National Roundup

New Jersey
Man gets life for mistaken-identity murder of teacher
FREEHOLD, N.J. (AP) — A man convicted in a mistaken-identity home invasion that ended with a teacher being killed has been sentenced to life in prison.

Jerry Spaulding maintained his innocence when he was sentenced Thursday, telling the judge he didn’t get a fair trial and that witnesses had lied. The 41-year-old Keyport man must now serve nearly 64 years before he becomes eligible for parole.

Spaulding and two other men were convicted in March of felony murder and numerous other counts in the 2009 death of Jonelle Melton.

Monmouth County prosecutors have said the men planned to rob a drug dealer but went to the wrong Neptune City apartment and attacked Melton when they realized their mistake. The 33-year-old Red Bank middle school social studies teacher was found beaten, shot and stabbed.

Nevada
Ex-craps dealer added to list of people barred from casinos
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A former craps dealer who was convicted in a scam that took $1.2 million from a Las Vegas casino has been included on a list of people barred from entering casinos across the state.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Thursday that the Nevada Gaming Commission has added Mark Branco to the state’s list of excluded people, making him the 36th name in the so-called black book.

Branco was sentenced in April 2016 for charges of theft and cheating at gambling.

Gaming Control Board agents determined that the former Bellagio dealer and others were throwing games to their friends after they won against nearly impossible odds.

Branco was accused of leading the scheme between August 2012 and July 2014.

Branco did not attend the commission meeting last week.

Alabama
Man, 75, gets life for killing in-law over lawn dispute
PRATTVILLE, Ala. (AP) — A 75-year-old Alabama man has been sentenced to life in prison for killing his brother-in-law over a dispute that started over lawn care.

The Montgomery Advertiser reports Joseph H. Huffman was sentenced Wednesday. He was convicted last month of murder in the 2017 death of 59-year-old John Brown.

Testimonies provided during trial revealed that Huffman believed he was the caretaker of a 40-acre tract of land, which several of his relatives believed they owned.

Huffman testified that Brown was cutting the land’s grass one day, so he asked Brown to stop the yard work and leave. He testified that they then fought, and he shot Brown in the chest with a shotgun.

Huffman argued he acted in self-defense. His attorney says he’ll appeal the case.

Arizona
Florence man convicted of manslaughter in 2013 shooting
FLORENCE, Ariz. (AP) — The son of a Florence police officer has been convicted of manslaughter in the 2013 death of a friend during a homecoming party.

A Pinal County Superior Court jury found 32-year-old Andrew Salazar guilty on Wednesday.

Prosecutors were seeking to convict Salazar on a charge of second-degree murder in the death of Robert DeArman.

The two men were socializing in October 2013 when authorities say Salazar pulled a gun from his backpack.

A witness reported seeing the gun in Salazar’s hand shortly after hearing a gunshot.

Salazar will be sentenced on July 19.

The Casa Grande Dispatch reports Salazar already is serving a seven-year prison term for having a weapon on the night of the shooting.

He was on probation at the time and was prohibited from owning a gun.

North Carolina
Man freed after serving more than 40 years
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina man who once was on death row and then served more than 40 years in prison for a shopkeeper’s slaying in a failed robbery attempt was headed home Thursday.

Attorney Theresa Newman, co-director of the Duke Wrongful Convictions Clinic, said 81-year-old Charles Ray Finch was released Thursday from Greene Correctional Institution. He was picked up by relatives and the clinic’s other co-director, attorney Jim Coleman, who were taking him to Wilson, Newman said.

Video from WRAL-TV showed Finch, dressed all in white and wearing sunglasses, leaving the prison in a wheelchair.

U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Boyle had ordered Finch’s release earlier Thursday. In January, an appeals court ruled that evidence casts doubt on Finch’s murder conviction. Newman said Finch’s conviction was overturned and that prosecutors have 30 days to decide whether to retry him.

The Wilson Times reports that Finch’s daughter, Kay Jones Bailey, said after the hearing Thursday that she “knew the miracle was going to happen just didn’t know when. It’s been worth the wait. It’s been worth the fight.”

In 1976, Finch was sentenced to die, according to the Death Penalty Information Center . The state Supreme Court reduced his sentence to life in prison after the U.S. Supreme Court that the state’s death penalty law unconstitutional.

In an interview earlier this week, Finch told WNCN that he forgives the person who identified him as the killer “because he didn’t know what he was doing.” That person had said the killer was wearing a three-quarter length jacket. Finch said a detective had him wear a coat in the police lineup — and Finch was the only one wearing a coat in that lineup.

“When I was picked up, they didn’t question me or nothing. The put me there in a lineup. Straight in a lineup. And they put me in a lineup with a black leather coat on,” Finch said.

Coleman told WNCN that a highlight of the evidentiary hearing came “when we were able to expose that he had lied about the lineup and he had dressed Ray in a coat, and he was the only one wearing a coat in the lineup.”

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal ruled in January that it was unlikely that jurors would have convicted Finch if they had known about flaws in a police lineup and questions about key witness testimony. The three-judge panel returned the case to federal district court for a fresh look at innocence claims that the lower court previously dismissed because of technical reasons including timeliness.

The unanimous opinion said Finch succeeded in “demonstrating that the totality of the evidence, both old and new, would likely fail to convince any reasonable juror of his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Finch, who maintained his innocence, was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Richard Holloman, who was shot inside his country store on Feb. 13, 1976.