National Roundup

Texas
Woman gets prison, must repay $1.8M to California ­companies
TYLER, Texas (AP) — An East Texas woman must serve nearly seven years in prison after pleading guilty to embezzling $1.8 million from some California companies and using the money to build a house.

Federal prosecutors in Tyler say 49-year-old Lina Su, also known as Lina Perkins, was sentenced Thursday to 80 months and ordered to repay the money. The financial controller in June pleaded guilty to money laundering and wire fraud.

Su split her time living in Hawkins, 100 miles (160.93 kilometers) southeast of Dallas, and Los Angeles. The thefts began in 2015.

Prosecutors say Su illegally transferred funds from VIG Furniture, Airport Van Rental and ACE Medical Transport into her personal account to pay credit cards, buy land and construct a house in Texas.

Su must also forfeit vehicles and land.

Washington
Man who raped dying woman gets less than 3 years in prison
LYNNWOOD, Wash. (AP) — A 20-year-old Washington state man was sentenced Thursday to less than three years in prison for raping a high school student as she died from a drug overdose and texting semi-nude photos of her.

Superior Court Judge Linda Krese said Thursday she could not sentence Brian Varela to more than 2 years and 10 months because it was the most prison time permitted for someone with no prior criminal record, The Daily Herald reported.

Varela had pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter, third-degree rape, and unlawful disposal of remains as part of a plea deal in the February death of 18-year-old Alyssa Noceda.

Krese said she was “surprised, even outraged,” by the inadequacy of the sentence and suggested that state lawmakers may not have realized the impact of their decision when they set prison sentences for the charges.

“I’m not sure the Legislature really contemplated something like this,” Krese said.

Varela told detectives that Noceda came to a party on Feb. 3 northeast of the Seattle suburb of Lynnwood. In Varela’s room, he said Noceda snorted Percocet and also ingested liquid marijuana, court documents said. Tests later showed she had taken a fatal mix of fentanyl and alprazolam, a generic name for Xanax.

She collapsed within a minute of mixing the two, Varela told detectives. Authorities said Varela never sought help for Noceda and instead sent semi-nude photos of her to friends and texting “LOL, I think she od’d, still breathing.”

Varela played an online game until he fell asleep, waking up in the morning to find Noceda’s lips blue, court documents said.

He went to work at Dairy Queen and his co-worker contacted police in the following days after Varela said he didn’t know if Noceda was still alive when he was having sex with her.
Court records say he told a friend that “she died having sex with me.”

Police arrested Varela later that day after executing a search warrant and finding Noceda’s body in a plastic crate at the suspect’s home.

Varela told investigators he planned to bury Noceda with onions to minimize the odor, police said. He also told detectives that after Noceda died, he used her thumb to unlock her phone Feb. 4 and send messages to make it appear she had run away.

In court Thursday, Varela said only, “I’m sorry for my foolish actions. Whatever I get is what I deserve.”

Noceda’s mother and aunt cried when they learned the likely sentence.

“You might as well let him walk free with that kind of time,” Noceda’s aunt, Rachelle Palmer said.

Wisconsin
Boyfriend sent to prison for life in woman’s death
GREEN LAKE, Wis. (AP) — A Princeton man has been sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole after killing his girlfriend, mutilating her body and setting their home on fire.

Twenty-nine-year-old Antonio Contreras was sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind bars in Green Lake County Circuit Court Thursday. WLUK-TV says Contreras previously pleaded no contest to first-degree intentional homicide in the March 2017 death of 55-year-old Grace Reiter-Rudolph. Three other counts were dropped as part of a plea deal.

Prosecutor say Contreras and the victim argued, he shot her in the head and lit her body and other evidence on fire.

Pennsylvania
Man again gets death sentence in disabled woman’s torture
GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania man has once again been sentenced to death for his role in the torture death of a mentally disabled woman.

A Westmoreland County jury handed the verdict down late Thursday night against Melvin Knight, rejecting defense claims that he should be sentenced to life in prison.

Knight initially received a death sentence in August 2013 for the killing of 30-year-old Jennifer Daugherty in a dingy Greensburg apartment in February 2010.

But the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in November 2016 that Knight deserved a new death penalty trial, finding the jury should have been told that Knight had no criminal record and allowed to consider that as a mitigating factor.

Knight was among six people convicted in Daugherty’s death.

Ohio
Jury awards $5M each to men wrongfully imprisoned for murder
EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio (AP) — A jury has awarded $5 million each to three Ohio men who spent almost 20 years in jail after being wrongfully imprisoned for murder.

Cleveland.com reports that jurors decided East Cleveland police officers violated the rights of Laurese Glover, Eugene Johnson and Derrick Wheatt throughout an investigation into a 1995 murder.

A judge in March declared the men wrongfully imprisoned. The three have long denied killing 19-year-old Clifton Hudson, and the case against them unraveled when attorneys learned a prosecutor hid reports raising doubt about their guilt.

A judge freed them and ordered a new trial in 2015. Charges were dropped when prosecutors decided not to pursue another trial.

The city and police officers have denied wrongdoing. Their lawyer said after the verdict there are “a lot of appealable issues.”