It’s Friday, April 29th - and NBC 6 has the top stories for the day.
No. 1 - Three leaders of a violent Little Havana drug trafficking and money laundering organization have been found guilty of various gun, drugs and money laundering crimes, authorities said Thursday.
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Ulysses Cabrera, 32, Bernardo Quinonez, 34, and Victor Smith, 26, were convicted by a federal jury following a nine-week trial, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida said. Prosecutors said Cabrera and Quinonez led the gang that distributed cocaine, crack cocaine and marijuana onto the streets of Little Havana. Cabrera supplied the cocaine while Quinonez supervised the people who turned it into crack, and Smith oversaw the street-level drug sales, officials said.
No. 2 - Miami commissioners on Thursday passed a deal that would take a city-owned golf course and turn it into a massive commercial center and stadium for Inter Miami.
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The deal would turn the Melreese Public Golf Course into not just a soccer stadium for Inter Miami CF – but a hotel, office space, shopping area, and a 58-acre public park. The soccer club received four yes votes from the commission to build its Miami Freedom Park. "I have never been prouder to be a Miamian than I am today," Miami Mayor Francis Suarez told reporters after the deal passed. "And I've never been prouder, as my four years as mayor, of the commission that I have the honor to serve with. I am grateful to the people of the city of Miami for trusting us to negotiate what I believe is the best sports deal in the history of this country."
No. 3 - A man is facing an attempted murder charge after authorities said he tried to kill his girlfriend, a former star of the reality show "90 Day Fiancé," in South Florida.
Cole Goldberg, 23, was arrested Sunday in Palm Beach County after the alleged murder attempt on 32-year-old Caroline Schwitzky, according to an arrest report from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission obtained by NBC News. The report said the couple had gotten into a heated argument on a boat in West Palm Beach when witnesses said Goldberg tried to strangle Schwitzky. Goldberg held Schwitzky for about 20 minutes but she began punching his arms to free herself, the report said.
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No. 4 - A Miami man who spent more than 30 years in prison after he was wrongfully convicted in a 1990 murder case is speaking out a day after his emotional release from prison.
Thomas Raynard James was just 23 when he was arrested for the Jan. 17, 1990 killing of Francis McKinnon in Coral Gables. The now 55-year-old was released Wednesday after more than three decades in prison after a Miami-Dade judge vacated his conviction and life sentence in the McKinnon killing. NBC 6 caught up with James at his mother's home on Thursday, where he was asked how it felt to wake up a free man. "It was beautiful, it was wonderful. I got to say, one of the greatest feelings in the world right now," he said.
No. 5 - Three South Florida corrections officers are facing murder charges in connection with an inmate's death in February, authorities said.
The three officers - identified as Ronald Connor, 24, Christopher Rolon, 29, and Kirk Walton, 34 - face charges including second-degree murder, conspiracy, aggravated battery of an elderly adult and cruel treatment of a detainee, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Sources told NBC 6 a fourth corrections officer was expected to turn himself in to face charges in the case, and FDLE officials said the officer remains "at large." Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle and officials with the Florida Department of Corrections and Florida Department of Law Enforcement have scheduled a Friday afternoon news conference to announce the charges.
No. 6 - Google has expanded options for keeping personal information private from online searches.
The company said Friday it will let people request that more types of content such as personal contact information like phone numbers, emails and physical addresses be removed from search results. The new policy also allows the removal of other information that may pose a risk for identity theft, such as confidential log-in credentials. The company said in a statement that open access to information is vital, “but so is empowering people with the tools they need to protect themselves and keep their sensitive, personally identifiable information private.”
