National Roundup

Mississippi
Trial set for woman accused of abusing disabled girl
OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. (AP) — A trial date has been set for a former Mississippi bus driver accused of sitting on and threatening to kill a disabled child.

The Sun Herald reports Antioinette Jane Raymond is set to go to court in November. The former St. Martin Middle School bus driver opted for a trial after a judge saw video of the assault and subsequently rejected her sentencing deal.

Video shows Raymond threatening to kill the 14-year-old girl if she doesn’t get quiet and stay still. The video later shows Raymond sit on the girl.

A teacher accused in the abuse, Kerri Ann Nettles, was sentenced to a $3,000 fine and suspended six-month prison sentence. She’s settled a related civil lawsuit for an undisclosed amount.

Texas
Pastor accused of sexually ­abusing teen ­relative
HOUSTON (AP) — A former Southern Baptist pastor who supported legislation in Texas that would have criminalized abortions has been arrested on charges of child sex abuse, accused of repeatedly molesting a teenage relative over the course of two years.

Stephen Bratton is accused of subjecting the relative to inappropriate touching that escalated to “sexual intercourse multiple times a day or several times a week” from 2013 to 2015, according to Thomas Gilliland, a spokesman with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

Court records show Bratton, 43, posted a $50,000 bond Saturday, The Houston Chronicle reported .

Bratton told his wife about the abuse in May, and admitted to his co-pastors at Grace Family Baptist Church that same day that he had “sinned in grievous ways,” according to court documents.

It isn’t clear whether Bratton has an attorney who can comment on his behalf. The Associated Press couldn’t locate a phone number for him Sunday.

Southern Baptist church leaders last week outlined a plan to address sex abuse in the largest U.S. protestant denomination. Aaron Wright, another pastor at the Grace Family Baptist Church, told the newspaper that Bratton has been excommunicated.

“This person’s life is in such a contradiction to the faith that we see no evidence that they are a Christian,” Wright said.

Bratton, who is a father of seven, was outspoken in support of a Texas bill that would have abolished abortions and charged women with homicide if they underwent the procedure. That level of offense can be punishable by the death penalty under Texas law.

Bratton publicly testified in support of the bill in April. The measure never got a vote.

“Whoever authorizes or commits murder is guilty,” Bratton said at the hearing. “They’re guilty already in a court that is far more weighty than what is here in Texas.”

California
Search warrant cites synagogue shooter’s hatred of Judaism
SAN DIEGO (AP) — The sole gunman in a Southern California synagogue shooting in which a woman was killed told an investigator he adopted his hatred of Judaism 18 months before the fatal attack, according to a federal search warrant.

John T. Earnest, 19, also told a San Diego Sheriff’s detective that he was inspired by Adolf Hitler and the suspected gunman in the New Zealand mosque shooting last March.

The search warrant, which as unsealed in a hate crimes case against Earnest, offered a few new details about the attack on the Chabad of Poway synagogue on the last day of the Jewish holiday of Passover, including when Earnest became drawn to anti-Semitism and hated of Islam.

San Diego police found a helmet with a video camera on it in Earnest’s car when the San Diego man was arrested almost immediately after the April 27 shooting, which killed 60-year-old Lori Kaye and injured three others. He had an AR-15 rifle in the vehicle. It was previously known that Earnest said on the 8chan website that he planned to stream the attack live on Facebook. He never did.

“At that time, Earnest did not appear to be under the influence of a controlled substance but did appear to have a ‘flat affect’ as though he was detached or unaffected by his actions,” the warrant states in recounting an interview that he gave to a San Diego police detective immediately after he was detained.

Earnest, an accomplished student and pianist, has pleaded not guilty to a 113-count federal indictment and faces charges of murder and attempted murder in state court, both of which may make him eligible for the death penalty if convicted. He also pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges of trying to burn a mosque in the nearby city of Escondido.

Those charges also include attempted arson at a mosque in nearby Escondido a month earlier.

A federal affidavit describes a deeply disturbed man filled with hatred toward Jews and Muslims, which is detailed in online writings. Earnest claimed to be inspired by the attacks on the mosques in New Zealand and a shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue last fall.

Court documents said Earnest dialed 911 after fleeing the house of worship in his car and said: “I just shot up a synagogue.” He went on to tell the dispatcher that he did it “because Jewish people are destroying the white race,” according to the affidavit. He was arrested without a struggle.

Maryland
Millionaire gets 9 years for deadly fire above tunnels
ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) — A wealthy stock trader has been sentenced to nine years in prison for his conviction in the fiery death of a man who was helping him secretly dig tunnels for a nuclear bunker beneath a Maryland home.

Daniel Beckwitt had faced a maximum of 30 years in prison when Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Margaret Schweitzer sentenced him Monday. In total, Beckwitt was sentenced to 21 years but the judge suspended all but nine years of the sentence.

In April, a jury convicted the 28-year-old of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in the September 2017 death of 21-year-old Askia Khafra.

During the trial, a prosecutor accused Beckwitt of recklessly endangering Khafra’s life and sacrificing safety for secrecy. One of Beckwitt’s attorneys had told jurors the fire was an accident, not a crime.