A South Carolina father was sentenced to death Thursday for killing his five children with his own hands. After they were dead, he drove around with their bodies for nine days before dumping them in garbage bags on the side of an Alabama dirt road. Timothy Jones Jr. showed no emotion as the jury delivered the verdict after less than two hours of deliberation. They also could have sentenced him to life without parole. The same Lexington County jury convicted Jones of five counts of murder last week in the deaths of his children, ages 1 to 8, in their Lexington home in August 2014.

The reputed boss of New York's Gambino crime family was shot to death in front of his home by a gunman who may have staged a car accident to lure him outside, dying a virtual unknown compared with his swaggering 1980s-era predecessor, John Gotti. Police said Thursday they were reviewing surveillance-camera video of the attack on Francesco "Franky Boy" Cali, 53, who was gunned down Wednesday night at his red-brick colonial-style house in a quiet Staten Island neighborhood. The assailant sped off in a pickup truck, police said. No immediate arrests were made.

Activists and others who were disappointed by the outcome of two historic cases involving the killing of black teenager Laquan McDonald by a white Chicago police officer see a way forward — by turning tragedy into political power. A judge on Friday sentenced former Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke to less than seven years in prison for McDonald's 2014 death at the age of 14.

Reporter Tony Plohetski spent three months interviewing Austin police and officials from the FBI and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives about the string of bombings that terrorized Austin in March 2018. This is part one of a series that provides never-before-released details and the clearest picture yet of authorities' hunt for the Austin serial bomber.

A 5-year-old boy plummeted three floors Friday after being pushed or thrown from a balcony at the Mall of America, according to witnesses, and a 24-year-old man with a history of causing disturbances at the mall was in custody. Bloomington Police Chief Jeffrey Potts said police don't think there is any relationship between the man and the family of the child, who suffered life-threatening injuries

Police say a Connecticut woman charged with driving under the influence was drunk on vanilla extract, which contains a significant amount of alcohol. Officers found several bottles of pure vanilla extract inside her vehicle.

After urging a woman he was having an affair with for months to kill his fiancee, investigators say a Colorado man did it himself on Thanksgiving Day, bludgeoning her to death with a baseball bat. The grim details revealed in a Colorado courtroom Tuesday provided the first public account of what led prosecutors to charge Patrick Frazee with murder and other charges in the death of Kelsey Berreth, the mother of his 1-year-old daughter.

A U.S. judge on Friday ordered a woman accused of hacking Capital One and at least 30 other organizations to remain in custody pending trial because she is a flight risk and poses a physical danger to herself and others. At a hearing in Seattle, U.S. Magistrate Judge Michelle Peterson said Paige Thompson's "bizarre and erratic" behavior makes her a risk. The judge also said Thompson has no stable employment, residence or ties to the community and has stated that she wanted to die.

For more than 30 years, Jonelle Matthews' family could only wonder what had happened to the 12-year-old girl whose disappearance attracted the attention of the White House and shocked a rural Colorado community. They have faced false alarms over the years whenever human remains were found or police interviewed someone new for information about Jonelle. In July, they finally learned what happened to their daughter and sister — a construction crew discovered her remains, and police officially labeled her death a homicide.

Hawaii says a judge should compel Airbnb to hand over 10 years of receipts and other documents from its hosts because the home-sharing platform has acknowledged that hosts aren't fully complying with state tax laws. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday.