court has granted a stay of the proceedings in a criminal indictment targeting the state’s attorney general, in the latest twist of a high-stakes political battle between Republican state leaders and Democrats who govern its most famous city, New Orleans.

Liz Murrill, a Republican who is Louisiana’s first female attorney general, was slapped with a 16-count indictment on Thursday by a New Orleans grand jury charging her with intimidation and malfeasance. The charges effectively accused her of trying to intimidate New Orleans officials who fought a law passed by Republican legislators to overhaul the city’s courts.