Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Crime Alert 04.08.24

Episode Date: April 8, 2024

Pastor hires hitman to kill his daughter's boyfriend. St. Paddy's day festivities lead to ironic mugshot for this woman.  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. A young man suffering from several gunshot wounds drives himself to a California hospital where he tells cops another car pulled next to him and fired several shots. Investigators determined Pastor Samuel Pasillas, the father of the victim's girlfriend, put up more than $40,000 to have the young man killed. Police also tracked down Pasillas' alleged hitman, Juan Cebreros. Nancy, the victim survived the attack despite being shot several times. Photos of his car showing bullet holes in the driver's side window and windshield. Police determined Pacillas had met with Sabreros multiple times and provided the victim's location the night of the shooting. Sabreros had been tailing the victim for nearly two weeks leading

up to the attack. Pastor Samuel Pacillas, 47, and Sabreros, 55, both charged with conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, and assault with a deadly weapon. Late in the evening, St. Paddy's Day, Florida cops stumble on a car parked at a stop sign. Bodycam catches the moment the cop finds a woman dressed head-to-toe in green passed out against the steering wheel. After quite an effort, the cop manages to wake the woman up and get her out of the car. The woman, in a green wig, cannot say where she is, where she came from, or where she's going, and, of course, fails the sobriety test. The body cam cuts out as she's cuffed for DUI.

Wait till you see the mugshot on her T-shirt that reads, Irish XL Drinking Team. More crime and justice news after this. Now with the latest crime and justice breaking news, Crime Online's John Limley. A Massachusetts man has received a 40-year prison term for beating his partner to death on a beach in Maine. For details, we turn to Sydney Sumner with Crime Online. Jeffrey Buchanan entered a plea deal in which he admitted to the murder charge. He told investigators that he had passed out before the assault on Rhonda Padalina, who was attacked on March 26, 2021, on York's Short Sands Beach. Padalina had been bludgeoned to death with a rock.

Buchanan was taken into custody following many 911 calls to police that day. According to her relatives, 35-year-old Patalina wanted Buchanan to see her favorite beach. Prosecutors stated that when she was first hit, she was on the beach sending a friend a Snapchat video. Police claim that a portion of the assault was also caught on surveillance footage from surrounding businesses. The rock was among the evidence that police took from the scene, and it was shown to the judge in court. The defense said that 36-year-old Buchanan, a resident of Bedford, Massachusetts, was going through a mental health crisis. When authorities arrived at the scene, Padalina was already dead. An autopsy revealed that her head injuries were the cause of her death. Padalina and Buchanan were domestic partners and

together had one child, the youngest of Padalina's three children. No children were present during the attack. Buchanan entered a guilty plea in accordance with a deal with the prosecution that set a 43-year maximum sentence. In court, Padalena's friends and relatives pleaded with the judge to give Buchanan a longer term. An appeal of actor Jussie Smollett's disorderly conduct conviction, which he received for orchestrating a racial and homophobic attack against himself in 2019 and lying to Chicago police about it, will be heard by the Illinois Supreme Court. Once again, Crime Online's Sydney Sumner. Smollett, a former cast member of the television show Empire, filed an appeal, which the court has now approved. It will consider an

appellate court decision from December of 2021 that maintained his conviction by a Cook County jury. Detectives from the Chicago Police Department conducted a thorough manhunt after the case caused an uproar on a global scale. Once Smollett forfeited his $10,000 bond and completed community service, the case was withdrawn by Cook County State's attorney, Kim Fox. According to Smollett, this put an end to the case, but a special prosecutor refiled the charges against him. The state's First District Appellate Court rejected those arguments in a two-to-one decision, ruling that Smollett was not guaranteed he would not be charged again after agreeing to the initial terms. Dissenting, Judge Fredrina Lyle referred to the remanded charges as, quote, fundamentally unfair. Smollett is black and gay, and his attorneys have claimed

that a political and racist legal system has wronged him. Having been found guilty of organizing the attack in which he claimed to have been assaulted by two men on a Chicago street, Smollett was convicted on five counts of disorderly conduct. His claim had been that before putting a noose around his neck, the two men spouted racial slurs and warned Smollett about being in MAGA country, appearing to be a reference to the rallying cry of former President Donald Trump. In testimony given during his trial, it was said that Smollett hired two men he knew from the Chicago film series Empire for the attack in exchange for $3,500. Smollett, however, on the stand stated to the jury that, quote, there was no hoax. Smollett's punishment included 30 months of probation,

150 days in jail, and $130,000 restitution order. The high court has not yet scheduled a date to hear arguments in the case. Thanks, John. Arietta Valdez and Ernesto Caballero separate during Arietta's pregnancy, but they stay in close contact about the baby boy, Andrew. When Ariete comes home from the hospital, her family members are sick. Worried about the baby, Ariete stays with Caballero in his Miami home. When Ariete's mother and grandmother come to visit the baby, Caballero suddenly attacks them, killing mom, grandma, and great-grandma. Caballero drives away from the home, taking the baby and an AK-47. That afternoon, cops find Caballero in a wooded area, dead by suicide. Baby Andrew nowhere to be found.

Andrew Caballero, just 10 days old, now missing over three years. If you have info on baby Andrew Caballero, please call Miami-Dade PD 305-471-2400. For the latest crime and justice news, go to crimeonline.com. With this crime alert, I'm Nancy Grace. This is an iHeart Podcast.