Man charged with accessory to murder in connection to shooting in Baton Rouge
According to the Baton Rouge Police Department, Paul Thomas, 34, was taken into custody for his alleged involvement in the deadly shooting of Kevin Dale Evans, 40. Thomas was charged with accessory after the fact of second-degree murder.
Thomas is accused of helping Joshua Mancusi-Ungaro, 19, avoid authorities after Evans' murder. Joshua was arrested on April 17 and charged with second-degree murder and illegal use of weapons.
Police arrested Joshua's aunt, Hazel Mancusi-Ungaro, 37, who was charged with accessory after the fact of second-degree murder in connection with the case on May 20.
BRPD shared that Evans' friends performed a welfare check when they found his body on April 6.
This is an ongoing investigation.
Senator Padilla kicked out of press conference
Preps for 250th birthday of the Army underway
Johnson, heckled by Democrats, backs censure for Padilla
Man charged with accessory to murder in connection to shooting in Baton Rouge
New park to open soon in North Baton Rouge
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


CNN
2 hours ago
- CNN
Maine police officer arrested by ICE agrees to voluntarily leave the country
A Maine police officer arrested by immigration authorities has agreed to voluntarily leave the country, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Monday. ICE arrested Old Orchard Beach Police Department reserve Officer Jon Luke Evans, of Jamaica, on July 25, as part of the agency's effort to step up immigration enforcement. Officials with the town and police department have said federal authorities previously told them Evans was legally authorized to work in the U.S. An ICE representative reached by telephone told The Associated Press on Monday that a judge has granted voluntary departure for Evans and that he could leave as soon as that day. The representative did not provide other details about Evans' case. Evans' arrest touched off a dispute between Old Orchard Beach officials and ICE. Police Chief Elise Chard has said the department was notified by federal officials that Evans was legally permitted to work in the country, and that the town submitted information via the Department of Homeland Security's E-Verify program prior to Evans' employment. Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin then accused the town of 'reckless reliance' on the department's E-Verify program. E-Verify is an online system that allows employers to check if potential employees can work legally in the U.S. The town is aware of reports that Evans plans to leave the country voluntarily, Chard said Monday. 'The town reiterates its ongoing commitment to meeting all state and federal laws regarding employment,' Chard said in a statement. 'We will continue to rely on the I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification form and the E-Verify database to confirm employment eligibility.' ICE's detainee lookup website said Monday that Evans was being held at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island. However, a representative for Wyatt said Evans had been transferred to an ICE facility in Burlington, Massachusetts. ICE officials did not respond to requests for comment on the discrepancy. It was unclear if Evans was represented by an attorney, and a message left for him at the detention facility was not returned. ICE officials said in July that Evans overstayed his visa and unlawfully attempted to purchase a firearm. WMTW-TV reported Monday that Evans' agreement to a voluntary departure means he will be allowed to leave the U.S. at his own expense to avoid being deported.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Democratic Texas lawmaker spent night on state House floor after refusing GOP demand for law enforcement escort
Democratic Texas state Rep. Nicole Collier spent the night on the Texas House floor in protest after refusing a Republican demand to be placed under the watch of the state Department of Public Safety. When Texas House Democrats returned to the Capitol in Austin on Monday, after having fled the state earlier this month in order to prevent a vote on a controversial Republican redistricting plan, House Speaker Dustin Burrows put constraints on their movements. Burrows announced that the Democrats could only leave the House floor if they received written permission and agreed to be under law enforcement escort until the chamber reconvenes on Wednesday morning. The Democrats who skipped out on previous attempts to meet quorum for a special session to approve the redrawn congressional maps will have an around-the-clock DPS escort to ensure their presence when the House convenes Wednesday, a legislative aide told CNN. Democrats had fled to blue states — including Illinois, New York and Massachusetts — as they faced civil arrest warrants pushed by GOP officials in Texas to force them back into the House chamber. The majority of the Democrats complied with the law enforcement escort, showing reporters what they called 'permission slips' they received to leave the House floor and pointing to the officers escorting them around the Capitol. But Collier refused to enter into that agreement and has been confined to the House floor since returning. She can only leave the floor to return to her office under the watch of a law enforcement officer, an aide said, and cannot leave the state Capitol unless she agrees to outside supervision. State Reps. Gene Wu and Vince Perez plan to stay on the House floor with her overnight, the aide said. Wu posted a photo on X detailing some of their snacks for the long stretch ahead - dried peaches, freeze dried grapes, popcorn and ramen. 'My constituents sent me to Austin to protect their voices and rights,' said Collier. 'I refuse to sign away my dignity as a duly elected representative just so Republicans can control my movements and monitor me with police escorts. My community is majority-minority, and they expect me to stand up for their representation. When I press that button to vote, I know these maps will harm my constituents — I won't just go along quietly with their intimidation or their discrimination.' Texas Democrat Beto O'Rourke celebrated Collier's protest on Monday, writing on social media, 'A true hero, refusing to submit, fighting these fascists by herself if she has to. We are with you Nicole!' The Texas House established a quorum Monday afternoon, for the first time since most members of the Democratic minority fled the state 15 days earlier to prevent it from having the two-thirds quorum necessary to advance new congressional maps aimed at creating five more Republican-leaning seats ahead of next year's midterm elections. Early in their boycott, Burrows had signed civil arrest warrants for those Democrats. But DPS officers could not carry out those warrants because the Democrats were out of state. At President Donald Trump's urging, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Republicans who control the state House and Senate launched the effort to redraw the state's congressional districts mid-decade — a break from most states' typical practice of redistricting once a decade, after the completion of the US Census. It's part of the party's effort to hold onto its narrow House majority in next year's midterm elections — one that also includes lobbying GOP officials in Indiana and Missouri to change their maps to turn Democratic-held seats into favorable ground for Republicans, and could see the party add more GOP-leaning seats in Ohio, which is required by state law to redistrict. The Texas effort has set off a nationwide gerrymandering arms race. In California, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has vowed retribution, proposing a measure that would trigger new maps that could help Democrats pick up five more seats in the state — but only if Texas moves forward with its redistricting plan. This story and headline have been updated with additional details.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘We are arresting the mayor right now, per the deputy attorney general'
The federal officer who arrested the mayor of New Jersey's largest city outside an immigration detention center in May suggested that he was making the arrest at the direction of the Justice Department's No. 2 official, Todd Blanche, according to law enforcement body camera footage described in a new court filing. The filing, from Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.), sheds new light on the chaotic scene on May 9 when Democratic lawmakers and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, attempting to conduct an oversight visit, clashed with immigration agents. Baraka was arrested for trespassing, but that charge was dropped. McIver was later charged with assaulting federal agents; she is seeking to get the case dismissed. According to McIver's attorneys, a Department of Homeland Security special agent was on the phone as the events unfolded that day. Citing bodycam footage they obtained in the case, the attorneys wrote that the special agent, after hanging up the call, turned to a group of fellow agents and announced: 'We are arresting the mayor right now, per the deputy attorney general of the United States. Anyone that gets in our way, I need you guys to give me a perimeter so I can cuff him.' POLITICO has not reviewed the bodycam video. Although the footage was submitted as an exhibit in the case, it was not yet publicly available. A spokesperson for the Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment, and a response from the Department of Homeland Security did not address whether Blanche had ordered the agents to make the arrest. The special agent's apparent suggestion that he was acting at Blanche's direction is the latest sign that top Justice Department officials are harnessing the power of law enforcement against Democrats and other perceived enemies of President Donald Trump. Trump's DOJ has opened investigations into various figures Trump disdains, including Jack Smith, James Comey, former Homeland Security aides who criticized him and many others. Federal law enforcement officials have also detained New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and handcuffed California Sen. Alex Padilla. For months, Democrats have wondered if agents at the Newark immigration detention center had been instructed by a superior to arrest Baraka. Witness accounts and other video footage taken that day showed the mayor had been allowed inside a gated area by a guard, stood there peacefully for the better part of an hour and left the gated area when federal agents threatened him with arrest. That day, Rep. Rob Menendez (D-N.J.) told POLITICO that he'd witnessed an agent inside the gated area talking on the phone with someone who told the agent to arrest Baraka, who by the time of the call was outside the gate. McIver gave a similar account in a press conference at the time. The description of the bodycam footage submitted in court last week by McIver's attorneys bolsters that account. Quoting from the footage, her attorneys wrote that the special agent on the phone said of Baraka during the call: 'Even though he stepped out, I am going to put him in cuffs.' Then the agent made the comment about arresting the mayor 'per the deputy attorney general.' Moments later, law enforcement officials came out of the gate and arrested Baraka, setting off a scrum involving the mayor and members of Congress. McIver is accused in a three-count indictment of slamming the special agent with her forearm, 'forcibly' grabbing him and using her forearms to strike another agent. She has pleaded not guilty. Less than two weeks later, federal prosecutors dropped a trespassing charge against Baraka. But a federal judge chided the effort to charge him in the first place. Magistrate Judge André M. Espinosa called it an 'embarrassing retraction' that 'suggests a failure to adequately investigate, to carefully gather facts and to thoughtfully consider the implications of your actions before wielding your immense power.' Baraka is the progressive mayor of New Jersey's largest city and at the time of his arrest was seeking the Democratic nomination for governor, an election he has since lost. Separately, he is suing the Trump administration for 'malicious prosecution' in a lawsuit that names acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba and Ricky Patel, a special agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations' Newark Division. According to a comparison of court documents filed in the Baraka and McIver cases, Patel is the special agent overheard on the bodycam footage referring to the deputy attorney general. The new revelations about the episode came in legal briefs asking to have McIver's own case thrown out. As part of that effort, McIver asked the judge overseeing the case, U.S. District Judge Jamel Semper, to rule that lawmakers have the same kind of immunity from prosecutions that the Supreme Court gave Trump. Her attorneys said McIver's visit to the detention facility, known as Delaney Hall, was a legislative act she cannot be prosecuted for. They cited the Supreme Court ruling last summer that gave Trump immunity from criminal prosecution for some actions he took during his first presidential term while fighting to subvert the 2020 election. McIver's attorneys also argued that she is facing intimidation and that Habba's office, which is prosecuting the case, is undermining the Constitution's 'Speech or Debate' Clause. That clause grants members of Congress a form of immunity that is mostly impenetrable in investigations relating to the official duties of lawmakers, their aides or other congressional officials. The Department of Homeland Security said the argument is laughable. "Suggesting that physically assaulting a federal law enforcement officer is 'legitimate legislative activity' covered by legislative immunity makes a joke of all three branches of government at once,' the Homeland Security Department's assistant secretary, Tricia McLaughlin, said in a statement. If lawmakers don't continue to receive such protections, McIver's legal team warns of dire consequences for the country. 'If these charges are allowed to move forward, they will send a chilling message to Congress on the risk it takes when it scrutinizes the Administration's activities,' McIver's defense team wrote. 'The Speech or Debate Clause was designed to prevent that kind of message and intimidation.' Former Sen. Bob Menendez — Rob Menendez's father — has tried to use the speech or debate clause to shield himself from corruption charges. He is now serving an 11-year prison sentence and appealing the conviction. McIver's attorneys cited a 3rd Circuit ruling against Menendez in 2016 — who was then facing different corruption charges that were later dropped — as making clear that members of Congress do have immunity for legislative actions but that the allegations against him were for things beyond the scope of that immunity. McIver's team argued the Menendez case 'could not be more different' from hers. In another legal filing made last week, McIver also sought to dismiss the charges against her based on unconstitutional 'selective' and 'vindictive' prosecution, noting that the Justice Department walked away from prosecutions of hundreds of defendants from Jan. 6, 2021, despite clear video of many attacking police officers.