Today is
Thursday November 21, 2024
(NEW YORK) -- E-cigarettes in kid-friendly flavors are driving retail sales and contain more addictive nicotine than ever, according to a new report from the nonprofit CDC Foundation and advocacy group Truth Initiative.
The report showed a 47% increase in e-cigarette sales at U.S. retail outlets between 2019 and 2023, with flavors like fruit, candy, mint, menthol and desserts accounting for more than 80% of those sales.
Most flavored products are not authorized by the Food and Drug Administration and are therefore on the market illegally, according to Truth Initiative.
Vaping among youth is declining in the U.S., but more than 1.6 million children still vape, and nearly 90% of them report using flavored products, according to the report.
States that have implemented strong enforcement policies have seen a dramatic drop in sales. Massachusetts, for example, saw an 86% drop in overall e-cigarette sales in brick-and-mortar stores, the report said.
The proliferation of kid-friendly flavored vapes is not authorized by the FDA to be in stores, making the booming sales technically illegal -- but that could change if the industry succeeds in a major case before the U.S. Supreme Court next month.
Vape makers have sued the FDA, which has blocked the sale and marketing of most flavored products, alleging the agency is stonewalling good science and common sense. They claim flavors like "Jimmy the Juice Man" and "Iced Pineapple Express" are ideal for helping adult smokers quit a cancer-causing habit.
The Supreme Court will delve into the science during arguments on Dec. 2 and decide next year whether the FDA analysis has been flawed and unfair, potentially opening the flood gates to widespread legal production and sale of flavored nicotine products.
There has been a major decline in the number of students who reported current e-cigarette use, according to federal data released last month from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey.
The number of users was 2.13 million in 2023 compared to 1.63 million in 2024, the report found. Usage among high school students in particular dropped to 1.56 million from 1.21 million over the same period.
ABC News' Mary Kekatos contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(SPRINGFIELD, Ill.) -- The Illinois Supreme Court has thrown out former "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett’s conviction for lying about a 2019 hate crime.
Smollett was found guilty in 2021 for faking a racist and homophobic attack and lying to the police. His lawyers said this violated his Fifth Amendment rights because, in 2019, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx had already agreed to drop the charges if Smollett paid $10,000 and did community service. A special prosecutor later charged him again, leading to his trial and conviction.
In its decision, filed on Thursday, the court stated they are resolving a "question about the State’s responsibility to honor the agreements it makes with defendants."
The court stated it did not find that the state could bring a second prosecution against Smollett after the initial charges were dismissed as part of a plea agreement and the actor performed the terms of the agreement, noting that Illinois case law establishes that it is "fundamentally unfair to allow the prosecution to renege on a deal with a defendant when the defendant has relied on the agreement to his detriment."
"We are aware that this case has generated significant public interest and that many people were dissatisfied with the resolution of the original case and believed it to be unjust. Nevertheless, what would be more unjust than the resolution of any one criminal case would be a holding from this court that the State was not bound to honor agreements upon which people have detrimentally relied," it said.
The Illinois Supreme Court's decision cancels earlier rulings by Cook County and appellate courts. The court has now sent the case back to the lower court to officially dismiss the charges.
A jury convicted him in December 2021 on five of six felony counts of disorderly conduct stemming from him filing a false police report and lying to police, who spent more than $130,000 investigating his allegations.
He was sentenced to 150 days in county jail, ordered to pay $120,000 in restitution to the city of Chicago, fined $25,000 and ordered to serve 30 months of felony probation.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(NEW YORK) -- The woman who accused Pete Hegseth of sexual assault in 2017 told police at the time that he took her phone and blocked her from leaving his hotel room on the night of the incident, according to a 22-page police report obtained by ABC News.
The report, compiled in Oct. 2017 by the Monterey Police Department, provides graphic new details of an alleged altercation that now threatens to derail Hegseth's bid to become President-elect Donald Trump's Defense Secretary.
The report documents a police investigation that did not result in charges against the former Fox News star. It includes interviews with the woman, who is identified only as Jane Doe, and Hegseth, who told police that the encounter was consensual.
As ABC News has previously reported, Doe met Hegseth at an event hosted by the California Federation of Republican Women in Monterey, California, where Hegseth was featured as a speaker.
At an event afterparty, according to the police report, Doe told police she had drank "much more than normal" and described her recollections as "fuzzy," but that she recalled confronting Hegseth at one point after observing him "rub the women on their legs" -- a claim one other witness confirmed in a separate interview with police.
"JANE DOE stated the next memory she had was when she was in an unknown room" with Hegseth, who she said "took her phone from her hands" and, when she attempted to leave, "blocked the door with his body," according to what she told investigators.
Doe said she remembered Hegseth's military dog-tags "hovering over her face" and said he eventually "ejaculated on her stomach," according to the report. Doe told police that she recalled saying "no" a lot during the encounter.
Days later, Doe told her partner she believed she had been the victim of a sexual assault and visited a nurse, who administered a sexual assault examination and first alerted the authorities.
When police approached Hegseth as part of their investigation, he "stated that the engagement between himself and JANE DOE was mutual."
"HEGSETH stated there were a couple of times he had made sure JANE DOE was comfortable with what was going on between the two of them," according to the report.
The officer who prepared the report wrote that the two had "been drinking and the events were blurred and lacked specifics and a fluid sequence of events." Investigators obtained video surveillance from the hotel and collected Doe's clothes and underwear as evidence in their probe.
Tim Parlatore, a lawyer for Hegseth, said in the statement on Saturday, prior to the report being posted online, that the allegations were false and Hegseth settled in December 2020 only because he feared his career would suffer if her allegations were made public.
Parlatore emphasized police did not bring charges and said Hegseth was the victim of "blackmail" and "false claims of sexual assault."
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(SEATTLE) -- Two people were killed by falling trees in Washington state as a powerful storm hammered the Pacific Northwest.
In Bellevue, a tree fell into a home, hitting and killing a woman while she was in the shower Tuesday night, Bellevue fire officials said.
In Lynwood, a woman in her 50s was killed when a tree fell on a homeless encampment, officials said.
Hundreds of thousands of people lost power in the storm, which snapped power lines and caused significant damage. As of Wednesday evening, about 320,000 customers were still without power, according to Puget Sound Energy CEO Mary Kipp.
"We haven't had a storm like this since January of 2012," Kipp said in in a video on X.
Crews were prioritizing restoring power to hospitals and schools, and Kipp estimated power wouldn't be back for all customers "for at least a few days."
Another roughly 23,000 customers of Seattle City Light were still without power as of Wednesday evening, according to a post from the utility on social media platform X.
The storm exploded into a bomb cyclone off the coast, near Vancouver Island, Canada, where winds gusted near 101 mph.
A bomb cyclone means the pressure in the center of the storm drops 24 millibars within 24 hours.
The storm is bringing dangerous wind and rain to the West Coast.
Two to 4 inches of rain has been recorded so far in western Washington, western Oregon and northwestern California.
The rain started in northwestern California on Tuesday afternoon and it isn’t expected to stop until Friday morning. Twelve to 18 inches of rainfall is expected by the end of the week.
A high risk for excessive rainfall has been issued. The rain will be the most dangerous on Thursday.
Flash flooding, rockslides and landslides are all likely.
In the mountains of Northern California, blizzard conditions will be possible as wind gusts reach 50 to 70 mph. One to 4 feet of snow is possible at higher elevations. One foot of snow has already hit the mountains west of Redding, California.
ABC News' Marilyn Heck contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(LOS ANGELES) - The judge overseeing Bryan Kohberger's murder case has ruled the death penalty will remain on the table as the case moves forward, rejecting a request from Kohberger's defense attorneys.
In June 2023, prosecutors announced they intended to seek the death penalty against the onetime Ph.D. student accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students -- Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20 -- in November 2022.
This September, lawyers for Kohberger made a sweeping play to get capital punishment tossed out, arguing -- in hundreds of pages of court filings -- that Kohberger's life should not be on the line because, among other things, the death penalty would violate his constitutional rights as well as contemporary standards of decency.
However, in a lengthy filing Wednesday, Judge Steven Hippler ruled against all twelve of Kohberger's motions challenging various aspects of Idaho's capital punishment scheme.
In his 55-page decision Judge Hippler "concludes relief in [Kohberger's] favor is not warranted on any of the motions."
Among other things, defense attorneys had argued that the death penalty is out of step with current social mores. However, the judge ruled "there is no basis to depart from settled law upholding Idaho's death penalty statute as constitutional," and it remains "consistent with contemporary standards of decency."
Defense attorneys also argued that capital punishment should be stricken in this case on the basis of execution methods — specifically, citing the shortage of lethal injection drugs, and arguing that firing squad executions which, last year, became legal in Idaho are "cruel and unusual." And, they argued, letting their client wait on death row without knowing "how he will be executed" is itself an "unconstitutional" form of torment.
But the judge again disagreed — siding with prosecutors that that argument "is not ripe" for discussion, because Kohberger hasn't been convicted yet. And, the judge continued, even if it were appropriate to address now, both the firing squad and lethal injection have been found constitutional and are allowed in the state.
The judge also ruled against each of the defense's attempts to strike the aggravating factors prosecutors had found, which made Kohberger eligible for the death penalty.
Kohberger was arrested following a six-week manhunt in December 2022.
A criminology student at nearby Washington State University at the time of the crime, Kohberger was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary.
A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf.
The trial is scheduled for August 2025.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(HARTFORD, Conn.) -- Police are searching for a man accused of fatally shooting a 20-year-old mother and her 4-month-old son while they were sitting in their car in Hartford, Connecticut, on Tuesday, in what appears to be a drive-by shooting, according to police.
A warrant has been issued for 23-year-old Lance "Macho" Morales, according to Hartford police.
While not in custody, Morales has been charged with two counts of murder, murder with special circumstances, criminal possession of a firearm, assault in the first degree and criminal attempt to commit assault in the first degree. Morales' bond is set at $3 million.
"There are ongoing attempts to apprehend Morales with the assistance of multiple law enforcement agencies," Hartford police said in a statement Wednesday.
Police were dispatched to Hartford Hospital on Tuesday afternoon after it was reported that a vehicle arrived carrying multiple people who had been shot, police said.
Jessiah Mercado and her son Messiah Diaz were pronounced dead at the hospital. Another victim in his 20s suffered a non-life-threatening gunshot wound, police said. The driver of the car was not injured.
Investigators determined the shooting had occurred moments before when the suspect vehicle pulled alongside the victims' car and opened fire, according to police.
The investigation into the shooting remains ongoing and police are asking anyone with information regarding the case to contact Hartford police.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(KNOXVILLE, Tenn.) -- A convicted Jan. 6 rioter has now been found guilty of plotting to murder FBI agents who were investigating the Capitol insurrection.
Edward Kelley, 35, was convicted Wednesday in the federal case against him in Knoxville, Tennessee, according to the Department of Justice.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 7, and could face a sentence of up to life in prison.
Kelley made a "kill list" of FBI agents who were investigating the Jan. 6 riot, the Department of Justice said in a press release following the conviction.
Prosecutors said he plotted to attack the Knoxville FBI office with "car bombs and incendiary devices appended to drones," and to assassinate FBI agents "in their homes and in public places such as movie theaters."
“The safety of our men and women in law enforcement is of paramount concern,” U.S. Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III said Wednesday. “There is simply no room in society for those who would engage in this kind of reprehensible conduct and threaten to assassinate FBI agents and others who are honorably serving to uphold the law, and this office will pursue all such threats against civil servants working for the public good.”
Earlier this month, Kelley was convicted on multiple counts, including assaulting law enforcement, at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., said Kelley was identified in photos and videos from the insurrection, and was seen in an "altercation" with a United States Capitol Police officer "where he and two other men throw the officer to the ground."
Kelley was seen in the footage pushing against a metal barricade guarded by police to access the Capitol building. He then used a piece of wood to smash a window, then entered the building through the window, prosecutors said.
While inside the Capitol, Kelley confronted U.S. Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, and was also spotted in the Senate Gallery, according to prosecutors.
He is expected to be sentenced in Washington, D.C., federal court on April 7.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(MASSACHUSETTS) -- The Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced on Wednesday that students with family income below $200,000 can expect to attend the Cambridge institution tuition-free starting next fall.
The bulk of American households meet this income threshold, according to the university, which says the new policy will cover 80% of its incoming classes.
Additionally, students whose family income is below $100,000 will see their entire MIT experience paid for, including tuition, housing, dining, fees and an allowance for books and personal expenses.
"MIT's distinctive model of education — intense, demanding, and rooted in science and engineering — has profound practical value to our students and to society," MIT President Sally Kornbluth said in a press release.
"The cost of college is a real concern for families across the board," Kornbluth added, "and we're determined to make this transformative educational experience available to the most talented students, whatever their financial circumstances. So, to every student out there who dreams of coming to MIT: Don't let concerns about cost stand in your way."
America's top engineering university, which was also ranked as the third-most prestigious university in the nation by Forbes, comes at a steep annual price.
MIT tuition was $57,986 for the 2022-2023 school year, which is higher than the $39,400 average for four-year private institutions in the nation, according to the Education Data Initiative.
Stu Schmill, MIT's dean of admissions and student financial services, said the financial aid initiative allows for America's most eligible students to gain a top-ranked education, regardless of their family's income.
"We believe MIT should be the preeminent destination for the most talented students in the country interested in an education centered on science and technology, and accessible to the best students regardless of their financial circumstances," Schmill said in the release.
Before the landmark financial aid announcement, MIT was already one of nine universities in the U.S. that does not consider applicants' ability to pay as part of its admissions process.
Unlike most American colleges, MIT does not expect students on aid to take loans, and the institution does not provide "an admissions advantage" to the children of alumni or donors, according to the release.
"With the need-based financial aid we provide today, our education is much more affordable now than at any point in the past," Schmill, who graduated from MIT in 1986, said in the release, while acknowledging that, of course, "the 'sticker price' of MIT is higher now than it was when I was an undergraduate."
The tuition-free financial aid initiative is made possible by "generous gifts made by individual alumni and friends" of the university, according to MIT.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(ROCHESTER, N.Y.) -- Four University of Rochester students were arrested and another is under investigation for allegedly being involved with the antisemitic "Wanted" posters found on campus.
The posters were discovered last week in classrooms and other buildings and targeted Jewish members of the community, according to university officials.
The four unidentified suspects, who were arrested Tuesday, will be charged with felony criminal mischief, according to University of Rochester Police Chief Quchee Collins.
"I am incredibly satisfied that through a thorough investigation, we were able to identify those who are allegedly responsible and hold them accountable for the deliberate and deplorable actions targeted toward members of our University community, including members of our Jewish population," he said in a statement.
Collins said the incident currently doesn't "meet the legal threshold for being a hate crime," but stressed that could change, especially at the state and federal levels. The investigation is ongoing.
"From the very start of our investigation, DPS investigators collected all of the necessary evidence and made all of the needed inquiries to prompt a proper evaluation of this incident as a hate crime," he said.
University of Rochester President Sarah Mangelsdorf denounced the posters last week.
"This goes against everything we stand for, and we have an obligation to reject it," she said in a statement.
University officials said facilities workers had to "painstakingly" remove the posters from campus because the strong adhesive used to put up them up caused damage to walls, floors, chalkboards and other surfaces.
ABC News' Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(WASHINGTON) -- As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office, one of his first orders of business will be to decide about the fate of TikTok in the United States -- and some of his cabinet appointees appear to be split on the issue.
Sources familiar with the president-elect's thinking told ABC News that he may try to stop the ban of the popular social media app, which according to a new law must either find a new U.S. owner by Jan. 19 or face a ban.
Trump's pick to lead the FCC, Brendan Carr, signaled support for banning TikTok in 2022.
"I think either a total ban or some sort of action like that that's going to completely sever the corporate links back into Beijing," Carr told NPR, referencing concerns about possible data usage on the Chinese-owned app.
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz -- Trump's controversial pick to for attorney general, who would lead the department that would enforce any ban -- voted against a ban of the app while he was a member of the House -- though he signaled some support for the initiative.
"Banning TikTok is the right idea. But this legislation was overly broad, rushed and unavailable for amendment or revision. This is no way to run a railroad (or the internet)," Gaetz wrote on X, formerly Twitter, at the time.
TikTok and its parents company, ByteDance, have sued the U.S. government over the potential ban, ABC News previously reported, saying it's unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment, while pushing back on claims about the app being security risk.
"Congress itself has offered nothing to suggest that the TikTok platform poses the types of risks to data security or the spread of foreign propaganda that could conceivably justify the act," TikTok's lawsuit said.
A spokesperson for Trump's transition team did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
As ABC News previously reported, Trump could try to stop the ban through a number of methods, including pushing Congress to repeal the law banning the app, refusing to enforce the ban, or helping TikTok find a U.S. buyer to comply with the law and render the issue moot.
The ban of the app was spearheaded in Congress by former Rep. Mike Gallagher, who said in an April interview with the New York Times that TikTok posed an "espionage threat" and a "propaganda threat" and that China is "America's foremost adversary."
Responding to allegations regarding TikTok, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Nig last year said that China "has never and will not" direct companies to illegally collect data in other countries, according to The New York Times.
In testimony before Congress, TikTok's CEO also said the app was "free from any manipulation from any government" and that he had "seen no evidence that the Chinese government has access to that data. They have never asked us, we have not provided it," according to NPR.
Gallagher resigned early this year and took a job with software company Palantir Technologies. A spokesperson for Gallagher rebuffed questions raised at the time over his swift move to Palantir, a company that was vocal about its opposition to TikTok, according to Forbes magazine.
"Congressman Gallagher knows and complies with the House Rules, which includes those about negotiating outside employment," the spokesperson said in a statement regarding the Forbes report.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(AUSTIN, Texas) -- Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham is offering the incoming Trump administration 1,402 acres it purchased along the Texas-Mexico border to be used in a mass deportation operation.
In a letter to President-elect Donald Trump, Buckingham said she's offering the land "to be used to construct deportation facilities."
The Texas General Land Office purchased the plot of land from a farmer in October to facilitate Texas' efforts to build a wall.
"My office is fully prepared to enter into an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or the United States Border Patrol to allow a facility to be built for the processing, detention, and coordination of the largest deportation of violent criminals in the nation’s history," Buckingham wrote in the letter, dated Tuesday.
The move shows that despite the Democratic governors of California and Arizona, two other southern border states, pledging not to aid the Trump administration's mass deportation plans, the incoming administration will have allies in Republican-led states.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs told ABC News Live on Monday that she would not use state police or the National Guard to help with mass deportation.
"We will not be participating in misguided efforts that harm our communities," she said.
Trump on Monday confirmed he would declare a national emergency to carry out his campaign promise of mass deportations of migrants living in the U.S. without legal permission, and pledged to get started on the mass deportations as soon as he enters office.
A spokeswoman for the Trump transition team said the president-elect will "marshal every lever of power" to launch his mass deportation plans.
"Local and state officials on the frontlines of the Harris-Biden border invasion have been suffering for four years and are eager for President Trump to return to the Oval Office. On day one, President Trump will marshal every lever of power to secure the border, protect their communities, and launch the largest mass deportation operation of illegal immigrant criminals in history," Karoline Leavitt said.
In an interview with Fox News, which first reported the news of the Texas General Land Office's offer, Buckingham reiterated she is "100% on board" with the incoming administration's promise to deport criminals.
The plot of land is in Starr County, about 35 miles west of McAllen, Texas.
"Now it's essentially farmland, so it's flat, it's easy to build on. We can very easily put a detention center on there -- a holding place as we get these criminals out of our country," she told Fox News.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(ATHENS, Ga.) -- The suspect accused of murdering Laken Riley on the University of Georgia's campus was found guilty by a judge on all charges Wednesday, including malice murder and felony murder.
He was sentenced by the judge to life in prison without the possibility of parole, the maximum possible.
Prosecutors called the evidence against the suspect "overwhelming," while the defense raised the theory that the defendant could be an accomplice but not the killer during closing arguments in his trial.
Jose Ibarra, 26, was accused of killing the 22-year-old nursing student while she was out for a run after prosecutors said she "refused to be his rape victim." Jose Ibarra, an undocumented migrant, was charged with malice murder and felony murder in connection with her death, which became a rallying cry for immigration reform from many conservatives, including President-elect Donald Trump.
Jose Ibarra waived his right to a jury trial and the case was presented over four days in the Athens-Clarke County courtroom to Judge H. Patrick Haggard, who rendered the verdict on Wednesday shortly after closing arguments in the trial.
Sobbing could be heard in the courtroom as he read the guilty verdicts on each charge.
Before announcing his verdict, Haggard told the courtroom that he wrote down two statements from the attorneys during closing arguments.
One was a statement by the prosecutor, who said the "evidence was overwhelming and powerful."
The other was one by the defense attorney, who said that the judge is "required to set aside my emotions."
"That's the same thing we tell jurors," he said. "That's the way I have to approach this, and I did. Both of those statements are correct."
In subsequently issuing his sentence on Wednesday, Haggard acknowledged there can be "no such thing as closure" in an event like this.
"As many times as you reflect on the loss, at some point you start smiling about the memories, and I'm hopeful that at some point that takes over to a certain extent, but there's very little, including the sentence of Mr. Ibarra, that's going to help much, and I acknowledge that," he said.
Riley's family addresses court: 'There is no end to the pain'
Riley's family addressed the court ahead of sentencing with often tearful victim impact statements while calling for a life sentence without parole.
"There is no end to the pain, suffering and loss that we have experienced or will continue to endure," her mother, Allyson Phillips, said.
She remembered Riley as "smart, hard-working, kind, thoughtful, and most importantly she was a child of God."
She called Jose Ibarra a "monster" who "took my best friend."
"This horrific individual robbed us all of our hopes and dreams for Laken," she said.
Lauren Phillips, Riley's sister, said her big sister was her "biggest role model."
"I looked up to her in every way," she said. "She brought the joy that I needed into my life and never failed to make me laugh."
She said seeing her parents' heartbreak is "excruciating" and she will never get closure over her sister's murder.
"We're a broken family of three struggling to find out how to live this life through the silence and emptiness that her absence has left behind," she said.
Riley's father, Jason Riley, said he is "haunted by the fear" his daughter must have felt in her final moments.
"I have to live with the fact that I could not protect her when she needed me the most," he said.
Riley's stepfather, John Phillips, said she was the "best daughter, sister, granddaughter, friend and overall person that you could ever hope to meet."
"I plead with this court to protect the world from this truly evil person by sentencing him to prison for life without the possibility of parole for any reason, so that he could never have the opportunity to do this to anyone else ever again," he said.
Several of Riley's good friends also addressed the court, including Riley's three roommates, who had testified during the trial about trying to find and get in touch with her the day of her murder.
Connolly Huth said she used to run with Riley, but has since "lost the joy of what running was before Laken was taken from us."
"I live with excruciating guilt every day that I was not accompanying Laken on this run and that it was her and not me," she said, crying. "I hope and pray that it will never happen again to anyone."
Lilly Steiner said life has been "dull" without Riley.
"Laken left a colossal legacy to everyone she touched and I have zero doubt that she is still not finished building it," she said. "And that is something Jose Ibarra will never be able to take away."
Sofia Magana called Riley her "chosen family" and "fearless other half," and said her heart is "full of grief, sadness and an overwhelming sense of lost."
"The loss of my best friend has shattered my world in ways I never thought possible," she said through tears.
State shows moment parents learned Riley was dead
As part of the victim impact statements ahead of sentencing, the state showed body worn camera of officers breaking the news to Laken's family that she was dead.
Her mother could be seen collapsing on the ground, weeping.
"That's what they endured," special prosecutor Sheila Ross told the judge. "That's how it was on that day when they came here to look for their daughter."
Ross also showed the court videos of Riley, including ones of her running in a race.
"These are just little snippets that we saw in the investigation that we thought would be important to share with the court that shows not only the type of person that she was -- that you just heard from her friends and family -- but the true impact that her murder had on her parents," Ross said.
Jose Ibarra faced a minimum sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole and maximum of life without the possibility of parole for the top charge of malice murder.
Ross urged the judge to offer a sentence that "brings comfort to this community" and one that "appropriately reflects the harm that was done in this case" while asking for the maximum sentence.
The defense asked the judge to impose life with the possibility of parole.
"Getting a life sentence is automatic," defense attorney John Donnelly said. "There's certainly no guarantee of parole."
He added that given the defendant's immigration status, if he were to be released in the future, "it would only to be deported."
State says evidence 'loud and clear'
Prosecutors called 28 witnesses while laying out what they said was evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that Jose Ibarra killed Riley, who died by blunt force head trauma and asphyxia.
Ross told the court Jose Ibarra encountered Riley while she was on her morning jog on Feb. 22 while he was out "hunting" for women on the Athens campus.
Ross said Riley "fought for her life" in a struggle that caused Jose Ibarra to leave forensic evidence behind. Digital and video evidence also pointed to him as the only killer, she said.
"The evidence in this case has been overwhelming, and the evidence in this case has spoken loud and clear -- that he is Laken Riley's killer, and that he killed her because she would not let him rape her," Ross said during her closing argument on Wednesday.
A forensics expert testified that Jose Ibarra's DNA was found under Riley's right fingernails, and that his two brothers, who lived with him in an apartment near the campus, were excluded as matches.
When Jose Ibarra was questioned by police a day after the murder, he had visible scratches on his arms, officers said. He also had scratches on his neck and back, which Ross said could have only been left by Riley.
"In order to not find him guilty, you would have to disbelieve your own eyes," Ross said.
"She marked him. She marked him for everyone to see. She marked him for you to see," Ross told the judge.
Prosecutors argued Jose Ibarra hindered Riley from making a 911 call, and said his thumbprint was left on her phone. Data from his Samsung phone and the Garmin watch Riley was wearing on her run showed the devices overlapped and were in close proximity in the forest where she was found dead, an FBI analyst testified.
Jose Ibarra was captured on Ring footage discarding a bloody jacket and three disposable gloves near his apartment about 15 minutes after Riley died, prosecutors said. The individual's face can't be seen in the video, but Jose Ibarra's roommate testified that it was him. The defendant's brother, Diego Ibarra, also identified him as the person in the video while being questioned by police a day after the murder.
Riley's DNA was found on the jacket and gloves, the forensics expert said. Jose Ibarra's DNA was also found on the jacket, while his two brothers were excluded as matches, the expert said.
"That is what we call consciousness of guilt in our business -- he threw away those items because he knew he had killed her, and he threw them away because he didn't want anyone to find him," Ross said.
Her DNA was also found on an Adidas cap he was seen wearing in the video, the expert said. That cap was not discarded, Ross surmised, because Jose Ibarra could not see that there was actually blood on it.
Hours after the killing, Jose Ibarra was also captured wearing different clothes from the dumpster Ring footage while discarding unidentifiable items in a bag in another dumpster at his apartment complex, Ross said. That bag was never recovered by police, she said. Ross surmised that the bag contained the clothes he was wearing earlier that day, which were also similar to ones he was wearing in a selfie posted on Snapchat earlier that morning.
"His digital evidence of posting selfies of himself wearing what is basically his rapist gear an hour before he leaves his house -- that condemns him, he has condemned himself," Ross said.
Defense presents alternative theory
The defense called three witnesses, including a neighbor who said Diego Ibarra had threatened her the night of Riley's murder.
The defense said they had planned to call two additional witnesses -- including Diego Ibarra, who is in federal custody awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to possessing a fraudulent green card, however, his attorney did not wish for him to testify.
"While the evidence in this case is voluminous, it is circumstantial," defense attorney Kaitlyn Beck told the judge.
Beck told the judge they advised Jose Ibarra to have a bench trial "trusting that your honor could and believing that your honor would set aside the emotions in this case and simply consider the evidence."
She argued there is doubt about what was tested and said the judge should be "skeptical" of the DNA evidence.
She presented an "alternative theory" that Diego Ibarra was actually Riley's murderer, and that Jose Ibarra was an accomplice in covering up the evidence.
"Maybe it was him throwing away the jacket, as Diego said, maybe he was covering up for his brother," Beck said.
"Under that theory, of course, Jose would be guilty of tampering, but that theory does not prove that he was present or involved in the murder of Laken Riley," she said.
She said since three gloves were discarded, it "suggests that there are multiple pairs of hands wearing those gloves."
On rebuttal, Ross called the defense's theory "desperate" and a "mischaracterization of the evidence."
"There is no reasonable explanation for all of this evidence other than he is guilty of every single count in this indictment," Ross said of Jose Ibarra.
Diego Ibarra told officers during questioning that he was asleep at the time the killing occurred. A Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent who was on the case testified earlier Wednesday that there was no evidence to contradict that statement.
Jose Ibarra, a migrant from Venezuela who officials said illegally entered the U.S. in 2022, waived his right to testify during the trial. He had pleaded not guilty to the charges, including malice murder and three counts of felony murder.
Additional charges in the 10-count indictment included aggravated battery, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, obstructing or hindering a person making an emergency telephone call and tampering with evidence. The latter charge was that he "knowingly concealed" evidence -- the jacket and gloves -- in the murder.
Jose Ibarra was also convicted of a peeping tom offense. Prosecutors said that in the hours before Riley's murder, he spied through the window of a UGA graduate student, and said the incident "shows his state of mind" that day.
The student testified that she called police after hearing someone trying to open her door.
Ross said the person at the student's apartment was wearing clothes similar to the ones Jose Ibarra had on in the Snapchat selfie posted earlier that morning, including the Adidas cap.
Trump released a statement following the verdict in the high-profile trial, saying that "our hearts will always be with" Riley. He also said it's "time to secure our border, and remove these criminals and thugs from our Country, so nothing like this can happen again!"
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(CHAPEL HILL, N.C.) -- Madyson Barber, a grad student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was researching young transiting systems in space when she made a remarkable discovery.
Barber used data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite to observe the brightness of stars over time. During the observations, Barber noticed some "little dips" in brightness, indicating that a "transiting" planet may be passing near Earth.
"This planet discovery popped out," Barber told ABC News.
The planet, named IRAS 04125+2902 b, is estimated to be 3 million years old, which is considered "young" for stars, Barber said. Earth is about 4.5 billion years old and took an estimated 10 million to 20 millions to form. The next youngest known planet is about 10 million years old, Barber said.
"It's about the same as a 10-day-old baby in human timescale," she added. "So, super, super young in comparison to our home."
Nicknamed "TIDYE-1b" by researchers, the new planet has been shown to have an orbital period of 8.83 days, according to a paper published Thursday in Nature. It has a radius about 10.7 times larger than Earth and has approximately 30% of the mass of Jupiter.
TIDYE-1b orbits a star of about the same age named IRAS 04125+2902.
Astronomers noted some unusual characteristics of the star, which is located relatively close to Earth at 160 parsecs, or 522 lightyears, away, researchers said. The outer protoplanetary disk surrounding the star is misaligned and the star has a depleted inner disk.
The combination of these unique features allowed scientists to observe the transiting protoplanet.
"If part of the planetary discs were still present, it would be in the same plane of rotation as that spinning star and the orbiting planet," Barber said. "So the disc would block our observations of the star."
Astronomers are still learning about the planet. They were able to calculate the upper mass limit by looking at the radial velocity of the star, which is the movement of the star over time, and measuring "little wiggles in that movement," Barber added.
"Other than that, there's not a whole lot we can say about the planet at this point," she said.
Right now, the researchers are only 95% confident in the measurements they've taken for the planet's upper mass limit, and they hypothesize that the planet's real mass is actually much smaller, Barber said.
"Because we don't have a ton of these young transiting systems that we know of, it's really important that we look for more so that we can have a better picture of what that formation and evolution looks like, so we can better understand how our own home formed and evolved," Barber said.
The researchers believe the new planet could be a precursor of the super-Earth and sub-Neptune planets that are frequently found orbiting main-sequence stars.
The system could also be a useful target for studying the early stages of planet formation due to its young age, the rare disk misalignment and the relatively close location to Earth, Barber said.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(NEW YORK) -- President-elect Donald Trump's criminal hush money conviction in New York must be dismissed "to facilitate the orderly transition of Executive power," Trump's defense attorneys argued Wednesday in a letter to the court.
Defense attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove -- both of whom Trump nominated last week to top DOJ posts in his new administration -- sought the judge's permission to file a motion to dismiss the case.
"Continuing with this case would be uniquely destabilizing," the defense letter argued. "Just as a sitting President is completely immune from any criminal process, so too is President Trump as President-elect."
The defense filing comes one day after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg opposed dismissing the case but consented to freeze of all remaining proceedings, including sentencing, until after Trump completes his term.
The defense sought a Dec. 20 deadline to file its motion to dismiss Trump's 34-count felony conviction for falsifying business records.
Blanche and Bove said that would give Trump time to address "the positions taken by DOJ in the federal cases" Trump faces over the his election interference efforts and his handling of classified documents.
Both of the federal cases are currently paused while the Justice Department evaluates how to proceed.
Trump was convicted in May of all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to silence allegations about a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
His conviction carries a maximum penalty of up to four years in prison, but first-time offenders would normally receive a lesser sentence.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(BELLEVUE, Wash.) -- Two people have been killed by falling trees in Washington state as a powerful storm hits the Pacific Northwest.
In Bellevue, a tree fell into a home, hitting and killing a woman while she was in the shower Tuesday night, Bellevue fire officials said.
In Lynwood, a woman in her 50s was killed when a tree fell on a homeless encampment, officials said.
Over 470,000 customers are without power in Washington state on Wednesday.
The storm exploded into a bomb cyclone off the coast, near Vancouver Island, Canada, where winds gusted near 101 mph.
A bomb cyclone means the pressure in the center of the storm drops 24 millibars within 24 hours.
The storm is bringing dangerous wind and rain to the West Coast.
Two to 4 inches of rain has been recorded so far in western Washington, western Oregon and northwestern California.
The rain started in northwestern California on Tuesday afternoon and it isn’t expected to stop until Friday morning. Twelve to 18 inches of rainfall is expected by the end of the week.
A high risk for excessive rainfall has been issued. The rain will be the most dangerous on Thursday.
Flash flooding, rockslides and landslides are all likely.
In the mountains of Northern California, blizzard conditions will be possible as winds gusts reach 50 to 70 mph. One to 4 feet of snow is possible at higher elevations. One foot of snow has already hit the mountains west of Redding, California.
ABC News' Marilyn Heck contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.