National Roundup

Georgia
Man charged in slayings of couple, grandson
BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — A 22-year-old man has been charged with murder in the summer slayings of a coastal Georgia couple and their adult grandson.

News outlets report Brunswick police and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested Roger Owens on Tuesday and charged him with three counts of malice murder.

Nearly four months ago authorities found 64-year-old Carson Holliman Sr., his 63-year-old wife, Vondell Holliman, and their 24-year-old grandson, Christopher Holliman, shot to death inside their Brunswick home. Members of their church called police on June 18 when the Hollimans failed to show up for Sunday services.

Authorities had offered a $15,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

No further information was released on how police connected Owens to the slayings. It was not immediately known if Owens had an attorney.

Florida
U.S. judge rejects plea for alleged drug kingpin
MIAMI (AP) — A Miami federal judge has rejected a plea deal for an alleged Colombian drug kingpin because the proposed prison sentence was too lenient.

Instead, 46-year-old Henry De Jesus Lopez Londono, also known as “Mi Sangre” (My Blood), may stand trial on cocaine trafficking charges that carry a potential life prison sentence.

The Miami Herald reports Senior U.S. District Judge Donald Graham said at a hearing Tuesday he could not accept the proposed guilty plea deal that included 17 years behind bars.

Graham said the allegations against Lopez Londono are too serious, including importation of huge amounts of cocaine into the U.S. and links to drug-related killings.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers will try to negotiate a new plea agreement.

Lopez Londono was extradited to Miami last year after his arrest in Argentina.

Virginia
Teen slaying suspect wants statements thrown out
CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. (AP) — Lawyers for a man charged with murder in the death of a 13-year-old Virginia girl have asked a judge to throw out incriminating statements he allegedly made to investigators.

David Eisenhauer, of Columbia, Maryland, is accused of taking Nicole Lovell to a wooded area and stabbing her to death.

Eisenhauer is scheduled to go on trial Nov. 2. In court documents, his lawyers say his statements should be tossed out because investigators violated his rights.

His arguments are similar to those made by his co-defendant, Natalie Keepers, who objected to how police questioned her and eventually got a confession. Keepers, of Laurel, Maryland, is charged as an accessory. Her trial is scheduled to begin in February.

Eisenhauer and Keepers were engineering students at Virginia Tech when Lovell disappeared in January 2016.

Florida
Immigration officer gets 4 years for bribe
MIAMI (AP) — A Florida immigration officer has been sentenced to four years in prison for taking a bribe from a woman he accused of using a fake marriage to gain U.S. residency.

Federal court records show 34-year-old Jovany Perez was sentenced in Miami last week. He pleaded guilty in July to receiving a bribe while a public official.

Perez was a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officer when he determined in April a woman he was interviewing was lying about her marriage. Perez offered to help the woman but not in his office. They met in a restaurant parking lot, where authorities say Perez fondled her and suggested they have sex. She refused.

Investigators say Perez then said he could fix things for $2,000. The woman contacted authorities. Perez was arrested later after taking the money.

Illinois
Federal jury convicts lawyer of defrauding elderly couple
CHICAGO (AP) — A federal jury in Chicago has convicted a lawyer of defrauding an elderly couple out of $300,000.

Portage, Indiana-based lawyer Robert Jon Schlyer faces up to 30 years in prison after he was convicted on two counts of wire fraud affecting a financial institution and one count of bank fraud.

The 47-year-old Schlyer was representing two co-schemers in connection with a foreclosure lawsuit. Trial evidence showed Schlyer produced fraudulent documents to postpone foreclosure.

The co-schemers were in default on an Amcore loan in 2005 when Schlyer presented fraudulent documents to the bank and the victims. The victims believed they were making a safe, $300,000 investment in property redevelopment backed by a trust. But the trust didn’t exist.

Schlyer is scheduled to be sentenced in January.

California
Court: Counties can restrict gun store locations
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Counties can restrict the location of gun stores without violating the Second Amendment, a federal appeals court said Tuesday.

The ruling by an 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a California county’s ordinance banning new gun stores within 500 feet (152 meters) of schools, day-care centers, residential areas, liquor stores and other gun shops.

A majority of the panel said the law did not violate the Second Amendment right to bear arms of would-be gun owners because there were other stores in the county where they could buy a gun.

“Gun buyers have no right to have a gun store in a particular location, at least as long as their access is not meaningfully constrained,” Judge Marsha Berzon said.

The majority also rejected the argument that gun sellers’ Second Amendment rights were violated, saying there is no constitutional right to sell guns.

The ordinance at issue was passed by the San Francisco Bay Area county of Alameda. A phone message after hours to an attorney for groups that challenged the law was not immediately returned.

The ruling overturned a decision last year by a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit that said the Second Amendment extends to gun stores and requires governments to justify restrictions on them.

That panel in a 2-1 decision said Alameda County had to present evidence to justify the restriction on gun store locations.