Crime and Courts

The only jury trial over the senseless slaying of Brooklyn rapper Pop Smoke is now set to begin June 25 in Los Angeles. A judge set the date for Corey Walker, the sole defendant charged as an adult in the 2020 murder, at a court hearing on Friday, Rolling Stone has confirmed. Three other defendants, including the 15-year-old shooter, were charged as juveniles. The eldest of the juveniles admitted to voluntary manslaughter and home invasion at a hearing last April. The youngest defendant admitted in May that he…

The California dad charged with helping his teen son plot what turned into the deadly armed robbery of rapper PnB Rock failed to get his murder charges dropped Friday with arguments including one that suggested the son may have fired out of “fear.” At a morning hearing in Compton, Calif., a judge said that while much of the evidence against Freddie Trone, 42, is circumstantial, she found a “reasonable basis” to conclude Trone held a position of “influence” over his 17-year-old son and knew he possessed a gun when…

Obsession works like an addiction. You feed it and feed it, falling down rabbit holes, pursuing your prey with single-minded intensity. You chase the dragon, until you are indistinguishable from the beast itself and the rest of the world slowly becomes a blurry background. The new Netflix docuseries American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders is about a great many things: a journalist who either committed suicide or was murdered; a government surveillance software program that the Department of Justice might have…

Prosecutors say she was “unprofessional and sloppy.” Her defense lawyer claims she’s a “scapegoat” who was “the least powerful person on that set.” These dueling portrayals of Hannah Gutierrez-Reed took center stage on Thursday during opening statements in the young armorer’s involuntary manslaughter trial in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Gutierrez-Reed, 26, has pleaded not guilty to charges she negligently loaded a live bullet into the .45-caliber Colt revolver that actor Alec Baldwin accidentally fired on the set of the…

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that jailed Florida rapper Kodak Black could be released from custody after spending two months behind bars on a Broward County drug possession charge that a different judge dismissed two weeks ago. The “Super Gremlin” rapper was expected to walk out of a federal detention center in Miami Wednesday night, his lawyer Bradford Cohen tells Rolling Stone. “It was important for him to be out for the birth of his son,” Cohen says. “This is his fourth child. He has been at every birth, so…

Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was a fast-rising star in the world of indie film when she was hired to helm photography for Alec Baldwin‘s pandemic passion project — a low-budget Old West action flick titled Rust. She was “so excited” about the 21-day shoot scheduled at the picturesque Bonanza Creek Ranch in New Mexico, her close friend told Rolling Stone. Born in Ukraine and a married mother of a nine-year-old son, Hutchins already had been dubbed one of American Cinematographer’s top new talents and received…

Sean Combs has filed his formal denial of claims he “gang raped” a 17-year-old girl at his Manhattan recording studio in 2003. In new court paperwork submitted Tuesday, Combs refuted accusations that he, his longtime lieutenant Harve Pierre and a third unidentified man trafficked the teen across state lines, plied her with “copious amounts of drugs and alcohol” and took turns raping her in a bathroom of his Daddy’s House Recording Studio. “(Combs) never participated in, witnessed, or was or is presently aware of…

Atlanta police claim Nicole Fegan, a lawyer for YSL RICO case defendant Tenquarius Mender, warned a suspect in a separate 2022 shooting this his arrest was imminent A lawyer for one of the co-defendants charged alongside rapper Young Thug in Georgia’s sprawling YSL racketeering conspiracy case has been arrested on suspicion she called a suspect in a different case and warned him he had active warrants and should ditch his phone. Nicole Fegan was taken into custody in Gwinnett County and transported…

As Hannah Gutierrez speeds toward an involuntary manslaughter trial next week linked to Alec Baldwin‘s accidental shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the Rust movie set two years ago, a New Mexico judge sided with prosecutors Wednesday and upheld an evidence-tampering charge against the rookie armorer. The tampering charge, added to the high-profile case last June, alleges Gutierrez handed off a bag of cocaine to a fellow crew member within hours of Hutchins’ death. Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said…

The Emmy-nominated actress who spent 25 years playing Nicole Walker on Days of Our Lives – and garnered international attention as the subject of Donald Trump’s vulgar comments about “grabbing” women by “the pussy” that surfaced during the 2016 presidential election – has filed a new lawsuit alleging sexual harassment, discrimination, and retaliation on the set of the NBC daytime soap opera. Arianne Zucker alleges in her new complaint filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court that former Days executive producer…