Law&Crime Network will cover the following four trials this week. You can watch the trials live on our website and our YouTube page.
Trials
FL vs. Jamell Demons (YNW Melly)
Note: Due to the 4th of July holiday, the court will be dark all week for the YNW Melly double murder trial. Testimony will resume on Monday, July 10.
AZ vs. Michael Turney
Michael Tourney
Opening statements are expected to begin this week in the trial against Michael Turney. The 75-year-old man from Arizona is charged with the murder of his teenage stepdaughter, Alissa Turney, 17, in 2001.
Michael Turney originally flagged her as a lead, saying Alissa wrote a letter saying she was heading to California. The teenager was last seen on her last day of school during her freshman year at Paradise Valley High School in Phoenix.
Alissa Turny
The case went cold until 2008, when the Phoenix Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit opened Alissa’s case and declared an objectionable location with a factor in her disappearance. Police executed a search warrant at the home of Michael Turney and found surveillance footage, 19 high-caliber assault rifles, two hand-made silencers, a van filled with gas cans and 26 improvised explosive devices . Turney allegedly planned to blow up a union hall, detectives say.
In 2010, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to prison for possession of unregistered pipe bombs. Michael Turney was released in 2017 and re-arrested in 2020 after a grand jury indicted him on a second-degree murder charge for Alissa’s murder. His body has never been found. Opening statements are scheduled to begin on Thursday, July 6.
TX vs. Ronald Burgos-Aviles
Ronald Burgos-Aviles
Former Border Patrol agent Ronald Burgos-Aviles is charged with killing his ex-girlfriend, Grizelda Hernandez, 28, and their one-year-old son, Dominick Hernandez, in Laredo, Texas, in April 2018 .
According to Hernandez’s family, the relationship between the victim and the accused began when Burgos-Aviles was living with another woman with whom he had children. Hernandez became pregnant and told Burgos-Aviles she was ready to raise her child, who ended up being Dominick, on her own.
Grizelda and Dominick Hernández
On April 9, Burgos-Aviles reportedly called Hernandez and asked to meet her at Father McNaboe Park. Hours later, Grizelda and Dominick were found stabbed to death in the woods – an empty stroller lay nearby.
Burgos-Aviles faces the death penalty.
The last
Hearings
NV vs. Jonathan Porter
On Monday, Jonathan Porter, who is a rapper known as Blueface, is expected to plead guilty in connection with a shooting at a strip club in Las Vegas. Authorities believe Blueface shot a man outside a nightclub in October 2022 after the man pranked the rapper.
AI vs. Willard Miller
Willard Miller (left) and Jeremy Goodale (right) have pleaded guilty to murdering Nohema Graber.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Wednesday for Willard Miller, an Iowa teenager who admitted to killing his Spanish teacher, Nohema Graber. Miller and his co-defendant, Jeremy Goodale, claimed they committed the murder because of a poor grade. Prosecutors have recommended a sentence of between 30 years and life in prison.
FL vs. Ashley Benefield
Two days of motion hearings are set to begin Thursday for Ashley Benefield, the former ballet dancer charged with the murder of her husband, Douglas Benefield. Detectives say Ashley went to a neighbor’s house in September 2020 claiming Douglas had attacked her, so she shot him. However, during the investigation, it was discovered that Douglas likely had his back to Ashley when he was shot. The couple reportedly got married 13 days after they met.
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