Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Crime Alert 07.08.24

Episode Date: July 8, 2024

Maryland hit and run still unsolved. Nashville driver lucky he only lost his glasses! 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. Franklin Mendez gets in a car accident. After the other driver leaves, Mendez hangs around to take pictures of his car's damage. A gray Honda Civic speeds past, hits Mendez. His body gets lodged in the Civic's windshield.

The Civic drives two miles, Then the driver calmly gets out and dislodges his body. The driver smokes a cigarette, gets back in his car, and drives off. Nancy, after hitting Mendez, the Civic went into a residential area and a homeowner's doorbell camera captured the unidentified suspect dislodging Mendez's body from the car and dragging him into a ditch. When passersby discovered Mendging Mendez's body from the car and dragging him into a ditch. When passersby discovered Mendez, he was naked from the waist down. Locals believed the suspect knew the area well as he spent so much time at the scene. Maryland cops still looking for the hit-and-run killer and asked the public to help locate the gray Honda Civic damaged to the

passenger side bumper and a shattered windshield. A Memphis driver lucky to be alive after getting in the middle of a drive-by shooting. The driver headed down Poplar Avenue when he hears what he thinks is a car backfiring. He notices his glasses are not on his face. Then he spots a bullet hole in his windshield. The driver pulls into a parking lot, finds the bullet went straight through the car, knocking off his glasses and shattering his back window. Wow. He still says the whole incident is a blur.

More crime and justice news after this. Now with the latest crime and justice breaking news, Crime Online's John Limley. We begin in Tennessee, where a judge has ruled that the writings of the individual responsible for last year's tragic shooting at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville cannot be made public. With details, here's Sydney Sumner of Crime Online. I'm online. Chancery Court Judge LaShaya Miles determined that the Covenant School children and their parents hold the copyright to any works created by Audrey Hale, the former student who carried out the attack. Hale's parents had transferred ownership of Hale's property to the victim's families, who then argued in court for the right to control access to these materials. Judge Miles acknowledged that using copyright as an exception to the Tennessee Public Records Act is unprecedented. Ultimately, she agreed with the parents, stating that Hale's original writings,

journals, art, photos, and videos fall under the protection of the Federal Copyright Act. This ruling comes over a year after multiple groups filed public records requests for documents seized by Metro Nashville police during their investigation into the March 2023 shooting. The case has drawn significant interest partly due to reports that Hale, who was assigned female at birth, may have identified as a transgender man. Hale left behind at least 20 journals, a suicide note, and a memoir, according to court documents. The denial of records requests led to lawsuits and a complex legal battle. In addition to copyright claims,

the parents of Covenant School argued that releasing the documents could traumatize families and potentially inspire copycat attacks. Judge Miles agreed, noting that the risk of such attacks was, quote, of grave concern. While many of Hale's documents will remain protected, other materials in the police file may be released once the case is closed, provided that they comply with Tennessee's open records law. Judge Miles' order is expected to be appealed. Now to New York State, as the man charged with stabbing author Salman Rushdie has rejected a plea deal that would have reduced his state prison term but introduced a federal terrorism-related charge. This, according to his lawyer.

Once again, Crime Online, Sidney Sumner. 26-year-old Hadi Matar has been held without bail since the 2022 attack. Matar is accused of stabbing Rushdie over a dozen times and blinding him in one eye while the acclaimed writer was on stage, about to give a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York. Matar's attorney, Nathaniel Barone, confirmed that Matar, who lived in Fairview, New Jersey, turned down the agreement this week in Mayville, New York. The proposed deal required Matar to plead guilty to attempted murder in Chautauqua County, reducing his maximum state prison sentence from 25 years to 20 years. Additionally, Matar would have needed to plead

guilty to a federal charge of attempting to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization, potentially adding another 20 years to his sentence. Rushdie, who has documented the attack and his recovery in a memoir, spent years in hiding after Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa in 1989 calling for his death over his novel The Satanic Verses, considered blasphemous by some Muslims. Rushdie re-emerged in the late 1990s and has traveled freely over the past two decades. Matar was born in the U.S. and holds dual citizenship in Lebanon, where his parents were born. His mother noted that Matar became withdrawn in Moody after visiting his father in Lebanon in 2018. In his memoir, Rushdie describes seeing a man running towards

him in the amphitheater just before the attack, where he was about to speak on the importance of protecting writers from harm. Rushdie is listed as a witness for Matar's upcoming trial. Teen sisters Tamara and Iris Perez moved to Michigan with their adoptive parents after repeat harassment by their bio mom. The girls settle in over the summer, enjoy walks around a wooded area near the new home. One day, the girls go for one of their walks and never return. A neighbor reports watching the teens head into the woods, then seeing a white Jeep Cherokee leaving shortly after. The FBI believes Tamara and Iris were taken. They're investigating whether their bio family may be involved. No one has heard from the two girls since they disappeared now over

a year. They have ties to Port St. Lucie and Lake Worth, Florida and Winchester, Tennessee. If you have info on Tamara and Iris Perez, 15 and 14, contact Ross Common County Sheriff's 989-275-5101. For the latest crime and justice news, go to crimeonline.com. For This Crime Alert, I'm Nancy Grace. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.