In July of 2009, a Long Island motivational speaker Jeffrey Locker was found dead in his car, parked in Harlem, with his "hands tied behind his back and a cord wrapped around his neck and tied to the headrest," with stab wounds in the chest. But when police arrested Kenneth Minor (he was taking money out of Locker's account) and charged him with Locker's murder, Minor claimed that Locker wanted his help to die. However, a jury didn't buy that claim and found Minor guilty of murder in the second-degree. 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 ›

Back in 2005, John Giuca and a friend were convicted of killing college student Mark Fisher one night in 2003 and dumping Fisher's body on Argyle Road. Then, in 2008, Giuca's mom Doreen Giuliano launched an impressive attempt to get the verdict overturned by losing weight and undergoing a sexy makeover to attract a juror who eventually admitted on tape that he shouldn't have been on the jury! Now, Giualino's dream of freeing her son has been shattered, because an Appellate panel rejected Guica's plea for appeal. She said to the Post, "I don't know how I could have thought we could get justice in Brooklyn." more ›

Yesterday, a jury found Hakim Scott guilty of manslaughter in the 2008 fatal beating of an Ecuadorean immigrant. Prosecutors Scott and his friend Keith Phoenix attacked Jose Sucuzhanay and his brother because they thought the brothers were gay, since they were holding hands while walking down a Brooklyn street. Scott, who was acquitted of hate crime charges as well as murder, faces up to 40 years in prison. more ›

Christopher Long, the bicyclist shoved by a police officer during a 2008 Critical Mass ride, was at last night's Critical Mass ride. This comes just a day after the verdict that found former cop Patrick Pogan guilty of falsifying records but not of an assault on Long. Long said, "I don't think Pogan ever intended to assault me so I am not disappointed at all with the verdict. I think it suits the events to my liking," adding, "I do hope that we can all just chill out." more ›

After three police officers were acquitted yesterday on charges that they participated in the sodomy of a Brooklyn man during his arrest in 2008, jury forewoman Jamie Dove (a photographer) explained the verdict: "It was just reasonable doubt. Things weren't consistent. Stories were changing from the grand jury testimony to what he said he saw... He used different words. He went from 'rammed' to 'side to side.' So he wasn't sure about what was done to him." And another juror, Stevan L. Miller, told the Times the prosecution's case had "so many holes" that "the defense didn’t have to do anything." more ›

State Sen. Hiram Monserrate was found guilty of misdemeanor assault, but he was acquitted of more serious felony assault charges after slashing his girlfriend's face during a Dec. 9 dispute. In a bench trial, Monserrate was found guilty of "recklessly causing physical injury to his companion, Karla Giraldo, by dragging her though his lobby after she was cut," the New York Times reports. If he had been found guilty of the felony charges — which each carried up to seven years in prison — he would have been forced to step down from his Senate seat. more ›

Some of the jurors who endured the 19-week-long trial surrounding the late Brooke Astor's estate explained their decision to find Astor's 85-year-old son guilty of grand larceny. Yvonne Fernandez, 52, said of Anthony Marshall, whom prosecutors said was driven to loot his mother's fortune for his wife Charlene, "It sort of reminded me, when I was in Brooklyn years ago and there was a blackout, and the lower-income people were stealing refrigerators and TVs, and they felt that was due to them," adding, "We all have our flaws, and you know, of course, the flaw here was greed." more ›

Yesterday, juries in two separate cop killing cases came back with news that left the victims' families upset: Lee Woods, on trial for killing police officer Russel Timoshenko during a traffic stop, was granted a mistrial because one juror was ill while Lillo Brancato Jr., on trial for killing off-duty police officer Daniel Enchautegui, was found not guilty of murder. more ›

A jury found Lillo Brancato Jr. not guilty in the murder of off-duty police officer Daniel Enchautegui. Brancato did not fire the gun used in the killing; his friend Steven Armento, already convicted of murder, fired the shot, but the Bronx DA's office was able to charge him with murder and said Brancato was also responsible for Enchautegui's death. Brancato's lawyer claimed his client was just a drug addict—"He didn't have a gun, never alleged to have a gun, never committed a crime of violence, got shot." The jury had been deadlocked last week, but the judge asked them to continue their deliberations. The 32-year-old former actor was, however, found guilty of attempted burglary. more ›

After O.J. Simpson was found guilty of charges--13 years to the day he was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman-- related to a Las Vegas robbery last year, the tabloids put the new verdict on their covers today. The Post recalled its 1995 "Not Guilty" cover, and offered this quote from lawyer Gloria Allred, who represented the Brown family, "O.J. Simpson is finally being held accountable for his crime. O.J. Simpson's favorite song appeared to be 'If I Only Had a Brain.' If he only had a brain, he would never have committed the crime he did in Las Vegas. And if he only had a heart, he would never have killed Nicole and Ron Goldman." more ›

Though the jury was deadlocked over whether the 205-pound Joseph Petcka deliberately killed a 7-pound cat, the Daily News spoke to a former girlfriend, who has experienced his anger directly: He slammed a door on her fingers, with one finger so badly injured it was partially severed. The woman, who speaks to women about domestic violence, says the prosecution never contacted her about testifying. they did find him not guilty of harassing the cat's owner, his then-girlfriend. Also, the Post reports the jurors might be called back to deliver the harassment verdict since a juror said he didn't realize they were allowed to deliver a partial verdict--and apparently the jury didn't tell the judge they had a verdict on harassment charge. As for holdout juror Francisco DeFlaviis, he asked reporters to respect his privacy. more ›

Al Sharpton released the locations and schedule of his civil disobedience capaign, which is supposed to take place next week. The purpose is to maximize public inconvenience, and Al Sharpton decided that it would be more effective to have as many people show up as possible, as well as to let the NYPD where they were going to be in advance. NY1 reports "The goal of the protests is to tie up traffic and force police to make arrests. more ›

The Reverend Al Sharpton is planning a series of rallies and acts of civil disobedience in the wake of the acquittals of three police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Sean Bell. Bell, who was a few hours from his wedding, was unarmed when undercover police fired at him 50 times outside a Queens strip club on November 25, 2008. more ›

The NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating allegations that just hours after the not guilty verdict was issued in the Sean Bell shooting trial, a number of crank calls were made to the home of Nicole Paultre Bell's parents by someone connected to a police union. The calls were both hang-ups or someone laughing--"Ha ha ha"--on the other end of the line. more ›

Last night, hundreds of people marched from the Queens courthouse to the Kalua Lounge, the strip club where Sean Bell was killed on his wedding day, yelling, "Fifty shots equal murder," to protest yesterday's not guilty verdict for three police officers charged in the shooting. more ›

Detectives Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora and Marc Cooper, who were acquitted of all charges in the Sean Bell shooting trial, spoke at a press conference this afternoon. Detectives Oliver and Isnora thanked Judge Cooperman for his "fair" decision (Isnora also, per City Room, "thanked God, his family, his lawyers"). Detective Cooper, who was only charged with reckless endangerment, said, "I'd like to say sorry to the Bell family for the tragedy." None of the detectives testified during the trial, as their grand jury testimony had been read aloud by the prosecution. more ›

Update: Queens DA Dick Brown just held a press conference with his prosecution team to discuss Judge Cooperman's not guilty verdict in the Sean Bell shooting trial. While many fault the prosecution's case against the three cops as the reason for its outcome, Brown defended the work of everyone involved in the case, stressing the amount of time and effort put into preparing the best prosecution possible. more ›

Tomorrow morning at 9 a.m., Judge Arthur Cooperman is expected to announce a verdict for the three police officers on trial for the shooting of Sean Bell. more ›

Jurors in the harrowing Nixzmary Brown trial say they were divided over handing down a murder verdict, so instead they found Cesar Rodriguez guilty of first-degree manslaughter, as well as "endangering the welfare of the child and criminal possession of a weapon, including a belt used to beat Nixzmary." more ›