National Roundup

Pennsylvania
Man imprisoned for black man’s beating faces fed hate charge
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A white man serving a 3- to 6-year state court sentence for beating a black man at a Pittsburgh commuter rail station has agreed to plead guilty to a federal hate crime charge for the same incident.

Federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh announced the hate crime charge against 22-year-old Ryan Kyle on Monday, the first ever filed in western Pennsylvania under a 2009 hate crime statute.

Kyle’s attorney, Almon Burke, says Ryan has agreed to plead guilty to the charge which can carry up to 10 years in prison. But Burke says Ryan and federal prosecutors have agreed to recommend a three-year sentence that will run concurrently to Ryan’s state sentence — meaning Ryan won’t serve any additional prison time if a judge approves the plea deal.

Connecticut
Man who flew drones loses bid to return to school
NEW BRITAIN, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut man who posted widely viewed online videos of flying drones shooting bullets and flames has lost a legal fight to overturn his expulsion from college.

A Superior Court judge recently dismissed a lawsuit by Austin Haughwout (HOW’-it), who sued Central Connecticut State University officials for wrongful expulsion. His lawyer said Monday that an appeal is planned.

Central Connecticut officials said the 20-year-old Clinton resident was expelled last year for threatening to shoot people at the school. Haughwout denied the allegation and said the drones were the real reason he got kicked out.

Federal authorities have been investigating Haughwout’s drones, which are seen on YouTube videos firing a gun and shooting flames in his backyard. Haughwout also is facing child pornography and other criminal charges, which he denies.

Maine
Woman pleads guilty to allowing home to be used as drug site
BANGOR, Maine (AP) — A Maine woman has pleaded guilty in federal court to allowing her home to be a site for using and distributing drugs.

Prosecutors say that 42-year-old Amy Hakola, of Orono, allowed her home to be used by a group of men from New Haven, Connecticut, to distribute crack from 2010 to 2013. They said she was aware that digital scales, packaging materials and drugs were at her home.

Prosecutors also said on occasion, Hakola drove the men from her home to different locations in the Bangor area so that they could deliver drugs and that they shared powder cocaine with her.

A sentencing date has not been scheduled. Hakola, who pleaded guilty Monday, faces up to 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

Indiana
Retrial planned for man in triple slaying case
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — A retrial is planned after a jury failed to reach a verdict in the triple slaying trial of a 19-year-old Fort Wayne man.

The jury deliberated for more than eight hours earlier this month before telling a judge they couldn’t reach a verdict in the trial of Artavius Richards. Prosecutors plan to retry the case in Allen Superior Court and a Jan. 30 trial date was set Monday.

Prosecutors say the Feb. 24 slayings were a robbery gone wrong. Police say Darrell McDaniel shot one man and Richards fired 15 rounds, killing two others. Shot dead were 23-year-old Mohamedtaha Omar, 20-year-old Adam K. Mekki and 17-year-old Muhannad A. Tairab.

Richards and McDaniel were each charged with three counts of murder and other charges. McDaniel’s trial is set for late March.


Kansas
Appeals court orders new trial in 2008 killing
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas appellate court says a woman serving a 14-year sentence for a 2008 beating death can challenge her conviction on her claims that her trial attorney was ineffective.

A three-judge Kansas Court of Appeals panel sent Shanna Friday’s case back to Douglas County on Wednesday to allow her to argue that the trial court wrongly admitted an alleged taped confession by her into evidence, The Lawrence Journal-World reported. Friday also insists her first court-appointed attorney failed to adequately challenge that confession.

Friday was convicted in 2008 of killing 62-year-old Jerry Lee Deshazer at his Lawrence home. Authorities said Deshazer died of blood loss after being beaten on the head with a bottle during an altercation.

The Kansas Supreme Court upheld her conviction in 2013. But the appeals court ruled that the trial court didn’t properly consider her motion to suppress the taped confession.

According to court records, a Lawrence police investigator brought her to Lawrence for what became a three-hour interrogation session that ended with Friday’s supposed confession.

In their opinion Wednesday, the appellate judges said that when the trial court held a hearing on a motion to suppress the tape, the court did not review the tape itself. The appellate panel also concluded the court did not fully consider whether the confession was voluntary.

The appeals court noted “the interrogating detective repeatedly swore and shouted at Friday, called her names, and questioned her truthfulness. None of these issues were raised by trial counsel at the suppression hearing.”

Colorado
U.S. Supreme Court asks government’s view on mine spill suit
DENVER (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has asked the Justice Department to weigh in on New Mexico’s lawsuit against Colorado over a mine waste spill that polluted rivers in both states and in Utah.

The court on Monday asked the Office of the Solicitor General to submit the Obama administration’s views on the lawsuit. The solicitor general represents the executive branch in Supreme Court cases.

The federal government has a stake in this case because the Environmental Protection Agency accidentally triggered the August 2015 spill at the Gold King Mine. The spill released 3 million gallons of water laden with arsenic, cadmium, copper and other heavy metals.

New Mexico sued Colorado in June, saying Colorado should be held responsible for the contamination as well as decades of toxic drainage from other mines.