March 31, 2026

NOT GUILTY: COP CLEARED AS GILGO KILLER CAVES AND A FATHER GETS LIFE

NOT GUILTY: COP CLEARED AS GILGO KILLER CAVES AND A FATHER GETS LIFE
Three verdicts land in one week — a postpartum officer goes free, a serial killer folds, and a Mississippi dad finally faces justice.

A former Massachusetts police officer walks out of court a free woman after being shot by her own colleague. The man accused of being the Gilgo Beach serial killer — seven murders, seventeen years, a Word document full of kill instructions — is reportedly about to plead guilty. And in Mississippi, the second jury to hear a father-daughter murder conspiracy finally does what the first one couldn't: reach a verdict. Tuesday, March 31st, 2026. A lot happened while the week turned. This is Daily Crime and Justice.

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Ah Calorougus Shark media at low and welcome to ground

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and Controversy Norway I'm Your Palace Intrigue host Mark Francis.

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Norway's Supreme Court has now issued the ruling that many

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people involved in the Marius Borg Hoyby case had been

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waiting for, and while it does not decide anything about

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Hoybi's guilt or innocence, it could matter quite a lot

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if he is convicted on any of these sexual assault counts.

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The court ruled in a separate case that what Norwegian

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media often calls a sleep rape should generally be punished

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less severely than rape involving violence or threats. In the

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case before the court, a nineteen year old man had

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originally been sentenced to three years and three months. The

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Supreme Court said the correct sentence should instead be two

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years and four months, later reduced further because of delays

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in the process. The broader message from the ruling is

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that Norwegian courts now have direction to look more closely

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at the circumstances in these cases, rather than defaulting to

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the old standard. Many lawyers have been using four years.

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That matters because Hoeby is facing four allegations of the

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same general type involving women who prosecutors say we're asleep

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or otherwise unable to resist. He denies guilt on those counts,

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but if the court ultimately finds him guilty on any

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of them, this ruling is now part of the legal

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framework the judge will be expected to use. His lawyer,

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Peter Seculick, moved quickly to argue that the ruling helps

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his client. He said the Supreme Court case was different because,

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in his words, there had been no prior sexual contact

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or indication of interest between the two people involved. Seculik's

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argument is that in Hoebi's case, the court heard evidence

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of prior consensual sexual interaction, and he says that should

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either lead to acquittal or at the very least a

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significantly lower sentence if the court still finds criminal liability.

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The prosecution has taken the opposite view. Prosecutor Stirler henriks

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Boe said that he had already anticipated that the Supreme

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Court might lower the sentencing level and that this has

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already been factored into the sentence they requested in Howibi's case.

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He has also argued that the Supreme Court ruling does

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not resolve these central factual questions in this trial, especially

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where the issue is not just whether there had been

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intimacy before, but whether there was consent in the specific

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moment being charged. So what this means is not that

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Hoibi case suddenly got easier to predict. If anything, it

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became more complicated. The legal benchmark has moved, but the

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factual disputes remained exactly where they were. The court still

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has to decide what happened, what Hoibi understood, and what

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the women involved were actually capable of consenting to in

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those moments. Only after that comes to the question of punishment,

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and in some ways this is where the story has

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started to change in Norway. During the trial, much of

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the focus was understandably on witnesses, evidence, text messages, recordings

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and charges themselves. But now what the trial is over

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and the country waits for the verdict, the converse is

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widening out. It is no longer just about what happened

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in the courtroom. It is about what the case says

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about the culture around it that includes the media. One

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of the more interesting reactions came not from the royal

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beat or the legal commentators, but from inside the Norwegian

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press itself. In a media industry interview, VJI editor guard

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Stayro said the trial did not become the circus many feared.

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That is a telling phrase because it acknowledges something everyone

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in Norway already knew going in. This was always going

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to be one of the most intensely watched criminal trials

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in the country in years. The son of the Crown princess,

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facing dozens of charges, seven weeks in open court and

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a huge international press presence, there was every reason to

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think this could spin completely out of control. STEREO's point

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is that the actual courtroom process often remained more sober

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than the headlines around it. The fear had been that

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the case would become pure spectacle. Instead, what Norway got

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was something more uncomfortable and in some ways more difficult,

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a prolonged, granular public examination of private behavior, consent, status,

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power and mail violence. Actor and director Mars Sugar Peterson

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spent all seven weeks in Oslow District Court following the

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Hoiby trial, not as a journalist and not as a

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legal observant, but as research for a stage production inspired

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by the current crisis surrounding the royal family. Peterson's takeaway

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was not really about royalty at all. It was about men.

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He said that after following the case, that the central

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mistake would be to treat Weeby simply as some uniquely

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terrible individual and leave it there. In his view, that

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lets everyone else off the hook. He argues, the more

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difficult question is whether the case forces Norwegian men to

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examine what kinds of attitudes, habits and assumptions have been

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normalized for far too long. His most blunt line was

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probably the one that got the most attention. Stop watching porn,

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he said, not because he was trying to be provocative

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for the sake of it, but because he argues pornography

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shapes how many young men understand sex, women, power, and entitlement.

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He said it contributes to the objectification of women and

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effects not just sexual behavior, but the way men think

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more generally. Peterson's argument is that Norways should not be

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satisfied with identifying one defendant and calling it today. He

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said that if Hoyby is convicted, then the problem cannot

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be understood as belonging to one man alone. In essence,

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his point is that if this behavior is criminal, then

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there are far more men who need to take a

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long look at themselves. More crown and controversy in just

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a moment. If you haven't checked out our sister podcast,

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Pallace Intrigue Presents King William, here's what you need to know.

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It's our speculative fiction series imagining what happens when williams

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ends the throne, and season two is out right now.

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This season, the Monarchy faces its biggest threat yet when

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a bombshell memoir announcement out of California forces King William

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and Queen Catherine to make a decision no royal fan

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family has ever faced. Does the Queen Starter podcast to

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fight back. All ten episodes of season two are available

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right now to Binge completely add free on Apple podcasts,

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just top that banner that says uninterrupted listening and dive in.

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Palace Intrigue Presents King William. Season two is available wherever

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you get your podcasts just like this one. Just search

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for King William Palace Intrigue Presents. Throughout the seven week trial,

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one of the most recognizable visual records of the case

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did not come from photographs or television cameras, but from

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the work of courtroom artists Aida Vikdal. Vicdal was hired

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by VEG to cover the proceedings from inside the courtroom,

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where cameras are not allowed once quarters in session. Over

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the course of the case, she produced one hundred and

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eighty one drawings across twenty seven days, creating what became

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for many Norwegians the difining images of the trial. She

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described the work as both demanding and relentless, saying I

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expected the job to be exciting and intense. Both were

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absolutely true. She added that even someone who loves drawing

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becomes exhausted doing it for that many hours and days

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in a row. Vid Canal also said she was caught

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off guard by how much attention these sketches received, especially

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after her very first courtroom drawing began circulating online and

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quickly turned into memes by comedians and social media users.

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She called the reaction surreal. What makes that role so unusual,

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she explained, is the balance it requires. My job is

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not to judge the case, only to draw what I see.

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She said that means working quickly enough to capture the

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moment while also avoiding exaggeration or distortion. She said the

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challenge was often practical as much as artistic. The witness

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might suddenly appear, someone might leave the room before its schedule,

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was finished, or a new development might force her to

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abandon one drawing and begin another. In a case this large,

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she was often juggling multiple images at once and they

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you have it. She had to email us addresses The

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Palace Intrigue at gmail dot com. Please follows on Spotify,

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Apple or the Apple of your chays. I'm Mark Francis

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My thanks to John McDermott. This is ground and controversy

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in Norway