National Roundup

Pennsylvania
Attorney says shooting outside cheesesteak shop was self-defense
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The attorney for a man charged in a shooting death outside a well-known Philadelphia cheesesteak shop last week says he will argue that his client acted in self-defense.

Defense attorney A. Charles Peruto Jr. said Monday that 36-year-old Paul Burkert of Reading was being “getting pummeled” before the shooting early Thursday outside Pat’s King of Steaks in south Philadelphia.

Burkert is charged with murder, reckless endangering, evidence-tampering, conspiracy and weapons offenses in the shooting death of 23-year-old David Padro of Camden, New Jersey.

Peruto said his client was left with cuts on his face and his own blood in his hair, face, chest and clothing. He called the shot “a necessary action to prevent serious bodily injury to himself.” Peruto said his client then left the area because of what he called a “mob that was gathering” and called police from Independence Mall.

The district attorney’s office told reporters that witnesses said the fight was over a parking space, despite initial reports that it stemmed from a football rivalry. Padro’s father said his son and his girlfriend were in Philadelphia to go to a nightclub and had stopped for a bite to eat.

A funeral service is scheduled Thursday for Padro. Family and friends gathered Sunday evening outside the cheesesteak stand in a vigil to mourn his loss.

Massachusetts
Rachael Rollins nominated to be U.S. attorney
BOSTON (AP) — Rachael Rollins, who has pushed for progressive criminal justice reforms as the first woman of color to serve as a district attorney in Massachusetts, is being nominated by President Joe Biden to become the state’s top federal prosecutor.

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Rollins, who has led the Suffolk County district attorneys office since 2019, would become the first Black woman to serve as U.S. attorney for Massachusetts.

Rollins defeated the  district attorney candidate backed by the longtime incumbent and police groups in the 2018 Democratic primary on a promise to decline prosecution for certain low-level crimes. She argued people shouldn’t be jailed for crimes that result from mental health or addiction problems and said she wanted to focus her attention on serious crimes, like homicides.

As the top prosecutor for Boston and surrounding communities, Rollins has been outspoken about the need for police reform in the wake of high-profile killings of people of color by law enforcement across the U.S. In an interview with The Associated Press in April, she said the country must do away with the misconception that questioning the police or suggesting ways they can improve means “you don’t back the blue.”

“The police have an incredibly hard job, and believe me, I know there are violent people that harm community and police but that’s not all of us. So we have to acknowledge that it’s not working and we have to sit together to come up with solutions, but it’s urgent,” Rollins said at the time. “I’m afraid, I’m exhausted and I’m the chief law enforcement officer so imagine what other people feel like,” she said.

Rollins has also sparred with Boston’s largest police union, which accused her last summer of inciting violence against law enforcement after she tweeted: “We are being murdered at will by the police ... No more words. Demand action.” Rollins rebuffed the union’s criticism, saying on Twitter, “White fragility is real people.”

In one high-profile Boston case, she moved to overturn the remaining firearm conviction for a man who spent more than 20 years in prison for the killing of a police officer before his murder conviction was overturned. Rollins’ said the case of Sean Ellis, whose fight to prove his innocence was documented in the Netflix series “Trial 4,” was “tainted by significant and egregious police corruption and prosecutorial misconduct.”

As district attorney, Rollins has also vowed to push to end mandatory life-without-parole sentences for those who committed killings between the ages of 18 and 20. Such punishments are already outlawed for juveniles. She said in an interview with the AP last month that she would ask the state’s highest court to rule that such defendants a special sentencing hearing to consider their youth before punishments can be handed down.

“We are going to move now to make sure that overwhelmingly Black and brown men aren’t disproportionately impacted by the criminal legal system,” Rollins told the AP. “We’re going to do what’s right and at least have them have more hope and opportunity … to believe that they can change after 10, 15, 20 or so years.”

Rollins, who used to work as an assistant U.S. attorney in Massachusetts, would be just the second woman to head the state’s federal prosecutors’ office. Carmen Ortiz became the first woman and the first Hispanic to serve as U.S. attorney for Massachusetts in 2009.


Louisiana
Woman pleads guilty to burning girlfriend’s baby to death
NATCHITOCHES, La. (AP) — A 28—year-old woman has pleaded guilty to burning her girlfriend’s infant son to death, and has agreed to testify against the other woman.

Felecia Marie-Nicole Smith pleaded guilty Wednesday in Natchitoches Parish to manslaughter, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and cruelty to a juvenile, news agencies reported.

She swayed as she answered Tenth Judicial District Court Judge Desiree Duhon Dyess’s questions Wednesday, The Town Talk reported.

“I understand everything I’m doing,” she told Dyess.

Authorities have said that firefighters called after a passing motorist reported a ditch fire on July 17, 2018, found 6-month-old Levi Cole Ellerbe, then still alive. He died the next day at a hospital.

His mother, Hanna Barker, had reported him kidnapped more than an hour before the fire was reported. She was arrested less than two weeks later.

Barker, 25, is charged with first-degree murder, which can be punished only by death or by life in prison, and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. Her trial is scheduled Sept. 27, with jurors brought from St. Landry Parish to Natchitoches.

Smith has said the killing was Barker’s idea. Barker has denied taking any part in her son’s death. Her attorney has argued that Smith was accusing her to get a better deal for herself.

Smith will be formally sentenced on Oct. 27. but has agreed to 80 years at hard labor — the maximum for each charge, served consecutively. That includes 40 years for manslaughter, 30 for conspiracy and 10 for cruelty to a juvenile
Smith’s plea agreement states that prosecutors can reinstate a first-degree murder charge against her if she fails to testify truthfully, KTBS-TV reported.