News

Sonya Massey's killer has officially been found guilty of her murder ... a little more than a year after he shot and killed her.

Sean Grayson -- a former sheriff's deputy in Illinois -- was just found guilty of second-degree murder after a trial that lasted a little more than a week. The jury began deliberations Tuesday morning and returned the verdict Wednesday afternoon.

Remember ... Grayson was arrested in July 2024 after he killed Massey, who had called 911 in the first place about a possible prowler. Horrific body cam footage came out in the aftermath of the shooting ... which showed the conversation take a deadly turn after Massey turned off a burner on her stove and brought a pot of boiling water over to the sink.

The mystery behind why five monkeys were killed by police after a truck carrying the primates overturned in Mississippi has been solved -- and TMZ has the full scoop!

Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson tells us ... he contacted one of his deputies who responded to Tuesday's truck accident along a highway in rural Heidelberg, and he asked the deputy what kind of threat the monkeys pose to the public.

Johnson said the deputy had the 2 truck occupants contact their supervisor -- who warned the cargo contained 21 test monkeys infected with COVID, herpes, and hepatitis C -- and, as a result, they needed to be handled with protective gear.

Court was in brief session ... when a cop logged in for a virtual hearing, rocking business up top, and party down below ... leaving the judge absolutely shook.

You gotta see the vid -- Detroit Police Officer Matthew Jackson logged in for a proceeding of Michigan's 36th District Court on Monday ... and thanks to a very unlucky camera placement, the whole courtroom got an eyeful of his "uniform" ... boxers included (thankfully).

The courtroom gasped in unison... and Judge Sean Perkins blurted out in horror, "You got some pants on, officer?" Guess you could say justice really was hanging by a thread.

Cedric the Entertainer doesn't like all the jokes being made about food stamps over the weekend ... unless they were really good.

We caught up with one of the Original Kings Of Comedy in NYC, where our cameraperson brought up people making jokes about the U.S. government's impending halt to the country's largest anti-hunger program.

Cedric had a more serious response than we were expecting, saying, "No, that's not a joke. There's so many people living with food insecurity in the United States."

Kenneth Leland Morgan -- the man who allegedly dressed in a Nazi costume before striking a University of Georgia student with a beer stein -- was denied entrance into the college bar, Cutters, because of the Gestapo uniform, TMZ has learned.

According to a police report, obtained by TMZ ... customers at Cutters say they met Morgan outside the bar, along with bar staff, and told him "he couldn't come in while dressed as a Nazi."

As the argument grew heated, Morgan's alleged victim -- identified as Alexandra Lang -- apparently swiped at his Nazi armband to remove it. According to police, Alexandra moved away from Morgan but witnesses say he responded by pulling her towards him and striking her in the face with "a large glass beer stein."

Sebastian Van Stockum -- the Connecticut man accused of killing his mom -- once took a high school Forensic class that had the trappings of a Jeffrey Dahmer crime scene with simulated blood spatter, dead bodies, and human skeletons, according to a former classmate.

The ex-classmate tells TMZ she was in the same Forensics class with Stockum back at New Canaan High -- where the lessons included blood-spatter experiments in which students would stand on tables with a ruler and squirt fake blood to study blood patterns.

Students also learned how to zero in on someone's time of death based on body temperature, as well as studying skeletons and bones, and even watching a documentary about human corpses. Other projects included breaking down fabric under a microscope, learning about DNA, and solving mock crime scenes.

Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica and Cuba a couple of hours ago ... and the Category 5 storm was immediately wreaking havoc on the island.

The massive storm is causing roads to flood -- in some areas, flash flooding pushed water high enough to engulf a car -- and major power outages across the country are occurring ... with CNN reporting nearly 250,000 are impacted.

In harrowing videos shared by local radio news station Nationwide90FM ... Melissa's winds were so furious, reaching 185 MPH ... they ripped a portion of the roof off Savanna La Mar Hospital. Another hospital was also damaged, per the station.

The Pentagon is cherry picking data when it tries to shoot down a popular new movie's portrayal of America's $50 billion nuclear missile defenses ... at least according to national security analyst Joseph Cirincione, who says 'House of Dynamite' has it right!

Check out our chat with Joseph Tuesday on TMZ Live, where he said the government can only declare our anti-ICBM system 100 percent effective if it limits available test results to the last 10 years.

However, he insists the Netflix movie "A House of Dynamite" is far more accurate with the 60 percent success rate in its script.

It's day 28 of the federal government shutdown ... and Harvey Levin is reminding viewers of his 'OWTA' movement, AKA Out With Their Asses!

TMZ's founder and executive producer is at his wit's end with the shutdown and reminding viewers that they have the power to decide who's in Congress ... and if they can't do their job and compromise, we just vote 'em out!

You can see he particularly takes issue with the fact that air traffic controllers are going without paychecks ... an essential job that ensures the safety of all fliers. But, Harvey says we're going to see a midair collision because controllers are stressed, tired, and stretched beyond their limits.

We caught up with a pair of air traffic controllers today at LAX ... and they stressed that they want elected officials to do their job and open up the government.

The frightening trio in Halloween costumes who showed up on a Virginia family's doorstep were all just actors playing a role with their relatives getting in on the gag, according to the police.

The Alexandria PD released a statement on Facebook, saying they put in over 100 investigative hours looking into what they originally thought was a real-life horror movie that unraveled on the night of October 14 outside the house in Alexandria, VA.

But it turns out ... the incident was just a prank with three teens dressed in spooky costumes standing at the front door making threats to their relatives inside their abode. Doorbell video captured every harrowing moment — even when one of the masked characters furiously banged on the door, threatening to kill the homeowners if they didn't come out.

President Trump's ad lib's are already, umm ... legendary, and his latest has him tossing some tongue-in-cheek shade at attractive people -- which would be quite the 180 for him.

DT told U.S. troops Tuesday in Japan, "I don't like good-looking people. I never liked good-looking people. I'll be honest with you. I've never admitted that before. But see, I'm allowed to -- we won at the Supreme Court thing based on merit. You know about that, right?"

POTUS then went on to talk about how everything in America is now based on merit and nothing else ... seemingly lumping good-looking people in with his fave acronym, DEI hires.

The improv moment made zero sense since it came after he said he saw so many good-looking people among the troops, but also said, "I look at you and I see nothing but merit."

Go figure!

The Pentagon has called BS on Netflix's "A House of Dynamite," saying its depiction of America's capability to strike down a nuclear attack is wildly inaccurate ... but a national security expert is raising red flags.

Fred Kaplan, a political journalist and former defense-policy adviser, joined CNN on Tuesday and said Kathryn Bigelow's war thriller is actually quite accurate, with its line stating America's $50 billion nuclear missile defense is accurate half the time.

He also slammed the Pentagon for the "dangerous" act of purposefully misleading top officials in a mid-month internal memorandum obtained by Bloomberg that claims the pricey system of interceptors has 100% accuracy.

Ben Bader's family is speaking out ... after the Miami-based content creator tragically died at just 25 years old.

In a statement to TMZ ... the Upham and Bader family remember him as a "visionary who led with love, lived with intention, and turned his passions into helping others."

Ben's family goes on to say ... "He made a profound impact on everyone who knew him through his wisdom, humor, and compassion. Ben lived each day to the fullest, inspiring those around him to seek meaning, connection, and purpose in their own lives."

A monster storm is barreling towards Jamaica ... and dramatic video from a hurricane hunter shows the eye of Hurricane Melissa ... and it looks like it's going to be a big one.

Check out this clip from the inside of Melissa ... meteorologist Jeremy DeHart shared it on social media today and he says it's from a Teal 74 mission into the heart of the storm.

The video shows walls of clouds forming a cylinder as the plane flies through the eye ... and DeHart says, "As clear of an eye as you will see in the Atlantic basin."

Kenneth Leland Morgan -- the man who allegedly dressed in a Nazi costume before striking a University of Georgia student with a beer stein -- posed for his mugshot in an orange jumpsuit after being stripped of his now infamous Gestapo costume.

TMZ has obtained a booking photo of Morgan, and based on his expression ... he doesn't look too thrilled to be locked up in the Athens-Clarke County slammer while wearing scrubs issued by the jail. It's unclear what exactly happened to his neatly pressed Gestapo uniform, but we imagine the jail took custody of it for the time being.

According to legal docs -- obtained by TMZ -- Morgan's been charged with felony aggravated assault and misdemeanor simple battery.

It looks like John Dickerson's going to be looking for a new role to fill ... because he's going to be leaving CBS News at the end of the year.

The journalist revealed the big news on his Instagram account, and he wrote he was "extremely grateful" for the experiences he had at CBS over the past sixteen years.

Dickerson first began working with CBS News back in 2009, and he's worn several hats during his time with CBS, as he's served as a moderator on "Face The Nation" and had a stint on "CBS This Morning."