Pennsylvania
Triple murder defendant wants evidence tossed
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) — Attorneys for a man charged in a triple slaying in northeastern Pennsylvania want prosecutors barred from telling jurors that the defendant is also charged in an unrelated slaying.
Twenty-year-old Shawn Hamilton is charged in Luzerne County in the July 7 shootings in a Plymouth apartment, which authorities have called a drug deal gone bad.
Killed were 21-year-old Bradley Swartwood, 17-year-old Nicholas Maldonado and 15-year-old Lisa Abaunza. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Hamilton has said that he fired in self-defense and a 17-year-old youth also charged in the slayings is innocent.
New York
Man arrested in 1979 slaying of estranged wife
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — A man has been charged with murder in the 1979 killing of his wife, who was stabbed 108 times and left on a grave in a Buffalo-area cemetery.
The Buffalo News reports that Michael Rodriguez was arrested Wednesday morning. He is scheduled to appear in state Supreme Court.
The body of 21-year-old Patty Rodriguez was found April 13, 1979, on a grave in Lackawanna’s Holy Cross Cemetery. She was last seen with Rodriguez, her estranged husband, leaving a bar.
The newspaper reports that investigators took a second look at forensic evidence, used scientific technology that did not exist at the time of the slaying and re-interviewed witnesses.
Nebraska
Woman, son plead not guilty in woman’s death
RED CLOUD, Neb. (AP) — Pleas of not guilty have been entered for a woman and her son charged with killing a 68-year-old southern Nebraska woman.
The Hastings Tribune says 41-year-old Shelley Casterline and 23-year-old Andrew Casterline, of Guide Rock, are both charged with first-degree murder, burglary and a weapons crime. Their not-guilty pleas were entered on Monday in Webster County District Court in Red Cloud.
They are charged in the stabbing death of Virginia Barone. Barone was found in her Guide Rock home on Oct. 5 with 22 stab wounds. Her body was partially covered by boards.
The Casterlines were arrested the next day in Newton, Iowa, accused of mugging a woman in a parking lot
