Latest news with #NevadaDepartmentofCorrections
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Judge Reportedly Claims 'Teen Mom 2' Alum Will Eventually 'Kill Someone'
Judge Reportedly Claims 'Teen Mom 2' Alum Will Eventually 'Kill Someone' originally appeared on Parade. Teen Mom 2 alum Nathan Griffith will serve up to four years in prison after allegedly strangling his ex-girlfriend, a violent act that violated his probation — which he was on for allegedly strangling his sister years earlier. Jenelle Evans' ex — with whom she shares 10-year-old son Kaiser — will serve a "maximum of 48 [months] with a minimum parole eligibility of 14 months in the Nevada Department of Corrections," according to the sentence filing obtained by The Sun on Thursday, May 29. Griffith reportedly received 11 days already served. According to an eyewitness in court, the judge told Griffith: "You are a danger to others and you're going to kill someone.'" Griffith allegedly sobbed as the sentence was handed down. Per multiple outlets, the former Marine pleaded guilty to the felony charge of "Battery Constituting Domestic Violence- Strangulation" in the alleged April assault of Biddle, 21. Per The Sun, Biddle was in court at Griffith's sentencing, as was his estranged, but still legal, wife, May Oyola — who recently shared an Instagram photo of a large bouquet of flowers from Griffith, signed "Your Husband." Griffith's sister, who accused him of strangling her in 2023, was also in court. Though Evans was not present in the courtroom, she caught major heat from Teen Mom fans after defending Griffith on TikTok following the altercation with Biddle. At the time, she claimed that Griffith and Biddle were both at fault, and offered her ex stay at her house — specifically, in Kaiser's room. (Evans previously claimed that Griffith hadn't seen his son in two years.) Evans' estranged husband, David Eason, has his own strangulation charge against him. He was charged with felony 'Assault by Strangulation" after allegedly strangling Evans' 15-year-old son Jace. Eason has denied the claims. In addition to Jace and Nathan, Evans is also mom to 8-year-old daughter Ensley, whom she shares with Eason. If you or someone you know has been a victim of domestic violence, help is available 24 hours a day through the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233. If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or visit their website. Judge Reportedly Claims 'Teen Mom 2' Alum Will Eventually 'Kill Someone' first appeared on Parade on May 30, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on May 30, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Yahoo
Nevada could soon charge DUI drivers who kill with second-degree murder
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A proposal to toughen Nevada's DUI laws could lead to murder charges for an intoxicated driver who kills, according to the bill's sponsor. Senate Bill 304 would amend the state's vehicular homicide law to include all DUIs involving death, its sponsor, Republican State Sen. Jeff Stone, of Clark County, told a legislative committee Thursday. The bill was stuck in a finance committee because the Nevada Department of Corrections estimates it will add more than $2 million to its budget due to the additional time offenders could serve in custody. Stone's original proposal would have amended the law to lower the previous number of DUI convictions a person needed on their record for prosecutors to charge a driver with vehicular homicide. Under the proposal, on Thursday, prosecutors would be able to charge any DUI driver who kills with vehicular homicide. The proposal would carry a possible sentence of 10 to 25 years or 10 to life, the same as the state's second-degree murder statute, said John Jones with the Nevada District Attorneys Association. 'It is the position of DAs across the state that getting behind the wheel of a motor vehicle while intoxicated and proximately causing the death of another person meets this threshold,' Jones said Thursday. Nevada prosecutors, including the Clark County District Attorney's Office, have tried to charge DUI drivers who kill a person and who speed and who drive with no care for another person's life, with murder, but the Nevada Supreme Court has ruled the DUI with death law is more appropriate. Should the bill pass, Nevada would have a clear distinction between vehicular homicide and DUI resulting in substantial bodily harm, Jones and Stone said. A second proposal, Senate Bill 457, which is part of Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo's crime bill, would also amend the law to charge DUI drivers who kill with second-degree murder. Representatives for Senate and Assembly Democrats previously told 8 News Now that both proposals remain under consideration. The legislative session ends June 2. Lawmakers will not reconvene, except for special circumstances at the request of the governor, until February 2027. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
NBC Sports
30-04-2025
- NBC Sports
Josh Jacobs: Henry Ruggs is training in prison in hopes of second NFL chance
Former Raiders wide receiver Henry Ruggs remains incarcerated at Casa Grande Transitional Housing in Las Vegas. His earliest parole-eligibility date is Aug. 5, 2026, according to the Nevada Department of Corrections records. His former Alabama and Raiders teammate, Josh Jacobs, said Ruggs is keeping in shape in prison with hopes of a second shot at the NFL. 'Keeping up with him and hearing him talk, it brings me spirits, because he's always positive,' Jacobs said on Ryan Clark's The Pivot Podcast, via Mark Inabinett of 'He's positive about everything. He's training. They let him train and things like that, so I'm like, 'When you come out, man, I don't know if you will get a chance.' I've been talking to some people for him. They've been saying a couple of teams are willing to give him a chance. I'm like, 'When you get that chance, man, you better not ever — don't look back, and prove to yourself and prove to everybody that one decision don't define you and who you are as a man.'' Ruggs, 26, was the 12th overall pick in the 2020 draft, but in the early morning hours of Nov. 2, 2021, he was driving at excessive speed while under the influence of alcohol. Ruggs' Corvette struck a car driven by 23-year-old Tina Tintor, who died in the wreck. In May 2023, Ruggs pleaded guilty to one count of driving under the influence of alcohol and/or controlled or prohibited substance resulting in death and one count of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter. The plea deal sentenced Ruggs to prison from 36 to 120 months for the first count and six months for the second count. 'I instantly get mad,' Jacobs said of initially learning what happened. 'And then when I start finding out more about the story and about how they were supposed to be racing. I'm like, 'Who was he with?' But he was with his family. So I went to his house. I had some words with some people over there, and I'm just like, 'Man, y'all got to understand, like, he the breadwinner of the family. He the one changing all of y'all's lives -- everybody.' 'And then not only that, he's a good kid. He's never been in trouble. I've never seen him do nothing crazy. He was just one of them guys that have a very, very unfortunate situation and something happened, a decision that he made. That's what hurt me the most. Man, he isn't somebody you would look at and be like, 'Bro, you deserved this to happen to you.''
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lombardo seeks to turn back time on criminal justice reforms
The bill proposed by Gov. Joe Lombardo, a former sheriff, is introduced on the heels of the revelation that the Nevada Department of Corrections has a $53 million budget deficit. (Photo: Richard Bednarski/Nevada Current) Legislation touted Tuesday by Gov. Joe Lombardo and law enforcement officials from Northern Nevada would turn back the clock on modest reforms passed by lawmakers with bipartisan support in 2019. 'This legislation was drafted to put teeth back into Nevada's penal code, hold criminals accountable, empower judges and prosecutors and support victims of crime,' Lombardo said at a news conference Tuesday in front of the Carson City sheriff's office. The bill's introduction comes on the heels of the revelation that the Nevada Department of Corrections has a $53 million budget deficit. 'I was convinced the Governor's crime bill being released at the same time NDOC shockingly shared it paid $60m in overtime and predicted worse deficits in the near future was a joke, but it was apparently serious,' ACLU of Nevada Executive Director Athar Haseebullah said via email. 'It's incumbent on the Governor to share how he plans on paying for his relic-of-the-past crime bill.' Prison guard musical chairs incurs $60 million in overtime, $50 million shortfall Last session, Lombardo spearheaded the Crime Reduction Act, which increased penalties for drug dealers, and limited early discharge from probation for gun violations. 'It's evident that more work remains in our fight to secure our communities,' Lombardo said Tuesday. Lombardo, on the campaign trail in 2022, blamed increases in crime on Assembly Bill 236, which was passed in 2019. His current legislation comes amid a reduction in a number of crime categories and increases in others. According to data from the State of Nevada, from 2023 to 2024: Property crime was down 12.37% Domestic violence was down 2.81% Violent crime was down 6% Crimes against the elderly were up 31.86% Hate crimes were up 88% from 2023, but down slightly from 2020 The legislation, Senate Bill 457, would enact multiple measures to toughen penalties and broaden the scope of infraction on the books. 'Historically, partisanship has prevented meaningful progress for public safety, but I am hopeful we can push past this session,' Lombardo said. Lombardo's Safe Streets and Neighborhoods Act would increase costs for the Nevada Department of Corrections by $3.6 million in the current biennium, by just under $7.2 million for the next biennium, and by $42.2 million in future bienniums, according to a fiscal note. 'Much of the long-term increase is due to habitual criminal convictions with delayed effects,' NDOC wrote in the fiscal note. 'For lesser sentences, this delay will take on average a year after implementation for an effect to begin.' NDOC projects the reforms would add 38 offenders a year to the prison population, with an average incarceration of 6.5 years. 'For greater sentences, effects are expected to take up to 20 years to begin to materialize due to sizable average existing sentence lengths, even when the habitual criminal sentence is excluded,' according to NDOC. The department estimates 111 additional offenders would return in the first fiscal year after their release, increasing to 215 the next year. 'This increase is expected to continue until a plateau is reached at 632 additional offenders. The average total daily cost per offender in FY 2025 is $91.43,' NDOC notes. Last week, NDOC director James Dzurenda testified the department is racking up $60 million in overtime a year because of the need to shift correction officers from one post to another to address staffing shortages, resulting in a $50 million dollar budgeting shortfall that took lawmakers by surprise. 'It's the utmost importance to me to ensure that the law enforcement community has the tools in order to change the crime picture in our communities, and we will figure out a way through the government processes and all the available funding resources available to us to address those particular issues,' Lombardo said Tuesday, adding he is 'evaluating time served for non-violent offenses' and projects a savings of $37 million a year as a result. 'Additionally, we will work through the existing bills that are going through the state process, and we can balance the budget to address this,' he said. 'In my level of importance and triage we deal with in state government, nothing is as important…' Haseebullah says Nevada's district attorneys' offices should disclose how much it will cost to prosecute the additional cases envisioned by Lombardo's legislation. The D.A.s, he says 'have opposed record sealing bills for bullshit arrests that were dismissed with their opposition based on cost considerations, but magically, something like this is free for them.' Lombardo's legislation: Enacts tougher penalties for theft, burglary and for repeat offenders; Provides an additional penalty for offenders who commit new crimes while released from incarceration but are still under sentence; Allows separate charges for each sexual image of a person under the age of 16; Lowers the threshold for felony theft charges from $1200 to $750;. Imposes mandatory minimum sentences and increased penalties for trafficking large quantities of fentanyl; Eliminates diversion programs for offenders who victimize children, the elderly, and vulnerable adults; Imposes a sentencing enhancement for felonies committed by offenders on pre-trial release; Revises stalking crimes to include dating relationships, social media and other electronic means; Lowers the threshold of the number of felonies required for conviction as a habitual criminal; Expands marijuana and marijuana metabolite thresholds for intoxication; Increases penalties for DUI offenses resulting in death; Domestic batterers would be required to surrender their firearms; Increases burglary punishments, which were reduced in 2019; Extends the time for a bail hearing, set in 2021 at 24 hours, to 72 hours; Requires that any payments collected from a criminal defendant be first applied to pay restitution to the victim; Requires that any money collected from a defendant be used to satisfy restitution before it can be applied to court fines and fees; Ensures that a felony DUI offender who is in a diversion program will be subject to another felony for driving impaired; Increases the penalty range for DUI causing death to one to 20 years to five to 25 years; And allows DUI offenders to be charged in certain cases with second degree murder. 'Nevada has no money left to experiment on antiquated tough-on-crime policies which continue to devastate our budget and don't make our community safer,' Haseebullah observed. 'We're about to face cuts statewide on basic services. I have no idea how anyone with any common sense would view this type of exorbitantly expensive regressive idea as a plus, but these types of performative messages seem to be the Nevada way.' No hearing has been scheduled on the governor's bill.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Prison guard musical chairs incurs $60 million in overtime, $50 million shortfall
Nevada Department of Corrections Director James Dzurenda. (Legislative stream screengrab) The Nevada Department of Corrections is racking up $60 million in overtime a year because of the need to shift correction officers from one post to another to address staffing shortages, resulting in a $50 million dollar budgeting shortfall that took lawmakers by surprise during a hearing Thursday of the Interim Finance Committee. NDOC Director James Dzurenda told lawmakers he was instructed by the Governor's Finance Office last year that the department's personnel shortage could not be addressed until a staffing study initiated in 2024 is completed in June. Dzurenda testified the department is 'usually about $60 million short on day one' of a biennium because of overtime demands. He predicted the study will 'be devastating' and reveal a biennial shortfall of 'over $100 million.' 'So you're saying that your agency told the governor's office… 'hey, we're going to run into huge deficits. We're going to overspend like nobody's business in overtime,' and they were aware of this, and they just didn't bring it to our attention until March?' an incredulous Sen. Rochelle Nguyen asked Dzurenda. 'I don't know when they brought it to your attention, but these discussions have been happening since I got here in '23,' Dzurenda responded. 'We knew we were going to be short, and I'm telling you, we're going to be short next time, too.' Lombardo did not respond to a request for comment. The governor, when asked about economic concerns in recent months, has repeatedly referred to 'triaging' the state through any fiscal storm. Triaging in the state prison department amounts to reducing visitation and shifting in-person educational programming to correspondence courses. The overtime problem, Dzurenda said, 'is complicated' and involves a number of variables, such as delays in obtaining a staffing study to substantiate the need for additional positions; unbudgeted costs such as transporting prisoners; staffing NDOC's training academy; and the cost of overtime provisions included in a collective bargaining agreement negotiated in 2023 for correction officers. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro told Dzurenda if he was aware of a 'regular, ongoing use of overtime monies,' a request should have been made for 'a reserve of X amount of dollars that we believe we are going to have to pay overtime.' Instead, she argued Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo's administration 'turned a blind eye to it,' leaving lawmakers 'halfway through a legislative session, to figure out how to fill that hole.' One corrections officer has racked up 1,600 hours of overtime since the fiscal year began, 'which puts you on track to work 80-hour weeks,' Nguyen said, adding she was 'incredibly disappointed' and branded the episode 'a failure on so many levels.' NDOC's current solution, she added, cuts the education programs that 'from what we've heard from you, Director, over and over and over again, actually make those prisons safer for your correction officers and safer for the people that are incarcerated in there. Is that my understanding?' 'Yes,' Dzurenda replied. Democratic Assemblywoman Danielle Monroe Moreno, a former corrections officer, voiced a 'need to apologize' to Dzurenda, adding she didn't know if the governor or the Legislature had put him in a situation that 'is not winnable.' 'We have a responsibility to make sure that you get what you need for your staff to be safe and the inmates in our charge to be safe,' she said, and directed NDOC to seek additional funding during the legislative interim. In other IFC developments, Monroe Moreno warned agencies with projects funded by American Rescue Plan funds, which will revert to the federal government if not spent by the end of next year, that because of President Donald Trump's tariffs, increasing costs of construction and goods could jeopardize their timely completion.
