'I'll blow your head off': Carjacking victim threatened crook after turning the tables on him. Now carjacker learns his fate.



Early one morning last year — around 6:28 a.m. Jan. 2, 2024, to be exact — a Chicago motorist told police he was sitting in his car in the 9400 block of South Laflin Street when Darrius Berry approached him, CWB Chicago reported.

The 39-year-old victim said Berry walked up to the driver's window of his 2021 Mazda CX-9 and pointed a gun at his head, the outlet reported.

'Who’s with you?'

“Please give me the keys,” Berry allegedly told the victim, according to the outlet. “I need your car. I’m sorry, sir. ... Go in the house.”

The victim did just that, handing Berry his keys and heading into his house, the outlet continued.

But what Berry likely didn't count on was the victim reappearing soon after.

It turns out that the victim grabbed his own gun, went back outside, and confronted Berry, who was sitting behind the steering wheel of the victim's car with a gun on the passenger seat, CWB Chicago said, citing a report.

“If you reach for it, I’ll blow your head off,” the victim recalled telling Berry, according to the outlet.

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JEWEL SAMAD/AFP via Getty Images

It gets even better.

The victim opened the car door, grabbed Berry by the collar, and pulled him to the ground, CWB Chicago said, citing officials.

“Who’s with you?” the victim asked Berry, according to the outlet, presumably out of concern that Berry may have accomplices to help him carry out the crime.

“He’s around the corner,” Berry reportedly answered, CWB Chicago said, adding that the victim said he never saw anyone.

Soon after, Chicago police responded to a call of a "citizen holding an offender" and found the victim holding Berry at gunpoint, the outlet said.

RELATED: Road rage suspect opens fire on fellow motorist in Chicago, cops say. But victim is a concealed carrier — and wins shootout.

Photo by Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images

Police recovered the gun Berry allegedly left on the Mazda’s passenger seat, the outlet reported, adding that a police report indicated the firearm had been stolen from a vehicle in the 1400 block of West 90th Street about a month prior to the ill-fated January 2024 carjacking.

Judge Thomas Hennelly on Monday sentenced Berry — now 19 years old — to 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to one count of vehicular hijacking, CWB Chicago said, citing court records.

The outlet added that Berry will be eligible for release in just over three years due to Illinois' "standard 50% sentence reduction and credits earned while in jail."

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'Our house is quiet as a tomb': Drunk driver who killed 'pure' 13-year-old girl in cocaine-fueled crash learns fate



A grieving Massachusetts family is attempting to put the pieces together after a drunk driver killed a "sunny" 13-year-old girl in a cocaine-fueled crash.

Gregory Goodsell, 36, attended his company's Christmas party in December 2019. Goodsell was so intoxicated that his co-workers said they tried to prevent him from driving, but he ignored them, the Boston Herald previously reported.

'After Claire died, I didn't want to live.'

Goodsell allegedly attended an after-party at a home before getting behind the wheel of his company truck. Police said Goodsell struck a tree while driving the white Ford F-250 truck, which broke his passenger-side headlight around 6:40 a.m. Dec. 29.

Goodsell reportedly ran a red light and smashed into a Subaru while he was drunk and high on cocaine in Pembroke.

"Through evidence and witness interviews, investigators determined that Goodsell was intoxicated with a BAC of 0.266, under the influence of cocaine, and passed through a red light at 67 miles per hour before broadsiding the Subaru," the office of Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz stated.

At the time of the crash, police found a bottle of whiskey, a beer can, two nip bottles, marijuana, and a pipe in Goodsell's vehicle.

“I’m so [expletive] up. … I know I shouldn’t have been driving. … I can’t believe I did this. … I drank way too much, I’m so sorry,” Goodsell reportedly told police officers at the scene of the fatal crash.

Investigators determined that the Subaru broadsided by Goodsell contained 51-year-old driver Elizabeth Zisserson; her daughter, 13-year-old Claire Zisserson; and Claire’s 13-year-old friend Kendall Zemotel.

Claire was killed in the crash.

Her mother and friend suffered what the DA's office described as “catastrophic injuries.”

Claire's friend Kendall recalled standing “speechless” while looking at herself in the mirror for the first time at the hospital and seeing a large scar on her right cheek, under her eye, with a feeding tube coming out of her nose.

“Emotionally, I think about something that I know I shouldn’t, but I really can’t help myself — what I could have done to prevent this from happening to us,” Kendall wrote in an impact statement that was read by a prosecutor in the courtroom. “I could have just gone to the bathroom before we left the house that day or taken a little longer to get ready. … I could have saved Claire’s life if I was a minute late to everything I did that morning.”

Kendall added, “Claire was my best friend, the sister I never had, and my twin. Claire was always there for me before I even realized I needed someone. It is so extremely hard to process that Claire is gone. She deserved so, so, so much more out of life.”

Claire's mother said that her emotional scars will never heal.

"After Claire died, I didn't want to live," Zisserson said in court as she wiped away tears. "The ache of Claire's loss is overwhelming to me."

"My world changed the day that Claire was killed. I don't recognize the person I am today, versus the one I used to be," the heartbroken mother explained. "I was a super-busy mom juggling sports, Scouts, carpools, school projects, away games, and everything else in daily life."

“Life was happy and busy and crazy, and we talked about the future with hope and excitement, but now I function in survival mode ruled by loss, fear, and grief," Zisserson added. "The car crash destroyed my life and caused a ripple effect of damage that can never be undone.”

"Our table of four is now three. Our house is quiet as a tomb," she expressed. "The colors of our world are dull."

'Nobody should ever have to attempt to live through the pain that I’ve caused to all these people through my careless, destructive behavior.'

Claire's father, Ken Zisserson, added, "One day Claire was here, and the next, she was gone forever."

"When someone says, 'I can't even imagine,' I reply, 'You shouldn't have to. It's not natural,'" he noted.

Claire was described as “pure” and “sunny” by those who knew her best, according to the Patriot Ledger.

Late last month, a jury convicted Goodsell of second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter while operating under the influence, leaving the scene of property damage, and two counts of operating under the influence causing serious bodily injury.

Before sentencing, the anguished mother asked the judge, "Please help me keep him from ever doing this again. He can watch the sunrise every day, but Claire won't ever see another sunrise. And we won't ever escape the devastation of losing Claire."

Judge Diane Freniere sentenced Goodsell to life in prison for the murder charge and eight years in prison for seriously injuring Kendall, which will run concurrently with a six-year sentence for injuring Elizabeth Zisserson. Goodsell also will serve 12 years for manslaughter concurrently with the murder sentence.

Goodsell will be eligible for parole after serving 20 years.

“Judicial discretion does not commit to the court to assign a value to a victim’s life because every human life is incalculable,” the judge told Goodsell. “I have considered the life of an innocent, remarkable bright light, Claire Zisserson, a 13-year-old girl beloved by her family, and a compassionate and kind friend who was taken because of your criminal conduct.”

Goodsell said during sentencing, “I shamefully take responsibility for what happened.”

“Nobody should ever have to attempt to live through the pain that I’ve caused to all these people through my careless, destructive behavior,” Goodsell read from a prepared statement. “If I could go back to that day and die, instead of Claire, I would in a heartbeat.”

“The constant nightmares, never being able to sleep because of what I did that morning, that is something that I will carry with me for the remainder of my life,” he continued. “Sorry is an understatement. I sincerely apologize from the bottom of my heart.”

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Teacher hit with maximum sentence after she's found guilty of having sex in classroom with 8th-grade boy on graduation day



A former teacher in California has been hit with a maximum prison sentence after being found guilty of child sex abuse of an eighth-grade student on his graduation day, according to authorities.

The Gridley Police Department arrested Michelle Christine Solis, 46, in November 2023 after a concerned parent claimed "explicit photographs" of a Gridley Unified School District teacher were "circulating among students."

The attorney for the former teacher argued that she should receive probation because the incident was only 'one act.'

Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said Solis was having an illegal sexual relationship with one of her eighth-grade students at Sycamore Junior High School.

Solis allegedly “friended” the minor on Instagram and later sent the boy explicit photos of herself.

"Evidence showed Solis sent the boy four explicit photos of herself before having sexual intercourse with him in her classroom on the day of the boy’s 8th-grade graduation," the DA's office said.

Investigators allegedly verified the accusations by reviewing messages on the victim's cell phone; the teacher reportedly instructed the boy to delete their communications. Solis also gave the student "special treatment" in school, according to the DA's office.

Solis was charged with one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor under the age of 16. After she pleaded no contest, Butte County Superior Court Judge Michael Deems sentenced Solis to the maximum term: four years in state prison. Solis also must register as a sex offender and cannot contact the victim for 10 years.

The attorney for the former teacher argued that she should receive probation because the incident was only "one act." However, the DA's office said the sentence was appropriate due to the 29-year age difference between the minor and Solis, her position as a trusted member of the community, and a pattern of conduct that amounted to "grooming."

Judge Deems said at the sentencing, "The manner in which the crime was carried out demonstrated criminal sophistication in that the defendant groomed the victim in order to get the victim in a situation for sexual contact. The court finds that there is a factual basis for the plea, and it is the judgment of this court that the defendant is guilty of that offense."

Solis had been a teacher with the Gridley Unified School District for 20 years, according to police.

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Reversal of FATE: Steve Baker’s update on January 6 prisoners is ‘a good sign’



January 6 started as a chance for Trump supporters to innocently protest and quickly turned into a day that would change their lives forever.

Now, however, things might be taking a turn for the better.

“One J-sixer is seeing a reversal of fate,” Jill Savage of “Blaze New Tonight” explains.

“John Strand is actually one of the more, let’s call it, infamous stories, certainly one of the more high-profile cases of all the January 6 defendants,” Steve Baker tells Savage.

Strand was friend and bodyguard of Simone Gold — a doctor and attorney who was the deplatformed founder of the Frontline American Doctors. Gold had been accused of “disinformation” for recommending alternative therapies that were not part of what Baker calls the “approved narrative” regarding COVID-19.

Gold was scheduled to speak on January 6 at one of the six legally permitted events scheduled on the Capitol property that day.

“By the time they got to the Capitol, everything had gone to hell in a handbasket, and so there was nothing but chaos by the time they arrived. The breaches had already taken place. John Strand and Simone Gold did not participate in violence, they did not participate in breaching the Capitol building whatsoever,” Baker explains.

However, their fatal flaw was going inside the Capitol peacefully.

“She actually decided to deliver her prepared remarks there in the Rotunda. She climbed up on the Eisenhower statue, with John standing guard beside her, she delivered her remarks there in the great Rotunda of the Capitol, and then they peacefully left, just as so many other hundreds and thousands of people did,” Baker says.

Both Strand and Gold were “handed that infamous 1512 obstruction of an official proceeding felony.”

The felony carried up to 20 years of imprisonment.

Gold ended up taking a plea deal and pled down to a single misdemeanor. Judge Christopher Cooper sentenced her to 60 days in prison.

“John Strand decided he was not going to take this lying down, that he was going to be a warrior, and he, despite the odds being horribly stacked against him, he was going to go to trial and he did that,” Baker explains.

He was convicted on all counts, and he was sentenced to 32 months in prison.

“Now what’s happening is that because of the Supreme Court’s overturning the 1512 obstruction of an official proceeding charge against 355 defendants, him being one of those,” Baker says, “they’re shortening their sentences or letting them go.”

If they haven’t gone to trial yet, they’re not charging them with it.

“It’s especially a good sign because the Department of Justice has already announced that they want to figure out how to continue with that charge,” Baker explains. “But the point being, is it appears that the judges are pushing back against the DOJ.”

“We’ll take this as a good sign,” he adds.


Thug who beat elderly woman so badly that she can't walk, speak, or recognize her husband of more than 50 years is sentenced



A 35-year-old male who nearly two years ago used a cane to beat an elderly woman so brutally that she can't walk, speak, or recognize her husband of more than half a century was sentenced to eight years in prison last week.

What are the details?

Alexander Adams on February 23, 2022, approached John Hopkins, 78, and his wife — 79-year-old Claudia Hopkins — outside a supermarket in Washington, D.C., and asked them for five dollars, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

When John Hopkins gave Adams one dollar, Adams hollered, “That is not enough!” and punched John Hopkins, who fell to the ground, the DOJ said.

With that, Adam began beating Claudia Hopkins with her husband’s wooden cane, hitting her head and body, after which she fell backward and hit her head on the concrete, officials said.

Claudia Hopkins suffered numerous injuries, including a concussion, a brain bleed, swelling on the brain, and an altered mental state and cognitive deficits, officials said, adding that she "will likely never recover."

Adams has been in custody since February 24, 2022, officials said, adding that he pleaded guilty last December. He was sentenced Friday on two counts of aggravated assault of a senior citizen to 96 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release, officials said.

According to WRC-TV, the prosecutor said Adams had 32 contacts with the judicial system over the years — including 11 assaults and 13 convictions. The judge called Adams extraordinarily dangerous, the station added.

'I have lost my wife forever'

WRC said that before the attack, John and Claudia Hopkins had an active social life. Now she is bedridden in a nursing home and can no longer walk, speak, or recognize her husband of more than 50 years, the station said.

“She is incapable of talking, she cannot walk, she has a feeding tube,” John Hopkins told WRC. “I have lost my wife forever.”

Image source: YouTube screenshot

He added to the station, “I feel haunted; I feel emotionally haunted. I feel anguished. It has given me anxiety, and I realize I am depressed. And I fear that it will last me for the rest of my life.”

WRC reported that the day after the attack, Adams’ father told the station that his son had physically attacked him as well, breaking his hip. Tom Adams also told WRC that his son is bipolar and becomes violent when he doesn’t take his medication.

In court, Alexander Adams apologized for what he did, the station said.

“It’s the city’s and the United States government’s responsibility to protect its citizens, and we suffered that neglect,” John Hopkins told WRC.

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Man who shot his dog to death then burned animal on barbecue grill after 'having a rough day' sentenced to prison



A suburban Philadelphia man who last year shot his dog to death then burned the animal on a barbecue grill after "having a rough day" was sentenced to prison Wednesday, the Bucks County District Attorney's Office said.

Nikolay Lukyanchikov of Northampton Township in southeastern Pennsylvania was sentenced to two to four years in state prison, the DA's office said. Lukyanchikov, 50, entered an open guilty plea to counts of receiving stolen property, aggravated cruelty to animals, possessing an instrument of crime, cruelty to animals, and recklessly endangering another person.

Common Pleas Judge Raymond F. McHugh, who issued the sentence, also ordered that Lukyanchikov can never own, possess, or care for any animals of any kind ever again.

What's the background?

Lukyanchikov adopted the greyhound he named Preacher in October 2019 after the dog was rescued earlier that year from a Macau, China, racetrack that animal rights activists called “the worst hellhole for racing greyhounds in the world.”

But just after 7 a.m. on April 30, 2021, Northampton Township police answered a call about a fire pit and couch on fire in a front yard. Officers found a "highly intoxicated" Lukyanchikov — the property owner — sitting on a bench near the fire and throwing fake $100 bills into the flames, which he was squirting with lighter fluid.

Officers also spotted a 9-mm handgun on the bench, which turned out to be a gun that fired blanks.

Once the fire was extinguished, police found an unknown animal badly burned and charred on top of a small metal charcoal grill. The animal was later determined to be Lukyanchikov’s dog, Preacher. A necropsy determined that Preacher was shot at least once.

A roommate told police she heard several shots coming from Lukyanchikov's bedroom, and when she went to the bedroom to investigate, she found that he had shot his dog. The roommate added that she barricaded herself in her room out of fear.

Police saw blood on the stairwell wall leading up to the second floor and more blood on the floor and throughout Lukyanchikov's second-floor bedroom. Police also found several shell casings on the floor, along with several other firearms in plain view in the bedroom.

Officers also found bullet holes in the floor of the bedroom and exit holes in the ceiling of the first-floor living room. After serving a search warrant, police seized a 9-mm Barretta handgun with an extended magazine and five hollow-point rounds.

Anything else?

Deputy District Attorney Robert D. James during Wednesday’s hearing said due to a 2011 involuntary commitment, Lukyanchikov was not allowed to possess a gun.

But Lukyanchikov tried to buy a gun in 2019 from a Bucks County gun store, which declined the sale. He also wrote to the state to have his gun possession rights restored and even asked his roommate to buy him a gun. She refused.

Lukyanchikov eventually stole a 9-mm Barretta from a friend’s widow a week before he used it to kill his dog, James said.

James also told the judge that during an interview, Lukyanchikov said he shot his dog to relieve the animal's misery — but also because Lukyanchikov was “having a rough day.”

Lukyanchikov has been at the Bucks County Jail — unable to post bail — since he was arrested on the day of the fire, PennLive reported.

Inmate placed in cell with man who raped his little sister. After request for different cellmate allegedly ignored, he kills rapist — and gets 25 years.



Shane Goldsby said he couldn't believe it when he was placed in same Washington state prison cell as Robert Munger.

In 2019, the 70-year-old Munger was sentenced to a minimum of 43 years for multiple child rape charges.

And one of Munger's rape victims was Goldsby's younger sister, KHQ-TV reported.

Man sentenced to 25 years for murdering sister's rapist in prison https://t.co/oBzzCWE1qq https://t.co/197JOHWToe

— New York Post (@nypost) 1628396768.0

'I was in shock'

"I was in shock," Goldsby told the station in a 2020 interview in regard to being placed in the same cell as Munger. "I was like, 'what the f***?'... This stuff doesn't happen. You're talking the same institution, the same unit, the same pod in the same cell as this dude. That's like hitting the jackpot in the casino seven times."

More from KHQ:

Goldsby was the first to admit that he hasn't been a good person. He was arrested in 2017 for stealing a Kelso Police patrol car, taking law enforcement on a lengthy pursuit, then hit a Washington State Patrol vehicle, injuring a trooper inside. He also claimed he's been in more than 20 altercations with correctional officers during his time in prison.

Goldsby said the violent incidents resulted in him being transferred multiple times to different correctional centers, including Shelton, Walla Walla, and Clallam Bay.

Then, "out of the blue," Goldsby said, he was transferred to Airway Heights Correctional Center.

He told the station that Munger "kept... giving me details about what happened and what he did. About the photos and videos of him doing this stuff, and it was building up."

Goldsby also told KHQ he tried at least twice to inform prison staff about what was going on.

"When I showed up in that unit, I walked out of that pod, went to an office and said, 'Hey, I need a new cellie.' And the correctional officer ... was like, 'What? No. We didn't call you.' ... Then I went back to my cell. We got something in there called a button. You hit it if something's going on. So, I hit that button, too, and nobody came on that mic at all," he noted to the station. "So, in my head, I'm not in my head at this point and time. I'm completely feeling like this is what they wanted to happen."

Goldsby kills Munger

Finally in a prison common area last summer, KHQ — citing court documents — reported that Goldsby "[hit] Munger in the face and head area about 14 times, [stomped] on his head at least four times and [kicked] a couple more times before walking away and being taken into custody by Airway Heights Corrections Guards."

Munger later died.

But Goldsby said of the prison, "You put me in the same cell as this dude. I feel set up. I'm the victim," KHQ reported.

Goldsby sentenced

Last week Goldsby was sentenced to 298 months in prison for murdering Munger — just under 25 years, the station said.

KHQ said that before Goldsby was sentenced, he read from a prepared statement but was overcome with emotion, after which his court-appointed attorney finished it: "I cannot imagine what it would be like to lose a loved one in this kind of way. To his wife and his whole family I apologize. I am so sorry, and I hope you are able to heal from what I caused."

Anything else?

The state Department of Corrections has a cellmate policy that is designed to prevent situations like the one that placed Goldsby and Munger together, the station said. But KHQ added that an independent investigation found that prison screeners had no knowledge about the connection between Goldsby and Munger when they were placed in the same cell.