Maryland: Court papers show man discussed bomb plot
BALTIMORE (AP) — Court papers show a Baltimore man accused of plotting to bomb a military recruiting station had discussed burning down the building, shooting people and using propane tanks in the attack.
Documents filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore show that 21-year-old Antonio Martinez rejected the idea of targeting a train station. He worried it would “turn public opinion against us.”
Martinez was caught in an FBI sting operation. He was given a phony bomb by an undercover agent. He was arrested after he tried to detonate the device.
Martinez had recently converted to Islam. Court papers show he targeted the recruiting station in Catonsville because he saw the military as a threat to Muslims.
He is awaiting trial in federal court in Maryland.
California: Convicted mom sane when she stabbed toddler
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — A California jury says a mother convicted of killing her toddler son was sane when she stabbed the boy to death.
Lori Burchett, who had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, was convicted last month of first-degree murder and assault on a child for the 2009 death of her 17-month-old son Garrison. On Wednesday, the same jury decided the 40-year-old Riverside woman was sane when she killed the boy.
The Riverside Press-Enterprise says Burchett faces up to 50 years to life in prison when she sentenced April 8.
Her husband, Riverside City College assistant professor in biology Greg Burchett, found the boy’s body. The couple has two other sons, ages 5 and 17.
Maine: Maine woman charged in attempted smothering
BANGOR, Maine (AP) — A 49-year-old Bangor woman has been ordered held on $50,000 bail for allegedly trying to suffocate an elderly patient at a Bangor nursing home.
District Court Judge Jessie Gunther set bail Wednesday for Jodi Lynn Holmes. She is charged with felony aggravated assault for allegedly walking into the Bangor Nursing and Rehabilitation Center on Sunday and trying to suffocate a 97-year-old woman with a pillow while she was sitting in a wheelchair.
Holmes also faces federal charges of violating conditions of release. Penobscot County Deputy District Attorney Michael Roberts told the Bangor Daily News that Holmes was on federal probation for a series of bomb threats she made in 2007 and was barred from going into nursing homes because she had made threats to harm elderly people.
Texas: Lawsuit continues over ‘fight club’ at Texas unit
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — A lawsuit over staged fights by mentally challenged residents at a Texas facility will continue.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday affirmed a ruling that allows the lawsuit over a so-called “fight club” at the Corpus Christi State Supporting Living Center to proceed.
U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack last year declined to dismiss the lawsuit against four current and ex-state officials brought by some former residents and their families.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals last month declined to allow cell phone video of fights in the trial of an ex-school employee accused of shooting it. Timothy Dixon faces trial on four counts of felony injury to a disabled person.
The video was used to convict four other former workers.
Pennsylvania: State High Court to hear Cultural Trust tax case
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has agreed to hear a property tax dispute between the city of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.
The city wants $68,000 in annual real estate taxes from the trust, which is an umbrella group for various arts groups in the city. At issue are two vacant buildings owned by the trust — one of which is sometimes used as an art gallery.
The city says the trust should pay taxes on the buildings because they’re not being used for tax-exempt purposes. But the trust has said holding onto the buildings in the city’s theater and arts district is part of its overall tax-exempt mission and so the buildings should be tax-exempt.
The city says one-third of its property is tax-exempt, which costs the city $70 million a year.
Massachusetts: Jury deliberations in man’s abuse trial delayed
PITTSFIELD, Mass. (AP) — Jury deliberations in the trial of a New York man accused of abusing two boys in Massachusetts while serving as a Roman Catholic priest have been delayed after a juror was dismissed for sending a Twitter message.
The juror in Gary Mercure’s trial was dismissed by the Berkshire Superior Court judge Wednesday for sending a tweet that said “I am in contempt of court, de facto if not de jure.”
Juror Seth Rogovoy tells The Berkshire Eagle his tweet had nothing to do with the trial. The judge ruled Rogovoy violated an order barring discussion of the case.
Prosecutors allege Mercure raped the boys in the Berkshires in the 1980s while a priest in the Diocese of Albany, N.Y.
Mercure’s lawyers say the alleged victims were coached into making abuse claims.
Pennsylvania: Philly man pleads guilty to killing girlfriend
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Prosecutors say a Philadelphia man who stabbed his girlfriend nearly 60 times then dumped her body in New Jersey will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Twenty-four-year-old Stephen Benford was sentenced to 46 to 92 years in prison after entering his guilty plea Wednesday in the death of 22-year-old Gina Schickling.
Benford apologized before being sentenced by Common Pleas Court Judge Benjamin Lerner.
Authorities say Benford stabbed Schickling 59 times then dumped her body in Independence Township, N.J., behind Benford’s parents’ former home. Her body was discovered July 7.
Prosecutors say parole will be opposed when Benford reaches his minimum term and he’ll never be released.
Benford told police he was under the influence of cocaine when he killed Schickling after an argument.
