What do these three criminal acts have in common?

Hmmmmmmmm


CHARLOTTE, N.C. —
A missing woman was found severely beaten in a home where she was being held captive, police say, and the 35-year-old suspect is in custody.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said the 43-year-old woman was being held at Jamuel Alston's home in the Hickory Grove division.

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"The woman, whom he (Alston) had dated briefly, has very serious but not life-threatening injuries," police say. Officers said the woman was taken to Carolinas Medical Center with serious injuries. A police report states that the victim had severe lacerations.

The Charlotte Observer reported that high-tech police work and quick thinking helped officers find her. Investigators said some things they learned about the missing woman’s case made them concerned for her safety, so they started looking for her car, using license plate cameras and other technology.

Police learned the woman had dated someone new in the past couple of week, but they only knew that he went by the first name Jay, the Observer reported.

Using social media and cellphone data, police ended up at a home where they thought the man named Jay might be located.

The Observer reported that officers did not have a search warrant and feared the woman might be dead, so when the man, later identified as Alston opened the door, they called out the woman’s name and heard her make a noise, giving them probable cause to enter the home.

They found the woman seriously injured but alive inside Alston’s home.

Alston is charged with attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, rape, kidnapping and possession of firearm by a felon, according to a tweet by Charlotte-Mecklenburg police


GWINNETY COUNTY, Ga. —
Police say a woman and her live-in lover -- who she claimed was a relative -- killed the woman's husband for a $1 million insurance policy.

Tia Trollyne Young, 42, and Harvey Timothy "Tim" Lee, 38, were charged Monday in the Nov. 17 death of George Young, according to detention records.

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George Young, a 43-year-old father of three, was fatally shot on his front porch when he returned home from one of his two jobs.

WSAV reported that investigators determined that Tia Young and Lee had been in a secret relationship since May 2017, months before the shooting.

Tia Young claimed Lee was either her cousin or was like a brother to her, police said. "There is nothing to suggest that they are related,” WSAV reported.

Investigators say the Youngs and Lee, all originally from South Carolina, knew each other from early adulthood.

When Lee ended up unemployed, George Young invited him to live with their family in Buford. George Young also hired Lee to work with him at a security company.

Gwinnett police say George Young's life insurance policy had a $1 million payout, and they believe Lee and his wife killed him for the money.

Police said neither of the suspects have received any insurance proceeds.

Tia Young and Lee are being held without bond on charges of aggravated assault, malice murder and felony murder.


SPARTANBURG, S.C. —
A 32-year-old Spartanburg man pleaded guilty Tuesday to an attack on a woman that left her in a wheelchair.

Levar Terrell Fernandez pleaded guilty to domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature.

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Police were called May 8, 2017, to a home on Bethlehem Drive in Spartanburg after Fernandez injured the woman. She said she had confronted him about his drug use and had told him that she wanted to leave him. She said Fernandez picked her up and slammed her onto the floor on her neck.

The woman said she immediately felt something was seriously wrong, and she called 911. She was taken to Spartanburg Regional Medical Center with a spinal cord injury. She spent more than two months in the hospital.

Tuesday the woman came to court in her wheelchair to testify about her injuries.

Fernandez was sentenced to 20 years in prison suspended to 12 years, followed by five years’ probation. He’ll be required to serve 85 percent of his sentence before he is eligible for parole.

Assistant Solicitor Tatyana Ustimchuk said she hopes the sentence will send a message that domestic violence will not be tolerated in our community.

WYFF Greenville
WYFF-TV