Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Crime Alert 09.15.23

Episode Date: September 15, 2023

Ex-convict murders jail buddy. Man in unusual vessel tries to cross the Atlantic.  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. Family discovers Michael Garvin and mom Lucy Garvin shot dead in their Vermont home. That afternoon, cops arrest Christopher Ellis when they find him driving Garvin's missing truck. Ellis tells cops he meets Michael Garvin in prison and was staying with him since release. Ellis admits he came to hate Garvin and planned to kill him for weeks. Nancy, Ellis added that he had no plan for retirement and would rather spend the rest of his life behind bars than in an old folks home. Ellis said that he did not intend to kill Lucy Garvin, but as she was home at the time of

Michael Garvin's killing, she, quote, had to go. Ellis, 54, charged with two counts of murder, one. Nearly 70 miles off the Georgia coast, Coast Guard officials come across a man in a giant metal drum kept afloat by buoys equipped with paddles that move as someone runs. Think hamster wheel. The Coast Guard deems the boat unsafe for travel, but the

sailor inside, 44-year-old Reza Belucci, refuses to exit, saying he's running across the Atlantic and claims to have a bomb on board, threatening to kill himself if anybody tries to remove him. After four days negotiating, Belucci finally admits there is no bomb. The Coast Guard takes him back to Florida, where he's charged with obstruction of aborting, foiling his fourth attempt to cross the Atlantic in a hamster ball. More crime and justice news after this. Now with the latest crime and justice breaking news, Crime Online's John Limley. We begin in North Dakota, where a man has been sentenced to five years behind bars for running over and killing an 18-year-old following a small-town street dance

last year. With more, here's Sydney Sumner with Crime Online. It was back in May that Shannon Brandt of Glenfield, North Dakota, admitted to manslaughter in connection with the murder of Kaler Ellingson in McHenry, North Dakota, in September 2022. According to court documents, Brandt first asserted that he struck Ellingson following a political debate and that the teen was a member of a radical group and had threatened him. Within days, authorities announced that there was little indication to believe that the teen was a member of a radical group and had threatened him. Within days, authorities announced that there was little indication to believe that the altercation was political in nature. Brandt was given a five-year jail term by a state district court judge with credit for almost a year already served. This was followed by three years of

supervised probation and one year suspension of Brandant's driver's license. The maximum sentence for the offense is 10 years in prison, a $20,000 fine, or both. Initial charges of criminal vehicular homicide were dismissed. Later, after being charged with murder, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter. In a plea agreement, the charge of leaving the scene of a fatality against Brandt was also dropped. A man convicted of murder in 1993 has been granted a new trial by a Massachusetts judge after new DNA evidence brought the verdict into doubt. Thomas Rosa was found guilty of killing Gwendolyn Taylor, then 18 years old, in 1985. Rosa, who has consistently maintained his innocence, went through three separate trials for the murder. Rosa's conviction was overturned by Suffolk Superior Court Justice Michael Ricciuti,

allowing for the possibility of a new trial. According to Ricciuti, new DNA evidence cast doubt regarding the reliability of the eyewitness testimony in the case. Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher have now apologized after writing character letters in defense of their fellow That 70s Show star Danny Masterson. Once again, Crime Online's Sydney Sumner. The celebrity couple wrote the letters ahead of Masterson's sentencing for rape. Masterson was handed a 30-to-life term by a judge in Los Angeles for raping two women in 2003. In a video sent via Instagram, Kutcher and Kunis expressed regret for whatever hurt the letters may have caused. According to Kutcher, the letters requesting

mercy, quote, were intended for the judge to read and not to undermine the testimony of the victims or re-traumatize them in any way. We would never want to do that and we're sorry if that has taken place. After the actor was found guilty of the assaults in May, Kutcher claims that Masterson's family got in touch with the pair and wanted them to write character letters supporting, quote, the person that we knew for 25 years. The Hollywood Reporter and other internet outlets then published the letters online. Masterson was a star on the television program That 70s Show from 1998 to 2006 alongside Ashton

Kutcher, Mila Kunis, and Topher Grace. Candy Sturgill, 75, and best friend Shirley Weaver, 83, often take drives in remote California to look at the scenery. The women mention they're heading to Wendell and take off in Candy's white Toyota RAV4. When they don't come home, their families report them missing. Two weeks later, a pair of Nevada hunters discover their car parked on a remote road two hours northeast of their destination. The car has a flat, the hood was raised, and help was spelled on the ground with objects from inside the car. Surely Weaver is found dead in the passenger seat. Candy Sturgill nowhere to be found. Authorities say Weaver's death does not appear to be suspicious, but Candy has not been located nearly three years later. If you have info

on Candy Sturgill's disappearance, please call Lauren County Sheriff's 530-257-61201. 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.