You don’t have time for three hours of doomscrolling, twenty half-baked takes, and some guy online screaming READ THE THREAD. We are Front Page Detectives, this is your morning Drive-By, and here is what is real.
A friendship turned legal war now threatens to pull both Smiths into the same courtroom.
Will Smith could become a co-defendant in a $3 million emotional distress lawsuit brought by former friend Bilaal Salaam, who already sued Jada Pinkett Smith over a series of alleged threats. Salaam filed a motion this week asking a Los Angeles court to add the Oscar winner to the case, claiming Smith personally backed his wife during one of the most serious alleged encounters.
According to Salaam’s proposed amended complaint, Pinkett Smith told him during an October 2021 phone call that she would have him “killed” if he continued discussing her private life or published a memoir. Salaam alleges Smith was present and responded, “you heard what my wife said,” which the filing argues amounted to personally adopting the threat.
Salaam also claims the confrontation followed an earlier incident at Smith’s birthday party where Pinkett Smith and members of her entourage allegedly warned that he could “end up missing or catch a bullet.” A further threat allegedly came in 2022 after Salaam refused to help with crisis management following Smith’s infamous Oscars slap of Chris Rock.
None of the allegations have been proven in court, and Smith has not yet been added as a defendant. The couple has been ordered to respond to Salaam’s request within 30 days. But what began as a dispute between a former friend and Pinkett Smith is now widening into something more serious, with Salaam trying to convince a judge that the intimidation campaign was a Smith family production.
Hot Take
Hollywood friendships usually die over money, ego, or somebody forgetting who made whom famous. This one allegedly came with missing-person threats and a bullet in the small print.
The family tragedy now has siblings appearing as witnesses in the case against their own brother.
Jake and Romy Reiner testified before the Los Angeles grand jury that indicted their brother Nick Reiner on two counts of first-degree murder in the stabbing deaths of their parents, filmmaker Rob Reiner and producer Michele Singer Reiner. The district attorney’s office confirmed their participation after the indictment was unsealed earlier this month.
The indictment added a special circumstance allegation that Nick committed the killings by lying in wait, along with an allegation that he used a knife. Nick has pleaded not guilty and remains jailed without bail while prosecutors consider whether to seek the death penalty.
The revelation adds another brutal layer to an already fractured family. Nick previously claimed Jake and Romy backed away from an agreement to fund his private defense and has since sought access to a trust established by their parents. Now we know they also appeared before the secret grand jury that helped move the murder case against him forward.
Hot Take
Most families fight over wills after the funeral. The Reiners have a trust dispute on one side of the courthouse and siblings testifying in a murder case on the other. That is a family tree struck by lightning.
Read more
The state says Alex Murdaugh never passed the test his lawyer claimed he aced.
South Carolina prosecutors are accusing Alex Murdaugh’s defense team of making a “categorically false” statement in court after attorney Dick Harpootlian claimed Murdaugh had passed a state polygraph about the murders of his wife Maggie and son Paul “with flying colors.”
In a new filing, prosecutors say Murdaugh never took a SLED polygraph before or after his murder trial on any subject. They said the confusion arose during discussion of a separate polygraph administered to Curtis “Eddie” Smith, and accused the defense of injecting the false claim into the hearing to influence both the judge and the public.
Murdaugh did take an FBI polygraph in October 2023 during the federal investigation into his financial crimes, prosecutors say, and failed it while allegedly attempting countermeasures. The state now wants any reference to polygraph testing excluded from the next trial entirely. Murdaugh’s next pretrial hearing is scheduled for November.
Hot Take
A courtroom is a bad place to bluff when the other side keeps receipts. One loose claim gets into the transcript and suddenly everybody is checking the deck for marked cards.
Read more
The filmmaker behind a new Idaho murders documentary thinks the convicted killer wanted the spotlight back.
Bryan Kohberger’s attempt to withdraw his guilty plea arrived just as Netflix prepared to release The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare, and executive producer Joe Berlinger says he does not believe that timing was accidental. Kohberger is serving four consecutive life sentences after pleading guilty to murdering Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, and Xana Kernodle.
On July 27, days before the documentary arrived, Kohberger publicly declared his “actual innocence” and demanded the plea be withdrawn. Two days later, he filed a handwritten petition from prison seeking to undo the deal despite having told the judge under oath that he was pleading guilty because he was guilty.
Berlinger believes publicity surrounding the documentary trailer may have helped trigger the move, arguing Kohberger wanted to put attention back on himself. The series deliberately focuses on the victims rather than their killer, something Berlinger says was central to the project from the beginning.
Hot Take
Some killers hate silence more than prison. Take their name out of the headline long enough and suddenly there is another letter from the cellblock demanding the spotlight back.
Read more
Thirty years of mythology gave way to an ambulance ride, an autopsy table, and the hard mechanics of how Tupac Shakur died.
Jurors in Duane “Keffe D” Davis’ murder trial have heard new testimony about Tupac Shakur’s final conscious moments after he was shot on the Las Vegas Strip in September 1996. Retired police officer Garry Dale testified that he rode with the wounded rapper in the ambulance and repeatedly tried to get him to identify his attackers.
According to Dale, Shakur would only respond, “No, we’ll take care of it,” repeating variations of that answer before refusing to say more. He died six days later, leaving investigators without the eyewitness identification Dale had hoped to obtain.
The jury also heard detailed medical testimony from forensic pathologist Dr. Lisa Gavin, who described a bullet entering through Shakur’s right armpit area, piercing a lung and chest, while another struck his thigh and traveled into his abdomen, damaging his intestines. She concluded that Shakur died from gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen.
Hot Take
For thirty years, Tupac’s death belonged to legend, rumor, and men telling stories after midnight. In court, the mythology gets stripped away until all that is left is blood, trajectory, and the words a dying man would not give the cops.
Read more
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.