Defense attorneys for Bryan Kohberger had sought to strike capital punishment as an option in his upcoming murder trial, but Judge Steven Hippler denied the request.
“No court has ever found ASD to be a categorically death-disqualifying diagnosis,” Hippler wrote in the ruling.
He wrote that prosecutors were correct in their arguments that autism spectrum disorder does not qualify under the law for exemptions for the death penalty under intellectual disabilities, and that there is no national consensus on the issue.
Kohberger is charged with murder and other counts in the stabbing deaths of four students in an off-campus Moscow, Idaho, home where most of the victims lived on Nov. 13, 2022.
He is accused of killing Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin in the three story-home. Investigators believe the students were killed sometime between 4 a.m. and 4:25 a.m., according to court documents. Their bodies were discovered later that morning after roommates were unable to contact them.
In a separate ruling Thursday, Hippler allowed the 911 call from the surviving roommates the day the bodies were discovered and texts to be admitted at trial, as long the proper foundation is laid. Some redactions were ordered.
Kohberger was a resident of Pullman, Washington, around 10 miles from Moscow, and he was doctoral student in the criminal justice and criminology department at the Washington State University when the killings occurred.
He was arrested in northeastern Pennsylvania on Dec. 30, 2022.
Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders was not selected in the first round of the NFL draft Thursday.
Sanders, 23, was one of the most polarizing prospects in this year’s NFL draft. Many mock drafts predicted Sanders would land with the Pittsburgh Steelers with the 21st pick in the first round, though opinions ranged from as high as third overall to out of the first round entirely.
The Steelers ultimately took Oregon defensive tackle Derrick Harmon at that spot.
The only other quarterback taken in the first round after No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward was Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart. The New York Giants traded for the 25th pick to select Dart.
The son of NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, the Buffaloes’ head coach, Shedeur Sanders was the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year in his senior campaign at Colorado, completing 74.0% of his passes with 37 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
Sanders began his collegiate career at Jackson State, a historically Black university, in 2021, when his father was the head coach. After two seasons with the Tigers, he followed his father to Colorado, where he spent another two years.
The Buffaloes won only one game the year before Sanders arrived. In his second season they won nine, their most since 2016.
In the lead-up to the draft, scouts and coaches raised questions about Sanders both on and off the field.
One quarterbacks coach reportedly referred to him as “brash” and “arrogant.” Another assistant coach told NFL Network that he was “entitled” after what he described as “the worst formal interview” he’d ever been a part of.
“He’s so entitled,” the anonymous assistant told NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero. “He takes unnecessary sacks. He never plays on time. He has horrible body language. He blames teammates. … But the biggest thing is, he’s not that good.”
On the field, Sanders has been criticized for both his lack of arm strength and his decision-making. In his two seasons with the Buffaloes, he took a whopping 94 sacks.
But he has also been lauded for his accuracy, completing over 70% of his throws over the last two years.
“I truly don’t have any space for negativity, so it doesn’t play a factor in my life at all,” Sanders told NBC News this month about the criticism he has received. “I understand the easiest thing in the world to do is to be negative instead of positive. I truly don’t care what people have to say.”
He added: “I’m happy everything is happening this way. I like a lot of chaos, because it shows you who’s really there. I wouldn’t change a thing, because this adds to the story.”
Hunter is perhaps the draft’s best athlete, a top recruit out of high school who developed into a star while playing both receiver and cornerback for Colorado and coach Deion Sanders.
With the fifth pick it received from Jacksonville, the Cleveland Browns took Michigan defensive tackle Mason Graham.
Cleveland badly needs a quarterback, with even team owner Jimmy Haslam recently describing the Browns’ disastrous trade for Deshaun Watson as a “big swing and miss,” yet the pick of Graham and the initial trade down from No. 2 suggest the Browns were not enticed by the class of quarterbacks available.
Next year’s quarterback class could potentially include Arch Manning of Texas and Penn State’s Drew Allar.
The trade to grab Hunter brought to mind comments made by new Jaguars general manager James Gladstone at his introductory press conference months ago.
“We will prioritize people and players that are intangibly rich, and by doing so, they will elevate our ecosystem by being nothing more than themselves,” Gladstone, 34, said.
Hunter is certainly more than a typical player. Last season he caught 96 passes, including 15 touchdowns, averaging 12.9 yards per reception — the type of big-play target who could help Trevor Lawrence, the Jaguars quarterback and former No. 1 overall pick.
Defensively, Hunter had 36 tackles and four interceptions with 11 passes defended.
Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Jaguars are expected to allow Hunter to play both offense and defense in the NFL, which was his wish.
Pizzo said the state’s political system resembled “the infighting, power struggles, corruption and decline of civic virtue that pervaded and eventually ushered in the fall of Rome.”
“So, too, are we players, or perhaps props, in the mess that is bottom partisanship,” Pizzo said.
Pizzo, who is considered a potential candidate for governor next year, said he felt liberated by his decision.
“I think stripping myself of the title of the party designation allows me to run free and clear, clean and transparent and help many, many more,” he said in his remarks.
Pizzo, who was first elected to the state Senate in 2018, represents a district that includes parts of Broward and Miami-Dade counties. He previously was an assistant state attorney in the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office.
State Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said in a statement that the state party was “more united without him.”
“Jason Pizzo is one of the most ineffective and unpopular Democratic leaders in recent memory, and his resignation is one of the best things to happen to the party in years,” Fried said. “His legacy as leader includes continually disparaging the party base, starting fights with other members, and chasing his own personal ambitions at the expense of Democratic values.”
Pizzo did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Fried’s statement.
Senate Democrats elected Sen. Lori Berman as their new leader hours after Pizzo’s announcement. Berman was elected to the Senate in 2018 to represent part of Palm Beach County after having served in the state House. Berman did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday evening.
Other lawmakers have left the Democratic Party in recent months include state Reps. Susan Valdes and Hillary Cassel, who announced switches to the Republican Party in December.
Evan Power, who chairs the Republican Party of Florida, said in a statement that Pizzo “didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the party left him,” noting the two other lawmakers who recently left the party.
“This decision underscores the radicalization of today’s Democratic Party,” Power said.
There are roughly 1.2 million more registered Republican voters than Democrats in Florida. Roughly 26% of all registered voters in the state have no party affiliation. Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris in the presidential election in the state last year 56.1% to 43%.
A private equity executive is accused of raping and assaulting six women in his New York City apartment over a five-month period, and prosecutors say “there may be more survivors” of the man’s alleged wrath.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office unsealed a 116-count New York State Supreme Court indictment on Thursday, charging Ryan Hemphill, 43, with predatory sexual assault, rape and assault — among other charges — in a series of alleged acts that began Oct. 3.
Hemphill was arrested March 1. He has been held in jail since and appeared in court for his arraignment Thursday.
He pleaded not guilty, and the judge ordered that he remain in jail.
“The defendant told these survivors that he was untouchable,” District Attorney Bragg said at a news conference Thursday. “The indictment makes clear that he was wrong.”
Prosecutors say Hemphill used his wealth and power as a weapon, and allegedly beat and drugged the women in order to restrain them, threatened them with guns and knives and used a shock collar and cattle prod before raping them in what Bragg said was “hours of physical and sexual violence.”
In some cases, prosecutors allege that Hemphill asked the women to confide in him about their past sexual traumas and then re-enacted the acts they described. He also allegedly recorded the sex acts on video cameras throughout his Midtown Manhattan apartment.
Following his arrest, authorities executed a search warrant on Hemphill’s apartment and found high-capacity magazines and hundreds of bullets, a cattle prod, large amounts of drugs and surveillance cameras with videos of dozens of women, according to the Manhattan D.A.’s office.
“We have reason to believe that there may be more survivors,” Bragg said. The D.A. later said “dozens, if not hundreds, of women are captured on that footage.”
Prosecutors said Hemphill told the women he was highly connected and bragged about his status as an attorney, insisting that because they accepted money he offered, they would be the ones who were arrested.
In one case, Hemphill allegedly agreed to pay a woman $2,000 in exchange for her dropping a police complaint, prosecutors said. He also allegedly forced the women to record videos saying they consented to the sex acts so he could have deniability if they chose to speak out.
“The power imbalance in his predatory acts could not be more clear,” Bragg said Thursday.
Prosecutors said he met the women online and told them he would pay them “large sums of money” in exchange for sex. In many cases, he never paid the women, or paid them with fake money, prosecutors said.
In 2015, Hemphill was acquitted of choking and holding a knife to his ex-girlfriend’s throat.
If convicted, Hemphill could face life in prison.
At the arraignment Thursday, Judge Ann E. Scherzer ordered Hemphill to remain jailed without bail. His lawyer, a public defender, asked the judge to move Hemphill to a rehabilitation facility to deal with substance abuse issues.
Scherzer said keeping Hemphill in jail was the only way to ensure he would return to court, as his behaviors, laid out by prosecutors, “shows his extent to which he’s willing to go to protect himself from facing these charges.”
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An Idaho judge refused to rule out the death penalty in the trial of Bryan Kohberger, who is accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students in 2022. Kohberger’s attorneys had sought to strike capital punishment as an option in his upcoming trial due to his autism diagnosis. NBC News’ Camila Bernal reports.April 25, 2025
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ATMORE, Ala. — An Alabama man who dropped his appeals and said he deserved to die for the rape and murder of a woman in 2010 was put to death Thursday evening.
James Osgood, 55, was pronounced dead at 6:35 p.m. CT following a lethal injection at a south Alabama prison, authorities said.
A jury in 2014 convicted Osgood of capital murder in the death of Tracy Lynn Brown in Chilton County. Prosecutors said Osgood cut her throat after he and his girlfriend sexually assaulted her.
Osgood recently told The Associated Press that he had dropped his appeals last year, adding, “I am guilty of murder.” In a letter to his lawyer explaining his decision to seek an execution date as soon as possible, he wrote that he was tired and no longer felt he was “even existing.”
The Holman Guard Post at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Ala., on Sept. 9, 2019.Advertiser File / Montgomery Advertiser via Imagn file
“I’m a firm believer in, like I said in court, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. I took a life, so mine was forfeited. I don’t believe in sitting here and wasting everybody’s time and everybody’s money,” Osgood told AP.
Brown, 44, was found dead in her home on Oct. 23, 2010, after her employer became concerned when she did not show up for work.
Prosecutors said Osgood admitted to police that he and his girlfriend assaulted Brown, forcing her to perform sex acts, after discussing how they had fantasies about kidnapping and torturing someone. Then he cut her throat. His girlfriend, who was Brown’s cousin, was sentenced to life in prison.
The jury found Osgood guilty after about 40 minutes of deliberation and unanimously recommended the death sentence.
Osgood last week that said he wanted to apologize to Brown’s family but he didn’t expect her relatives to forgive him. “I regret taking her from them. I regret cutting her life short,” he said.
His initial death sentence was thrown out by an appeals court ruling that jurors were given improper instructions. At his resentencing in 2018, Osgood asked to be executed, saying he didn’t want the families to endure another hearing.
In handing down the death penalty at resentencing, the judge noted that Osgood had a difficult childhood that included sexual abuse, abandonment and a suicide attempt. But the judge also said it was Osgood who cut Brown’s neck and stabbed her as she begged the couple not to hurt her.
The execution was the second in Alabama this year and the 14th in the nation overall.
Protesters did not set up new tent encampments or demonstrate against the war in Gaza at Columbia University on Thursday as planned.
NBC News reported Wednesday that a group planned to set up tent encampments on the New York City school’s main campus Thursday afternoon.
The encampments would have been likely to inflame tension at the Ivy League school, which for weeks has been at the center of a tug-of-war between the federal government and its students.
They would have been the first tent cities at the university since students took over a building last year and since the Trump administration embraced an aggressive approach to target what it describes as a failure to deal with antisemitism on college campuses.
More than 100 protesters met Tuesday at a community center in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood to coordinate tent encampments at Columbia for this week. Organizers, whose identities remain unknown, went to extreme lengths to conceal their plans.
NBC News obtained a recording of the meeting, which revealed that students were planning an encampment Thursday at the university’s main campus in Manhattan’s Morningside Heights neighborhood and a second encampment Friday at the nearby Manhattanville campus.
It is unclear whether the encampment planned for Friday will proceed.
Instead of protests Thursday, the scene on campus included students enjoying one of the first warm days in New York City this spring. Dozens of students lay out beach towels, snapped selfies under the sun and tossed around Frisbees.
There were, however, signs of what the day was expected to bring.
Outside the university gates on 116th Street and Broadway, several New York police officers gathered — but they were gone by 2 p.m., an hour after the protests had been expected to begin.
Students and security guards on the lawn at Columbia University on Thursday.Matthew Lavietes / NBC News
A handful of people who appeared to be security guards in plainclothes circled the planned site of Thursday’s protest before it was expected to begin.
Donovan Cole, 27, a Ph.D. student studying philosophy and education, said the student body’s attitude toward protests seems to have changed since the encampments a year ago. Gone are the days when students felt free to set up tents, take over academic buildings and march for days, as they did last spring, he said.
“There was obviously an antagonistic relationship between the student body and the institution last year. But at the core of that was a kind of faith … that they were both engaging in at least some degree of good faith,” he said. “The student body has sort of felt that’s no longer the case and, rather than producing a sort of stronger outcry of protest, has produced actual legitimate fear in the student body.”
Students play on the lawn at Columbia University.Matthew Lavietes / NBC News
Last month, the Trump administration began terminating federal research grants at several of the country’s most prestigious universities, demanding significant changes to how schools operate. The administration has argued that the universities failed to protect Jewish students amid war protests.
Columbia was the first university the administration targeted. It conceded to a number of the government’s requests, including that it adjust its admissions process, implement “greater institutional neutrality” and hire three dozen new security officers.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed a series of executive actions that would enforce stricter oversight of foreign donations to universities and change how they are accredited.
Immigration authorities have apprehended at least three Columbia students in recent weeks. Among them was graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, who helped lead student protests last year.
Protesters in front of City College of New York on Thursday.Matthew Lavietes / NBC News
About 45 minutes after the protest at Columbia was expected to start, pro-Palestinian student advocates affiliated with City College of New York announced on social media that they were staging a protest at the nearby public college.
It is unclear whether protesters who had intended to be part of the planned Columbia encampment were among the roughly 50 people who gathered outside CCNY’s gates Thursday afternoon, wearing masks and Palestinian keffiyehs.
However, a student protest group affiliated with Columbia shared the CCNY group’s post on social media.
CCNY closed its gates and appeared to start barring students from entering campus while the protest ensued.
On Tuesday, a crowd of protesters at Yale University set up a handful of tents on campus before they disbanded a few hours later.
LAFAYETTE, La. — Like so many college football standouts, Jack Bech will be watching and waiting this weekend, hoping to hear his name called at the 2025 NFL draft.
The TCU wide receiver will be tuning in from his high school in Lafayette, Louisiana, surrounded by family and friends. But his biggest fan will be missing.
“I always believe that God has a greater plan, no matter if you see it working or not,” Jack Bech told NBC News on Thursday ahead of the draft.
Jack Bech of TCU during Senior Bowl practice at Hancock Whitney Stadium on Jan. 29 in Mobile, Ala.Derick E. Hingle / Getty Images
“I definitely know that he is in a better place, and that he’s going to be here 100% with us.”
Growing up, the Bech brothers shared a love of football.
“He scored a touchdown right here in the end zone,” Jack Bech recalled from the field at St. Thomas More High School.
Tiger Bech would go onto become a standout at Princeton before starting a career on Wall Street.
Despite the distance, last fall he flew from New York to Texas for every one of his little brother’s home games, according to Jack Bech.
Martin “Tiger” Bech.Courtesy Michelle Bech
“It was awesome. He was literally going broke. I mean, he was in debt for coming to all my games,” Jack Bech said.
They dreamed together about Jack going pro.
“They meant everything to each other,” according to their father, Martin Bech.
Weeks after the Bourbon Street attack, Jack Bech closed out his college career with a game-winning touchdown; he was named Senior Bowl MVP.
If that weren’t enough to draw interest from an NFL franchise, Jack Bech will tell you drafting him is a steal.
“Two-for-one special … You’re not only getting me, you’re getting Tiger too,” he said, adding: “I feel like I have another person in me pushing me and taking me to those levels.”
Their mother, Michelle Bech, said, “Tiger was always known for his fearlessness, and I believe that Jack has now fully embraced that idea of fearlessness.”
Jack Bech of TCU is embraced by his uncle Brett Bech after catching the game-wining touchdown on the final play of the game at Hancock Whitney Stadium in Mobile, Ala. on Feb. 1.Vasha Hunt / USA Today Network
And so the Bech family, with the sports world watching, heads into the NFL draft weekend feeling “mixed emotions” that include “overriding joy,” according to Martin Bech.
With Jack expected to hear his name called in the second round on Day 2 of the draft, he believes his big brother will still be right there.
“And now he just has the best seat in the house. … He always wanted to be with me. So now he gets to be with me, just in a different way.”
If President Donald Trump’s 145% levy against imports from China holds, Hasbro estimates it could see as much as a $300 million hit to its bottom line.
The toy maker posted better-than-expected earnings on Thursday, but investors and analysts were more focused on the ongoing trade war Trump’s White House has waged against the toy industry’s biggest manufacturer.
Hasbro maintained the full-year guidance it issued last quarter, citing the uncertainty of the current tariff environment.
“Our forecast assumes various scenarios for China tariffs, ranging from 50% to the rate holding at 145% and 10% for the rest of world,” said Gina Goetter, chief financial officer and chief operating officer at Hasbro, during Thursday’s earnings call. “This translates to an estimated $100 million to $300 million gross impact across the enterprise in 2025. Before any mitigation.”
CEO Chris Cocks said during the company’s earnings call that “while no company is insulated, Hasbro is well positioned,” noting the company’s unchanged guidance is “supported by our robust games and licensing businesses and our strategic flexibility.”
“Prolonged tariff conditions create structural costs and heighten market unpredictability,” he said, adding, “ultimately tariffs translate into higher consumer prices.”
Cocks also warned of “potential job losses as we adjust to absorb increased costs and reduced profit for our shareholders.”
The company’s U.S. games business benefits from digital and domestic sourcing, as many of its board games are made in Massachusetts. Its Wizards of the Coast division, which includes Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons, has a tariff exposure of less than $10 million, Cocks said, as much of the domestic product is made in North Carolina, Texas and Japan.
The company’s toy segment faces higher exposure, as a larger portion of those goods are made in China. Cocks said the company is exploring options for moving its supply chain to other countries.
“Some of that, though, comes with the cost,” he said. “When we manufacture board games in the U.S., it is significantly more expensive to manufacture here than it is in China.”
He added that the company can shift the sourcing of Play-Doh, for example, from China to its factory in Turkey. Under that scenario, Turkey manufacturers would redirect shipments from Europe to the U.S. and Chinese factories could fill in to supply the European market.
Other products are more difficult to triage, especially those that include electronics, high end deco and foam components, Cocks said.
“China will continue to be a major manufacturing hub for us globally, in large part due to specialized capabilities developed over decades,” he said.
Goetter said that much of the manufacturing changes would be seen in 2026 and are dependent on if those countries already have the capabilities and infrastructure in place to make certain products.
Hasbro is also accelerating its $1 billion cost savings plan in an effort to offset tariff pressures, but noted that price hikes are unavoidable.
“We are going to have to raise prices inside of 145% tariff regime with China,” Cocks said. “We’re just trying to do it as selectively as possible and minimize the burden to the fans and families that we serve.”
Both Goetter and Cocks admitted that Hasbro’s plans are flexible and will change as the tariff situation evolves. The company is hopeful for a “more predictable and favorable U.S. trade policy environment.”
“We’re trying to play both defense and offense at the same time,” Goetter said.
