Florida
5 high school football players accused of gang rape
WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) - Five football players were charged Tuesday with gang raping a fellow student near their central Florida high school, and investigators say the 16-year-old captured part of the encounter on video.
Two of the Winter Springs High School students will be charged as adults and the remaining three as juveniles, State Attorney Phil Archer said.
Seventeen-year-olds Marquis Pierre, of Winter Springs, and Deoante Stewart, of Sanford, each face one count of sexual battery with multiple perpetrators, a first-degree felony.
Three other students have been charged as juveniles. They have pleaded not guilty. The Associated Press generally does not identify juveniles charged with crimes.
Some of the suspects told detectives the sex was consensual, and others said they didn't take part.
The 16-year-old says she was raped in a patch of woods near the school in November as she walked with the football players to a fast-food restaurant.
Investigators say that the victim captured part of the encounter on her IPod and that in the video she says "no" when asked to perform sex acts.
New York
American who sent $67K to al-Qaida gets 15 years in prison
NEW YORK (AP) - A New Yorker who sent $67,000 to al-Qaida and pledged his support to the terror group has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Federal Judge Kimba Wood in Manhattan sentenced Brooklyn-born Wesam El-Hanafi on Tuesday. The sentence was less than the 20-year maximum term prosecutors had sought and three years less than his co-defendant received.
El-Hanafi pleaded guilty in June 2012, two years after he was brought to the United States from Dubai.
Prosecutors say El-Hanafi pledged loyalty to al-Qaida and sought to teach the group how to evade detection on the Internet. He went to Yemen in 2008 and met with al-Qaida representatives.
El-Hanafi said he regrets his actions and is embarrassed.
Texas
Ecuadoran man on Texas death row loses Supreme Court appeal
HOUSTON (AP) - The U.S. Supreme Court has turned down an appeal from a man convicted and sent to Texas death row for the fatal shootings five years ago of his estranged wife and her 15-year-old daughter.
The high court made no comment Tuesday rejecting the appeal from 44-year-old Jaime Piero Cole, who's identified in prison records as a native of Ecuador. Justices rejected Cole's automatic appeal following his conviction and death sentence. A similar appeal was turned down last year by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
Cole was condemned in 2011 for the slayings of 31-year-old Melissa Cole and her daughter Alecia Castillo. Both were shot repeatedly at their Houston apartment. Cole drove off with the couple's 2-year-old son and was arrested about 50 miles away in Wharton.
Pennsylvania
Police: Brothers stole $500K in sewer grates in Philly area
UPPER MERION, Pa. (AP) - Police say two brothers stole nearly $500,000 worth of sewer grates from the Philadelphia suburbs and sold them for scrap at pennies on the dollar.
Brian and John Vetrulli Jr. were jailed Saturday in Montgomery County on charges of theft, conspiracy and receiving stolen property.
The 36-year-old Brian Vetrulli and 38-year-old John Vetrulli Jr. were unable to post $10,000 cash bail as of Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.
Police say the Gilbertsville men stole 13 sewer grates from area parking lots since the beginning of December and had receipts showing they'd sold more than 1,000 grates to scrap-metal dealers.
Each grate weighs about 100 pounds and costs about $475. Police say the Vetrullis sold them for $9 each.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 30.
Pennsylvania
Cops: Man who killed son-in-law had bullet with name on it
BRADFORD, Pa. (AP) - A man charged with fatally shooting his son-in-law behind the northwestern Pennsylvania restaurant both men used to own had another bullet in his gun with the victim's name carved into it, police said.
Stephen Stidd, 62, has been charged with a single count of criminal homicide in Friday's death of 43-year-old Melvin Bizzarro and faces a preliminary hearing Wednesday, The Bradford Era reported.
Both men are from Bradford, about 130 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, and both had owned Togi's Sub Station. But Stidd sold the business to his daughter, Michelle, and Bizzarro, her husband, in 2007, and the victim had relinquished his share to his wife in December, according to Stidd's defense attorney, Gregory Henry.
Henry and McKean County District Attorney Raymond Learn did not immediately return calls from The Associated Press on Tuesday.
But Henry told the newspaper that Bizzarro understood under a marital settlement agreement that he was not to be on the property. The couple is divorcing.
Henry contends Stidd shot Bizzarro in self-defense after Bizzarro trespassed in the parking lot about 9:30 a.m. Friday. But police suggested the shooting may have been premeditated because another bullet in Stidd's gun that had the letters "MEL" carved in it, according to a criminal complaint.
Bradford police handled the initial investigation but turned over the probe to state police because Stidd is related to one of the city's police officers, Chief Chris Lucco said. Troopers from the nearby Kane barracks filed the homicide charge.
Bradford District Judge Dominic Cercone allowed Stidd to post 10 percent of $100,000 bail to be released from jail, which is unusual because bond is not normally set on homicide charges in Pennsylvania. Learn, the DA, objected, but the judge allowed it after Henry argued that Stidd has an "unimpeachable reputation" and isn't a risk to flee.
Henry noted that Bizzarro threatened and assaulted Stidd at the restaurant in June 2005, injuring his father-in-law so badly he was hospitalized.
Court records indicate Bizzarro was sentenced to 15 days to a year in the McKean County Jail. At that time, Bizzarro claimed his father-in-law hit him several times before he retaliated, and that he had ongoing family problems with Stidd.
Published: Wed, Jan 21, 2015
