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.

The man charged with killing his attorney brother allegedly returned to the crime scene with family,  and cops arrested him in front of a media outlet.

Christopher Eaves, 49, is currently held on a $1.5 million bond, and if he manages to get out of custody pending trial, he cannot communicate with his own and his brother’s family, according to AZ Family.

Police in Phoenix, Arizona, claim that he carried out the shooting Friday, according to Fox affiliate KSAZ. Surveillance footage from next door recorded gunshots.

“The defendant went over to the victim’s house early yesterday morning and shot the victim, fired multiple shots,” prosecutors reportedly said. “He returned to his house with his parents, and Phoenix Police found multiple loaded weapons in the defendant’s car.”

A Tennessee man who called himself a “serial killer” in court and who is serving two life sentences for killing his pregnant girlfriend and her unborn child received an additional 159 years in prison for the murders of three other people.

Joshua Dotson learned his added fate on Friday after pleading guilty to the murders of Divieon Parker, Renita Bennett and Reginald Anderson, according to a press release from the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office.

The additional 159 years will run consecutive with his prior murder conviction in August, bringing his total sentence to 261 years in lockup for the five murders. Dotson was also convicted of the murders of his former girlfriend, Jamesha Covson, and her unborn child, resulting in two consecutive life sentences totaling 102 years.

An Idaho man was sentenced this week to a minimum of 45 years and a maximum of life in prison for murdering a man he says bullied him on Facebook — shooting him 17 times in the street outside the victim’s home — over “rumors” that the killer was an undercover cop.

Mark Bent, 43, was found guilty in December of first-degree murder and felony enhancement for the use of a deadly weapon in the commission of a felony for the September 2023 killing of Nikolas Bird, 23, outside his home in Bonneville County, according to East Idaho News. Bent, who was sentenced Monday, took to Facebook after the fatal shooting to explain why he took Bird’s life, saying it stemmed from online bullying related to his occupation. Bird’s family has denied the bullying accusation and says there’s no evidence to support it.

“I am saddened to say that I have committed some serious crimes today that will put me in jail for the rest of my life or lead to death,” Bent wrote after the shooting, according to prosecutors and East Idaho News. “As some of you know, shortly after I moved to Idaho Falls, I was slandered on Facebook with rumors of me being an Undercover Police Officer. Those rumors were followed by threats, harassment and more slander. Even after the facts were out that I am not a Police Officer of any kind, people still chose to believe it and continue to harass, threaten me and eventually look up where I live and work and post it on the internet.”

A North Dakota man will spend the rest of his life in prison for the beating death of his wife, who he initially said face-planted on the stairs.

Spencer Moen, 32, learned his fate on Monday for the murder of Sonja Moen, 30. He was convicted in October.

“I just can’t seem to get out of that space. You beat the life out of my daughter. And to make it worse, you did it in front of the kids,” said the victim’s mother, Kristin Scofield, in court. “I will continue to pray for forgiveness, but currently, it is not in my soul. I’m sorry.”

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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.

The man accused in the slaying of a fellow camper after a chance encounter out in the Montana wilderness claims he killed the victim in self-defense.

Fox News and Bozeman CBS affiliate KBZK obtained arrest documents that detailed more of the slaying of 35-year-old Dustin Kjersem. Daren Abbey, 41, is facing a deliberate homicide charge along with two counts of tampering with evidence in the case. Kjersem had set up camp in the Big Sky area on Oct. 10 with the intention of picking up his girlfriend the next day for a weekend together. That evening, according to police, Abbey had shown up in the same area with the intention of camping.

Abbey would later tell homicide detectives that Kjersem invited him into his tent where they had a couple of beers. Charging documents reportedly said that Abbey claimed things turned south when Abbey’s dog jumped on Kjersem’s air mattress, leaving behind paw prints. Abbey reportedly said he took a T-shirt to a nearby stream and got it wet to clean the air mattress.

When he returned, he reportedly claimed that Kjersem threatened to shoot him and his dog. A physical fight ensued and Abbey then “hit the victim on the head with a piece of firewood, stabbed the victim in the neck with a screwdriver, and hit the victim on the face with the blunt side of the axe,” the documents reportedly said. Cops said they didn’t buy his self-defense claims because the victim didn’t have any defensive wounds.

The suspect fled the scene but returned the next day to retrieve his hat. Kjersem’s girlfriend and another friend found the victim’s body in the tent on Oct. 12 after he failed to pick her up the previous night. Investigators collected several items from the tent as evidence, including beer cans. According to the affidavit, DNA matched two people: Daren Abbey and his twin, Dustin Abbey. Since Dustin Abbey has been in the custody of the Montana Department of Corrections since September, investigators had their suspect in Daren Abbey. They arrested him on Oct. 26.

Detectives also highlighted a report taken a couple days before Daren Abbey’s arrest from employees at Big Sky Resort and The Rocks Tasting Room. The employees described Abbey as a “skinhead dude” who had made them uncomfortable by spewing white supremacist comments. His profile on the Montana Department of Corrections page shows that he has swastika tattoos.

Minutes after a jury convicted him of murdering a teenager over Yeezy sneakers, a young man lashed out at her father for chastising him during a victim impact statement.

“What the f— you talking about, b—-?” Adrian Cosby, 23, said and jumped out of his chair, according to The Miami Herald.

Prosecutors in Miami-Dade County say that Cosby and George Oshane Walton, both 19 at the time, shot and killed Andrea Camps Lacayo, 18, as she and her boyfriend were trying to sell Yeezy sneakers for $935 in April 2020.

More Law&Crime coverage: 3 teens face murder charges in death of mom killed trying to stop alleged carjackers from taking SUV with son, 6, inside

According to officers, Walton confessed that the plan was for him to steal the shoes while trying them on. Cosby, however, sneaked up on Andrea and her boyfriend while the couple was sitting in a car, and he shot them, striking Andrea in the torso and grazing her boyfriend’s arm.

Walton was convicted in February and sentenced to life in prison for murder.

Then came Cosby’s turn in his recent murder trial. Jurors found him guilty of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, and attempted robbery.

A man accused of shooting and killing a woman in Tennessee earlier this week allegedly lingered around the scene of the crime until well after police arrived, according to one witness.

Paul S. Park, 29, stands accused of one count of criminal homicide, according to Davidson County Sheriff’s Office records.

The defendant is alleged to have killed Alyssa Lokits, 34, on Monday evening while she was working out at the Mill Creek Greenway — a multi-purpose urban trail in the Antioch neighborhood of Nashville.

Afterward, the alleged killer is believed to have feigned ignorance about the shooting during a brief chat with another woman nearby.