News — murder

When teenager Touria Chaoui became the first female pilot in Morocco and the Arab world in 1952, newspapers across the world reported the event. Women’s organizations congratulated her. She captured the attention of a number of prominent personalities in Morocco, and the late King Mohammed V offered her a red-carpet reception at the palace.

Smashing gender stereotypes to become a female pilot meant a lot to many. Chaoui was now a hero for so many girls at a time the country was under the French protectorate. But her success story did attract the wrong people. Some wanted her to fail while others wanted her dead. A few years after her feat, Chaoui was gunned down at the age of 19, cutting short her life and dazzling career. Some historians said French colonizers tried to murder her several times.

Born in Fez on December 14, 1936, to a French-speaking Moroccan journalist, Abdelwahed Chaoui, and mother named Zina, Chaoui was at the age of 13 hired by French film director Andre Zwoboda for a role in his film “The Seventh Gate”. Chaoui’s father had asked the film director to give her a role. Chaoui didn’t disappoint as she performed amazingly well. A moment in that movie inspired Chaoui to pursue a dream of becoming an aviator.

Her father in 1950 sent her to an aviation academy in Tit Mellil near Casablanca, the only aviation school in the country at the time. The school was reserved for the French forces occupying Morocco, a report said. Chaoui became the first Moroccan girl to step into the school, and while authorities thought she would fail, she worked very hard and succeeded.

At the age of 15, Chaoui fulfilled her dream of becoming a licensed pilot to the admiration of many. But others didn’t think she deserved all the praise. The French, especially, were bent on ending her career. Moroccan historian Abdul Haq Almareni said a French colonizer put a bomb near the door of Chaoui’s villa, but his plan did not materialize. Two French policemen also shot at her in 1955 but they did not succeed in hitting their target, according to Almareni.

Sadly, on March 1, 1956, Chaoui was preparing to fly her private plane to Saudi Arabia when she was assassinated. Sources say she was killed by Ahmed Touil, a man who was involved in nationalist resistance and was reported to have been in love with the 19-year-old pilot. To date, her death remains a mystery.

Moroccans and many in the Arab world were heartbroken when news broke that their only female pilot had been killed. Though many today do not know Chaoui’s name, her story indicates that the road to success comes from hard work, determination and personal sacrifice.

It has been a week since the International Criminal Court (ICC) upheld an earlier acquittal of the former President of Ivory Coast, Laurent Koudou Gbagbo, bringing to an end a decade of legal problems for the 75-year-old who had been charged among others with murder and sexual abuse which marked postelection violence.

After the President of the ICC, Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji, a Nigerian, declared on March 31 that “[t]he appeals chamber, by majority, has found no error that could have materially affected the decision of the trial chamber,” Gbagbo would have heaved the most profound sigh of relief he has ever managed. He had always maintained his innocence but the alacrity with which Gbagbo was processed for adjudication has been hailed as the best possible way to deal with powerful men whose reigns see unspeakable inhuman offenses.

Gbagbo was freed along with the Minister of Youth during his presidency, Charles Blé GoudéOn Wedne, a man blamed by loyalists of the current Ivorian president, Alassane Ouattara, as the one who led the organizational ground game for offensives against rebel alliances from the north as well as against civilians.

Judge Eboe-Osuji also repealed all the conditionalities attached to letting the men go. But as any observer of the politics in the Ivory Coast could tell you, this is a tense never-before-seen moment that will test the fragile peace in the West African country.

Welcomed home?

On Wednesday, Ouattara announced that Gbagbo and Blé Goudé were free to return to their home country if they wanted to. Ivorian authorities, perhaps in anticipation of the present moment, gave Gbagbo an ordinary passport as well as a diplomatic one, depending on which life he chose to live after the ICC’s proceedings.

Gbagbo’s travel expenses, and those of his family as well, will be paid for by the Ivorian state. But Ouattara’s announcement of these packages mentioned nothing about a 20-year prison sentence that awaits Gbagbo from a case tied to embezzlement. He was tried and sentenced in absentia in 2019. It is also not known if the Ivorian government will agree to Gbagbo’s financial demands in line with his importance as a former president.

Jeune Afrique, the pan-African Francophone magazine, has reported that Gbagbo is asking for “a €14,600 [$17,000] monthly allowance plus another €11,400 [$13,500] for transport, gas, electricity, and telephone bills.” These amounts are the same as what he was entitled to when he was arrested by the ICC in April of 2011.

Campaigners for peace and well-wishers will be gladdened by Ouattara’s commitment to involving the state in receiving Gbagbo. However, the president may be expected to go further than that. Gbagbo’s influence may not be insignificant despite being away for about a decade. In Gbagbo, it is possible for elements antithetic to Ouattara to find renaissance.

Religious and ethnic tensions are still very present too, one cannot forget. Ivory Coast still struggles to define what it means by a nation after 60 years.

There are even grounds to doubt what was heralded as reconciliatory efforts by Ouattara’s government last December when Gbagbo was handed the two passports. An African Intelligence report noted at the beginning of this year that the two men had not spoken, with one man waiting for the other to call.

For the seven years Lester Eubanks was in jail, reports said he acted like a model prisoner. Eubanks, then 22, had been convicted of murdering 14-year-old Mary Ellen Deener in 1966. Prosecutors alleged he tried to rape her before beating her and shooting her twice. His death sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1972 when the California Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional.

While at the Ohio State Penitentiary, Eubanks was so well-behaved that he became an Honor Inmate at the facility, enabling him to be given certain privileges. On December 7, 1973, Ohio State Penitentiary granted him a furlough to go Christmas shopping at a local mall as a reward for good behavior. Eubanks was supposed to get back at a specific time and place near the mall when he was done. Rather, he disappeared and hasn’t been seen to date.

His escape baffled many. The family of the 14-year-old he killed was traumatized. “We thought it was over,” said sister Myrtle Carter who was 18 at the time of the murder. “And then lo and behold, he goes Christmas shopping, first of all — that’s a shock — and then escapes. My mom, she was just beside herself.”

“…It bothers me that he’s still missing, that he’s still free and took her innocent life. That bothers me.”

Mary Ellen Deener, a 14-year-old Mansfield, Ohio girl, had gone to do laundry with her younger sister when she ran out of change. She told her little sister to sit tight while she walked to another laundromat five minutes away in search of change. Eubanks, who was out on a bond on an attempted rape charge, was apparently watching Deener, the News Journal reported. He grabbed Deener and dragged her behind a home where he tried to rape her and shot her when she refused to stop screaming, the report added.

Deener’s family later found her dead in the streets, with change still in her hand. The following day, Eubanks confessed to the murder after being arrested by the police. He was subsequently charged with first-degree murder while perpetrating rape. Reports said he tried to plead insanity, without success. On May 25, 1966, a jury found him guilty and sentenced him to death. His death sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1972. The following year, he escaped.

The Ohio Department of Corrections immediately listed Eubanks as a fugitive, but federal authorities would do the same after decades. In the 1990s, the head of the Detective Bureau of the Mansfield Police Department, John Arcudi, delved into Eubanks’ disappearance and found out that the National Crime Information Center had not listed him as wanted. “It had been 20 years and it was like nobody was working the case that we were aware of,” said Arcudi. “He was just out there on his own and nobody seemed concerned about it.”

Arcudi contacted the 1994 TV episode America’s Most Wanted about Eubanks, directing the attention of the public to his case. Several calls came in, with many saying they had spotted him in Northern California. The U.S. Marshal’s officially listed Eubanks on their 15 Most Wanted List.

Eubanks’ case received renewed attention when it was featured last year on the Netflix true-crime documentary series “Unsolved Mysteries”.

On Monday, authorities said they are now closing in on Eubanks. “We believe that he may have never left the Greater Los Angeles area,” Deputy US Marshal David Siler, a member of a cold case squad seeking Eubanks, said, according to KABC-TV. “We’re just hoping for that one, one piece of the puzzle that’s going to get us to his front door.”

Eubanks, after escaping from prison, fled to Los Angeles and worked under the name “Victor Young”, authorities said. He is also believed to have lived off and on with a woman named Kay Eubanks between 1975 and 1996. He worked different jobs including in a waterbed factory and as a hospital janitor. “Fugitives on the run as long as Eubanks tend to use that time to change their appearance, use aliases, and even start new lives,” Siler said, according to City News Service. “He literally could be hiding in plain sight. This is why we are asking citizens to be vigilant and contact us with any information they believe will help us apprehend him.”

Investigators say they know Eubanks has friends and associates in the Los Angeles area. “We just need to talk to those people,” Siler told KABC.

Eubanks, who loved music and art, would be in his 70s now, authorities say. He is described as 5-foot-11-inches with a huge scar on his right arm. “This is one of these cases that you go to bed with, it’s one of these cases that you wake up with. It’s just so disgusting, so unjust,” Siler said, according to KABC. “We continue to fight for [Deener] so that someday she will get justice when we’re able to put Lester Eubanks in custody.”

Dante Brooks, the 18-year-old son of acclaimed Jamaican dancehall musician, Mavado, was on Friday sentenced to life in prison for his involvement in the gruesome killing of a man he and his co-accusers were at odds with in 2018.

Brooks, who was 16 at the time of the incident, also received an additional 20-year sentence for illegal possession of a firearm and a 15-year sentence for arson, local news outlet The Gleaner reported. All the sentences will run concurrently.

Brooks was implicated alongside four others for fatally shooting Lorenzo “Israel” Thomas at his Cassava Piece residence in the Parish of St. Andrew before setting the property ablaze. Thomas’ father, a witness to the incident, managed to flee. Prior to setting the house on fire, Brooks and his co-accusers allegedly tried to behead Thomas but stopped because the machete they were using was too blunt.

Prior to his involvement in the killing of Thomas, Brooks was already out on bail for one of two pending charges, Jamaica Observer reported. When handing out his sentence, Supreme Court Judge Justice Leighton Pusey said Brooks partaking in the murder knowing very well he had to answer for two pending offenses meant he had a “scant regard for the system of justice.”

“Being before the court is supposed to be a caution, and you would need to govern yourself accordingly…whether or not the matter for which he was before the court was an act of violence it would mean he would need to behave himself; it shows his character…it is showing a pattern which is ‘It’s not my fault, I didn’t do anything and I will continue to do as I please,’” Justice Pusey said.

Though the Justice admitted Brooks was a juvenile at the time of the murder, he justified the sentence on the grounds that that is what the law prescribes. He also based the sentence on key pieces of evidence including the crime being a “gun murder”, a “deliberate act, a home invasion for the express purpose of killing” as well as a “case where not just the body but the house itself was burnt.”

Justice Pusey also pointed to Brooks not taking responsibility after he was implicated for his involvement in the killing despite one of his co-accusers, Andre Hines, apologizing for the manner by which the deceased died though he pleaded not guilty, Jamaica Observer reported.

“I note when he was asked about the impact, Mr Hinds said he was sorry. Mr Brooks said he was not guilty and the impact on the community and relatives was not a fault of his,” the justice said.

“That, for me, was a theme throughout his social enquiry report,” he continued, adding that Brooks had the privilege of attending “a very outstanding preparatory school [and] went to one of the oldest high schools, and yet in all these circumstances this is where we find him [before a court of law].

“He is not taking responsibility,” Justice Pusey reiterated, mentioning that Brooks even told his co-accusers Thomas was dead after the killing and also went ahead to remind them that “somebody want the head”.

“Even though he was not the main actor, he was crucial, not a mere bystander; he was crucial to this.”

Brooks, who was found guilty of the crime in January, will only be eligible for parole after serving 22 years of his sentence.

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police on Sunday arrested a man accused of murdering four family members and shooting a fifth following a dispute over stimulus money. Neighbors said Malik Halfacre, 25, shot the mother of his child and killed four of her family members Saturday night at a home on North Randolph Street in Indianapolis.

Halfacre is facing preliminary charges of murder, attempted murder and robbery in connection with the quadruple homicide, police said.

Halfacre on Friday had an argument with Jeanettrius Moore, the mother of his child, about the $1,400 stimulus check issued to assist Americans to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, Wendy Johnson, cousin of Moore, told WXIN. “She had just gotten her money, and he wanted half of her money,” Johnson told the news station.

Moore, who works at a beauty supply shop, gave Halfacre $450 but he left unsatisfied, Johnson said. On Saturday evening, he came back to the house demanding to know where the stimulus money was, Johnson said. Halfacre then began searching Moore’s purse in front of her family members. An argument ensued, and in the process, he pulled out a gun and opened fire, injuring Moore and killing her mother, Tomeeka Brown, 44; brother, Daquan Moore, 23; her cousin, Anthony Johnson, 35; and her daughter, Eve Moore, 7, Johnson said.

Halfacre fled with Moore’s other daughter (the one she shares with him), Johnson said. Moore, injured, ran to a neighbor’s house to ask for help. “She was frantic,” neighbor Craig Jackson told news station WISH. “She was hysterical. She was in pain. She said her baby daddy shot her, and he shot her, her mother and the kids. She said she was the only person who got away.”

Jackson called the police, who started searching for Halfacre. The following morning, the couple’s missing child, Malia, was found, unharmed. Halfacre was also arrested Sunday evening following a four-hour-long stand-off with a SWAT team at an east Indianapolis home.

Sundiata Acoli, a former Black Panther member who was convicted of murder in 1974 and has been denied parole multiple times, will go before New Jersey’s Supreme Court this year to win his freedom, The Washington Post reports. Acoli is serving a life sentence for the 1973 murder of a New Jersey state trooper during a shootout in which Assata Shakur, the self-exiled aunt of Tupac Shakur, was also arrested. Shakur escaped in 1979 and fled to Cuba, where she was granted political asylum.

Acoli has been eligible for parole since 1992 but has been denied so many times. “You can have someone elderly who may still be dangerous in some rare cases, but that is not this man. I mean, he has not had a single problem of any kind in prison for 25 years,” Bruce Afran, Acoli’s attorney, told The Washington Post. “Frankly, the reason they’re denying him parole is because a state trooper was killed. I can think of no other reason for this treatment,” he said.

In the 1970s when the black liberation fighters’ struggle was at its peak in the United States, it gave birth to militant groups like Philadelphia-based MOVE founded by John Africa in 1972 and the Black Panther Party founded in late October 1966 by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. The Black Panthers’ militant wing was called the Black Liberation Army.

Acoli, a member of the Black Liberation Army, was on May 2, 1973, driving just after midnight when a state trooper, James Harper, stopped him for a “defective taillight”. Acoli was then in the vehicle with two others — Assata Shakur and Zayd Malik Shakur — who were also members of the Black Liberation Army. Harper was joined by another trooper, Werner Foerster, at the scene. Foerster then found an ammunition magazine for an automatic pistol on Acoli. A shootout ensued; Foerster died in the process and Harper was wounded.

Assata Shakur was arrested while Zayd Malik Shakur was found dead near the car. Acoli fled but was caught some hours later. Acoli and Shakur were convicted of the murder of Foerster in separate trials. Acoli said he did not remember what happened as he passed out after being hit by a bullet. In 1974, Acoli was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after 25 years. Acoli became eligible for parole in 1992 but was not allowed to take part in his own parole hearing. All in all, he has been denied parole eight times. His lawyer, Afran, said each time he is denied, the reason given is the same — “he hasn’t done enough psychological counseling; he doesn’t fully admit to his crime, or he hasn’t adequately apologized for it,” according to the Post.

Tony Ciavolella, a board spokesman, told the Post: “Denials of his parole were decided upon impartially, fairly, and . . . in accordance with statutory and administrative regulations.”

In 2014, a state appellate panel ruled that Acoli should be released, citing good behavior since 1996. The state Attorney General’s office however contested and the case was sent back to the board. Again, it denied Acoli’s request. Acoli is currently appealing that decision. “Sundiata’s case is a glaring example of the need for parole reform in New Jersey and throughout the United States,” said Joseph J. Russo, Deputy Public Defender in the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender’s Appellate Section.

In 2020, Acoli contracted Covid-19 and was hospitalized, his lawyers said, adding that he suffers from early-stage dementia and has hearing problems.

A Black Mississippi man who was convicted of raping and murdering an 84-year-old White woman and sentenced to death in 1994 has been exonerated after the state Supreme Court “discredited” bite mark evidence that was used to convict him.

In a statement, the Innocence Project, who represented Eddie Lee Howard, said their client was cleared of the crime based on new forensic opinion pertaining to bite marks as well as strong alibis, and new DNA tests that were conducted on the crime scene evidence. The blood and DNA samples taken from the murder weapon did not tie Howard to the murder.

According to CNN, Howard was convicted of the murder after a doctor testified the bite marks found on the body of the victim – Georgia Kemp – matched Howard’s teeth. In August, the Mississippi Supreme Court, however, ruled that the bite-mark comparisons were not substantial enough to link Howard to the murder, writing that “an individual perpetrator cannot be reliably identified through bite-mark comparison.”

“After reviewing the record, we conclude that Howard’s evidence as to the change in the scientific understanding of the reliability of identification through bite-mark comparisons was almost uncontested. Based on this record, we agree with Howard that a forensic dentist would not be permitted to identify Howard as the biter today as Dr. West did at Howard’s trial in 2000,” the court wrote.

In effect, the Mississippi Supreme Court, on August 31, moved to vacate Howard’s conviction after being on death row for over two decades. He was subsequently released from the state’s death row in December and was finally exonerated on Friday, January 8.

“I want to say many thanks to the many people who are responsible for helping to make my dream of freedom a reality,” Howard said in a statement via the Innocence Project. “I thank you with all my heart, because without your hard work on my behalf, I would still be confined in that terrible place called the Mississippi Department of Corrections, on death row, waiting to be executed.”

Howard is among four formerly incarcerated Mississippi natives on death to have been ultimately exonerated as a result of discredited and unscientific forensic evidence, according to the Innocence Project. He is also the 28th person in the United States convicted with bite-mark comparison evidence to be exonerated.

“Mr. Howard was sentenced to death based on unfounded forensics with no physical evidence or witnesses to the crime,” Vanessa Potkin, one of Howard’s attorneys, said.

“Like Mr. Howard, 21 other men and women on death row across the country have had their innocence proven by DNA, including Kennedy Brewer. Mr. Brewer, who is also a Black man, spent 15 years on Mississippi’s death row based on false bite mark evidence. We know there are more innocent people currently on death row pleading for post-conviction relief. The death penalty is the most extreme and irreversible form of punishment. Mr. Howard’s case is a prime example of why we cannot afford to use it when human error is still so prevalent in the criminal justice system.”

Officials in Philadelphia on Wednesday agreed to pay $9.8 million to an exonerated Black man who spent 28 years of his life in prison after he was convicted for a murder he did not commit. Prior to his conviction, Chester Hollman III had no criminal record.

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Hollman, then a 21-year-old armored-car driver, was driving around Center City in 1991 when he was pulled over and arrested for allegedly fatally shooting a student from the University of Pennsylvania in a botched street robbery. Hollman was, however, exonerated last year at the age of 49 after a judge ruled the evidence the police and prosecutors used was based on fabricated statements from witnesses they coerced. They also reportedly withheld evidence that could have likely implicated those who committed the crime.

“There are no words to express what was taken from me,” Hollman said in a statement, according to The Inquirer. “But this settlement closes out a difficult chapter in my life as my family and I now embark on a new one.”

Hollman’s settlement – which is one of the largest ever for an exonerated person in the city’s history – comes in the wake of other seven-figure settlements authorities have had to pay for acts of misconduct committed by the city’s police between the late 1980s and 90s. Since 2018, they have had to fork out over $35 million of taxpayers’ money to settle over a dozen people who were wrongfully convicted. City officials agreed to Hollman’s settlement even before he filed a lawsuit.

Speaking with The Inquirer, Hollman’s attorney, Amelia Green, said authorities were forced to swiftly resolve his case due to the weight of the evidence proving his innocence. City officials and the police have, however, not admitted any wrongdoing.

“There was irrefutable evidence that Chester was innocent, is innocent and has always been innocent and would never have been wrongfully convicted aside from extraordinary police misconduct,” Green said.

Hollman’s attorneys also said their client – who always maintained his innocence while incarcerated – was racially profiled by the police just because the car he was driving matched the description of the assailants. The two witnesses who confirmed Hollman as the shooter at the trial, also recanted, saying they were coerced by the detectives handling the case.

Detectives also allegedly ignored crucial tips and evidence that strongly linked likely suspects to the murder because they were already building their case around Hollman, the Conviction Integrity Unit revealed, according to The Inquirer. Prosecutors also failed to present that evidence – which would have vindicated Hollman – to the defense during the trial.

Meanwhile, the detectives behind the many wrongful conviction cases the city has had to settle, have either retired or are still with the force and have risen up the ranks. “You don’t have this many exonerations from one cohort of detectives unless it was a pervasive culture,” Green said. “There’s no way that the highest ranks weren’t aware.”

In September of 1994, members of the Black Disciples street gang in Chicago decided 11-year-old Robert Sandifer was a little too much even for young men who were putting down rivals, as they would say, on the regular.

Sandifer, who was also called Yummy because he liked cookies, had proven exuberant and conspicuous. The Disciples feared that if they did not rein him in, the prepubescent could become an informant.

Yummy’s tendency to be showy and reckless means the police could grab him. And if they did, they would use the boy to get to the Disciples.

And so on September 1, the Disciples took out Yummy on the railroad underpass at East 108th Street and South Dauphin Avenue.

He was shot in the back of his head by Cragg and Derrick Hardaway, who were 14 and 16 respectively. The pair had ordered Yummy to go down on his knees.

Indeed, there had been a police manhunt for Yummy due to what Chicago’s head of police at the time, Sgt Ronald Palmer said was an initiation gone wrong.

On August 28 of that year, Yummy opened fire on a group of people, presumably from a rival gang, with a 9mm semiautomatic. He immediately fled the scene.

But Yummy also hit 14-year-old Shavon Dean, an innocent young girl who had been around the scene. Dean later died from the bullet wounds.

When rumors spread nationally that the perpetrator of the crime had been an 11-year-old, the shock of the crime was tripled.

Recent debates about what Chicago means to young black men have their foundations from about this time. The frequency of the terrors left so many with questions.

The Hardaway brothers had been sent by the Disciples on August 31 to deal with the problem Yummy had brought the gang. The brothers were later convicted.

Interestingly, the Black Disciples were founded in 1966 as part of efforts to advance civil rights. Along the way, that noble vision was lost.

A 27-year-old Texas man has been accused of killing his wife and two children after he was found lying next to their bodies. Bryan Richardson has been charged with three counts of murder in the deaths of his wife, Kiera Michelle Ware, and their two young children, whose names have not been released, the Copperas Cove Police Department said in a statement.

According to reports, the police were called around 9:32 p.m. Saturday for a welfare check on the family in Copperas Cove after the deceased woman’s brother was not able to reach her.

Upon arriving at the home of the family, the police found “a large amount of blood on the kitchen and living room floors,” according to a criminal complaint obtained by KWTX-TV. A small dog was also found dead in a pool of blood in the kitchen, the complaint stated.

The police officers then found a large pool of blood outside a bedroom that was locked from the inside. They forced open the door and found Richardson lying on a bed covered in blood, with the bodies of his wife and two children next to him, according to court documents. A bloody knife, an empty six-pack of beer and an empty bottle of Trazodone, a prescription antidepressant, were also found in the home.

When the police asked Richardson what happened, he said he did not know, the complaint stated. The officers however found three cuts on Richardson’s left arm which he allegedly said were self-inflicted. Later, Richardson was asked if he was worried about losing his job, his wife or custody of his children. He allegedly responded, “I already lost all of those.”

Richardson, who worked at a GNC vitamin and nutrition shop, is being held on a $2.25 million bond. He has not yet entered a plea.

A Chinese man who was studying chemistry at Pennsylvania’s Lehigh University on a student visa has pleaded guilty to attempted murder after poisoning his former Black roommate’s food and drinks with heavy metal in 2018.

According to WFMZ, the accused, Yukai Yang, entered the guilty plea – one count of attempted murder – on Monday in exchange for the Northampton County District Attorney’s Office to drop other charges in relation to two other cases after he is sentenced.

He was initially charged with attempted murder, reckless endangerment and assault. The 24-year-old faces 6 to 20 years in prison, and also faces deportation to his native China after serving his time as he’s a non-US citizen. His student visa has also been revoked.

Testifying before the court, First Assistant District Attorney Richard Pepper said Yang purchased the poisonous heavy metal, thallium, in March 2018, and then started lacing it in the food and drinks of his roommate, Juwan Royal. The two had reportedly been roommates for four years.

Royal, who testified in 2018, told the court about the “unfathomable pain” he felt and the string of medical conditions he suffered, including nausea, weight loss, headaches and heart palpitations, due to the thallium poisoning, WFMZ reported.

Royal said he initially started feeling a tingling sensation in his arms, hands, feet and legs. He said the tingling sensation aggravated into a “pain that I didn’t think was possible.”

“It was as if someone took a hundred tiny knives, set them on fire and was stabbing my feet,” he told the court.

Between March and May of that year, Royal testified he lost around 20 pounds and could hardly ingest any food, adding that the poisoning even made him afraid to eat. Royal also said the pain in his feet was so “excruciating” he could neither sleep nor climb the stairs and had to even wear a heart monitor for some time as a result of the palpitations.

“It felt as though my body was failing me,” he testified. He was reportedly diagnosed with heavy metal poisoning in April 2018. Though the pain in his feet eventually disappeared, Royal told the court he still feels numbness in his toes, and he is less energetic as compared to his condition prior to the poisoning, WFMZ reported.

Royal said he couldn’t identify what may have caused Yang to poison him. Though he admitted they weren’t the best of friends, he described their relationship as amicable and friendly. Prior to the attempted murder charges being filed against Yang, he was being investigated for ethnic intimation after he allegedly destroyed Royal’s television and also wrote racial slurs on his stuff.

Yang’s sentencing is scheduled for January 21, although subject to change.

A South African environmental activist who opposed the extension of a coalmine near her home has been shot dead in her home.

Fikile Ntshangase, 65, was involved in a legal dispute over the extension of an opencast mine operated by Tendele Coal near Somkhele, close to Hluhluwe–Imfolozi park, the oldest nature reserve in Africa.

Local police told the Guardian that four men entered Ntshangase’s home in Ophondweni, KwaZulu-Natal province, at about 6.30pm on Thursday and shot her dead. A 13-year-old child witnessed the murder and is helping authorities with their investigation. No arrests have been made.

Tendele Coal condemned what it called a “senseless killing” and called for calm, in a joint statement with local leaders.

The coalmine had been the focus of a protracted legal dispute between the company, conservationists, and some locals who are in favour of extending it for economic reasons.

Kirsten Youens, Ntshangase’s lawyer, said her client was a “courageous activist” against the expansion of the mine. Ntshangase was a prominent member of the Mfolozi Community Environmental Justice Organisation.

“She was incredibly outspoken about the truth and justice, having no qualms about calling people out who she felt with being devious or untruthful,” Youens said. “She did not compromise her ethics. Ever. As her attorney, I will miss her truth, her fire and courage. She did not deserve to die. We are devastated by her loss.”

She said Ntshangase had said recently: “I cannot sell out my people and if need be I will die for my people.”

People near the mine have been the focus of threats of violence and intimidation in recent months, according to lawyers representing the communities. Families that have refused to be relocated from their ancestral lands have reportedly been shot at.

A Global Witness report in July said a record number of people around the world were killed for defending their land and environment in 2019. The total was 212, up nearly 30% from the previous year’s 164.