A Long Island architect who lived a secret life as the Gilgo Beach serial killer has been sentenced to to life in prison without parole. Rex Heuermann had previously admitted in court to killing eight women, many of them sex workers. Police discovered the remains of several of the women along a coastal parkway not far from Long Island’s Gilgo Beach. Family members of victims delivered emotional statements during the court hearing. Jasmine Robinson, a cousin of victim Jessica Taylor, said, “You fill me with so much repugnance, I can’t stand it.”

A former Taliban commander has been sentenced in New York to 42 years in prison for crimes including the 2008 kidnapping of a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. Haji Najibullah’s sentencing Tuesday capped a daylong proceeding in Manhattan federal court. The reporter, David Rohde, described how Najibullah took part in the abduction of him, another reporter and their driver. Rohde, who is MSNOW’s national security reporter and previously worked for The New York Times and other publications, told Judge Katherine Polk Failla that he was “surprised and disappointed” that Najibullah was trying to blame others and circumstances for his role in the crime. The three escaped from a Taliban-controlled compound in Pakistan's tribal areas after seven months in captivity.

A Virginia man who was having an affair with the family’s Brazilian au pair has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder of his wife and a man who was lured to the couple’s home as a fall guy. Brendan Banfield claimed he shot Joseph Ryan after he came across Ryan attacking his wife on the morning of Feb. 24, 2023. But prosecutors said Brendan Banfield and the au pair set Ryan up in a scheme to get rid of Christine Banfield. During Friday's sentencing hearing, the judge called Brendan Banfield's actions evil and calculated. Some media have dubbed the case the “au pair affair.”

A Colorado court reversed homicide convictions against two paramedics on Thursday in the ketamine overdose death of Elijah McClain after the Black man was pinned down by police. The court ordered new trials for Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec. McClain had been forcibly restrained by police, who responded to a suspicious person complaint and stopped the massage therapist as he walked home from a convenience store in 2019. Cooper and Cichuniec were found guilty of criminally negligent homicide. Cichuniec also was convicted of felony assault, and the appeals court affirmed that conviction.

Matthew Perry's personal assistant has been sentenced to three years and five months in prison for his role in the drug death of the “Friends” star. Sixty-year-old Kenneth Iwamasa received the sentence in a Los Angeles federal court on Wednesday. Iwamasa The assistant was at Perry’s side through the final days of his life in 2023. He injected Perry with the fatal dose of ketamine and found him dead in his Jacuzzi. He would eventually become prosecutors’ most important informant. Iwamasa was the last person sentenced of five who pleaded guilty in connection with Perry's death at age 54.