A Georgia man “violently squeezed” his daughter to death and then tried passing off her injuries as a result of the two of them “playing” together, telling authorities he was “tossing her in the air and catching her.”

Khaliq Woods, 29, was found guilty of felony murder, aggravated battery and first-degree child cruelty for the 2019 death of his infant daughter, Kamila Woods, at their home in Duluth, the Gwinnett County District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday.

Prosecutors outlined the case against Woods in a press release Tuesday, announcing that he was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Jurors deliberated for 10 hours before finding him guilty.

A 21-year-old man in Michigan has been arrested for allegedly killing his fiancee, shooting her in the neck and claiming his firearm accidentally discharged while he was cleaning it. Michael Devon Webb was taken into custody last week and charged with one count of first-degree murder and using a firearm in the commission of a felony in the slaying of 23-year-old Rachel Renee Wooten, authorities announced.

According to a news release from the Oakland Sheriff’s Office, deputies at about 4 p.m. on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, responded to the Highland Township home in the 200 block of Maple Drive, which is about 40 miles northwest of Detroit, Michigan, regarding a reported shooting. Webb and Wooten lived in the home where the shooting is alleged to have occurred with their 6-month-old child.

The caller identified himself as Webb and allegedly told the emergency dispatcher that he “had shot his fiancee and himself,” per the release.

Upon arriving at the scene, first responders located Wooten, who appeared to be suffering from a gunshot wound to the neck “at very close range,” prosecutors said in a release. She was pronounced dead on the scene. The couple’s child was not harmed during the incident.

Police placed Webb under arrest at the residence. When speaking to police, Webb originally said of the shooting, “it was an accident” that happened “while cleaning his gun,” police wrote. However, the news release said that the evidence recovered from the residence “did not support” an accidental shooting being the cause of Wooten’s death.

A New Mexico woman who reported that her husband stabbed himself has now been charged — with allegedly stabbing her husband.

In a Facebook post on April 1, the Farmington Police Department announced that following a years-long investigation into the death of Robert Hoefer, 49, his wife, Heather Fernandez-Hoefer, 51, has been charged with his murder.

Police said that on November 29, 2020, officers responded to the Hoefer residence after Fernandez-Hoefer called 911 after she allegedly claimed she found her husband unresponsive. When questioned by police at the time, she allegedly said he had stabbed himself, repeating the story several times, according to an affidavit obtained by KRQE, a local CBS affiliate.

Her story, according to police, eventually fell apart due to her own conflicting statements.

An Alabama man pleaded with the public and appeared on the local news seeking help after his wife of 30 years went missing. Police now say he admitted to killing her.

Stephen Miller Sr., 64, first reported his wife Gloria Miller, 57, was missing on Feb. 24, according to a press release from Dothan Police. In the following days, the seemingly concerned husband appeared on local news, pleading for help and taking gut-wrenching phone calls in front of TV cameras. But behind the scenes, police said his story started falling apart. In a press conference on Feb. 26, the Dothan Police Department announced that Stephen Miller had been charged with murder after allegedly admitting to strangling his wife.

A Nevada man is being held without bail after being arrested for the alleged fatal stabbing of his own son, who he claimed “fell on a knife.”

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police reported to a call on Dec. 22 at around 1:00 p.m. that a man was suffering from stab wounds to the chest in an apartment on Pebble Road near Maryland Parkway in Las Vegas. The man was Nelson Garcia-Leon, whose age was not provided, and he was pronounced dead at the scene by first responders. Near the apartment where Garcia-Leon was found, police recovered a bloody, 15-inch knife, “hastily hidden behind an ice cooler.”

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Criminal Justice

Wife convicted of murdering prominent attorney husband claimed to reveal real killer at her sentencing

By Debra Cassens Weiss

December 9, 2024, 1:04 pm CST

A Georgia woman convicted of murdering and burning the body of her husband, a prominent Atlanta-area attorney, was sentenced to life in prison after a Dec. 5 sentencing hearing in which she claimed that the real killer was the man’s son.

Melody Walker Farris, 64, of Georgia was convicted last month for the 2018 murder of lawyer Gary Wayne Farris, who was the 58-year-old managing partner of the Atlanta office of midsize law firm Burr & Forman at the time of his death, Law360 reports.

Gary Wayne Farris was the chair of Burr & Forman’s lending practice and a member of the executive committee, the article reports. He was a graduate of the University of Alabama School of Law.

Publications with coverage besides Law360 include Court TV, WXIA-TV, Courthouse News Service, Fox 5 Atlanta and the Independent.

Witnesses said Farris had two affairs before her husband’s death at their farm in Alpharetta, Georgia. She and her husband had also argued about money, and she stood to benefit if he died, prosecutors said. The Independent cited a report by the Cherokee Tribune & Ledger News that Farris was the beneficiary of a $2 million life insurance policy.

During the sentencing hearing, Farris said she has kept the real killer’s identity secret for six years. Courthouse News Service reported on her words.

“I want the world to know who did this. Not only did I not do this, I know who did,” Farris said. “I know Scott killed his father.”

Farris said her mother had advised her to take the blame for the killing, but she would no longer protect her son Scott Farris. Farris said she saw Scott Farris coming from the burn pile, where the remains had been found, and described other circumstances that she found suspicious.

The defense previously suggested that Scott Farris could be involved in the murder because he was missing a gun that had the same kind of bullets used in the killing, according to Courthouse News. Defense lawyer Michael Ray said investigators did not search for evidence in Scott Farris’ room, which was filthy in contrast to his spotless bathroom.

Investigators first thought that Gary Wayne Farris may have fallen onto the burn pile during a medical emergency. They later found a bullet in his rib cage.

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How this lawyer reacted when client claimed to be Messiah and demanded $25K

By Debra Cassens Weiss

April 4, 2024, 9:47 am CDT

A lawyer in Mississippi is grateful that he and his staff members are safe after an agitated client with a gun in his leather bag demanded $25,000.

“We don’t take it for granted that the Lord spared our lives yesterday,” said lawyer Carlos Moore of Grenada, Mississippi, in an interview with WREG.

The client came to Moore’s office with his wife, said he was the Messiah, and said he wouldn’t leave until he received $25,000 in his workers’ compensation case, Moore told the broadcast station.

Moore told the client that he had to call the opposing counsel. Moore left the meeting room, called 911, and texted his staff to remain in their offices.

“I was concerned what he would do when I came back to tell him there would not be a $25,000 check today,” Moore said.

When Moore came back, the client “was going for a gun” in a small leather bag, Moore said. The client’s wife was telling him, “No, you’re not doing this today.” The client replied that the gun wasn’t loaded, and he and his wife continued to bicker over it.

Police and paramedics quickly arrived. The client wasn’t charged because he never threatened harm. Moore plans to withdraw from the man’s case.

A woman allegedly claimed she stabbed her elderly mother to death in self-defense and waited seven hours to call 911, but Florida deputies said the defendant’s injuries did not match defensive wounds.

“Ms. Tinsley showed your affiant several lacerations to her legs and injuries to her right hand she claimed were caused by the decedent; however, none of the injuries appeared consistent with defensive knife wounds,” they wrote in the affidavit for arrest affidavit against Kelly Ann Olivier Tinsley, 49.

She is in the Brevard County Jail on a count of manslaughter reclassified with the use of a deadly weapon for allegedly killing Cheryl Maggard Meurer, 69.

Tinsley allegedly called 911 on Tuesday at 5:16 a.m., according to documents viewed by Law&Crime. She allegedly said Meurer attacked her, and she attacked her back.

Questioned by the 911 operator, she admitted stabbing her mother but hung up when asked about the wound location, documents stated.