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Man accused of killing 3 family members had cellphone with searches about serial killers, Vermont police say
A New York man accused of killing his father, stepmother and 13-year-old stepbrother in Vermont earlier this month appeared in court in Lake George on Thursday and waived having an extradition hearing, according to the district attorney.
Brian Crossman Jr., 23, of Granville, New York, faces three counts of aggravated murder in the fatal shootings of Brian Crossman Sr., 46, Erica Pawlusiak Crossman, 41, and Colin Taft, 13, in their Pawlet, Vermont, home on Sept. 15, state police said. He will be moved to Vermont to face charges.
The investigation found significant evidence linking Crossman Jr. to the killings, including digital information, statements, injuries and various interviews, Vermont State Police said. His public defender representing him in New York did not return a phone message seeking comment.
A search of his cell phone found multiple internet searches related to serial killers and unresolved murders, police said. Relatives told police that he had a troubled relationship with his father because of Crossman Jr.’s mental health and learning disability.
He was spending the weekend with his father and stepmother while his mother was out of town, according to a police affidavit. The couple had married in July and Erica Crossman told her husband’s friend that didn’t feel safe with Crossman Jr. at the home and she was afraid to be there alone with him, according to a police affidavit. Crossman Jr. called police shortly before 4 a.m. on Sept. 15 to report that he had found the three family members shot, and that the residence was covered in blood, police said.
WCAX-TV
He then agreed to meet with Vermont State Police Corporal Joseph Duca who said when they met, Crossman Jr.’s clothes were covered in blood, according to the affidavit.
Crossman Jr. said he his clothes had blood on them because he tried to drag his deceased father outside of the house and load him into a utility vehicle to take him to his grandmother’s house across the road, police said.
Police said they found multiple guns and ammunition around the house as they were investigating the killings, including a semi-automatic handgun on an area rug in the mudroom, a 12-gauge shotgun on a table in the dining area, another shotgun on a couch, and an open firearm cabinet and firearm safe.
Crossman Jr. was admitted to a mental health unit of the Glens Falls Hospital on Sept. 15, according to police. New York State Police arrested him on Sept. 19, and he made an initial court appearance in Warren County Court on a charge of being a fugitive from justice on Friday. He is being held without bail.
State police previously said autopsies determined Brian Crossman Sr.’s cause of death was gunshot wounds to the head and torso, Erica Crossman died from a gunshot wound to the head, and Colin Taft’s cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds.
Brian Crossman Sr. was a selectboard member in Pawlet. Mike Beecher, chairperson of the five-member board, said in a statement last week: “Brian Crossman was a friend and neighbor, a hardworking community member who just this year stepped up to join the Pawlet Selectboard.
“This tragedy that struck him and his family has also hit our community hard, and we are shaken and grieving. Our hearts go out to everyone affected by this devastating loss.”
Neighbors told CBS affiliate WCAX-TV that the shooting left them shaken.
“It’s very hard to comprehend. It just hasn’t sunk in. We just visited the family three nights before the deaths,” next-door neighbor Oliver Ihasz told the station.
Brian and Erica Crossman got married in June of this year, the Bennington Banner reported.
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Former intelligence chief convicted of “aggravated torture” of Colombian journalist sentenced to 12 years in prison
A Bogota judge has sentenced a former intelligence chief to 12 years in prison for crimes including “aggravated torture” of a journalist, the Colombian public prosecutor’s office said.
Enrique Ariza, former head of Colombia’s defunct DAS intelligence service, was convicted of “persecution, harassment” and other crimes against journalist Claudia Julieta Duque, the prosecutor’s office said Thursday.
Ariza was found guilty of “the crime of aggravated torture,” it said on social media.
With the latest conviction, “eight former officials of this agency have now been sentenced for the persecution to which my family and I were subjected,” Duque said on social media.
On Monday, the former DAS deputy director, Jose Narvaez, was also sentenced to 12 years in prison in the same case. Former intelligence director Giancarlo Auque, also linked to the case, is yet to be tried, Duque said.
The journalist, who had to be protected by bodyguards until she sought refuge in Spain, has accused the DAS of spying on her between 2001 and 2004, and threatening to murder her and rape her daughter when she was 10.
Fernando Vergara / AP
The origin of the harassment was Duque’s investigation of the murder of journalist Jaime Garzon in 1999, in which she denounced DAS involvement in crime.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, two gunmen killed Garzón, host of a daily morning show in Bogota, as he was driving his Jeep Cherokee to the studio. Garzón, who was 38 when he died, was a beloved figure in Colombia whose life story inspired a television mini-series, CJR reported.
In November, another former Colombian state security agent, Ronal Harbey Rivera Rodríguez, was also convicted of aggravated torture against Duque, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported.
In 2017, the Latin American and the Colombian Federations of Journalists granted Duque with a “special recognition for her bravery in the fight for justice,” according to the International Media Women’s Foundation.
“JUSTICE!!” Duque tweeted on Thursday after Ariza was sentenced to prison.
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Naomi Campbell banned from running Fashion for Relief charity as U.K. regulator cites “serious misconduct”
London — Former supermodel Naomi Campbell has been barred from running a charity after an inquiry found funds raised by an organization she founded was spent on spa treatment and room service charges. The inquiry into Fashion for Relief, released Thursday, identified “multiple instances of misconduct,” including use of charity money to pay for a five-star hotel stay for Campbell in the south of France.
The finding by the U.K. Charity Commission means Campbell, 54, has now been disqualified from running a charity in Britain for five years. Two other trustees also received bans.
The watchdog probe found that between April 2016 and July 2022, only 8.5% of Fashion for Relief’s overall expenditure went on grants to charities.
Hollie Adams/REUTERS
Campbell, who in 1987 became the first black model to feature on the cover of U.K. Vogue in 20 years, achieved worldwide fame in the 1990s and remains a highly influential figure in the industry.
In June, an exhibition dedicated to her opened at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.
Campbell says she “put the control in the hands of a lawyer”
Speaking in Paris Thursday after receiving an honor from the French government, the British celebrity denied any responsibility for the mishandling of donations.
“I was not in control of my charity. I put the control in the hands of a lawyer,” she told reporters after she was made a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters. The model added that she was “investigating to find out what and how — as everything I do and every penny I ever raised goes towards charities.”
Campbell’s charity held a string of glitzy, star-studded events to raise funds for good causes in London and Cannes. These were said to include projects ranging from supporting child refugees, to helping victims of the Ebola crisis and the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami.
One event in the French Riviera resort in 2017 was attended by over 1,000 guests, including stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Antonio Banderas, Faye Dunaway, Jane Fonda and Uma Thurman.
A three-night hotel stay for a similar event in 2018 cost about $10,400.
The Charity Commission said it saw no evidence the trustees had made sure that such costs were “reasonable.”
The regulator also looked at additional expenses totaling £6,600 (about $8,800) for Campbell’s hotel stay, including spa treatments, room service and the purchase of cigarettes.
It said the trustees had argued hotel costs were usually met by a donor but failed to provide any supporting evidence.
“The commission concluded that there had been serious misconduct and/or mismanagement in the administration of the charity by the trustees since it was established,” the report said.
Fashion for Relief was dissolved and removed from the register of charities earlier this year.
Set up in 2005, it described itself as “dedicated to improving the lives of those living in adversity by uniting the fashion industry as a force for good.”
