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FRI, OCT 30, 2026

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Legal news and true-crime analysis from a practicing trial lawyer.

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True Crime

By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer

The Multnomah County district attorney declined to prosecute Officer Daniel Hall in the fatal shooting of Eric Jonathan Hurtado.

Thursday's memo is the district attorney's decision not to present the shooting to a grand jury. It is not the Police Review Board's review, and Hall remains on administrative leave. The Oregonian's account of the memo moves from the St. Honore Bakery to the Oregon Wines store, the Dossier Hotel, and then the Vintage Hotel. KATU named the Kimpton Hotel Vintage at 422 S.W. Broadway. Those are not one address.

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Reporting noted by The Oregonian, KGW, KATU, KPTV, and Portland Police Bureau.

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Custody photos of Louis James, left, and Dereck Owusu, right
Trials

By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer

Leeds Crown Court sentenced Louis James to life and Dereck Owusu to 14 years for killing Reece Radford.

Friday's terms are the sentences after the retrial. James was again convicted of murder. Owusu's count changed from murder to manslaughter, and 14 years is not a life sentence. Yorkshire Live said the retrial verdicts came earlier this week and did not print the date. The BBC reported the sentences on Friday and did not date the verdicts.

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Reporting noted by BBC and Yorkshire Live.

Jamazea Kittell in a Vallejo courtroom
Trials

By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer

An Alameda County jury convicted Jamazea Kittell of first-degree murder in the shooting of Perez Kalief-Chambers.

Thursday's guilty verdicts are the jury's finding on the Oakland counts. They are not the prison term. The Solano County case, in which Judge Robert Bowers held him for assault with a deadly weapon rather than attempted murder of a police officer, is still pending. Thirty-three, in the conviction coverage, and thirty-one, in the July 2025 charging story, are not the same age.

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Reporting noted by Hoodline, The Mercury News, Bay Area News Group, The Bay Area Brief, and The Vallejo Sun.

Najmeh Amini, in a social media image published by The Guardian
Trials

By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer

A Khorasan Razavi court sentenced Najmeh Amini to death over a social media post.

The death sentence is what The Guardian and the Center for Human Rights in Iran reported a trial court imposed. It is not a ruling by Iran's Supreme Court. The Guardian said the sentence remains subject to that appeal. An arrest during January's protests, in The Guardian, and a Feb. 3 arrest at a Mashhad shopping center, in the center's account of the Khorasan newspaper, are not the same arrest. The exact words of the post are not in either story.

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Reporting noted by The Guardian and Center for Human Rights in Iran.

True Crime

By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer

The Toronto Star reported David Morton and his daughters were shot in a Bridle Path home invasion.

Thursday's police account did not name the family. Friday's Star account did. CBC's 3:43 a.m. and CP24's around 3:45 a.m. are not the same clock. CBC's Thursday hammer account and CP24's Friday hammer account do not name the same people. The Daily Mail video put the break-in on Sunday.

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Reporting noted by Toronto Star, CBC, CP24, and Daily Mail.

Ryan Brough
Trials

By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer

The Daily Mail reported Ryan Brough and Max Tyson were each sentenced to three years and four months.

Three years and four months each is the term in the Mail's body and in the Met release. The Mail's headline figure of seven years is not that term, and 40 months plus 40 months is six years and eight months. The Met's date of birth for Brough is not an age of 32 in October 2026.

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Reporting noted by Daily Mail and Metropolitan Police.

Trials

By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer

WV MetroNews reported Judge Stephanie Abraham sentenced Dominick Curtis Gray in Beverly Hensley's death.

The plea WV MetroNews reported is to voluntary manslaughter, unlawful use of a firearm, unlawful wounding, and being a prohibited person with a firearm. It is not a conviction on the first-degree murder count in the July 2024 indictment. The lede says more than 30 years. The body prints a combined 30 years, and a separate 1-to-5-year term, and does not say those terms run together or one after the other.

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Reporting noted by WV MetroNews.

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Pop Culture

The culture desk
Tammy Sytch
Pop Culture

By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer

SEScoops reported Judge Christian Miller dismissed Tammy Sytch's motion as facially insufficient.

Oct. 21 is an interim order that stopped the motion because required sworn statements were missing. SEScoops called that procedural. The 26-year figure is the warning in the order POST Wrestling quoted. It is not a new sentence, and the three outlets do not print the same prison math.

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Reporting noted by SEScoops, PWInsider, and POST Wrestling.

Danny Masterson at a film premiere
Pop Culture

By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer

Division Two of California's Second District Court of Appeal affirmed Danny Masterson's two forcible-rape convictions and his 30-years-to-life sentence.

Tuesday's order leaves the 2023 convictions and the 30-years-to-life sentence in place. It is an affirmance, and the opinion is marked not for publication. A request for Supreme Court review, which the lawyers said they will file, is the next step. It does not itself undo the judgment.

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Reporting noted by California Court of Appeal, Associated Press, NBC News, and CBC News.

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