Chilling new surveillance video shows stabbing spree at Michigan Walmart
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USA Today
27 minutes ago
- USA Today
NCAA sanctions of Michigan signal major change in enforcement penalties
The NCAA cited a failure 'to create a culture of compliance' in disciplining Michigan for the controversial sign-stealing scandal that occurred under former coach Jim Harbaugh, assigning probation, a new form of recruiting restrictions and a substantial fine tied to the program's overall budget and future postseason revenue. 'However, the true scope and scale of the scheme — including the competitive advantage it conferred — will never be known due to individuals' intentional destruction and withholding of materials and information,' the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions wrote. 'That said, this case and the decision that follows are limited to the information ultimately demonstrated through the NCAA enforcement staff's investigation.' Harbaugh, now the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, was given a 10-year show-cause ban by the NCAA that effectively ends his college coaching career. (This new penalty won't even begin until 2028, when Harbaugh completes a current four-year ban stemming from another NCAA investigation.) Former off-field assistant coach Connor Stalions was handed an eight-year ban. PATH TO PLAYOFF: Sign up for our college football newsletter Current coach Sherrone Moore, now entering his second season, was given a two-year show-cause order and was suspended for one game in 2026, joining the self-imposed two-game suspension Moore will serve this September. The monetary penalty features a $50,000 fine plus 10% of the program's operating budget, an additional fine 'equivalent to the anticipated loss of all postseason competition revenue sharing associated with the 2025-26 and 2026-27 football seasons' and another fine equal to 10% 'of the scholarships awarded in Michigan's football program for the 2025-26 academic year.' The total cost could be upwards of $30 million. There is no questioning the seriousness of the NCAA investigation and resulting penalties: Michigan committed a cardinal sin in embracing an unfair competition advantage, the infractions committee found. It also did another major no-no in concealing information from investigators. What's missing from Michigan's sanctions from NCAA But the penalties assessed by the NCAA are notable for what's missing. For two, the Wolverines were not handed a postseason ban or forced to vacate any wins — meaning that 2023 championship banner will continue to hang without any asterisks and the program will remain the winningest in Bowl Subdivision history. That represents the latest significant deviation from the NCAA's traditional stance on systemic rule violations, especially for repeat offenders. Historically, programs who strayed this far outside of NCAA rules were assigned three specific types of penalties. One was a postseason ban, in many cases spanning multiple seasons. The most recent examples in the FBS are one-year bans handed to Central Florida and North Carolina in 2012 and Ohio State in 2011. The most stringent postseason penalties in FBS history were four-year bans handed to Indiana in 1960 and North Carolina State in 1959 for 'improper recruiting inducements.' These don't include the NCAA shutting down SMU's football program in the 1980s for ineligible payments to players. In the case of Michigan, the Committee on Infractions ruled that a postseason ban would 'unfairly penalize student-athletes for the actions of coaches and staff who are no longer associated with the Michigan football program.' The second traditional penalty would vacate wins. Last year, Arizona State was forced to vacate eight wins that occurred under former coach Herm Edwards due to violations that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tennessee had to vacate 11 wins from the 2019 and 2020 seasons for violations that came under former coach Jeremy Pruitt. Most famously, the NCAA vacated all of Penn State's 111 wins that occurred from 1998-2011 as part of the fallout from the Jerry Sandusky scandal. The NCAA restored those wins in a 2015 settlement with the university, restoring Joe Paterno as the winningest coach in FBS history. The Wolverines escaped any lost wins because vacating records 'is only in play when there is ineligible competition,' meaning players who are used despite being ineligible for participation, said Norman Bay, the chief hearing officer for the Committee on Infractions. 'That was not a factor present in this case, so it was not a penalty, in other words, that could be considered. And we did not impose it.' Third, programs that committed similar recruiting violations, especially as repeat violators, have historically been levied with scholarship reductions or restrictions. That Michigan was not reflects on the rapidly shifting world of college sports related to name, image and likeness legislation that went into effect earlier this decade. The recent House settlement will cap football roster limits to 105 athletes, though schools can keep all 105 players on scholarship; there was previously no set-in-stone cap on roster size, but schools could only have 85 players on scholarship, with the rest of the team filled out by walk-ons. Instead of having an indefinite number of scholarships officially taken away, Michigan will face that 10% ban on football scholarships for the 2025-26 season. 'The NCAA membership has not yet determined whether roster reductions will replace scholarship reductions as a core penalty, and the panel did not want to prematurely make that decision on behalf of the membership,' the committee ruled. Rather than a straightforward reduction, the committee 'converted the penalty to the financial equivalent of what would have been scholarship reductions.' What will future NCAA sanctions look like? That will very likely be the standard moving forward, as rule violations and the subsequent assessment of penalties will fall in large part to the College Sports Commission, which was created established by the Power Four conferences in the wake of the House settlement. Led by former Major League Baseball executive and assistant U.S. attorney Bryan Seeley, the commission will supervise the approval of all NIL deals. This makes the Michigan case a primer for how college football plans to police the new landscape. Postseason bans are out. Player-focused penalties, such as those reducing scholarships, are also out. Vacating wins also seems more like a relic of earlier attempts to curtail rule-breaking behavior among repeat offenders. Coaches will continue to own breaches that occur under their watch, however. And as conferences and programs are chasing increased revenue streams to fulfill athletics-department obligations, penalties are more likely to include significant financial consequences. The near future will tell whether this is an effective deterrent. If a program was willing to commit serious violations to capture a national championship — knowing that the banner would not be taken away and that wins would not be vacated — would everyone involved be willing to accept an eight-figure fine as the fallout? If the answer is yes, the NCAA and this newly formed commission would have to reimagine the enforcement process and penalties necessary to create an equitable, fair-play environment for the top level of college football.
Fox News
29 minutes ago
- Fox News
New documents reveal professor raised red flags about Bryan Kohberger before Idaho murders
Criminal defense attorney Donna Rotunno joins 'Fox & Friends First' to discuss chilling new details about Kohberger's red flags leading up to the Idaho college murders and the 'Ketamine Queen' pleading guilty in the Matthew Perry overdose case.
Yahoo
33 minutes ago
- Yahoo
He killed his family with a machete. His execution marks a milestone in Florida.
Florida's execution of a former Air Force sergeant in the machete murders of his family is the state's ninth this year, a record in the state's modern history. The state executed former Sgt. Edward Zakrzewski II by lethal injection on Thursday, July 31, for a crime that shocked north Florida more than 30 years ago on June 9, 1994. When his wife wanted a divorce, he used a machete to kill her, their 5-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son. Their bodies were found in a bathtub in their home in the coastal city of Mary Esther. Zakrzewski was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. ET. "I want to thank the good people of the Sunshine State for killing me in the most cold and calculated, clean, humane and efficient way possible," Zakrzewski said as part of his last words. "I have no complaints whatsoever." Florida has executed more inmates this year that any other state at nine executions, which is more than any other year in the state's modern history. The state previously executed eight people in 1984 and 2014. Florida is on track to outpace Texas in executions for the first time since 1984 as Gov. Ron DeSantis makes the issue a priority, saying in May that he wants to bring closure to families who've been waiting sometimes decades for their loved one's killer to be executed. "There are so some crimes that are just so horrific, the only appropriate punishment is the death penalty," he said. Zakrzewski's execution is also the 27th in the nation, a 10-year high. Here's what you need to know about Zakrzewski's execution, the crime he committed and why Florida's numbers are so high. What was Edward Zakrzewski's last meal? Zakrzewski's last meal was fried pork chops, fried onions, potatoes, bacon, toast, root beer, ice cream, pie and coffee. Live updates: Florida death row inmate Edward Zakrzewski has his last meal What was Edward Zakrzewski convicted of? On June 9, 1994, 7-year-old Edward Zakrzewski called his father at work to tell him that his mother, 34-year-old Sylvia, was filing divorce papers that day. Zakrzewski bought a machete during his lunch break, took it home and sharpened it before hiding it and a crowbar, according to court records. Later that night, Zakrzewski told Edward and his 5-year-old daughter Anna to watch TV and then attacked Sylvia. He hit her in the head repeatedly with the crowbar, put a plastic bag over her head and choked her with a rope, he later confessed to police. Zakrzewski then called to each of his children separately to come brush their teeth before attacking them each with the machete. He then dragged his wife, who was still alive, into the bathroom where her dead children were and used the machete on her head and neck several times. He left all their bodies in the tub. Zakrzewski fled immediately after the murders, retreating to Hawaii's Molokai Island, living under an assumed name and befriending a local Pentecostal minister who let Zakrzewski stay in a shack on his property in exchange for maintenance work. Zakrzewski managed to live like that for four months before the minister recognized him on "Unsolved Mysteries," after which Zakrzewski turned himself in. Zakrzewski eventually pleaded guilty to the murders, though his attorneys argued he should be spared from the death penalty. They cited his "exemplary" service in the Air Force, the fact that he turned himself in and pleaded guilty, was "a loving husband and father" before the killings, and that he showed "sincere grief and remorse." Judge G. Robert Barron rejected the mitigating arguments. He pointed to the particularly disturbing way Anna had been killed, with evidence indicating that she likely saw her brother's body and was forced to kneel down and place her neck on the edge of the bathtub before her father hit her with the machete. "The court is convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that prior to Anna's death she not only experienced the horror of knowing that she was about to be murdered by her own father, but she also experienced the absolute horror of knowing that her brother had been murdered and that she was next," he said at sentencing. "This court could not imagine a more heinous and atrocious way to die." Barron found that the killings were "the product of probably months and undeniably hours of cool, calm reflection, and careful planning," and that death was the only just punishment. Who is Edward Zakrzewski II? Zakrzewski was one of four brothers and a sister who grew up in Michigan and later became estranged from his family, according to an archived report in the Kalamazoo Gazette. While in the military, he received the Air Force Commendation Medal for Meritorious Service. Zakrzewski's trial attorney, Elton Killam, told the judge that his client was motivated to kill because of his wife's alleged infidelity, gambling habits and long-term psychological abuse. He decided to kill his children out of mercy because he didn't want to see them grow up in Korea, where his wife was from, and treated lesser than because of their mixed race, Killam said, according to an archived Associated Press report in which he referred to the children as "half breeds." Killam told the judge that Zakrzewski met his wife in Montana at an Air Force base exchange where she worked. The two moved to South Korea before he was transferred to Eglin Air Force Base. He said she was unfaithful to Zakrzewski while in Korea, miscarried her lover's child while she was there, and later ran up big phone bills, calling her lover all while squandering money at night clubs and casinos while Zakrzewski stayed home with the kids, Killam said, according to AP. Zakrzewski's current attorney, Lisa Fusaro, told USA TODAY that "Zakrzewski is very remorseful and has become very spiritual over the years." "He helps to mentor other death row inmates and practices yoga and meditation," she said. "He has continued to stay in contact with his family and friends all these years, who are deeply saddened by the signing of his (death) warrant." USA TODAY was unable to track down any family members of Zakrzewski's victims to learn more about who they were. What's going on in Florida? Florida has executed nine men, with two more scheduled in August. More are expected to be added to the calendar as DeSantis signs more death warrants. The state is helping drive a busy year for executions in the nation. So far in 2025, states have executed 27 inmates − a 10-year high. With 10 more on the calendar, the U.S. stands to execute as least 37 prisoners by year's end. Robin Maher, director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said Florida's uptick "represents an unprecedented investment of taxpayer dollars and resources to enact a policy that has never been shown to improve public safety or deter crime." "When compared to the rest of the country, Florida is clearly an outlier in the way that it enthusiastically uses the death penalty despite rising public concerns, high cost, and low public support," she said, referring to studies that show decreasing support for the death penalty though it was about 53% nationwide as of 2024, according to a Gallup poll. Texas remains the state that has executed the most inmates, by far. The state has executed 594 inmates in the modern death penalty era (since 1976). The next closest state is Oklahoma at 129, then Florida at 115. Texas has either matched or outpaced Florida in executions every year in the modern era except for 1979, 1984 and this year. Edward Zakrzewski lawyers fought for a reprieve On July 22, the Florida Supreme Court rejected arguments from Zakrzewski's attorneys that his death sentence should be tossed out because he never would have been sentenced to die under current Florida law. When he was sentenced in 1996, Zakrazewski's jury recommended death on votes of 7-5 for the murder of his wife and son, and 6-6 for his daughter's murder. Under current law, at least eight jurors need to vote for the death penalty. "Standards of decency have evolved," his attorneys wrote. The state Supreme Court ruled the claims were meritless. Contributing: Tom McLaughlin, Pensacola News Journal Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter for USA TODAY. Follow her on X at @amandaleeusat. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Florida's execution of man who killed family with machete is a record
