CBS News
Man who killed, dismembered woman after watching crime show “Dexter” gets life in prison, prosecutors say
A New York man was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison for a scheme that involved killing and dismembering a woman after fraudulently taking out a life insurance policy in her name to collect the benefits, federal prosecutors said. Cory Martin watched crime shows including “Dexter” and “The First 48” for tips on how to get away with killing the woman, prosecutors said.
Martin, 37, was also sentenced by a federal judge in Brooklyn to a concurrent sentence of 20 years in prison for wire fraud conspiracy and a consecutive term of two years for aggravated identity theft.
U.S. Attorney Breon Peace, whose office prosecuted the case, called it a “ghastly, cold-blooded crime” motivated by greed and executed with extensive planning.
Brandy Odom, 26, had been a sex worker Martin managed and lived with in an apartment in Queens.
“Martin preyed on Brandy Odom. He saw the victim as a way to make money,” Peace said in a statement. “He trafficked her for commercial sex, then killed her with his bare hands so he could profit from her death.”
CBS New York
Prosecutors said Martin and a co-conspirator fraudulently obtained two life insurance policies in Odom’s name the year before Martin strangled her in her bedroom.
They appeared on the NYPD’s radar after a cadaver dog picked up the dead woman’s scent in one of their cars, CBS New York previously reported.
Prosecutors allege that before the killing, Martin searched Home Depot’s website for a “Dewalt 12-Amp Corded Reciprocating Saw,” and later searched YouTube for “how to insert blade for reciprocating saw.” His co-conspirator testified that Martin used an electric saw to dismember Odom’s corpse in the bathtub after covering the bathroom surfaces with heavy-duty garbage bags to avoid leaving evidence of the killing, prosecutors said.
The two purchased cleaning supplies and dismembered Odom’s body in 2018 and dumped the parts in a Brooklyn park. They then made several unsuccessful attempts to claim benefits under Odom’s life insurance policies before being apprehended in 2020.
A federal jury found Martin guilty in March following a two-week trial in which prosecutors argued Martin had watched crime shows, including “Dexter” and “The First 48,” for tips on how to get away with the killing.
“The defendant believed he could thwart law enforcement and cover up this heinous crime by relying on television shows about murder, but the investigatory efforts of law enforcement brought him to justice,” Peace said Wednesday.
Lawyers for Martin didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
“My daughter was a loving child. She was sweet. She didn’t have any enemies,” Odom’s mother Nicole previously told CBS New York.
Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song” has skyrocketed to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, marking a milestone for the artist who is known for blending country and hip-hop.
Shaboozey, born Collins Obinna Chibueze, has taken the music world by storm this year. Recently named to Time’s 100 Next List and nominated for two CMA Awards, the rising star is seeing his hard work pay off.
“I definitely dreamed of all of this stuff, but it seemed very impossible, you know?” he said.
Raised in Woodbridge, Virginia, Shaboozey grew up as the son of Nigerian immigrants. He said his classmates often mispronounced his name. One nickname, “Shaboozey,” stuck, and he embraced it as his stage name.
But his journey hasn’t been easy. He once shoveled snow in a storm just to buy a plane ticket to Los Angeles to pursue his dreams.
“How I got here is like nothing short of like a miracle, you know?” he said.
Shaboozey’s journey to fame
Shaboozey’s big break came when Beyoncé featured him twice on her album “Cowboy Carter.” His genre-blending style caught her attention, and he worked alongside singer Linda Martell.
Shaboozey told “CBS Mornings” co-host Gayle King he doesn’t believe in traditional genres and views music as a “free expression.”
Following “Cowboy Carter,” Shaboozey struck gold with “A Bar Song,” which includes a lyric from J-Kwon’s 2004 hit “Tipsy.” He shared a memorable moment when J-Kwon sent him a DM with fire emojis, saying, “You got one.”
Shaboozey laughed, recalling, “I was like, damn, J-Kwon hit me. I think once I got that, I was like, there’s definitely something special in this song.”
On his first headlining tour, Shaboozey performed at a sold-out show in New York City.
“This is definitely my dream. I used to not do shows ’cause I thought no one would show up,” he said.
Despite his success, Shaboozey acknowledges the challenges of being a Black artist creating what’s categorized as country music, but said it is something he embraces.
“My whole life has been about challenges, like not being accepted even in places where I’m supposed to be accepted,” he said. “I feel like I adapted to that. … I wanna be someone that people remember for doing something.”
Nearly 600,000 GoveeLife and Govee smart electric space heaters sold online by retailers including Amazon and TikTok Shop are being recalled because they can overheat, posing fire and burn hazards, federal safety officials said Thursday.
The recall follows 113 reports of the made-in-China products overheating, including seven fires and one minor burn injury, according to a notice posted by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
About 512,500 of the recalled heaters were sold in the U.S. and roughly 48,600 were sold in Canada for between $30 and $150 from September 2021 through September 2024.
Consumers should stop using the space heaters immediately and contact the importing company for a refund.
The recall involves GoveeLife and Govee brand’s electric smart space heaters with the following model numbers: H7130 (including the H7130101 variation), H7131, H7132, H7133, H7134 and H7135. The model number can be found on the manufacturer’s label on the bottom of each unit.
GroveeLife
GoveeLife or Govee can be reached at 833-772-5360 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday. Further information can be found here: https://recall.goveelife.com/heater-recall.
The Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday that it would seek to pull a widely used ingredient in cough and cold medicines from the market, after the agency’s scientists concluded that the oral version of the drug is ineffective as a nasal decongestant.
The FDA’s proposal comes more than a year after the agency’s outside advisers voted against continued use of the ingredient, called oral phenylephrine, citing concerns with the initial data used to support its approval and new data questioning its effectiveness.
A number of common over-the-counter nasal decongestants have relied on phenylephrine alone or in combination with other ingredients for years, including some cold and cough versions of Advil, NyQuil, Sudafed, Robitussin, Tylenol and Theraflu.
“Based on our review of available data, and consistent with the advice of the advisory committee, we are taking this next step in the process to propose removing oral phenylephrine because it is not effective as a nasal decongestant,” Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a news release.
The agency’s proposed order would remove oral phenylephrine from the “monograph” of ingredients that drugmakers are allowed to use in cough and cold medicines which are sold on store shelves without a prescription.
The public has until May 7 next year to weigh in on the proposal. After that comment period, if the FDA decides to finalize its proposal to revoke oral phenylephrine’s status as “generally recognized as safe and effective,” over-the-counter drugmakers would be forced to stop using the ingredient.
“The FDA would provide manufacturers with appropriate time to either reformulate drugs containing oral phenylephrine or remove such drugs from the market,” the agency said in its release.
The Consumer Healthcare Products Association said Thursday it was “disappointed” in the FDA’s proposal. The industry trade group renewed its claim that no changes “are warranted” for oral phenylephrine and cited previous FDA and advisory committee decisions that did not call for pulling the ingredient.
“PE should remain an available option for consumers, because Americans deserve the option to choose the safe and effective OTC medicines they prefer and rely on,” Scott Melville, CHPA’s president and CEO, said in a statement.
After the FDA’s advisory committee last year, pharmacy chain CVS said it would pull any products on its shelves that only contained the product.
Spokespeople for drugmakers behind the brands did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The FDA’s proposal caps a push by pharmacy professors at the University of Florida who have urged the agency for years to pull the product, pointing to new data showing phenylephrine did no better than a placebo when swallowed.
The latest data shows that only a tiny fraction of phenylephrine is absorbed into the body when digested from a pill or syrup containing phenylephrine. This is different from other formulations like the inhaled nasal spray versions of the drug, where larger percentages of the drug can make it into the bloodstream.
The researchers also have questioned the initial studies that were run to prove the drug’s effectiveness, though they acknowledge that it is safe at currently approved levels.
“Let me be clear, oral phenylephrine is not a safety risk,” Hatton, a professor at the University of Florida, told CBS News last year. “It just doesn’t work.”
In a scientific review published this week by the FDA, the agency’s scientists concluded that past studies estimating that higher percentages of the drug could be absorbed during digestion were “an overestimate and based on outdated technology.”
Less than 1% of the drug is absorbed into the bloodstream after being swallowed, they estimated. Far higher doses could “be needed to achieve a clinically meaningful outcome which would raise significant questions about safety.”
“Furthermore, there are no clinical data demonstrating that oral PE is effective as a nasal decongestant at any dosage,” the FDA’s scientists wrote.
