Category: CNN Regional

By Deanna Sipe

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    ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — The North Carolina Supreme Court is upholding the conviction of an Asheville man in a viral video case from 2021 that sparked outrage.

The video showed a truck driven by Scott Everett Ford, 45, trying to run over Alex McPherson, also known as “Cat Man” due to his constant companion, a cat named Thomas.

After trying to run over McPherson, the video continues, showing Ford hitting a carriage that contained Thomas. Luckily, Thomas was not injured, only badly shaken.

As previously reported, Ford was convicted of felony cruelty to animals, felony obstruction of justice, and assault in 2022.

Ford served seven months in prison.

According to court records, the Supreme Court upheld the obstruction conviction, which was the only part of the case that could be appealed, as the North Carolina Court of Appeals previously ruled against Ford in 2022, upholding his animal cruelty charge.

McPherson was killed in June after being struck by a car on Patton Avenue.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Andie Bernhardt

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    MILWAUKEE (WDJT) — Ongoing vandalism in a Milwaukee neighborhood is causing major frustration among neighbors and business owners.

“It makes me upset, we’ve got a lot of hardworking people in the area, and we don’t need our property defaced,” said Steven Price, a Milwaukee resident.

Residents say graffiti is being drawn on their garages, fences and businesses in the Forest Home Hills neighborhood.

“When I saw all the graffiti on our garages, then I came to the store and I saw this, I said oh my God that can’t be happening,” said Alberto Aguirre, a Milwaukee resident. “That is going too far.”

Sodika Lasisi has owned SISI’s Food and Beverages for four years now. He says this month is the second time his shop has been recently defaced and this time he caught it all on camera.

“I just hope this can stop,” said Lasisi. “I hope they can catch the people that were doing it, because it’s going to cost a lot of money to take them off.”

Residents say the graffiti is a problem they can’t beat, saying it’s been an ongoing issue since the summer.

“We want this to stop,” said Aaguirre.

Now months later, with no solution in sight, they say they are hesitant to even pay to cover up the markings. Homeowners say they’ve been hit several times and graffiti keeps reappearing.

“Yeah, it’s really frustrating and that’s my concern,” said Lasisi. “That’s the reason I haven’t taken them off yet, because I’m thinking when I take them off, they are going to come back and paint them again.”

Residents say they want the people responsible to be accountable.

CBS 58 reached out to the Milwaukee Police Department for more information on this case and has not heard back yet.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Kimberly King

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    HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — A homeless North Carolina woman charged with murder was found not guilty by reason of insanity after a judge reviewed her lengthy psychiatric history.

In July 2023, Amber Nelson was arrested and charged after the body of Patricia Moniz, an 82-year-old Henderson County woman, was discovered. Multiple sources close to the investigation confirmed shortly after Moniz’s death that Nelson is homeless and Moniz had been letting her sleep in her home.

Authorities said that at the time of her arrest, Nelson had a long record, including charges of assault with a deadly weapon and theft.

On Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, a judge found Nelson not guilty by reason of insanity, citing numerous hospitalizations, episodes of extreme hallucinations, paranoia, bipolar disorder and self-harm.

While the ruling was not a surprise, it was a huge disappointment for the family of Patricia Moniz.

“I’m very distraught,” said Rebecca White, Moniz’s adult daughter. “We didn’t have a trial.”

White said her mother was kind to a fault, and she felt her mother had been coerced by a friend to take Nelson in because she had nowhere to stay. After two years waiting for justice, White said the ending is heartbreaking for her.

“She’s not going to be incarcerated. She’s going to be put into a mental hospital, but she could be out in 50 days.” Dr. Jill Volin, a forensic psychiatrist who works at Central Regional Hospital in Raleigh, testified Friday in detail before the judge about Nelson and her severe mental illness.

Volin talked about an episode in which Nelson stabbed her stomach three times to get “acid out of her body because she believed the acid would eat her organs from the inside.”

Volin told the judge that Nelson had a lengthy history of hallucinations and paranoia, including thoughts that robots were taking over her body at different points in her life. Volin testified at the time that Nelson killed Moniz that she was having a paranoid break and thought Moniz, who invited her into her home, was going to kill her.

But Moniz’s daughter said detectives told her they had a strong case.

“They said she knew what she was doing. There was evidence, by getting the knife and pulling the shades down, and then taking off in my mother’s car to Black Mountain,” said White.

“We are angry,” said Brittany Wallers, Moniz’s granddaughter. “We feel like the ball was dropped.”

“We don’t feel like there was justice, and no one deserved it more than my grandmother,” said Heather Parker, also Moniz’s granddaughter.

“They were not aggressive in the case.”

Several months before Nelson stabbed Moniz to death, Dr. Volin testified that she was having severe hallucinations that included a belief “Satan has taken her over.”

Volin testified that over the years, Nelson had been hospitalized and taken to emergency rooms but released prematurely, ultimately ending up on the streets and also becoming heavily addicted to drugs.

Volin also testified, however, that she believed Nelson had no drugs in her system at the time she stabbed Moniz to death.

According to Volin, Nelson was prescribed a range of anti-psychotics over the years, including Lemictal, a mood stabilizer to treat bipolar disorder.

When interviewing Nelson, Volin said, she acknowledged that she knew she had done wrong and that she had killed someone. But Volin maintained to the judge that her expert professional opinion was that at the time she stabbed Patricia Moniz to death, she was insane.

Volin said Nelson did express regret for her actions and told her she knew Moniz had tried to help her when no one else would. But for Patricia Moniz’s family, it’s little consolation to lose their beloved mother and grandmother, hoping North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services will continue to keep Nelson in custody for decades to come.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Jeff Nguyen

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    ORANGE COUNTY, California (KPIX) — A recent study found porch pirates steal about a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of packages nationwide every day, and an Orange County police department is getting creative in fighting back.

One in four Americans, or 64 million people, has had a package stolen at some point, and 9 million adults have had a package stolen in just the last 3 months.

Karen Gordon of Irvine says she’s been the victim of porch thefts about a dozen times over the past four years.

“Whether it’s groceries or these packages, you know, we’re all suffering from one degree to another degree over these crimes,” Gordon said.

Irvine police recently arrested a woman who was caught on security video allegedly stealing one of Gordon’s packages, an online order of toilet paper. The thief was in the apartment complex mailroom, appearing to treat it like a buffet, grabbing whatever looked appealing and walking out the door with her arms full of boxes.

Irvine Police Department Officer Ziggy Azarcon is part of the department’s property theft team, which increasingly uses social media platforms like Instagram with catchy campaigns, such as “Wanted Wednesday” and “Felony Friday,” to ask for the public’s help.

It seems to be working. Azarcon says package theft is down 11 percent so far this year compared to the same time last year.

He said the social media posts led to the arrest of a thief they nicknamed “Postal Malone,” so named because he resembled the artist Post Malone with a face tattoos. After the posts went up, tips poured in, and officers got their alleged suspect.

To catch porch pirates, patrol officers look for cars without license plates and warn that suspects often dress up as package or food delivery drivers to disguise themselves.

When so many packages are being delivered during the holiday season, there are ways to prevent porch theft.

Deliver packages to a secure locker Have a friend or neighbor pick up packages Use tracking or text alerts to follow the delivery Send packages to your work address Require a signature for delivery

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Jennifer Bisram

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    NEW YORK (WCBS) — Despite a judge ruling some smoke shop shutdowns have been illegal, New York City is moving forward with “Operation Padlock to Protect.”

Since May 2024, over 1,631 illegal smoke shops in the five boroughs have been ordered to shut down, and $113,886,467 worth of illegal weed has been seized, according to authorities.

Some New Yorkers say they’re glad to see the businesses shut down, but the crackdown has faced some pushback.

Over 200 shuttered smoke shops suing NYC for abuse of authority “This theory that marijuana has to be shuttered, these stores that are selling products that are not licensed by New York state, is an absolute farce,” said Brooklyn attorney Lance Lazzaro, who represents more than 200 shuttered smoke shops that are suing the city.

The lawsuit claims Mayor Eric Adams and the sheriff are abusing their authorities.

Lazzaro said he expects to win the case and some stores to reopen.

“The sheriff can do whatever he wants under this statute and keep a store closed, so the whole concept of this statute is unconstitutional,” he said.

Lazzaro said he expects the appeals court to make a ruling on the legality of the closures in the coming weeks.

Some storefronts remain empty, others taken over by new business While the case plays out in court, property owners have options.

“After a location is padlocked, there’s multiple options for the landlord and for the tenant,” said Lt. Franchesca Rosa, with the city sheriff’s office. “The landlord can either apply for the location to be brought back under their possession, or the tenant can also apply to say they are no longer going to operate illegally.”

The empty storefronts along bustling city streets have turned into a blight in some neighborhoods.

“It does bring the neighborhood down now because it looks so abandoned,” Bedford-Stuyvesant resident Maurice Hollis said.

But small business owners, like Antonella Padulo, are bringing positive transformation to the empty spaces.

Padulo, her husband and a friend opened Salsa Pizzeria on Woodhaven Boulevard in Queens back in March after the corner store was raided last year. Illegal pot sellers were busted, and the business was shutdown.

“People are very happy to see what’s in here now,” Padulo said. “We get a lot of customers, especially at the beginning that were very surprised and very happy to see, you know, a small business here.”

Meanwhile, according to the New York State Office of Cannabis Management, there are currently 216 legal cannabis dispensaries in New York City that operators say generate tax revenue, create jobs and provide safe and quality-controlled cannabis.

“We’re putting food on the table. We’re reinvesting back into our communities,” said Jayson Tantalo, vice president of operations for the New York Cannabis Retail Association. “We’re providing safe and regulated cannabis to our constituents and friends and family.”

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.