Alabama
Man gets 160 years for child porn, $206,500 to girl
LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — A federal judge in Louisiana has ordered an Alabama boat captain to serve 160 years in prison for exploiting a girl to make child pornography, and to pay the girl more than $200,000.
District Judge S. Maurice Hicks Jr. also ordered lifetime supervised release for William Malone, 46, of Mobile, if he gets out of prison, U.S. Attorney Brandon B. Brown said in a news release Tuesday.
Malone “showed no remorse for the awful acts he did. But this minor victim had the courage to tell someone what he did to her and today, she stood victorious knowing that he will never hurt another victim in this way again,” Brown said.
The girl, also from Mobile, was less than 12 years old when she told her mother in 2020 that Malone had abused her, prosecutors have said.
FBI agents examined the girl’s phone and found texts asking for pictures and videos of herself naked and other sexually explicit images of herself, prosecutors said. Malone was captain of a vessel that sailed out of Abbeville, Louisiana, and the images were on his phone and laptop, found in a search of that vessel.
A jury in Lafayette convicted Malone in October 2021 on five counts of sexual exploitation of children by producing child pornography and two related charges.
The judge ordered him to pay the girl $206,580.80 in restitution, prosecutors said.
West Virginia
Teen to be tried as adult in killing of his family
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A West Virginia teen accused of killing four family members will be tried as an adult.
The ruling involving 17-year-old Gavin Smith by Kanawha County Circuit Court Judge Kenneth Ballard on Tuesday means the case will be presented to a grand jury and opens the possibility of a longer sentence if he’s convicted, news outlets reported.
Smith was 16 and his girlfriend was 17 when they were arrested in the December 2020 killings of his mother, stepfather and two younger brothers at their home in Elkview. The bodies of Daniel Dale Long, 37, Risa Mae Saunders, 39, Gage Ripley, 12, and Jameson Long, 3, were found shot to death.
Smith was charged with four counts of first-degree murder. Rebecca Lynn Walker pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact by helping him hide after the slayings and was sentenced as an adult in September to 10 years in prison.
Washington
Mother accused of abusing 6-year-old daughter for years
SEATTLE (AP) — King County prosecutors have charged a woman with the assault and criminal mistreatment of a 6-year-old child, accusing the woman of beating, starving and possibly injecting her daughter with illicit drugs.
Charging papers say Garlyn Grace was arrested March 1 in Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood after her boyfriend called 911 and reported finding the child unresponsive, The Seattle Times reported.
Grace remains jailed in lieu of $500,000 bail. She is to be arraigned March 16. It wasn’t immediately known if she has a lawyer to comment on her behalf.
Senior Deputy Prosecutor Christian Brown wrote in charging papers that the girl’s injuries amounted to torture and the abuse had been ongoing since at least January 2019.
“Experts from Seattle Children’s Hospital are working diligently to revive the victim from near-fatal injuries,” Brown wrote.
Seattle Fire Department medics found the girl unresponsive with a weak pulse, the charges say. She was revived and told firefighters she was hungry and that “Mommy gives me whoopings,” according to the charges.
Firefighters contacted Seattle police and reported the girl appeared malnourished and was covered in bruises.
Doctors documented injuries and signs of starvation and raised concerns about forced illicit drug ingestion because of the girl’s mental state at the hospital and discovery of puncture marks during a physical exam, the charges say.
According to police, Grace claimed the girl’s injuries were self-inflicted.
Massachusetts
Fishing crew member pleads guilty to murder in attack at sea
BOSTON (AP) — A member of a fishing boat pleaded guilty Wednesday to killing a fellow crew member and attacking others with a knife and hammer while at sea in 2018, federal prosecutors said.
Franklin Freddy Meave Vazquez, 27, pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder, one count of attempted murder and one count of assault with a dangerous weapon. Sentencing is scheduled for June 28.
The attack occurred Sept. 23, 2018, on the Virginia-based fishing vessel, The Captain Billy Haver, as it was sailing about 55 miles (90 kilometers) off the coast of Nantucket with seven crew members aboard, including Vazquez and the three victims.
Inside the ship’s shucking house, Vazquez used a hammer to strike his first victim in the head, knocking the victim unconsciousness, investigators said.
He then walked out onto the deck and stabbed a second victim multiple times with a long fillet knife.
A third victim who climbed up from the ice hold was struck in the head by Vazquez with a hammer and fell back down the ladder, bleeding from his head.
Vazquez then struggled with the vessel captain before climbing to the top of the rigging mast.
The captain placed a call on the distress channel, and the German cruise ship Mein Schiff 6 responded, taking two injured fishermen on board, prosecutors said. The crew member with stab wounds was pronounced dead by the ship’s doctor.
Vazquez remained at the top of the mast until the Coast Guard arrived that evening and took him into custody.
The victim stabbed by Vazquez died. The other two victims survived.
Vazquez is a Mexican citizen and had been living in the U.S. illegally, investigators said.
Vazquez faces a sentence of up to life in prison for the charge of second-degree murder. The charge of attempted murder provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, while the charge of assault with a dangerous weapon provides for a sentence of up to 10 years.
Vazquez will be subject to deportation proceedings after finishing any sentence imposed.
Indiana
Woman out of prison in school bus crash that killed 3 kids
ROCHESTER, Ind. (AP) — A woman convicted in a 2018 crash that killed three siblings who were crossing a rural northern Indiana highway to board a school bus was released from prison Wednesday, after serving just over two years.
Alyssa Shepherd, 27, was released from the Rockville Correctional Facility, Fulton County Prosecutor Michael Marrs told WNDU-TV. She now faces about three years of home detention with a GPS-monitoring ankle bracelet, followed by three years of probation, he said.
Shepherd was sentenced to four years in prison in December 2019 after being convicted on three counts of reckless homicide in the pickup truck crash that killed 9-year-old Alivia Stahl and the girl’s 6-year-old twin half brothers, Xzavier and Mason Ingle.
A fourth child, Maverik Lowe, was seriously injured and underwent more than 20 surgeries.
Based on Indiana’s time served credit rules, Shepherd was slated to be incarcerated until September 2022, but an additional six months of her sentence were shaved off when she completed a prison Bible study course.
Shepherd was eligible to be released into a community transition program in December, but a judge ruled against that move in November after prosecutors and members of the victims’ families opposed it.
“We obviously wanted more time, executed at the time of sentencing. The judge sentenced her to what he did, which was a 10-year sentence with four years executed, and then she got the time cut,” Marrs said Wednesday.
Michael Schwab, the grandfather of the three siblings who were killed, said Shepherd’s release is a painful reminder that no amount of punishment or time will bring back his grandchildren.
“The story never ends for the family,” Schwab told the South Bend Tribune. “This is a life sentence for our family. Though she was granted early release and allowed to return to her family, there is no early release for our family and the children won’t be returning to us.”
Shepherd’s attorney, Stacy Uliana, declined to comment Wednesday.
Shepherd was driving her pickup truck when she plowed into the four children as they crossed two-lane State Road 25 in Rochester in October 2018. She told authorities she didn’t realize that she was approaching a stopped school bus, despite the activated stop arm and flashing lights.
The Indiana Legislature increased penalties for drivers who illegally pass stopped school buses following the crash.
Oklahoma
Man indicted for disrupting flight
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A Los Angeles man was indicted in Oklahoma on federal charges he disrupted a flight from Arlington, Virginia, to Los Angeles in December, forcing it to divert to Oklahoma City.
Ariel James Pennington, 45, is charged with interfering with a flight attendant and assaulting a federal air marshal, according to court records. Pennington pleaded not guilty during a Wednesday court appearance.
His attorney did not answer a phone call seeking comment.
Prosecutors said Pennington faces up to 40 years in prison and $500,000 in fines if convicted on both counts.
Pennington was arrested Dec. 9 after the Delta Airlines flight landed in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City police said at the time that Pennington was disorderly and intoxicated.
The indictment was issued in January, according to U.S. Attorney Robert Troester, but kept under seal until Pennington was arrested and could appear in court for arraignment.
North Dakota
Man pleads guilty to felony murder in overdose death
MINOT, N.D. (AP) — A Minot man has pleaded guilty to criminal charges resulting from the overdose death of a 16-year-old girl.
Mark Rodgers Jr., 33, entered pleas Wednesday to felony murder of a minor, tampering with evidence, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and maintaining a premises for drug use.
Rodgers is accused of injecting the girl with a mixture of methamphetamine and fentanyl on Dec. 14, 2020 at a Minot hotel, the Minot Daily News reported.
Ward County State’s Attorney Roza Larson has said in court that Rodgers frantically called friends and acquaintances and asked them to bring Narcan to the hotel to reverse the overdose, but that he did not call 911 and told friends not to call authorities.
Rodgers also admitted talking the girl out of state to buy illegal drugs the week before her death. He also acknowledged that he removed drugs, the girl’s clothing and her ID from the hotel room when he left and before authorities arrived.
The state has agreed to dismiss a felony charge of corruption of a minor against Rodgers. His public defender, Steven Mottinger, said Rodgers has maintained he did not intend for the girl to die.
The felony murder charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Sentencing is scheduled for June 14.
