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Kevin Reddington claimed prosecutors failed to prove Clancy killed her three children, despite previously building her defense around her mental state when she killed them.
Lindsay Clancy remains charged with murdering her three children after Judge William Sullivan rejected her attorney’s attempt to have the case thrown out following last month’s mistrial.
Kevin Reddington argued prosecutors had failed to present sufficient evidence proving Clancy killed Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months. The argument represented an extraordinary departure from the first trial, where the defense did not dispute that Clancy strangled the children with exercise bands. Instead, Reddington argued postpartum psychosis meant she was not criminally responsible.
Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham urged Sullivan to reject the motion, maintaining the Commonwealth presented sufficient evidence for jurors to find Clancy responsible. Sullivan agreed. The first jury deliberated for roughly a week before deadlocking 11-1, with 11 favoring a finding of not guilty by reason of insanity and one supporting conviction.
Clancy returns to court November 2 as the legal battle over a possible retrial continues. Prosecutors have not announced their final decision on trying her again. District Attorney Timothy Cruz said his office remains focused on Cora, Dawson and Callan: “We’re going to do what we can for the children. That’s what this case is about.”
Hot Take: Reddington threw the kitchen sink at the courthouse wall and Judge Sullivan sent this piece crashing straight back down. Yesterday he was asking where the evidence was that Clancy killed the children. Today the murder charges are still sitting exactly where prosecutors left them. Three dead children remain at the center of the file, no matter how many times the defense changes the label on the folder.
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Prosecutors say Ivanna Lisette Ortiz opened fire at Rihanna’s home while the superstar, A$AP Rocky, their children and others were on the property.
A newly unsealed indictment has revealed the terrifying scale of the March shooting at Rihanna’s Los Angeles home, with prosecutors alleging the singer was the intended murder target while her family was caught in the attack.
Ivanna Lisette Ortiz, 36, faces 14 counts, including attempted murder and assault with an assault weapon. Rihanna and A$AP Rocky were allegedly sleeping inside an Airstream trailer when gunfire erupted. Three bullets struck the trailer without penetrating it, while other rounds allegedly hit the exterior of the nursery where the couple’s three children were with their nanny.
Police arrested Ortiz about an hour later and allegedly recovered a Springfield Armory rifle and two 30-round magazines. Prosecutors have not publicly established a motive or prior relationship between Ortiz and Rihanna. Ortiz has pleaded not guilty and faces up to life in prison if convicted.
**Hot Take: **Three bullets hit the trailer. More gunfire allegedly reached the nursery. Nobody caught a round. Sometimes a crime scene tells you exactly how thin the line is between tomorrow’s headlines and tomorrow’s obituaries.
A new report claims the president questioned Elon Musk’s chatbot about how Venezuelans would react to Nicolás Maduro being seized by American forces.
President Donald Trump reportedly spent hours questioning Elon Musk’s Grok about Venezuela roughly one month before ordering the U.S. operation that captured Nicolás Maduro and brought him to New York.
According to Time, Trump asked the chatbot how Venezuelans would respond if Maduro were removed. Grok reportedly characterized Maduro as repressive and unpopular and suggested many Venezuelans would welcome his downfall. Trump was said to have been impressed after the subsequent operation, believing the AI’s assessment had proved accurate.
The episode reportedly forms part of Trump’s growing fascination with artificial intelligence. The larger question is how much weight AI-generated analysis receives inside presidential decision-making. Chatbots generate responses from trained data and instructions. They are not intelligence agencies, polling organizations or substitutes for verified information about conditions inside another country.
Hot Take: Presidents have always had advisers whispering in their ears. Trump reportedly added a chatbot to the room. Asking Grok questions is one thing. When war, regime change and human lives are on the desk, somebody still needs to check the machine’s homework.
Dr. Park Dietz believes Mathew Betkouski probably committed the 1982 poisonings, but investigators still cannot place the chemist in Chicago when seven people died.
Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Park Dietz is standing behind his belief that Mathew Betkouski, the mysterious chemist found dead from cyanide in a Boise church in 1982, probably committed the Chicago Tylenol murders.
There is intriguing circumstantial material. Betkouski understood chemistry, possessed cyanide, had worked in drugstores, reportedly discussed poisoning capsules and talked about committing a “perfect crime.” Investigators also found an old Chicago map and photographs showing he had visited the area. But those photographs appear to date from December 1981. Ada County investigators explicitly say they cannot place him anywhere near Chicago during the September 1982 poisonings and are not naming him as a suspect.
There are other problems. Betkouski possessed homemade sodium cyanide, while the killer used high-grade potassium cyanide. Former federal prosecutor Jeremy Margolis also says Dietz produced three behavioral profiles during the original investigation that do not resemble Betkouski. Dietz argues Betkouski had access to both cyanides, but means and disturbing comments do not establish opportunity. Until somebody reconstructs his movements during the crucial period or uncovers physical evidence connecting him to the contaminated bottles, the theory remains dangerously easy to overstate.
Hot Take: Betkouski is worth investigating. Calling the mystery solved is another matter. Right now there is a chemist, cyanide, sinister remarks and an old Chicago connection, but no proof he was even in Illinois when somebody walked into stores and poisoned those bottles. In a 44-year-old murder file, “interesting” and “guilty” are separated by a hell of a lot of missing pages.
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The actress says classmates turned on her after she discovered a badly injured four-year-old and desperately tried to save him.
Ruby Rose has revealed she became caught up in a murder investigation at just 15 after finding a critically injured four-year-old child at an after-party in Australia.
Rose said she initially thought she had spotted a doll hanging outside before realizing it was a child bleeding from his ears, nose and mouth. She picked him up and believed a sudden breath meant she had saved him, but the boy had suffered catastrophic brain damage. Police questioned Rose while investigators tried to establish what happened.
Rose says classmates subsequently branded her a “baby killer” until the boy’s older brother recovered a memory of accidentally pushing him down a slide. According to Rose, the child became caught on a nail before his frightened brother moved him and ran away. Rose said police cleared her, although the boy’s family still prevented her from attending his funeral.
Hot Take: Fifteen years old, a dying child in your arms, police questions waiting and kids at school calling you a murderer. Rose eventually got her name back. Childhood innocence was another piece of evidence nobody could return.
