Ohio
Man who said he killed brothers gets life term
OTTAWA, Ohio (AP) — An 18-year-old who admitted killing two teenage brothers inside an Ohio mobile home they shared with their mothers was sentenced to life in prison Monday.
Putnam County Common Pleas Judge Randall Basinger told Michael Fay that he won’t be eligible for parole until he is 78. Fay pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated murder last month.
Fay shot 14-year-old Blaine Romes in the head May 9 while he was sleeping on a couch and then shot Blake Romes, 17, in his bedroom, after they had gotten into an argument about whether Fay’s older brother should move back into the mobile home, prosecutors said.
He shot them with a gun he got from a storage unit, said Todd Schroeder, an assistant county prosecutor. Both mothers were at work.
Fay had only moved into the trailer in rural northwest Ohio just a few weeks before the shootings.
He and the brothers were named in an Amber Alert in May after the Romes’ mother discovered a gun and blood inside a trailer home where they lived.
Authorities at first believed that all three teens had been kidnapped after finding a bloody trail throughout the mobile home to the back door and tire tracks leading away from the trailer.
But only the Romes brothers were found dead.
Blaine was supposed to join his classmates on an eighth-grade class trip to Washington the morning he disappeared. His mother told a 911 dispatcher she left work because he was not answering his phone that morning.
Police found Fay later that afternoon at a gas station in Columbus, about 120 miles southeast of the trailer park in Ottawa.
He told officers that the Romes brothers were dead and pointed authorities to their bodies, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office said.
Colorado
DA can use evidence from Holmes’ home
DENVER (AP) — Prosecutors in the Colorado theater shootings can use evidence that police found in defendant James Holmes’ apartment, which includes homemade bombs and a calendar with the day of the shootings highlighted, the judge in the case ruled.
In a ruling dated Friday, Arapahoe County District Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. rejected defense arguments that the apartment search was illegal because it began before police had a warrant.
Prosecutors argued the search was permissible because Holmes told them he had explosives at his apartment, and they didn’t have time to wait for a warrant because of the potential danger.
They later did get a warrant.
Twelve people were killed and 70 injured in the July 20, 2012, attack at a movie theater in the Denver suburb of Aurora.
Holmes, now 25, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to multiple charges of murder and attempted murder. His attorneys have acknowledged he was the shooter but say he was in the midst of a psychotic episode.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
The new ruling is another victory for the district attorney’s office, which is looking for evidence to undermine Holmes’ insanity claim. Prosecutors could argue that the calendar and the bombs — which law-enforcement officers say were meant to divert first responders from the theater — show the attack was planned and that Holmes understood the shootings were wrong.
Previously, Samour ruled items found in Holmes’ car and statements he made to the officers who arrested him outside the theater can be used at his trial. Police have testified those statements included “No, it’s just me” when they asked him if he had an accomplice.
The judge limited the use of statements Holmes made to detectives later, after he was taken to the police station. The statements have never been publicly disclosed, so it’s not known how significant they are to the case.
Holmes’ trial is scheduled for next year, with jury selection set to start in February.
New Jersey
Man pleads not guilty in boy’s gun death case
TOMS RIVER, N.J. (AP) — The father of a 4-year-old New Jersey boy who shot to death a 6-year-old neighbor with his father’s unsecured gun rejected a plea bargain Monday that would have required him to serve seven years in prison.
Anthony Senatore of Toms River pleaded not guilty in state Superior Court to six counts of child endangerment.
Senatore, 34, is accused of keeping a loaded .22-caliber rifle unsecured in his bedroom. That’s where his son found it in April, took it outside, and shot 6-year-old Brandon Holt once in the head.
Senator’s lawyer, Robert Ebberup, says Senatore is “deeply horrified over what took place and feels awful about it.”
But the lawyer said Senatore should not have been charged with a crime.
Senatore did not speak during the hearing.
Prosecutors have offered Senatore a plea deal in which he would serve seven years in state prison. He rejected that offer and plans to proceed toward trial, his lawyer said.
Senatore faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
In addition to the gun used in the shooting, Senatore is charged with keeping five other guns unsecured in his house, where prosecutors say they were accessible to his children, ages 12, 8 and 4.
Holt’s family has filed a lawsuit against Senatore and his wife seeking more than $1 million, claiming their actions were reckless.
Though Toms River is in Ocean County, the prosecutor’s office in neighboring Atlantic County is handling the case at the direction of the state attorney general’s office. The switch was made because several members of Senatore’s family have worked in law enforcement in Ocean County.
New Hampshire
‘Charbucks’ coffee prevails over Starbucks
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — A New Hampshire coffee business has prevailed in a trademark infringement case against Starbucks, which had challenged its “Charbucks blend” name for its deep-roasted coffee.
Black Bear Micro Roastery in Tuftonboro was sued by Starbucks in 2001 in federal district court in New York. Starbucks alleged that Black Bear’s use of the name “Charbucks” infringed, blurred and tarnished its famous trademarks.
Starbucks appealed to the 2nd U.S. Court Circuit Court of Appeals after Black Bear prevailed in district court. The appeals court agreed with the district court in a decision Friday.
Zack Hutson, a spokesman for Seattle-based Starbucks, said the company respects, but disagrees with the court’s decision. He said Starbucks is a responsible trademark owner and was only asking for an injunction against the use of “Charbucks
