Free Republic

A who was recently released from state prison after serving sentences for robbery has been charged with the murder last week in Beverly Hills of Jacqueline Avant, 81, a philanthropist married to legendary music producer Clarence Avant. Mrs. Avant was gunned down in her home during an armed burglary, one in a series of what the Los Angeles Times called “brutal, brazen” crimes that have rocked the city in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests and “defunding” the police.

Police have arrested a 29-year-old Los Angeles man on suspicion of fatally shooting Jacqueline Avant, the wife of legendary music executive Clarence Avant, after he shot himself in the foot during another home burglary. Police caught Maynor at the site of another home burglary in Hollywood Hills where he had shot himself in his foot with what is thought to be the same AR-15 he used to kill Avant. Maynor has an extensive criminal record dating back to 2013 and has served time for robbery and grand theft, TMZ reported. Maynor was on parole at the time of the alleged...

Beverly Hills police Chief Mark Stainbrook identified the suspect as 29-year-old Aariel Maynor, a parolee with an extensive criminal history, whose vehicle was spotted on several surveillance videos driving eastbound out of the city shortly after the shooting that killed Avant. It was an “astute watch commander at Hollywood that, starting to put two and two together, and reached out to Beverly Hills,” according to LAPD Deputy Chief Blake Chow. Similarities between the two break-ins prompted Beverly Hills detectives to come out to Hollywood to investigate further.

BEVERLY HILLS (CBSLA) — Jacqueline Avant, the wife of music executive Clarence Avant, was shot to death Wednesday in an apparent home invasion in Beverly Hills... ...Avant was the wife of 90-year-old music executive Clarence Avant and mother-in-law of Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos. Clarence Avant, who was not injured in the shooting, is known as the “Godfather of Black Music” ....

Candidate Barack Obama promised to end the time-honored American practice of appointing ambassadors who have no experience in foreign policy, but President Obama has completely ignored that promise, appointing fundraisers to dozens of ambassadorships all over the world. Today, the State Department revealed that another fundraiser turned ambassador ran her embassy into the ground ... only to return to fundraising and leave the State Department to pick up the pieces. According to a new State Department inspector general's reporton the U.S. Embassy in the Bahamas, Ambassador Nicole Avant presided over "an extended period of dysfunctional leadership and mismanagement, which...

Is it just global warming, or has it gotten a tad steamy in the multiplex lately? No sooner had viewers taken in the long, graphic lesbian sex scenes in the French coming-of-age drama “Blue Is the Warmest Color” last year than they were treated to “Stranger by the Lake,” a homoerotic thriller (also French) set in a gay cruising site, at which men could be seen pleasuring each other and themselves with unsettling, frankness. ........................................................ The challenge today is that, rather than being relegated to disreputable theaters or scruffy back sections of video stores, porn is on the home entertainment...