Authorities said Donna Adelson, 73, was arrested Monday night as she and her husband were about to use one-way tickets to board a flight to Dubai and Vietnam, countries that do not have an extradition treaty with the United States. She is charged with arranging the 2014 murder of Florida State University law professor Daniel Markel, who was shot in the head inside his Tallahassee garage.

Leon County State Attorney Jack Campbell said in a Tuesday phone interview that while he believes his prosecutors already had enough evidence to convict Adelson before Monday, plans for her arrest had to be accelerated when investigators learned of her plans to leave the country.

“It was going to be complicated and really difficult trying to bring them back, depending on where they ended up in the world,” Campbell said. “The arrest was not just based on the flight, but that played a part in the timing.”

Adelson was being held Tuesday at the Miami-Dade County Jail without bail pending her transfer to Tallahassee. Jail records do not show if she has an attorney./ She has long denied involvement in the killing.

Her son, Dr. Charlie Adelson, was convicted last week of arranging Markel’s shooting through a girlfriend, Katie Magbanua. She employed her ex-husband and his friend, both members of the notorious Latin Kings gang, to murder Markel, 41.

Magbanua and her ex-husband, Sigfredo Garcia, are serving life sentences after being convicted earlier of first-degree murder. His friend, Luis Rivera, is serving a 19-year sentence after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and testifying against the others.

Charlie Adelson, 47, faces a mandatory life term when sentenced next month.

Markel had been involved in a bitter custody battle with his ex-wife, lawyer Wendi Adelson, and had gotten a court order barring her move from Tallahassee back to South Florida with their two young sons.

Authorities say the Adelsons offered Markel $1 million to let his ex-wife and sons move, but when he refused Charlie Adelson and other members of the family began plotting his death.

During his trial, it was shown that Charlie Adelson paid Magbanua $138,000, which she split with the killers, and the family then gave her a no-show job at their dental practice and other payments totaling more than $56,000. Charlie Adelson also gave her a used Lexus.

Wendi Adelson and her father, dentist Harvey Adelson, have not been charged, but Campbell said the investigation remains open. They have denied involvement.

Markel was shot while parking in his garage after he dropped his sons off at daycare and visited the gym.

The Adelsons immediately became suspects in Markel’s slaying after Wendi Adelson told detectives that the killing could have been arranged on her behalf, saying her parents were “very angry at Markel.” She told them that her brother had joked about hiring a hit man to kill Markel as a divorce gift, but he bought her a TV instead.

Still, the investigation involving local and state agencies and the FBI proceeded slowly.

Investigators were able to track phone records showing numerous calls between Charlie Adelson and Magbanua, her and the killers and Charlie Adelson, his mother and his sister in the hours before and shortly after the killing as well as large monetary transactions between the family and Magbanua. Garcia and Rivera were then linked to a rented Toyota Prius the killers used.

In 2016, an FBI agent, impersonating an extortionist, approached Donna Adelson outside her home and demanded $5,000 to not turn information about the slaying over to investigators. The ruse had been concocted in hopes that it would trigger a reaction from the Adelsons.

She contacted her son, telling him they needed to discuss “some paperwork” and that “you probably have a general idea what I’m talking about.” They led to several calls and meetings between her and her son.

Charlie Adelson was arrested last year after technicians enhanced a recording made of him and Magbanua inside a Mexican restaurant in 2016 while they were under surveillance discussing the extortion attempt.

In the conversation, Adelson told Magbanua that she would need to meet with the extortionist and agree to a one-time payment.

He also told her he wasn’t worried about being arrested, but if he thought police had any evidence proving the family orchestrated the slaying, “we would have already gone to the airport.”

So it was not a surprise to legal observers that Peterson was acquitted Thursday of child neglect and other charges for failing to confront the shooter who killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Without an on-point statute to base their case upon, prosecutors tried to make the law fit the facts instead of the facts fit the law, lawyers said. That is always a tougher courtroom battle to win.

The Peterson case “has always been an uphill climb for the prosecutors,” Miami criminal defense attorney David S. Weinstein said. “I feel bad for the victims and their families. Their pain will last for a lifetime. For them, the disappointment in the system continues. It was compounded by the state pushing forward on this case, despite the high odds of obtaining a conviction.”

But Linda Beigel Schulman, whose son, teacher Scott Beigel, died in the shooting while protecting students, said Friday that prosecutors were always upfront with the victims’ families that an acquittal was a distinct possibility. This was the first time a U.S. law enforcement officer was tried for failing to act during an on-campus shooting — there was no precedent to compare the case with.

She said that while she is disappointed in the verdict, she does not blame the prosecutors or the jury — “they did their job.”

“We have a legal system in this country, but it’s not always just,” Beigel Schulman said.

Florida has well-defined statutes that cover unlawful actions law enforcement officers might commit, such as unjustly shooting or beating a suspect. But none says a school police officer must act while students are being shot.

That is what Peterson was accused of: doing nothing. He has insisted he would have acted, but echoes prevented him from pinpointing where the gunshots were coming from. He had faced a possible lengthy prison sentence if convicted.

The school’s on-campus deputy, Peterson, 60, was in his office Feb. 14, 2018, when Nikolas Cruz began his six-minute attack, firing about 140 shots with his AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle inside a three-story classroom building.

Peterson and two unarmed civilian security guards arrived at the building within two minutes. Cruz was at the opposite end, killing the last of the 11 people he would murder on the first floor — an unarmed security officer who had opened a door to go after him.

Security video shows Peterson got within feet of another door and drew his handgun, but then backed away, taking cover next to an adjoining building 75 feet (23 meters) away. He radioed arriving deputies to stay 500 feet (152 meters) back.

Meanwhile, Cruz headed up the stairs to the third floor, where he would kill six more beginning 73 seconds later.

Peterson would stay next to the alcove for 40 minutes, long after the shooting had stopped, Cruz had fled and other officers charged inside.

Eight days later, then-Sheriff Scott Israel, who was under political pressure for the shooting, said his video review of Peterson’s actions made him “sick.” Peterson retired and was then retroactively fired. Israel was also fired 11 months later by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis shortly after he took office.

Peterson’s attorney, Mark Eiglarsh, has said Israel’s comments unjustly set the community against his client. He said Israel never spoke to Peterson to get his side, though they had been friends.

“Every one of us erroneously assumed that my client knew that kids were being killed in that building and he just didn’t go in. The jurors made it clear through their verdict that couldn’t be further from the truth. He did everything he could,” Eiglarsh said.

Circuit Judge Martin Fein sealed the jurors’ names and none came forward Friday to say whether they believed Peterson or simply didn’t think the law fit.

More than a year after the shooting, prosecutors charged Peterson. The most serious counts were child neglect — a charge most commonly levied against parents whose lack of care leads to their child’s death or serious injury. To be convicted, Peterson had to be considered a “caregiver” to the students who were shot — an assertion that caused a skeptical Judge Fein to almost dismiss the case before it got to the jury.

University of Miami law professor Craig Trocino said that if the prosecution’s theory were true, “every first responder would then be subject to criminal liability for child neglect any time there is a child present at any time an officer is also present.”

Bob Jarvis, a professor at Nova Southeastern University’s law school, said prosecutors seemed to want to charge Peterson with “cowardice under fire,” but only the military has such laws. He said prosecutors had “no case.”

“Peterson was being made a scapegoat. While he certainly had some amount of responsibility, every adult who ever came into contact with Nikolas Cruz — parents, foster parents, school administrators, teachers, social workers, etc. — also had some responsibility,” he said.

In a statement, Broward State Attorney Harold Pryor’s office stood by its decision to charge Peterson, saying there was “sufficient evidence.”

“There was an obligation to address the circumstance and evidence in this case, the acute need for safety in our schools and the special role of school resource officers,” the statement said.

Tony Montalto, the president of Stand with Parkland, the group that represents most of the victims’ families, said its board will discuss whether to lobby the Florida Legislature to enact a law requiring school police officers to act during a shooting.

“There is no reason parents shouldn’t expect a school resource officer to protect their children,” said Montalto, whose 14-year-old daughter Gina died in the shooting.

Pryor told the parents he would support that effort.

A sheriff’s deputy, teachers and students, testifying during the trial of former Broward County Deputy Scot Peterson, gave divergent answers when asked where they thought the shots were coming from during Nikolas Cruz’s Feb. 14, 2018, attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Fourteen students and three staff members died.

Peterson, the school’s assigned deputy, insists that because of echoes he didn’t know that Cruz was firing inside the three-story 1200 building, even though he moved within 10 yards (9 meters) of its door before taking cover next to an adjoining structure. He has said he thought the shots were coming from outside, perhaps from the football field — more than 100 yards (90 meters) from the 1200 building and 200 yards (180 meters) from where he took cover. He is facing felony child neglect and other charges for his alleged failure to confront Cruz.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Brian Goolsby, who arrived during the shooting, said he thought the gunfire was coming from a courtyard next to the 1200 building. He said that even when he arrived outside the building and saw the body of a coach outside a door and its damaged windows, he wasn’t totally convinced the shots had come from inside — perhaps the shots had struck the coach and windows from a nearby balcony or trees.

“I have never experienced anything quite like that day,” Goolsby said.

Student Ruby Harris, who had exited a neighboring building, thought the shots from Cruz’s AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle were coming from straight ahead from a parking lot behind the 1200 building. Her younger sister Peri thought they were coming from the left, from a neighboring middle school. Their friend Dylan Redshaw thought that a building somewhere had exploded.

“It was the loudest sound I have ever heard and hope I ever hear in my life,” she said. “I thought it was coming from everywhere around me. It sounded like it was under me, above me, all around me.”

Under cross-examination, prosecutors pointed out that the students and teachers were not police officers trained to recognize gunfire or pinpoint it and that their training for on-campus shootings was to run back into their classrooms immediately, not to seek out and find the shooter.

Prosecutors pointed out that even though Goolsby didn’t precisely know where the shots were coming from, he kept moving toward the sounds, looking in one building’s windows to see if the shots were coming from there — something they have pointed out Peterson could have done at the 1200 building to find Cruz.

Peterson, 60, could face almost 100 years in prison and lose his $104,000 annual pension if convicted of felony child neglect, the most serious charges he faces. He is the first law enforcement agent in U.S. history ever tried for an alleged failure to act during a school shooting. He retired shortly after the shooting before being retroactively fired.

Peterson is charged in connection with failing to confront Cruz before he reached the third floor, where six of the victims died. He is not charged in connection with the 11 people fatally shot on the first floor before he reached the building.

Prosecutors concluded their two-week presentation Wednesday. They called to the witness stand students, teachers and law enforcement officers who have testified about the horror they experienced and how they knew where Cruz was. Some said they knew for certain that the shots were coming from the 1200 building. Prosecutors also called a training supervisor who testified that Peterson did not follow protocols for confronting an active shooter.

For Peterson to be convicted of child neglect, prosecutors must first show he was legally a caregiver to the juvenile students, defined by Florida law as “a parent, adult household member or other person responsible for a child’s welfare.”

If jurors find Peterson was a caregiver, they must determine whether he made a “reasonable effort” to protect the children or failed to provide necessary care.

Cruz, a 24-year-old former student, pleaded guilty and received a life sentence last year, avoiding a death sentence when his jury could not unanimously agree he deserved execution.

Former Broward County Deputy Scot Peterson had undergone training both in a video simulator and with live actors several times before the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Broward County Lt. Col. Sam Samaroo testified. He said Peterson was taught that even if he was alone, he would need to confront the shooter without waiting for backup.

Samaroo worked at the agency’s training unit from 2013 to 2018, and was ultimately made its commander. He said deputies are taught that active shooters, if confronted, will kill or barricade themselves, surrender, or engage authorities in a gunfight, giving civilians time to flee or take shelter. That’s why deputies must go toward the gunshots immediately and “force an outcome,” he said.

“The more time the shooter has, the more victims he can kill,” Samaroo added. “Our goal is to stop the killing by any possible means. Time is our enemy.”

Peterson, the school’s on-campus deputy, insists he did not know where the shots were coming from because of echoes, which is why he didn’t enter the three-story classroom building where former student Nikolas Cruz carried out his six-minute attack. Peterson, after approaching the building’s doors about a minute after the shooting began, backed away and took cover next to a neighboring building. He stayed in place for 40 minutes, long after the shooting stopped.

Samaroo said not knowing the shooter’s precise location was no excuse for Peterson to remain stationary; he said the deputy would have picked up clues to the shooter’s location if he had moved.

“You go into hunting mode,” Samaroo said. “The smell (of gunpowder). You will see (bullet) casings, trails of blood. You might see people fleeing in a particular direction. Those are all things that play into our senses.”

Under cross-examination by Peterson’s attorney, Samaroo conceded that in training scenarios, the deputies know in which building the fake shooter is located and they are never confronted with multiple possibilities or any outside echoes. He also agreed that the sheriff’s office’s written policy in 2018 said deputies “may” enter a building during an active shooting. That policy has since been changed to “shall.”

What Peterson, 60, heard and saw during the shooting is the key issue in the trial. He is charged with child neglect for failing to confront Cruz before the gunman reached the classroom building’s third floor, where six of the victims died.

Peterson is not charged in connection with the deaths of 11 people killed on the first floor before he reached the building.

If Peterson is convicted of the most serious charge of felony child neglect, he could be sentenced to nearly 100 years in prison and lose his $104,000 annual pension. He had spent nearly three decades working at schools, including nine years at Stoneman Douglas. He retired shortly after the shooting and was then fired retroactively.

Prosecutors have spent the trial’s first week calling to the witness stand students, teachers and law enforcement officers who have testified about the horror they experienced and how they knew where Cruz was.

Testifying Thursday for the defense, Deputy Michael Kratz said when he arrived at the school about two minutes after the gunfire began, he thought the shots were coming from the football field next to where he had parked — about 100 yards (90 meters) from the actual building. He grabbed his rifle and took cover behind his car, scanning for the shooter as the shots kept coming.

“It was loud. It sounded like 30 or 40 feet (10 to 12 meters) away,” Kratz said. He added that he couldn’t see the shooter but thought the shooter could see him.

One of Peterson’s defenses is that the sheriff’s radio system crashed during the shooting because it was overloaded, limiting his knowledge of what arriving deputies saw. Retired Lt. Michael DeVita, who then oversaw the Parkland district, testified that he wrote several memos before the shooting complaining about radio coverage near the school, but the problem was never fixed.

For Peterson to be convicted of child neglect, prosecutors must first show he was legally a caregiver to the juvenile students, defined by Florida law as “a parent, adult household member or other person responsible for a child’s welfare.”

If jurors find Peterson was a caregiver, they must determine whether he made a “reasonable effort” to protect the children or failed to provide necessary care.

Peterson is the first U.S. law enforcement officer ever charged for an alleged failure to act during a school shooting. Similarly, Texas authorities are investigating officers in the town of Uvalde who didn’t confront the shooter who killed 19 elementary students and two teachers last year. None have been charged, however.

Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty and last year received a life sentence, avoiding a death sentence when his jury could not unanimously agree he deserved execution.

He did not directly address the Jan. 8 assault on the buildings housing Brazil’s Congress and Supreme Court during his appearance in Miami before a conservative group tied to former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Bolsonaro had mimicked Trump’s strategy during his own 2020 reelection campaign, for months sowing doubts about the reliability of Brazil’s voting machines and then filing a petition to annul millions of votes. He is now under investigation for allegedly inciting the uprising.

Like Trump, Bolsonaro has not conceded the election, though unlike the former U.S. president he also has never explicitly said he lost due to fraud. During a question-and-answer session with Charlie Kirk, head of the conservative Turning Point USA, the former Brazilian president rattled off his administration’s accomplishments and then provided backers with an opening.

“Brazil was doing very well,” Bolsonaro said. “I cannot understand the reasons why (the election) decided to go to the left.”

After the cries of “fraud” died down, Kirk, who helped spread Trump’s own election fraud lies after the former U.S. president’s loss, replied, “All I can say is, that sounds very familiar.”

The event took place at Trump’s Miami hotel, underscoring the connection between two populist presidents who fanned suspicion of their democracies’ elections, leading supporters to turn violent after their losses. The two were political allies who shared an overlapping set of advisers. Shortly before Bolsonaro’s opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, took office, Bolsonaro moved to Florida, the state where Trump has based himself.

Friday’s appearance marked part of Bolsonaro’s reemergence after spending several weeks in Kissimmee. He spoke to some supporters there earlier this week before taking the stage at Trump’s hotel late Friday afternoon.

Much of Bolsonaro’s Friday speech amounted to a defense of his four years in power, touting job gains, what he said was a lack of corruption in his administration and, in a reference that drew loud cheers, “freedom” for those who opted out of COVID-19 vaccinations.

After his 30-minute appearance, many in the several hundred-strong crowd, often clad in the national colors of yellow and green, swarmed around the 67-year-old former president.

Some of Bolsonaro’s backers in Brazil have expressed disappointment that he left the country before Jan. 8 and has remained circumspect about the attack. The former president faces legal jeopardy not only from a mushrooming number of investigations into the Jan. 8 uprising but from the country’s supreme court, which has censored websites that have spread what it calls lies about Brazil’s election.

Reynaldo Rossi, a Brazilian farmer visiting Florida to explore a possible relocation there, said he is glad Bolsonaro is staying in the U.S. for now.

“If he goes back, they are going to create a lot of trouble for him,” Rossi said. “He would spend a lot of his time down there defending himself instead of leading us.”

In his speech, Bolsonaro acknowledged Brazilians who have left the country for the U.S., seeming to include himself in that category.

“As well as we feel here, we always worry about our friends and family that stayed there,” he said, referring to Brazil.

He also reassured the crowd about the country’s future.

“I believe in Brazil, and I am certain that Brazil will not end with the current government,” Bolsonaro said.

Hughes reported from from Rio de Janiero and Riccardi from Denver.

Cruz’s public defenders wanted Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer to have the victim impact statements read aloud by a neutral third party or played on video to the jurors who will decide early next year whether he is sentenced to death or to life without parole. Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty in October to the February 2018 murders at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

Attorney Tamara Curtis said allowing the parents and others to speak directly to the jury could result in “overly emotional displays” that would violate Cruz’s constitutional right to a fair trial.

But Scherer agreed with prosecutors, who said the statements will be written in advance and given to Cruz’s attorneys before the parents read them to the jurors. The defense will have an opportunity to object if they believe anything that will be said would be unfairly inflammatory, the judge and prosecutors said. Scherer had already ordered that the parents or others cannot call Cruz such phrases as “animal” or “that thing.”

“What the defendant is seeking is that the victims in this case be neutralized and they shouldn’t be. They have a right under Florida law … to be heard and they have a right to voice their feelings,” assistant prosecutor Carolyn McCann said.

She said prosecutors have no incentive to let a parent say something about Cruz that would result in a death sentence being overturned.

“No one wants to do this again,” McCann said.

For Cruz to be sentenced to death, the 12-member jury must unanimously agree. If one disagrees, he will receive a life sentence. Jury selection had been set to begin next month, but it now won’t likely start until February or March. The trial has been delayed by the COVID-19 outbreak and arguments over what evidence and testimony will be permitted.

For more than 20 years, a line of German shepherds named Gunther has been presented in news stories as the wealthy beneficiaries of a German countess.

The story appears to be a ruse created by Maurizio Mian, the scion of an Italian pharmaceutical company, who has used the tale of the globe-trotting canine to promote real estate sales and other projects.

The Associated Press reported last week that a dog, Gunther VI, was selling a Miami mansion that it had purchased from Madonna for $7.5 million in 2000 for $31.75 million. The South Florida Sun Sentinel published the story online on Nov. 17 and in print Nov. 19.

The story cited claims from Gunther’s “handler” that the dog was from a long line of dogs bequeathed the fortune of a German countess.

While the mansion is in fact owned and being sold by the Gunther Corp., according to Miami-Dade County property records, the dog’s role appears to be little more than a joke that’s carried on for decades.

And there is no evidence of a German countess.

The AP reported on the story after receiving a press release from publicists representing the real estate agents who had the listing.

“The AP published a story that did not meet our standards and should not have been published. We did not do our due diligence in the reporting process. We have corrected the story, and we apologize,” AP spokeswoman Lauren Easton said in a statement.

Mian told an Italian newspaper in 1995 that the countess “was just an invention to publicize the philosophy” of his foundation. Mian at other points has claimed his confessions about the countess are the real hoax and the dog stories are, in fact real.

Mian’s own money appears to have come from his family’s Italian pharmaceutical business. Istituto Gentili, which developed a treatment for the bone-weakening disease osteoporosis with the U.S. pharmaceutical giant Merck, was purchased by Merck in 1997.

An Italian cellphone number listed for Mian was not answered Tuesday.

Responding to questions from the AP Tuesday about the veracity of the story, Monica Tirado, director of the Gunther Group, said that Carla Riccitelli, who described herself to the AP as Gunther’s handler, is Mian’s “ex-partner.”

Tirado said that the company couldn’t answer further questions, including about the story of the German countess, because “there is an exclusive contract with a Netflix production.” A request for comment with Netflix to get details about any production was not returned.

This is just the latest in a string of tales about Gunther told by Mian.

In 1999, The Miami Herald reported that Gunther IV was trying to purchase a mansion from actor Sylvester Stallone. The next day, the Herald reported that it was just a publicity stunt.

“If you want to write it’s a joke, you can write that,” Mian told the Herald. “I won’t do anything.”

In Mian’s tale of the dogs, the Gunthers are supposedly supported by a multi-million dollar trust set up by German countess Karlotta Liebenstein when she died in 1992 to care for her dog, Gunther III, and his progeny. The AP has found no evidence that Liebenstein existed.

Sitting beside the bronze urn in their lawyer’s office Tuesday, Nero’s widow, Corene, and his daughter, Gloria Nero Rolle, demanded to know if the ashes inside are Nero’s or someone else’s. They say they haven’t gotten answers from Stevens Brothers Funeral Home, which handled the cremation.

“I am sitting here with someone else’s ashes and my father’s were in the bushes,” Rolle said crying, her mother sitting quietly but stoically next to her. “All I want is my father’s ashes back and (make it so) whoever these belong to can get their remains.”

A man who answered the phone at Stevens Brothers told The Associated Press the Neroes have the proper ashes. He declined to give his name or make further comment.

The state’s Division of Funeral, Cemetery and Consumer Services said in a statement Tuesday that it has just learned of the allegations, but added “they are horrifying and we take this very seriously.”

Rolle and the family’s attorney, Greg Francis, said after Nero, a farmworker, died at 73 in 2013, his son, Robert Nero Jr., hired Stevens Brothers to arrange his cremation. Rolle said her brother then spent weeks getting the ashes back from the mortuary, going there almost daily before he finally received them. They were placed in Corene Nero’s home. The son died the following year and was buried by Stevens Brothers, his sister said.

The mystery began March 25 when a West Palm Beach YWCA worker, Scott Manochi, found piles of ashes and two metal identification discs from a crematorium as he cleared brush along a fence. He called police.

According to a police report, officers contacted the crematorium, which said its records showed one set of ashes belonged to Nero and the other to Mary Brown, who died in 2009. Her family has not been located. The crematorium told officers it had handled their bodies for Stevens Brothers, which had picked up the ashes shortly after the deaths.

Officers called Stevens Brothers, which sent employee Willie Watts to collect the ashes from the bushes. Police learned Watts also does grounds work for the YWCA.

When an AP reporter asked Watts by phone Tuesday about the ashes, he replied, “I don’t know nothing about it.” When read the police report, Watts laughed and declined to comment.

Miami Dade College mortuary science professor Joseph Finocchiaro said it’s unlikely the ashes could have been outdoors for long — rain and wind would have scattered them.

West Palm Beach Sgt. David Lefont said investigators don’t believe a crime was committed — Florida law doesn’t prohibit the dumping of ashes on private property.

The Neros learned about the ashes’ discovery when contacted by local television stations. Rolle said she at first refused to believe that the YWCA ashes could be her father’s. But as the likely reality set in, she broke down.

“I went and sat down for a couple hours until I could get myself together,” Rolle said.

Finocchiaro said when a funeral home picks up a body, a wristband is attached and every time the body changes hands the accompanying paperwork is supposed to be checked to make sure the identification matches. Redundant identification is often also attached to the coffin or other container.

At the crematorium, a metal disk like the one found with the ashes is created, he said. That disk accompanies the ashes through every step from the crematorium to the mortuary to the family, he said.

“From start to finish, you should be able to draw a line all the way back,” he said.

He said the cremation process almost always destroys the body’s DNA, so attempting to identify the cremains in the Nero family’s urn is an extreme longshot.

Rolle said she understands she’ll probably never know for sure what happened to her father, but she needs to try.

“We all love him and we are doing everything we can to get him back,” Rolle said.

Asimismo, los abogados de Robert Kraft y de 14 de los otros 24 acusados consideraron demasiado estrictas las condiciones que se les impondrían como parte de un programa para desechar cargos por delitos leves.

Esta semana, los abogados presentaron ante la corte una serie de documentos, los cuales advierten que la divulgación de los videos grabados en secreto por la policía dentro de la sala Orchids of Asia Day en enero infringiría la ley estatal de registros públicos.

La divulgación debería impedirse también porque los videos son parte de una investigación en curso y no se han dado a conocer a los acusados como parte del proceso en que ambas partes intercambian evidencias para examinarlas antes de un juicio, argumentaron los abogados. Bajo las leyes de Florida, la mayoría de las pruebas recabadas en casos penales debe presentarse durante esa fase de descubrimiento, con algunas excepciones, como las que involucran confesiones.

Los abogados de Kraft y de los Patriots se negaron a emitir comentarios al respecto. Tampoco lo hizo la fiscalía estatal del condado de Palm Beach.

The Associated Press forma parte de una coalición de medios que busca la divulgación de evidencias sobre el caso.

En total, hay unos 300 acusados en múltiples condados de la Florida, como parte de una operación contra salas ilícitas de masajes y contrabando de seres humanos. Diez establecimientos fueron cerrados y numerosos empleados enfrentan también acusaciones.

Muchas de las mujeres que ofrecían los servicios sexuales en esas salas provenían de China, eran obligadas a vivir en esos centros y no podían salir sin un acompañante, de acuerdo con los investigadores.

Según los expedientes policiales, Kraft fue llevado en un vehículo Bentley blanco 2014 a la sala de masajes, el 19 de enero. Ahí, fue grabado mientras tenía relaciones sexuales y entregaba una cantidad no precisada de dinero.

Los investigadores señalan que el empresario regresó 17 horas después. En esa ocasión, habría llegado al spa en un centro comercial a bordo de un Bentley azul 2015, conducido también por un chofer. Kraft, cuya fortuna es de unos 6.000 millones de dólares, habría tenido nuevamente relaciones sexuales, antes de pagar con un par de billetes, incluido uno de 100 dólares, señalan los policías que consultaron los videos.

Horas después, Kraft estuvo en Kansas City, para presenciar la final de la Conferencia Americana, que los Patriots ganaron a los Chiefs. Nueva Inglaterra terminó conquistando el Super Bowl en Atlanta frente a los Rams de Los Ángeles, para coronarse por sexta vez en la NFL desde que Kraft es el propietario.

Nouman Raja, de 41 años, fue hallado culpable de homicidio no premeditado e intento de asesinato. Podría ser sentenciado a cadena perpetua por la muerte de Corey Jones, de 31 años.

El jurado —dos mujeres y cuatro hombres— deliberó durante unas cuatro horas. Raja se mantuvo impertérrito mientras se leía el veredicto, mientras unos 25 familiares de Jones observaban, algunos sollozando.

Uno de los familiares afirmó: “El mejor sonido fue el cliqueo de las esposas“ cuando los guardias se llevaron a Raja del tribunal. El juez Joseph Marx fijó el 26 de abril como la fecha de sentencia.

La fiscalía argumentó que Raja, uno de los pocos policías en el país en ser sentenciado por un incidente armado en servicio activo, agravó una situación que debió ser una interacción rutinaria.

Vestido de civil, condujo su camioneta sin insignia en dirección contraria por la salida de una autopista y se detuvo frente a la camioneta SUV averiada de Jones a eso de las 3:15 a.m. el 1 de octubre de 2015.

La fiscalía sostuvo que Raja nunca se identificó como policía y actuó tan agresivamente que Jones lógicamente sospechó que era un delincuente. Ello llevó a Jones, quien tenía licencia para portar armas, a asir su pistola y correr mientras Raja le disparaba varias veces, según dijeron.

Jones, inspector de viviendas y baterista amateur, regresaba a casa después de que su banda ofreció un concierto en un club nocturno, cuando el vehículo se malogró. Pocos días antes había comprado la pistola calibre .38 para proteger su batería, que guardaba en la camioneta y cuyo valor ascendía a 10,000 dólares.

Raja vestía pantalones de mezclilla, camiseta y gorra de béisbol y participaba en un grupo policial a cargo de investigar robos de autos, cuando vio el SUV de Jones. Dijo que primero pensó que el vehículo estaba vacío pero luego vio que Jones estaba adentro.

El supervisor de Raja declaró que le había dado órdenes al agente de colocarse un chaleco policial en caso de encontrarse con un civil, pero no lo hizo. La fiscalía, además, preguntó por qué Raja no sacó la placa de identificación policial que llevaba en el bolsillo.

Lo que no sabía la policía inicialmente es que Jones estaba hablando con una empresa de grúas por teléfono, y que la llamada estaba siendo grabada. En la grabación se escucha a Jones preguntando “¿Cómo?” mientras alguien le abre la puerta. Raja le grita “¿Está todo bien?“ y Jones responde que sí. Dos veces Raja pregunta “¿de verdad?” y cada vez Jones responde “Sí“.

De repente Raja, usando una vulgaridad, le grita a Jones que alce los brazos. Jones responde “¡Espera un momento!”

Según la fiscalía Jones sacó la pistola y trató de huir. Raja disparó tres veces y Jones se lanzó por un barranco. La fiscalía dice que lanzó la pistola, que fue hallada a unos 38 metros (125 pies) de su cuerpo, pero Raja le disparó otras tres veces, 10 segundos después de la primera ráfaga.

Jones falleció debido al impacto de una bala en su corazón. También recibió dos balazos, uno en cada brazo.