The biggest story in criminal law this week was undoubtedly the arrest of Justin Timberlake, former member of The Mickey Mouse Club and NSYNC, on charges of driving while intoxicated. A police officer in Sag Harbor, New York, reportedly observed a gray 2025 BMW run a stop sign, and when the officer pulled the car over, he found the Prince of Pop Justin Timberlake (the title is shared with Justin Bieber and Bruno Mars) behind the wheel. According to the arrest report filed Tuesday, Timberlake had bloodshot eyes and a strong odor of alcohol on his breath and was unsteady on his feet. He performed poorly on field sobriety tests. NBC News reports that Timberlake told the officer he had one martini. His wife Jessica Biel is reportedly not happy about her husband’s arrest.
Read on for more criminal law news.
More Celebrity Defendants
Prosecutors in the criminal trial of Alec Baldwin for involuntary manslaughter (last noted here) had sought a court order to compel armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed to testify, according to the Associated Press. On Friday, June 21, the judge reportedly ruled she would not be forced to testify. The trial arises out of the 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Baldwin’s Western movie, “Rust.” Director Joel Souza was wounded but survived. Gutierrez-Reed was convicted in March of involuntary manslaughter for her role in the shooting. Baldwin has pleaded not guilty, maintaining that he did not pull the trigger.
Owners of a vegan restaurant in Fayetteville are charged with breaking into more than a dozen businesses in October and November of last year in Apex, Raleigh, Wake Forest, Cary, and Morrisville. The Fayetteville Observer reports that Yoniara Locklear, 45, and Robert Harris, 36, are accused of stealing thousands of dollars from restaurants and bars, a car dealership, and a Target. The defendants are said to have broken glass doors and stolen money from cash registers and safes. Locklear and Harris own the Vegan Spot restaurant in Fayetteville. The restaurant reportedly reopened a day after their arrest.
State Criminal Law
An opinion from the North Carolina Court of Appeals made national news this week when it held that unloaded weapons do not violate a state law criminalizing unsafe storage. As reported by the Associated Press and by other news outlets, the defendant’s teenage son had a friend over for the night. While the defendant and her husband slept, her son retrieved an unloaded revolver and ammunition from the defendant’s bedroom. The friend allegedly proposed a game of Russian roulette, loaded the gun, and shot himself in the head. The defendant was convicted in 2022 of involuntary manslaughter and two counts of unsafe storage. In an opinion issued June 18, 2024 (summarized here), the North Carolina Court of Appeals overturned the convictions.
A state law in Iowa making it a crime to enter Iowa after being deported or denied entry into the United States was temporarily blocked by a federal judge on Monday, as reported by the New York Times and other outlets. Governor Kim Reynolds signed the bill into law in April, and the Justice Department filed suit in May, contending the state law was preempted by federal law and violates the United States Constitution. Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird has reportedly filed an appeal.
Crime Fighting
Several outlets, including the Washington Post and ABC News, report that a family of taekwondo black belts in Katy, Texas intervened to prevent the apparent sexual assault of an employee at a cell phone store next door to their dojo. Han An, his wife Hong An, and their three children Hannah, Simon, and Christian, all of whom have black belts in the Korean martial art, heard the victim screaming and rushed into the cell phone store, where they found the alleged attacker, Alex Robinson, 19, on top of the woman. Robinson turned to attack the rescuers, but they subdued and detained him until police arrived. Robinson has been charged with felony attempted sexual assault.
Among the ranks of buggy crime fighters, Spiderman, the Tick, and the Wasp may have met their match. Researchers at George Mason University are studying bees near decomposing human remains in the hope of giving crime scene investigators a new tool for locating concealed corpses. The New York Times reports that forensics researchers plan to study the bees, their honey, and their hives near a new “body farm” in Manassas, Virginia. After placing two donor bodies in the area, the team will examine nearby beehives to determine if the bees’ honey contains traces of the volatile organic compounds (V.O.C.s) that are released by decomposing human bodies. Since bees forage within a close range of their hives, the results could allow investigators to narrow the search area when looking for the hidden dead.
New Episode of NC Criminal Debrief
Finally, Episode 13 of the NC Criminal Debrief podcast is now available for streaming. This episode covers the first successful Second Amendment challenge to a state criminal law, evidentiary challengers for defenders in marijuana prosecutions, and preserving motions to suppress.