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CTV News
28-05-2025
- General
- CTV News
Florida man charged in 1998 crash that killed 2 arrested in Toronto
A man charged in a 1998 Christmas Day car crash in Orlando that killed two people has been arrested in Toronto after evading police south of the border for more than 20 years. Toronto police confirmed to CTV News Toronto that former Orlando resident Patrick Lutts Jr. was taken into custody by the TPS Fugitive Squad on Feb. 26 on the strength of an arrest warrant issued under the Canadian Extradition Act. On Dec. 25, 1998, court documents state that the 51-year-old was driving his car in Orlando at approximately 5:50 a.m. after a night of drinking with friends. As Lutts attempted to make a left turn, the documents allege that he struck a vehicle that was being driven by Nancy Lopez and carrying Darvin J. DeJesus-Taboada. Both were unrestrained at the time of impact and ejected from the vehicle. Court documents indicate they both suffered fatal head injuries following the crash. A passing car that was attempting to avoid the debris then struck Lutts and Lopez as he tried to 'render aide' to her, according to an extradition application filed in Ontario Superior Court. It is alleged that Lutts had a blood-alcohol level of .272 at the time of his arrest, a charging affidavit notes. Lutts was charged with two counts of DUI manslaughter on March 23, 1999 and a warrant was issued for his arrest. However, U.S. authorities couldn't locate him and he remained at large until June 27, 2002 when he was arrested in Manchester, Connecticut. He was extradited back to Florida and pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter charges. The Texas-born defendant posted a US$5,000 bail bond and was scheduled to stand trial on Oct. 1, 2003. However, Lutts failed to attend the court date, and his bond was forfeited, court records show. While it's unclear how and when Lutts made his way into Canada, the extradition application suggests that he attempted to cross the border through Niagara Falls on Sept. 29, 2003 -- two days before his trial in Orlando -- but was turned away. Canada Border Services Agency has no record of Lutts ever entering Canada, the court documents show. In the court filing, a Toronto detective said that Lutts' whereabouts remained unknown until an anonymous tip was received in November 2023. From there, police were able to determine that he was living in the city's Church and Wellesley neighbourhood and going by the alias 'Pat Lighthelp.' On Wednesday morning, Lutts, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, attended a brief court appearance in Toronto via video from a local detention centre. CTV News Toronto has reached out to office of the state prosecutor in Florida for more information but has not received a response.
CTV News
28-05-2025
- General
- CTV News
Florida man charged in 1998 crash that killed 2 arrested in Toronto
A man charged in a 1998 Christmas Day car crash in Orlando that killed two people has been arrested in Toronto after evading police south of the border for more than 20 years. Toronto police confirmed to CTV News Toronto that former Orlando resident Patrick Lutts Jr. was taken into custody by the TPS Fugitive Squad on Feb. 26 on the strength of an arrest warrant issued under the Canadian Extradition Act. On Dec. 25, 1998, court documents state that Lutts was driving his car in Orlando at approximately 5:50 a.m. after a night of drinking with friends. As Lutts attempted to make a left turn, the documents allege that he struck a vehicle that was being driven by Nancy Lopez and carrying Darvin J. DeJesus-Taboada. Both were unrestrained at the time of impact and ejected from the vehicle. Court documents indicate they both suffered fatal head injuries following the crash. It is alleged that Lutts had a blood-alcohol level of .272 at the time of his arrest, a charging affidavit notes. He was charged with two counts of DUI manslaughter. He pleaded not guilty and posted a $5,000 bail bond and was scheduled to stand trial on Oct. 1, 2003. However, Lutts failed to attend the court date, and his bond was forfeited, court records show. It's unclear how and when Lutts made his way into Canada, as well as what led Toronto police to his whereabouts. CTV News Toronto has reached out to office of the state prosecutor in Florida for more information but has not received a response. On Wednesday morning, Lutts, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, attended a brief court appearance in Toronto via video from a local detention centre. CTV News Toronto has requested comment from Lutts' lawyer.
CBC
28-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
How a tipster tracked a U.S. fugitive 'psychic' to Toronto after a 21-year search
It was an internet sleuth — claiming to have used facial recognition technology and social media clues — who pointed authorities to the whereabouts of a longtime U.S. fugitive leading a double life in Ontario. CBC News has pieced together new details about the anonymous tip that led Toronto police earlier this year to apprehend Patrick Lutts Jr., more than two decades after he skipped a Florida court hearing on manslaughter charges and vanished. A CBC investigation recently revealed Lutts, 51, had been openly living in the city for years, hosting a monthly bar trivia night and working as a self-styled psychic, all while evading U.S. authorities. Court records show the Texas-born Lutts was charged in March 1999 with DUI manslaughter in connection with an early-morning crash in Orlando that killed two teens. He was scheduled to enter a plea in October 2003 but disappeared, until his arrest by the Toronto Police Service fugitive squad this past February. Lutts is set to appear in an Ontario court on Wednesday. He faces extradition to Florida and has not responded to the allegations since his arrest. It isn't clear how or when he arrived in Canada, and the border agency doesn't have records of his entry. He has no legal status in the country, according to Ontario court files. "It's been a rollercoaster of emotions," said Jorge Leon, whose cousin Nancy Lopez was killed in the collision in Orlando on Christmas Day 1998. Investigators said Lutts had spent the previous night drinking and slammed his truck into the vehicle carrying Lopez, 19, and her 18-year-old boyfriend Darvin Javier DeJesus-Taboada. The couple was killed on impact. "You just left," Leon said of Lutts's years on the run. "You were a coward." 'I find fugitives and have found several before' In 2019, Leon said he created a Facebook page dedicated to Lutts in hopes of drawing attention to the case. Then, in April 2024, came the message that changed everything. "Hello," the anonymous note read. "I need to talk to you about Patrick Lutts." What followed was an avalanche of new information — CBC has managed to confirm much of it — about the fugitive's whereabouts, the Toronto bar where he worked as a quizmaster and the alias he was using online: Pat Lighthelp. "I found him with facial recognition," the tipster wrote, while sharing pictures from Lutts's Facebook profile. Leon said the person didn't reveal their gender or real name, but said they lived in the U.S. and had already reported the findings to a crime tip line. "I find fugitives and have found several before," the tipster wrote in the series of messages reviewed by CBC. The person said they had started looking into Lutts after seeing him featured in an online forum for fans of the TV show America's Most Wanted. "We're finally getting justice," Leon, the victim's cousin, said in an interview. "And it's because of this person." A summary of Florida prosecutors' evidence in the case, filed in Ontario Superior Court as part of extradition proceedings, confirms investigators first got wind of Lutts's location from an anonymous tip in November 2023. The tipster told Leon they had already reached out to authorities that same month. Toronto police later tracked the fugitive to an apartment building in the city's Church and Wellesley area. Fugitive was active online Until his arrest in February, Lutts offered clients relationship advice and life coaching online under his Pat Lighthelp alias. His profile disappeared from the New Zealand-based "psychic reading" platform LifeReader earlier this month after CBC asked the company about its knowledge of Lutts's past. LifeReader did not respond to requests for comment. Online posts show Lutts also hosted a monthly horror-themed trivia night at a Toronto bar. "Congratulations to the winners and we look forward to seeing all of you [in] 2025!" Lutts said in an online post in December. While the tipster suggested they scoured social media for clues, the Orange County Sheriff's Office in Florida declined to discuss what investigative steps had been taken over the years to locate Lutts. "There would have been a warrant issued, and any law enforcement agency would have been able to find the warrant in the system," a spokesperson said in an email. Kenneth Gray, a former FBI special agent who now teaches criminal justice at Connecticut's University of New Haven, said it's common for an anonymous tip to prove crucial in the search for a fugitive. Otherwise, he said, suspects not featured on a most-wanted list may remain on the run indefinitely. "Unless you come into contact with law enforcement somehow, or try to fly on an aircraft or try to cross the border, it's possible to remain hidden from law enforcement somewhat successfully," Gray said. Ryan Hittel, a lawyer representing Nancy Lopez's mother Nelida Cordero, said in a statement that Cordero is "extremely grateful for the efforts of American and Canadian law enforcement — and for the help of the anonymous tipster — which have resulted in the capture of Patrick Lutts Jr." This past February, Lopez's cousin Jorge Leon wrote to the internet sleuth to share news of Lutts's arrest. The message was never delivered. An automatic response said the user had already closed their Facebook account. Leon said he only wishes he could thank the tipster. "He or she would definitely get a hug from me, my aunt [Nelida], the whole family," he said.
Associated Press
27-05-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Nelly Korda preaching patience as she seeks her first title of the year at US Women's Open
ERIN, Wis. (AP) — Nelly Korda says she has learned the value of patience during a season in which titles haven't come as easily as they did for her a year earlier. That trait is particularly important this week at the U.S. Women's Open, a tournament that hasn't been kind to the world's top-ranked player. Korda never has finished higher than a tie for eighth and has missed the cut three of the last five years. That history provides plenty of incentive for Korda as she heads into the U.S. Women's Open starting Thursday at Erin Hills. She is seeking her first title of the season. 'I mean, it's the biggest test in golf,' Korda said. 'It definitely has tested me a lot. I love it. At the end of the day, this is why we do what we do, is to play these golf courses in these conditions, to test our games in every aspect.' Korda, 26, understands that challenge all too well. Last year, she entered the U.S. Women's Open having won six of her last seven events, then fell out of contention early. She posted a 10 on her third hole of the tournament, carded an 80 in the opening round and missed the cut at Lancaster (Pa.) Country Club. Her average score of 68.88 leads all LPGA competitors, but her lack of titles this year is notable after a spectacular 2024 season in which she won seven times in 16 starts. She won five straight events at one point last year, tying a record she now shares with Nancy Lopez and Annika Sorenstam. 'It's been a very interesting year for me,' Korda said. 'I definitely have had a bit of good and a bit of bad. Kind of a mix in kind of every event that I've played in. I would say just patience is what I've learned, and kind of going back home and really locking in and practicing hard.' Korda's lack of championships reflects the balance in women's golf this year, as the LPGA Tour hasn't had a single player win multiple titles through its first 12 events of the season. Korda will seek a breakthrough this week at Erin Hills, a 6,829-yard, par-72 course located less than 40 miles (64 kilometers) northwest of Milwaukee. Erin Hills' relative lack of trees can make the course particularly difficult on windy days. 'Weather plays a pretty big role out here, especially with kind of no coverage, no trees to block it. It's kind of a very big open field,' Korda said. 'When it gets windy out here, it's really going to play with your golf ball. It's just kind of seeing what the day has in store and having a game plan for it.' What's at stake The 80th U.S. Women's Open has a $12 million purse, with the winner earning $2.4 million. That makes it the most lucrative event of the women's golf season. Saso seeks third title Yuka Saso is the defending champion and the first person to win titles representing two countries. Saso represented the Philippines for her 2021 title and represented Japan last year. Her mother is Filipina and her dad is Japanese. Those U.S. Women's Open championships are Saso's only career LPGA Tour titles. She tried to explain this week why she plays her best on this stage. 'I think it's so difficult that I have no time to relax, which I think makes me focus deeper,' Saso said. 'I think that helps.' Watch out for wind Erin Hills was a rather forgiving course when the U.S. Open came here in 2017 and Brooks Koepka won at 16-under par to tie the tournament record. The relative lack of wind that week led to low scores. 'Let's face it,' said Shannon Rouillard, the United States Golf Association's senior director of championships. 'The 2017 U.S. Open didn't play how we had hoped it to play because Mother Nature didn't show up.' Rouillard believes this week should be different. 'Will Mother Nature show up?' Rouillard said. 'Right now she's telling us she's going to show up. That will play a major component into our overall setup plan.' Ko's video scouting Lydia Ko took an unusual approach to preparing for Erin Hills. The world's third-ranked player went on YouTube to watch golf pros Wesley Bryan and George Bryan and YouTube content creator Grant Horvat tackle the course. The Bryan brothers put videos of themselves playing various courses on their Bryan Bros Golf YouTube channel. 'I got into YouTube golf because of my husband, and I won't be shy to say I watch it on my own now,' Ko said. 'It's probably not the preparation that many of the other players did, but it was just a good way for me to kind of see the golf course.' ___ AP golf:
CBC
15-05-2025
- CBC
U.S. fugitive arrested in Toronto led double life as 'psychic'
A U.S. fugitive on the run from authorities in Florida for more than two decades has been arrested in Toronto after living in the city — out in the open — for years, CBC News has learned. Patrick Lutts Jr. faces manslaughter charges stemming from a drunk-driving crash that killed two teens in Orlando on Christmas Day 1998. Lutts, 51, vanished after skipping a plea hearing in 2003, only to later re-emerge in Toronto as a self-styled psychic and host of a local bar's monthly trivia night, according to court records and online posts reviewed by CBC. Lutts' online presence in recent years paints the picture of a man with a busy social life. A horror movie aficionado, he enjoyed ski trips, rock concerts and frequent drinks with friends. There's no sign his acquaintances in Toronto knew anything about his status as a wanted man, or the early-morning crash that killed 19-year-old Nancy Lopez and her boyfriend Darvin Javier DeJesus-Taboada, 18. According to investigators, the couple were thrown several metres when Lutts — with a "strong odor of alcohol coming from his breath" after a night of drinking — slammed his pickup truck into their vehicle. Lutts was found to have had a blood-alcohol level of 0.272 — more than three times the legal limit. "He didn't even call to apologize or to say I'm sorry," Lopez's mother Nelida Leon told Orlando's WFTV in 2014. The family was clinging to hope that Lutts would one day be found. "If he doesn't get justice here," Leon said at the time, "God's going to punish this guy." Toronto police spokesperson Stephanie Sayer confirmed the agency's fugitive squad arrested Lutts on Feb. 26 "on the strength of an arrest warrant issued under the Canadian Extradition Act." He's scheduled to appear in a downtown court later this month. Anonymous tips led police to fugitive An anonymous tip to a Crime Stoppers-type service in Florida in November 2023 first led authorities to suspect Lutts may be in Canada, according to a summary of state prosecutors' evidence in the case, filed in Ontario Superior Court as part of extradition proceedings. Lutts was placed under surveillance and police determined he was living in a high-rise apartment building in Toronto's Church and Wellesley area. It's unclear how – or when – Lutts came to Canada. According to Ontario court files, he has no legal status in the country and the Canada Border Services Agency has no record of his entry. Lutts tried to cross the border from New York to Niagara Falls, Ont., on Sept. 29, 2003 — two days before a key court hearing — but was turned away due to the criminal charges in Florida, according to a police affidavit. A Toronto resident with Lutts' name appears on a list of participants in a local 10-kilometre run in May 2005, suggesting Lutts may have settled in the city by then, while openly using his real name. Florida authorities had already been on the lookout for him for a year and a half. In recent years, Lutts appears to have avoided using his real name online. He instead went by the alias Pat Lighthelp, including on LifeReader, a platform for "psychic readings." Lutts' public profile shows he charged $4.50 US per minute to chat with clients and provide relationship help and life coaching. "As an empathic and intuitive psychic reader," Lutts wrote, "I specialize in providing direct insight and clarity to matters of the heart, particularly when it comes to love and relationships." Once a month, Lutts co-hosted a popular horror-themed trivia night at a bar in Toronto's 2SLGBTQ+ neighbourhood and frequently promoted the event on Facebook. Lutts evaded police before Lutts has a history of evading arrest. By the time Florida prosecutors laid DUI manslaughter charges against him for the 1998 incident, Lutts was already nowhere to be found. He surfaced again in 2002 after authorities said he was involved in another impaired-driving crash in Connecticut, according to court files. Lutts was arrested and sent back to Florida, where he posted a $5,000 US bond and was released from custody. Public records show Lutts failed to appear for a plea hearing scheduled for Oct. 1, 2003 and remained on the lam until his recent arrest in Toronto. "Our office is actively working on extraditing Patrick Lutts back to Florida," a spokesperson for state attorney Monique H. Worrell said in a brief email to CBC. Canada's Justice Department, which handles extradition requests, declined to comment on the case. A Florida-based lawyer who previously represented Lutts did not respond to requests for comment.
