National Roundup

New Jersey
No new trial for man convicted of killing boy, 6, and  raping girl, 12
CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey appellate court won't grant a new trial to a man convicted of killing a 6-year-old boy who was trying to save his 12-year-old sister from being sexually assaulted.

Osvaldo Rivera is serving a 110-year sentence for the September 2012 killing of Dominick Andujar and the sex assault. Authorities have said Rivera broke into a Camden home and repeatedly assaulted and slashed the girl with a butcher knife.

Rivera argued that the trial judge didn't instruct jurors that they could find him guilty of lesser charges. His attorney had asked jurors to consider aggravated manslaughter because her client was intoxicated at the time of the killing.

Judges dismissed Rivera's appeal Friday. They said a defendant can't request an action at trial and later disagree if the outcome was unfavorable.

Delaware
Lawsuit over bedbugs in rental furniture moved to arbitration
DOVER, Del. (AP) — A Delaware judge says a lawsuit over bedbugs found in a bedframe leased from a furniture rental store must go to arbitration.

The judge late last week granted a request from Rent-A-Center to put the lawsuit on hold pending the outcome of binding arbitration.

Rachelle Allen of Magnolia, Delaware, claimed in her lawsuit that she leased a bedframe from RAC last year, only to find after it was delivered that it was infested with bedbugs.

Allen claims she was forced to purchase a new bed, have her apartment and clothes treated for bedbugs, and seek medical treatment for a rash.

Rent-A Center sought to dismiss or halt the lawsuit, arguing that a lease-purchase agreement signed by Allen allows either party to elect to have any dispute resolved by binding arbitration.

Colorado
Grandmother found guilty in death of infant grandson
GREELEY, Colo. (AP) — A Colorado grandmother was found guilty of child abuse resulting in the death of her infant grandson.

The Denver Post reports Sandy Archuleta was convicted by jury Friday in Weldon County. The district attorney's office says Archuleta is the second co-defendant found guilty in the death of 4-month-old Donovan Archuleta.

A district attorney's release says Donovan died in August 2015 from abuse and neglect. Sandy Archuleta cared for Donovan while the boy's mother, Angelica Rey Chavez, had "other obligations."

Medical records indicate Donovan had chemical burns on his face, mouth and gums, a sepsis infection from pneumonia and red bruises caused by tweezers used to pinch him.

Chavez was sentenced in April to eight years in prison after being found guilty of negligent child abuse resulting in death.

Connecticut
Judge upholds law limiting length of runway
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A federal judge has ruled in favor of Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen in a dispute with Tweed-New Haven Airport over the length of the airport's main runway.

Magistrate Judge Robert Richardson in Hartford upheld a 2009 law in a decision filed Saturday.

Richardson wrote he wasn't convinced of the state-run airport's claims that the law limiting the runway to its current 5,600 feet is threatening existing service and preventing Tweed from attracting more commercial flights.

Richardson held a one-day trial without a jury on the airport's lawsuit against the state in March.

Airport officials said the runway is too short for most commercial planes to take off.

They said the airport's only commercial carrier, American Airlines, will soon be replacing planes serving Tweed with ones that require longer runways.

New York
Trial begins in pipe bomb attacks
NEW YORK (AP) — A man accused of setting off a pipe bomb in New York City that injured 30 people went on trial Monday, but opening statements were made without him in the courtroom.

Ahmad Khan Rahimi stood and asked to speak as a prosecutor tried to start opening statements. The judge told him to sit down or he'd be removed. When he tried again to speak, marshals escorted him out and opening statements went forward without him.

Rahimi has not been charged with terrorism, but federal lawyers say his interest in jihad, terrorist attacks and terrorist organizations vastly influenced his plans.

The government said it is seeking to have an expert witness testify about al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden and other terrorist leaders as a primer for jurors and to help explain some writings he made in a journal.

Defense lawyers have argued the government is trying to wrongly paint a picture of Rahimi, an Afghanistan-born U.S. citizen, as an extremist. They say federal lawyers have drummed up a "radicalization" theory.

"To make its case more 'compelling, dramatic, and seductive,'" the lawyers wrote in court papers.

Rahimi, 29, who lived with his family in Elizabeth, New Jersey, is charged with detonating a pipe bomb along a charity race in Seaside Park, New Jersey, and planting two pressure cooker bombs in Manhattan on Sept. 17.

One device did not explode. The other one detonated in Chelsea.

Rahimi was shot by law enforcement during his arrest two days after the attacks. He has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail.

Jurors were expected to see various terrorism-related videotapes, a book, a blood-stained journal with a bullet hole in it and two 2012 emails found during the investigation, after U.S. District Court Judge Richard M. Berman ruled the evidence could be included because they might show motive, intentions, preparation and knowledge of the bombings.

They also may hear details of a bomb left in an Elizabeth, New Jersey, trash can, along with video recordings of Rahimi in New Jersey and New York on Sept. 17 and setting off explosives in his backyard two days before the bombing.

Prosecutors have said they're not planning to introduce statements Rahimi made in the days after his arrest, gleaned while he was hospitalized and medicated with a breathing tube down his throat. Investigators asked him yes or no questions and had Rahimi nod his head. His lawyers said he was improperly interrogated.

Berman rejected a request to move the trial from New York to Vermont or Washington, D.C.

Rahimi also has been charged with attempted murder in New Jersey, because authorities say he shot at police officers during his arrest. Details of the shootout won't be included in the federal trial.