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TUE, OCT 13, 2026

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Legal news and true-crime analysis from a practicing trial lawyer.

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Profile photo of Dr. Alexander Aslani
True Crime

By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer

A Marbella judge ordered an 18-year-old held without bail in the killing of Dr. Alexander Aslani.

A Spanish pretrial detention order holds a suspect while a sealed investigation continues. It does not prove a charge. Sur in English reported the Marbella judge's order as prisión provisional, comunicada y sin fianza. The Olive Press reported the 18-year-old has denied firing the shots. Police theories about a contract killing and gang ties are reports. They are not findings.

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Reporting noted by Sur in English, The Olive Press, The Telegraph, El Mundo, El Debate, and Canal Sur.

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Booking photo of Kayleb Barnett
True Crime

By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer

Vanderbilt removed Kayleb Barnett after Nashville chokehold and identity charges.

Three charges and a posted bond are the start of a case. They are not a conviction. WKRN reported an officer saw Barnett, 20, holding a man in a chokehold on Sunday, Oct. 11, and that the man went motionless. WSMV reported the affidavit placed that scene early Saturday. Sports Illustrated reported he posted $5,000 bond. The other man is not named here.

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Reporting noted by WKRN, WSMV, FOX 17, Sports Illustrated, On3, and The Tennessean.

Florida Department of Corrections photo of James Robertson
Trials

By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer

James Robertson was scheduled for a noon lethal injection, and no death has been confirmed.

A death warrant is an order to carry out a sentence. It is not a report that the sentence was carried out. Robertson's guilty plea to first-degree murder, and the death sentence that followed, are the judgment for Frank Hart's killing. Whether Florida finished the injection on Tuesday was not in the wire when this story was published. Gov. Ron DeSantis withdrew William Lee Thompson's warrant last week, so Robertson was the only person left on Tuesday's execution calendar. William Reaves is next, on Oct. 20.

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Reporting noted by Associated Press, NBC News, CBS Miami, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Charlotte Sun, Gulf Coast News, Florida Supreme Court, and WCJB.

True Crime

By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer

Shots were fired into Bakersfield's KBAK and KBFX studio on Friday and again early Tuesday.

This is an open shooting investigation with no named suspect and no charge. Ten rounds into a conference room and an office are tied to Friday night. Tuesday is a second burst of gunfire at the same building, and police have not said it was the same person. The station's own first write-up dated Friday as Oct. 12. Oct. 12 was a Monday. The updated station story dates Friday as Oct. 9. That date is the one that matches the calendar.

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Reporting noted by KBAK/KBFX, BNO News, and New York Post.

Payton Gendron at his Erie County sentencing
Trials

By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer

Jury selection began Tuesday in Payton Gendron's federal hate-crimes trial.

The state case is over. Gendron pleaded guilty, and an Erie County judge sentenced him on Feb. 15, 2023, to life in prison without parole. The federal prosecution is not that case. A jury is not seated yet. Nothing in the federal indictment has been proved. If a jury convicts him, the government wants death, and life in prison is the other outcome. The next several weeks are about who is allowed to sit.

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Reporting noted by Associated Press, 13WHAM, Buffalo Toronto Public Media, WBEN, WKBW, and U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of New York.

Booking photo of Damon Foy
True Crime

By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer

Damon Foy pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the killing of Alberta Dale.

The plea is a conviction for second-degree murder. It is not the sentence. The Daily Freeman reported Foy is to receive 23 years to life, two years under the 25-years-to-life maximum, and that Chief Assistant District Attorney Liz Culmone-Mills said the office would not make that recommendation without Dale's family. Fox News reported the same expected term, citing the Daily Freeman. Sentencing is set before Judge Bryan E. Rounds on Dec. 16.

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Reporting noted by Ulster County District Attorney's Office, Fox News, Daily Freeman, and New York Post.

True Crime

By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer

A judge sentenced Eduardo Vazquez to 35 years to life for the murder of Johnny Ramirez.

Thirty-five years to life is the sentence on a first-degree murder conviction. Nineteen years is the sentence on Diaz's voluntary-manslaughter plea, after jurors could not reach a verdict on the homicide count. A hung jury is not an acquittal, and a manslaughter plea is not a murder verdict. Patch reported prosecutors allege both men were gang members and that the killing was gang-motivated. That allegation is not a separate sentence in the Patch account.

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Reporting noted by San Diego Patch, City News Service, and Hoodline.

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Pop Culture

The culture desk
Sean Combs at a public event in Cannes
Pop Culture

By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer

Sean Combs was taken from Fort Dix by ambulance early Saturday for a head injury.

A medical trip out of a federal prison is custody and health care. It is not a new charge and it does not change the 50-month sentence. Sean "Diddy" Combs is already serving that term on two prostitution-transportation counts. TMZ's sources said the head injury was not life-threatening because he was conscious and speaking on the way back. How he was hurt is still not established.

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Reporting noted by TMZ, Page Six, USA TODAY, Deadline, Daily Mail, and New York Daily News.

Selma Blair on a red carpet
Pop Culture

By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer

A Queens judge arraigned Selma Blair on two counts of second-degree assault and set bail at $20,000 cash.

An arraignment and a bail order are the court event. TMZ says it was unclear whether she entered a plea. Page Six says she pleaded not guilty and was released. Those accounts do not match. Neither one is a finding that she kicked an officer or a nurse. A source told ABC News she was issued a federal violation notice for the flight. That notice is a separate summons from the two state counts. Jan. 19, 2027, is the next state date those outlets reported.

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Reporting noted by Port Authority Police Department, Daily Voice, New York Post, Variety, TMZ, Delta Airlines, ABC7 New York, ABC News, and Page Six.

Portrait of Mackayla Paige
Pop Culture

By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer

Oakland police arrested a Richmond woman after Mackayla Paige was fatally shot on 14th Street.

An arrest after a fatal shooting is custody. It is not a complaint, and the Monday accounts still do not give the arrested woman's name or a motive. The Chronicle set Sunday's shooting beside last weekend's Warfield killing after a Zeus Network Baddies production and said circumstances and motives in both were still being investigated. That sentence does not make the two cases one case.

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Reporting noted by KTVU, San Francisco Chronicle, Yahoo, and TMZ.

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