Two Missouri men face charges in connection with leaving eight puppies to die of heat exhaustion in a sealed plastic tote outside a local humane society that was closed for the day.

Seth Vaile, 30, faces eight counts of animal abuse. Samuel Allen, 36, also faces charges in the ongoing investigation, the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

The heartbreaking discovery was made on Sunday when workers from the Jasper County Humane Society opened the tote and found the dogs dead outside the facility at 140 E. Emperor Lane.

A judge quashed the murder charges against the disgraced former Houston police officer accused of lying to justify a no-knock raid that resulted in officers killing a couple in Texas.

As previously reported by Law&Crime, the officer in question, Gerald Goines, allegedly claimed in search warrant documents that he used two confidential informants to buy heroin from Dennis Tuttle, 59, and Rhogena Nicholas, 58, two people falsely accused of dealing drugs.

Goines’ defense argued that the indictments were not specific about which tampering laws he violated, according to Houston ABC affiliate KTRK.

The mother of the Michigan teenager who gunned down four of his classmates in a 2021 mass shooting has been convicted of manslaughter.

Jennifer Crumbley, 45, was convicted by a jury on Tuesday, after nearly 11 hours of deliberation and a 10-day trial.

As Law&Crime has previously reported, Jennifer Crumbley was charged with manslaughter in the deaths of Tate Myre, 16, Hana St. Juliana, 14, Madisyn Baldwin, 17, and Justin Shilling, 17, who were killed when her son, Ethan Crumbley, then 15, opened fire on his classmates on Nov. 30, 2021. According to prosecutors, Jennifer Crumbley was the last person in possession of the weapon her son used to carry out the attack — a handgun she had described on social media as her son’s Christmas present days prior. They also alleged that she didn’t take reasonable steps to stop the rampage and find care for her son.

According to prosecutors, James and Jennifer Crumbley knew their son was troubled — and had been called to the school the day of the shooting after teachers discovered disturbing and violent drawings he had made in a math workbook. The parents ultimately left the school after meeting with school officials and their son, while Ethan Crumbley stayed behind.

Arrest warrants were issued for Jennifer Crumbley and James Crumbley, her husband and Ethan Crumbley’s father, who is also charged with manslaughter, after the shooting. They appeared to have attempted to evade apprehension by the police but were eventually found hiding in a building near downtown Detroit, around 30 minutes away from Oakland.

In closing arguments on Friday, prosecutors told jurors that it would not have taken much for Jennifer Crumbley to stop her son from carrying out the shooting.

“Ordinary care [means] what [is] the tragically smallest thing she could have done to prevent this?” Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald asked the jury before offering several examples.

“[T]he tragic part about it is none of it was hard,” McDonald later said. “None of it. The smallest thing, just the smallest thing could have saved Hana, Tate, Justin, and Madisyn. The smallest of things.”

Jennifer Crumbley’s defense lawyer, Shannon Smith, said her client had no reason to believe her son would have done what he did and drew on her own experience as a parent to present Jennifer Crumbley as a relatable mom.

Calling the case “a very dangerous case for parents out there,” Smith said that her client’s texts about her son — including telling a friend he was an “oopsie baby” and “weird” — are nothing out of the ordinary. She cited her own texts to her husband describing their daughter as a “psycho” and a “nut case” and said that without context, it appears that she doesn’t care about her children’s mental health.

Smith referred to her client as a “hypervigilant” parent, citing Jennifer Crumbley’s treatment of her son’s medical issues, including headaches, cavities, and even an abnormal mole on his back.

“She pays more attention to those kinds of things than I do,” she said, motioning to her client sitting at the defense table. “I could very easily be sitting in that chair.”

Legal experts were surprised by Smith’s approach during closing arguments.

“The purpose of a closing is to summarize the evidence and argue why the prosecution proved the case beyond a reasonable doubt, or why the prosecution failed to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt,” said Terri Austin, host and legal analyst for Law&Crime. “Personal opinions and reference to personal experiences are generally not allowed. The prosecution should have objected when defense counsel continuously and repeatedly referred to her personal experiences.”

Austin said that closing arguments like Smith’s create a potential for jury nullification, which occurs when a jury disregards the law and evidence and bases the verdict on their own sense of justice, Smith said.

Manslaughter is a felony under Michigan law, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Sentencing was set for April 9.

Ethan Crumbley, now 17, pleaded guilty in October to all 24 charges against him, including murder and terrorism. He was sentenced to a lifetime in prison without the possibility of parole.

The trial of James Crumbley, Jennifer Crumbley’s husband and the teen’s father, is set to begin March 5.

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A Florida woman who locked away 63 cats in a dizzying state of neglect and filth will now spend several years behind bars.

Michelline Joy Toulouse, 39, pleaded no contest to 12 charges of aggravated animal cruelty in September. On Wednesday, after hours of testimony, she was sentenced to three years in state prison to be followed by 10 years of probation to deal with mental health and drug issues. The court also sentenced her to 500 hours of community service with a trash cleanup organization. And, she will be barred from owning animals for the duration of her time under state supervision, according to the Broward State Attorney’s Office.

Toulouse was, at one time, facing up to 60 years in prison.

Powdered baby formula may be linked to at least five infant illnesses, including possibly two deaths, the Food and Drug Administration warned earlier this week. But there may be more cases than have been reported. Nikki Battiste has the latest.