Crime & Arrests

Killer mom Susan Smith will not taste freedom after her plea to a parole board was unanimously denied following an emotional hearing.

The controversial convict, who has spent nearly 30 years behind bars for the drowning of her sons, Michael and Alex, appeared before a parole board in South Carolina via a video call Wednesday ... tearfully begging those hearing her case to let her go free. Michael was 3 years old and Alex was 14 months old when Smith killed them.

As Smith relayed in her testimony ... she now knows what she did "was so horrible" and claims she'd "give anything to go back and change it."

10:44 AM PT -- Jose Ibarra, an undocumented Venezuelan immigrant, has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley.

The judge in the case just issued the sentence ... Ibarra was found guilty on 10 charges, including malice murder, kidnapping and aggravated assault. Both the defense and the prosecution had opted for a bench trial, with a judge deciding Ibarra's fate, forgoing a jury trial.

The prosecution did not seek the death penalty in the case.

Jose Ibarra -- the man standing trial for nursing student Laken Riley's murder -- has been found guilty.

The verdict was announced minutes ago ... with a Georgia judge deciding Ibarra is guilty after the prosecution and defense agreed to a bench trial instead of a trial by jury.

Video and audio evidence played a key role in this trial ... with video of Ibarra unable to tell cops how he ended up with fresh scratches and marks on his arms just hours after Laken's death played in court earlier this week.

The Feds' raid on Diddy's jail cell has proved to be inconsequential, for now ... as a judge sided with the rapper's defense team after hearing arguments from both sides.

A hearing over the search at MDC Brooklyn was held on Tuesday, after Diddy's defense team accused prosecutors of obtaining privileged material in an unlawful raid on the rap mogul's prison cell.

While the prosecution denied intentionally seizing 19 pages of legal notes, Judge Arun Subramanian ruled they would need to destroy copies of the papers obtained in the search -- saying they should not consult the material until he made a final decision on whether they could be used in the trial.

Joe Exotic isn't offended one bit by Bowen Yang's impersonation of him on "Saturday Night Live" ... in fact, he's hoping to use the exposure to his advantage.

The "Tiger King" star tells TMZ ... he's given Bowen's impression his stamp of approval, praising the comedian for his accurate take. Not only does Joe think 'SNL' nailed his look -- applauding the mullet and the mustache -- he feels Bowen came very close to matching his voice.

He notes Bowen did a much better job at impersonating him than John Cameron Mitchell did in Peacock's "Joe vs Carole."

Cops in Colorado made a shocking discovery while searching a car during a traffic stop ... a used dildo!!!

Body cam footage from the Montrose Police Department shows the moment officers rummaging through a vehicle find a sex toy among a pile of mattresses, pillows and blankets ... and their reaction is hilarious.

In the video, obtained by TMZ, you see one of the cops toss the dildo to the side, then pick it up and show it to his fellow officers ... waving the sex toy around like a wand and laughing. One officer sticks the unit to the side of the car by its suction-cup.

Diddy's lawyers are calling BS on federal prosecutors who have claimed they did not seize the mogul's trial strategy materials during a recent raid of his jail cell.

According to new legal docs, obtained by TMZ, Diddy's lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, says prison officials took photos of 19 pages of material from Diddy's cell -- which he says included 11 pages of trial strategy notes and correspondence with his lawyers.

The feds claimed Monday in legal docs they saw a manila folder labeled "legal" and did not even open it. They acknowledged taking photos of Diddy's notebook which they say they handed over to a "filter team" to check whether any of the material was privileged. Now Diddy's lawyers are calling shenanigans.

Diddy's sons are waging their own legal battle now, warning the man who's hawking a Kim Porter book -- allegedly based on her diary -- to shut it down or face a lawsuit.

Christian and Quincy Combs, fired off a cease and desist letter to a guy named Courtney Burgess and his attorney Ariel Mitchell over "Kim Porter Tell It All ('Tell It All')" ... a book currently sold online under the pseudonym Jamal Millwood.

In the letter, obtained by TMZ, the Combs bros say they became the rightful heirs and owners of Kim's intellectual property rights following her death in November 2018 ... and therefore her purported diary entries belong to them.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has kicked the can down the road in the direction of the new L.A. County District Attorney ... regarding Erik and Lyle Menendez.

Newsom's office just released a statement ... "The Governor respects the role of the District Attorney in ensuring justice is served and recognizes that voters have entrusted District Attorney-elect Hochman to carry out this responsibility. The Governor will defer to the D.A.-elect's review and analysis of the Menendez case prior to making any clemency decisions."

As we reported, the outgoing D.A., George Gascón, has supported resentencing Erik and Lyle and is in favor of their release. The newly-elected D.A., Nathan Hochman, has said he won't weigh in on how he wants to proceed until he fully reviews the case.

A hearing is set for December 11, where a judge will hear arguments on whether to re-sentence the Menendez brothers ... and that could trigger a parole board hearing that could set them free.

TMZ broke the story ... Erik and Lyle's lawyer, Mark Geragos, will ask the judge to change the conviction from murder to manslaughter. Since Erik and Lyle have served 3 times the maximum sentence for manslaughter, they would be immediately free men.

Country singer Jamey Johnson's Sunday was far from a funday, as cops hauled him in for drug possession and speeding in Williamson County, Tennessee ... TMZ has confirmed.

The singer-songwriter had a deadly serious stare as cops snapped his mug shot after the Tennessee Highway Patrol made the arrest.

According to News Channel 5 in Nashville, Johnson posted a $5,000 bond before he got out of jail Monday. Cops say the case is still under investigation, and they've yet to release a narrative about what allegedly went down prior to his arrest.

Diddy was trying to influence witnesses and the prospective jury of his peers while behind bars, so say prosecutors who filed legal docs in an attempt to justify raiding his jail cell.

As we reported, the feds raided Diddy's cell late last month and, according to Diddy's lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, seized attorney-client privileged material from his cell and gave it to prosecutors.

The U.S. Attorney's Office begs to differ, and in new docs, obtained by TMZ, Diddy used unauthorized methods of communication to get third parties via 3-way calling on monitored phone lines, use of other inmates' phone access codes, and use of a third party text messaging providers. In short, prosecutors say Diddy was trying to rig his trial.

Tony Buzbee, the Texas attorney repping more than 120 of Diddy's alleged victims, is firing back at a lawsuit accusing him of extortion ... he says he won't be intimidated or have his clients silenced.

Here's the deal ... Buzbee is being sued by a prominent individual identified only as "John Doe," who claims Buzbee is shamelessly trying to shake him down by threatening to file a lawsuit packed with false allegations related to alleged sexual assaults at Diddy parties.

Buzbee and his law firm aren't backing down, though, and he tells TMZ ... "We won't allow the powerful and their high-dollar lawyers to intimidate or silence sexual assault survivors."

The suspect accused of murdering Laken Riley had no answers for the scratches and marks on his arm, it's been revealed in court -- where gut-wrenching body cam audio was also heard, of a cop desperately trying to save the nursing student’s life in February.

The trial continued in Athens, Georgia, on Monday, with the court viewing body cam footage of Jose Ibarra -- an undocumented Venezuelan immigrant -- pointing at his arms and wrist while chatting in Spanish with a University of Georgia police officer.

Cpl. Rafael Sayan testified Ibarra first claimed there was nothing on his arm -- but then switched it up, pointing at his wrist and saying, “Oh, it’s just a scratch.”

A prominent figure is suing the lawyer repping more than 120 of Diddy's alleged victims, saying the attorney is "shamelessly attempting to extort exorbitant sums from him," while threatening a lawsuit packed with "wildly false horrific allegations" if he doesn't pay up.

The plaintiff, identified only as "John Doe," filed his own lawsuit in L.A. County Superior Court Monday morning ... describing himself as a "high profile individual" who knew Diddy and attended events along with the mogul. He's being repped by one of the premier law firms in the country -- Quinn Emanuel.

The man says attorney Tony Buzbee and his firm threatened to unleash "entirely fabricated and malicious allegations of sexual assault -- including multiple incidents of rape of a minor, both male and female -- against Plaintiff if he refuses to comply with their demands." The suit goes on to say Buzbee's demand letters alleged the plaintiff raped the males and females while they were under the influence of drugs ... at parties hosted by Diddy.

Diddy performed a bird sacrifice hours before he was acquitted on all charges related to the infamous 1999 club shooting with Shyne ... at least according to Diddy's former bodyguard.

The story, as told in a new Hulu documentary about Shyne, goes like this ... Diddy was on his way to court to learn the verdict in his shooting case when he had his driver make a pit stop in Central Park.

A man was waiting for Diddy and when Diddy approached the guy, Diddy dropped to his knees ... and smoke started swirling around Diddy. The bodyguard, Gene Deal, thinks the burning substance was sage.

Diddy's legal team says the feds raided his jail cell and seized a bunch of privileged materials, including notes to his lawyers about his upcoming trial ... TMZ has learned.

According to new legal docs, obtained by TMZ, Diddy's lawyer Marc Agnifilo claims they just found out Friday night that prosecutors are in possession of attorney-client privileged material that was seized from Diddy's jail cell at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

Agnifilo claims the privileged materials include Diddy's handwritten notes to his legal team concerning defense witnesses and defense strategies for his upcoming trial in May.

Hunter Biden didn't let his pending federal sentences keep him from having a good time at Disneyland ... hitting up the Southern California theme park for an action-packed day.

Check it out ... President Joe Biden's son was all smiles while visiting Disneyland with his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, and son Beau -- who was named after Hunter's late brother.

The First Son was joined Friday by some friends and, of course, a handful of Secret Service agents, who kept the family safe as they enjoyed everything the theme park had to offer ... including a jaunt on the Peter Pan ride and Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railroad.