Local news became national news this week when a man serving life imprisonment for the murder of a one-year-old child on Christmas escaped from custody. According to the AP, 30-year-old Ramone Alston was able to free himself from leg restraints and run into the woods as his van arrived at a UNC hospital in Hillsborough, NC. Mr. Alston was scheduled for a medical appointment. After the state offered a $25,000 reward for tips leading to his apprehension, and the U.S. Marshals added an additional $10,000 incentive, authorities received a torrent of phone calls. Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood stated he has known Mr. Alston since Mr. Alston’s birth. After a three-day search for Mr. Alston involving 19 law enforcement agencies, Mr. Alston was apprehended at a Comfort Inn in Kannapolis.
Read on for more criminal law news.
Homicide in Raleigh up 78 percent… or is it 12 percent? WRAL reports that homicide in Raleigh is up 78 percent this year as compared to last year. This figure is based on a comparison between the time period of January to June of each year. 16 homicides were reported from January to June of 2024, whereas 9 homicides were reported from January to June of 2023. However, as noted in the final sentence of the article, if the time period for each year is extended two months, the data shows an increase of just 12 percent (an increase from 17 to 19 homicides).
The article demonstrates why one might hesitate to draw too many conclusions from a small sample size. Readers interested in learning more about common fallacies that may occur when applying mathematical and statistical principles to various social and economic issues might enjoy How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking, by Jordan Ellenberg. Perhaps more on point for regular readers of this blog, Math on Trial, How Numbers Get Used and Abused in the Courtroom, by Leila Schneps and Coralie Colmez, delves into real-life cases in which the misapplication of probabilistic principles affected decisions on guilt and innocence.
Lawsuit alleges failure to supervise at local jail. The Charlotte Observer reports that a lawsuit has been filed against the Gaston County Sheriff alleging that jailers failed to exercise necessary care when 29-year-old Dillon Raymond Teague suffered a medical emergency in custody. Mr. Teague was being held on misdemeanor offenses and a probation violation when detention officers allegedly missed two rounds of supervision and left him alone for 40 minutes. After his calls for help went unanswered, Mr. Teague went into cardiac arrest and subsequently died. Investigators from the North Carolina Division of Health Service Regulation concluded that “jail officers were not supervising inmates as required by the state’s administrative code.” Concerns about adequate supervision have been raised in connection with other jail deaths in recent years, as described in this article addressing statewide trends.
AI-generated video involved in massive fraud. In an interactive article, the New York Times demonstrates how scammers online are increasingly using AI-generated videos to defraud victims of large sums of money. The videos purport to show a celebrity such as Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos touting the virtues of various investments, while the faces and voices are in fact borrowed and manipulated through the use of new technology. The scammers entice victims using the likeness of these trusted business figures, while online platforms such as Facebook and YouTube struggle to stem the flood of fraudulent content. Consultants predict that the total losses each year from the AI-reliant scams will be in the billions.
Theft of chicken wings results in lengthy prison sentence. This story from Fox News describes how 68-year-old Vera Liddell, a food services director for an Illinois school district, stole more than 11,000 cases of chicken wings using funding for remote meal kits for children during the Coronavirus pandemic. An audit revealed that the food services department had run over its budget by $300,000 with half of the year remaining. The purchase of chicken wings was also suspicious given that children are generally not served school meals with food containing bones. The total value of the stolen wings was 1.5 million dollars, and Ms. Liddell was sentenced to nine years in prison.
After three-time Super Bowl champion Chris Jones offered on X to “pay for the wings that she stole to get her free,” commentators at TMZ Live engaged in a surprisingly nuanced discussion about the principles of justice at play in a video discussion here.
Have a good weekend and see you next week.