Wisconsin
Judge: Man who killed parents can’t skip court sentencing
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Dane County judge has denied Chandler Halderson’s request not to be present in the courtroom when his sentence for killing and dismembering his parents is handed down Thursday.
Circuit Judge John Hyland said in his order that Halderson could not voluntarily waive his legal right to appear at sentencing. Hyland cited a 1997 Wisconsin Supreme Court case that found a fugitive who missed her sentencing had to be re-sentenced when she was again taken into custody.
The 24-year-old Halderson on Friday filed a motion and affidavit seeking to give up his right to be present and to speak at his sentencing.
Deputy District Attorney William Brown says argued against Halderson’s motion, saying the defendant had no right to simply skip court hearings that might be uncomfortable, or to avoid finally being held responsible for his behavior.
Halderson was convicted on two counts each of first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse, hiding a corpse and falsifying information about a missing person. A first-degree intentional homicide conviction carries a mandatory life sentence. Hyland will be left to decide if Halderson will ever be eligible for parole.
Investigators said Halderson killed his parents after his father discovered he had been lying about attending Madison Area Technical College. It was one in a web of lies he told about work, school and being on a police scuba dive team, according to prosecutors.
Missouri
Woman pleads guilty in fatal 2020 hit-and-run
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A woman has pleaded guilty to two felony counts for a 2020 fatal hit-and-run during a drag race on a Kansas City street.
Shabazz Frencher, 24, of Kansas City, recently pleaded guilty to drunken driving while intoxicated resulting in death and leaving the scene of a fatal crash, the Kansas City Star reported. In exchange for her plea, prosecutors dropped charges of driving with a suspended license and involuntary manslaughter.
Prosecutors have said Frencher was drunk and behind the wheel of a friend’s car early the morning of June 19, 2020, when she raced another driver at speeds reaching nearly 100 mph. Frencher fatally hit 23-year-old Zahara Kathawalla as Kathawalla crossed the street, and did not stop or turn around to check on Kathawalla, police said.
Investigators said a friend of Frencher’s who was in the car when Kathawalla was hit yelled at Frencher to stop and repeatedly told Frencher to turn around so they could check on the person hit.
Instead, authorities said, Frencher, eventually parked the car in a neighborhood, ripped off its temporary tag and had her cousin and a friend pick her up at a gas station.
Frencher is set to be sentenced on June 10.
Washington
Man who hit cop with bat during Seattle protest sentenced
SEATTLE (AP) — A 20-year-old man who hit a Seattle police officer on the head with an aluminum baseball bat during a 2020 demonstration calling for an end to racial injustice has been sentenced to five years in prison.
The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said Jacob Greenberg of Kirkland was sentenced last week for reckless burning, attempted arson and assault with a deadly weapon, The Seattle Times reported.
Greenberg hit Officer Jose Jimenez, who was wearing a helmet, after the officer was pushed off his bike and wrestling another protester for it, charging documents said.
The impact caused a crack on Jimenez’ helmet and he likely would’ve suffered a fatal injury without it, charging documents alleged.
Jimenez told the court Friday that his memory remains foggy from the attack and that bright lights give him headaches.
Greenberg’s prison term will be followed by 18 months of community custody with the Department of Corrections.
Danielle McMillan, 31, of Woodinville, was also sentenced last week for reckless burning during the same protest. McMillan was sentenced to credit for time served in jail, said Casey McNerthney, director of communications for the prosecutor’s office.
McMillan and Greenberg also were ordered to pay restitution.
North Dakota
Judge dismisses wrongful death lawsuit over road washout
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Standing Rock Sioux Tribe stemming from a road washout nearly three years ago that killed two people and injured two others.
Heavy rain in July 2019 washed away a section of roadway on the Standing Rock reservation. In the dark hours of the early morning, Trudy Peterson and Jim VanderWal, both of Mobridge, South Dakota, unknowingly drove their vehicles into a deep culvert where the road washed away and were killed.
Steven Willard and Evan Thompson, both of Fort Yates, were injured and flown to Bismarck hospitals for treatment of injuries their attorney said are permanent.
The victims’ families sought $10 million in damages for wrongful death and personal injury.
Their attorney, Tim Purdon, said in their lawsuit that the BIA had adopted road maintenance standards from the transportation departments of North Dakota and South Dakota and argued that the washout could have been avoided if the BIA had adhered to those standards, the Bismarck Tribune reported.
In a ruling this week, Judge Daniel Hovland said the tribe and BIA had no mandatory rules, regulations, policies or procedures to follow in deciding whether to replace the culvert above the road that eventually washed away.
The BIA and tribe had the discretion to determine when, where, and how to perform road maintenance, and is therefore shielded from liability Hovland said.
New Mexico
Woman gets prison term in 2018 death of her stepson
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A Santa Fe woman accused of fatally strangling her 5-year-old stepson in 2018 is facing a 25-year prison term.
Prosecutors say 23-year-old Melynie Tyalan Curtis pleaded no contest Tuesday to charges of second-degree murder and child abuse resulting in great bodily harm.
They said Curtis’ plea agreement calls for the dismissal of the remaining charges against her in a nine-count amended indictment.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports the 23-year-old Curtis will be required to serve at least 85 percent of her sentence and won’t be eligible to accrue day-for-day credits for good behavior to reduce her prison time beyond 15 percent.
Authorities said Curtis called 911 in September 2018 to report she had found her stepson unconscious in a bathtub.
He was airlifted to an Albuquerque hospital where medical personnel told police the boy’s injuries were not consistent with a near-drowning.
Jayden Curtis died a few days later when his parents took him off life support, according to authorities.
Arizona
Man pleads guilty in DUI crash that killed 3
LAS VEGAS (AP) — An Arizona man could face up to 60 years in prison when sentenced in Nevada in a 2019 crash that killed three Idaho residents.
However, Tyer Kennedy of Tolleson could face far fewer years in prison under the sentencing range of to 20 years on each count of DUI causing death, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Nye County District Judge Robert Lane will determine during a July 19 sentencing hearing in Pahrump whether each count is served concurrently or consecutively.
Kennedy, 33, pleaded guilty Tuesday in the March 27, 2021 crash that killed Michael Durmeier, his fiance Lauren Starcevich and Durmeier’s 12-year-old daughter, Georgia. Two other children were injured in the crash.
In exchange for the guilty pleas, prosecutors agreed to dismiss two counts of DUI causing injury and five reckless driving counts.
Kennedy was driving his truck north on U.S. Highway 95 between Beatty and Goldfield when he crossed the middle line and crashed head-on with an SUV Durmeier was driving south on a family spring break trip, police records show.
The victims were from Victor, Idaho.
Georgia
Ex-nurse pleads guilty in nursing home death of war veteran
ATLANTA (AP) — A former nurse has pleaded guilty to her role in the death of a World War II veteran whose pleas for help were ignored at a nursing home, prosecutors said.
Loyce Pickquet Agyeman of Snellville pleaded guilty Tuesday to involuntary manslaughter, neglect of an elder person and concealing the death of another, The DeKalb County District Attorney said. A judge sentenced Agyeman to serve eight years in prison.
Agyeman was arrested in 2018 following her indictment, four years after James Dempsey was found dead in his room at the Northeast Atlanta Rehabilitation Center.
Dempsey, 89, was recovering from hip surgery at the nursing home in 2014 when his son became concerned about “strange things” his father said were taking place and there were fears that he was being neglected, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
With his father’s permission, Dempsey’s son installed a video camera that was hidden inside a clock radio in the room. It was footage from that camera that led Dempsey’s family to file a lawsuit, leading to a criminal investigation into his death.
Oklahoma
Hearing set for arguments on appeal in McGirt case
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments for April 27 in an appeal by the state of Oklahoma in what is known as the McGirt ruling.
The state argues in the case of Victor Castro-Huerta that it has concurrent jurisdiction to prosecute non-Native Americans for crimes committed against Natives on tribal reservations.
The state child neglect conviction and 35-year prison sentence of Castro-Huerta, a non-Native American, was overturned by the state appeals court.
Castro-Huerta was charged with malnourishment of his 5-year-old stepdaughter and has since pleaded guilty to a federal child neglect charge and is awaiting sentencing.
The state says federal authorities are overwhelmed since the court’s ruling that the state has no jurisdiction over crimes committed by or against Native Americans on reservations.
Castro-Huerta’s attorneys say only the U.S. Congress can draw jurisdictional lines.
The Supreme Court in January agreed to hear the case at the same time that it refused Oklahoma’s request to overturn the McGirt ruling.
The ruling found some tribal reservations were never disestablished by Congress and that Oklahoma prosecutors lack the authority to pursue criminal cases against American Indian defendants on tribal lands.
