The jury in the Lindsay Clancy case was in its seventh day of deliberations when we posted last week’s News Roundup. Later that day, the trial judge declared a mistrial; jurors had reported on three occasions that they were unable to reach a verdict. The prosecutor said there would not be an immediate decision about whether to retry 36-year-old Clancy for killing her three young children. The AP reports that Clancy, whose attorney contended that she suffered from postpartum psychosis when she strangled her children, is expected to stay at a psychiatric hospital until her case is resolved. Clancy’s attorney spoke Tuesday on ABC’s Good Morning America, where he expressed interest in “work[ing] something out that would be acceptable to both sides.” CNN has the story here.
State Highway Patrol trooper charged with murder in connection with law enforcement love triangle. Speaking of past news roundups, we wrote in late July about the investigation into allegations that Nekime Oxendine, a sergeant with the North Carolina State Highway Patrol, fatally shot Adam Bean, a captain with the Cumberland County sheriff’s office. Search warrants in the case appear to show that the two men had been vying for years for the affections of a Hope Mills woman who worked for the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office. Bean was shot and killed outside the woman’s home in March. Oxendine, who was placed in administrative leave following the shooting, was indicted for first-degree murder on Monday. He is being held in the Cumberland County Detention Center without bond. WRAL has the story here.
Colorado crime lab analyst sentenced for crimes connected to data tampering. Yvonne “Missy” Woods, a former "star" forensic analyst for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment on Tuesday following her plea of guilty to perjury, attempting to influence a public servant, forgery, and committing a cybercrime. CNN reports that authorities accused Woods, who resigned in 2023, of altering data to conceal tampering, deleting data that showed she failed to troubleshoot issues within the testing process, and not thoroughly documenting tests she performed. Woods allegedly told investigators that she had changed data to complete cases more quickly. Prosecutors have reviewed hundreds of cases involving Wood’s work, and at least one murder conviction has been vacated (though prosecutors say they plan to retry the defendant).
Federal jury returns guilty verdicts in ICE protest case. On Wednesday, a jury in federal court in Charlotte found two protesters guilty of misdemeanor charges arising from their encounter with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during Operation Charlotte’s Web last fall. Prosecutors alleged that Heather Morrow, a 45-year-old Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools bus driver, blocked the entrance to the Charlotte Department of Homeland Security’s offices with her car and body and assaulted an officer by touching him while he was trying to arrest her co-defendant, William Stanley, a 25-year-old college student. (Morrow initially was charged with felony assault, but those charges reportedly were dropped after cellphone video contradicted ICE officers’ claims that she tried to jump on a federal agent’s back.) For his part, prosecutors said that Stanley did not follow orders to move out of the entrance area, put his hands on the hood of an officer’s car, punched the car window, and resisted arrest. Morrow and Stanley were both convicted of obstructing federal property, disrupting government officials’ duties, and failing to comply with officials’ orders. Morrow also was convicted of misdemeanor assault; Stanley was acquitted of that charge. The Charlotte Observer has the story here.
Good news, bad news. The North Carolina Department of Public Safety just released a report stating that reported crime fell across all four major crime categories (violent crime, property crime, financial crime, and drug crime) in North Carolina during the first six months of 2026 (compared to the same period in 2025). That’s the good news. The bad news is that kidnapping and intimidation offenses have increased, suggesting that “levels of intimate partner violence and threats/stalking may be rising even as violent crime declines overall.”
Gotta Catch ‘Em All! A man charged in Craven County with credit card fraud involving Pokémon cards was arrested Wednesday in Wisconsin. WRAL reports that sheriff’s deputies say the man, Jeancarlos Castellanos, is a suspect in “Pokémon schemes” that span from Florida to Pennsylvania. If you, like me, are confused about the relationship between Pokémon cards and fraud, this USA Today story explains how the childhood pastime of collecting such cards “has evolved into a high-stakes global market that has become lucrative for enthusiasts and appealing to counterfeiters.” Apparently, Charizard is “like Michael Jordan” as “[e]verybody knows that character, and they want one.” If you need me, I’ll be spending the weekend searching through the Pokémon cards my grown children left behind for something to supplement my retirement account.
