National Roundup

Massachusetts
Suspect in infamous $500M Boston art heist freed from prison
BOSTON (AP) — A man who was considered a suspect in the heist of about $500 million worth of artwork from a Boston museum has been released from prison.

The Boston Globe  reports that David Turner was freed on Wednesday after serving 21 years for his role in the 1999 planned armed robbery of an armored car.

According to court records, FBI agents told Turner he was a suspect in the 1990 heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and could receive leniency if he returned the stolen masterpieces. Turner said he knew nothing about the theft.

The art, including works by Rembrandt and Vermeer, has never been recovered.

The 52-year-old Turner will remain on probation for three more years.

Neither Turner nor his lawyer answered questions about the missing art outside of court.

Kentucky
Federal court rules atheist can get ‘IM GOD’ license plate
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A federal court is allowing a Kentucky man to personalize a license plate with the phrase “IM GOD” after a three-year legal battle over the custom engraving.

Court documents show Ben Hart, a self-identified atheist, set out to get the Kentucky plate in 2016. But Hart’s request was denied by the state transportation department on the basis it violated antidiscrimination guidelines. News outlets report similar plates had been approved before, including “TRYGOD” and “NOGOD.”

Kentucky’s American Civil Liberties Union and the Freedom From Religion Foundation got involved to help Hart challenge the decision. In an opinion Wednesday by a U.S. District Court in Frankfort, the judge ruled “vanity plates” are private speech protected by the First Amendment and that the state had violated Hart’s rights by denying him the plate.

Florida
Ex-Marine accused of killing parents, 2 dogs
CRESTVIEW, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a 30-year-old ex-Marine walked into a Florida police station and confessed to fatally shooting his parents and two dogs.

Okaloosa County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Michele Nicholson says Jacob Daniel Price wore a bloody shirt when he arrived at the Crestview Police Department early Wednesday.

Sheriff’s deputies found the bodies of 51-year-old Jolene Price and 56-year-old Robert Price in the home’s master bedroom. An arrest report says they were shot in the head.

Nicholson said Price was living with his parents.

Marine Corps spokeswoman Yvonne Carlock tells the Northwest Florida Daily News that Price was deployed twice during Operation Enduring Freedom. She says he left the service because his character “was incongruent with Marine Corps’ expectations and standards.”

He’s charged with murder.

Virginia
Teen accused of killing man, wounding wife
LOUISA, Va. (AP) — A 16-year-old is accused of breaking into a Virginia home, killing an 82-year-old man and wounding his 73-year-old wife in order to steal the couple’s car to visit his girlfriend.

News outlets report the teen appeared in court Wednesday via video. He was arrested Tuesday on charges including first-degree murder and aggravated malicious wounding, hours after the attack on Roger Wood Payne Jr. and Nancy Payne.

The teen’s name hasn’t been publicly released. Prosecutor Rusty McGuire has filed paperwork to prosecute the teen as an adult.

Prosecutors say the teen visited the Paynes’ twice on Tuesday, returning with a shotgun. They say Nancy Payne survived by playing dead.

They say the teen had wanted a car to visit his girlfriend at the University of Lynchburg. He was pulled over before he got there.

His father, Andre Dickerson, told WVIR-TV that his son hadn’t been “acting right” in recent weeks.

“I spoke with people and his probation officer and said I could see something wasn’t right in his voice. And I begged them to give him the help, you know, send him somewhere,” Dickerson said. “I still have a lot of questions, you know? This is not my son, I know that’s not him. I mean, he’s known for helping people.”

Prosecutors said the teen took the couple’s cellphones and ordered them to the railroad tracks behind their home. Roger Payne was shot in the face and died. It’s unclear where Nancy Payne was wounded, but prosecutors said she was eventually able to go to a neighbor’s home to call for help.

The teen is set to appear in court again on Nov. 26. He’s being held without bond.

Nancy Payne has undergone surgery and remains hospitalized. More surgery is expected. Her husband’s body has been sent to a medical examiner for autopsy.

Ohio
Prosecutors: Teen killed girl, 14, thinking she was pregnant
CANTON, Ohio (AP) — Authorities say a teen fatally shot a 14-year-old girl because he believed a false rumor the girl was pregnant.

The Repository in Canton reports the 14-year-old boy pleaded guilty to murder Wednesday in Stark County Juvenile Court. His trial on the juvenile equivalent of aggravated murder was scheduled to begin Thursday.

Assistant Stark County Prosecutor Michelle Cordova said the boy told police he believed Sylvia McGee, who wasn’t his girlfriend, was pregnant. Cordova says an autopsy conducted after the slaying March 30 showed she was not.

Cordova says there’s no evidence other than the pregnancy rumor to indicate why Sylvia was killed.

The boy couldn’t be tried in adult court because he was just 13 at the time of the slaying.

Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 7.

Missouri
Body of woman’s husband found in freezer by police
JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — Authorities are searching for a woman after finding her husband’s corpse in a freezer inside her southwest Missouri home, where it may have been stored for nearly a year.

Sixty-seven-year-old Barbara Watters, of Joplin, was charged Wednesday with abandonment of a corpse.

An affidavit says a witness told police Monday that Paul Barton’s body had been in Watters’ freezer since his death on Dec. 30, 2018. The witness says Watters threatened to kill him if he notified police.

Police say in the affidavit that she has unspecified “mental disorders.”

Police said in a Facebook post that officers got a tip about the body while canvassing the neighborhood in an unrelated arson investigation.