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iStockphoto/Thinkstock(MARIN COUNTY, Calif.) -- Richard Ramirez, a notorious convicted serial killer known as the “Night Stalker” for murdering 13 people and terrorizing Southern California in the mid-1980s, has died.

Ramirez, 53, was on death row at San Quentin State Prison in Marin County, Calif. He was pronounced dead at a Marin hospital early Friday morning of natural causes, San Quentin Prison Lt. Sam Robinson told ABC News.

He had been housed on death row for decades and was awaiting execution, even though it has been years since anyone has been put to death in California.

Known as the “Night Stalker,” Ramirez would enter homes at night through unlocked doors and windows. Victims were shot or stabbed to death, and Satanic symbols were found at some of the murder scenes.

While attempting a carjacking in 1985, Ramirez was captured and beaten by East Los Angeles bystanders until police arrived.

Ramirez’s murder trial took four years and began with him famously raising his hand in court to reveal a pentagram on it as he declared, “Hail Satan.”

The trial ended in 1989 when Ramirez was convicted of 13 counts of murder, and numerous counts of attempted murder, sexual assault, and burglary.

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iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- New York City officials conceded Friday that human error at the troubled new 911 system delayed emergency medical technicians from responding to the scene where a 4-year-old girl was struck by a car and killed.

“It wasn’t picked up by the person that should have been reading that screen,” New York City Fire Commissioner Sal Cassano said Friday.

After an internal review the FDNY discovered a three-to-four minute gap between the time the call appeared on the computer screen and the time the ambulance was dispatched to the spot where Ariel Russo was hit by a driver fleeing police.

“They just failed to read the screen,” Cassano said. “We’ll deal with that.”

Cassano said this was human error but it follows technological breakdowns at the city’s new 911 system despite the $2 billion cost.

The system went down on four separate occasions last week, including an 11-minute outage May 29, its first day, when operators were unable to automatically route information to police, fire or EMS dispatchers. The next day it broke down twice, for about an hour in the middle of the day and later that night for roughly two minutes, prompting criticism.

City Comptroller John Liu said the city’s safety is being “held hostage to troubled technology.”

Mayor Mike Bloomberg has defended the new system.

A scathing report submitted to Mayor Bloomberg’s office by city consultants more than two years ago foreshadowed the problems the city would have in installing the new police-dispatch system:

“Development efforts continue with little to no cross-agency coordination or common vision, resulting in excessive development costs, schedule delays and interface complexity,” according to the report reviewed by ABC News. “Operational improvements to processes haven’t been established.”

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ABC News obtained images of one of the threatening, possibly ricin-laced letters sent to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. (Obtained by ABC News)(NEW YORK) -- An arrest has been made in connection to the poison letters sent to President Obama and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg late last month, federal law enforcement officials told ABC News.

Actress Shannon Richardson was cuffed and taken to a federal courthouse Friday, though it is unclear what charges will be filed against her.

The Texas woman, who has appeared on television including a stint as a zombie on The Walking Dead, originally called the FBI claiming her husband was the person who sent a series of letters laced with small amounts of the toxin ricin to Obama, Bloomberg and Bloomberg's top gun control lobbyist in Washington, D.C., in late May.

"You will have to kill me and my family before you get my guns," each letter reads. "Anyone wants to come to my house will be shot in the face. The right to bear arms is my constitutional God-given right and I will exercise that right 'til the day I die. What's in this letter is nothing compared to what I've got planned for you."

Except in the gun control lobbyist's case, the letters did not reach their intended targets. The gun control lobbyist, Mark Glaze, opened his letter but immediately called authorities when he noticed the suspicious substance. Later, the U.S. Postal Service said the letters did not pose a health threat.

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KGTV(CAMP PENDLETON, Claif.) -- Fourteen active and former U.S. Marines were among 64 alleged perpetrators of an illicit military weapons and drug trafficking ring busted Thursday by California authorities.

Law enforcement made 50 early-morning arrests during a sweep in San Diego County to round up the suspects charged with stealing and selling the goods.

Authorities said they had made the largest dent in an "organized crime network" in more than three years.

"Through solid investigative work and collaboration this task force effectively shut down a large organized crime network committing numerous felonies," said Dave Jones, the state's insurance commissioner.

The investigation began as authorities looked into numerous stolen vehicles in the San Diego area, according to the district attorney.

Seven active-duty Marines, one Navy sailor, and seven former Marines were arrested as part of the bust, according to the district attorney.

The suspects are accused of stealing and selling military equipment from Camp Pendleton in Southern California, including Kevlar helmets, high-capacity magazines, night-vision goggles, gas masks, and bullet-proof vests, according to the San Diego County district attorney's office.

The sting, dubbed "Operation Perfect Storm," also netted 92 stolen vehicles, methamphetamines and ecstasy, and 10,000 rounds of ammunition and high capacity magazines. The value of the stolen goods was estimated at $1 million, according to authorities.

According to the DA's office, law enforcement officials set up an undercover storefront location in San Diego County and, after infiltrating criminal groups throughout the county, invited them to sell stolen goods at the storefront location.

The alleged criminals were then videotaped trying selling stolen vehicles, weapons, and drugs to undercover detectives.

Authorities presented evidence to a grand jury over an eight-day period, including testimony from more than 90 witnesses.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which investigates alleged crimes in the military, was involved with the operation and worked with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and the San Diego Auto Theft Task Force on the case, according to the district attorney's office.

Suspects face up to 25 years in state prison.

Nineteen of the defendants faced arraignment in San Diego Superior Court Thursday, while 31 others that were arrested posted bond and will return for arraignments at a later date. Police are still seeking 14 of those indicted.

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Scott Cunningham/Getty Images(ORLANDO, Fla.) -- One of the former Florida A&M University drum majors charged in the hazing death of drum major Robert Champion was sentenced Friday to house arrest and probation for his role in his band mate's death.

Rikki Wills, 25, was one of the five drum majors who led Champion's funeral march, escorting his casket during the funeral.

Champion, 26, was a member of the college's famed "Marching 100" band when he collapsed and died Nov. 19, 2011 on a bus parked outside an Orlando, Fla., hotel after a football game.

The death was ruled a homicide and Champion's torso was covered with bruises that were inflicted during a brutal hazing ritual that contributed to his death, according to investigators.

Wills was sentenced to one year of "community control"--a formal name for house arrest--and five years of state probation.

In May, Wills pleaded no contest to felony hazing resulting in death and his attorney said he has "owned up to what his part was."

"He acknowledges that he was on the bus and he basically did a pull-through, basically trying to help Robert stay on his feet and continue to the back of the bus as fast as possible so he didn't get struck," Wills' attorney William Hancock told ABCNews.com today after the sentencing.

"He felt he was doing everything he could to protect him," Hancock said.

More than 2,000 pages of evidence from the investigation into Champion's death were released by the Florida District Attorney's Office in May 2012, which delivered a blow-by-blow of the events from the night of Champion's death.

Champion endured a lethal pummeling down the aisle of a pitch-black bus that rocked from the force of the violence inside, according to the documents.

Champion struggled, with a female band member holding him back to prolong the punishment, through a gauntlet of band mates who used their fists, feet, straps and sticks to pound him into unconsciousness.
"Rikki felt that he had done everything he possibly could to talk Robert out of doing this and was acutely surprised when Robert participated in the hazing," Hancock said.

He added that he believes FAMU is more to blame than the students who participated in the hazing ritual.

"I really think the blame falls greater on the institution that perpetuated the hazing than the participants, but he certainly owned up to his personal responsibility," Hancock said.

Champion's parents traveled to Orange County, Fla., for the hearing from their home in Georgia. The Champion family's attorney was not immediately available for comment.

Thirteen FAMU band members were charged in relation to Champion's death.

The first defendant sentenced in Champion's death was Brian Jones, 24, who got two years of probation and 200 hours of community service in October 2012.

"The judge had stated that your part in Robert's death was really minimal, but you and I know that's not true," Champion's mother Pamela Champion told Jones in court. "It will always be there haunting you. We both know that."

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(CHICAGO) -- Saving a life is impressive enough, but a Chicago area middle school student saved not only his best friend but also his teacher, all in the same week.

Travon Avery, an eighth grader at Herget Middle School in Aurora, Ill., was in class one day in January when his best friend Jose Duran started choking on a candy bar.

"He was eating candy and I made him laugh and then the candy got stuck in throat and he started choking. Everyone around was in shock," Travon said Friday in an interview with ABC News. "So I put my hand under his rib cage three times and did the Heimlich."

Jose's face, Travon said, was turning red, his eyes were welling with tears, and he was clutching his throat.

"I thought I was going to lose my friend. It was very scary," Travon said.

Thanks to Travon's quick thinking and immediate action, he was able to dislodge the candy and save Jose's life.

But Travon's amazing week did not end there. Two days later he was in math class when his teacher took a turn for the worse.

"She wasn't acting normal, so we were paying very close attention to her. Then she leaned over on the board and closed her eyes. We thought she was just sleeping, but she was passed out," Travon recalled. "I checked to see if she was breathing and she was, so I ran out of the class and got the nurse."

Soon an ambulance arrived to help the teacher.

That night the school called to inform Travon and his mother, Crystal Ruffin-Mason, that the teacher had been suffering from migraines and was now doing fine.

"They said that his quick action really helped avert something serious happening to his teacher," Ruffin-Mason said. "And they wanted to check on Travon because he was shaken up. They wanted to make sure he was okay emotionally."

Travon's heroics have since brought him national recognition. Earlier this week he appeared on The Steve Harvey Show, where he was named a Harvey's Hero. Travon says his mother deserves credit for his life-saving efforts.

"My mom taught me if someone needed help not to just stand there and not do anything, but to make an effort and try," he said.

On the show, Travon was presented with a $10,000 college scholarship from the U Promise program by Sallie Mae.

"I feel glad and blessed," he said.

"I'm so proud of him," said his mother. "That was so wonderful. Now he's so motivated and excited about college."

In addition to music, Travon's true passion is basketball, she said, but recently he had an idea that kids should focus less on sports and more on first aid.

"So you normally have camp for sports, but we should have a camp for teaching people CPR and the Heimlich," he suggested. "Even just a couple days a week where kids come out and learn."

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Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department(LAS VEGAS) -- It’s practically a scene from the comedy The Hangover: A nice hotel room gets trashed by the end of the evening.

While the Wolf Pack from the movie was able to escape its worries by the end of the weekend, one California attorney hasn’t received such a happy ending.

“The room appeared to be in total disarray, the furniture was thrown about and what appeared to be glass debris [was] on the floor,” Jose Hernandez, a spokesman for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, told ABC News.

Robert Pearman, 45, has been charged with malicious destruction or injury of property of another after a night at the Encore Hotel in Las Vegas, and is expected in court in July to answer the charges, according to the criminal complaint and police report.

Pearman, through his attorney, declined comment to ABC News.

According to a criminal complaint, Pearman and five friends were partying in a $3,000, two-story, 5,800-square-foot room on March 30. The two-bedroom suite was equipped with hot tubs facing Las Vegas Boulevard, a massage room in the main foyer, nine-foot ceiling windows, and private check-in.

“Officers were called out to a disturbance in one of the rooms,” Hernandez said. “Upon arrival, officers made contact with the registered guest, Robert Pearman.”

The criminal complaint described “room items broken, and numerous food items were spattered on the carpeting, walls, floors and drapery with lamps, shades and a decorative vase were damaged.”

When confronted by police, according to the criminal complaint, Pearman appeared intoxicated and said, “I take full responsibility for what happened here, we were partying. I did all of this, I am responsible for all these people, let my people go.”

However, police alleged, Pearman refused to pay for the damages. According to the complaint, he “acted highly volatile as he yelled in Encore personnel’s faces, and state[d] that he is practicing attorney, and because [he] is an attorney [he] will, ‘depose Steve Wynn, and make this place Napalm.’”

Because of the amount of damage, Pearman was taken into custody and transported to the Clark County Detention Center. Officials wouldn’t comment on Pearman’s current whereabouts, though ABC News confirmed he is out of jail and back to work as an attorney.

The Clark County District Attorney’s Office said it does not comment on ongoing criminal cases.

A spokeswoman for the Encore Hotel said, “It is not our policy to comment on guests of the resort.”

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Wendy Maeda/The Boston Globe via Getty Images(BOSTON) -- Attorneys for accused Boston gangster James "Whitey" Bulger -- charged with 19 murders that he allegedly committed while acting as an FBI informant -- have accused state police of covering up crimes for another convicted hitman slated to testify against him.

Hit man John Martorano admitted to murdering 20 people and served 12 years in federal prison after he agreed to work with federal prosecutors in taking down Bulger and rogue FBI agent John Connolly.  Martorano was released in 2007 and is expected to testify against Bulger in the coming weeks.

Bulger's attorneys are demanding any documentation pertaining to Massachusetts State Trooper Steve Johnson and whether Johnson facilitated continuing criminal activity that Martorano may have engaged in since his release.  Johnson was one of the law enforcement officers whose efforts to take down Bulger were stymied by the FBI.

The accusation was made in a brief filed by Bulger's attorneys on Friday.  A judge could rule whether the U.S. Attorney's office will be forced to hand over any documentation pertaining to Johnson "or any other member of the Massachusetts State Police" suspected of working to "protect or insulate John Martorano from law enforcement investigations relating to criminal acts occurring since his release from federal prison."

There are no specific crimes mentioned in the brief, but it refers to a letter the U.S. Attorney's Office received about Martorano's criminal activity.  Bulger's attorneys have added Johnson and another Bulger pursuer, DEA Agent Dan Doherty, to the witness list.  That status would effectively keep them out of the courtroom since witnesses are not allowed to sit through proceedings before they testify.

The inclusion of Johnson and Doherty on the witness list has infuriated federal prosecutors.  They wrote in a responding brief that the tactic is an attempt to "disrupt the government's trial efforts."

Prosecutors argued that Johnson and Doherty are critical to the government's efforts to unravel the complexities of the case.

Bulger's appearance in court this week is the start of a trial that began with an indictment unsealed 18 years ago.  Bulger was on the run for 16 years after he was tipped off to that indictment by Connolly.  Connolly has been convicted of racketeering and obstruction of justice for his actions to protect Bulger.

Johnson and Doherty, prosecutors argued, "have worked for approximately two decades on this case."

The requests are among a plethora of legal briefs filed this week that U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper must grapple with during the ongoing jury selection process.  Casper is hoping to seat 18 jurors, culled from the 858 prospective candidates who have been called to court already, by early next week.

Opening statements are slated to begin on Wednesday, June 12.  The trial is expected to last until mid-September.

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Joe Burbank - Pool/Getty Image(SANFORD, Fla.) -- It's one of the biggest mysteries in the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman saga: Who is screaming for help in those 911 calls placed by neighbors reporting a fight that was stopped by a bullet?

ABC News has exclusively obtained a sample of Martin's voice.  That audio, which both prosecution and defense possess, could be a pivotal piece of evidence once the trial starts.

The sound could help forensic audio analysts determine who was overheard howling for help in the 911 calls that night.

If the howls are Zimmerman's, it would support his claim of self defense.  If they're Martin's, it would significantly weaken Zimmerman's assertion that he felt his life was in jeopardy when he shot the unarmed teen to death.

ABC News sent the short sample, gathered as evidence from Martin's cellphone, to a forensic analyst.  Kent Gibson, of Forensic Audio, tells ABC News a comparison of Martin's voice, Zimmerman's voice and the screams on the 911 tape, indicate the voice is more likely to be Zimmerman than Martin by a significant margin.

However, he adds, so much of the howling and pleading overheard on that 911 tape is muffled or obscured, that only two seconds of the tape are useable.  Therefore, he says, there can be no definitive identification of "the screamer."

The FBI's leading forensic audio expert said much of the same in his testimony Thursday.  Dr. Horotaka Nakasone called it "disturbing" that someone would be able to make a positive voice identification based on the screams.

Both families contend that it was their loved one crying for help more than a dozen times. 

On Friday, in the final hearing before Zimmerman's second degree murder trial for Martin's death begins on Monday with jury selection, Judge Debra Nelson could rule on how the teams of lawyers might present those 911 calls to a jury.

One expert, whose testimony was recently submitted as evidence by the state, claims he can hear Martin saying "I'm begging you" just before he is shot and killed.  Another expert says some of the screams came from Martin and others claim it is Zimmerman.

To ID the screaming voice, forensic audio experts required samples of both Zimmerman's and Martin's voices.  But no audio of Martin's voice had ever been released to the public until now.  ABC News has obtained audio of Martin laughing and talking about two men arguing over a bike. 

During testimony Thursday, Zimmerman looked down at his lap as the 911 call was played in court for Nakasone, the FBI voice examiner who had worked on the case.

Nakasone testified that dissecting the 40-second 911 sample and figuring out who exactly screamed couldn't be done because only three seconds were unobscured.

"[The sample] has to be at least 16 seconds long," said Nakasone.  "American English has 44 different sounds.  To cover all those it takes 20 to 30 seconds."

This final hearing before the trial was called for by the Zimmerman defense, arguing that the science involving picking out certain audio is inadmissible or is so new that it shouldn't be allowed by a jury.

The state contends that its audio experts are credible, and that it should be up to a jury to decide what to believe.

Shawn Vincent, a spokesman for Zimmerman's lawyer Mark O'Mara, told ABC News, "That 911 call will get played in court.  It is an important piece of evidence that will be played for the jury to make up their mind."

"The 911 call is probably the best evidence of what happened that night besides George Zimmerman's testimony and Trayvon's," said legal analyst Bill Schaefer, who noted Martin wouldn't be able to testify explaining his version of what happened. 

Martin's mother Sybrina Fulton, who plans to attend every day of the trial, knows that the 911 call along with much the testimony may be difficult to bear.

"I pray for me to forgive," she said in an interview.  "I don't want to block my blessing…The verdict in the trial will give us some type of closure, so we are looking forward to the trial."

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Stockbyte/Thinkstock(ROSEMEAD, Calif.) -- The problem-plagued San Onofre nuclear power plant in Southern California is closing.

Southern California Edison (SCE), the utility that runs the plant, announced the decision on Friday.

“SONGS [the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station] has served this region for over 40 years, but we have concluded that the continuing uncertainty about when or if SONGS might return to service was not good for our customers, our investors, or the need to plan for our region’s long-term electricity needs,” Ted Craver, the chairman and CEO of Edison International, the parent company of SCE, said in a statement.

The nuclear power plant effectively has been shut down since January of last year, after operators found a leak in a tube that carries radioactive water.

Its closing will result in a loss of about 1,100 employees over the next year, with the majority of the layoffs expected to occur in 2013, SCE said.

“Looking ahead, we think that our decision to retire the units will eliminate uncertainty and facilitate orderly planning for California’s energy future,” SCE president Ron Litzinger said in a statement.

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iStockphoto/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- The National Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been tapping into the servers of major Internet companies to collect audio, video, photographs, e-mails and other documents under a program code-named PRISM, according to the Washington Post.

However, James R. Clapper, the director of national intelligence, said in a written statement that the Post report and another on phone surveillance by The Guardian contained “numerous inaccuracies,” and that the data collection only targets non-Americans outside the United States.

What’s more, companies reportedly tied to PRISM told ABC News they did not routinely give the government direct access to private data.

“We have never heard of PRISM,” read an emailed statement from Apple. “We do not provide any government agency with direct access to our servers, and any government agency requesting customer data must get a court order.”

According to the Post, intelligence analysts use PRISM to collect information on the movement and contacts of “targets” that they have at least 51 percent confidence are foreign,  but it “accidentally” collects U.S. content.

“An internal presentation on the Silicon Valley operation, intended for senior analysts in the NSA’s Signals Intelligence Directorate, described the new tool as the most prolific contributor to the President’s Daily Brief, which cited PRISM data in 1,477 articles last year,” according to the report. “According to the briefing slides, obtained by The Washington Post, ‘NSA reporting increasingly relies on PRISM’ as its leading source of raw material, accounting for nearly 1 in 7 intelligence reports.”

The Post’s report came after a blockbuster report in The Guardian, a British newspaper, which detailed a secret court order in April that gave the NSA the ability to collect "ongoing, daily" telephone records from Verizon customers in the United States. 

According to the Post’s story, a career intelligence officer provided the newspaper with Powerpoint slides about the PRISM program to expose, “what he believes to be a gross intrusion on privacy.”

However, a statement attributed to Clapper defended the “collection of communication” referred to in the Washington Post and Guardian reports, and added, “The unauthorized disclosure of information about this important and entirely legal program is reprehensible and risks important protections for the security of Americans."

“The Guardian and Washington Post articles refer to collection of communications pursuant to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act,” the statement read.  “They contain numerous inaccuracies."

“Section 702 … is designed to facilitate the acquisition of foreign intelligence information concerning non-U.S. persons located outside the United States,” the statement added.  “It cannot be used to intentionally target any U.S. citizen, any other U.S. person, or anyone located within the United States.  Activities authorized by Section 702 are subject to oversight by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the Executive Branch, and Congress.  They involve extensive procedures, specifically approved by the court, to ensure that only non-U.S. persons outside the U.S. are targeted, and that minimize the acquisition, retention and dissemination of incidentally acquired information about U.S. persons."

“Section 702 was recently reauthorized by Congress after extensive hearings and debate,” the statement said.  “Information collected under this program is among the most important and valuable foreign intelligence information we collect, and is used to protect our nation from a wide variety of threats.”

Besides Apple, according to the Post, PRISM also sweeps up data from companies including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, PalTalk, Skype, YouTube and AOL.

In addition to any data that flows through any of those Internet service providers, the Post reported, the government can monitor “notifications of target activity” such as log-ins, file transfers and stored data.

A Google spokesman said the company does not have “a ‘back door’” for the government to access user data.

“Google cares deeply about the security of our users’ data. We disclose user data to government in accordance with the law, and we review all such requests carefully,” a spokesman said in a statement. “From time to time, people allege that we have created a government ‘back door’ into our systems, but Google does not have a ‘back door’ for the government to access private user data.”

Microsoft, Facebook and Yahoo also denied participating in a broad program to collect data.

“We provide customer data only when we receive a legally binding order or subpoena to do so, and never on a voluntary basis,” Microsoft said. “In addition we only ever comply with orders for requests about specific accounts or identifiers. If the government has a broader voluntary national security program to gather customer data we don’t participate in it.”

“Protecting the privacy of our users and their data is a top priority for Facebook,” the social network said in a statement. “We do not provide any government organization with direct access to Facebook servers.  When Facebook is asked for data or information about specific individuals, we carefully scrutinize any such request for compliance with all applicable laws, and provide information only to the extent required by law.”

“Yahoo takes users’ privacy very seriously,” Yahoo said. “We do not provide the government with direct access to our servers, systems, or network.”

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Ingram Publishing/Thinkstock(PORTERVILLE, Miss.) -- A Mississippi family, including a former star of the University of Alabama's basketball team, have been indicted in connection with the kidnapping of a cousin's young daughter to use as "leverage" in a fight over property.

Among the suspects is Devonta Pollard, 18, of Porterville, Miss., who was a star forward on the University of Alabama's basketball team until he was forced off the court following his arrest.

Pollard is charged in a case that involves his mother, Jessie Mae Brown Pollard, 54, of Northport, Ala.; his cousin, Shaquayla Johnigan, 21, of Porterville; his uncle, James Johnigan, 39, of Porterville; and his aunt, Joyce Johnigan, 42, of Porterville.  All have been indicted.

They are accused of conspiring to kidnap their young cousin Jashayla Hopson, 6, on April 30 as part of an effort to coerce the child's mother, Roshell Ford, into making a deal in a property dispute.

"We believe Jessie Mae Pollard owned a piece of one-acre land in Porterville. When the house on it burned down she lost the property in a land sale. It was bought by her first-cousin, the victim's mother," Kemper County Sheriff James Moore told ABC News.

Jessie Mae Pollard allegedly conspired with her friend Wanda Dancy, 52, of DeKalb, Miss., to kidnap her neice in an effort to reclaim her land.

"They began talking and Pollard told Dancy that she wanted to take Roshell Ford's daughter for 'leverage' to get her land back," FBI Special Agent Charles G. Murrow stated in his affidavit.

The girl was in her school library when Jessie Mae picked her up and drove her to a hotel in Bessemer, Ala., and sent her mother a chilling text message, according to the May 29 indictment.

"Don't call the police I will call you later if you call the police u won't see her again," the message read, the indictment states.

Special Agent Murrow stated in an affidavit that he used the number that sent the text to identify Jessie Mae.

"This number was assigned to a Samsung phone bought at a Walmart in Bessemer, Ala.  Surveillance footage at the Walmart store depicts Pollard purchasing a Samsung phone on April 30," the agent stated in his affidavit.

Shaquayla Johnigan then drove the child to Laurel, Miss., where she checked into a hotel room and sent the victim's mother further instruction, said the indictment.

"Since you called police, I want $50,000 by 3 p.m., I will tell you location later."

The alleged plot began to come apart about then.  According to the indictment, Devonta Pollard notified Shaquayla that his mother "had gone to take a polygraph."

Shaquayla and her mother, Joyce Johnigan, drove to a remote part of eastern Mississippi and dropped the girl outside a stranger's home and drove away, the indictment stated.

"At approximately 1:25 p.m. on May 1, 2013 the Lauderdale County Sheriff's Department received a 911 telephone call advising that the victim was located at an address near Enterprise, Mississippi," Murrow said in his affidavit.

Shaquayla drove the car into a ditch in Jasper County and threw the keys into a pond, the indictment claims.

Her father, James Johnigan, burned the phone Jessie Mae Pollard used to text the victim's mother after she told him to "get rid of it," according to the indictment.

"If convicted, each of the defendants faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine," United States Attorney Gregory K. Davis said in a statement released to ABC News.

Jessie Mae Pollard has been charged with kidnapping and obstruction of justice and is currently in federal custody.  If convicted, she faces a maximum penalty of life in prison and a $750,000 fine, the statement further declared.

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David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Two people called "BAG MEN" by the New York Post following the April 15 bombings at the Boston Marathon are hoping to walk away with bags of money from the News Corp. tabloid.

Salaheddin Barhoum, 16, and Yassine Zaimi, 24, say the Post strongly implied they were suspects in the terrorist attacks that left three people dead and more than 260 people wounded when explosives were detonated near the finish line of the race.

The lawsuit against the Post, which has not offered a retraction since the April 18 publication of the front page photo of Barhoum and Zaimi, alleges the tabloid "stated or implied that the plaintiffs were the perpetrators of the bombing; that they were suspects in the bombing; that they were being sought by law enforcement; and that photographs of them were being circulated" by authorities who eventually caught up with the real suspects.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs, who say they attend the Boston Marathon each year, contend, "None of these statements were true."

Barhoum and Zaimi maintain they had left the area two hours after the powerful bomb blasts occurred.

The plaintiffs "were put in fear for their lives" following the publication of the photo, the complaint says.  Both are asking for unspecified money damages as compensation.

The Post would not comment on the lawsuit and referred back to editor-in-chief Col Allan's statement from April 18 that "We did not identify them as suspects."

According to the Post, there was no "no direct evidence linking them to the crime, but authorities want to identify them.”

"BAG MEN" refers to the backpacks that were worn to hide the pressure cooker-type bombs that police said were detonated near the marathon's finish line.

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iStockphoto/Thinkstock(PHILADELPHIA) -- The search-and-rescue operation for additional victims of the Philadelphia building collapse ended Thursday afternoon. All told, 14 people were rescued and six were killed in the accident.

Mayor Michael Nutter told ABC News that officials were confident there were no more people buried beneath the rubble where the four-story building collapsed on Wednesday morning, falling on top of a two-story building that housed a Salvation Army thrift store.

The search-and-rescue operation lasted 30 hours.

Officials released the identities of the people who were killed: Kimberly Finnegan, Borbor Davis, Anne Bryan, Juanita Harmin, Mary Simpson, and Roseline Conteh.

Family and friends of Finnegan, who was 35, Davis, who was 68, and Bryan, who was 24, have all released statements about the deaths. All three were in the Salvation Army when the building next door fell.

Finnegan's friend, Heather Sizemore, told ABC News affiliate WPVI-TV, "She was a fiancée and a good friend to a lot of people, and a good person."

Davis's wife, Maggy, described her husband as "quiet and kind."

"He goes to work every day," she said. "He never misses a day."

The Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, where Bryan was a first-year student, released a statement from her family that said she was "brilliant and caring."

"An extremely talented artist, Anne possessed a passion for the arts and an ability to find beauty in everything around her," the family said in the statement. "That she will not be here to continue to touch the lives of those around her is of intense pain to all of our family and her friends. This pain is fresh and it runs deep."

The Salvation Army released a statement Thursday saying that two of the deceased were Salvation Army employees, and that the organization was working closely with Philadelphia officials and providing support to the victims' families.

"We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life of the six individuals who perished in the wake of yesterday's building collapse," the statement read. "The passing of these individuals, including two of our employees, will be felt across our entire organization and throughout the community."

Of the 14 people extricated from the debris, many have been treated and released from area hospitals with minor injuries, according to hospital officials. At least one victim, 61-year-old Myra Plekam, remains in critical condition at the University of Pennsylvania after she was pulled Wednesday evening from the rubble.

Philadelphia officials faced tough questions earlier Thursday over whether the building collapse could have been prevented.

Nutter and the city's commissioner of licenses and inspections, Carlton Williams, said today that complaints about the working conditions at the Center City demolition site were not followed up on.

City officials said that a routine inspection had found no violations at the property before demolition began. Williams said that inspectors had visited an adjoining property in May after complaints were lodged, but they found no violations and did not return to the Market Street site before Wednesday.

"No subsequent inspection occurred to indicate there was any unsafe conditions," Williams said. "We did not follow up and we are definitely looking into that."

Nutter promised a "wide-ranging investigation" into how and why the building collapsed.

"We are 24 hours into the incident and we have a lot of work to do into why it happened and how did it happen, and, going forward, [to find out] how to prevent it from happening anywhere else in the city," Nutter said Thursday.

Nutter and Williams made their statements in response to questions from reporters about a slew of complaints and 311 calls that had reportedly been made to the city about the unsafe conditions at the site in the weeks leading up to the collapse.

Two construction workers that were doing work on nearby buildings told the Philadelphia Inquirer today that they watched the demolition in disbelief because of the unsafe practices of the demolition workers.

"Never in all my years have I ever, ever, ever seen this," Steve Cramer told the paper. "It was just a total disregard for safety. We [predicted] this last week. I can't believe they allowed the thrift store to be open."

Joe Hauser, another worker, echoed Cramer's concerns, saying that he was planning on saying something to the workers on the very day of the collapse.

"I said, 'That's it, at lunch I'm going to go over there and say something, I have to, I can't go with this no more,'" Hauser told the paper.

The property's owner, STB Investments of New York City, released a statement Wednesday expressing sympathy for the victims.

Richard Basciano, an owner of the company, owned many properties in Philadelphia and New York and was once dubbed, "the undisputed king of Times Square porn" in New York newspapers because of his ownership of adult businesses.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the people affected by this tragic event. Please know that we are committed to working with the City of Philadelphia and other authorities to determine what happened today," the statement read.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Joe Burbank - Pool/Getty Images(ORLANDO, Fla.) -- An FBI speech scientist testified in court Thursday that current technology cannot categorically determine whether a voice heard on a 911 tape screaming for help moments before Trayvon Martin was killed was that of Martin or George Zimmerman, the man accused of murdering him.

"The voice was outside the normal range. We know the [computer] system cannot distinguish normal speech from abnormal speech," testified Dr. Hirotake Nakasone, a senior audio engineer at the FBI.

Nakasone was called to testify Thursday by Zimmerman's lawyers at a pre-trial hearing to determine whether the recording should be admissible.

Zimmerman, 29, is charged with shooting Martin, an unarmed teenager after a scuffle inside a gated community in Sanford, Fla., in February 2012.

His trial is scheduled to begin on June 10, but lawyers are currently in court to hash out the rules for the proceedings.

A key piece of evidence could be the 45 second call to 911 in which an individual is heard screaming in the distance. Nakasone said there is only three seconds of the recording that consists of just the screamer without the caller or 911 operator speaking, which he said is not enough to make a scientific identification.

The defense team does not want this emotional tape played before the jury.

Prosecutors believe the voice belongs to Martin and wants the jury to hear what they claim are the teenager's last words. They argue that while scientists might have different opinions about whose voice it is, the methodology is sound.

Zimmerman has stated that it is his voice screaming for help as he allegedly grappled on the ground with Martin. Zimmerman claims he shot Martin as they struggled for possession of Zimmerman's gun.

Judge Debra Nelson did not rule on the audio Thursday and adjourned the hearing until Friday.

Also on Thursday, Nelson ruled against a defense motion to allow some witnesses to testify anonymously.

Zimmerman's attorney Mark O'Mara said some witnesses feared for their safety if his client were acquitted, and asked that they be allowed to testify anonymously during the trial.

The shooting death of Martin became a racial issue in the area and gained nationwide attention. Zimmerman, who has received death threats, has been in hiding since his arrest and often wears a bulletproof vest when he appears in public to attend court hearings.

Prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda argued that allowing some witnesses to testify anonymously could unfairly sway the jury who might assume those witnesses were more important.

The judge rejected O'Mara's request, ruling that all witnesses would have to be named and appear in open court.

The judge also tabled until after the trial a heated exchange between the lawyers over whether the prosecutor adequately disclosed evidence to the defense including deleted texts, photographs, and video found on Martin's cellphone. 

O'Mara called to the stand Ben Kruidbos, a former IT director in the state prosecutor's office, whom they claim is a whistleblower who discovered that the prosecution had evidence it had not shared with Zimmerman's lawyers.

Among the data found on the phone are photos of Martin possible holding a gun and smoking marijuana.

The judge has ruled that those photos cannot be mentioned in Zimmerman's opening statement, but has left open the possibility that they could be introduced later.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Hemera/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- The former imam of a controversial community center and mosque near Ground Zero in New York City has settled a lawsuit that accused him of embezzling millions of dollars in donations to fund a lavish lifestyle.

“We have resolved our dispute,” the imam’s accuser, businessman Robert L. Deak, said.  Deak and his wife Moshira Solimon agreed to return a $1.35 million donation to Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf.

“We are now satisfied that neither he [Abdul Rauf] nor his wife were involved in any wrongdoing,” Deak said in a statement provided to ABC News.

In February Deak had alleged funds intended for “the Shariah Index Project” were instead spent by Abdul Rauf and his wife Daisy Khan on “a luxury sports car, personal real estate, entertainment, [and] lavish trips,” as well as Abdul Rauf’s “vacations with Evelyn Adorno and support of Evelyn Adorno.”

Deak now says the money was properly spent.

“We are pleased that this unfortunate episode is behind us and we look forward to continuing our important work of creating mutual understanding between people of all faiths,” Abdul Rauf said.

Abdul Rauf was the public face of Park51, the community center and mosque that elicited both intense opposition and support for its proposed location two blocks from the former site of the World Trade Center, which was destroyed by terrorists on 9/11.

Abdul Rauf fell out with the project’s developer before an interim version of the center opened in September 2011. The proposed Park51 building has not been built.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Joe Burbank-Pool/Getty Images(ORLANDO, Fla.) -- Witnesses in the upcoming murder trial of George Zimmerman will not be permitted to testify anonymously, a Florida judge ruled Thursday, just four days before the start of what is be a closely watched case in the murder of teenager Trayvon Martin.

In their last hearing before the June 10 trial, lawyers hashed out the final rules for the proceedings, including whether witnesses would be allowed to testify anonymously, and whether audio experts could testify about which of the two men could be heard yelling for help on a recorded 911 call from the time of alleged murder.

Zimmerman, 29, is charged with shooting Martin, an unarmed black teenager inside a gated community in Sanford, Fla., in February 2012. The teen's death has become a racially charged case that has gained nationwide attention.

Zimmerman's defense attorney Mark O'Mara said some witnesses feared for their safety if his client were acquitted, and asked that they be allowed to testify anonymously during the trial.

Zimmerman, who has received death threats, has been in hiding since his arrest and often wears a bullet-proof vest when he appears in public to attend court hearings

Prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda argued that allowing some witnesses to testify anonymously could unfairly sway the jury who might assume those witnesses were more important.

Judge Debra Nelson rejected O'Mara's request, ruling that all witnesses would have to be named and appear in open court.

Also Thursday, O'Mara called to the stand Ben Kruidbos, a former IT director in the state prosecutor's office.

The defense claims Kruidbos is a whistleblower who brought to the attention of Zimmerman's lawyers deleted texts, photographs, and video found on Martin's phone and which prosecutors failed to disclose to the defense. Among those items are photos of Martin possible holding a gun and smoking marijuana. A video on the phone includes Martin talking and could be crucial in matching his voice to the one heard yelling for help on the 911 tape.

The judge has ruled that those photos cannot be mentioned in Zimmerman's opening statement, but has left open the possibility that they could be introduced later.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

WPVI/ABC News(PHILADELPHIA) -- Philadelphia officials are facing questions over whether the building collapse that killed six people on Wednesday could have been prevented.

Mayor Michael Nutter and the city's commissioner of licenses and inspections, Carlton Williams, said Thursday that they did not follow up on complaints about the working conditions at the Center City demolition site where a four-story building toppled over Wednesday.

City officials said that a routine inspection had found no violations at the property before demolition began. Williams said that inspectors had visited an adjoining property in May after complaints were lodged, but they found no violations and did not return to the Market Street site again before Wednesday.

"No subsequent inspection occurred to indicate there was any unsafe conditions," Williams said. "We did not follow up and we are definitely looking into that."

Nutter promised a "wide-ranging inspection" into how and why the building collapsed.

"We are 24 hours into the incident, and we have a lot of work to do into why it happened and how did it happen, and going forward how to prevent it from happening anywhere else in the city," Nutter said Thursday.

Nutter and Williams made their statements in response to questions from reporters about a slew of complaints and 311 calls that had reportedly been made to the city about the unsafe conditions at the site in the weeks leading up to the collapse.

At least 20 people were caught in falling debris when the building collapsed Wednesday around 10:45 a.m. An outer wall of the building that was being demolished fell outward and onto a two-story building next door that housed a Salvation Army Thrift Shop, according to city officials.

Fourteen individuals were treated for injuries, most of which were minor, according to hospital officials. Six individuals had already died by the time rescuers found them in the rubble.

On Wednesday, Williams and Nutter said that the building had up-to-date permits for the demolition, noting that both the owner and construction company had their paperwork in order.

The property's owner, STB Investments of New York City, released a statement Wednesday expressing sympathy for the victims.  

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

DEA(NEW YORK) -- The New York City mom accused of growing marijuana after the feds raided a Queens warehouse might have tried to grow marijuana in two other New York City boroughs, law enforcement officials said.

Andrea Sanderlin's telephone number was listed on the Con Edison account for properties in the Bronx and Brooklyn. The electric utility said both of the accounts "had unusually high usage when they were active," which federal agents said would be consistent with a facility's "being used to grow marijuana."

Her electric bills at the Queens warehouse also bolstered suspicion that led to last month's raid.

As Sanderlin, 45, was placed under arrest May 20 by a Drug Enforcement Administration strike force at the warehouse in Queens, where she allegedly grew $3 million worth of marijuana, agents noticed her nanny and her younger child leaving the family home in Scarsdale, N.Y., a wealthy New York City suburb.

Agents watched the woman and the child get into a taxi and drive to a shopping area, according to court records. The nanny returned without the child and then hopped into a different cab with a brown leather bag. When agents stopped the taxi they searched the bag and "observed cash rolled up in bundles with a rubber band," the court records allege.

The nanny told them that Sanderlin's boyfriend and the father of her youngest child asked her to drop off the child and then "enter Sanderlin's residence and get as much cash as she could out of the closet," according to the court records, which note that she was carrying nearly $8,000 in cash.

Sanderlin, whose attorney says she has two young children, remains jailed and charged with narcotics offenses that could put her away for 10 years. A court hearing is tentatively scheduled for the end of the week. Her attorney, Joel Winograd, told ABC News he was working on a bail package that would secure her release before trial.

She has pleaded not guilty.

Anthony Flores, who lives across the street from the Queens warehouse, told ABC News that he had met Sanderlin a number of times.

"She introduced herself one day. 'Yeah, we're manufacturing baby furniture,'" Flores said she told him of her line of work.

Flores says Sanderlin would often ask him to move his car so she could park her 2010 Mercedes SUV in front of the warehouse.

"She's a very attractive young lady," he said. "I didn't think anything of it. She said her store was on Fifth Avenue."

Flores says he was outside his home May 20 when Sanderlin slowly drove past the warehouse, possibly noticing the undercover police vehicles parked in the area.

"Then all the guys came out," he said. "It was just like, get down, open the door. It was nuts."

Flores said Sanderlin didn't want to get out of her car at first, and it took law enforcement 10 minutes to take her into custody. Sanderlin was then handcuffed and brought inside the warehouse where, DEA Special Agent David Lee, said, "agents discovered two separate rooms constructed within the warehouse designed to grow marijuana."

"Each room contained state-of-the-art lighting, irrigation and ventilation systems to facilitate growing the marijuana," Lee said.

It's unclear how long she'd been running the alleged operation, but she registered the name "Fantastic Enterprises" in July 2007, officials said.

According to court records first reported by thesmokinggun.com, law enforcement agents from the DEA Strike Force seized more than 1,000 marijuana plants and large quantities of dried marijuana.

Sanderlin is now charged with intending to distribute.

DEA Special Agent in Charge Brian R. Crowell said the warehouse hid a "highly sophisticated indoor marijuana grow operation."

"The warehouse was filled with over $3 million worth of hydroponic marijuana and the organization covertly produced nearly 3,000 marijuana plants," Crowell said.

Flores, the warehouse neighbor, says agents spent the full day clearing out the warehouse.

"They were bringing out boxes into unmarked vans. It smelled funny," he said.

A search of Sanderlin's property uncovered books on laundering money and how to grow pot along with equestrian gear, officials said. She is an avid fan of riding horses and is believed to have lived in Scarsdale for six months.

Scarsdale neighbor Libby Barnea says she didn't know the family, but couldn't believe the news.

"I would never have thought anyone in Scarsdale would be involved in the pot-growing business," Barnea said.

The investigation began in April when, court records say, a confidential witness told authorities a woman named "Andi" was growing marijuana in a building in Queens that houses a company known as Fantastic Enterprises.

Suspicions were bolstered when the local utility told authorities Fantastic Enterprises "was using an unusually high amount of electricity."

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

ABC News(NEW YORK) -- When Gloria C. Mackenzie claimed her $590.5 million Powerball jackpot, she released a statement revealing that another woman "was kind enough" to allow her to cut in line when she purchased the winning ticket.

That woman, Mindy Crandell, 34, is not upset that her charitable gesture likely cost her an enormous fortune and says "things are meant to be for a reason."

Crandell, of Zephyrhills, Fla., was in line to purchase lottery tickets in Publix on May 18 while tending to one of her two daughters, when Mackenzie, 84, stepped in front of her.

"My 10-year-old said, 'Mom, There's a lady in front of us.'  I noticed that the lady was there.  Didn't pay a lot of mind to it," Crandall said.

The lady at the counter stopped Mackenzie to allow Crandell to reclaim her spot in line.  Crandell declined the offer and told Mackenzie "go ahead."  It was a move that could have potentially cost the Crandells the $590.5 million Powerball ticket.  Mackenzie purchased one Quick Pick ticket and left the store.

Crandell said family and friends began teasing her that the lady she allowed to cut in line was going to win the mega jackpot.  But Crandell thought there was no way the lady was going to be the winner.

"The joke was, that's the lady that's going to win it.  I was like, 'Yeah right.  No one is going to win from little Zephyrhills,'" Crandell said.

Later that night, Mackenzie matched all five numbers, including the Powerball, while Crandell was at home still being teased by family members that the lady in the line was probably the winner.  It was a joke that she would endure for the next two weeks.

When Mackenzie claimed the money on Wednesday, Crandell's 10-year-old daughter, Mallory, immediately recognized her from Publix.

"My daughter was like, 'Mom, look at the lady,'" Crandell said.  "Same day, same store.  What's the chances of that happening?"

Mackenzie has not disclosed her plans for the money.  In a statement to ABC News, William P. Brant, Mackenzie's attorney, denied requests for an interview and said the family wants to "maintain their privacy."

Mackenzie has opted for the lump sum cash payout of $370.8 million, before taxes, instead of 30 annual payments of $19 million, a lottery official said.

Crandell holds no ill-will toward Mackenzie and hopes the money "truly blesses her family."  The one thing Crandell did gain from the incident was a lesson she hopes her daughters learned.

"It could have been us, but things happen.  Sometimes it's better to be patient than right.  I knew we were teaching our daughter the right thing," Crandell said.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio