Indiana: Evidence wait delays trial in girl’s death
ROCKPORT, Ind. (AP) — A defense attorney blames the slow processing of DNA evidence for delaying the trial of a southern Indiana man on charges that he killed his 15-year-old stepdaughter whose body was found behind a shed near her home.
Ryan Lee Shelby has been jailed since his arrest last November, two days after Alexis Oesterle’s body was found in Rockport following a report from Shelby that she was missing.
Shelby’s trial in a Spencer County court was scheduled to start Monday, but has been delayed until April.
Defense attorney Anthony Long tells the Evansville Courier & Press that state police have been slow in handling evidence from the case.
Court documents say Alexis died of bleeding from a neck wound and that Shelby confessed to police that he killed her.
Pennsylvania: Woman jailed after reporting bogus kidnapping
UNIONTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A southwestern Pennsylvania woman has been jailed after state police discovered she had arrest warrants for traffic citations after they say she falsely claimed to have been kidnapped.
Twenty-two-year-old Amber Marie Rayoni, of Uniontown, reported the kidnapping at a campground in South Union Township Monday afternoon.
After police arrived, however, they say Rayoni confessed she hadn’t been kidnapped as she walked along a road, but has rather been left there after arguing with her boyfriend.
Police then discovered that Rayoni was wanted for several outstanding traffic warrants and she was jailed. Police say she’s also going to be charged with filing a false report about the kidnapping.
Online court records don’t list an attorney for her.
Illinois: Appeals court says Peterson to stay in jail
JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — An Illinois appeals court has turned down a bid to let Drew Peterson out of jail while appeals in the murder case against him are sorted out.
The 3rd District Appellate Court gave no explanation in turning down Peterson’s request. Defense attorneys were notified of the decision Monday.
Peterson is jailed on charges that accuse him of killing his third wife, Kathleen Savio, in March 2004. Prosecutors say he’s also a suspect in the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson. The former Bolingbrook police officer has denied any wrongdoing.
Defense attorney Joseph Lopez says he now intends to take Peterson’s case to the Illinois Supreme Court.
Peterson has been jailed since May 2009. His trial has been delayed pending an appeal over the prosecution’s plan to use hearsay evidence at trial.
Arkansas: Ex-Tony Alamo church members sue co-members
TEXARKANA, Ark. (AP) — Six former members of convicted preacher Tony Alamo’s church are now suing other church members and church-controlled businesses.
The lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in Texarkana claims the members knew or should have known Alamo was sexually abusing children and did nothing to stop it. It asks for at least $150,000 per plaintiff, compensation for past physical pain and suffering, past and future mental anguish and past and future medical expenses.
Alamo was convicted last year of taking underage girls across state lines for sex and sentenced to 175 years in prison. He is asking for a new trial.
Five of the six who filed the lawsuit say Alamo took them as wives and had sex with them when they were underage. The sixth says she was being groomed to be a child bride but escaped.
Texas: No video in next Corpus Christi ‘fight club’ trial
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — Cell phone video of residents fighting at a state facility for the mentally disabled in Corpus Christi will not be allowed in the trial of the man who allegedly shot it.
The Corpus Christi Caller-Times reports an appeals court has affirmed a judge’s decision to ban the video in the trial of now-former employee Timothy Dixon. Prosecutors planned to meet Tuesday to review the ruling.
Someone gave the cell phone to an off-duty police officer in early 2009. The video was used in the conviction of four other now-former workers.
Dixon is charged with four counts of injury to a disabled person.
Dixon attorney Ira Miller argued the man who found the phone admitted he did not intend to return it. Miller says that amounted to theft and cited law that evidence obtained illegally cannot be used.
Florida: Justices hearing Ecuadorian’s death appeal
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A businessman with dual U.S.-Ecuadorian citizenship is appealing his death sentence and four murder convictions to the Florida Supreme Court.
A lawyer hired by Ecuador’s government Tuesday was set to argue that Nelson Serrano had been illegally tried because authorities had “kidnapped” him from Ecuador in 2002.
Ecuador does not allow the extradition of fugitives facing the death penalty. The state contends that his return to Florida was legal because he is a U.S. citizen.
Serrano was convicted of killing four people at a Bartow factory in 1997 over a business relationship that went sour.
California: SoCal man gets 11 life terms for attacking women
LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) — A man convicted of attacking six Long Beach-area women was sentenced Monday to 11 life terms, plus 433 years in prison.
Charles Juan Proctor, 45, was convicted Aug. 13 of 22 counts of attempted murder, mayhem, robbery and other charges.
His six victims were all kidnapped at knifepoint.
Long Beach Superior Court Judge Gary Ferrari responded with a staggering 21 life sentences, 10 of which were stayed or ordered to be served concurrently, and a base term of 433 years and four months in prison.
That means Proctor must serve the 433-year base term before he begins serving the 11 consecutive life terms.
All the attacks occurred within three months in early 2008.
Proctor was extradited to Los Angeles County from Nevada, where he was serving a prison term for a similar attack there in 2007.
In addition to the lengthy sentence, the judge ordered Proctor pay $58,000 in medical expenses for two women whose necks he slit, and $10,000 to the state victims’ restitution fund.
