‘Burglars steal $30m in cash’:
Thieves stole as much $30 million in an Easter Sunday burglary at a Los Angeles money storage facility in one of the largest cash heists in city history, police said Wednesday.
The burglary occurred Sunday night at an unnamed facility in the Sylmar area of the San Fernando Valley where cash from businesses across the region is handled and stored, LA Police Department Commander Elaine Morales told the Los Angeles Times.
The burglars were able to breach the building as well as the safe where the money was stored, Morales said.
The operators of the business, whom police did not identify, did not discover the massive theft until they opened the vault on Monday. (AP)
MS-13 member pleads guilty:
An MS-13 gang member has admitted to participating in the brutal killing of four young men on Long Island in 2017.
Edwin Rodriguez, 24, pleaded guilty Wednesday to racketeering charges in connection with the April 11, 2017, deaths of Justin Llivicura, Michael Lopez, Jorge Tigre, and Jefferson Villalobos in Central Islip.
The then 17-year-old, who authorities said went by the nickname “Manicomio,” fled the country after the killings but was arrested in El Salvador in 2019 and extradited to the US in 2022.
Rodriguez’s lawyer Glenn Obedin said in an emailed statement after the proceedings in federal court in Central Islip that his client was “relieved” to have reached a plea deal and was “ready now to move on to the next phase of the proceeding and the next phase of his life.” Rodriguez faces up to life in prison for the crimes. (AP)
Sisters mystified by slaying:
After the killing of their octogenarian parents last month in their South Florida home, Kim Melvin Hill and Tonya Mitchell went before a bank of TV cameras seeking answers on Wednesday. Why were they killed? Who would have done this? And where can the killer or killers be now?
The youngest of 11 children of Major and Claudette Melvin, they are mystified as to why anyone would kill their elderly parents inside their Fort Lauderdale home and, it appears, only steal their 10-yearold Ford.
The case has drawn major attention in South Florida and the Fort Lauderdale police have issued a nationwide alert for the couple’s red 2014 Ford Focus, Florida license plate LTDQ16. (AP)
‘10 yrs in jail for Crumbleys’:
Prosecutors in Michigan are recommending at least 10 years in prison next week for two parents who are the first in the US to be held criminally responsible for a school shooting.
Jennifer Crumbley showed a “chilling lack of remorse” for her role, and James Crumbley “failed to exercise even the smallest measure of ordinary care” that could have prevented the deaths of four students at Oxford High School in 2021, prosecutors said in a court filing Wednesday.
The Crumbleys, the parents of shooter Ethan Crumbley, were convicted of involuntary manslaughter at separate trials earlier this year. They were not accused of knowing their son’s plan. But prosecutors said they failed to lock up a gun at home and ignored his mental health.
The maximum prison stay for the crime is 15 years. But the minimum sentence set by the judge on April 9 will be critical because the Crumbleys would be eligible for parole consideration after that time. They will get credit for about 2 1/2 years spent in the Oakland County jail since their arrest. (AP)