Alex Murdaugh's murder convictions and life sentence for the deaths of his wife and son were overturned Wednesday by the South Carolina Supreme Court because the court clerk at his trial suggested he was guilty. But the disgraced lawyer won't be leaving prison anytime soon. Prosecutors say they plan to retry Murdaugh, which likely means there will be another lengthy trial for the case that because of the combination of money, power, Southern accents and treachery has become a true crime sensation with several streaming miniseries, best selling books and dozens of true crime podcasts.
Hoberman pleaded guilty in June 2025 to receipt and distribution of child pornography, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office. Filings from the U.S. Attorney's Office, EDNY state that she used encrypted messaging applications to upload, receive, and trade images and videos, including files that depicted infants as young as six months old. The plea was entered in Central Islip before U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert.
In furtherance of the scheme, prosecutors said the five defendants created fraudulent customer accounts and driver accounts on DoorDash's platform and used the fictitious customer accounts to place orders for delivery. Using insider access to DoorDash's computer systems, the defendants assigned those orders to fraudulent driver accounts, then manipulated DoorDash's computer systems to cause DoorDash to pay the fraudulent driver accounts as if individual orders had been delivered hundreds of times.
A Lexington man who secured hundreds of thousands of dollars in COVID-19 relief funds through false claims is headed to federal prison, after authorities said he funneled part of the money into gambling and other personal expenses. John A. Hopkins, 48, was sentenced Tuesday to 24 months behind bars by U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove in Frankfort. Hopkins previously admitted he took part in a fraud and money laundering scheme involving federal pandemic relief programs designed to keep struggling small businesses afloat.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon pronounced Ryan Routh's fate in the same Fort Pierce courtroom that erupted into chaos in September when he tried to stab himself shortly after jurors found him guilty on all counts. Prosecutors had asked for life without parole, saying Routh is unrepentant and has never apologized. A defense attorney brought in for his sentencing asked for 27 years, noting that Routh is already turning 60.
His attorney, Richard Ceballos, filed a motion Nov. 24 asking to continue the hearing to Jan. 28, citing "a breakdown in the attorney-client relationship." "The reason for the continuance is that Mr. Huffaker has advised me that he no longer wants me to represent him and has taken affirmative steps to obtain new counsel for his sentencing hearing," Ceballos wrote. "Furthermore, Mr. Huffaker has expressly directed me not to file any sentencing memorandum on his behalf until he has secured new counsel."
Chenguang Gong, a dual citizen of the United States and China, pleaded guilty on July 21 to one count of theft of trade secrets. Gong transferred more than 3,600 files from the Los Angeles-area research-and-development company he worked at briefly to personal storage devices, prosecutors said. The stolen files included blueprints for sensors designed to track and detect nuclear, ballistic and hypersonic missiles, as well as blueprints for sensors designed to enable U.S. fighter jets to detect and evade heat-seeking missiles, prosecutors said.
"This is the dream millions of Iranians are fighting. They want to have justice. That's why I want to say [it is] a historical day," Alinejad said. "The killers wanted to see me covered in blood, dead on my porch in Brooklyn, and thanks to law enforcement agents, I am alive. "I have survived three assassination plots, kidnapping ... How lucky am I?" Alinejad added.
As an employee of the popular Chinese food chain living in Mexico, Salamanca-Benitez was "in the throes of a gambling addiction" and struggling to make ends meet, his attorney wrote in court filings. His solution was to broker several high-end methamphetamine deals over the phone, leading to a drug courier taking a total of 30 pounds of the drug to an undercover DEA agent in San Jose and Redwood City, court records show.
Public servants are entrusted to assist people, not exploit them," Foley said. "This was a brazen abuse of power by a federal employee who used his position and access to sensitive information to prey on a vulnerable woman who had just lost her job. This kind of predatory behavior has no place in public service, or anywhere else.
