Drunken driver who plowed into Minnesota restaurant patio, killing 2, pleads guilty to murder
A man who was driving drunk when he crashed into a patio at a popular Minnesota restaurant, killing two people and injuring nine others, pleaded guilty to murder and other charges Wednesday.
Under the terms of his plea deal, Steven Frane Bailey, 56, of the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park, agreed to a sentence of 25 to 30 years. His sentencing is scheduled for July 28.
Prosecutors say Bailey already had five drunken driving convictions on his record but got his license back before he drove into the crowded patio at the Park Tavern in St. Louis Park on Sept. 1. His blood-alcohol level was more than four times the legal limit.
Bailey pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree murder in the deaths of restaurant employee Kristina Folkerts and hospital worker Gabe Harvey, as well as three counts of criminal vehicular operation. He admitted in court that he knew he was drunk when he drove to the tavern. He tried to flee after striking another vehicle while trying to park, he acknowledged, but plowed into the patio instead.
The incident prompted calls for stricter drunken driving laws. The Minnesota Senate on Wednesday voted unanimously for a bill that includes stricter license revocation rules for people with multiple drunken driving convictions, and measures to encourage the use of ignition interlock devices. The bill now goes to a conference committee to resolve minor differences with a version that passed the House last week.
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The Sun
12 minutes ago
- The Sun
Trump insists riots would have ‘completely obliterated' LA without National Guard and demands Dems say ‘THANK YOU'
DONALD Trump has doubled down on his decision to send the National Guard to Los Angeles after days of unrest in the city. The president said California Governor Gavin Newsom should be thanking him for deploying the troops to protests downtown against federal immigration raids. 8 8 8 8 However, Newsom was furious with Trump's decision to send federal service members without his permission and slammed the move as "illegal" and "immoral," as he plans to bring a lawsuit against the Trump administration over it. Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass, both Democrats, insist that the peaceful protests turned into riots on Sunday night only in response to the National Guard showing up. But Trump said on Monday the city would be "completely obliterated" if he hadn't mobilized the Guard. "We made a great decision in sending the National Guard to deal with the violent, instigated riots in California. If we had not done so, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated," he wrote on Truth Social. "The very incompetent 'Governor,' Gavin Newscum, and 'Mayor,' Karen Bass, should be saying, 'THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP, YOU ARE SO WONDERFUL. WE WOULD BE NOTHING WITHOUT YOU, SIR.'" He continued, "Instead, they choose to lie to the People of California and America by saying that we weren't needed, and that these are 'peaceful protests.'" Rioters looted shops, set self-driving Waymo cars on fire, and blocked off the 101 Freeway on Sunday night after the National Guard was deployed. Cops used tear gas, flash-bang explosives and pepper balls to push back the protesters, even shooting a TV reporter with rubber bullets live on air at the terrifying scene. Newsom has asked Trump to withdraw the troops and threatened to sue the Trump administration after the president authorized 2,000 troops to storm the city. This is the first time in decades that a state's National Guard has been activated without the governor's permission, which Newsom called a "serious breach of state sovereignty." On Truth Social, Trump called for anyone hiding their identities behind masks to be arrested immediately. He added, "Order will be restored, the Illegals will be expelled, and Los Angeles will be set free." Now, 500 Marines are waiting in a "prepared to deploy" status at a base that sits about 142 miles east of Los Angeles. The city is bracing for more violent clashes on Monday as Trump's new travel ban comes into effect, furthering his crackdown on immigration. More than 100 people were arrested in ICE raids last week as agents targeted the city of Paramount, which has a predominantly Latino population in Los Angeles. LAPD chiefs have now voiced concerns over the use of deadly weapons by the rioters. Trump vowed to support law enforcement in the protests and said he will make sure his administration "sends whatever we need to make sure there's law and order." 8 8 8 8 Today, 09:11 By Georgie English The Los Angeles carnage in numbers At least 56 people have been arrested so far across three days of protests in Los Angeles, police chief Jim McDonnell said this evening. Ten people were arrested on Sunday with 29 detained on Saturday on the streets. The California Highway Patrol along the 101 Freeway made a further 17 arrests as they battled with protesters who managed to shut down the roads. One person allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail at an officer. Three LAPD officers were injured in total but no serious injuries have been reported. At least five self-driving cars vehicles have been set on fire. Around 300 National Guard troops have been deployed already with another 1,700 due to arrive shortly, according to President Trump. 500 Marines are on standby, the US Northern Command said Today, 08:53 By Georgie English Rioters are using deadly weapons - LAPD chief The Los Angeles Police Department chief has told reporters his men and women are now risking their lives protecting LA due to the weapons being used by rioters. LAPD's Jim McDonnell said this evening: "The violence is escalating... "It's getting increasingly worse and more violent. "We had individuals shooting commercial-grade fireworks at our officers. That can kill you." Today, 08:46 By Georgie English Scenes from downtown Los Angeles Today, 08:45 By Georgie English Rioters attack police with fireworks By Georgie English Brit photographer rushed to hospital after being hit by rubber police bullets A British news photographer has gone in for emergency surgery after being hit by non-lethal bullets during the violent protests in Los Angeles. Nick Stern was documenting the intense night of clashes outside a Home Depot in Paramount when a 14mm 'sponge bullet' tore through his thigh. He was treated by a medic who urged him to go to hospital. Nick even says he passed out from the pain at one point. He spoke to reporters after being mended back to health and said: 'My initial concern was, were they firing live rounds? 'Some of the protesters came and helped me, and they ended up carrying me, and I noticed that there was blood pouring down my leg.' Today, 08:14 By Georgie English FBI director says LA 'under siege by marauding criminals' Kash Patel has joined Donald Trump and JD Vance in hitting out at 'political punch lines' in California over the response to the LA riots. Patel said on X: "Just so we are clear, this FBI needs no one's permission to enforce the constitution. "My responsibility is to the American people, not political punch lines. "LA is under siege by marauding criminals, and we will restore law and order. I'm not asking you, I'm telling you." It comes as President Trump continues to disagree with California Governor Gavin Newsom over what is the correct action to repel the rioters. Today, 07:43 By Georgie English Armed police deployed on horseback to push back protestors Today, 07:40 By Georgie English Self-driving cars set alight in LA by rioters Driverless taxi firm Waymo has been forced to suspend its services in downtown Los Angeles after several of its cars were hired out before being set on fire. Horror footage shows a line of the fully automated cars burning on the streets as rioters protest nearby. The LAPD has warned that burning electric vehicles can "release toxic gases". Today, 07:37 By Georgie English Protesters launch rocks at LAPD and force them to hide Today, 07:36 By Georgie English Arrests made in LA after protests At least 10 people have been arrested across the riots on Sunday, LAPD cops confirmed. Dozens more arrests have been made since protest forts broke out on Friday. Today, 07:27 By Georgie English Donald Trump speaks on LA riots as he says 'bring in the troops' Today, 07:25 By Georgie English Tensions simmer across LA tonight The streets of Los Angeles have quieted down in recent moments despite there still being a very tense atmosphere. In the last few hours there has been a few flare-ups with police with vandalism also ramping up, according to the BBC. The majority of the violence appears to have stopped for now as people head back home for the night. But a lot of uncertainty remains around how things may develop overnight. Today, 07:18 By Georgie English Police say looting has started in LA The Los Angeles Police Department is saying that business owners in the city are reporting looting. On X, the LAPD Central Division writes: "Business owners are reporting stores are being looted in the area of 6th St and Broadway. Officers are en route to the location to investigate." They also urged people to avoid any areas due to the violent clashes. Today, 07:14 By Georgie English What is the US National Guard? THE US National Guard is a reserve military force made up of part-time service members who typically hold civilian jobs but can be activated for federal or state duty. Each state, territory, and the District of Columbia has its own National Guard, which can be mobilized by the state governor or the President. Can the President call the National Guard for local matters? Yes, but with limits. Normally, governors deploy their state's National Guard to handle local emergencies like natural disasters, protests, or civil unrest. The President can federalize the National Guard under specific laws, such as the Insurrection Act. This allows them to respond to domestic unrest if it's deemed beyond the capacity of local or state authorities. When federalized, National Guard troops operate under presidential command rather than the governor's. While it's unusual, a president can deploy the National Guard into a state without a governor's consent if certain legal thresholds are met. These typically involve threats to federal property, national security, or widespread breakdowns in public order. However, such actions are often politically and legally controversial. Today, 07:13 By Georgie English Trump vs California Despite the carnage flooding the streets, California's government has said they have the situation under control. Governor Gavin Newsom even accused Trump of "inflaming tensions" by deploying the National Guard. The pair have a long history of heated disputes over policy. Newsom formerly requested Trump remove the guard members, which he called a "serious breach of state sovereignty". Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass added the arrival of troops is a "dangerous escalation". She said: "We do not want to play in to the [Trump] administration's hands." "What we're seeing in Los Angeles is chaos provoked by the administration." Trump fired back at California's government as he called them "incompetent". Newsom and Trump reportedly spoke for 40 minutes by phone on Saturday, though details of their conversation have not been disclosed. The deployment of troops marks the first time in six decades that a state's National Guard was activated without a request from its governor, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
Daily Mail
15 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Wife of Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect reveals if she's standing by him and recounts bizarre 'first date' in jail
Rex Heuermann's wife has described the first time she visited him in prison as like going 'on a first date' as she refuses to believe he could be the infamous Gilgo Beach serial killer. In the new Peacock docuseries 'The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets,' Asa Ellerup gushes over her husband of two decades calling him 'my hero' and 'wonderful' as she recalls the moment she clapped eyes on him again behind bars. 'I haven't seen him in all this time, and when I went down there, I was excited, and like I was, I don't know, I guess on a first date,' she says in a clip obtained by The New York Post. 'You're nervous, you're scared. You don't know how the date is gonna go.' Ellerup, 61, is speaking out in her first televised interview since her husband was arrested in July 2023 for a string of murders that have long haunted Long Island. Heuermann is currently charged with the murders of seven women over a two-decade reign of horror running from 1993 to 2011. All the victims were working as sex workers when they vanished. Their bodies were then found dumped along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach as well as other remote spots on Long Island. Some of the victims had been bound, while others had been dismembered and their remains discarded across multiple locations. Since Heuermann's arrest, prosecutors have unveiled a trove of evidence against him, including hairs belonging to him and his family members found on some of the victims, cellphone data placing him in contact with some victims, and a chilling 'planning document' where he allegedly intricately detailed his kills. The 61-year-old architect has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. In the new docuseries, Ellerup reveals her unwillingness to believe that the man she married and shares two adult children with could be a depraved serial killer - despite being presented with the wealth of evidence against him. 'I know what bad men are capable of doing,' she says. 'I've seen it, and I've heard it from other men. Not my husband. You have the wrong man.' Ellerup opens up about her love story with the hulking architect, revealing that they first met when she was 18 and working in a 7-11. Heuermann was 'tall, dark and handsome' and was a 'hero' to her after she had endured past trauma at the hands of other men. By the time they met, Ellerup - who was adopted from Iceland - says she had been sexually assaulted by a classmate at the age of 16 and had tried to kill herself. At the age of 19, she also narrowly escaped a kidnapping attempt by hiding in a dumpster for hours. But after their first meeting, Ellerup met and married her first husband and had a son, Christopher. Heuermann also married his first wife. When their first marriages both ended, their relationship became romantic and she moved into his childhood home in Massapequa Park - the same home where at least some of the victims are believed to have been murdered. In 1995, Ellerup and Heuermann married in Sweden and had a daughter, Victoria, together. 'He's my hero,' Ellerup gushes of her husband. The mom-of-two insists the Massapequa Park native is 'a family man' and that there's 'no freaking way' he was out preying on victims and then coming home to her. 'Telling him that I love him, that will hurt him. What I want to say to him is, "I love you, no matter what." But I don't even want to say "no matter what" because I don't believe he did this,' she says. 'I don't see what everybody else is saying. I don't see phone calls to sex workers.' She tells the docuseries: 'I'm trying to keep myself sane. At the same time, people are saying, "How could you not know that your husband was a serial killer?" 'Wait a minute, I picked him up from the train station every single day. He was home here on the weekends. He smoked a cigar in the garage. 'If he told me that he went out to Lowe's to pick something up and he was gone for an hour, no freaking way is this man going out soliciting sex from a sex worker, killing them and dumping them on Gilgo Beach.' When people question how she couldn't have known what her husband was allegedly doing, Ellerup insists she has 'no knowledge' of the accusations, claims disturbing porn videos found on his hard drive might not belong to him, and denies he would ever frequent sex workers - or that they sometimes attended swinger parties as a couple. 'They're trying to sit there and tell me that, but I have no knowledge of what they keep talking about. "Oh, you must have known." Know what? My husband was home here. He's a family man, period,' she says. Ellerup reveals she continues to speak to her husband in jailhouse phone calls but has not visited him in person for some time. 'I want him to come back home to me,' she adds. Her attorney previously told that she believes he may have been framed for the murders. Despite her unwavering loyalty and refusal to accept his alleged crimes, Ellerup did file for divorce from her husband just days on from his arrest. The divorce - which the family admits was done to protect their assets - was finalized this March. The details of the settlement have not been released. Since then, Ellerup has continued to attend Heuermann's court hearings where the defense is trying to toss critical DNA evidence in the case. Heuermann's legal team is also trying to break up his upcoming trial into five separate trials. Fears that a serial killer or killers were at large on Long Island began back in May 2010, when Shannan Gilbert vanished in bizarre circumstances one night. The 24-year-old, who was working as a sex worker, had gone to see a client in the Oak Beach Association community when she made a terrifying 911 call, saying that someone was trying to kill her. During a search for Gilbert in December 2010, officers came across the body of Melissa Barthelemy in the marshes by Gilgo Beach. Within days, three more women's bodies - Amber Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes and Megan Waterman - had been found. The four victims, who became known as the Gilgo Four, had been dumped within a quarter mile of each other, some of them bound and wrapped in burlap. Over the following months, the remains of seven other victims were found. Gilbert's body was found last. Investigators maintain that she was not a victim, but died by accidental drowning after she fled into the dense thicket that night. The Gilgo Beach serial killer case went unsolved for more than a decade - hampered by a corrupt police chief, James Burke, who was ultimately jailed for beating a man who stole porn from his police cruiser. In July 2023 - following the launch of a new taskforce - Heuermann was dramatically arrested as he left his office in midtown Manhattan. He was initially charged with the murders of three women: Amber Costello, Melissa Barthelemy and Megan Waterman. Since then, he has been charged with the murders of four more victims: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Sandra Costilla, Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack. Heuermann had been linked to the murders following a tip about a pickup truck. According to a witness, Costello had disappeared after going to see a client who drove a green Chevy Avalanche in September 2010. He also matched the description of the client seen by the witness. Heuermann, Ellerup and Victoria were found to be a DNA match to hairs found on some of the victims, according to prosecutors. Prosecutors said investigators also found a chilling 'planning document' on a hard drive in the basement of Heuermann's family home including a section detailed 'PREP' and noting that 'small' women were preferred. Heuermann has lived his entire life in Massapequa Park and would commute to his architecture job in Midtown Manhattan, where some of the victims worked and were last seen alive. He was especially familiar with Ocean Parkway, where the victims' bodies were dumped, thanks to a job he had at Jones Beach in his 20s, according to prosecutors. Heuermann has not been charged in connection to the deaths of the other four victims found along Ocean Parkway: Karen Vergata, Tanya Jackson and her two-year-old daughter Tatiana Dykes, and an unidentified victim, known only as 'Asian Doe.' Jackson - a US Army veteran - and her infant daughter were finally identified this April, having for years been known only as 'Peaches' and 'Baby Doe.' Costilla, meanwhile, had never been linked to the Gilgo Beach serial killer case until Heuermann was hit with charges for her murder in 2024. Her murder expands the timeline that the accused serial killer is alleged to have been actively preying on victims to more than 30 years ago.
Daily Mail
22 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Trump threatens to arrest Newsom
President Donald Trump said he would support arresting California Gov. Gavin Newsom and called the rioters in Los Angeles 'insurrectionists.' 'I would do it,' the president said when asked about Newsom daring his administration to arrest him. 'I like Gavin Newsom, he's a nice guy but he's grossly incompetent, everybody knows it,' the president added. Trump had even harsher words for the demonstrators. 'The people that are causing problems are professional agitators and insurrectionists,' he told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House . 'They're bad people. They should be in jail.' The president did not respond to a question as to whether or not he'd invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act, which allows for the use of federal troops on domestic soil to quell a rebellion. Riots broke out over the weekend in the mostly Latino section of Los Angeles after a series of arrests by immigration agents. Trump nationalized California's National Guard to respond to the situation. The president also heavily criticized Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for their lack of leadership. Newsom, who is seen as having presidential ambitions, responded by saying the state would sue. 'This is exactly what Donald Trump wanted,' Newsom said on social media. 'He flamed the fires and illegally acted to federalize the National Guard.' 'We're suing him.' Earlier the California governor, a Democrat, challenged Tom Homan to put him in jail as he blamed the Trump administration for inciting the riots that have brought Los Angeles to its knees. 'Come and arrest me. Let's just get it over with, tough guy. I don't give a damn,' he told MSNBC after Homan had threatened both Newsom and Bass. The situation in Los Angeles remained tense on Monday after violent clashes between demonstrators and security forces over immigration raids. DHS said in a statement that the recent ICE operations resulted in the arrest of 118 immigrants. Trump's border czar Tom Homan said those arrested included child sex offenders, gang members and national security threats . Authorities said the only people arrested are illegal migrants and gang members. Critics say Trump -- who has made clamping down on illegal migration a key pillar of his second term -- deliberately stoked tensions by sending in California's National Guard, a stand-by military usually controlled by the state governor. Trump's deployment of the National Guard was the first time a president went over the head of a state governor since 1965 at the height of the civil rights movement. Newsom has hammered Trump for the move, blaming the violence on the president.
