Georgia: Jury in ex-deputy trial has yet to reach a verdict
DECATUR, Ga. (AP) — The jury in the trial of an ex-DeKalb County sheriff’s deputy charged with killing his wife and a day laborer are heading into their fourth day of deliberations.
The jury will reconvene Wednesday in the trial of 51-year-old Derrick Yancey. He faces a minimum of two life sentences in the 2008 shooting deaths of his wife, Linda Yancey, a detention officer, and laborer Marcial Cax-Puluc.
Prosecutors have alleged that Yancey fatally shot his wife several times in the chest and neck.
Defense attorneys told the jury that Cax-Puluc, 20, of Guatemala, shot his Yancey’s wife during a robbery and that Yancey shot the laborere in self-defense.
Mississippi: Judge nixes defense motions in FBI agent case
ABERDEEN, Miss. (AP) — A judge has ruled that attorneys for an FBI agent charged with lying about ownership of an Oxford building cannot allege that his indictment was a personal vendetta by the former local U.S. attorney.
At the same time, U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock also denied a motion by defense attorneys for Hal Neilson in which they sought to bar testimony by the government’s experts — including FBI assistant director Patrick Kelley.
Neilson is scheduled for trial on Nov. 8 in U.S. District Court in Aberdeen.
Neilson was indicted in January on five counts that he allegedly failed to report his interest in the Oxford FBI Building and then lied about it. Neilson has pleaded not guilty and is free on bond.
Defense attorney Christi McCoy had said neither Kelley or accountant Ronald L. Gagnet should be designated as experts.
According to court records, Kelley would testify about the FBI’s ethics program and about Neilson’s ethics filing with the FBI. Gagnet would testify about Neilson’s finances, according to court documents.
Aycock, in her Nov. 1 orders, said both men would be allowed to testify.
Also on Nov. 1, Aycock sided with the government which sought to bar Neilson from alleging that the charges stemmed from a personal vendetta by Jim Greenlee, who was U.S. attorney when Neilson was indicted.
Prosecutors said that if Neilson wants to claim he was improperly selected for prosecution, he should take it up with the court, not the jury.
Aycock said the defense offered nothing to support its argument and such evidence was not relevant to the case.
Neilson has claimed that a feud with Greenlee stretches back to 2004 when Neilson questioned Greenlee’s initiation of investigations into scores of the region’s residents with Middle Eastern surnames.
Greenlee has declined to make any statements about the allegations.
Aycock also granted a government motion to prevent Neilson’s defense from telling jurors that federal prosecutors are from Louisiana, not Mississippi.
The case will be prosecuted by lawyers from the U.S. attorney’s office in Baton Rouge, La., which got the case after prosecutors in North Mississippi withdrew because of conflicts of interest.
Florida: Man gets 40 years for killing new boyfriend
LARGO, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend at a Clearwater home has been sentenced to 40 years in prison.
As part of a deal with prosecutors, 38-year-old Gary E. Averill Jr. pleaded guilty Tuesday to second-degree murder. He was scheduled to go on trial for first-degree murder.
Authorities say Averill shot 28-year-old Michael Harris four times at close range in October 2008. Harris had been dating Averill’s ex-girlfriend, Barbara Hall.
After Averill’s arrest, he told police that he believed Harris was abusing children at the home where Harris and Hall were staying, but police found no evidence of that.
California: Man convicted of murder, torture of a longtime friend
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A Long Beach man who evaded authorities for more than two decades was convicted Tuesday of the 1988 murder and torture of a longtime friend.
Paul Gentile Smith was convicted of one count of felony murder with the special circumstances of torture, The Orange County District Attorney’s Office said. He was arrested last year after investigators matched his DNA with samples from the Sunset Beach apartment of victim Robert Haugen.
He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole when he’s sentenced Nov. 29.
Smith sat motionless as he listened to the verdict of the nine-woman, three-man jury, who deliberated for two days. He was immediately removed from the courtroom in handcuffs.
Haugen’s parents cried as they hugged prosecutors after the verdict, according to the Orange County Register.
Prosecutors alleged that Smith stabbed his friend and marijuana dealer Haugen 18 times at Haugen’s Sunset Beach apartment, then set the crime scene on fire to cover up evidence.
The torture allegations were added because Haugen was nearly decapitated in the attack.
Investigators collected the blood of Haugen and one other person from the scene, but were unable to match it for decades. Smith’s DNA was placed in a national database after a 2007 domestic violence arrest in Nevada, leading to the match and his arrest last year.
Deputy District Attorney Ebrahim Baytieh said during the trial that the case “went cold until science and DNA caught up with the defendant.”
Smith said during trial that his blood was at the scene because he had been buying and cutting marijuana in the apartment the night before.
Smith still faces a separate trial on charges of unsuccessfully trying to hire someone last year to assault the lead investigator in the murder case.
His girlfriend, Tina Smith, pleaded guilty to conspiracy in the attempted assault and got 240 days in jail.
California: Federal judge declares mistrial in Obama threat
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge has declared a mistrial in the case of a Northern California man charged with threatening to kill President Barack Obama and members of his family in an e-mail.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel made the decision after jurors told her Monday they were deadlocked.
Authorities say the 59-year-old John Gimbel sent a profanity-laced e-mail to Obama, White House staff and some media outlets last year threatening the president and his family. He was allegedly angry that Obama had not intervened in earlier cases against him.
He was arrested the following month by the U.S. Secret Service ahead of an appearance by the president in San Francisco.
Gimbel had pleaded not guilty.
Louisiana" Courthouse escapee gets life in prison
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A 34-year-old man who was on his way to a habitual offender hearing last month when he escaped from deputies outside the Baton Rouge state courthouse was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison.
Demond Cook, shackled and dressed in an East Baton Rouge Parish Prison Lockdown jumpsuit, offered no resistance during his brief appearance before state District Judge Don Johnson.
Cook, of Baton Rouge, was convicted by Johnson in September on two counts each of armed robbery and second-degree kidnapping.
Cook stipulated Tuesday to the East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney’s Office’s contention that those convictions made him a fourth felony offender for habitual offender purposes.
Prosecutor Will Morris told the judge that Cook had prior convictions in 1996, 1999 and 2008 on charges of simple burglary, illegal possession of stolen things, aggravated arson, armed robbery and first-degree robbery.
Johnson sentenced Cook to a mandatory term of life in prison.
Cook’s attorney, Margaret Lagattuta, said Cook wants to appeal his Sept. 9 armed robbery and second-degree kidnapping convictions, and if he is successful, it could impact his habitual offender status.
Cook eluded authorities for nearly 12 hours Oct. 19 when he escaped from Catahoula Parish deputies just outside the state courthouse in downtown Baton Rouge. He was captured in an abandoned house in north Baton Rouge.
Cook told investigators he broke free after finding an object to pick the locks on his restraints, East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s officials have said.
Cook’s sister, Tamaika Cook, and Hilton Hayes, of Baton Rouge, have been charged with assisting Demond Cook’s escape. Hayes allegedly gave Cook a ride after his escape, and Tamaika Cook allegedly arranged the ride, sheriff’s officials have said.
Connecticut: Dead man’s family gets $315,000 in lawsuit over death
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) — A Fairfield lawyer serving 12 years in prison for fatally stabbing a neighbor he thought had molested his daughter has been found civilly responsible for his actions and ordered to pay the victim’s family $315,000.
A Superior Court jury on Tuesday ruled in favor of Barry James’ family.
James’ sister, Charlene Benoit, tells The Connecticut Post the decision restores her brother’s reputation.
The family’s lawyer says they don’t expect to get any money from Jonathon Edington, who’s serving a 12-year prison term after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the death of the 59-year-old James in August 2006.
Edington stabbed James 13 times because he thought James had molested his 2-year-old daughter. Police found no evidence that James had molested the girl.
Edington, who represented himself, refused comment.
