Louisiana
4 arrested after pallet of assault rifles stolen
SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — Authorities in Louisiana have arrested four suspects in the theft of dozens of assault rifles from a freight company’s terminal.
One of the suspects was a security guard working at Con-way Freight’s Shreveport facility when a shipping pallet containing 63 Colt AR-15s was stolen earlier this month, according to Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prator’s office.
Con-way Freight reported the theft to the sheriff’s office on Oct. 15. None of the guns has been recovered, Prator’s office said Wednesday.
The semi-automatic weapons, valued at $800 apiece, are black and have 16-inch barrels. They were part of a five-pallet shipment of guns that was being sent from Hartford, Conn., to a Shreveport gun distributor when it was checked into the terminal on Oct. 12, Prator’s office said. The guns were discovered missing two days later.
None of the suspects was employed by Con-way Freight. One suspect, 21-year-old Cameron Johnson of Keithville, worked as a security guard for a contractor and was arrested after being questioned by sheriff’s detectives and federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Three others were also arrested last week: Luther M. Williams Jr., 22, of Shreveport; James D. Minor Jr., 44, of Keithville; and David McNeil, 31, of Keithville.
Prator’s office said McNeil was arrested Oct. 17 after investigators searched a home in Keithville and found a television that had been stolen from the terminal on the same day as the weapons. He was charged with illegal possession of stolen goods. The other suspects were charged with theft of a firearm.
It was unclear whether the men have attorneys.
Bond for Johnson, McNeil and Williams was set at $500,000. Minor was being held on $250,000 bond.
Ohio
Death row con called suicide ‘inevitable’
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio death row inmate who killed himself just days before his execution called his suicide inevitable in a three-page note and expressed resentment that Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro got a life sentence.
A report by the State Highway Patrol on the Aug. 4 suicide of Billy Slagle also says the inmate called his nearly three decades in prison torture and said he was taking his destiny into his own hands.
In the report released to The Associated Press on Thursday, Slagle also expressed resentment he was being put to death despite the county prosecutor opposing his execution.
The report says Slagle hanged himself with a belt that he hooked onto a conduit in his cell on death row at Chillicothe Correctional Institution.
Castro was found hanged a month later.
New York
Conviction of ex-detainee upheld by court
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York federal appeals court has upheld the conviction of an ex-Guantanamo detainee in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a ruling Thursday that Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani was properly convicted and sentenced to life in prison for his role in the attack. The case tested the limits of the government’s efforts to obtain time-sensitive intelligence while still prosecuting terrorism defendants in civilian court.
His defense lawyers had argued that his rights to a speedy trial were violated because he was held abroad for several years by the CIA. The appeals court said his rights were not violated.
A lawyer for Ghailani did not immediately return a message for comment.
Kentucky
Justices uphold conviction in burned body case
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The murder conviction of a northern Kentucky woman in a case that ended with the victim’s body being burned has been upheld by the Kentucky Supreme Court.
The justices on Thursday ruled that prosecutors had ample evidence to convict 24-year-old Samantha Mayse in the death of 28-year-old Shawn Davis in January 2009 at a Covington apartment.
Three other people were convicted or pleaded guilty to taking part in the killing, which took place after Mayse lured Davis to her apartment with the promise of three-way sex.
Justice Bill Cunningham concluded that Judge Gregory Bartlett erred in allowing jurors to briefly consider inadmissible evidence, but the breach wasn’t enough to result in a new trial.
Mayse is serving life in prison with a parole opportunity after 25 years.
Pennsylvania
Judge upholds straw purchase ban in shooting
HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A central Pennsylvania judge has rejected arguments that a state law banning straw purchases of guns is unconstitutionally vague in the case of a woman charged with illegally buying a gun her live-in boyfriend used when he fatally shot three people before state troopers killed him last year.
Blair County Judge Elizabeth Doyle upheld the law in a decision Wednesday in the case of Brenda Shultz, 52, of Hollidaysburg, the Altoona Mirror (http://bit.ly/1cfEr7t) reported.
Shultz’s attorney, Lucas Kelleher, argued the law is vague and that the straw purchase law doesn’t specifically address people who buy guns for a partner when they live together.
Police allege Doyle bought the pistol from a sporting goods store in January 2011 for Jeffrey Lee Michael because she mistakenly believed a protection from abuse order Michaels’ estranged wife had obtained — which banned him from having guns — was still in effect. In fact, the court order had lapsed.
State police contend Michael, 44, used the weapon and others when he shot Kenneth Lynn, 60; Lynn’s son-in-law, William Rhodes Jr., 38; and Kimberly Scott, 58; at various locations along a rural road near Geeseytown on Dec. 21.
Michael was fatally shot by responding troopers after Michael wounded one trooper in the wrist then slammed his pickup into a cruiser injuring a second trooper.
Doyle in September ruled there was enough evidence for Shultz to stand trial on charges of making and writing false statements when she claimed to be the “actual buyer” of the gun on state and federal firearms forms.
Doyle agreed with District Attorney Richard Consiglio who argued that the firearms forms spell out that the person filling out the forms must be purchasing the gun for themselves.
Shultz “was clearly not the actual buyer of the firearm because she bought it for Michael,” Consiglio said in his legal brief.
Shultz is awaiting trial on the charges.
