NEW YORK
Police: Prisoners clashed in cabin before splitting up
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (AP) - Two killers on the run from a northern New York prison for three weeks disagreed over whether to hole up in hunting cabin - one worried about being captured while the other suggested they could kill or take hostage anyone who checked on the remote camp, state police said.
State Police Maj. Charles Guess told the Press-Republican of Plattsburgh that David Sweat and Richard Matt spent two or three nights at the cabin two weeks after their June 6 escape from the maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility.
Sweat told investigators after his capture that he wanted to leave the cabin 30 miles west of the prison before someone discovered them. But Matt wanted to stay because the cabin had alcohol, heat and water. Matt argued that if someone did come, they could take him hostage or just kill him, Guess said.
"But Sweat said he wanted no part of that," Guess said.
The two convicted murderers also found a .20 gauge shotgun hidden between two mattresses, though they had no ammunition, Guess said, relying on Sweat's account.
A hunter who leased the cabin along with several other corrections officers drove an all-terrain vehicle to the camp June 20. Alerted to potential danger by his dog, he noticed movement, drew his handgun and saw a figure scurry into the woods, police said.
They recovered bloody socks, prison underwear and other items at the scene and quickly developed DNA evidence showing both men were at the cabin. Hundreds of searchers focused their efforts on the heavily wooded area.
Matt was shot dead on June 26 in nearby woods. Sweat was shot by a trooper and captured two days later near the Canadian border and sent back to prison.
Sweat's frustration with Matt grew in the days after they fled from the cabin into the woods, Guess said.
"He considered Matt to be a liability," Guess said. "He wasn't physically fit, and he was drunk as often as supplies would allow."
The pair split up after Matt stumbled and fell, making noise Sweat thought could alert searchers in the area.
Sweat ran northeast. Matt headed west.
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CALIFORNIA
Body of man decomposed in car with small arsenal at home
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The body of a mystery man was decomposing in his car in the ritzy Pacific Palisades neighborhood in Southern California for nearly two weeks before he was found by authorities, an attorney said.
Inside his home, detectives discovered more than 1,200 guns, scopes, 6.5 tons of ammunition, bows and arrows, knives, machetes and $230,000 in cash after he was found on Friday.
They also located eight of the 14 vehicles stashed around Los Angeles registered to the man, including an SUV designed to drive underwater.
Who he was and how he came to accumulate the arsenal and vehicles are questions authorities are still trying to answer.
Veteran defense attorney Harland Braun represents the man's fiancee Catherine Nebron and identified him as Jeffrey Alan Lash.
That's also the name authorities are working with and they're in touch with a relative to try to officially identify the body, said Craig Harvey, the coroner's chief of investigations.
Lash and Nebron were together for 17 years and she believed him when he told her that he worked as an undercover operative for unnamed government agencies, Braun said Wednesday.
"The story itself sounds totally crazy but then how do you explain all this?" Braun said. "There's no evidence he was a drug dealer or he stole these weapons, or had any criminal source of income, no stolen property, all the stuff you'd look for."
There's no indication the man was doing anything illegal with the weapons, LAPD Deputy Chief of Detectives Kirk Albanese said. Detectives were reviewing everything, but so far the guns appeared to be registered to him. Many were still in boxes or had price tags.
Braun said Nebron and two friends were in a car at a supermarket early July 4, when Lash felt hot and had trouble breathing.
"He wouldn't go to a hospital and didn't want any 911 call," Braun said. When he died, Nebron parked him in a car down the street from the condo they shared, the lawyer said.
Authorities don't believe there was any foul play involved, but won't give a cause until there is more investigation.
Lash told Nebron the government agencies would take care of his body and the items in the home, so Nebron and her friends took a trip to Oregon, distraught.
When they returned about 10 days later, Nebron was shocked to still see Lash's body in the car.
She contacted Braun, and together they called police, who found the body, guns and more.
Neighbors thought Lash was dying of cancer because his health appeared to be degenerating over the past year, but Lash told Nebron that he had been exposed to nerve-damaging chemicals on a mission and his condition was worsening.
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MISSOURI
Man gets prison for exposing sex partners to HIV
POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. (AP) - A Missouri man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for knowingly exposing a sexual partner to the virus that causes AIDS.
David Lee Mangum, 39, of Dexter, was sentenced Tuesday, the Poplar Bluff Daily American Republic (http://bit.ly/1GGFJ3X ) reported. He pleaded guilty on June 2 to two counts of exposing another person to HIV. Court documents say Mangum exposed the person without their knowledge or consent in April 2013.
Mangum originally was charged after a male sexual partner tested positive for HIV and alerted police. Mangum initially told authorities he had sexual relations with up to 300 people, with some of the encounters set up through Craigslist ads, often with strangers, including truckers and others passing through Missouri.
He later said the actual number of partners was around 12. He said he did not tell any of them that he had HIV. It wasn't immediately clear if any of Mangum's other partners have tested positive for HIV.
Judge Michael Pritchett said Mangum learned he was HIV-positive in 2003 and received medical treatment from 2003 to 2009, when he moved to Stoddard County. At that point, treatment stopped. Mangum told the judge he didn't have transportation for doctor's visits.
"You made the choice to not get treatment?" Pritchett asked.
"Pretty much," Mangum replied.
"You realize you placed others at risk," Pritchett said.
Stoddard County prosecutor Russ Oliver urged a long sentence, saying sex offenders like Mangum are a "high risk" for re-offending once they are released.
Published: Fri, Jul 24, 2015
