Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Crime Alert 02.02.23

Episode Date: February 2, 2023

Woman finds a carjacker sitting in her car at a gas station.  A good Samaritan stops to help a woman with a flat tire, then both the woman and the good guy get pinned between the cars after being hit by a drunk driver.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Alert, I'm Nancy Grace. Breaking crime news now. A woman heads into an Ohio gas station while her car is fueling. When she comes out, Eric Serrano's sitting in the driver's seat. She tries to pull him out of the window, but he takes off while she clings to the car door. Serrano speeds through, red light slams into a pickup truck, sending the victim flying into the road. Nancy, a passing Cleveland police officer

witnesses the accident, initially believing the woman was a passenger thrown from the car. The victim, bloody from a head wound, yells, that man is stealing my car. So the officer chases Serrano down and detains him. The woman taken to the hospital for head lacerations so deep her skull is visible. Serrano now charged with ag robbery. A woman pulls over on a New Mexico highway to change a flat. Another driver stops to help. Then a third driver, Raimundo Juarez Baralasco, slams into both cars, pinning the victims between them. Both victims flown to the hospital where the woman dies. The second driver's car was parked

behind the woman's truck, Nancy, so they could use the headlights to work in the dark. When Joaquin Baralasco hits the back of the second car, it was pushed into the first, pinning the two victims. New Mexico cops could smell alcohol on Juarez Baralesco's breath, leading them to believe he was intoxicated. Juarez Baralesco, 31, fails a field sobriety test. He's charged with killing a person while drunk. More crime and justice news after this. Now with the latest crime and justice breaking news, Crime Online's John Limley. A state agent has insisted he heard a possible confession from Alex Murdoch, even after defense attorneys for the disgraced South Carolina lawyer

slowed the audio down during Murdoch's double murder trial. At question is whether Murdoch said, quote, I did him so bad or they did him so bad, as he sobbed and spoke to state agents during a recorded interview three days after Murdoch's wife and son were killed. State Law Enforcement Division Senior Special Agent Jeff Croft testified he was, quote, 100% confident Murdoch said, I. That could be interpreted as a confession for Murdoch that he fatally shot his son Paul with a shotgun near kennels at their Culleton County Home and Hunting Lodge June 7, 2021. Murdoch's wife Maggie was shot several times

with a rifle and her body was found nearby. Prosecutors haven't explained why they have emphasized the comment. A suspect in a violent kidnapping in Oregon has died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after being taken into custody following a standoff with law enforcement. Grants Pass police say that 36-year-old Benjamin Obadiah Foster died Tuesday night at a hospital, hours after he was taken into custody in Grants Pass. Foster barricaded himself under a house as officers from four agencies concentrated in the area set up a command post and assembled a SWAT team while attempting to secure his surrender beginning Tuesday afternoon. Just before 8 p.m., police said the situation had been resolved,

but did not immediately confirm whether Foster had been arrested. Police later confirmed Foster was in custody, but a little more than an hour later said he had succumbed to his injuries. A Connecticut judge has sentenced a 55-year-old New Haven man to 120 years in prison for the gruesome slayings of a father and son, part of a murder case that spanned more than three decades and which the judge said included, quote, a demonic level of violence and terror. A judge found Willie McFarland guilty of murder in November for the deaths of two men, 59-year-old Fred Harris and 23-year-old Greg Harris.

McFarland was sentenced to 60 years for each of the murders, terms that are to be served consecutively. The father and son were found bound and with their throats slashed in their Hamden, Connecticut home in 1987. More than 375 years now since the infamous Connecticut witch trials, amateur historians, researchers, and descendants of the accused are hoping state lawmakers will finally offer posthumous exonerations. While such requests aren't new, they have become louder as many genealogy buffs discover they have distant relatives involved in the lesser-known Connecticut witch trials. Connecticut State Senator Saoud

Anwar, who also proposed an exoneration bill, said he expects some people might laugh or scoff at the idea of the legislature taking time to clear the records of accused witches. But he said the descendants are feeling some, quote, serious stuff, including a constituent who requested the resolution. A convenience store employee confronts Casey Breazeal for trying to leave without paying for snacks. Breazeal 40 pushes the employee and smacks her with stone-slim-gym beef jerkies. Florida cops arrest Breazeal on battery and theft, but leave behind the evidence, the beef jerkies. Florida cops arrest Brazil on battery and theft,

but leave behind the evidence, the beef jerky. For the latest crime and justice news, go to crimeonline.com. With this crime alert, I'm Nancy Grace. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.