Minnesota: Kidnap-murder case from 1980 back in court
ANOKA, Minn. (AP) — A judge is hearing testimony on whether a man whose crimes horrified Minnesota in 1980 should remain locked up.
Ming Sen Shiue (ming senn shoo) has spent 30 years in prison for kidnapping missionary Mary Stauffer and her 8-year-old daughter, and killing a 6-year-old boy who witnessed the abduction.
Shiue had been obsessed with Stauffer, who had been his ninth grade math teacher 15 years earlier, and repeatedly raped her during the seven weeks he held her captive. During his 1981 murder trial, Shiue jumped up and slashed her face with a knife.
Now 59, prosecutors are seeking to commit Shiue indefinitely to the state’s sex offender treatment program. A three-day hearing began Monday.
Missouri: Trial under way in case involving incest and murder
HARRISONVILLE, Mo. (AP) — The trial for a western Missouri man accused of fathering four children with his teenage daughter has begun with emotional testimony from the daughter.
The 47-year-old man is not being identified by The Associated Press to protect the identity of the daughter. He faces second-degree murder, child endangerment and other charges.
The daughter took the stand Monday. She testified about two of the babies she had as a teenager, and then started sobbing uncontrollably when she started to testify about the third.
The court took a break to allow her to compose herself.
Prosecutors say the man impregnated his daughter four times and had been having sex with her since she was 13. The daughter is now 20, and only one of the children she had with her father is still alive.
Ohio: Man charged with dismembering wife acquitted
CINCINNATI (AP) — An Ohio man charged with killing and dismembering his wife has been acquitted of one of two murder counts against him.
John Strutz’s trial continues before a judge in Cincinnati on the second murder count and on charges of evidence tampering and gross abuse of a corpse. He has pleaded not guilty.
The defense on Monday asked Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge John West to dismiss all charges, claiming the state’s case was based on circumstantial evidence. West responded by acquitting Strutz on a charge of murder while attempting to commit felonious assault. He left the other counts intact.
Strutz is expected to testify this afternoon.
Police said on the stand last week they found part of the torso of Kristan Strutz in a garbage can last August.
