A woman charged with killing a high-profile marketing consultant and social justice advocate in film pleaded not guilty Monday.
Jameelah Elena Michl, 36, entered the plea in Los Angeles Superior Court to charges of murder and burglary, with additional allegations that she used a firearm to commit the felonies.
Prosecutors say she knocked on the door of the Los Angeles home of Michael Latt — then forced her way in and fatally shot him with a semi-automatic handgun on Nov. 27. He was later declared dead at a hospital.
Latt, 33, was a well-known consultant in Hollywood whose firm focused on social impact in film and entertainment. He had worked on projects with directors including Ryan Coogler and Ava DuVernay.
Prosecutors and court records say Michl had been stalking and threatening director A.V. Rockwell, and targeted Latt because he was friends with Rockwell. Michl was the subject of several restraining orders from Rockwell.
Rockwell's latest film " A Thousand and One," starring Teyana Taylor, won the Grand Jury Prize at last year's Sundance Film Festival, and earned her a Gotham Award for breakthrough director on the same night Latt was killed.
Michl could get life in prison if convicted.
Latt's mother Michelle Satter, a founding director of the Sundance Institute, was given an honorary Oscar for her humanitarian work on Jan. 10, just weeks after the killing. At the ceremony, Satter and the two directors she mentored who presented her the award, Coogler and Chloe Zhao, paid tribute to Latt.
"Michelle, you've changed our lives, but I do believe Michael was your greatest gift to the world," Coogler said.
Satter said that she wished to share the award with her late son, who "led with love."
Harvey Weinstein hit with new sex crime charge in New York
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York, as he awaits retrial in his landmark #MeToo case.
Details of the new allegations were not immediately available. He was charged with committing a criminal sex act.
The jailed ex-movie mogul has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Prosecutors revealed last week that Weinstein had been indicted on additional sex crime charges that weren't part of the case that led to his now-overturned 2020 conviction. But the new indictment was sealed until his arraignment.
Prosecutors have said that the grand jury heard evidence of up to three alleged assaults — two in hotels in the Tribeca neighborhood and one at a lower Manhattan residential building. The purported incidents took place from the mid-2000s to 2016, prosecutors said.
But it's not clear whether any of those allegations underlie the new indictment.
While bracing for the new charges, Weinstein also is awaiting retrial after New York state's highest court this spring overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. The high court, called the Court of Appeals, ordered a new trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the then-trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case. That judge's term expired in 2022, and he is no longer on the bench.
Prosecutors have said they'll seek to fold the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein's lawyers say it should be a separate case.
Weinstein, who also was convicted in 2022 in a Los Angeles rape case, remains behind bars while awaiting his New York retrial.
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