National Roundup

Nevada
Prosecutor: Suspect in Vegas severed head case a prior felon
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A prosecutor in Las Vegas told a judge Tuesday that a man jailed after police found the severed head and body parts of an acquaintance in the truck he was driving has prior felony and federal criminal convictions dating to the 1980s in states including California, Texas and Nevada.

Eric Holland stood in court flanked by heavily armed security guards and an attorney temporarily appointed to his case for a brief hearing at which a Las Vegas judge ordered him held without bail pending another court appearance next week.

Justice of the Peace Harmony Letizia set a preliminary hearing of evidence for Jan. 27.

Holland, 57, was not asked to enter a plea to the murder charge against him, and his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Sarah Hawkins, declined outside court to comment on his behalf.

Prosecutor Giancarlo Pesci listed Holland’s three-state criminal history under names including Eric John Holland and Eric Allen Holland, and told the judge that Holland represents a danger to the community and should not be allowed out on bail.

Holland’s alleged victim was identified Tuesday as Richard P. Miller of Las Vegas. The Clark County coroner said Miller died last Thursday from multiple gunshot wounds and his death was a homicide.

“The victim is literally cut into pieces,” Pesci said in court. “His head is cut off.”

Holland “fled from police” in an allegedly stolen truck and then got into another allegedly stolen vehicle before he was arrested, the prosecutor said.

Police later found receipts in the vehicles for items purchased from a home improvement store where Pesci said Holland was seen on security cameras pushing a cart with a saw in it.

Outside court, Pesci said Holland and Miller knew each other, but he didn’t know the extent of their acquaintance.

Holland had been sought since May 2019 on an arrest warrant in a 2018 case in Las Vegas accusing him of embezzlement, identity theft, issuing false checks and theft, according to court records.

Holland served prison time in Nevada for a felony conviction in Las Vegas on theft charges stemming from a forgery case filed in 2000. Prison records say he used names including John Carl Hall, Phil Whidden, Robert Daniel Lauer and Steven Tauber.

His previous convictions as an adult date to 1987 in California for embezzlement, property theft and false identification, Pesci said, and Holland also had a conviction in federal court in Texas in a counterfeiting case.

Pesci said Holland was found guilty in California in 1997 of assault with a deadly weapon and resisting arrest causing substantial bodily harm, and records show Holland also was convicted in 1991 in U.S. District Court in Texas of attempted escape and aiding in an escape. His post-prison supervision was transferred to Nevada in 2014.

Holland’s arrest Thursday came after he drove away from police trying to stop him in an allegedly stolen truck. Police said he then switched to another truck that he tried to abandon before he was captured.

“Holland threw various items at officers in an attempt to flee, but he was taken into custody,” police said in a statement.

Officers searching the second truck discovered the dismembered human remains in ice chests, homicide Lt. Ray Spencer  told KLAS-TV.

“I mean, you can imagine the horror when you open up an ice chest and you find a human head inside,” Spencer said.

Massachusetts
‘Da Vinci Code’ author settles lawsuit alleging secret life
BOSTON (AP) — “The Da Vinci Code” author Dan Brown and his ex-wife have agreed to settle a lawsuit in which she alleged he led a secret life during their marriage that included several affairs.

The couple agreed to voluntary dismiss the lawsuit and “any and all claims and counterclaims in this matter,” according to court papers filed Monday in a New Hampshire court.

“Blythe Brown and Dan Brown have reached an amicable resolution of their disagreements, and will have no further comment,” Blythe Brown’s attorney Harvey Wolkoff said in a statement. “They request that their desire for privacy and closure be respected.”

No further details on the settlement were provided.

In her lawsuit filed last year, Blythe Brown called her ex-husband’s behavior “unlawful and egregious” and accused the bestselling author of secretly diverting funds to pay for gifts to an unnamed horse trainer.

Blythe Brown also claimed credit for inspiring much of his work and coming up with the premise for “The Da Vinci Code.” She also alleged that Brown hid scores of future projects worth “millions” from her, including a television series as well as a children’s book.

At the time of the lawsuit, Dan Brown said he was “stunned” by the allegations and called the complaint “written without regard for the truth.” He said he never misled his ex-wife on their finances during their divorce and that she ended up with half their holdings after they split up.

The couple divorced in 2019 after 21 years of marriage.

Brown, a New Hampshire native, has had a string of bestsellers but is best known for “The Da Vinci Code,” a puzzle-filled thriller that introduced readers to the notion that Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene were married with children. The plot outraged church officials and scholars.

During a 2006 trial against the publisher of the “The Da Vinci Code,” the court heard how Blythe Brown was an essential contributor to the thriller. Two authors unsuccessfully sued, claiming that Brown “appropriated the architecture” of their book in a high-profile London court case.

Nebraska
College ordered to pay $300K for way it handled rape case
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A former Chadron State College student has been awarded $300,000 after she argued in a lawsuit that college officials didn’t do enough to protect her after she reported being raped.

The Scottsbluff Star-Herald reports  that a federal jury sided with the woman earlier this month. The woman said the college should have banned the man who attacked her in 2016 from campus instead of just ordering him not to have contact with her.

Attorney Maren Chaloupka, who represented the woman, said she felt unsafe on campus because of the chance of running into her attacker and had to complete her degree through online classes after the two assaults in 2016. The woman, who is now 24, graduated from college in December 2016.

College officials defended the way they handled the situation as reasonable, and a spokeswoman for the Nebraska State College System that oversees Chadron State said officials plan to appeal the verdict. Besides ordering the man not to have contact with the woman, the college ordered the man to complete counseling.