Crime

TikTok stars Dakota Harper and Felicity Eatmon are facing criminal charges after allegedly trying to burn down an abandoned home ... and authorities say it was all caught on camera.

Dakota and Felicity -- a West Virginia couple whose joint TikTok account is popular on social media -- were arrested Tuesday and charged with first-degree arson and conspiracy to commit arson ... according to WCHS-TV.

The fire initially broke out Sunday night in Charleston ... and investigators say they have since obtained surveillance video allegedly showing Felicity handing Dakota a lit piece of paper before he placed it inside the home.

Lindsay Clancy could be headed for another courtroom showdown in Massachusetts ... but a former prosecutor says the District Attorney should think twice before running it back.

Jakson breaks down the case on TMZ's YouTube series, "In The Know," with former prosecutor Margaret McLean weighing in on what comes next after Clancy's 11-to-1 mistrial in her murder case.

McLean says the defense's push to have the judge find Clancy not guilty outright is a "real long shot" ... but says prosecutors should seriously reconsider another first-degree murder trial.

Shemar Moore says the woman who showed up at his home with luggage after being duped by a catfish almost got into a catfight with the real woman in his life ... because his significant other was ready to protect her territory ... by any means necessary!!!

We got the "S.W.AT." star in New York City on Tuesday, and he told our photog Jesiree Dizon was ready to throw down when a woman they didn't know rolled up to their pad ready to move in.

Shemar says Jesiree had her boxing gloves ready ... but he actually feels bad for the woman, telling us she got catfished and conned into believing he wanted her to live with him.

Diddy just got another chunk shaved off his federal prison stint ... his release date moved up another month ... and he could be a free man just three weeks into 2028.

According to Federal Bureau of Prisons records, Sean "Diddy" Combs is currently scheduled to be released from FCI Fort Dix on Jan. 21, 2028.

That's another move in Diddy's favor. As TMZ previously reported, his release date had most recently been set for Feb. 5, 2028, after previously landing on Feb. 20.

His projected release has bounced around several times since initially being listed in June 2028.

Sunny Hostin is doing some cleanup after internet sleuths dug up old newspaper clips that seemed to blow a hole in her story about being the holdout juror who helped acquit a cannibal in a famous NYC murder trial.

The 'View' cohost sat down with executive producer Brian Teta for the show's "Behind the Table" YouTube series to explain exactly what happened during the 1991 trial of Daniel Rakowitz -- the man charged with murder for killing, dismembering, and cannibalizing Monika Beerle.

Sunny claimed last week she had been the holdout juror who pushed the panel toward finding Rakowitz not criminally responsible by reason of insanity -- saying she slowly won over the other jurors after initially facing major resistance.

A 6-month-old baby girl was found dead in a dumpster in South Los Angeles ... and her mother is in custody as police investigate the infant's death as a homicide.

The baby was discovered in the trash receptacle late Monday night in South L.A. ... though LAPD says the child had been left there sometime in the previous 24 hours.

Cops say firefighters responded to the scene and took the baby to a nearby hospital ... where she was pronounced dead.

Lindsay Clancy's legal team is now making a dramatically different argument than it did at her murder trial ... claiming there's no evidence she killed her three children at all.

Clancy's attorney Kevin Reddington told Judge William Sullivan Tuesday she never admitted to doing anything and argued the evidence doesn't establish that she was the one who killed the children -- a major shift from the defense at trial, when her lawyers argued she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and lacked criminal responsibility.

Prosecutors are pushing back and asking for another trial, arguing there was enough evidence for a jury to find Clancy criminally responsible. A Nov. 2 hearing is now on the calendar, when the court could potentially set a date for a retrial.

Reddington also accused President Trump and Rep. Nancy Mace of helping turn the case into a media circus, pointing to Trump's public comments and Mace's interview with TMZ DC, telling Jacob that Clancy should be publicly executed.

10:38 AM PT ... Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... investigators do not believe the latest alleged ransom note sent to one of Nancy's female friends is credible. We're told there are some "weird things" about the note and investigators are more than suspicious that a friend of Nancy's would receive a legit extortion ransom note 8 months after the fact.

Investigators are breathing new life into the Nancy Guthrie case, saying they are looking into the veracity of a “new possible ransom note."

The Pima County Sheriff's Office announced they have recently been made aware of the note, along with social media comments about it ... and they are now probing with the FBI to see if the note is authentic. The contents of the note were not released.

As you know ... the 84-year-old Guthrie was kidnapped from her home in Tucson, Arizona, in the early morning hours of February 1, 2026. A masked intruder was caught on a doorbell camera lurking at her front door before the abduction ... and the FBI released footage of the suspect.

The woman who claims she was drugged and gang-raped by seven Cornell students inside a frat house texted with one of the men she named in her lawsuit two days after the alleged encounter ... he apologized, and she told him the "sexual stuff" wasn't illegal.

CBS News New York obtained screenshots of a text message conversation between the woman and one of the seven men she sued ... and he apologized for "how things went down."

The frat bro says he should have "shut it down and kick people out before it got way out of hand."

The woman told him her memory was "super clouded too" and said, "non[e] of the sexual stuff was illegal."

The holdout juror in Lindsay Clancy's murder case is asking the public to stop focusing on him and to turn their attention back to the three young children who lost their lives.

Check out the new YouTube collab between TMZ and the New York Post, "The Low Down," where we bring you stories that are gripping, outrageous, and sometimes scandalous.

Diego Sarabia -- one of the seven Cornell University fraternity brothers accused of taking part in an alleged 2024 gang rape -- is out of a job at Wells Fargo amid the revived criminal investigation.

A suspect from Florida made it rain in Texas ... throwing stacks of cash out of a car window in the middle of a police pursuit ... and it's all on video.

Dashcam video from the Pearland Police Department -- located just south of Houston -- captured it all ... two cop cars are chasing a GMC Sierra when suddenly, stacks of the Federal Reserve's finest start flying.

The driver doesn't slow down as the bills flutter to the ground ... covering the street.

A New York Times tech executive was allegedly shot to death by his in-laws in California ... and new court documents claim he was involved in a heated battle with his estranged wife and her parents over his transition.

The Mercury News reports that Jonathan McKinsey was fatally shot Saturday in a parking lot at a sports complex in Dublin, CA.

Police arrested McKinsey's elderly in-laws, Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen -- both 77 -- on suspicion of murder and other charges.

Citing court documents, the outlet reports that McKinsey filed a restraining order in response to his estranged wife, Candice Jang, filing her own restraining order against him in 2025. 

Mariska Hargitay may play a cop on TV ... but she's not standing by the "innocent until proven guilty" principle here -- jumping on social media to bash the alleged Cornell gang rapists.

The "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" star reposted a blue square with white text written on it which reads, "Yes I think we actually *should* ruin the futures of adult men who drug and gang rape a woman, thanks for asking."

She posted other photos about the alleged incident as well ... including one begging men to call the cops if someone is being gang raped -- and another claiming 57 people were in the fraternity group chat where "Free p****y" was allegedly advertised and "NOT one of them stopped it."

10:47 AM PT -- Closing arguments have concluded and the jury is now deliberating.

Former "American Idol" contestant Caleb Flynn is entering the home stretch of his murder trial ... it's time for closing arguments ... and TMZ is streaming live.

Both sides rested their cases Monday ... prosecutors called 40 witnesses. Flynn did not testify, and his defense did not call any witnesses ... his attorneys argued there was no direct or forensic evidence tying him to his wife's fatal shooting.

Now, prosecutors and the defense will make their final speeches to the jury before deliberations.

A Tennessee Death Row inmate says she feels a true connection with Lindsay Clancy, saying they share "uniquely female issues" as she faces state execution for her crimes this week.

Christa Pike, 48, will be executed by lethal injection Wednesday at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville for the brutal 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Recently, Pike sat down for a wide-ranging interview with The Times during which she made the Clancy comparison.

She told the reporter ... “I feel a kinship with Lindsay. We are both females who got into trouble because of uniquely female issues. One thing is different, however, is that times have changed a lot on awareness of women’s issues since I was put on trial."

The lone holdout juror in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial is breaking his silence on camera following the dramatic mistrial ... and he's asking the public for one wish, to shift its attention away from him and back on the 3 young lives lost.

Michael Desronvil appeared on Fox News' "Hannity," where he addressed the intense fallout surrounding the jury's deadlock and the criticism he's faced since the case ended without a verdict.

The juror states in the brief video, "I know the whole focus has been on me, but we want to reel everything back and put the focus on the three angels."

Desronvil became the center of attention after jurors deadlocked over whether Clancy was legally responsible for the deaths of her three young children.