
17-year-old fatally shot in iPhone robbery, Alabama cops say. 2 brothers charged
Authorities responded to the shooting at about 7 p.m. Friday, April 4, in a modest residential area of Montgomery, police said in an April 8 news release.
The Montgomery Police Department said the teen, identified as Zaveon Simpkins, was found with a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead there.
A pair of brothers — 19-year-old Christopher Kelly and 18-year-old Christian Kelly — were arrested April 8 and charged with capital murder and first-degree robbery in connection with the shooting, police said.
According to court records, the brothers are accused of taking $500 and an iPhone, WSFA and WAKA reported. Simpkins was with another teen at the time of the robbery, according to the news reports.
Police said the investigation is ongoing.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Prosecutors seek jail term for ex-NBA star Shawn Kemp in assault case
Pierce County prosecutors on Friday will ask a judge to sentence former Seattle Supersonics star Shawn Kemp to nine months in county jail after he was convicted of shooting at a stolen car occupied by men he suspected had taken his phone. Kemp, 55, pleaded guilty to second-degree assault just before his trial was expected to begin in late May. Kemp and his attorneys struck a deal with prosecutors — who noted multiple factors weighed in favor of resolving the case short of trial — that reduced his charges from first-degree assault and drive-by shooting and removed firearm enhancements that would have added 10 years to his sentence. The plea agreement allows prosecutors to argue for a punishment within the standard sentencing range, which for Kemp, who has no criminal history, is three to nine months in jail. It also lets the defense argue for a sentence below that range. 'The State recommends the Court sentence the Defendant to the high end of his standard range of 9 months in custody of the Pierce County Jail and 12 months of community custody,' deputy prosecuting attorney Sean Plunkett wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed Aug. 14. Kemp has remained out of custody throughout his case. The court commissioner who ordered he could stay out of jail without posting bail after Kemp was charged following the March 8, 2023, shooting noted that Kemp had some speeding tickets, but nothing in his history gave him reason to believe he was a danger to the community. No one was hurt in the shooting. It occurred after Kemp's truck was broken into the previous night at the concert venue Showbox Sodo, where Kemp and a number of his employees were having a celebration. Kemp tracked his stolen iPhone, first to Emerald Queen Casino parking lot and then to the south side of the Tacoma Mall. It's unclear what kind of sentence Kemp's attorneys will ask Superior Court Judge Michael Schwartz to impose. The two lawyers representing him, Tim Leary and Aaron Kiviat, did not respond to a request for comment. When Kemp pleaded guilty, Leary said the plea agreement allowed Kemp to ask for no jail time based on the actions of the men in the vehicle he shot. Prosecutors said the two men who were in possession of Kemp's property had significant histories of crimes of dishonesty. Both are currently incarcerated. Letters filed in court in support of Kemp from his daughter and the executive director of a Seattle senior center have highlighted Kemp's personal growth and his support of local nonprofits. Dian Ferguson, executive director of the Central Area Senior Center, wrote that she met Kemp through his wife, Marvena, and she credits the blossoming of the senior center she has led for 11 years to both of them. 'Elliott, my son, thinks of Shawn as a community asset always willing to help those less fortunate through philanthropic support and his presence at our senior center, basketball camps for children and youth in the summer months and his Holiday giveaways of turkeys and food during Thanksgiving and holiday gifts to those less fortunate during the Christmas Season,' Ferguson wrote. But prosecutors have counted contradictions between the evidence and Kemp's statements to law enforcement among the reasons a high-end sentence is warranted, along with Kemp's apparent attempt to conceal evidence by tossing the 6-shot, .357 magnum he fired into some bushes. Plunkett wrote in the sentencing memorandum that leaving the loaded and cocked revolver created a dangerous situation that could have allowed a child or someone prohibited from possessing a gun to find it. In the defense's trial brief, his attorneys said Kemp didn't want to approach law enforcement while armed, and that he 'immediately' acknowledged firing the gun and that he had placed it in a bush. Plunkett, however, said Kemp only admitted to throwing the revolver into the bushes after law enforcement confronted him with the firearm. The deputy prosecutor also said Kemp didn't tell responding officers or a 911 operator that he had fired at the men in the 4Runner until officers took statements from witnesses and asked Kemp directly if he had fired a gun. Plunkett noted that cell phone video and photos of the 4Runner Kemp shot three times contradicted Kemp's statements to responding police officers and detectives that he only retrieved his firearm after a man in the vehicle shot at him.

Chicago Tribune
4 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
State trooper, a youth hockey referee, arrested on federal child porn charges
An Illinois state trooper who also served as a youth hockey referee was arrested on child pornography charges this week while at work at the agency's Des Plaines headquarters, authorities said. Colin Gruenke, 37, of Deerfield, was charged in a criminal complaint unsealed in U.S. District Court on Thursday with one count of distribution of child pornography, court records show. Prosecutors are seeking to have Gruenke held without bond pending trial, and a detention hearing is set for Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Young Kim. Gruenke's lawyer, Rick Meza, declined to comment Friday. According to the complaint, authorities were first alerted in September 2024 that someone using the screen name 'cgiceman' was distributing multiple files containing child pornography through the social networking platform Kik. The screen name appeared to reference Gruenke's involvement with hockey, from playing in a Northbrook men's league to refereeing junior hockey league games, including the 2018 Illinois State High School Hockey Championships, the complaint alleged. After obtaining search warrants for Gruenke's phone and Deerfield condominium, agents with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations confronted the trooper at about 10 a.m. Wednesday at the Illinois State Police Chicago District offices in Des Plaines, the complaint alleged. At the time, Gruenke was holding an Apple iPhone in his hand, which he handed over to the agents. 'During the manual review of the iPhone, officers discovered thumbnails of deleted screenshots depicting child pornography in the iPhone's 'Files' application,' the complaint alleged. The images, which were later fully recovered, depicted 'fully nude prepubescent children with their genitals displayed in a lewd and lascivious manner,' according to the charges. At the same time of Gruenke's arrest, agents executed a search warrant at his home on Waukegan Road in Deerfield, where they found a 16-gigabyte flash drive inside a nightstand drawer in his bedroom, the complaint alleged. In addition to a folder labeled with Gruenke's government-issued email, another subfolder on the flash drive labeled 'DIVX' contained about 200 video files of children as young as nine being sexually abused by adults, the complaint alleged. Gruenke, who has the rank of trooper first class, joined the Illinois State Police in 2019 and currently worked in patrol in Troop 3, which covers the entire Chicago area, according to an agency spokesperson. He's been placed on administrative leave without pay pending the outcome of the case. Gruenke's salary is currently $86,000, state payroll records show. jmeisner@

NBC News
07-08-2025
- NBC News
Lawsuit accuses Apple of stealing trade secrets to create Apple Pay
Apple has been sued by a Texas company that accused the iPhone maker of stealing its technology to create its lucrative mobile wallet Apple Pay. In a complaint made public on Thursday, Fintiv said Apple Pay's key features were based on technology developed by CorFire, which Fintiv bought in 2014, and now used in hundreds of millions of iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches and MacBooks. Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Fintiv, based in Austin, Texas, said Apple held multiple meetings in 2011 and 2012 and entered nondisclosure agreements with CorFire aimed at licensing its mobile wallet technology, to capitalize on fast-growing demand for contactless payments. Instead, and with the help of CorFire employees it lured away, Apple used the technology and trade secrets to launch Apple Pay in the United States and dozens of other countries, beginning in 2014, the complaint said. Fintiv also said Apple has led an informal racketeering enterprise by using Apple Pay to generate fees for credit card issuers such as Bank of America, Capital One, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, and the payment networks American Express, Mastercard and Visa. 'This is a case of corporate theft and racketeering of monumental proportions,' enabling Cupertino, California-based Apple to generate billions of dollars of revenue without paying Fintiv 'a single penny,' the complaint said. In a statement, Fintiv's lawyer Marc Kasowitz called Apple's conduct 'one of the most egregious examples of corporate malfeasance' he has seen in 45 years of law practice. The lawsuit in Atlanta federal court seeks compensatory and punitive damages for violations of federal and Georgia trade secrets and anti-racketeering laws, including RICO. Apple is the only defendant. CorFire was based in Alpharetta, Georgia, an Atlanta suburb. On August 4, a federal judge in Austin dismissed Fintiv's related patent infringement lawsuit against Apple, four days after rejecting some of Fintiv's claims, court records show. Fintiv agreed to the dismissal, and plans to 'appeal on the existing record,' the records show.



