Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Crime Alert 02.08.24

Episode Date: February 8, 2024

Son beheads father, shows decapitated head in YouTube video. Las Vegas judge disciplined over racy hot-tub photo.  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. Michael Maughan's wife calls 911 when she comes home to their Pennsylvania home to find his beheaded body. She says when she left, Maughan was home with their adult son, Justin.

In a YouTube video posted hours earlier, the son, Justin Maughan, holds his father's decapitated head up to the camera and calls for violence against the government. Nancy, Michael Mon was a federal employee with the Philadelphia branch of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In his YouTube video, Justin Mon described a large government conspiracy and called his father a traitor to the country. The video was quickly removed for violating the platform's policies. At the scene, investigators found the victim's head wrapped in a plastic bag inside a cooking pot next to the body.

Cops find Justin Mon two hours from the crime scene driving his own dad's car. Mon, 32, booked on murder and abuse of a corpse. A Vegas judge is in hot water after posting a picture of herself in a hot tub with two public defenders. Judge Erica Ballou is pictured in a hot tub with a male and female public defender with a racy caption posted at the bottom. Ballou has made questionable posts in the past. Her social media habit now threatens her position. The Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline has filed two counts of violating the Code of Judicial Conduct against Ballou for activities that undermine public confidence. You can say that again. Plus, don't they know those hot tubs are

full of germs? More crime and justice news after this. Now with the latest crime and justice breaking news, Crime Online's John Limley. A former employee of Fotis Doulos has now spoken in court about unintentionally becoming involved in the case of the 2019 homicide of Jennifer Dulos, a mother of five from Connecticut. The witness also told of his boss forcing him to get rid of seats in his pickup truck that would later be used as evidence in the investigation. With the latest, here's Sydney Sumner with Crime Online. 43-year-old Pavel Gumiani is a crucial witness in the trial of Michelle Traconis. The defendant is charged with aiding her boyfriend, Dulos' husband, in the subsequent cover-up of the death. Traconis disputes

allegations of obstructing the prosecution, tampering with evidence, and plotting to commit murder. Gugliani worked for Fotis Dulos, who was facing a contentious divorce and custody dispute with Jennifer Dulos when she disappeared from her New Cannon, Connecticut home on May 24, 2019. Soon after being accused of killing his wife, an allegation he refuted, Fotis Dulos committed suicide in January of 2020. On the day of his wife's death, Fotis Dulos drove Gummiani's pickup truck to New Cannon, then allegedly rode a bicycle to Jennifer Dulos' home. He attacked his wife there after she returned from dropping off their kids at school. According to police, Fotis Dulos' home. He attacked his wife there after she returned from dropping off their kids at school. According to police, Fotis Dulos then took off with her body in her own SUV.

Although a probate judge ruled her dead in October of last year, her body has never been located. Gugmiani testified on the 18th day of Triconis' Stamford, Connecticut trial that Fotis Dulos had the truck washed inside and out at a car wash one week after his wife vanished and that he had put pressure on Gumiani to swap out the truck's front seats for new ones. Gumiani stated that although he wasn't sure Fotis Dulos was capable of killing Jennifer Dulos, he was becoming concerned as she remained missing. Prosecutors offered Gumiani, a Polish immigrant who obtained a U.S. green card in 2000, freedom from prosecution in exchange for his testimony. Now to Illinois, as actor Jussie Smollett is requesting that the state's Supreme

Court get involved in his protracted legal dispute over accusations that he lied to police after faking a homophobic and racist attack on himself in 2019. Once again, Crime Online's Sydney Sumner. Two months after his conviction and sentencing for disorderly behavior were upheld by an appeals court, Smollett submitted a petition asking the state's top court to take up the matter. The Empire actor was found guilty by a jury in 2021 of five felonies related to disorderly conduct, a charge that can be brought in Illinois when someone is suspected of lying to police. He was given a five-month prison sentence, but he was freed while he appealed both his conviction and sentence. Smollett has continued to claim he is innocent. Smollett, a gay black man, alleged to the police that two individuals wearing ski masks had

attacked him in a racial and homophobic manner. Soon, the hunt for the assailants evolved into an inquiry into Smollett, which resulted in his arrest on suspicion of masterminding the entire incident. Attorneys for Smollett restated his earlier appeals argument that their client's Fifth Amendment rights against double jeopardy, being punished twice for the same crime, were violated during his 2021 trial. The defense said Smollett had already completed community service and forfeited a $10,000 bail as part of a 2019 agreement to have the first 16 charges of disorderly conduct dropped with the Cook County State's Attorney's Office. The state Supreme Court could take the case or let the lower court's decision stand.

Thanks, John. Rachel Cook, just 19, comes home to Georgetown, Texas after her first semester at San Diego Mesa College. She's pursuing a fashion degree. She brings her boyfriend home for the holidays with her family, and he returns to San Diego after New Year's. Rachel stays behind for a wedding. A cross-country runner, Rachel often takes a four-mile run around her parents' neighborhood. People see her on the run starting at 9 30 a.m. January 10. A neighbor just a few doors down remembers seeing her cooling down and walking back toward her home, but she never makes it. After hours pass and Rachel still

has not returned, her family reports are missing. Extensive searches ensue. No sign of Rachel. Rachel Cook would now be 41. She's been missing 22 years. If you have info on Rachel Cook, call Williamson County, Texas Sheriff's 512-943-5204. For the latest crime and justice news, go to crimeonline.com. With this crime alert, I'm Nancy Grace. For the latest crime and justice news, go to CrimeOnline.com. With this crime alert, I'm Nancy Grace. This is an iHeart Podcast.