Indiana
Man to appeal life sentence in home blast
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - An Indianapolis man has filed notice that he will appeal his sentence of life in prison without parole for blowing up a house and killing two neighbors in 2012.
Mark Leonard's public defender filed the appeals notice Friday with the state Supreme Court. Leonard was convicted in July of murder, arson and conspiracy in the explosion that also injured a dozen others, and damaged or destroyed dozens of homes in an Indianapolis subdivision.
A judge sentenced Leonard last month to two life sentences plus 75 years in prison.
Prosecutors said Leonard arranged a plot to destroy his then-girlfriend's house in a gas explosion to get $300,000 in insurance. Homeowner Monserrate Shirley has pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges, and three others await trial.
Colorado
Former radio host files lawsuit against pop star
DENVER (AP) - A former Denver radio personality has filed a lawsuit against singer Taylor Swift, saying he lost his job after being accused of inappropriately touching Swift during a photo session.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday in U.S. District court in Denver by David Mueller.
The lawsuit says Mueller was falsely accused by one of Swift's security team of grabbing the singer's buttocks backstage at the Pepsi Center on June 2, 2013.
It says Mueller was fired two days later from his job at KYGO radio.
The lawsuit says Mueller denies inappropriate contact with Swift and noted that he had met many other celebrities without incident.
A statement from Swift's publicist on Saturday says Mueller's employer was given evidence after the incident and made its own decision on his job status.
Pennsylvania
Professor is grateful feds dropped China secrets case
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A Temple University physics professor who had been accused of scheming to provide secret U.S. technology to China said he's grateful and relieved prosecutors dropped the case against him, and is thankful to friends and colleagues who supported him.
Xi Xiaoxing (shee show-shing) released a statement Saturday calling the case a nightmare in which he "suffered professionally, mentally, physically, and financially."
The U.S. attorney's office in Philadelphia declined to comment on the motion the office filed Friday seeking to drop four counts of wire fraud against Xi.
In its filing in federal court, the government said only that the motion is based on "additional information" it received since the charges against the 57-year-old professor were filed in May.
"I am innocent," Xi wrote in the statement. "I have done nothing more than common academic collaborations practiced by so many colleagues every day."
Xi was chairman of Temple's physics department until his arrest. He voluntarily stepped down as chairman and remains a faculty member. He is a naturalized U.S. citizen born in China.
The dismissal motion comes after Xi and his lawyer, Peter Zeidenberg, gave a presentation on Aug. 21 to investigators. That presentation included affidavits from world-renowned physicists and experts who looked at the emails between Xi and contacts in China and explained that he was involved in a scientific pursuit that had a very narrow commercial application and did not involve restricted technology, Zeidenberg said.
Xi said he hoped he and his wife and daughters would now be able move beyond what happened, and he hopes to travel to see his mother, after missing her 90th birthday in June.
"At the right time, I will tell my side of the story," he said. "Not just to clear my name and repair my reputation, but to do my part in making sure that no American citizen, regardless of where he or she was born, should have to be put through the ordeal that I have gone through."
Illinois
Judge orders new trial in killing of Champaign man
URBANA, Ill. (AP) - A Champaign County judge has ruled that a Champaign man should get a new trial because prosecutors didn't correct the record when two witnesses lied to a jury.
The (Champaign) News-Gazette reports that Judge Harry Clem ruled that 24-year-old Demarco Taylor is entitled to a new trial. Taylor is due back in court Sept. 22 with his public defender. Taylor was convicted in 2011 of first-degree murder for his part in the December 2008 death of 34-year-old James Ellis, who was gunned down while with his wife and children in Champaign. Taylor received a 40-year sentence.
The judge ruled that the two jailhouse witnesses lied to jurors when they told them prosecutors hadn't promised them any consideration in their own cases in return for the testimony against Taylor.
Illinois
Suspect arrested after eluding police since 1999
CHICAGO (AP) - Jerome Lawrence has eluded police over the last 16 years but the 46-year-old man now has been arrested in the 1999 killing of a woman in Chicago.
The Chicago Tribune reports Lawrence was arrested Friday and charged with first-degree murder after an acquaintance saw him in Chicago and called police. He is accused of striking 65-year-old Marjorie Collette and smothering her with a pillow.
Lawrence was in court on Sunday, when prosecutors detailed how he was able to evade authorities for so long. They said he escaped an Arkansas jail in 1999 and was arrested multiple times in Florida over the years. But prosecutors said police in Florida never discovered there was a nationwide manhunt for him.
Georgia
State high court upholds murder conviction for boy
ATLANTA (AP) - The Georgia Supreme Court has upheld the murder conviction and life prison sentence for a 14-year-old boy who shot and killed a 14-year-old girl in the east Georgia town of Harlem.
Authorities said the boy, Lacy Aaron Schmidt, went to his friend Alana Calahan's house and shot her in the back of the neck in January 2011. They say he then dragged her into nearby woods, where she died from the gunshot wound, and later tried to make it appear that someone had abducted her.
Schmidt appealed his conviction to the Georgia Supreme Court, saying a judge and his lawyer had made legal mistakes, and that his sentence amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.
The court said Monday that his arguments were rejected, and his conviction and sentence were upheld.
Published: Tue, Sep 15, 2015
