National Roundup

Massachusetts
Man pleads guilty to shipping lizards from Philippines to US
BOSTON (AP) — A New Hampshire man who smuggled rare lizards from the Philippines to the U.S. by hiding them in socks and placing them inside electronic equipment has pleaded guilty.
Federal prosecutors say 26-year-old Derrick Semedo pleaded guilty in Boston on Tuesday to trafficking in protected wildlife in violation of U.S. and Philippines law and international wildlife treaties.
Authorities say from March to December 2016, the Nashua, New Hampshire, man imported 20 live lizards by placing them in socks, sealing the socks with tape, then concealing them in the back panels of audio speakers or other electronic equipment. The equipment was shipped via commercial carriers to Semedo.
Some lizards were then sold to customers in other states.
He faces up to five years in prison at sentencing scheduled for Aug. 13.

Pennsylvania
Man allegedly hid out in ex's attic, faces charges
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A man who had allegedly been hiding out in the attic of his ex-girlfriend's Pittsburgh home is facing burglary charges.
Authorities say the woman found 31-year-old Cary Cocuzzi in her bedroom Saturday. They say she had a protection from abuse order against him.
Cocuzzi allegedly grabbed the woman and put a hand over her mouth. But she pushed him away and ran outside screaming, spurring several neighbors to call 911.
Police searched the house and found Cocuzzi hiding. They say he told officers he was homeless and had been sneaking in and out of the house for about two weeks.
The woman told authorities she had noticed odd details around her home, such as finding a blanket on the floor where she had not left it.
It's not known if Cocuzzi has retained an attorney.

South Dakota
False statement conviction overturned
RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — A federal judge has overturned the conviction of a Pine Ridge man accused of making a false statement in an assault case.

A jury convicted Weldon Two Bulls last month after he told a Bureau of Indian Affairs agent that he was too drunk to remember what happened to Sheena Between Lodges who was found with a brain bleed and bruises to her body in an assault last November. No one has been charged in the attack.

The Rapid City Journal says Judge Roberto Lange this week overturned the conviction saying jury instructions were flawed, but that even with the correction instructions no reasonable jury could find that Two Bulls lied when he told the agent he was too drunk to remember what happened to Between Lodges.

Alabama
State sets execution for quadruple killing
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama has scheduled a lethal injection for a man convicted in the 1997 deaths of four people, including two young girls.

The Alabama Supreme Court set a May 16 execution date for Michael Brandon Samra, 41.

As a teenager, Samra was convicted of helping his friend Mark Duke kill his father Randy Duke, his father's girlfriend Debra Hunt and her 6 and 7-year-old daughters.

Prosecutors said the Shelby County slayings happened after Duke became angry when his father wouldn't let him use his truck. They said the teens executed a plan to kill Duke's father and then killed the others to cover up his death.

Authorities say Mark Duke killed his father, Hunt and one of the girls, and that Samra slit the throat of the other child at Duke's direction while the girl pleaded for her life.

"The murders which were committed with a gun and kitchen knife were as brutal as they come," lawyers for the state wrote in the motion to set an execution date.

Duke was 16 at the time of the slayings. Samra was 19. Both were sentenced to the death penalty. However, Duke's death sentence was converted to life without parole after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled prisoners couldn't be put to death for crimes that happened while they were younger than 18.

Samra's attorney wrote in a court filing that Duke was the driving force behind the slayings and prosecutors have acknowledged Duke was the "mastermind" while Samra was the "minion."

Defense lawyer Steven Spears also wrote the case also involves the peculating legal issue of whether people should be executed for crimes committed when they were younger than 21.

In a separate death penalty case, a judge has scheduled a June trial on another inmate's challenge to Alabama's lethal injection process. A federal judge earlier this month stayed the execution of Christopher Lee Price. A divided U.S. Supreme Court vacated the stay, but the decision came after the death warrant expired.

Price has requested to be put to death by breathing pure nitrogen gas. Alabama authorized nitrogen hypoxia in 2018 as an alternative for carrying out death sentences, but has yet to use the method.

New York
Prison term Ok'd for man acquitted in 'Goodfellas' heist
NEW YORK (AP) — A judge properly considered a legendary airport robbery recounted in the movie "Goodfellas" when she sentenced a reputed mobster to eight years in prison for an unrelated road rage arson, an appeals court said Tuesday.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan made the determination as it upheld the sentencing of Vincent Asaro, an 84-year-old prisoner scheduled for release in 2022.

A three-judge panel concluded that it was fair for a judge to cite prior crimes in determining the sentence because they all involved Asaro utilizing crime family associates.

Judge Allyne R. Ross in Brooklyn said at a December 2017 sentencing that she was aware of Asaro's 2015 acquittal in the infamous 1978 armed robbery of $6 million at the Lufthansa cargo terminal at Kennedy International Airport.

The robbery was retold in the 1990 hit film "Goodfellas," starring Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci.

In sentencing Asaro, Ross cited proof that Asaro had participated in a 1969 murder and admitted his role in the LuThe sentence was more than double what federal guidelines set out as punishment for the 2012 car torching that came after an enraged Asaro thought he was cut off by another motorist.

Authorities said he then contacted an associate with access to a local law enforcement database, identified the license plate information of the car and plotted to burn it in front of the motorist's home.

Prosecutors said he directed Bonanno crime family associates to set the motorist's car afire.