Mississippi: New Orleans man sentenced to life by jury
PASCAGOULA, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi jury has sentenced a New Orleans man to life in prison without parole for his role in a crime spree that began in New Orleans and ended in rural Jackson County.
Jurors found 31-year-old Eddie Pugh guilty Thursday on charges of capital murder, arson and aggravated assault.
Pugh, his girlfriend Torenda A. Whitmore, and Barron Lecour Borden were accused of kidnapping two men in New Orleans before killing one of them in Mississippi in October 2008. All three have been convicted in federal court on charges related to the kidnapping.
Prosecutors said Byron Kelsey McCoy was fatally shot on Oct. 8, 2008. Rahman MoGilles was also shot, but survived despite serious injuries.
Pugh also was sentenced to 20 years for aggravated assault and three years for arson.
Pugh, Borden and Whitmore, 40, earlier were convicted in federal court for the double kidnapping of McCoy and MoGilles. Each was sentenced to serve two consecutive life sentences in federal prison.
Borden goes on state trial Nov. 8 and Whitmore will face a state jury next year.
Circuit Judge Dale Harkey said after the verdict was announced that Pugh must serve the federal sentences before he can serve time in Mississippi.
District Attorney Tony Lawrence said that he was luckily to have an eyewitness to a capital murder — MoGilles.
“That almost never happens,” Lawrence told jurors in his closing argument.
MoGilles testified that the incident started at Pugh’s mother’s house in New Orleans and ended on Larue Road in Latimer with McCoy shot to death and MoGilles wounded from multiple gunshots.
Prosecutors said MoGilles was left for dead in a wooded are with two gunshots to the back and buttocks. MoGilles said after the other left, he flagged down a passing school bus.
McCoy’s body was found in MoGilles’ burning SUV.
Defense attorneys said Pugh will appeal the conviction.
Texas: Dallas woman insane, not guilty over tossed sons
DALLAS (AP) — A woman accused of throwing her two children from an Interstate 30 overpass in Dallas and then jumping off the 20-foot-high span has been found not guilty by reason of insanity.
A judge in Dallas ruled Thursday in the trial of Khandi Busby, who was charged with attempted murder and injury to a child. Then judge then ordered her to a state mental institution.
Investigators say the boys were ages 6 and 8 when they were injured after being thrown from the highway overpass on March 12, 2008. They were treated and placed in foster care, where they remain.
Defense attorney David Pire says Busby felt God had told her to throw her sons off the bridge to protect them from Satan.
Relatives say Busby is bipolar and had stopped taking her medication.
Connecticut: Wife of convicted killer gets 5 years
WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) — The wife of a Connecticut man serving a life sentence for killing his girlfriend has been convicted of helping her husband try to cover up his crimes.
Anthea Baggett pleaded guilty Thursday to setting fire to the victim’s apartment and a car and was sentenced to five years behind bars.
She pleaded guilty under the Alford doctrine to first-degree aiding arson and first-degree hindering prosecution in Waterbury Superior Court.
The Republican American reports that the 33-year-old Baggett said in court that she lived in fear of her husband, Vernon Cowan, and that’s why she helped him.
Cowan, a career criminal, was convicted earlier this month of the March 2008 killing Whitney Bass, with whom he was having an affair.
New York: Woman files bedbug suit vs Waldorf
NEW YORK (AP) — A Long Island woman claims her one night at the Waldorf Astoria hotel has cost her $13,000 because her room was infested with bedbugs that came home with her.
Susanne Igneri filed a lawsuit against the upscale Manhattan hotel last week in Nassau County.
The Wall Street Journal obtained a letter from an exterminator hired by the Waldorf. It stated that a complete inspection of the room found no infestation days after the Igneris’ departure.
Igneri’s complaint claims bugs encountered during their Feb. 20 stay gave her 6-year-old daughter “permanent scarring to her face, legs, stomach, groin and body.”
She says her child also required treatment for “psychological and emotional injuries.”
Maryland: Cardiologist sues hospital over stent claims
PIKESVILLE, Md. (AP) — A cardiologist accused of performing unnecessary heart procedures has filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against St. Joseph Medical Center.
Dr. Mark Midei was removed from duty at the Towson hospital last year. Dozens of legal claims have been filed against him, and a medical oversight board has moved to suspend or revoke his license.
But Midei says the allegations against him are unfounded and false. His lawsuit, filed Thursday, says St. Joseph targeted him as part of a “campaign of corporate deception, trickery and fraud.”
St. Joseph informed more than 350 patients in January that Midei may have implanted unnecessary stents into their hearts. But Midei claims the stents were in fact necessary and that he’s not the villain he’s been portrayed as.
St. Joseph officials say the hospital will vigorously defend itself.
Maryland: Video thrown out in DC principal slaying
ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) — A Montgomery County judge has ruled that a video of the interrogation of a suspect in the slaying of a D.C. school principal may not be shown during trial.
Judge John Debelius threw out the video in an order made public Thursday citing law enforcement mistakes in the interrogation of Alante Saunders, one of four people charged with murder in the death of 42-year-old Brian Betts. The principal at Shaw Middle School at Garnet-Patterson, at his Silver Spring, Md., home in April.
Saunders’ lawyer argued that detectives questioned Saunders even after he said 15 times he didn’t want to talk and didn’t inform him of his Miranda rights before telling him that his friends had implicated him.
States’ Attorney John McCarthy says prosecutors have other evidence and will move forward with the trial.
