America Today Staff 
A casual greeting and hug inside a Williams County courtroom became the focus of a North Dakota Supreme Court appeal this week. The high court has upheld the conviction of Joshua Brock Martinez, ruling that the trial judge acted properly when he removed a juror who appeared overly friendly with the defendant’s family. Martinez was … Read more
A 17-year-old Jacksonville teen is facing murder charges after police say he fatally stabbed his father during a violent altercation Tuesday night. Deputies with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office District 4 responded to a home on Wheeler Avenue, near Blanding Boulevard, just before 7 p.m. after receiving reports of a stabbing. When officers entered the home, … Read more
A transgender civilian employee of the Illinois National Guard has filed a federal class action lawsuit challenging the Trump-Vance administration’s policy that bars transgender and intersex federal employees from using restrooms that match their gender identity. The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of D.C., ACLU of Illinois, and Democracy Forward filed the complaint on behalf … Read more
The Indiana State Police say they are investigating a crash between an Amish buggy and a motor vehicle that happened around 3 p.m. Wednesday on US 20 near C.R. 1000 West. Police say their preliminary investigation showed the horse-drawn buggy, carrying 75-year-old Marvin and 74-year-old Ruby Shrock of Shipshewana, was traveling east along the shoulder … Read more
Court documents from Marshall County show that 46-year-old Damon Daniels faces multiple charges for graffiti on a Plymouth church, a residence, an attorney’s office, a truck, and damage to parked cars. Authorities charged Daniels with three counts of Criminal Mischief involving damage between $750 and $50,000 — all misdemeanors — and one count of Institutional … Read more
The Massachusetts jury hearing the case against Brian Walshe viewed a series of photos Wednesday showing items covered in what appeared to be blood, as prosecutors continued building their argument that he murdered his wife around New Year’s 2023. The evidence presentation marked the third day of witness testimony in Walshe’s murder trial. Prosecutors also … Read more
“She was wrapped like a mummy. She had no face and no ears. Her hair was gone. The only thing I could see was her toes,” Alma Ogden, Amanda Buchanan’s friend, said in court. A man accused of setting a woman on fire at a Chula Vista 7-Eleven last year—an attack that ultimately killed her—appeared … Read more
A 29-year-old Indianapolis man has been sentenced to 35 years in the Indiana Department of Correction after pleading guilty in the 2023 shooting death of Jalen Hurd, according to Lake County court records. Keeon Jamarr Lee, whom investigators identified using surveillance video, vehicle records, cell-phone data, and evidence recovered from a Buick Lacrosse registered to … Read more
A Merrillville man, 25-year-old Joseph Steven Sanders, has been charged in Lake County after investigators detailed a violent incident that they say caused significant injuries during an alleged domestic battery and confinement on November 29, 2025. According to the probable cause affidavit, officers responded to a Merrillville home after receiving a report that a man … Read more
Jeffrey Raymond Crider, 20, of DeMotte, has been charged and arrested after investigators say security footage captured him breaking into his ex-girlfriend’s Hebron apartment, cutting out a window screen, entering the residence, and leaving with her pet cat. According to the probable cause affidavit, police were dispatched around 11:45 AM on October 22, 2025, to … Read more