California
NRA sues San Francisco over gun capacity law
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The National Rifle Association is suing the city of San Francisco, claiming the city violated the Second Amendment with a new ordinance banning possession of magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports the lawsuit was filed Tuesday in response to the recently approved measure. The new law expands an existing ban on sales of large-capacity gun magazines and requires owners who have those magazines to turn them over to police within 90 days starting next month.
The lawsuit says limiting magazine capacity to 10 rounds gives violent criminals an edge over people trying to protect themselves.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled people have the right to possess handguns in their home for self-defense. NRA attorneys contend weapons holding more than 10 cartridges are in the same category.
Idaho
Man who kneed corrections cop faces 8 years
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A knee to the groin of a tribal corrections officer could put a Nevada man behind bars in federal prison for up to 8 years.
Clayton Amos Lossing of McDermitt, Nev., pleaded guilty on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Pocatello to assaulting a peace officer.
U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson says Lossing was in the Fort Hall Correction Center on May 5 after being arrested for intoxication.
While he was being booked into the law enforcement facility of the Shoshone-Bannock tribe, the 53-year-old Lossing kneed an officer in the groin, causing the officer significant pain requiring medical attention.
In addition to prison time, Lossing could also be required to pay a $250,000 fine.
He’ll be sentenced on Jan. 29.
The case was investigated by the Fort Hall Police Department.
Iowa
Waterloo tax preparer gets 15 months in prison
WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — A Waterloo tax preparer has been given 15 months in prison for helping a client receive a bigger refund than merited.
The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier says 49-year-old Victoria Jones was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids. She’d pleaded guilty to aiding in the preparation of a false tax return.
Court records say Jones prepared at least 20 fraudulent tax returns for her clients between 2007 and 2010, claiming false deductions or inflating the value of legitimate deductions. Jones’ plea involved a return that was filed in 2008 for a client identified only as “G.M.” Court records say the inflated refund was more than $4,800 higher than it should have been.
Jones also must pay a $15,000 fine and more than $4,800 in restitution.
Mississippi
Inmate gets 10 year sentence for prison riot role
NATCHEZ, Miss. (AP) — An inmate who played a role in the deadly, May 2012 prison riot in Adams County has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The Natchez Democrat reports that Ernesto Lizama-Reynaga and his attorney protested the sentence, saying Lizama-Reynaga was not an instigator and did not attack any guards at the privately-run prison.
However, U.S. District Judge David Bramlette said Tuesday that Lizama-Reynaga had a criminal history four-and-a-half pages long that included armed robbery, receiving stolen property, harassment, menacing, assault, attempted assault, drunkenness and re-entry of a deported alien. Bramlette said Lizama-Reynaga could have gotten a longer sentence under sentencing guidelines.
One guard was killed and 20 people were injured in the May 20, 2012, riot at the privately-run Adams County Correctional Facility in Natchez, which holds immigrants convicted of crimes while being in the U.S. illegally.
The prison holds nearly 2,500 inmates, most of them convicted on charges of coming back to the U.S. after deportation for being in the country illegally. The prison is owned by Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America, one of the nation’s largest private prison companies.
Several other inmates have been charged with participating in the riot.
Lizama-Reynaga told the judge that he had only pleaded guilty to rioting in order to get reassigned to a new correctional facility
Lizama-Reynaga had previously agreed with the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s factual basis read into the court record for his guilty plea that included assertions the government could prove he had been seen carrying a pole and piece of concrete, striking windows with a commissary tray and throwing items from the Adams County Correctional Center’s kitchen during the riot.
At his sentencing Tuesday, however, the defendant recanted his agreement with those assertions.
Bramlette denied Lizama-Reynaga’s request for a reduction in sentence based on acceptance of responsibility in part because of the inmate’s change in his story, noting that during a pre-sentencing investigation with federal probation officers Lizama-Reynaga reportedly said “he only pleaded guilty to be removed from the Madison County Correctional Center, which everyone wants out of.”
Lizama-Reynaga’s attorney, Aafram Sellers, argued that sentencing should be lenient in part because he was not alleged to have attacked guards directly and because others who played similar roles in the riot had been given sentences of 40 to 60 months.
Bramlette said under sentencing guidelines, Lizama-Reynaga could have received a sentence of 130-162 months.
Ohio
Dad: Teen said knife-throwing led to death
REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio (AP) — The father of a 17-year-old central Ohio boy suspected of killing a teenage friend says his son told him he accidentally wounded the girl while throwing a knife at a tree while they were high on drugs.
The father tells The Columbus Dispatch the boy didn’t know what to do and left the girl behind on Saturday. The body of 18-year-old Danielle Michaels was found Monday near a school campus in Reynoldsburg.
Columbus television stations report court records indicate Michaels was cut on her neck and arm and had a puncture wound on her neck. The records say the suspect acknowledged intentionally throwing a knife at the victim.
Police say the teen arrested Tuesday confessed to a role in the death. He is in custody at a juvenile detention facility.
