Crime Wire Weekly 3/6/26 | Mayor Misty’s Drunken Romp, Kori Richens Trial, Sheriff’s Nooner (Preview)

0:16 We're back, folks, busy week jam pack show. We're going to jump right into it and look at some of the topics, just a few of them this morning. Some things we're going to be talking about today. In Louisiana, the first ever female mayor in the city of Deritter's history is now a convicted felon after being found guilty of carnal knowledge and indecent behavior with the juvenile. The murder trial of Corey Richins has entered its eighth day. We have an update on everything breaking so far in that case. In Mississippi, a father and daughter are fatally shot in another Facebook marketplace killing to be talking about that.

1:01 In Ohio, an Amish mother is found not guilty by reason of insanity in the drowning death of her son. So much more that we're going to be discussing today. This is Crime War Weekly, and I am Jim Chapman and. I'm Kelly Jennings. Got a lot of news stories running the gamut today on all kinds of different stuff. No, and hey, if you're watching right now, Jimmithy walked in with a sport code on looking off fancy and so I felt underdressed. So he brought me his sparkly. What now she looks fancier than me. Is this a blazer? What is this? This is a sparkly blazer. I'm on a. Purple sparkly blazer. So, guys, if I'm like putting out too much vibe here for you, I'm just trying to be in competition.

1:45 Yeah right, she was called. All right, Well, let's jump right into it, Kelly, and we're going to go to Park City, Utah for our first story in the high profile trial of Corey Richins, the Utah mom and children's book author accused of fatally poisoning her husband with finanyl laced moscow mule, which. By the way, if you don't know what that is, that is a refreshing cocktail made with vodka and spicy ginger beer and lime juice, and they serve it in those copper mugs. They stay really cold. Have you had one? Absolutely? Oh wow, deliciousness. I've been having a pleasure of moscow mule, much less one that's fitting all lace.

2:27 Well, if you want to go have a drink with me, we'll have one and I won't put fentanyl. I appreciate it. Well, I'm not gonna have one with Corey Richins. Because she is certainly accused of that, prosecutors have been intensifying their focus on her alleged financial motives as this case heads into its second week. Now, she stands accused of aggravated murder and attempted criminal homicide in the March twenty twenty two death of Eric Richins, along with multiple financial crimes including insurance fraud claim and forgery. Of course, she's pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. She's facing twenty five years to life in prison if convicted, and opening statements in This trial took place February twenty third, twenty twenty six, and the entire trial is expected to last approximately five weeks, So they've got a lot to cover now. Eric Richins was a successful businessman father of three.

3:26 He gets found dead at their home. This obviously was in March of twenty twenty two, and toxicology reports revealed lethal doses of fitanhol in his system approximately five times the fatal threshold, along with ethanol and other substances. Now, what really made this case stand out was Richards authored a children's book that was very popular on Amazon. It was called Are You with Me? Which tells the story of a young boy grieving his father who had died. I don't know what you would call that, but a very strange coincidence there that all of a sudden this occurs, A horrible coincidence actually, So during opening statements, the prosecutor told jurors the evidence would show that Richards killed her husband to inherit millions from his business and money from insurance policies so she could maintain the picture of affluence and success and started new life with a boyfriend that they found out she yeah. Defense attorney Catherine nest Or, she countered that her client was innocent and was basically being targeted by vindictive family in laws. So his side of the family, she saying, were very vindictive people, and that's why she was being charged with all this. Days one and two of the trial, they interviewed the family and the first responders stuck them on the stand, and Eric's father and sister. They described learning of his death

4:59 EMTs and deputies. They were counted arriving at the scene and finding Eric cold to the touch and flatlined, and bodycamp footage showed rich And in pajamas explaining that she made a drink to celebrate a house flip. Evidence technicians recovered an empty Ginger beer bottle consistent with Moscow mule that noted incomplete searches of the home, and they're really diving deep into it. I'm not going to cover all the witnesses that spoke in this thing so far in the trial, but it is being aired in its entirety on Court TV and a lot of people are into watching it. And that's one thing I like about these public trials is a lot of things you hear and you form an opinion without actually seeing the trial. This is one you can sit through and maybe your opinion will stay the same, maybe it'll change.

5:50 So yeah, I love watching a trial on TV. I'm a nerd like that, people like, hey, have you seen this movie? No, but have you seen this trial? Because I'm one day, you know, three. So it's very interesting too that they say, oh, no, this is all because of vindictive family. Well, babe, family isn't who brought the charges against you. Yeah, law enforcements who did the investigation, and then the prosecutor's office took the case. So if your defense is vindictive family, that's kind of strange because they obviously found evidence that pointed at your culpability in this one percent. And one more thing I want to mention before we get off that topic is in I think it was day four of the trial, they introduced the evidence that they found on computer, the forensic avenues and what gets you quicker than anything else Internet search history. And this girl will search on everything from how much fentanyl does it take to kill someone? Too? You know, I don't know if this was one of the searches, but probably how much fenyl do you have to put into moscowve on to kill somebody? I mean, it was that clear.

6:57 And she made multiple searches days before he was killed. So you know, Internet searches will get you every time. Right, Maybe we need to go back to the library. People start looking in books and quit internet searching. It till old school, right, all. Right, Actually don't kill people. That would actually be the lesson from there. A divorce, Yeah, just get a damn. Divorce, like really, come on now, and then your poor kids don't have a dad. Yeah, jeez. All right, So we're gonna come right here back to Louisiana DeRidder Louisiana a Beauregard Parish jury convicted former Deridter mayor Misty Roberts on Tuesday of two felonies for having sex with a sixteen year old boy during a pool party at her home while she was still in office. Roberts, who is forty three, made history in twenty eighteen, is the first woman elected mayor of the city roughly ten thousand people and one reelection in twenty twenty two. She was found guilty of carnal knowledge of a juvenile, which in other states would be statutory rape, and in decent behavior with a juvenile, both of which are felonies. The jury deliberated less than an hour after a seven day trial now.

8:02 The incident occurred in July twenty twenty four at a house party at Robert's de Ritter home. The sixteen year old victim testified that he had been heavily drinking and became ill. Testimony and evidence presented to jurors included a lewde and lascivious photo of Roberts and the teen, and testimony from a DoorDash driver who delivered emergency contraception Plan B to her home the next day. Statements from Robert's ex husband were introduced that she confessed to the encounter after their children caught them. Robert's son and nephew also testified they saw her with the underage boy at the party. The victim's mother told the court that her son was disgusted afterward. Prosecutors argued that the teen was too young to consent, and defense attorneys contended the investigation was flawed and politically motivated. Roberts abruptly resigned as mayor in late July twenty twenty four, one day before Louisiana State Police began investigating the complaint. She was arrested August first of twenty four, initially on third degree rape and contributing to the delinquency of juveniles. A grand jury later indicted her on the two felon accounts which she was convicted. The case had previously ended in a mistrial in February of twenty six over indictment issues. Before the retrial, Roberts remains free on a one hundred thousand dollars shorty bond pending sentencing, which is scheduled for nine a m April seventeenth of twenty six before Judge Kent Savoy. She faces up to ten years in prison on the cardinal knowledge charge and up to seven years on the indecent behavior charge. She will be required to register as a Tier one sex offender.

9:35 Beauregard Parish District Attorney's Office officials declined comment after the verdict at the judge's request. Defense attorney Adam Johnson argued during closing that the state failed to properly investigate potential evidence, such as surveillance video or DNA. The conviction comes after Roberts had publicly spoken in May of twenty twenty four about personal struggles, including a divorce and natural disasters, while aspiring to seek a third term. Now, the case has drawn widespread attention in the small southwest Louisiana community. It's right near the Texas border, and Robert's brother, Brandon Lee Roberts, separately pleaded guilty last year to unrelated rape charges involving underage victims and received a forty two year sentence. No further comment was immediately available from the victims family or city officials, and Dee Ritter has since elected its first black mayor following Robert's resignation. Sentencing will determine how much time, if any, Roberts spinds behind bars.

10:29 Yeah, pretty crazy case. I actually covered this on Exposed when it first occurred, of course, had none of the information that I've gotten now since this went to trial and everything came out. Interesting. Couple of anomalies in this Number one, Misty Roberts was the first female ever elected mayor and de ritter, which came with a lot of celebration. And you know another we broke through this chain, if you will, of having female and very high profile powerful positions in director. That being said, she was very popular. Obviously she was going for a third term, which is you know, it's an elected position. You've got to have this support of the majority of the people. What people did realize was behind the scenes there was a lot of time fullery going on just relative to some of the things she was doing in this instance, and I'm going to go into this in a different separate podcast exactly what occurred, but she was serving on this particular night, she had refrigerator full of alcohol that fifteen year olds were drinking, and she bought four of the fifteen year olds and I'm not just talking one beer each. They were all ship faced drunk. And what do you think is going to happen? This is going to lead to other issues this particular situation. Her own kids actually saw her having sex with a fifteen year old.

11:58 Yeah, and then kids, her daughter. And her son, and her son was the same age. Ashamed is not even the proper word here. But then she wants to go on here and say, oh, well, I've had some personal struggles. When you say divorce and natural disasters, never in the history of ever have I ever, you know, post hurricane, needed to go, you know, have sex with a teenager? Well, how is that even possibly a excuse here? Yeah? Come on, it's you made poor decision after poor decision after poor decision, and and you're the mayor. You're the freaking mayor, dude, Like you're the mayor. All right, let's go to Memphis, Tennessee. And look, we just talked about this the last episode, and here we are again another Facebook marketplace killing.

12:46 You are so anti marketplace it's funny, bruh. I mean it's it's you know, how many times does this have to happen before people realize it's not safe. If you're gonna do it, you need to make sure you're the safest possible. I did see incidentally, and I can't remember which police department it was. It might have been a whole nother state. But they're actually having a face there. They're instituting Facebook Marketplace meetups in front of the police departments, and there's an actual spot with a camera where you can you can do these things and the likelihood of this what I'm about to tell you about happening lowers.

13:27 That's smart, very smart. It's something I may talk to the powers that be here about, luckily and see if that can get accomplished. It's a great thing. The Crime War Weekly Exchange spot and we'll sponsor the sign. Yeah, hey, I'm down with it. Let's get that ball rolling. But we'll get into this. A father and his teenage daughter from Memphis, Tennessee were found shot to death inside their vehicle on a remote grivel road in northern Mississippi on Sunday morning. Five family members believe the pair was ambushed while traveling to purchase a PlayStation five console listed for sale on Facebook marketplace. Deputies with the Panola County Sheriff's Office. They responded around seven pm this last seven am, right this past Sunday to River Road on the outskirts of what's known as Sardis after a passer by reported what appeared to be a single vehicle crash. Inside that vehicle, they discovered forty two year old Victor Gonzalez and his nineteen year old daughter, Serenity, both suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.

14:33 Authority said the double homicide likely occurred late Saturday Y or early Sunday. The victims, both electricians who worked on homes in the Memphis area, were last seen Friday after leaving a job site. According to Victor's son in Serenity's brother, Jesse Waterman, the father and daughter planed to grab something to eat before heading to meet a seller for a video game console from Facebook. They were working that day. They were going to eat and after that they were going to pick up a PS five watermantl reporters. Waterman said. Investigators shared the muddy tire tracks, the scene and damage to the sides of that family white work van suggested the victims may have been trying to flee from their attacker.

15:17 Normally they don't have mud and stuff like that on the van. He added, it looks like they were trying to peel out and run away. The family believes the pair was set up through the online marketplace listing. If I was to ask a question, it would be why, why does this make any sense? Waterman said, everybody is in shock. Pinola County Sheriff Shane Phelps had spoken with the family, but has not confirmed details about the transaction, a possible robbery, or whether the victims were targeted in advance. The investigation remains active. No arrest had been made, and neighbors describe River Road as a lightly traveled rural road with few houses in the area. Of course, that's a major problem when you're meeting strangers. Anyone with information has urged to contact crime stoppers in Panola County, and just another sad situation, and it sounds like they were meeting in a very rural area that there's not a lot of witnesses. You know, these people that want to kill you for this stuff. Granted it's probably a rare occurrence, but it occurs.

16:20 Yeah, So you have to be careful. You have to think about this, Okay, put yourself in the mind of the bad guy for a second. Let's say that you have something that you know you could sell easily, and then you say you want four hundred bucks or whatever. Well, all you have to do is the bad guys say cash only you know I won't take venmo or anything like that. Okay, no problem. So now they know that you have four hundred dollars cash on you, and then you say, hey, what are you driving? So I'll know it's your vehicle when I see it. You give them the vehicle you're driving, and now they know exactly who to target. They know that you'll be traveling down this rural road. It's an easy lick, and they get the cash and they take off and unfortunately you pay with your life. So smart decision making here. Hopefully people know would know this, but they could have been picked off on their way to a location that was actually a higher profile location. We don't. You don't necessarily know that.

17:06 They said let's meet on this gravel road. No one travels. So whenever you go to meet up with somebody, maybe get the time, get the location that would be a busy area, but I wouldn't tell on what you're driving until you get there. That way, these kind of things couldn't happen. You know, don't give more information than you need to. And if they don't show, then you know that might have saved yourself. You know some trauma here. Yeah, be very smart. Venmo makes more sense whenever you're doing transactions like this. If someone says cash only, and you know you're going to be carrying a large amount of cash, you need to think it through where you meet. Up, right, So I agree.

17:47 Okay, let's go to Ohio. This is kind of different because we don't hear a lot about the Amish in terms of crime. It doesn't seem to make the news a lot. But an Amish woman who drowned her four year old son in Atwood Lake Life summer told authorities that she was quote giving him to God. She was found not guilty by reason of insanity Tuesday. In a county bench trial. Ruth Miller, forty, of Holmes County was ruled not guilty by reason of insanity on all seven counts by Judge Michael Ernest, following a brief trial that relied solely on police reports and three independent mental health evaluations. The judge concluded that Miller suffered from a severe mental disease at the time of the August twenty third, twenty twenty five incident and did not know the wrongfulness of her actions. I think that's the only conclusion that can be reached, Ernest said in court. Miller will remain in custody penning a placement hearing scheduled for ten a m on March thirteenth. Prosecutors are seeking commitment to a locked state psychiatric facility, where the defense hopes she can eventually return to her surviving family after treatment. Under Ohio law, she must be reevaluated every three years. The tragedy unfolded during what authorities described as a family vacation at Atwood Lake that turned deadly amid apparent religious delay illusions. According to the county sheriff Orvis Campbell, the Miller family, which is Ruth, her husband Marcus Miller, who was forty five, and their four children, traveled from their homes County home, believing God was speaking to them and directing them to perform acts of faith. Around one am on August twenty third,

19:19 Ruth and Marcus jumped into the lake from a dock. Marcus later returned to the water alone. At approximately eight thirty am, Ruth placed her youngest child, Vince Miller, on a golf cart, drove to the dock, and threw the boy into the water, drowning him. Body. Camera footage captured Miller telling deputies, I threw him in the lake and I gave him to God. She added that God had told her that Vincen would be swallowed by a fish. About two hours later, around ten thirty am, Miller drove the same cart carrying her three teenage children, eighteen year old twin sons and a fifteen year old daughter, directly into the lake, and the teens escaped unharmed. The incident prompted a large scale search. Vincent's body was recovered near the dock around six pm that evening. Marcus Miller's body was found in the same area the next morning. Authorities determined he accidentally drowned while attempting to swim to a sandbar. Miller, who had been hospitalized since the bodies were recovered, was indicted in September on charges including aggravated murder, murder and felonious assault in Vincent's death, plush child in dangering, and three counts of domestic violence involving the teenagers. She pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and waived her right to a jury trial last month, leaving the outcome to Judge Ernest All three court ordered psychiatric evaluations reached the same conclusion. Miller was experiencing an acute mental health crisis involving grandiose and delusional thinking in the weeks leading up to the incident, including shortened and erratic sleep and a request to her husband that he suffocate her. She suffered from some ford of mental disease that prevented her from

20:50 knowing the wrongfulness of her conduct, the judge noted, citing the unanimous expert findings. The Amish community in Holmes County, one of the largest in the United States, remained largely silent on the case, consistent with its preference for privacy. Miller has been held in the county jail since shortly after the incident, and the verdict means Miller will not face prison time, but will instead be committed for mental health treatment, and the placement hearing next week will determine the specific facility. Wow, you know in that article, I didn't hear you reference her trying to cover it up. Yeah, seems like she did it. And then I guess admitted to everything.

21:32 And that's one of the things when when you see a lot of people and they'll plead not guilty by reason of insanity. The second you try to cover up your crime, perge, you knew it was wrong when you did it, and so that throws it out the window. And almost every case is like that, someone runs from the scene or something. In this case, I didn't hear that. I don't know, man, I don't know what I think about that one. You know, the majority of everything in he wants to say she needs to be in prison the rest of her life. But I'm not a psychiatrist. I don't know what to think about that. This one is giving Andrea Yates. We all know that case where she drowned her children and then she called the police with saying that I killed them because I wanted them to leave this world as innocence, that you know, the devil was going to take my children, blah blah blah blah blah. And while while we want to be punitive because you killed a child and nobody will ever be on board with that, the issue here is that she is suffering a mental health crisis and punitiveness the punishment will not work. I know this doesn't sound good.

22:38 I know people are shaking their heads probably at this, but the reality of it is being punitive to someone who doesn't get it or didn't get it at the time, is not going to wreckt what's the point of prison. The point of prison is to punish and to rehabilitate. Well, if you're having a mental health crisis, that multiple mental health people. And clearly I've seen the bodycam video. Clearly she is not in the right mind. Clearly, very clearly, she's just very blank, very direct. He's in the belly of a fit. You know, It's very odd. And I think that mental health treatment in this case is appropriate, I really do. I don't think that what she did was wrong, but the cause of the effect I think needs to be mitigated. First, putting crazy in prison will not solve. And when I say crazy here, I don't mean evil crazy. I mean mentally depleted of common sense and and what is right and.

23:34 Wrong repercussions for what you're doing. Yeah, because and I'll give you some insight here. You know worked today goal everybody knows that. And so we had a unit there where we put basically the criminally insane, I mean, we put them on these tears and while they're they're dangerous criminals and obviously she was dangerous to her own children that I don't know that she had that evil component that we're used to seeing here. I think we have a lack of h Like I said, just mentally, she was in a a very odd So what happens from here? Uh? I mean, is she going to be in a mental Absolutely?

24:14 Yes, I don't. I don't know because they haven't. They haven't said, you know, what exactly they're going to do. But the law here states that if they can stabilize her, from what I'm understanding, if they can stabilize or then release would be considered. Uh, so long as she has check ins and every three years she has to be reevaluated. Now I would have you know, I don't know if there's any other younger children, because it says she has you know, she had the teenagers. I would be very careful to have her in control or any you know, being the domiciliary parent of any other children. Obviously, But if this was strictly a mental health crisis, and she didn't kill the child for any type of gain or any type of you know, just to get rid of him type thing, and it was this is strictly a mental health issue, I hope we as a society can see that it's horrible, but punitiveness will not solve it.

25:07 And do we want to solve it or do we want to be vengeful? And I think the judge chose solving it over vengeance. There you have it. Let's go to Wisconsin and a Wisconsin nurse has been sentenced to prison for having a sexual relationship with a vulnerable patient under her care and then fabricating the sexual assault claim against him to cover her tracks. Melissa Nutson. Of course, Melissa Nutson, who is twenty nine from a Reeds Down, Wisconsin, was employed as a mental health nurse from the Monroe County Drug Court Program in twenty twenty two. Now her role involved in administering vivatrawl, which is a medication used to treat substance abuse, to patients in the program. Prosecutors revealed that nuts And repeatedly engaged in sexual intercourse with one such patient while on duty, violating the strict boundaries of her professional responsibilities.

26:12 The illicit relationship came to life in March of twenty twenty three, when it was reported to the Wisconsin Department of Safety in an attempt to deflect blame. Nutson went to the Sparted police department and then accused the patient of sexually assaulting her between July and October of twenty twenty two. She claimed she had not reported the alleged assaults earlier due to fears for her safety in that of her family. However, investigators do what they do, and they uncovered text messages and screenshots provided by the patient who was basically like no, wait a minute, screw that she was all over me. This painted a stark different picture.

26:54 These communications showed that Nutson had initiated the relationship and even promised to deny any involvement if they were discovered in the text messages. Confronted with this evidence, nuts and eventually admitted to fabricating the sexual assault accusation in order to avoid facing consequences for her actions. On February twenty seventh of twenty twenty six, Nutson plagued guilty to the charges of misconduct in public office and obstructing an officer. She was sentenced to eighteen months in prison, followed by two years of extended supervision upon release. During the proceedings to the judge described her behavior as despicable and emphasized how she was betraying trust inherent in the medical profession, particularly vulnerable patients and recovery programs. The moong Road County District Attorney highlighted the severity of the case in a statement, saying the harm caused by miss Nutson was deep and significant.

27:52 She did not only violate trust between patient and a nurse, but compounded that by falsely accusing the patient of sexual assault. And dude, okay, yeah, wait, how many times I say they had sex? A lot? A lot? Okay, So like let's start here. You didn't, it just said, repeatedly, repeally. Yeah, So how about don't walk back in the room like your lie doesn't even your lie doesn't even sound good, you know, give me a break. It sounds like they were hooking up. And then it went south and he probably said, well, you just messed up on that one, and so she tried to beat him to the punch and ended up. She forgot about the text where she was saying meet me in my office, right, And then she forgot about the text where she was saying, if this ever comes out, I'm gonna blame it on you, right, and this girl, you know, if you're watching this on the Patreon version Beautiful Girl. I mean, you wouldn't think it would be one, But that's serious. Man. When you're charging someone of sexual assault, basically riping you and they're not, and you're doing that just to get out of like lasing your job, you have mental issues, Well you're you're not to admit it.

29:02 You're not a good person if you will any woman. I feel so strongly about this, any woman who would falsely accuse a man of a sexual crime. You know, I don't even care why anyone who will do that. You are the worst of the worst to me, you know, because we tend to give women the air of belief in a sexual misconduct situation at the beginning, you know what I'm trying to say, like like, you're the you're the poor victim here because you're a woman and you weren't and you were in a power position. Plus it says he was in recovery, so obviously he's not in a good spot. How about don't jump people's bones when they're in recovery. And yeah, she needs to be d nuts and don't you dare. All right, we're moving on.

29:53 Pretend I didn't say it, Okay, Hey everyone, Crime Wire Weekly has moved to its own new channel. We hope you've enjoyed this preview. To continue listening, please follow the link referenced in the description of this podcast. Or simply search crime Wower Weekly wherever you're listening. And don't forget to follow the show so you can be alerted when new episodes drop. Thanks for listening.