Drama and scorn ran rampant in a Michigan courtroom on Friday, where a convicted killer was shouted down by his victim’s family members before he could tender some formal condolences.

In June 2023, Sekou Conde, 24, repeatedly shot and killed Donrell Canda, 24, inside his own home – in front of the slain man’s son and girlfriend, according to the Ann Arbor Police Department.

In February, the defendant was convicted by a jury of his peers on all counts against him, including one count each of premeditated murder in the first degree, felony murder, and first-degree home invasion, as well as two counts of possession of a firearm during a felony.

On Friday, Washtenaw County Trial Court Judge Carol Kuhnke sentenced Conde to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

A grandmother in Georgia was allegedly killed by a stranger who followed her home and then choked her to death — crushing her neck with his knees and full body weight while she was lying on the ground, according to police and family members, who describe the murder as “horrific” and “mind-blowing.”

Hector David Sagastume Rivas, 21, is accused of murdering 52-year-old Camillia Williams sometime between 11 p.m. on March 12 and 1 a.m. on March 13, according to an arrest warrant obtained by Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB. Police in Cobb County say Sagastume Rivas strangled Williams and then dumped her body on the side of a road in a yard near her home in Marietta, where it was found last Thursday morning in a place that her family says left them shocked.

“When they found her in the bushes, we looked at the bushes real close and it just so happens to be a Camellia bush.” Camillia’s brother, Arsene Williams, told WSB. “It’s hard to believe that this is really truly happening,” he said. “I don’t know how to absorb it right now.”

According to Arsene and Williams’ family, the Louisiana native called a relative the night before her body was found and said she was being followed by a man who they claim was Sagastume Rivas.

“She didn’t know him,” said Tony Williams, another one of Camillia’s brothers. “The night before she was at the dollar store and she told one of my nieces the guy was following her,” Arsene alleged.

Cops say a motive has not been provided by the suspect yet, but he has admitted to allegedly killing Williams. He told investigators the details about using his knees, claiming he did so after trying to take her life with a chokehold, to no avail.

“I just can’t imagine what someone would have in their heart to do that to somebody,” Williams’ niece, Danielle Williams, told local NBC affiliate WXIA. “What he’d done was really horrific,” she said. “It’s mind-blowing.”

Sagastume Rivas was being held Wednesday on charges of felony murder. He’s been denied bond and is awaiting his next court date.

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The “mangled up” body of a man killed by his girlfriend’s teenage son was discovered on a busy Louisiana bridge last week — leading to murder and accessory charges for his partner, her 17-year-old and the woman’s mom — after the family tried wrapping him in a blanket and dumping him over the side with a kettlebell, officials say.

Coshelia Conley, 36, of Baker, was trying to cover up her boyfriend Gerard Nicholas Richard’s death last Thursday after her son, Da’Sean Conley, shot and killed him while the two were arguing and fighting that night, according to their arrest affidavit, which was filed by the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office and obtained by local CBS and ABC affiliates WAFB and WBRZ, respectively.

Editor’s Note: When a parent is in hospice, there may be wishes to voice things that have been unsaid and for your loved one to somehow return to at least a bit of their old selves, for conversations if nothing else. Dan Caldwell, a 76-year-old retired political science professor who died in January, gave his family that gift during the recent Southern California wildfires. His daughter Beth Caldwell, a Southwestern Law School professor, shared their story with the ABA Journal.

My father, Dan Caldwell, a distinguished professor emeritus at Pepperdine University, was diagnosed with an incurable form of blood cancer several years ago. We were very close. In fact, my husband; our two children, ages 9 and 11; and I lived with my parents in order to support them with their needs and spend as much quality time together as possible. We knew our time was limited given my dad’s cancer diagnosis; in addition, my mother has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. She is still very sharp and aware but cannot drive and needs some support with cooking meals and remembering daily tasks.

In the week leading up to the fire, my father’s body had started shutting down. He entered hospice care at our home in Pacific Palisades, which was where I had grown up and my parents lived for 46 years. By Tuesday, it seemed clear that his hours were numbered. He gathered me, my mom and my brother and sister around him on his bed, had us hold hands and said a poignant goodbye. He told us the word he wanted us to think of when we think about this experience is “aloha,” which means hello, goodbye and I love you all at once. My mother grew up in Hawaii, so this was a particularly meaningful concept for all of us. His eyes were rolling back in his head, and his breathing was labored. It was clear that the end was near.

And then we looked out of his bedroom window and saw flames in the hills. They were moving quickly down the hillside. My dad always told us that if you can see flames, a fire was dangerously close and you had to get out. But at the same time, in all of the 46 years we had lived in the Palisades, a fire had never come down the hill and into the town itself. We lived in a residential neighborhood, not in the hills, and evacuated in an abundance of caution a handful of times in our lives. But we didn’t think a fire could really reach our home.

We didn’t know if we could move my dad, how much pain it would cause him to move or if he would die during a car ride. We didn’t think we could really leave. Then the planes that my dad told us Canada generously lends to fight fires in the United States started flying very low right over our house picking up water from the ocean, dumping it on the fire and circling back again. My father was aware enough to express his chagrin at the anti-immigrant sentiment so many Americans seem to have, in contrast to the generosity of Canada sending its planes to come to our aid in times of need. He undoubtedly would have felt similarly if he had known about Mexico’s generosity in sending its firefighters to aid a country whose leader has boasted about building a wall to divide us.

Then the kids’ schools called and said they were evacuating. I rushed to pick them up and brought them home. We kept watching the fire, sure that it would be extinguished soon. The wind was blowing toward the ocean, so the fire was moving in the opposite direction. But then the winds changed direction and the fire was headed toward us. We realized we had to leave. We started running around the house frantically grabbing things—some photo albums, a binder of important financial information my dad had prepared to guide us after his death, a few framed photos.

We were still running around grabbing things when my dad somehow appeared downstairs. He had gotten out of bed, gotten dressed, packed his wallet and medication in a bag and walked down the stairs on his own. We didn’t know how—he hadn’t been able to get out of bed without help before. He said, “It’s time to go,” and we left.

We drove about four hours to a family home in San Clemente, California. Somehow, my dad’s awareness kicked in during the ride. He gave my husband directions for shortcuts, informed by nearly 50 years of navigating Los Angeles traffic. He told my kids stories about his childhood and shared information about landmarks we passed. We listened to his favorite songs. He said he couldn’t believe how surreal it was to be close to death, in his bed and then all of a sudden be on a road trip with his grandkids.

When we made it to our home in San Clemente, he wanted to take “one last view” of the ocean, which you can see from the living room. It was his favorite view in the world. When we were on vacation in Hawaii and Costa Rica, he would often say, “This is great, but I would rather be on the deck in San Clemente.” He said goodnight and goodbye to my children, and I tucked him into the bed where he would die the next day.

He was spared the knowledge that his home had burned down. Spared the worry about what we would do without our home. And I am so grateful for that.

Losing our home with all of our possessions pales in comparison to losing my dad. But the things also matter. So many special mementos he had kept for his entire life to pass down to us—letters, photos, memories from our childhoods. Things from our grandparents, from our mother’s childhood. Scrapbooks from our parents’ youths, which, thankfully, we had looked through in the week before the fire because of our father’s impending death. We had spent a lot of time reminiscing and looking through these gems that are now all gone.

In the aftermath, the losses keep hitting us. Sometimes it’s something practical, like we realize we don’t have any socks. Other times it’s more devastating, like the illustrated children’s Bible my parents had read with us and I had just started reading with my son.

The semester had just started, and I shared what happened with my students in an announcement, in which I asked for some patience and empathy if I was slower to respond to emails than I otherwise would be. The outpouring of support from my students touched me profoundly. My father was a professor for more than 40 years, and every day since his death I have received emails from his former students talking about how much he touched their lives. And I’ve found correspondence he shared with his former students about how much they touched his life in return. I can only hope to have that kind of lasting impact—and relationships—with my students.

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Beth Caldwell is a professor of law at the Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles, where she worked as a public defender before becoming a professor. She is the author of Deported Americans: Life After Deportation to Mexico, which was a 2021 finalist for a PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction.

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ABAJournal.com is accepting queries for original, thoughtful, nonpromotional articles and commentary by unpaid contributors to run in the Your Voice section. Details and submission guidelines are posted at “Your Submissions, Your Voice.”

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This column reflects the opinions of the author and not necessarily the views of the ABA Journal—or the American Bar Association.

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Criminal Justice

Judge apologizes to slain jogger Ahmaud Arbery’s family after tossing charges against district attorney

By Debra Cassens Weiss

February 10, 2025, 9:21 am CST

A Georgia judge has tossed the charges against a prosecutor accused of favoring a former white investigator in her office before he was charged in the 2020 death of Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery.

Former Brunswick, Georgia, District Attorney Jackie Johnson had been charged with violating her oath of office and obstructing a police officer in the investigation that followed Arbery’s death. Her trial began in January, according to PBS News.

Judge John R. Turner of Glynn County, Georgia, granted a directed verdict on the obstruction charge Feb. 3 after concluding that prosecutors failed to present sufficient evidence that Johnson obstructed the death investigation. Turner tossed the oath-violation charge two days later after defense lawyers argued that the indictment didn’t accuse Johnson of crimes in connection with the charge and listed the wrong oath of office.

Publications covering the tossed charges are Courthouse News Service, Law360 and the Associated Press.

Arbery, 25, was shot and killed after two white men pursued him in a pickup truck because they thought that he was a suspect in several break-ins in the area. A white neighbor who joined the pursuit in his truck recorded the incident on video. No arrests were made for more than two months.

The leaked video later showed that the shooter was Travis McMichael. His father, Gregory McMichael, a former police office who once worked for Johnson, had joined the chase. The man who shot the video was William “Roddie” Bryan. All three were convicted in November 2021, when jurors rejected arguments that they were making a citizen’s arrest and that Arbery was shot in self-defense when Arbery tried to grab a gun. They were also convicted of federal hate crimes in August 2022.

Several witnesses had testified that Johnson never directed anyone to refrain from arresting the McMichaels, according to Courthouse News Service. Johnson testified that she immediately recused herself from the case when she found out that her former employee was involved. When she saw the video, Johnson said, she thought that the slaying “looked like murder,” and she informed the Georgia Bureau of Investigation about calls that she had received from Gregory McMichael.

Turner apologized to Arbery’s family members after tossing the final charge, according to Courthouse News Service.

“This is not a decision I wanted to make, but feel like I must,” he said.

Turner also said he feels “sadness for the death of this young man and what his family has gone through.”

Johnson was represented by lawyer Brian Steel, who also represented rapper Young Thug in a high-profile criminal trial. Steel said Johnson should not have been charged.

“It’s a sad day. Ahmaud Arbery was slaughtered for no reason, and then-Attorney General Chris Carr piggybacked one of the greatest tragedies in our state and nation and indicted an innocent woman,” Steel told Courthouse News Service.

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Supreme Court will decide whether family can sue over mistaken raid by FBI SWAT team

By Debra Cassens Weiss

January 28, 2025, 11:49 am CST

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide whether the U.S. Constitution prevents a family from suing the FBI for its mistaken 2017 SWAT team raid of their Atlanta home.

At issue is whether the lawsuit is barred by the Constitution’s supremacy clause and by a liability exception to the Federal Tort Claims Act for federal employees’ discretionary acts undertaken to advance federal policy.

“If the Federal Tort Claims Act provides a cause of action for anything, it’s a wrong-house raid like the one the FBI conducted here,” the cert petition filed by the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit public interest law firm, argues.

The Institute for Justice represents the plaintiffs, Curtrina Martin; her son (represented by Martin); and Martin’s partner, Hilliard Toi Cliatt.

The family members were awakened before dawn one morning in October 2017 by a flashbang grenade exploding in their living room. Martin’s 7-year-old son was separated from his mother while officers stormed the bedroom with guns drawn, according to the institute’s Jan. 27 press release.

Cliatt pushed Curtrina Martin into the closet and was reaching for his shotgun when an FBI agent threw him to the ground. FBI agents soon realized that they had raided the wrong place.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Atlanta ruled against the family in an unpublished decision in April 2024.

The Federal Tort Claims Act was enacted in 1946 to waive U.S. sovereign immunity and allow damages for certain torts of federal employees when there would be liability under the same circumstances in the state where the acts happened, according to SCOTUSblog and the government’s petition opposing certiorari. Most intentional torts, however, were not allowed.

The law was amended in 1974 to make clear that intentional actions of law enforcement officers could be the basis of suits, according to the Institute for Justice.

“But the FTCA includes a host of exceptions, and circuit courts can’t agree on when they apply,” the press release said.

The 11th Circuit ruled against the family on two grounds. First, the appeals court said intentional-tort claims covered by the law enforcement amendment—for false imprisonment, assault and battery—were nonetheless barred by the supremacy clause because they concern acts with some nexus to furthering federal policy.

No other circuit has taken this position, according to the Institute for Justice.

“The 11th Circuit has created a unique supremacy clause bar to the FTCA that overrides congressional intent,” the cert petition says.

Second, the appeals court barred claims for torts falling outside the law enforcement amendment—for trespass, interference with private property and infliction of emotional distress. The 11th Circuit held that the claims are barred by the discretionary function exception to the Federal Tort Claims Act, which bars claims arising from a government official’s performance of a duty or a function that involves discretion.

The appeals court reasoned that FBI agents had discretion in preparing for execution of a warrant, and their decisions are susceptible to policy analysis.

The courts are “badly split” over the discretionary function exception, the cert petition says.

The case is Martin v. United States. The SCOTUSblog case page is here.

Publications covering the cert grant include SCOTUSblog, Law.com and the Washington Post.

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An Ohio judge sentenced a father to prison for spending nearly two decades abusing and torturing his seven children, including forcing his then 14-year-old son to eat dog food and sleep in a shed.

Jason Fuller, 44, pleaded guilty to seven counts of endangering children, the Delaware County Prosecutor’s Office said in a press release. Delaware County Common Pleas Judge James P. Schuck sentenced Fuller to 17.5 years in prison on Monday.

“Jason Fuller’s sentence is almost one year in prison for every year he terrorized his family. We are extremely thankful these victims will be protected from him while he serves his prison sentence,” Delaware County Prosecuting Attorney Melissa Schiffel said in a statement.

More from Law&Crime: Man ‘angry about a couch cushion’ beat 12-year-old for nearly 30 minutes, taunting him to ‘suck d—‘ while hitting him over 50 times: Cops

Fuller’s wife, Kristelle Fuller, was sentenced to two years probation after she pleaded guilty to obstructing justice for telling her kids to lie to investigators to protect their father.

According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Columbus Fox affiliate WTTE, the investigation began in September 2023 when the county’s Family Services received a complaint about child abuse after someone overheard one of the sons say he was locked in a shed and fed dog food when he was 14. Officers from the Delaware Police Department went to the home and interviewed Kristelle Fuller and the son in question. The son at first denied making the comment but then said he remembered an incident that happened about six years prior in which he was “punished for doing something inappropriate in front of his sister and was grounded to the shed for a couple of nights.”

The victim said the unattached shed was in the backyard and it occurred around August. He said he was allowed back in the house in the daytime. Investigators then spoke with the victim without his mother present. An investigator asked him if there was any audio or surveillance video within the home and he said he had a device “right now that he was supposed to be recording me with,” the affidavit said. The victim said he was not recording at the time and the investigator told him he was free to do so as the officer also was filming with his body-worn camera, the affidavit said.

Detectives asked Kristelle Fuller if she remembered the incident and she said “Sure.” She then said she was instructed by her attorney not to speak with them.

The Florida mother of a 9-year-old boy who died years after hitting his head on a metal cart in Walmart is suing the megastore for allegedly creating a dangerous and unsafe condition that led to the boy’s death.

Tamika Springer is seeking damages beyond $30,000 in the death of her son, Saiy-Yah Allen, according to the complaint.

During testimony in the trial on Tuesday, Saiy-Yah’s sister spoke about her brother’s seizures in the years after the incident at a Fort Lauderdale location on Nov. 25, 2020, when the then-7-year-old boy walked into a metal stock cart and struck his head in a walkway.

“He would shake a lot and he would look in a different direction, and then he would shake and make noise, too,” Miharah Allen said. “Every time he ate, he would throw up, he would throw the food up or use the bathroom on himself.”

The testimony came as Walmart attorneys questioned whether his injury then led to his seizures and death on May 7, 2023, local NBC affiliate WTVJ reported.

Body camera footage from the Cincinnati suburb of Liberty Township obtained by Law&Crime shows the frantic moments as first responders worked to save an infant girl who had been shot in the head. They soon arrested the shooter — her own grandmother, Mia Desiree Harris.

Remarkably, the girl survived, though the injury had permanent consequences for her health. Defendant Harris recently pleaded guilty to a count of felonious assault. She is currently serving a sentence of nine to 12 years in prison and is eligible for parole in December 2032.

“During the incident Harris shot at several family members before intentionally shooting the child,” the Butler County Sheriff’s Office wrote in the news release.

Witnesses urgently told authorities about the badly injured baby and about Harris being the shooter.

“Mia Harris. Mia Harris,” a woman told law enforcement in footage dated Dec. 9, 2023. “Get her right now.”

A North Carolina family’s Thanksgiving holiday began in tragedy when a man was shot outside his home during the early morning hours by an unknown assailant.

Police in Zebulon, a town located around 25 miles east of Raleigh, reported that when they responded to a call at 1:30 a.m. on the morning of Nov. 28, they found Robert Cummings, 55, in his front yard, unresponsive with a gunshot wound. He was brought to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. Police have asked local residents for their help in finding out who is responsible and an investigation is ongoing.