Florida
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Key Vhani, a rising rapper out of South Florida, was seen on video in a tussle with two men when she pulled out a firearm and opened fire, striking one of the men. Key Vhani was arrested after suffering injuries and was recently released on bond as she awaits trial for second-degree murder.
As seen on NBC Miami, Key Vhani, 27, was seen on surveillance video on October 8 having a discussion with what police say was her manager when things seemingly turned violent as the man raised his hand at her. Another man exited a parked white vehicle and the two knocked the rapper down but she managed to get herself up.
Vhani was then seen reaching into her bag for a firearm and began shooting at the men. As the man scrambled to get away, Vhani walked up to the man and fired more rounds. As this was happening, the parked car drove and struck Vhani, running her over in the process before driving off.
The artist born Kevhani Camilla Hicks was arrested and booked on second-degree murder charges and was jailed. She is now free on Bond as of Monday (November 27) and shared a message on Instagram to her nearly 23,000 fans.
From IG:
“Good morning to all of my supporters and fans! I’m finally home after experiencing something so traumatic and life changing. I have 3 broken ribs and bruises all over so I’m currently healing and getting rest,” she wrote. “I just want to personally thank everyone who supports me and knows that I’m not the horrible person some are claiming that I am. I can’t comment on the case at all, but I pray you all continue to stand by me and support me through this tragic time. I love you all to the moon and back!”
A public defender for Hicks says that their client was acting in self-defense. A trial date has yet to be announced.
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Photo: Key Vhani / @ibeenkey.vhani
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Kodak Black is the focus of a beef between two politicians in Florida, with one declaring him “out of control” recently.
Last Wednesday (Nov. 22), Kodak Black became the flashpoint for another politician’s political attack on a Florida state politician. Richard Ryles, who is running for the Palm Beach County Commission seat, took aim at his fellow Democrat and opponent in the race, state Senator Bobby Powell for honoring the rapper with a proclamation. Ryles aired out his grievances in a statement to The Palm Beach Post.
“As an African-American, our community is well known for its forgiving nature and faith in redemption,” Ryles said in the statement which was emailed to the media outlet. “As an African-American man, I do want to see a redeemed Bill Kapri [aka Kodak Black] in his future dealings. Nevertheless, his recent spate of arrests indicate that he has yet to find his moral North Star and may well be spinning out of control due to drug use.”
“Mr. Kapri’s past misdeeds are well known and very public, and to provide a proclamation by honoring him for the charitable giving of turkeys, in my opinion, was more harmful than helpful to his potential redemption as a citizen,” the candidate wrote further. Since being pardoned by Trump in one of his final acts as president in 2021, Kodak Black has been exhibiting erratic behavior, most notably in his appearance on the Drink Champs podcast in October where he looked to be highly unstable.
Ryles further criticized Powell’s move to honor Kodak Black, a celebrity who has been highly vocal in their support of former President Donald Trump. “As a leader within the Democratic Party, I would have thought that Senator Powell would have exercised greater caution than to allow photographs of he with Mr. Kapri outfitted in MAGA gear, head to toe,” Ryles statement continued. Powell would issue a rebuttal statement afterward. ”By Mr. Ryles’ elitist logic, a man is to be strictly judged by a single act, not the totality of his life,” he wrote. “There is no forgiveness, no second chances, no redemption, just ongoing punishment, the kind that brought us an overpopulation of Black men in prison with no future and no hope.”
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Source: Innocence Project of Florida / Innocence Project of Florida
A Black man exonerated after spending 16 years wrongfully convicted in prison in Florida was shot and killed by a deputy in Georgia.
According to reports, Leonard Cure was pulled over by a Camden County deputy in the state of Georgia on Monday (Oct. 16). The traffic stop took place on Interstate 95 at the Florida-Georgia state line. When asked by the deputy to step out of his vehicle, Cure was compliant but became angry when told he would be arrested. The deputy fired his taser after allegedly being assaulted by Cure.
That compelled the deputy to fire his taser again then use his baton, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The deputy would then fire his gun, shooting Cure as he continued to resist. GBI spokesperson Stacy Carson said that the unidentified deputy is white. The GBI has also begun investigating the incident as is customary in the state and confirmed that it would forward all data to the Brunswick Judicial Circuit that governs Camden County as well as the district attorney.
Cure, 53, had previously been wrongfully convicted for an armed robbery in Dania Beach, Florida, in 2003. He had been sentenced to life in prison due to previous criminal convictions. In 2020, the Conviction Review Unit of the Broward State Attorney asked a judge to set Cure free. The unit found “troubling” information detailing Cure’s solid alibis being ignored as well as no physical evidence tying him to the crime being present.
After an independent review board of five lawyers agreed with the unit’s report, Cure was released in April 2020 after getting his sentence modified. In December 2020, his conviction was vacated. “I’m looking forward to putting this situation behind me and moving on with my life,” he told the South Florida Sun Sentinel afterward. In June 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill granting Cure $817,000 in financial compensation along with education credits. Cure had reportedly received the restitution in August.
Cure had been driving home to an Atlanta suburb after visiting his ill mother when detained, according to Innocence Project Florida executive president Seth Miller. Miller was one of the lawyers who worked to get Cure freed. “Lenny was a good soul, cared about people,” he said to reporters. “He was getting his life back together.”
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YNW Melly has been given a charge of witness tampering by Florida prosecutors as he’s approaching a retrial for double murder.
According to reports, Broward County prosecutors charged YNW Melly with witness tampering on Wednesday (October 4) ahead of his retrial for double murder. They allege that the rapper, who is affiliated with the Bloods street gang, used phone calls by other jail inmates at his request as well as letters passed between them to get messages out to other Blood members on the street. Those gang members then made sure a key witness in the case didn’t testify, said prosecutors.
YNW Melly, also known as Jamell Demons, remains incarcerated without bond. He and Cortlen “YNW Bortlen” Henry are accused of shooting and killing Christopher “YNW Juvy” Thomas and Anthony “YNW Sakchaser” Williams inside of an SUV after a late-night recording session in 2018 and then staging it to look like a drive-by shooting. If convicted, YNW Melly faces a potential death sentence. The first trial ended in July with a hung jury which voted 9-3 to convict.
YNW Bortlen was arrested on Monday (October 2) in Miami-Dade County for witness tampering. A co-defendant in the double murder trial, YNW Bortlen was on house arrest when detained with documents detailing the charge as “misleading conduct toward another person with the intent to cause or induce (that person) to withhold testimony”.
The rapper’s legal team is set to appear in court on Friday and plans to present a case before Broward County Circuit Judge John J. Murphy that Broward County State Attorney Harold Pryor and lead prosecutor Kristine Bradley conspired to cover up information about the lead detective, Mark Moretti of the Miramar Police Department, in the case. They aim to call for Bradley’s dismissal.
“This is a transparent and desperate attempt by the State Attorney’s office to distract the public from the deposition of an Assistant State Attorney who accused this case’s lead detective and lead prosecutor of felonies by falsifying and covering up evidence damaging to the state’s case,” Raven Liberty, YNW Melly’s attorney, said of the additional charge.
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The shooting in Jacksonville that was enacted by a gunman who targeted Black people was revealed to be a white supremacist by authorities investigating the matter. The shooting took place over the weekend, claiming three victims and officials are still piecing together the evidence leading up to the fatal event.
The shooting took place Saturday afternoon at a Florida Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Fla. around 2 PM local time.
Jacksonville County Sheriff T.K. Waters shared in a news conference that the shooter left behind disturbing messages on his computer and that he altered his father about where to find his writings ahead of firing a rifle similar in scope to an AR-15 weapon inside the store. The gun, according to reports, was adorned with swastikas, and the shooter was also armed with a handgun.
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“This shooting was racially motivated and he hated Black people,” Sheriff Waters, who is Black, said over the weekend at the news conference. “He wanted to kill n*ggers.”
According to a report from the Associated Press, the 21-year-old white male shooter took his own life shortly after the shooting. While details of his manifestos have not been shared publicly since this is a recent matter, authorities say that his writings were motivated by racist ideology and hate speech.
Gov. Ron DeSantis attended a Sunday afternoon vigil in honor of the three Jacksonville shooting victims but was loudly booed when he took the microphone to speak to the crowd. DeSantis, who is Republican and running for his party’s presidential nomination, has made obtaining high-powered guns easier in the state due to freeing up gun laws and has been critical of issues important to Black people such as critical race theory.
Sheriff Waters identified the names of the victims during the press conference. Angela Carr, 52, was shot while sitting in her care. Dollar General employee A.J. Laguerre, 19, was shot as he tried to run away. Customer Jerrald Gallion, 29, was shot as he entered the Dollar General.
The gunman’s name has not been revealed.
[h/t NewsOne]
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Photo: Getty
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Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. has announced its decision to move its upcoming general convention from the state of Florida, citing its “racist” policies as the main factor.
On Wednesday, the oldest Black intercollegiate fraternity in the United States announced that it would move its 99th General Convention and 119th Anniversary Convention from Orlando. In a statement, General President Dr. Willis L. Lonzer, III said that the move was due to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his “harmful, racist, and insensitive policies against the Black community.” The convention was slated to take place in 2025.
Dr. Lonzer estimated that their decision to yank the convention from Orlando would cost the state $4.6 million in revenue generated by the event. “We will not spend our money where Black people and other marginalized communities are continuously harmed by policies at the highest level of government,” he said, also stating that the other members of the Divine Nine of historically Black fraternities and sororities were all “aligned” on the spirit behind the decision.
The recent controversy over the state’s adoption of educational standards was the last straw. “Earlier this week, the Florida Board of Education approved a controversial new K-12 curriculum for African American history, which erases Florida’s role in slavery and oppression, blames the victims, and declares that African Americans who endured slavery benefited from the horrific and torturous institution,” the statement from Alpha Phi Alpha said. At the direction of the governor, the state’s educational board also rejected students’ access to an AP course focusing on African American studies. DeSantis has consistently affirmed his desire to eliminate “wokeness” in the curriculum.
In May, the NAACP issued a travel advisory for Black people traveling to Florida in response to DeSantis’ policies explicitly targeting the community in the state, and other groups have begun pulling their conventions from Florida within the past couple of weeks. Dr. Lonzer did encourage those in Florida to get to the polls. “We have not forgotten our membership or the citizens of Florida,” he said. “We are committed to encouraging them to stay vigilant and to ensure that they are in the voting process. We will continue to make our voter education opportunities available as we funnel funds to the state of Florida to ensure that they can hold various forums and can have the appropriate conversations. When the time comes to vote, we will get them out to vote.”
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Source: Marion County Sheriff’s Office / MCSO
A prosecutor in Florida has declined to pursue murder charges against Susan Lorincz, who shot and killed Ajike “AJ” Owens, who was unarmed.
On Monday (June 26th), State Attorney William Gladson publicly announced the criminal charges brought against Lorincz for Owens’ killing, and cited “insufficient evidence” as a reason that his office would not upgrade the charge of manslaughter to murder, claiming that they couldn’t establish that she showed “a depraved mind toward the victim at the time of the killing.” Gladson said that he had consulted with Owens’ family before the announcement. “My office will do all it can to seek justice for Ms. Owens and her family,” he said.
Pamela Dias, Owens’ mother, expressed that the family was “devastated” by the decision. “How do I explain to AJ’s children, my young grandbabies, that the loss of their mother’s life is still not being taken seriously?” she said to a local news network. “Only a living, breathing AJ would be true justice, and today’s charge could not be further from that.” Reverend Al Sharpton also blasted the decision in a statement: “The fact that this woman hurled insults including the N-word at her children and proclaimed, ‘this isn’t the underground railroad, slave,’ should be enough for the Justice Department to investigate this as a federal hate crime.
The mother of four, who is Black, had gone to Lorincz’s door in their Ocala neighborhood to confront her for taking an iPad that belonged to one of her children on June 2nd. Lorincz, a white woman who has a history of documented racist behavior, shot through the door striking Owens who was standing next to her 9-year-old son at the time. Owens died later at a local hospital. Lorincz wouldn’t be arrested until June 6th, after heavy public pressure about the case prevailed. The Marion County Sheriff’s Office claimed that the delay was due to investigating if the incident fell under the “Stand Your Ground” law, which would make it justified.
The 58-year-old Lorincz is being held on a $154,000 bond at the Marion County Jail on a charge of manslaughter with a firearm. Protests over the decision were scheduled for Monday evening. Owens’ family has also created a website where those concerned can take action in addition to a surging GoFundMe campaign, with one of those actions including a petition to repeal Florida’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” gun laws.
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Joseline Hernandez knows a thing or two about drama as fans have seen since her years on the Love & Hip Hop franchise and her reality series, Joseline’s Cabaret. The “Puerto Rican Princess” is back in headlines again after reports that she and former Joseline’s Cabaret star Big Lex were involved in a backstage altercation after Floyd Mayweather and John Gotti III’s fight, which erupted into a brawl as well.
Joseline Hernandez, 36, was captured on camera phone video walking backstage at the FLA Live Arena over the weekend. After the Mayweather-Gotti fight erupted into a brawl when the grandson of the famed Italian mobster was disqualified in the 6th round and continued to try and hit the former champion. This came after it was waved off by the referee. Mayweather’s team came to stop Gotti’s advances, which was largely ineffective, and things got heated naturally.
What sparked Hernandez to dish out the taper and fade on Big Lex has plenty of moving parts, and it took a group of people to separate the two but not before Big Lex was pulled out of her top. Big Lex was largely bested by Hernandez, and another man, reportedly Hernandez’s husband, was involved in the fracas. Even after they were split, Hernandez continued swinging at anyone in the vicinity and eventually had a drink flung at her which only egged the situation on further.
Fans on Twitter, which is where we gathered much of this information thus far, shared clips of Big Lex in previous times having some choice words for Hernandez. Big Lex also reportedly dissed the Zeus Network and anyone affiliated with the outfit.
In a new TMZ report, it revealed that Hernandez was arrested and booked on four charges.
On Twitter, folks have plenty to say about Joseline Hernandez putting the beats on Big Lex and anyone else who wanted. We’ve got those reactions below.
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Photo: Prince Williams / Getty
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Broadway actress Denée Benton added more surprise to the Tony Awards as she blasted Florida Governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis onstage.
The veteran actress from Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, Hamilton, and Into the Woods, was presenting the Excellence in Theatre Education Award from Carnegie Mellon University during the live broadcast of the awards on CBS and Paramount+ Sunday night. “Hi, I’m Denée Benton, actor, and proud CMU alum,” she began after taking the state at the United Palace Theatre in New York City. The awards were held without writers due to the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike, leaving presenters to sculpt their remarks.
“Earlier tonight, CMU and the Tony Awards presented the 2023 Excellence in Theatre Education Award,” The Gilded Age actress continued. “And while I am certain that the current Grand Wizard… I’m sorry, excuse me – governor of my home state of Florida will be changing…. I am sure that he will change the name of this following town immediately. We were honored to present this award to the truly incredible and life-changing Jason Zembuch Young, enhancing the lives at students at South Plantation High School in Plantation, Florida.”
Benton’s words left some shocked with their mouths open while the audience cheered mightily. Those at home watching also took note, including veteran reporter and entertainment correspondent Bobby Rivers, who tweeted: “I bet DeSantis will try to get the Tony Awards telecast canceled. He’s probably watching and stomping the ground like Mr. Applegate at the end of DAMN YANKEES.”
The “Grand Wizard” reference comes from the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan organization, which bestows that title upon its top leader. Since being elected as governor in 2019, DeSantis has actively made policy decisions that have angered civil rights advocates such as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill targeting educators trying to aid LGBTQ teens and their parents in addition to openly fighting the Walt Disney Company as it voiced opposition to his policies. He has also targeted Black students through the state’s educational board and their refusal to implement an advanced AP course on African-American studies in high schools. There was no immediate response from DeSantis or his representatives, as he is currently out at the beginning of his campaign for president on the Republican ticket.
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It’s 2023, and the NAACP Board of Directors has issued a travel advisory for Florida, citing that the state is “hostile toward African Americans.” Considering MAGA-friendly Governor Ron Desantis’ blatantly racist legislation aimed at the “woke,” often a replacement for the n-word in far-right circles, where is the lie?
On Saturday, May 2020, the NAACP issued its damning travel advisory. Part of it reads, “Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals. Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color.”
In the past year, Desantis has overseen the kneecapping of AP African American Studies courses for high school students, banned the teaching of critical race theory and has signed four bills that restrict LGBTQ rights including an expansion of the infamous “Don’t Say Gay” law.
Added NAACP President & CEO Derrick Johnson, “Under the leadership of Governor Desantis, the state of Florida has become hostile to Black Americans and in direct conflict with the democratic ideals that our union was founded upon. He should know that democracy will prevail because its defenders are prepared to stand up and fight. We’re not backing down, and we encourage our allies to join us in the battle for the soul of our nation.”
Another feasible question is, when is Texas going to be added to that travel advisory list? History has shown that one way to handle blatant racists in power is to hit them in the pockets.
See some of Twitter’s reactions to the NAACP’s chess move in the gallery.