National Roundup ...

ILLINOIS
Guilty verdict in  killing of Curry’s ex and daughter
CHICAGO (AP) — A jury has convicted a Chicago attorney of murdering former NBA center Eddy Curry’s ex-girlfriend and infant daughter four years ago.
Fredrick Goings showed no reaction when the jury’s guilty verdict was read Tuesday in the January 2009 shooting deaths of 24-year-old Nova Henry and her and Curry’s 10-month-old daughter, Ava.
Goings represented Henry in a child custody case against the former Chicago Bulls, New York Knicks and Miami Heat center and was also romantically involved with her. Prosecutors say Henry tried to end her relationship with Goings and moved out with her and Curry’s two children.
They say Goings shot Henry in her home while she was holding the infant. Her and Curry’s then-3-year-old son was also there but wasn’t harmed.
Curry didn’t testify. He now plays in China.

KENTUCKY
Pastor wants his venomous snakes returned to him
MIDDLESBORO, Ky. (AP) — An eastern Kentucky pastor wants Tennessee wildlife officials to return five venomous snakes confiscated in Knoxville.
Gregory Coots, who’s known as Jamie Coots, is pastor of at the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name Church in Middlesboro. Coots handles the snakes as part of worship services.
He told WYMT-TV in Hazard he bought three rattlesnakes and two copperheads in Alabama on Jan. 31. While he was driving through Knoxville, police stopped Coots for dark window tinting and saw the cages containing the snakes. A state wildlife officer confiscated them.
The district attorney general’s office in Knoxville says Coots is charged with illegally possessing and transporting wildlife.
Coots was similarly charged in Kentucky in 2008. He said he now has a permit for snakes in Kentucky.

TEXAS
Suit filed in 2011 ambush of U.S. agents in Mexico
MCALLEN, Texas (AP) — The family of a U.S. Customs Enforcement agent killed in a 2011 ambush on a Mexican highway and another agent who survived filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to hold the government and nearly two-dozen other defendants accountable in the attack.
The federal lawsuit arises from the Feb. 15, 2011, attack on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Jaime Zapata and Victor Avila. They were attacked in their armored sport-utility vehicle near San Luis Potosi, Mexico, shortly after picking up some equipment from another agent.
Zapata died and Avila was seriously wounded.
The lawsuit names the agents’ supervisors, the company that armored their vehicle and gun shops that allegedly sold two of the weapons used. It alleges that Zapata and Avila never should have been sent on the dangerous mission, their armored SUV was flawed and at least two of the guns used in the attack were bought in the United States and eventually smuggled to Mexico.
On Feb. 15, 2011, Zapata and Avila drove from Mexico City to San Luis Potosi to pick up equipment from another agent from the Monterrey office. Shortly after beginning their return trip the pair was ambushed by armed men. Zapata parked the vehicle, but when he did so the automatic door locks unlocked. Gunmen pried open the door and in their struggle to close it the agents partially lowered the window which allowed their attackers to fire inside.
Julian Zapata Espinoza is awaiting trial on murder and attempted murder charges in federal court in Washington, D.C. Zapata Espinoza was allegedly a member of the Zetas cartel who Mexican authorities say mistook the agents’ Suburban for rivals.
Three weapons believed used in the attack have been recovered though information has only been released on two of them, according to federal court documents.
One was a 7.62 mm AK-47 style Draco handgun that federal authorities traced to a straw purchase by Otilio Osorio from a Texas gun shop. Osorio and his brother were sentenced to prison on weapons charges. Another was an AK-47-style semi-automatic assault rifle bought from JJ’s Pawn Shop in Beaumont in another straw purchase and passed into Mexico by Manuel Barba, who has also been sentenced to prison.
Osorio, Barba and the pawn shop are among those named as defendants in the lawsuit.
In a procedural notice to the government filed last year, the agents’ lawyers sought $25 million for Zapata’s family and $12.5 million for Avila. No figures were included in the lawsuit filed Tuesday.

MAINE
Prostitution case involving Zumba  in highest court
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine’s highest court prepared to weigh in on whether a man can be charged with invasion of privacy for viewing videos of accused johns who were recorded without their knowledge while engaging in sex acts with a woman who’s charged with using her Zumba studio as a front for prostitution.
The trial judge dismissed 46 invasion of privacy counts against Mark Strong Sr., ruling that someone engaging in criminal conduct doesn’t have the same right to privacy as someone changing in a dressing room or locker room.
Prosecutors are seeking to reinstate the charges.
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court was scheduled to hear arguments Wednesday afternoon.
Jury selection in the trial of Strong, who faces 13 other counts that deal with promotion of prostitution, has been twice delayed by appeals to the state supreme court.
The first dealt with First Amendment issues raised about the closed-door jury selection process. The second is dealing with the dismissal of the invasion of privacy charges.
Both Strong and fitness instructor Alexis Wright, who ran a Zumba studio in Kennebunk, have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Jury selection in Strong’s trial could resume if the supreme court rules quickly. Wright will be tried at a later date.
Prosecutors said the judge shouldn’t have dismissed the privacy counts because the defense was late in raising the matter, the privacy issues are encompassed by state law, and the matter should be decided by a jury, not a judge.
Defense lawyer Dan Lilley countered that it makes no sense to grant privacy for criminal conduct. “The state’s position on this appeal is contrary to reason, common sense and the interest of society,” he wrote.