National Roundup

Iowa
Man charged with killing mother, father and sister
BONDURANT, Iowa (AP) — A 20-year-old man has been charged in the killing of his mother, father and sister in their suburban Des Moines home.

Iowa court records say Chase Nicholson faces three counts of first-degree murder and is being held on $3 million bail in the Polk County Jail. The records don’t list the name of an attorney who can comment for him.

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office says Nicholson surrendered to police in Neosho, Missouri, Friday morning. A written statement from the Neosho Police Department says Nicholson told an officer that he had killed three people the night before.

Iowa records say Nicholson used a shotgun that was recovered at the family home in Bondurant. The three people killed were identified as 58-year-old Mark Nicholson; 56-year-old Charla Nicholson and 24-year-old Tawni Nicholson.

Florida
Sheriff to heroin dealers: ‘We’re coming for you’
TAVARES, Fla. (AP) — A Florida sheriff is sending a stern warning to heroin dealers: “We’re coming for you. Run!”

In a video posted to the agency’s Facebook page Friday, Lake County Sheriff Peyton Grinnell told dealers his undercover agents have already bought heroin from them, adding that officials are “simply waiting for the arrest warrants to be finalized.”

Flanked by four agents wearing black hoods and masks, the sheriff told dealers to “enjoy looking over your shoulder and constantly wondering if today is the day we will come for you.”

He urged more citizens to call in anonymously.

Then he taunted the dealers: “Enjoy trying to sleep tonight.”

Utah
Doctor convicted of killing wife in bathtub dies
DRAPER, Utah (AP) — A doctor in prison for drugging his beauty queen wife and leaving her to die in a bathtub has died, authorities said.

Correctional officers found Martin Joseph MacNeill, 60, unresponsive Sunday morning near the greenhouse of the Olympus Facility at the Utah State Prison. The officers tried to revive MacNeill, but he was declared dead at the facility.

While MacNeill’s death is being investigated, there are “no obvious signs of foul play,” prison officials said in a statement.

MacNeill had been in prison since September 2014 after he was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Michele. He was also convicted of second-degree obstruction of justice and second-degree forcible sex abuse.
He was serving at least 17 years and up to life in prison, with his first parole hearing scheduled for 2052.

The 2013 murder case against MacNeill became a national true-crime cable TV obsession with its tales of plastic surgery and philandering, betrayal and family feuding, jailhouse snitches and a jetted bathtub brought into the courtroom.

In a separate case, MacNeill was found guilty of sexually abusing his adult daughter the month after his wife’s death in 2007. That case came to trial in 2014, the year after his murder conviction.

Prosecutors said MacNeill overmedicated his wife after she had a face-lift and left her to die in a bathtub so he could begin a new life with his mistress. Defense attorneys argued she could have died of natural causes. No official cause of death was determined, and some lawyers raised questions about the verdict in the largely circumstantial case.

The MacNeill case shocked the Mormon community of Pleasant Grove and captured national attention because the defendant was a wealthy doctor and a lawyer, a father of eight in a seemingly picture-perfect family and former bishop in his local congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.


Massachusetts
Hernandez lawyer objects to judge’s pick of white forewoman
BOSTON (AP) — A lawyer for former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez has objected to the judge’s selection of a white woman as the jury forewoman in his double-murder trial.

Attorney Ronald Sullivan Jr. made his argument Monday as jurors started their second day of deliberations.

Sullivan said the choice of a white woman on the mostly minority jury “has very troubling racial overtones.” He said choosing her as forewoman ensured she would remain on the jury instead of being dismissed as an alternate.

Judge Jeffrey Locke said he found it “astounding” that Sullivan would make that claim.

Hernandez is charged in the 2012 shootings of two men in a drive-by shooting in Boston. His lawyers say Hernandez’s former friend was the triggerman.

Illinois
Suit claiming man tricked to think he was married tossed
CHICAGO (AP) — An appeals court rejected an Illinois man’s claim in a $2 million lawsuit that his then-girlfriend fooled him into thinking they were married to get him to buy her a condominium.

Jonathan Arnold argued he and Leticia Villarreal suspected after their 2004 wedding ceremony the proper papers hadn’t been submitted, so weren’t legally married. But Arnold said his girlfriend tricked him into believing they were. The court agreed they weren’t

The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin reported Friday that the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed a lower court properly tossed the lawsuit.

Arnold alleged he gave his then-girlfriend power of attorney thinking they were married and she used it to finance a condo. The broke up in 2007.

Villarreal’s lawyer called the ruling “absolutely right.” Arnold declined comment.

Illinois
Fingerprints lead to arrest in 1985 slaying of woman
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Authorities say fingerprints obtained in 2015 have led to the arrest and indictment of a man in the fatal shooting of a central Ohio woman in the mid-1980s.

The Columbus Dispatch reports the Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office in Columbus announced Monday that 63-year-old Douglas Krumlauf has been charged with aggravated murder in the slaying of 24-year-old Sharla Spangler.

Prosecutors say Spangler was last seen leaving a lounge in the Columbus suburb of Gahanna in January 1985. Employees notified authorities when they noticed her empty car, with the engine running, in the parking lot. Her body was found in a vacant gas station parking lot.

Prosecutors say fingerprints from an unrelated arrest matched prints found in Spangler’s death.

Court records don’t indicate if Krumlauf, of Mount Vernon, has an attorney.