Law&Crime Network will be covering the following trials this week. You can watch trials live on our website and YouTube page.
FL v. Jaycee Wasso
Jaycee Wasso (Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office).
Florida psychic, Jaycee Wasso, is accused of swindling one of her clients, Lin Halfon, into stealing more than a million dollars from Halfon’s wealthy husband. According to investigators, Wasso told Halfon that “horrible things” would happen to her if she didn’t acquire large amounts of money or valuables from her elderly husband Richard Rappaport.
Halfon took jewelry and wrote several checks from her husband’s accounts – cashing the checks in Tampa and New Jersey – then handed the cash over to Wasso, authorities said. Law enforcement caught onto the scheme when Halfon tried to check a $1 million cashier’s check at an Amscot in Tampa, investigators said.
When Halfon went to trial, she told her lawyers she was under Wasso’s spell. Wasso was arrested on multiple charges including grand theft from a person 65 or older, organized fraud and conspiracy to commit grand theft from a person 65 years or older.
Halfon will testify against Wasso in her trial. Jury selection and opening statements are expected to begin Monday, February 27.
FL v. Michael Boatwright, Dedrick Williams, and Trayvon Newsome
Michael Boatwright, Dedrick Williams, Trayvon Newsome (Broward County Sheriff’s Office)
Three men are charged with first degree murder in the death of up-and-coming rapper XXXTentacion. Prosecutors believe Michael Boatwright, Dedrick Williams, and Trayvon Newsome killed the rapper outside a South Florida motorcycle shop in June 2018.
Investigators said the trio shot XXXTentacion then stole a Louis Vuitton bag from his car that had $50,000 inside.
XXX attends the CFDA / Vogue Fashion Fund 15th Anniversary Event at Brooklyn Navy Yard on November 5, 2018 in Brooklyn, New York.
A fourth suspect, Robert Allen, plead guilty in the case to second-degree murder and robbery charges.
The Latest In The Trial:
A Broward County judge ruled that famous rapper Drake won’t have to appear for a deposition because there’s no evidence of his involvement in XXXTentacion’s murder. Opening statements revealed a possible connection between Drake and XXXTentacion.
Last week, a medical examiner detailed the gunshot wounds XXXTentacion sustained when he was gunned down. The young rapper was shot three times in the neck.
SC v. Alexander Murdaugh
Alex Murdaugh leaves the courtroom at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023. Grace Beahm Alford/The Post and Courier/Pool
Disgraced lawyer Alexander “Alex” Murdaugh is accused of murdering his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, and youngest son, Paul Murdaugh, at their hunting lodge in Colleton County. He was arrested and charged with two counts of murder.
Prosecutors believe Murdaugh killed Maggie and Paul in June 2021 to gain sympathy and escape accountability from a string of financial crimes.
Maggie Murdaugh, pictured on the left, was killed along with her son at the family’s hunting lodge in June 2021.
The Latest In The Trial:
Taking the stand in his defense last week, prosecutors took Alex Murdaugh through a detailed timeline of events immediately before and after his wife and son were shot and killed. The questioning began with prosecutor Creighton Waters hammering on the fact that during Thursday’s testimony, Murdaugh, for the first time, admitted that he lied to investigators about being by the dog kennels — where Maggie and Paul were killed — shortly before they were both murdered.
As Murdaugh continued to defend himself on Friday, Waters repeatedly referred to the testimony of the disgraced and disbarred lawyer as his “new story” and implied that he concocted it as part of a new alibi.
Murdaugh has maintained that he lied to investigators because he was paranoid from his drug addiction and had a pocket full of pills when he found his wife and son’s bodies.
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