Latest news with #DeLuca
Express Tribune
2 days ago
- Express Tribune
Key details revealed after American Idol executive and husband found dead in LA home
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner confirmed that American Idol music supervisor Robin Kaye and her husband Thomas DeLuca died at 4:14 pm on July 10, though their bodies were not discovered until four days later, on July 14, inside their Encino residence. Raymond Boodarian, 22, was arrested the next day and charged with two counts of murder, including special allegations for using a firearm and targeting multiple victims. He is currently being held without bail. Kaye and DeLuca were both found with multiple gunshot wounds to the head. According to investigators, a trail of blood was visible outside the home, but officers initially left during the first welfare check on July 10 after finding no signs of forced entry. When a second call came in on July 14, they entered through a shattered sliding glass door at the back and discovered the bodies, Kaye in the pantry and DeLuca in the bathroom. Authorities believe the suspect exited through the front door and locked it from the inside after the shooting. The motive has not yet been disclosed. The killings have drawn shock from both the Los Angeles community and the television industry, where Kaye was known for her work across several music-driven productions, including American Idol.
USA Today
04-07-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Top 25 player preview: Dom DeLuca looks to continue ascension in 2025
The 2025 season will be the final chapter in Penn State linebacker Dom DeLuca's college journey, concluding his rise from walk-on to major contributor. DeLuca was unranked as a recruit and had no Division I offers. The West Pittston, Pennsylvania product walked on with the Nittany Lions and showed steady growth over the years, earning the jersey No. 0, reserved for top special teams contributors, and developing into a solid rotational linebacker last season. DeLuca was named a team captain for both the 2023 and 2024 seasons and recorded Penn State's first ever points in the College Football Playoff with a pick-6 off SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings in Beaver Stadium. 2024 in review Dom DeLuca's ascension continued last season as a redshirt junior when he retained his title of team captain en route to a career high in tackles. DeLuca made strides in pass coverage, a previous weakness, with three picks and a pass breakup. DeLuca earned five starts across 15 appearances, peaking with five tackles against West Virginia, Wisconsin, SMU and Boise State. DeLuca had a strong playoff run, which could serve as a spring board into next season. Biggest question in 2025 Entering his fifth season in Happy Valley, it originally seemed like DeLuca would earn a starting role. After UNC transfer Amare Campbell arrived in the spring window, DeLuca will likely be LB3 on the depth chart. His experience is valuable, but he'll likely see most of his time in three linebacker sets. The biggest question for DeLuca in 2025 is whether he'll be able to take another step forward and push for more starts in his final season as a Nittany Lion. 2025 will be a success if... DeLuca's 2025 campaign will be successful if he's able to continue his success from Penn State's playoff push. Through three games against top competition, he recorded 12 tackles, 1.5 for loss and two interceptions. Similar production throughout the fall will lead to career high numbers across the board. If DeLuca can add value in three-linebacker sets and continue to play well against both the run and pass, it'll be a success. 2025 will be a disappointment if... The season will fall short of expectations if DeLuca is unable to acclimate to Jim Knowles' defensive scheme. Knowles' strategy has been praised for its complexity and the different ways in which linebackers can be used. If DeLuca can't learn quickly and elevate his play, it could lead to blown assignments. Realistic outlook for 2025 Given DeLuca's consistent improvement, it's likely he produces another career high in tackles, possibly eclipsing 50. DeLuca's game IQ also makes him a ball hawk, so multiple takeaways can be expected.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
From a Russian prison, US schoolteacher tells lawyers he was grabbed by Moscow's soldiers
By Lucy Papachristou LONDON (Reuters) -A 73-year-old American jailed by Russia as a mercenary for Ukraine protested his innocence when his U.S.-based legal team and family finally tracked him down in April, months after he vanished into the vast Russian prison system, they said. Stephen Hubbard, a retired schoolteacher, was sentenced last October to almost seven years in a penal colony after a court found him guilty of serving in a Ukrainian territorial defence unit against Russian forces, tasked with manning a checkpoint. Russian state media reported that he had entered a guilty plea in the closed-door trial. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow has not been granted consular access to Hubbard, a State Department spokesperson said, adding that U.S. officials have requested his immediate release. Martin De Luca, his U.S.-based lawyer, told Reuters it was not until this April that his legal team learned Hubbard was being held in a facility in the Mordovia region, east of Moscow. "The first thing Hubbard wanted to talk about when he was able to make contact with the outside world was: 'It's not true,'" said De Luca, who made his first public comments on the case to the New York Times this week. "They (Russian soldiers) grabbed him from his house. He was not in any combat or military unit", De Luca recalled Hubbard saying. Joseph Coleman, a son from Hubbard's first marriage who lives in Cyprus, said he spoke to his father in prison by phone for less than five minutes on May 28. "He did sound a little down," Coleman told Reuters. "He said, 'I'm tired of being a slave.'" At least eight other Americans are currently imprisoned in Russia, which has stepped up arrests of alleged mercenaries for Ukraine since its 2022 invasion of its neighbour. But Hubbard is the only one designated by the U.S. as "wrongfully detained," making him a top candidate to be returned in any future prisoner exchange. The Kremlin said last month the two sides were discussing a possible swap involving nine people on each side. A document written on the letterhead of the IK-12 penal colony, signed by a prison official and seen by Reuters, says that Hubbard is incarcerated there. Russia's federal prison service did not respond to an emailed request for confirmation from Reuters. Other U.S. citizens previously jailed in Russia have been incarcerated in the same region. VIDEO CLUES Hubbard, a Michigan native who taught English abroad for decades, had moved to Izium in eastern Ukraine in 2014 to be with a Ukrainian girlfriend, but by 2022 he was living there alone, his family said. Russian forces captured Izium in April 2022. After his arrest, his family struggled to establish what had happened to him. They caught glimpses of him in videos posted online in pro-war Russian Telegram channels. One showed what appeared to be a staged interrogation. In another, Hubbard appeared with his hands zip-tied and whimpered as a man slapped him with a plastic sandal. His sister, Patricia Hubbard Fox, identified her brother in both videos in conversations with Reuters. The agency could not verify when and where the videos were taken. "He is so non-military," Hubbard Fox told Reuters last year, expressing doubt that her brother would have taken up arms for any state. "He never had a gun, owned a gun, done any of that... He's more of a pacifist." TRACKING HIM DOWN After Hubbard's trial, De Luca and his team at a U.S. law firm began working to secure his release. They picked up the case in late February. It wasn't easy to find him, De Luca said. "Russia is still a functioning country. There are laws, bureaucracies, processes that get followed," he said. The team located Hubbard at the penal colony in Molochnitsa, a very small town about a seven-hour drive from Moscow. De Luca said the team has been able to call Hubbard three times since April. He described him as weak after months living in a prisoner-of-war camp.
Boston Globe
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
US teacher seized by Russia is located in prison
Hubbard, 73, was accused of manning a checkpoint and fighting for Ukraine, and then convicted by Russia of being a mercenary in October and sentenced to almost seven years in a penal colony. After that, Hubbard's family was not able to find him in Russia's prison system. In a highly unusual move, the Russian judge removed his case file, including even basic information like his lawyer's name, from public view. Advertisement Documents reviewed by The New York Times show that Hubbard is being held in the IK-12 penal colony in Mordovia, the southwestern Russian region commonly referred to as 'prison land.' In addition, sentencing documents reviewed by the Times, which have not been previously reported, outline the Russian case against Hubbard and its contention that he was fighting for Ukraine. Recent interviews with one of Hubbard's sons and others, as well as text messages he exchanged with that son, contradict the Russian narrative. Advertisement Martin De Luca, a lawyer for Hubbard, said his team had talked to him three times since April. On May 28, Hubbard was allowed to call another son, who lives in Cyprus, according to De Luca and Hubbard's sister. 'He's had a rough 3½ years,' De Luca said. Ukrainian prisoners of war who were held with Hubbard told the Times that he had been repeatedly tortured because he was an American — beaten, forced to stand all day, given little food and poor medical care. In interviews after being released, the Ukrainians said they feared for his life. He is the only American known to have been taken from Ukraine and then jailed in Russia. Russia's Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. So far, the Russian government has made no official statement on Hubbard. US officials have raised Hubbard's imprisonment with Russian officials and asked that he be immediately released, a US official recently said. The US Embassy in Moscow has not been granted access to Hubbard, the official said, despite Russia's obligation under international law to do so. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations. In a May 19 phone call, President Trump and President Vladimir Putin of Russia discussed a new potential prisoner exchange, according to Russian news agencies citing Yuri Ushakov, a Kremlin aide. Ushakov told reporters that the two leaders had agreed to prepare a humanitarian prisoner exchange of nine people from each side, calling it 'an important humanitarian action.' The United States has accused Russia of inflating and inventing criminal charges against Americans so they can be traded for Russians held elsewhere or used as international bargaining chips. Advertisement Hubbard grew up in Michigan, served in the Air Force in California, married young, and later divorced. He then married a Japanese woman he met in Washington state and moved to Japan, where he taught English. Eventually, the couple divorced. In 2012, Hubbard retired to Cyprus, the home of Joseph Coleman, a son from his first marriage. That is where Hubbard met a Ukrainian woman named Inna, following her to the eastern city of Izium. He earned money by teaching English to a few Japanese students online. Hubbard was alone at home when the Russians launched their Feb. 24, 2022, full-scale invasion. 'He was, in hindsight, too optimistic, I suppose,' said Hisashi Tanaka, 36, Hubbard's son from his second marriage, in a recent interview. 'He was going to wait it out. He thought he wouldn't get into too much trouble considering his age and being a civilian.' The day the war started, Hubbard didn't seem to be initially aware of what was happening, his son said. 'Don't get caught in the crossfires!' Tanaka, who lives in Japan, wrote him on Skype. 'I suppose that I should read the news,' responded Hubbard, who had just celebrated his 70th birthday. 'It is peaceful here, so far.' The Russians say Hubbard signed up the next day for the regional territorial defense unit at a recruitment center at a kindergarten in Izium to earn at least $1,000 a month, according to the sentencing documents reviewed by the Times. The documents claim Hubbard told recruiters he felt healthier than many younger people. 'In fact, Hubbard looked sporty and very fit for his age,' the documents say. Advertisement The Russians said Hubbard was then trained in combat and how to handle weapons and explosive devices. The documents say he was given the call signs — nicknames — 'Samurai' and 'Ninja,' and that he manned a checkpoint on a bridge over a river. The Russians also contend that Hubbard stopped working for the territorial defense unit after a few weeks because he feared for his life and that they arrested him inside the home of an acquaintance in April 2022. But messages between Hubbard and Tanaka in Japan, first on Skype and then through texts on the phones of acquaintances of Hubbard, show no evidence of Hubbard signing up for the military. He repeatedly told his son that all was well.
USA Today
03-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Previewing the 2025 season for Penn State LB Dominic DeLuca with his player profile
Previewing the 2025 season for Penn State LB Dominic DeLuca with his player profile Going into the 2025 football season, Nittany Lions Wire will examine each player listed on the Penn State roster. Over the preseason, each profile will cover the player's background, how recruiting websites rated them coming out of high school, and what role they will play for James Franklin this season. Dominic DeLuca is back in Happy Valley for one final season of college football. The redshirt senior will take advantage of his sixth year of eligibility provided by the NCAA as a result of the 2020 season being impacted by the pandemic. His veteran presence will be good to have as the defense undergoes a transformation on the field with new leadership in place. DeLuca has been a fun story to follow as a walk-on player to a player making plays in the College Football Playoff. Preseason Player Profile Hometown: West Pittston, Pennsylvania Height: 6-1 Weight: 235 lb Class in 2025: Redshirt Senior Recruiting Rankings Class of 2020: No recruiting rankings available Dominic DeLuca started off his career at Penn State as a walk-on player after flying under the radar on the recruiting trail. Penn State kept its eye on the in-state talent, and it did not take long to realize why, as he quickly became a standout performer as a developmental squad player and eventually earned a scholarship in the program. Career Stats Games Tackles Sacks INT FF 2020 - - - - - 2021 3 0 0 0 0 2022 13 29 1.0 0 0 2023 13 29 1.0 2 2 2024 15 40 0.5 3 0 Depth Chart Overview The veteran linebacker who has worked his way up from being a walk-on player will continue to provide leadership for the defense. The Penn State defense will have a bit of a new look with its formations this year under new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, but DeLuca is widely expected to continue playing a key role on the field. DeLuca will pair with rising star Tony Rojas at the linebacker spots. Follow Kevin McGuire on Threads, Bluesky, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. Follow Nittany Lions Wire on X, Facebook, and Threads.
