Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Crime Alert 06.24.24

Episode Date: June 24, 2024

Teen killed at soured party. Woman finds her driveway stolen.  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. Ashley Hines, just 18, joins friends in D.C. for a celebration at a local hotel. The party turns ugly. Someone's asked to leave. Shots ring out. Police arrive.

18-year-old Hines dead from a gunshot wound. Nancy Hines was a freshman at Louisiana State University. Hines' mother says she was texting with Ashley just moments before her death. Her last message was, I love you. Witnesses and CCTV help cops identify the shooter, Jelani Cousin, also 18, now charged with murder too. Amanda Brocu comes home from work to find her driveway missing. Yes, her entire concrete path torn away. Brocu is an indirect victim of a scam. After repeatedly turning away contractors for work she did not hire, one contractor made it through ripping up the driveway. Here's how the scam works. Scammers hire contractors to complete a project at a random home,

then pay more than the work will cost with a bad check and collect a large refund. In Brocu's case, the contractors did not catch on to the scam before they completed the job, removing her driveway. If the scammers are ever caught, at least a prosecutor has some concrete evidence. More crime and justice news after this. Now with the latest crime and justice breaking news,

Crime Online's John Limley. We begin in Ohio as a man found guilty of killing eight members of another family is now requesting a new trial. For the latest, we turn to Sydney Sumner with Crime Online. The request was submitted by George Wagner IV to the Ohio Court of Appeals. He alleges that at his 2022 trial, in which he was found guilty of all 22 counts, including eight counts of aggravated murder, there were multiple mistakes made. In his filing, he contends that there is a, quote, reasonable probability that the alleged errors swayed the jurors' decisions.

It now gives prosecutors 60 days to reply to the petition. Wagner received eight consecutive life sentences, one for each of the victims, plus an additional 121 years for the remaining offenses. Among the purported mistakes, he lists in his appeal the fact that prosecutors were permitted to introduce evidence of crimes and firearms unrelated to the Rodin killings, which only assisted in linking Wagner to his own family's criminal activities. The prosecution says that the killings, which at first raised questions about possible drug cartel participation, were the result of a disagreement about Wagner's custody of his niece. The deadly shootings that occurred in April 2016 near Pyton, Ohio,

at three mobile homes in a camper startled locals and sparked one of the biggest criminal investigations in the state. Wagner stated that he would not have allowed the killings to occur if he had known about the plot and denied any knowledge of his family's involvement in the killings. The prosecution contended that since he was aware of the schemes and took part in them, he ought to be found guilty of the murders. Wagner was allegedly with his father and brother when they went to the Rodin houses, that he walked inside with them, and that he assisted his brother in moving two bodies. However, Wagner was not charged with shooting anyone. In exchange for helping his family avoid possible death sentences,

George Wagner's younger brother Edward Jake Wagner entered a plea of guilty to aggravated murder and other counts and consented to testify against George and his parents. George Billy Wagner III, their father, has entered a not guilty plea in connection with the killings and his trial is set to begin on January 6th. Angela Wagner, George and Jake Wagner's mother mother entered a guilty plea to aiding in the planning of the murders. Months after the state became the first to execute someone using the previously untested method, Alabama is seeking to carry out another nitrogen gas execution. Once again, Crime Online's Sydney Sumner. In recent days, the Office of the Attorney General requested that the Alabama Supreme Court set a date for Carrie Dale Grayson's execution. Grayson was found guilty of killing Vicki DeBlier in Jefferson County in 1994.

This would be the third planned nitrogen gas execution if allowed. In January, the state executed Kenneth Smith using nitrogen gas, which was a first for the country. Alabama has scheduled Alan Eugene Miller's nitrogen gas execution to take place on September 26. Although prisoners have the option to be executed by electric chair or nitrogen gas, lethal injection is still the state's preferred method of execution. The state is starting to look for execution dates for the scores of prisoners who choose nitrogen as their preferred mode of execution following Smith's January death by nitrogen gas. The request is made in spite of the continued dispute and legal action surrounding the events

of the first nitrogen execution. As Smith was tied to the gurney in the execution chamber, he had convulsions that resembled seizures for over two minutes. A few minutes of desperate breaths ensued after that. Advocates were alarmed by the execution's outcome, claiming it was the complete opposite of the state's assurance of a swift and painless death. Steve Marshall, the Attorney General of Alabama, called the execution a textbook example and offered to assist other states in creating the new protocol. The date of the execution will be determined by Alabama Governor Kay Ivey if justices approve it. Thanks, John. Tyler Goodrich picks up pizza for his family on his way home from work at the Nebraska Department of Corrections. After sending the two children to

bed, Goodrich argues with his husband, storms out of their Omaha home. Goodrich, an active runner, seen on surveillance jogging in the neighborhood. But Goodrich never comes home. He also misses a team marathon the very next day. While Goodrich had his cell phone and wallet with him when he left, there have been no pings or bank activity since he disappeared. If you have info on Tyler Goodrich, now missing two months, please contact Lancaster County Sheriff's 402-441-6500. 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.