Category: Crime
Arkansas mayor who was praised as youngest black mayor accused of inappropriate Snapchat messages with 14-year-old boy
The mayor of an Arkansas town who was praised as the youngest black mayor in history has been accused of paying off a 14-year-old boy to keep quiet about inappropriate Snapchat messages.
Earle Mayor Jaylen Smith, 21, is being investigated by the Arkansas State Police after receiving a tip from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
‘The mayor did pay my son $500 to not tell me, but he ended up telling me anyway.’
A woman told WREG-TV that the mayor had met her son in 2024 at Earle High School, where her son attended. The mayor gave her son clothes and money, according to the woman, who asked to remain anonymous, and then made sexual advances via Snapchat messages.
She provided correspondence from a person she said was the mayor, but WREG said it was not able to independently verify that the account belonged to the mayor.
She said that she told her son to tell the man to stop contacting him but that he persisted. She alleges that the man then paid him money to keep it quiet.
“The mayor did pay my son $500 to not tell me, but he ended up telling me anyway,” she said.
Smith denied the claims vehemently in a statement Friday.
“I want to speak directly and clearly to the people of Earle: the accusations being reported are false. I am innocent. Truth matters, and in time, the truth will stand on its own,” reads the statement in part.
“While I would like to directly and unequivocally address the allegations against me, I have been advised to reserve any substantive statements regarding the allegations until a later date,” he added.
WREG reported that the superintendent of Earle Schools expressed concern in Nov. 2024 over the mayor visiting the campus. The district’s attorney sent a letter asking the mayor to ask permission prior to visits and to express the purpose of those visits.
Smith had been elected in 2022 just months after graduating from high school when he was 18 years old. He is not currently facing charges.
Earle is a town of about 1,700 residents located 30 minutes west of Memphis.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Radical teen who plotted to kill Trump and lived with corpses of slain parents pleads guilty
After a Wisconsin teen failed to turn up to school for two weeks early last year, officers from the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department were asked to conduct a welfare check on his family home. When they arrived at the residence on Feb. 28, 2025, officers made a horrific discovery.
The teen, 18-year-old Nikita Casap, brutally murdered his mother, Tatiana Casap, and his stepfather, Donald Mayer, on Feb. 11, stuffed their bodies under blankets, and proceeded to live with their rotting corpses for weeks before fleeing the state.
Casap’s parricide was evidently a means to an even darker end: financing an assassination attempt against President Donald Trump.
‘As to why, specifically Trump, I think it’s obvious.’
Casap, whose family was visited by the FBI in November 2023 regarding unspecified internet IP activity, pleaded guilty on Thursday to two counts of first-degree intentional homicide, each of which carry a mandatory life sentence.
When asked by Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Ralph Ramirez whether he understood the implications of his guilty plea and whether he had in fact murdered his mother and stepfather, Casap said, “Yes, Your Honor,” the New York Post reported.
RELATED: ‘Julia,’ son of wealthy Democrat donor, identified as suspect in Vance home attack
Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images
In exchange for Casap’s guilty plea, prosecutors dropped various other charges against the murderer, including two counts of hiding a corpse and theft of property over $10,000.
Hours after the bodies of Casap’s victims were discovered on Feb. 28, police in WaKeeney, Kansas, captured the teen, who had fled in his stepfather’s SUV.
Officers found Mayer’s .357 magnum revolver and multiple boxes of .357 magnum and .38 special ammunition in the car along with the victims’ phones and wallets, jewelry, various electronic devices, and a large amount of American and European currency.
According to a federal search warrant, investigators found evidence indicating Casap was a nihilistic violent extremist — someone engaged “in criminal conduct within the United States and abroad, in furtherance of political, social, or religious goals that derive primarily from a hatred of society at large and a desire to bring about its collapse by sowing indiscriminate chaos, destruction, and social instability.”
In a March 10 interview with WSCO, one of Casap’s classmates recalled that the killer told him that he had been in contact with a Russian via Telegram and was planning to assassinate Trump.
FBI agents found messages from Casap to a Telegram user with the handle “Angel of Death” discussing how to convert a drone into a long-range attack drone capable of avoiding detection and dropping an explosive, a Molotov cocktail, or poison. He also discussed how long he would have to hide before relocating to Ukraine.
Investigators also found a three-page document entitled “Accelerate the Collapse” in which Casap discussed murdering Trump in order to trigger a political revolution and America’s collapse to “save the white race” from “Jewish controlled” politicians.
“As to why, specifically Trump, I think it’s obvious,” Casap wrote. “By getting rid of the president and perhaps the vice president, that is guaranteed to bring in some chaos. And not only that, but it will further bring into the public the idea that assassinations and accelerating the collapse are possible things to do.”
The FBI apparently also found textual conversations indicating Casap was supportive of the teachings of the Order of the Nine Angles, a satanic pedophile cult known for anti-Semitism, hatred for Christianity, identitarianism, and admiration for Adolf Hitler and other loathsome historic figures.
Waukesha County District Attorney Lesli Boese reportedly told reporters that she will implore the judge to deny Casap any chance at parole, noting that the killer is “a danger to the community.”
Casap is scheduled to be sentenced on March 5.
Federal charges have not yet been filed; however, an FBI affidavit notes that there is cause to believe Casap committed numerous federal crimes, including conspiracy to assassinate the president and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction utilizing interstate or foreign commerce.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
‘Horror movie come to life’: Man faces nearly 600 charges after 100 skulls and skeletons were allegedly found in his home
Police investigators said they were horrified to find more than 100 skulls and skeletons at the Pennsylvania home of a man who is now facing nearly 600 criminal charges.
Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse announced in a press conference Thursday that 34-year-old Jonathan Gerlach of Ephrata had been charged with 574 counts, including trespassing, abuse of a corpse, and theft.
‘It is truly, in the most literal sense of the word, horrific. I grieve for those who are upset by this.’
Detectives had been on a stakeout at the historic Mount Moriah Cemetery and Arboretum in Yeadon Tuesday when they noticed that a car belonging to Gerlach had “numerous bones and skulls in plain view in the back seat.”
They said they saw the man leaving the cemetery with a burlap bag and a crowbar. When he was detained and questioned, Gerlach admitted that he had stolen human remains from 30 grave sites.
They found far worse after raiding the man’s home.
“Detectives walked into a horror movie come to life in that home,” Rouse said at the press conference. “It is truly, in the most literal sense of the word, horrific. I grieve for those who are upset by this, who are going through this, who are trying to figure out if it is in fact one of their loved ones.”
Investigators are now trying to determine why Gerlach had been collecting the remains.
They are also investigating Gerlach’s involvement in a group on Facebook titled, “Human Bones and Skull Selling Group.”
Rouse said that some of the remains were hung up, some were pieced together, and skulls were found on the man’s shelf.
“Very simply, detectives have recovered an awful lot of bones at this point, and we are still trying to piece together who they are, where they are from, and how many we are looking at,” Rouse said. “It’s going to be quite some time before we have a final answer.”
Gerlach is being held at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility on bail of $1 million.
RELATED: 4 people arrested over human remains scattered across New York, bail reform sets them free
“Rest in peace is rest in peace, and this is definitely something that tears at your heartstrings,” Yeadon Police Chief Henry Giammarco said.
The cemetery was founded in 1855, according to a sign at the entrance.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Ohio woman pleads guilty to horrific child sex abuse charges and bestiality — and will testify against her husband
An Ohio woman agreed to testify against her husband after they were arrested for creating and disseminating child sex abuse material as well as bestiality.
Prosecutors said the material was found after a search warrant was performed at Shawna Mayfield’s home in Warren based on a tip from the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
Prosecutors agreed to recommend a 30-year sentence in the plea deal in return for her cooperation.
Warren police said they found evidence that Mayfield had produced, created, and spread the child sex abuse material. She was arrested in August.
Two children allegedly told investigators that they were compelled to engage in sex acts by the woman.
“Additionally, the state found videos of the defendant performing sex acts with an animal, specifically a dog, and again,” prosecutor Gabe Wildman said, “while executing the search warrant in the final count, this defendant and her co-defendant had a marijuana grow on the premises that exceeded the statutory limits.”
Mayfield pleaded guilty to five counts of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor, eight counts of rape, one count of sexual conduct with an animal, and endangering children.
Prosecutors agreed to recommend a 30-year sentence in the plea deal in return for her cooperation and agreement to testify against her 37-year-old husband, Justin Mayfield.
Her husband was charged with multiple counts of rape, one count of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, and one count of endangering children.
Prosecutors have offered him a plea deal that would put him in prison for 50 years to life. His attorney asked for less time in prison after noting that his wife had more charges against her but with a lower sentence.
RELATED: 21-year-old Texas man who allegedly sold child sex and bestiality videos turned in by relative
Justin Mayfield’s trial will begin later in January, and Shawna Mayfield will be officially sentenced later as well.
The man’s Facebook page listed him as a “digital creator,” according to WKRC-TV.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Note saying ‘Call the police’ leads to arrest of elderly man’s live-in caretaker, police say
An 81-year old widower and Navy veteran said he was forced to seek help through a note on his mailbox after his live-in caretaker became allegedly abusive.
The victim, who didn’t want to be identified publicly, said that 60-year-old Denise Williams took away his phone and his car keys after getting angry with him at his house in Lantana, Florida.
‘She jumped on my chest and started grabbing it, my phone, and she finally got it and scratched me.’
“Every month, every day, she got a little bit worse,” the man said to WPBF-TV.
Williams got so angry at the state of the man’s bathroom that he tried to call 911 after she yelled at him. She stopped him by squeezing his hand until he could no longer stand the pain.
“She jumped on my chest. I was lying down, trying to get my phone, and she jumped on my chest and started grabbing it, my phone, and she finally got it and scratched me,” he said.
Williams then took steps to ensure that he not call for help, according to the victim.
“Then she grabbed my phone, the two house phones, the landline phones, and my car keys, dumped them in her room, and locked the door,” he added.
He decided to scrawl a plea for help on a note left on his mailbox.
“Call the police,” it read.
The mail carrier saw the note and reported it to his supervisor. That supervisor reported it to the Lantana Police, who responded to the call and found Williams at a nearby gas station with the man’s debit card and checkbook.
Williams was charged with numerous counts, including battery on an elderly victim and robbery. She was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail.
RELATED: Elderly woman beaten to death with a rock — police found her daughter ‘covered in blood’
Despite the ordeal, the man says he’s worried Williams has nowhere to go. He said she had worked for him for about two and a half years and been paid $2,000 a month to care for him.
“I’m sorry for her. I really am,” he said. “Because she has no place to go right now, other than where she’s going after she gets out of the hospital.”
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Video shows wild car chase after police rescue 11-year-old from alleged kidnapper who tortured him at campsite
A harrowing video showed a wild police chase after a routine traffic stop that led to the rescue of an alleged kidnapping victim and the arrest of his kidnapper in Florida.
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office said deputies pulled over a white Ford F-150 on U.S. Highway 1 on Wednesday after a 911 caller reported suspicious activity. They found a 60-year-old man identified as Darnell Hairston with two male juveniles.
‘A caller that knew his background as a sex offender with two children in his pickup truck called us. And if it wasn’t for that, we might be investigating a completely different crime.’
When deputies separated an 11-year-old boy, he told them he had been kidnapped by Hairston and feared for his life.
“He told us that he thought they were going to kill him,” Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said.
Police video showed deputies taking down the man before the other juvenile passenger, a 15-year-old boy, got into the truck and fled from the scene. He comes within inches of driving over one officer’s feet. When police followed the vehicle, he rammed one cruiser before crashing the truck.
The 11-year-old had been missing for three days and was treated at a hospital, according to police.
He allegedly told police that he had been lured to a wooded campsite at Flagler Estates, where he was choked unconscious. When he regained consciousness, he was gagged with duct tape and tied with an extension cord and shoelaces. He also said he was threatened with a knife and firearm.
The boy was forced to hide under a blanket on the floorboard of the truck while being transported, according to investigators.
Search warrants performed on the man’s vehicle, his residence, and the campsite led to the recovery of duct tape, weapons, and video surveillance equipment. Police said these were consistent with statements given by the victim.
Investigators said the two juveniles were in a Snapchat group where the 11-year-old was warning others about Hairston being a sexual predator.
Video of the traffic stop was posted to the sheriff’s office Facebook account.
Hairston was eventually charged with kidnapping of a child under 13, aggravated child abuse, battery by strangulation, and robbery with a deadly weapon. He had been initially arrested for attempting to disarm a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest.
The 15-year-old boy was placed into the custody of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice. He faces multiple charges and is being investigated as a possible co-conspirator.
Hairston is being held without bond at the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility and may face additional charges.
“A caller that knew his background as a sex offender with two children in his pickup truck called us,” Staly said. “And if it wasn’t for that, we might be investigating a completely different crime.”
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
