Court Roundup

Virginia
Court: Hanging noose in yard not protected by 1st Amendment
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The Virginia Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction of a man who was sentenced to six months in jail for hanging a black-faced dummy in his front yard.

Jack Eugene Turner of Rocky Mount was convicted last year of violating a state law that prohibits hanging a noose to intimidate. His next-door neighbors are black.

Turner displayed the dummy the same day nine black churchgoers were massacred in South Carolina.

Turner argued on appeal that his action should’ve been protected by the First Amendment’s right to free speech.

But the court rejected that argument on Tuesday. The court wrote that the First Amendment “protects Turner’s right to be a racist” but doesn’t “permit him to threaten or intimidate others who do not share his views.”

Holland Perdue, Turner’s attorney, said the man has already served his jail sentence. Purdue said he looks forward to appealing to the Virginia Supreme Court.

Texas
Judge won’t host ­naturalization events after Trump remark
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A federal magistrate judge in San Antonio who told people at a citizenship swearing-in ceremony that they “need to go to another country” if they object to Donald Trump’s presidency will no longer preside over such events.

Orlando Garcia, the chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, said Tuesday that district judges on Monday agreed to bar Magistrate Judge John Primomo from handling such proceedings.

District court judges are responsible for overseeing and appointing magistrate judges.

Primomo has said he wasn’t trying to tell the new Americans at the ceremony to leave if they didn’t like Trump. He said his words were meant to be unifying and respectful of the president’s office, not political. He added he didn’t vote for Trump.

Utah
Charge: Murder victim forced to dig own grave
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A 19-year-old Utah man has been accused of forcing a man to dig his own grave before killing him and burning his body in a remote wooded area, prosecutors said.

Raul Francisco Vidrio was charged Monday with one count of aggravated murder in the death of Wesley Dee Nay, 22, and remained jailed Tuesday on $500,000 bail, sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Cannon said.

It was not immediately clear if Vidrio has a lawyer or will be appointed one. He also is charged with abuse or desecration of a dead human body and obstruction of justice.

A witness told police the two got into an argument in late August, when Nay was last seen alive. Hunters found Nay’s remains in a shallow grave on Oct. 19 about 100 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, authorities said.

A probable cause statement alleges that Vidrio beat Nay, stabbed him and placed his body in a grave filled with chopped wood before dousing the body in gasoline and lighting it on fire.

Detectives say they recovered a deleted image from Vidrio’s cellphone that appeared to show Nay digging what would become his own grave, the Deseret News reported.

“The image depicts Mr. Nay in the same clothing he was last seen in, digging a hole in a grassy meadow that strongly resembles the location where his remains were found,” the charges say.

Charred bones, including a human skull, were found in the remote area, along with burned pieces of wood. The Utah State Medical Examiner’s Office identified Nay through dental records and concluded he had suffered blunt-force injuries and stab wounds.

Nay was reported missing on Sept. 18. Witnesses reported seeing him leaving a home in the city of Mount Pleasant with Vidrio on Aug. 28, the last day Nay was seen alive, search-warrant affidavits say.

Missouri
Dealer settles in case over gun-shop liability
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A pawn shop that sold a gun to a mentally ill Missouri woman who used it to fatally shoot her father settled Tuesday in a wrongful death case for $2.2 million, which the plaintiff’s lawyer says is the largest settlement since a 2005 federal law that shields gun manufacturers from most similar lawsuits.

Washington, D.C.-based Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence lawyer Jonathan Lowy told The Associated Press before a Tuesday settlement hearing in Lexington, Missouri, that the case could have a national impact and is significant following the enactment of a federal law barring some state-level actions against gun dealers after buyers use the weapons to harm others.

“Today’s settlement sends the latest resounding message to gun dealers across the country that if they don’t clean up their act, they will be forced to pay the consequences when they choose to irresponsibly arm dangerous people with guns,” said Lowy, who is representing the woman’s mother, in a statement.

In the Missouri case, Wellington resident Janet Delana said her daughter, Colby Sue Weathers, in May 2012 bought a gun from Odessa Gun & Pawn and tried to kill herself. According to court records, Delana and her husband took that gun away from Weathers.

Delana said she asked the store in June not to sell a gun to Weathers, who is schizophrenic. Weathers bought a gun from the store two days later and within hours used it to fatally shoot her father and attempt suicide again.
The state committed Weathers to a mental institution, and Delana filed a wrongful death suit against the gun dealer.

Pawn shop attorney Kevin Jamison said Tuesday the settlement could dissuade those interested in selling guns from opening stores and might be used to crack down on firearms dealers in other states. He also said it could have a broader impact on other types of stores.

“Everybody who sells cars, alcohol, chain saws or anything that could be potentially harmful now has to be a psychologist,” Jamison said.

Lawyers for Odessa Gun & Pawn unsuccessfully tried to block the wrongful death case, arguing to the Missouri Supreme Court that the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act was intended to prevent such lawsuits and potential chilling effects on commerce.

Judges in April upheld the constitutionality of that law but said certain negligence lawsuits can be brought under state law against gun sellers. The judges cited an exemption in the federal law, which allows for lawsuits if the seller knows, or reasonably should know, that the buyer likely will “use the product in a manner involving unreasonable risk of physical injury to the person or others,” and then does that.

Alla Lefkowitz, another attorney for Delana from the Brady Center, in a statement said that since the Missouri Supreme Court ruling two other cases against gun dealers have been filed in the Kansas City area.

The center says it’s fighting similar cases in Florida, Indiana, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Texas.