Crime

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge said the Justice Department unlawfully rescheduled the execution of the only woman on federal death row, potentially setting up the Trump administration to schedule the execution after President-elect Joe Biden takes office.

U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss also vacated an order from the director of the Bureau of Prisons that had set Lisa Montgomery’s execution date for Jan. 12. Montgomery had previously been scheduled to be put to death at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, this month, but Moss delayed the execution after her attorneys contracted coronavirus visiting their client and asked him to extend the amount of time to file a clemency petition.

A heinous crime.

Members of the York Regional Police Service’s homicide unit have taken over an investigation into a fatal house explosion in Markham that claimed the lives of two children.

On May 17 shortly before 10 a.m., emergency crews were called to a residence on Bur Oak Avenue for a reported fire. Crews arrived on scene to find that there had been an explosion at the home, which subsequently caught fire.

Dad was away…

An Ontario court has decided that internet companies can be held liable for child pornography that is hosted on their servers, sending a warning signal to the corporate world to be more vigilant.

Dubbed a “big box store” of child sexual abuse content by police in 2019, YesUp eCommerce Solutions Inc. has become the first known corporation in Canada to be convicted on criminal charges targeting child porn distribution.

Toronto homicide detectives pursued a financial motive in the Barry and Honey Sherman murder investigation once the murder-suicide theory was dropped, recently released search warrant documents reveal.

“The banking information will afford evidence because it will allow police to narrow down the time of death, track the movements of Bernard (Barry) Sherman in the days leading up to his death, and identify persons with whom he had recent financial transactions who may be witnesses or potential suspects,” a police detective states in February 2018, two months after Barry and Honey Sherman were found dead.

Ghislaine Maxwell has asked a US judge to release her under a proposed $28.5m (£21.4m) bail package as she awaits trial on sex crime charges.

The British socialite is accused of helping the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein groom young girls.

A court filing released on Monday said Ms Maxwell “vehemently maintains her innocence” and asked to be freed from jail until her trial.

She wants instead to be confined to her home and protected by armed guards.

There was a perfect storm of inactivity and people being away during the two-day period when Barry and Honey Sherman were murdered and their bodies lay undiscovered in their basement swimming pool room.

Did the killer or killers have intimate knowledge of the Shermans’ schedule?

On the third anniversary of the murders, the Star’s ongoing investigation takes a hard look at the timeline information, including documents released by a Toronto judge last week. For example, Honey’s personal assistant was given two days off, Honey’s sister was heading out of town, Barry’s second-in-command was away for three days and the Shermans had no pressing engagements.

Investigators have discovered a Panamanian driver’s licence and a permanent resident’s card in the name of the Ontario bureaucrat who was fired after the alleged theft of $11 million in COVID-19 funds, the Star has learned.

They also allege that Sanjay Madan, who was terminated last month as the $176,608-a-year director of the Ministry of Education’s iAccess Solutions Branch, registered a company in Panama called Newgen Ventures Inc.

Newgen Ventures in turn is an owner of three properties in Waterloo, including a 109-bedroom student housing apartment complex that was still listed for sale last week for $7,999,900, the documents say.

The court records also say Sanjay Madan purchased two villas in Hyderabad, India in 2013 and two pleasure boats in 2017 and 2018.

It took 51 years and a team of experts from three countries to crack the code to a cipher left by the still unidentified Zodiac Killer, who haunted northern California communities in the 1960s and 70s. But, on Friday, the code-breaker David Oranchak revealed for the first time, the ominous message sent by the murderer.

“I hope you are having lots of fun in trying to catch me,” the message, sent to the San Francisco Chronicle in November 1969 in a series of symbols, reads. “I am not afraid of the gas chamber because it will send me to paradise all the sooner because I now have enough slaves to work for me.”