Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Crime Alert 01.24.24

Episode Date: January 24, 2024

Woman scams 96-year-old widower out of $80,000. Upset customer attacks employee with foot-long weapon, his sandwich.  For more crime and justice news go to crimeonline.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Alert, I'm Nancy Grace. Breaking crime news now. Brittany Laisley creates a fake profile on a dating site, Plenty of Fish, and begins chatting with a 96-year-old widower. She asks the man for gift cards, money, credit cards, even gets access to his checking account,

then makes several large purchases. She scams the poor guy, nearly 100 years old, out of 80 grand. Yes, $80,000. Nancy Lasley posed as 86-year-old Sarah Mills from Evansville, Indiana, and began obtaining money from the victim under the pretense that she needed funds to come and visit him in Rhode Island. Lasley corresponded with the victim 89 times, and they spoke on the phone 20 to 30 times in the months the woman ran the scam. The victim contacted authorities when he feared he would lose the home he's lived in since 1970.

Brittany Lasley, 34, pleads guilty to wire fraud. She got three years in the pen. Have fun in the big dollhouse. Alberto DeBarros orders a sandwich at a Florida subway, but starts arguing with an employee. Why? Because the employee did not cut his footlong in half. De Barros causes quite the scene, so the employee refuses further service and tells him to leave. In response, De Barros chucks his sandwich at the employee, hitting her in the stomach. DeBarras, 54, charged with battery by Subway sandwich.

Well, that's fresh. More crime and justice news after this. Now with the latest crime and justice breaking news, Crime Online's John Limley. In connection to the killing of an Ohio religious leader who authorities say was slain in a botched robbery attempt, a second man has now been 48-year-old Columbus imam, Mohamed Hassan Adam, a well-known member of the Somali community. In a previous trial, a co-defendant was found guilty of murder. According to our friends with the Columbus Dispatch, before reaching the guilty verdicts, Franklin County jurors deliberated for over 14 hours over two days and twice declared a deadlock. Brown-Miller bail was withdrawn by the judge, and he will receive a prison sentence later. Previous trials in February and June resulted

in mistrials due to the juror's inability to reach a decision. It was in December of 2021 that Adam, a longtime imam of a mosque on Columbus's northeast side, was discovered dead in a van with numerous gunshot wounds. Two days earlier, he had vanished while traveling to pick up a child from daycare. No murder charges were brought against Brownmiller in dead in a van with numerous gunshot wounds. Two days earlier, he had vanished while traveling to pick up a child from daycare. No murder charges were brought against Brown-Miller in this case. His co-defendant, 47-year-old John Wooten, was found guilty by a different jury in October of aggravated murder, kidnapping, aggravated robbery, and other offenses related to Adan's death. If Brown-Miller is sentenced to life in prison, he must serve at least 20 years before

being considered for parole. Paul Scarcella, an attorney for Wooten, claimed that the prosecution's case against him was predicated on conjecture that the police had not pursued every possible lead. A judge has ordered the release of a man convicted in a post-9-11 terrorist sting, blasting the FBI for using an unsavory confidential informant in an agency-invented plot to blow up New York synagogues and shoot down National Guard planes. Six months after ordering the release of his three co-defendants, together known as the Newburgh Four, for similar reasons, U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon granted 58-year-old James Cromity compassionate release from prison. In 2010, the four men from the small River City located 60 miles north of New York City were found guilty on terrorism charges. Cromity has already spent 15 years of his 25-year minimum sentence behind bars. Cromity's sentence has now been lowered by the New York judge to time served plus

90 days. As an April execution date is now scheduled for a man convicted of killing his cousin and her husband, a multitude of Missouri Department of Corrections employees are pleading to Governor Mike Parson for clemency in the case. Once again, Crime Online's Sydney Sumner. Our friends with the Kansas City Star have revealed that 60 prison officers and other staff workers are supporting Brian Dorsey in a letter addressed to the Missouri governor. One former warden has stated that the man is a model inmate. According to the letter, 51-year-old Dorsey, quote, has stayed out of trouble, never gotten himself into any situations, and been respectful of us and of his fellow inmates.

The letter also states that Dorsey resides at the Potosi Correctional Center in an area designated for offenders with good behavior called the Honor Dorm. It was for the 2006 murders of his cousin Sarah Bonney and her husband Ben Bonney in the central Missouri town of New Bloomfield that Dorsey stands convicted. After four executions were carried out in Missouri during 2023, Dorsey's execution scheduled for April 9th would be the first in the state for 2024. Thanks, John. Jason Huff, an Army vet, works as a Department of Corrections officer, Cameron, Missouri. November 12, he drives about half an hour to St. Joseph to run errands. He's seen shopping at several stores, behaving normally. He never comes home. He's last seen filling up his tank at a Trex Mart

about 20 minutes south of St. Joe. The next day, his 2014 VW found abandoned on a rural road, Plattsburgh, 25 miles east of the gas station. It's a possible route home to Cameron. His brother's sister's adult daughter worried sick, saying the grandfather would never leave without telling his family. Jason Huff now missing three years. If you have info on Jason Huff, call Cameron PD 816-632-6521. For the latest crime and justice news, go to crimeonline.com. With this crime alert, I'm Nancy Grace. This is an iHeart Podcast.