Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Crime Alert 05.29.24

Episode Date: May 29, 2024

Hardee's-prison money laundering scheme exposed. Nurse attacked with spork.  For more crime and justice news go to crimeonline.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Alert, I'm Nancy Grace. Breaking crime news now. A network of Indiana Hardee's employees take photos of customers' debit cards, using them to make large deposits into inmates' jail accounts at the LaPorte County Jail. The inmates then bond out, getting a debit card with the remaining money from their commissary account. The released inmates immediately withdraw the balance at an ATM and give the extra cash to the scheming Hardee's employees. Cops catch on to the money laundering

scheme and work to ID the fraudsters. Nancy, corrections officers notified cops when they noticed several inmates left jail with large sums in their Securus accounts. Darian Ward, Prince Arnold, and Kristen Van Schoik appear to be the ringleaders due to their more serious charges. The money stolen totals more than $14,000, and the theft victims are working with their financial institutions to have the sums restored. Ten Hardee's employees arrested in connection with the scheme all charged with organized crime and fraud. Madison Bingham, 19, gets treatment at a Louisiana behavioral health unit,

but gets increasingly combative with staff. After dinner, she refuses to let go of her utensils, including a plastic spork. When a nurse tries to take it away, Bingham lunges, trying to stab the nurse with the spork. The nurse dodges Bingham and calls police, who arrest her on assault by spork. More crime and justice news after this. Now with the latest crime and justice breaking news, Crime Online's John Limley. Alec Baldwin's attempt to have the only criminal charge against him in the fatal shooting on the Rust movie set, dismissed by a New Mexico judge, has now been denied.

As Sydney Sumner with Crime Online tells us, this means the case will proceed to trial this summer. The indictment charging Baldwin with one count of involuntary manslaughter in the 2021 death of cinematographer Helena Hutchins has been upheld by Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer. The court dismissed the defense's claims that the prosecution disregarded the grand jury's rules in an attempt to draw attention away from witnesses and exculpatory evidence. By pointing out inconsistencies in Baldwin's statements to law enforcement, workplace safety authorities in a broadcast interview, special prosecutors have refuted claims that the grand jury regulators were tainted and assert that Baldwin made, quote, shameless attempts to avoid responsibility. With this latest ruling, prosecutors no longer have to overcome one of the final obstacles before trying Baldwin in July. Director Joel Souza was injured and Hutchins was killed when

Baldwin's revolver fired during a practice session for the Western movie. Baldwin has insisted that he did not pull the trigger of the gun, only the hammer. The accusation of involuntary manslaughter carries a potential punishment of one and a half years behind bars, a charge to which Baldwin has entered a not guilty plea. After reading records of the grand jury sessions in January, Marlo Summer dismissed claims that the prosecution had behaved in bad faith, pointing out that they are not obligated to provide incriminating material. She admitted that some of the grand jurors' questions were referred to a prosecution-hired expert witness, but she insisted that this did

not stop the panel from coming to its own independent conclusion and charging Baldwin. After a judge in April sentenced movie weapons supervisor Hannah Gutierrez-Reed to the maximum of one and a half years in a state penitentiary on an involuntary manslaughter conviction for Hutchins' death, prosecutors have since focused entirely on Baldwin. Attorneys for Baldwin and the public were given an uncommon glimpse into how the actor's trial might proceed during the Gutierrez-Reed trial. In the murder case of a man taken from his residence in western Pennsylvania and later

discovered stabbed to death in a rural area over a year and a half ago, officials now say one of the eight accused has pleaded guilty but mentally ill. Once again, Crime Online's Sydney Sumner. In Pennsylvania's Indiana County, District Attorney Robert Manzi says that 20-year-old Jonestown resident Talyn Edwards has entered a plea to first-degree murder and abduction charges related to the October 2022 kidnapping and murder of 19-year-old Hayden Gareffa. At the time of the incident, Trooper Cliff Greenfield informed reporters that Gareffa, a person with autism, had been removed from a relative's Buffington Township home in a minivan without his medication or telephone, two items that, quote, he would never have left behind. Two days later, his body was discovered in Brush Valley Township with signs of blunt force trauma and stab wounds. According to court records, the case has been adjudicated and the sentencing date is set for June 19th. Timothy Burns, Edwards' court-appointed attorney, told the Tribune Democrat newspaper that his client was found to be competent

at the time of the offense, but with significant mental health impairment based on a mental health evaluation. Burns also stated that Edwards, who faces a life sentence without the possibility of parole, will receive treatment while she is detained and that, quote, we thought this was the best resolution. Cornelius Boxlag, a Marine veteran, works at the Alta Ski Area, Salt Lake City, as ski patrol doubling as a watershed ranger in summertime. Cornelius leaves his apartment for work, but he never makes it in. His car found abandoned near the Wyoming border two hours northeast. The license plate gone. Utah cops

find his phone pinged last in downtown Salt Lake, 45 minutes away from his job. Around that time, $100 withdrawn from his bank account. No further activity from the bank or the phone since. Cornelius Boxlag, 29, now missing over a year. There's a $50,000 reward for info leading to Boxlag's discovery. If you know anything about Cornelius Boxlag, please call South Salt Lake PD 891-412-3664. 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.