Indiana
Court overturns man's murder conviction over Miranda rights
SALEM, Ind. (AP) - The Indiana Court of Appeals overturned the murder conviction of a man accused of setting a 2017 fire at his trailer that killed a homeless man, saying police "failed to scrupulously honor'' his right to remain silent.
A jury found Joshua Risinger, 31, guilty but mentally ill last year. The Salem man was accused of setting his trailer ablaze in March 2017 with 62-year-old Jeffery Givan inside. Risinger told police he had invited Givan to stay with him.
In January, Risinger was sentenced to 60 years in prison.
Risinger appealed with several arguments, including that the trial court wrongly allowed statements he made to police where he said, "I'm done talking.''
In an opinion issued this month, the appeals court agreed. The three-judge panel said while Risinger could have been clearer in invoking his Miranda rights, the law doesn't require such a formal declaration.
His statement was "an unequivocal invocation of his right to remain silent pursuant to Miranda, and the detectives continuation of questioning thereafter was a failure to scrupulously honor that right," according to the Dec. 9 decision.
Risinger remained in custody at Miami Correctional Facility in Bunker Hill, according to the Indiana Department of Correction. He is likely to be retried.
His attorney, Stacy Uliana, said Sunday that she was pleased with the decision.
"If an individual says he or she is done talking, the police cannot try to convince them otherwise,'' she said in an emailed statement. "Law enforcement must respect the person's rights and stop the interview.''
Tennessee
Doctor convicted of groping woman during flight
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - A Mississippi doctor has pleaded guilty to groping a sleeping woman during a flight from New York to Memphis.
Dr. Rajesh Subramanya entered a guilty plea Thursday to a misdemeanor charge of simple assault, according to recently unsealed court records obtained by The Memphis Commercial Appeal. The pediatrician was sentenced to pay a $3,000 fine, serve one year of probation and leave the United States, the federal court documents list.
The physician holds passports from the United Kingdom and India, according to the records. A court docket entry notes, "defendant to return to the United Kingdom," though the docket didn't list a date for when he may leave, the newspaper said.
In September, a woman reported to Memphis police and Memphis airport police that she had been groped on board a Delta flight, an affidavit written by FBI Special Agent Daryl C. Murton said. Airport police referred her to the FBI, to which she reported that Subramanya repeatedly touched her inappropriately while she was drifting in and out of sleep during the flight from LaGuardia to Memphis. She reported that on one occasion, he slipped his hand under the sweater she had draped over herself like a blanket, into her shirt and under her bra.
When FBI agents arrived at Subramanya's Oxford home during the investigation, he told authorities the victim was leaning toward his seat as she slept and he took that to mean "she welcomed his touch," an FBI agent wrote.
Subramanya worked as a pediatrician at Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi but was removed following his arrest, a spokeswoman for the hospital group confirmed.
He and his attorney didn't return phone calls from the Memphis Commercial Appeal seeking comment.
Maine
Teen to be sentenced for killing his mother
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - A teenager is due to be sentenced Thursday for the killing of his mother, who was strangled and stabbed in the neck.
Law enforcement officials say another teenager helped Lukas Mironovas strangle his mother to the point of unconsciousness before Mironovas stabbed her to finish the job.
Lukas Mironovas is scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday in Superior Court in Augusta.
Court documents indicate that before her death in April 2018 Kimberly Mironovas, of Litchfield, Maine, confronted Lukas Mironovas and two teenage friends about missing marijuana.
Another teen described by a judge as "the prime mover" in the plot already was sentenced to 28 years in prison. The third teen involved was 13 at the time and pleaded guilty to conspiracy. He has been committed to Long Creek Youth Development Center until age 21.
Kansas
Judge criticized by abortion foes named to top Kansas court
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly on Monday named a veteran trial-court judge opposed by the state's most influential anti-abortion group to the Kansas Supreme Court, an appointment that's likely to intensify a backlash against the court from conservative legislators.
Kelly's selection of Shawnee County District Judge Evelyn Wilson comes with many Republican lawmakers already seeking to change the process for picking Supreme Court justices to give the GOP-controlled Legislature power it does not have now to block an appointee. Abortion opponents also are pushing for a change in the state constitution to overturn a ruling from the high court in April protecting abortion rights.
Kelly passed over two veteran lawyers who work in Republican state Attorney General Derek Schmidt's office. Kansans for Life, an anti-abortion group long influential in GOP politics, opposed Wilson's appointment because of her husband's past political contributions to Kelly and other abortion-rights candidates.
Wilson will replace former Justice Lee Johnson, who retired in September and was a member of the 6-1 majority in the abortion-rights ruling declaring that access to abortion is a "fundamental" right under the Kansas Constitution. Her appointment is not subject to legislative oversight, but she will face voters in November 2022 for a yes-or-no vote on whether she remains on the court for another six years.
She has been a judge since 2004, appointed to the trial-court bench in the county that includes the state capital, Topeka, by then-Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Wilson has been the county's chief administrative judge since 2014 and before going on the bench was a lawyer in private practice in Topeka and Oberlin, a small, northwest Kansas town near the Nebraska border.
Published: Tue, Dec 17, 2019
