Authorities say five people have been charged with murder in a deadly Northern California explosion at a fireworks warehouse that killed seven people. Yolo County Deputy District Attorney Clara Nabity said Friday the charges stem from a grand jury indictment that found five people, including a former Yolo County Sheriff lieutenant, responsible for the explosion. The deadly fireworks explosion near the small farming community of Esparto in Yolo County sparked a massive fire and led to nearby Fourth of July celebrations being called off.

A former New York City police officer has been sentenced to three to nine years in prison for tossing a picnic cooler full of drinks at a fleeing suspect, who then crashed his motorized scooter and died. Former Sgt. Erik Duran was convicted of manslaughter in the 2023 death of Eric Duprey. Duran had pleaded not guilty. He testified at trial that he was trying to protect other officers from the approaching scooter on a Bronx sidewalk. Prosecutors argued the sergeant had enough time to warn others but tossed the cooler in frustration. Duran is the first former NYPD officer sentenced to prison for an on-duty death in at least two decades.

A Hawaii doctor who was accused of trying to kill his wife on a cliffside hike has been convicted of attempted manslaughter. Jurors reached their verdict against 47-year-old Gerhardt Konig Wednesday. He had been charged with attempted murder but was convicted on the lesser charge of attempted manslaughter based on extreme mental or emotional disturbance. It carries up to 20 years in prison. Konig's attorney says he planned to appeal. Prosecutors argued Konig tried to kill Arielle Konig during a weekend trip to Honolulu for her birthday in March 2025. Konig testified he had hit his wife back in self-defense.

A Long Island man who carried out a series of murders known as the Gilgo Beach killings has pleaded guilty to murder charges. Rex Heuermann’s pleas Wednesday bring finality to the long-unsolved case more than 30 years after the first killing. The 62-year-old New York architect pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and four counts of intentional murder in the killings of seven women between 1993 and 2010. He also admitted to killing an eighth woman. He will be sentenced in June to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Victims’ families expressed relief that their relatives got justice.

A Long Island architect has pleaded guilty to murdering seven women and admitted he killed an eighth in a string of long-unsolved crimes known as the Gilgo Beach killings. Rex Heuermann entered the pleas on Wednesday in a courtroom packed with reporters, police and victims’ relatives. His decision brings finality to a case that bedeviled investigators, tantalized the public and spawned true-crime documentaries, podcasts and a Hollywood movie. Authorities say Heuermann killed the women over a 17-year span. Many of them were sex workers whose deaths received little attention until their remains were found buried together along an isolated beach highway. Heuermann faces life in prison and will be sentenced at a later date.

A Utah sheriff's office says DNA testing has definitively linked the unsolved death of a Utah teenager in 1974 to the infamous serial killer Ted Bundy. Laura Ann Aime, 17, went missing Halloween night 51 years ago after she left a party alone. About a month later, her body was found on the side of a highway, bound, beaten and a without clothing. Investigators long suspected that Bundy was responsible. He was one of the nation’s most prolific serial killers, with at least 30 women and girls’ deaths linked to him in several states in the 1970s.

Medical examiners have ruled that the death of a nearly blind refugee from Myanmar, five days after Border Patrol left him at a Buffalo, New York, doughnut shop, was a homicide. The finding from the Erie County Medical Examiner’s Office was released Wednesday. The agency didn’t reach any conclusions about responsibility for Nurul Amin Shah Alam’s death. Medical examiners said it was caused by complications of a perforated duodenal ulcer, precipitated by hypothermia and dehydration. U.S. Customs and Border Protection says Shah Alam “showed no signs of distress, mobility issues, or disabilities requiring special assistance” when agents dropped him off Feb. 19 at a Tim Hortons restaurant.

A Maryland judge has denied bail to a quadruple amputee professional cornhole player accused of fatally shooting a passenger in his Tesla last month. District Court Judge ordered Dayton James Webber to remain jailed without bail during a hearing by videoconference Wednesday. An attorney for Webber says his client acted in self-defense when he fatally shot 27-year-old Bradrick Michael Wells, and that he expects “a lengthy trial” to prove it. The 27-year-old Webber, whose arms and legs were amputated at 10 months old to save his life from a disease, is charged with murder and other counts. He hasn't entered a plea and is due back in court May 6.