Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Crime Alert 05.22.24

Episode Date: May 22, 2024

Teen killed on walk with friend. Veteran runs off burglar at his jewelry store.  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. Caitlin Hernandez, 17, takes a walk in the neighborhood with a younger male friend. When she doesn't come home in two hours, her parents call and text her repeatedly. Eventually, a man answers her phone, telling the parents he saw the phone light up in a drainage ditch. Police immediately dispatched to where the phone was found. Caitlin's body found in a ditch nearby. Sex assaulted and strangled. Nancy, investigators determined Hernandez had been dragged to where her body was found. Police immediately suspected the male friend Hernandez was last seen with, but there was not

enough evidence after an interview to arrest him. DNA recovered from a rape kit performed on Hernandez pointed straight to the boy who was arrested without incident. The male friend with whom Caitlin was last seen is just 15, his name being withheld, but he is now charged with capital murder. A would-be burglar smashes a window at an Omaha, Nebraska jewelry store, not expecting anyone to be inside. As the burglar looks through displays, owner and veteran Garrett Petticord enters the main floor from a back room with a carefully aimed pistol. The thief scrambles, raising his hands and running out of the building right back through the window he broke. Nebraska cops still searching for the suspect, but Petticord, proud, he defended his business. I can bet you that thief won't be back.

More crime and justice news after this. Now with the latest crime and justice breaking news, Crime Online's John Limley. According to court documents released in recent days, three men charged in the 2018 prison killing of infamous Boston gangster James Whitey Bulger have accepted plea agreements with prosecutors. For more, we turn to Sydney Sumner with Crime Online. The plea agreements for Sean McKinnon, Paul DiColagero, and Freddy Gias were made public almost six years after the 89-year-old criminal was brutally murdered in his cell at a problematic prison in West Virginia. Former Mafia hitman Gias

and Massachusetts mobster DeColagero were charged with repeatedly striking Bulger in the head while McKinnon acted as a lookout. Bulger was a snitch, according to DeColigero, who also revealed to an inmate witness that they intended to murder him the moment he entered their unit. Prosecutors claim that DeColigero also admitted to an inmate that he and Gias had killed Bulger by bludgeoning him with a belt that had a lock on it. Gias and DeColigero were named as suspects soon after Bulger was killed, but the investigation was a lengthy one and they remained uncharged for years. Though they withheld additional information on the plea deals, prosecutors have urged the judge to set hearings so that the men might modify their not guilty pleas and receive sentences.

Last year, the Justice Department declared that it would not pursue the death penalty for Gia and Nicola Jaro, who were both charged with murder. The charges against all three men included conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, a crime punishable by life in prison. Additionally, McKinnon was accused of lying to a federal agent. In the 1970s and 1980s, Bolger, the leader of the mostly Irish mob in Boston, was an FBI informant who turned on his gang's main rival. After leaving Boston in 1994, he became one of the most wanted fugitives in the country after receiving a tip from his FBI handler that he was going to face charges. Bulger was finally apprehended in 2011 at the age of 81, after more than 16 years on the run. decided to re-examine its previous decision to invalidate a state statute that had given adult victims of childhood sexual abuse a newfound chance to pursue damage claims. Once again,

Crime Online's Sydney Sumner. The Louisiana legislature passed the statute in 2021 and it was amended the following year. Often referred to as a look-back provision, it allowed victims of prior abuse whose deadlines for bringing legal claims had passed until June 14th of this year. If legislation is approved, this period could be extended until June of 2027. Research at the time indicated that the average age at which victims of child sex abuse report the offenses is 52. Representative Jason Hughes, a lawmaker from New Orleans, was the chief sponsor of the bill. The state's highest court had said in a 4-3 decision back in March that the measure infringed upon the state constitution's due process rights. However, Chief Justice John Weimer, along with two other justices, ordered a rehearing.

Two additional justices concurred. This most recent decision comes as the Catholic Church is still coping with the fallout from a scandal that dates back several decades. The decision being re-examined stems from a lawsuit brought against the Catholic Diocese of Lafayette by plaintiffs who claimed they were sexually assaulted by a priest in the 1970s when they were between the ages of 8 and 14. Rehearing was decided upon in response to a recent revelation that the Louisiana State Police executed a broad search warrant at the Archdiocese of New Orleans in April, obtaining documents and correspondence between local church authorities and the Vatican on the church's handling of clerical sexual abuse. The court granted parties until May 20th to submit their briefs, but it did not schedule a new date for arguments on the look-back law in their decision. Thanks, John.

Charles Eric Stewart, adopted from an Arizona family, raised in Beverly, West Virginia, with two older sisters. Eric, as they call him, born with fetal alcohol syndrome and is developmentally challenged, reading at a second-grade level as an adult and never learning to drive. He lives with his mom, and after she passes away, reading at a second grade level as an adult and never learning to drive. He lives with his mom and after she passes away, his older sisters temporarily move back to the childhood home with him.

About a month after their mom passes away, his sister wakes up to an empty home and assumes the other sister took Eric with her to the farm. But that afternoon, the sister comes back without Eric. Neighbors say they saw Eric walking on a main road about 50 yards from the family home that morning. His cell phone, wallet, and other belongings left behind. His sisters fear someone may have taken advantage of his trusting nature after he inherited a significant sum of money from their mom. Charles Eric Stewart, 5'3", 125 pounds. He wears glasses.

His right eye crosses inward and he has a scar with screws visible on the right leg. If anyone has info on Eric Stewart's disappearance, please call Beverly Police 304-637-3561. For the latest crime and justice news, go to CrimeOnline.com. With this crime alert, I'm Nancy Grace. This is an iHeart Podcast.