The Brooklyn man who was accused of killing four people and injuring four others during a 28-hour stabbing rampage across Brooklyn and Manhattan last February has plead guilty to all counts. Maksim Gelman, 24, who had pleaded not guilty last April and told police he would beat the charges, plead guilty to all charges in the 13-count indictment today. "He's pleading guilty without a promise," noted his lawyer Edward Friedman, adding there was no deal struck between the defense and DA's office. He could be sentenced to 100 years in jail for the four murders alone. more ›

A former butcher and Queens resident was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the choking death and dismemberment of his wife. Edwin Fuentes, 44, pleaded guilty last month to choking Reina De Los Santos to death in June 2007, and then chopping her up, putting her body parts into bags, and burying them in a wooded area of Forest Park near their Woodhaven home. “I’m hoping that, maybe, they cut you up like you did my sister...Your mother must be turning over knowing she carried a demon like you in her womb. If it was up to me, you would go to hell,” said the victim's sister, Marisol De Los Santos, before the plea-bargained sentencing. more ›

Hugues-Denver Akassy, the Ivory Coast native who claimed in court to be an irresistible ladies man, was convicted today of raping one woman and harassing three others. However, the self-described journalist was acquitted of a fifth attack. Akassy now faces a possible 25 years behind bars for his role as the "Riverside Rapist." more ›

A Brooklyn man pleaded guilty today to being part of a black market kidney ring stretching from Israel to NYC. Levy Itzhak Rosenbaum, 60, admitted that he bought kidneys for cheap in Israel then sold them to needy people in America for huge sums of money. "I am what you call a matchmaker...I've never had a failure," he was caught on tape telling an FBI informant posing as a potential client. more ›

Six months after being fired from from Christian Dior over anti-Semitic remarks he made to fellow Parisian cafe patrons, John Galliano was found guilty of "'public insults' based on origin, religion, race or ethnicity after two incidents in February 2011 and last year." more ›

Jets star wide receiver Braylon Edwards pled guilty to driving drunk in a plea deal today, successfully avoiding jail time. Edwards admitted to driving while intoxicated last fall, hours after the Jets had defeated the New England Ugg Boots Spokesmen—he must pay a $500 fine, and continue to participate in an NFL substance-abuse program, which he had already enrolled in. "Now it's just really time to focus on football again. I feel like it came to a fair conclusion," he excitedly told reporters after leaving court today. more ›

The former limo driver who was accused of raping an NYU law student, and then of trying to hire a hit man to kill her, plead guilty yesterday after decade-old DNA evidence proved a match with him. Queens resident Rajeev Kumar was sentenced to 15 to 21 years in prison for rape, sodomy and conspiracy. more ›

An NYPD officer who was accused of smashing a man in the face with his baton during a road-rage incident two years ago plead guilty to the assault yesterday. Officer Marc Rios, a 13-year NYPD vet, was sentenced to probation as part of his plea deal, but was immediately fired from the force. more ›

Last week, two men went on trial in separate cases involving the beating and torturing of cats. And yesterday, both men were found guilty of their crimes, and now face years in prison. more ›

The former Manhattan court juvenile counselor who was accused of raping a 15-year-old and sexually abusing two other teens who were in his ward was found guilty today of molesting the two teens, but acquitted of the rape. Tony Simmons was convicted of 12 sex abuse charges, two of them felonies, for sex attacks on the two girls in 2005 and 2008. He faces up to four years in prison. more ›

Former Giants great Lawrence Taylor pleaded guilty today to two misdemeanor counts, but avoided jail time completely. Back in May, the Hall of Fame linebacker was accused of raping a 16-year-old girl, which gave way to a bizarre series of excuses and defenses, and left Taylor's reputation in shambles. He later admitted in court to paying $300 to have sex with the young woman, but claimed she told him she was 19. Taylor, 51, pled guilty to patronizing a prostitute and sexual misconduct in exchange for six months probation. Taylor will have to register as a sex offender; we imagine he will be much less quippy during the hearing in March to determine the level of his sex offender status. more ›

A Paterson, NJ man admitted to stabbing a man in the heart over a stolen Game Boy. The Record reports, John Rosa pleaded guilty to "passion-provocation manslaughter and faces six years in state prison... He said he did not mean to kill [Davone] McCrary and that his actions were committed in the heat of the moment, but added he knew that stabbing him in the chest could result in serious bodily injury or death." For more on passion-provocation manslaughter. more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] Way back in 2007, rapper Ja Rule was stopped on West End Avenue for speeding following a concert at Beacon Theater, unfortunately for him, cops also found a loaded .40-caliber semiautomatic in the car (with Ja Rule's DNA on it). Now the NY Post reports that he was in court earlier today pleading guilty to attempted criminal possession of a weapon; the Manhattan judge told him, “Because of your guilty plea here today, you’ll have a record of having committed a violent felony. This is a very serious matter." more ›

Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, who was detained in Guatanamo Bay for his alleged bombing of the U.S. embassies in Africa and then moved to NYC for a civilian trial, was found not guilty on 284 terror-related charges and guilty of just one. The New York Law Journal reports, "Clearing the Tanzanian native of four conspiracies and the murder of 224 people in the near-simultaneous bombings of the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on Aug. 7, 1998, the jury in Judge Lewis A. Kaplan's courtroom shocked prosecutors and defense lawyers alike with its verdict." more ›

After a House Ethics panel found him guilty of 11 ethics violations yesterday, Rep. Charles Rangel issued a statement calling the process, which was two years in the making, "unfair," noting, "How can anyone have confidence in the decision of the ethics subcommittee when I was deprived of due process rights, right to counsel and was not even in the room? I can only hope that the full committee will treat me more fairly, and take into account my entire 40 years of service to the Congress before making any decisions on sanctions." more ›

Alan Newton served over 21 years in prison for a rape, robbery and assault he didn't commit, before DNA evidence exonerated him in 2006. Yesterday, he was awarded $18.5 million by a jury for his wrongful imprisonment, one of the largest ever amounts awarded for wrongful imprisonment in NYC. “It hasn’t really sunk in. It’s so emotional. It’s something I’ve been fighting for the last four years, since I came home. I’m just glad things worked out at the end of the day,” he told the Times. more ›

Former NY State Comptroller Alan Hevesi pleaded guilty to the felony charge related to his part in a pay-to-play kickback scheme where he gave investment firms a chance to manage the billions in NY's pension fund in return for favors for his family, friends and associates. He may face jail time, but guess what: He still gets his tax-free comptroller pension of $106,000/year, plus a tax-free $62,000/year pension for being a former CUNY professor. more ›

Jersey Shore's Snooki is now officially annoying. The reality star was found guilty today of "annoying others" (it's a 13 year old local law on the Shore) during her drunken escapades on the beach earlier this summer. She seems relieved by her sentence, however, broadcasting over Twitter earlier: "Ah never again! So scary...thank you judge for understanding, I'm very thankful for that! Whew... now I can breath!" more ›

The Morningside Heights woman who beat her Pomeranian pup Sparky plead guilty and won't be able to own another pet for five years, in return for her no-jail plea deal. Tiara Davis was caught on surveillance video beating her dog in the elevator of the Grant Houses, and in February her statements to the police were read in court—she had told them: "I wasn't like I was killing him or anything like that. I mean I wasn't gonna really hurt him." The video (below) is disturbing, and the incident left the dog with bruises and possible liver damage—he was later put up for adoption. more ›

Yesterday, a jury took seven hours to convict a man of second degree murder as a hate crime and attempted assault as a hate crime in the killing of an Ecuadorean immigrant in December 2008. Keith Phoenix, whose previous trial ended in mistrial, now faces life in prison. more ›

A former Queens resident and Brooklyn College student was sentenced to 15 years for sending "waterproof socks, ponchos and sleeping bags to al Qaeda insurgents in Afghanistan." Syed "Fahad" Hashmi, 30, was originally arrested in 2006 in London and then extradited to America, where he decided to plead guilty rather than face a possible 70 year sentence. more ›

Robert Musmacker, a high-level sex offender with AIDS, pleaded guilty to 25 counts, incuding "first-degree reckless endangerment, third-degree criminal sexual act and endangering the welfare of a child" in Suffolk County yesterday. Newsday reports, "Musmacker admitted in court to having sex with his victims, the oldest of whom was 20, from 2007 to 2008" and that he "he did not tell his victims that he had known since October 2005 that he was HIV positive, and he said he did not use condoms or ask his victims to use condoms." (Prosecutors said none of the victims has contracted AIDS.) His lawyer said Musmacker pleaded guilty because "The people's case was overwhelming." Earlier this year, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo sought to stop the release of Nushawn Williams, who knowingly spread HIV. more ›

Yesterday, Rodolfo Godinez was found guilty of 17 counts, including murder, related to the 2007 Newark schoolyard killings where four college students were shot execution-style; one, miraculously, survived the bullet to her head and testified last month. Prosecutors, who decided to try the six suspect separately said that the killings were for an initiation into the MS-13 gang; Godinez allegedly told the police he was "a recruiter for MS-13 and called the other defendants his 'big homies.'" An Essex County prosecutor said of the upcoming five other trials, "We had a practice run... We have a pattern now." more ›

Last year the Bronx set records not just for the borough but for the state, with felony conviction rates at an all time low of 43%. Every other borough had rates of 70% or higher, and attorneys believe the numbers can be attributed to the high arrest rates in the borough. The ">Wall Street Journal noted the closing statement of defense attorney Seann Riley, who said,"To [police], getting a guilty verdict would mean they've done a good job. An acquittal would mean they didn't do a good job," and added the police "have a motive to lie." (Riley's client was acquitted.) more ›

Former Brooklyn College student Syed "Fahad" Hashmi was supposed to appear in court today on charges that he plotted with Al Qaeda, but instead pleaded guilty to one charge of material support yesterday. The 30-year-old now faces up to 15 years in prison instead of 70. His lawyer said, "The government wanted to lock him up for the rest of his life. They will not succeed in that goal." more ›

After resigning last year when he was ensnared in the feds' big corruption take-down, ex-Hoboken mayor Peter Cammarano still proclaimed his innocence. Until today: The Star-Ledger reports, "The 32-year-old Democrat said he accepted illegal campaign contributions from an undercover informant posing as a developer trying to bribe public officials. Cammarano, the youngest mayor in Hoboken history, spent just three weeks in office before being arrested. He now faces 24 to 30 months in prison." Fun fact: Cammarano managed to earn $12,000 for his three weeks in office, thanks to unused vacation time. more ›

After being convicted of sexual abuse last month, Rabbi Baruch Lebovits was sentenced to the maximum 10 2/3 to 32 years in prison. He was found guilty of molesting a 16-year-old student by luring him into a car and performing sex acts on him. (The student is no longer a member of the Hasidic community.) Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Patricia DiMango showed no mercy, telling the court, "It is important for the courts to send a clear message that abusing and harming children will not be tolerated." Someone want to tell the Catholic Church? more ›

A top city lead and asbestos inspector pleaded guilty today to filing false reports that several NYC buildings were toxic-free without actually conducting any tests. Saverio "Sam" Todaro, owner of SAF Environmental Corp. of Queens, admitted that he copied official documents and forged the signatures of lab employees for at least seven buildings between 2005 and 2008. According to the Post, some of the buildings were tied in to a city-run, affordable housing program. more ›

One of the NYPD cops who took part in a botched million dollar perfume factory heist last month pleaded guilty today to conspiracy in connection with the armed robbery. Brian Checo, 24, of the 34th precinct in Washington Heights, faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced in June. more ›

Four decades after helping hijack a Pan Am plane to Havana, Luis Pena Soltren, 67, pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiracy to commit air piracy, interfering with flight crew members and kidnapping. When he finally surrendered after more than 40 years in Cuba, he was the FBI's longest wanted fugitive. Soltren's co-conspirators, who were arrested in the mid-70s, were sentenced to between 12 and 15 years, but Soltren's looking at a much longer bid because federal sentencing guidelines were made stricter in 1987. He could get at least 21 years to life in prison, though his lawyer is imploring the court to consider the circumstances that drove his client to hijacking. more ›