North Carolina Man Beats Roommate to Death With Box Fan Because He Asked for Cigarettes | Crime Alert 6AM 08.01.25

A North Carolina man has been charged with first degree murder after he beat his roommate to death for asking him for a cigarette.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Alard hourly update, breaking crime news Now. I'm Sidney Sumner.
A North Carolina man has been charged with first degree
murder after he beat his roommate to death for asking
him for a cigarette. William Francis Boardsen, forty, called nine
one one shortly before eleven am on Sunday and said
he'd been in a fight with his roommate, identified as

(00:21):
sixty five year old Robert Murphy, and that he kicked
his pretty good. First responders found Murphy dead on the scene.
Boardsen told investigators that the fight started at about four am,
when Murphy, allegedly drunk, came into his room and asked
for cigarettes, and Boardsen refused and the two got in
a physical altercation. Boards And said he punched Murphy in

(00:42):
the head several times, then grabbed a box fan and
hit Murphy repeatedly in the head with it. After Murphy collapsed,
boards And said he kicked him in the stomach and
face several times, telling police those last blows weren't needed
and expressing some regret for them. Boards And allowed detectives
to search his foe, where they found videos and photos
taken about six hours before he called nine one one

(01:05):
In one video, Murphy was still alive, but injured and
lying in the same position where he was later found dead.
Boardsen is heard in the videos speaking to Murphy in
a derogatory tone. According to court documents, boards And is
being held in the Mecklenbug County Jail on a four
hundred thousand dollars bond. An arrest has been made in
a deadly shooting in Washington State that left a twenty

(01:28):
three year old mother dead last week. The Pasco Police
Department said they responded to a nine one one call
and found Lupita Ponza Penaloza dead in a garage apartment.
Jonathan Viegas, thirty, was identified as the suspect, and a
warrant for his arrest on second degree murder charges was issued.
He was eventually located in Pendleton, Oregon, about sixty five

(01:49):
miles from the crime scene early Saturday morning. Court documents
reveal investigators believe Viegas was one of two shooters who
killed Ponce Penaloza. Those court documents say a friend of
Lupita's told investigators that she went to a friend's apartment
to meet vie Gus, who she called Truccha. A probable
cause affidavit said in messages to the friend, Lupita questioned

(02:12):
whether Trucca had tried to set her up. There was
also a text message sent from Lupita telling this friend
that she may need her to call nine one one
if it goes down. The two roommates who lived at
the apartment gave slightly different versions of what happened. One
said that Viegus and Ponza Penaloza arrived together and that
Viegues pulled a handgun from beneath the coffee table and

(02:33):
shot her, then opened the door for another man who
also shot her. The other roommate said they only saw
one person shooting, while police have not released any information
about a second shooter. Investigators say they found spent shell
casings from forty and forty five caliber guns in the apartment.
Viegus has a lengthy criminal history dating back to two

(02:54):
thousand and nine and is prohibited from owning a gun
because of assault and robbery convictions. Viegus awaits extradition to
Washington in jail in Oregon's Umatilla County. More crime and
justice news after this, A Missouri education teacher has pleaded
guilty after sending sexually explicit content to a sixteen year

(03:16):
old student, which spared her jail time. Twenty six year
old Ricky Lynn Laughlin sent nude photos to a teen
over Snapchat in twenty twenty three, along with the video
depicting her engaging in a sexual act. On Thursday, Laughlin
pleaded guilty in Grundy County to first agree in endangering
the welfare of a child with no sexual conduct. She

(03:36):
was subsequently sentenced to five years of probation. Laughlin, who
met the student while she taught at Saint James High School,
was charged in October twenty twenty three for incidents that
happened in both September and October of that year. The
student reportedly told police that things began to escalate quickly
between him and Laughlin, and that she kissed him inside
a classroom. She allegedly pressured him into having sex, but

(04:00):
the victim told police that he made excuses because he
didn't feel comfortable. She also asked him to send nude
photos of himself and later confirmed that she received them.
The victim said that during the investigation, Laughlin asked him
to delete the material, told him she could face jail time,
and said people at the school had been talking about them.
The student turned over two videos and a photo that

(04:22):
Laughlin sent him to police. Laughlin initially denied the allegations,
but later admitted she communicated with him on Snapchat. When
investigator searched her phone, they found three incriminating videos. Prior
to the Polea, prosecutors had charged Laughlin with statutory rape,
tampering with or attempting to tamper with a victim, and
a felony prosecution, child pornography, possession, sexual exploitation of a minor,

(04:46):
sexual trafficking of a child, and tampering with physical evidence
and a felony prosecution. For the latest crime and justice
breaking news, be sure to follow the Crime Alert hourly
update on her favorite podcast app with this crime Alert,
I'm Sydney Sumner.