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The man convicted of killing LSU basketball star Wayde Sims in 2018 has been found dead in prison, officials announced on Monday ... just days after he received a life sentence for second-degree murder.

The East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office confirmed to TMZ Sports that a medical team rendered aid to 23-year-old Dyteon Simpson after they found him unresponsive in prison at around 8 PM on Sunday.

The sheriff's office said Simpson was pronounced dead a short time later.

A police spokesperson tells us a preliminary toxicology report revealed Simpson appeared to have fentanyl in his system.

"The EBR Coroner will conduct an autopsy and determine final cause of death," the spokesperson added. "This investigation is ongoing as to the cause of death and possibility of contraband."

We reached out to Simpson's lawyer, Margaret Lagattuta, but she declined to comment on the incident.

As we previously reported, Sims -- who played forward for the Tigers' men's hoops team -- was shot in the head during an altercation at a Subway near the LSU campus on Sept. 28, 2018.

Simpson was arrested for killing Sims a day later ... and was ultimately charged with second-degree murder.

Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson are still very much a thing -- despite the fact we haven't seen them together in a little while -- and Kim just made that clear in a set of newly released pics of the pair.

Kim fired up her Instagram account Monday, posting a gallery devoted to photos of her and her beau and captioned the series with a simple "😜." The photos include a shot of the two poolside, hanging out at home and even chilling on the couch ... it appears the snaps were taken in Palm Springs, where several of Kim's family members all have homes.

Pete's shirtless in just about every image ... and as he's discussed before, he's got some ink solely dedicated to Kim, so you gotta imagine he likes to show it off.

It's been a few weeks since we've seen Kim and Pete together in the same city. He's been working in Australia and she was just in Paris for Fashion Week with North and Kris Jenner ... as we reported, the group got a private tour of The Louvre and some serious facetime with the Mona Lisa.

Johnny Depp is scoffing at Amber Heard's move to set aside his jury verdict on grounds it was excessive ... firing back that the $10 million judgment reflects the loss he actually suffered after she defamed him.

Johnny's lawyers say there's clear evidence that after Amber's Op-Ed appeared in the Washington Post back in 2018, he had no work ... he didn't appear in a single studio production until October, 2020. That alone, the lawyers say, supports the $10M verdict.

In fact, Depp's legal docs refer to one of Johnny's reps negotiating a deal for the 6th installment of "Pirates of the Caribbean" for $22.5 million. Just prior to the Op-Ed being published, the producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, was all in, saying he really wanted Johnny.

As you know, after the Op-Ed, Johnny was persona non grata on the production.

The lawyers say Johnny proved with experts during the trial his actual loss came to far more than $10M ... it was more than $40 million.

Short story ... Johnny's lawyers say Amber is grasping at straws.

R. Kelly is engaged to be married to one of his alleged victims, Joycelyn Savage ... at least that's what she's saying in a letter to the judge -- and her family says they had no idea.

According to legal docs, obtained by TMZ, Joycelyn revealed the engagement by writing, "I'm Robert Kelly's fiance" ... in her correspondence with the federal judge right before Kelly was sentenced. The letter, which she wrote asking the judge for a lenient sentence, doesn't say when they got engaged.

In the letter, she says ... "I’m not the victim that the government has portrayed me to be."

She goes on to say her relationship with Kelly is "amazing," noting he's the best thing that's ever happened to her. She claims he always made sure her needs were met, as well as "any other women he was with."

Obviously, she wasn't too successful in swaying the judge, who hit Kelly with a 30-year sentence.

Gerald Griggs, an attorney for Savage's parents, tells TMZ ... she never made the engagement known to the family, and they've never even spoken about the possibility beforehand.

Griggs tells us he finds it odd Savage didn't testify about it under oath, and instead slipped it into the letter submitted to the court. Savage's family "strongly doubts" the engagement story ... and are wishing to reconnect with her to get the full story.

Jen Shah is no longer claiming total innocence in her fraud case ... because she just changed course and took a plea deal.

According to new legal docs, obtained by TMZ, "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" star filed a change of plea notice Monday with the court.

Jen just went before a judge and pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing ... and as part of her plea deal, federal prosecutors dropped one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The plea deal comes a week before Jen's trial was set to begin ... and it calls for a sentence of up to 14 years behind bars and for Jen to pay back over $9 million to her alleged victims and forfeit another $6 million.

As we reported, Jen's attorney said she was "totally innocent" in the wake of her March 2021 arrest for allegedly targeting and scamming folks out of their money as part of an alleged telemarketing scheme.

The feds accused Jen of "greater culpability" in the scheme ahead of her trial, and Jen initially pled not guilty.

TMZ broke the story ... Jen even tried getting the criminal case against her dismissed, claiming two federal agents were way too chatty about her case on a Hulu documentary, which she claimed tainted the jury pool and destroyed any chance of her getting a fair trial.

We reached out to Jen's legal team ... so far no word back.

Add father of the bride to Eddie Murphy's long list of accomplishments ... the actor took center stage on the dancefloor to share a dance with his daughter.

Bria Murphy and actor Michael Xavier tied the knot over the weekend in Beverly Hills, and Eddie not only proudly walked his kiddo down the aisle, but danced to "Isn't She Lovely" by Stevie Wonder as their father and daughter song.

Things in the dance started off slow, but in true Eddie form, he got the crowd -- and Bria -- cracking up when the two separated and he pulled off some moves of his own.

Eddie attended the wedding with his fiancee Paige Butcher.

Volleyball star Kim Glass -- who won a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics -- says she was attacked by a homeless man in Los Angeles this weekend ... and nearly lost her eye in the incident.

Glass said it all happened on Saturday ... after she was leaving lunch with a friend at a restaurant in Downtown L.A.

In a series of videos posted to her social media page, Glass said after she had exited the eatery, she noticed a man in the street with something in his hand.

"He just like looked at me with some pretty hateful eyes," Glass said. "And, as I turned to go tell my friend, 'I think something's, like, wrong with him and I think he's going to hit a car,' before I knew it, a big metal bolt, like pipe, hit me right here."

"It happened so fast."

The 37-year-old said the man threw the object at her from several feet away ... and it slammed right into her eye socket and the bridge of her nose -- 'causing serious damage.

In her videos, taken a day after the attack, you can see her eye was nearly swollen shut, and her face was still bloodied. She said in the clips she was diagnosed with multiple facial fractures and needed stitches to close wounds.

Somehow, Glass said doctors don't expect her vision to be permanently affected by the incident. She added she was grateful for all the support she's received from friends and family since the incident, and happy things didn't turn out worse.

"Just be safe out there," she said in her videos ... "There's a lot of mentally ill people on these streets right now and you shouldn't have to be fearful when you walk but it's true. And, so, you guys just be safe."

As for the man who she accused of throwing the object, she said bystanders held him down until police arrived. No word if the man was ultimately arrested.

Glass -- a 6-foot-3 outside hitter -- played for the U.S. Women's National Team for years following a stellar career at the Univ. Of Arizona ... and also modeled in her time off the court, appearing in the 2011 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

Leonardo DiCaprio wanted to help Pete Buttigieg with his delivery ahead of a debate during his 2020 presidential campaign ... but the offer fell through Pete's hands!

Lis Smith, political strategist and former senior communications director for Buttigieg's 2020 presidential campaign, tells TMZ ... Leo offered a private coaching session with Pete ahead of a nationally televised debate, but Buttigieg's pop culture knowledge was lacking and he didn't recognize what he had in front of him.

We're told Leo extended the offer back in October 2019, during a swanky private fundraiser for Pete at a Los Angeles mansion, which was crawling with some of Hollywood's biggest stars ... including Paris Hilton, Ashton Kutcher, Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom.

It's funny ... Lis says Pete appreciated the Hollywood support, and the millions of dollars in donations that came pouring into his campaign, but he was never one to closely follow pop culture and barely recognized the celebs.

While we're told most celebs, like Paris, just took selfies with Pete and exchanged pleasantries, Leo went a step further ... giving Buttigieg the ultimate offer during a convo in one of the mansion's back rooms.

Leo's pitch went like this ... he would help Pete with his speaking style and coach him up on the best way to deliver his talking points at the upcoming debate.

Obviously, Leo's played all kinds of roles in Hollywood ... though he's not especially known for being spontaneous ... remember, Leo's never even hosted 'SNL,' but he's still talented as hell.

Lis says she was ecstatic when Pete told her about Leo's offer, but when she asked if he got DiCaprio's digits, Buttigieg said he didn't. Lis says she was beside herself, but chalked it up to Pete not fully grasping the significance of Leo's offer ... because he's not a big pop culture guy.

Ultimately, Pete handled the debate well without Leo's help ... with Lis calling it a turning point in Pete's campaign, sending him toward the top of the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Lis spills more political tea in her upcoming book, "Any Given Tuesday: A Political Love Story" ... but this Buttigieg nugget isn't in the copy.

Kanye West's left his mark on a ton of industries -- shoes, clothing and even stem players -- and now he's laying the groundwork for what could be a retail store for all his wares.

Ye and his legal team recently filed to trademark "YZYSPLY" for retail stores, online ordering services and online retail store services. Fans might already be familiar with Yeezy Supply, a website Kanye has used to sell limited-release shoes or clothing in the past -- but the new trademark suggests he's going bigger ... possibly opening brick-and-mortar stores.

Kanye's latest filing, obtained by TMZ, includes just about every clothing item you can wear -- G-strings, shirts, socks, hats, visors and tennis wear -- and leaves plenty of creative room for "accessories" headwear and footwear.

Of course, he's already got a deal in place with GAP, and they recently dropped their first release of mostly black items ... including his now-famous full-face masks.

This black bear's got no problem getting up close and personal with humans -- it was chilling at a bus stop where an unlucky woman encountered the animal while waiting for her ride.

The incident went down in British Columbia and was uploaded to TikTok with a caption that jokingly reads, "Did someone lose their dog?"

The bear goes right up to the clearly frightened woman sitting on the bench, checking her out and sniffing her belongings as she tries to keep calm -- before shifting its attention to a nearby trash can.

The person behind the camera offers up some sage advice to the woman during the ordeal, saying "Um, I would just, like, chill."

The original uploader says the safest option when encountering a black bear is to be gentle and make some noise so it doesn't feel threatened.

The comments on the video might be missing the vital safety tips, however ... with one saying "My toxic trait is that I would have pet it thinking it was a good boy."

Seattle officials are revealing how a baggage handler was able to steal an Alaska Airlines plane off the tarmac and takeoff ... before dying in a fiery crash.

The Port of Seattle just released the CCTV footage of 29-year-old Richard Russell towing the Alaska Airlines' Q400 Turboprop into position back in 2018 at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport -- oddly no one on the tarmac took notice.

Russell worked at the airport, and other footage shows him calmly walking through security a few hours before he gained access to the plane. He didn't raise any red flags, most likely because he was an employee. Eerily, though, he was wearing a t-shirt that read "The Sky's No Limit."

Shortly after taxiing the plane and taking off, Russell crashed into a remote island in Puget Sound -- not far from the airport -- and a bystander recorded the aftermath, showing billows of smoke after his crash. The FBI eventually ruled the incident a suicide.

A conversation between Russell and air traffic control, first released by The Seattle Times, reveals he wasn't well-versed in the specifics of flying -- they ask him about his altitude and position, which he calls "mumbo jumbo."

"See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" is a motto NBA star Terry Rozier will clearly never forget ... 'cause he just got it permanently put on his back in the form of a 3-foot tattoo.

TMZ Sports has learned ... the Charlotte Hornets guard wanted the 'Three Wise Monkeys' who symbolize the motto inked on him this month, so he hit up his go-to artist, Mike Miller.

The two linked up in Miami over the Fourth of July weekend, and Miller went to work ... tatting Rozier's back for a total of 15 hours over a three-day span.

The piece came out awesome -- and massive -- and Miller says it's not even done yet ... telling us it's going to require two more sessions to finish.

In between the back piece, Miller -- the co-owner of Green Light Tattoos and Art Gallery -- also added a tat to Rozier's wrist.

"He just let me freestyle my own art of his forearm," Miller tells us ... saying the piece represents "freedom of expression."

Lil Rel Howery thinks race is coming into play all too often when cops are on duty, and there's been way too much visual evidence of it lately across the country -- but he adds there are ways to reduce the carnage.

We got Lil Rel at The Ivy, where he talked about Black people getting gunned down for minor offenses, if any ... while white suspects like Robert Crimo III get taken into custody, as Crimo did after opening fire on the Highland Park 4th of July parade, leaving 7 people dead.

The Chicago native says the death of Jayland Walker was nothing short of brutal ... and he doesn't get why the unarmed kid was shot 60 times, while mass shooters at churches and protests get taken alive -- seemingly referring to Dylann Roof and Kyle Rittenhouse.

He says a big part of the problem is how easy it is to get a gun nowadays, and if it's gonna get better ... gun laws gotta get stricter.

You've heard the age-old advice of not going and chasing waterfalls, but avalanches might need to be added to the mix -- or at the very least, get out of their way if you can.

A British guy named Harry Shimmin posted this wild footage taken Friday out in Kyrgyzstan, where he says he was on a guided tour with 8 others through the Tian Shan Mountains ... at one point through which the group reached the highest point possible by hiking.

That's when an avalanche from a nearby peak started to unfold, barreling down on Harry -- who had separated from the group a bit to take photos on his own. As he looks on at the snow, which seems to be quite some distance away, he quickly realizes it's coming closer.

Soon, the reality sets in ... that he's about to be buried by this thing if he doesn't take cover. Acting as a bit of a daredevil, Shimmin waits 'til the very last second to do exactly that.

HS explains that he knew he'd be alright all along -- as he was right by a ridge where he could duck under when the snow came over him -- but admits ... it was risky business.

Los Angeles native and actor Wesley Jonathan was 23 years old when he was cast as Gary Thorpe -- the blunt guy who gives his friends harsh advice but is an overall loyal friend -- in the 2002-2006 sitcom series 'What I like About You.'

Wesley was cast alongside Jennie Garth as the detail-oriented and organized older sister, Valerie Tyler, Amanda Bynes as the confident girl with a know-it-all personality, Holly Tyler, Leslie Grossman as the superficial gal trying to impress her boss, Lauren and Nick Zano as the laidback bike messenger, Vince.

The newest 'Thor' movie crushed it at the box office this weekend -- but as far as how people actually feel about it ... well, it seems much of the internet thought it was trash.

The numbers are in, and per estimates ... "Thor: Love and Thunder" raked in a whopping $143 million domestically, landing as one of the highest-grossing openings in the MCU. That's all fine and good for Disney, we're sure, but general reactions to the film aren't great.

For starters, critics gave it a relatively low score -- just 68% on RT -- which is a drastic drop  compared to other Marvel movies, historically ... most have held up much better over the years under professional scrutiny, but that's not the case with 'L&T.'

Not only were the pros unimpressed ... it sounds like "Film Twitter," as it were, also found the movie to be absurdly bad -- especially compared to other 'Thor' entries. Sooo, what's their beef exactly??? It ain't hard to tell ... people seem to have found it to be juvenile.

Scroll through some of the "Thor" trends and you'll see -- it's either folks crapping on the movie, or a bunch of others piling on those same people while trying to defend 'Love and Thunder,' with their argument being ... it's a freaking comedy, turn off your brains and enjoy!

That might be true, but it looks like a good majority aren't thrilled with the direction 'Thor' is going under the watch of Taika Waititi -- who helmed the last beloved installment, "Ragnarok," and who apparently did more of the same in this new one ... perhaps too much.

Many say 'Love and Thunder' relies too heavily on gags and punchlines rather than savor in the heavy stuff -- and some feel like the character/franchise has jumped the shark.

There's also people saying Christian Bale's bad guy character, Gorr, doesn't get enough screen time -- nor does Natalie Portman, it seems, based on some of these recaps. In short, there's a good handful of viewers who felt the movie was all over the place and uneven.

The Rotten Tomatoes audience score is at just 81%, which might sound okay for a regular movie -- but for Marvel, that's fairly awful. To be honest, we haven't seen it yet ... so it's difficult to say if there's any validity to all this criticism -- or if it's overblown/exaggerated.