California
Man charged in family’s kidnapping, slaying
MERCED, Calif. (AP) — Prosecutors on Monday charged a California man in the kidnapping and killings of an 8-month-old baby, her parents and uncle.
Jesus Salgado is accused of kidnapping the family at gunpoint from their trucking business on Oct. 3. Authorities say Salgado, a former employee with a longstanding dispute, likely killed them within an hour.
Their bodies were not found until late Wednesday, when a farm worker in an almond orchard in a remote area of the San Joaquin Valley, California’s agricultural heartland, discovered the remains of Aroohi Dheri; her 27-year-old mother Jasleen Kaur; her 36-year-old father Jasdeep Singh; and her 39-year-old uncle Amandeep Singh.
Salgado, 48, tried to kill himself a day after the kidnappings before he was taken into custody. He faces four counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances, the Merced County District Attorney’s Office announced Monday. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The special circumstances allege that the slayings were committed during the commission of a kidnapping and were part of multiple killings in the same case.
Salgado appeared in court Monday on video, KFSN reported. He did not enter a plea and asked for more time to find an attorney. He is scheduled to return to court Thursday.
Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke last week would not discuss the condition of the adults’ remains in the orchard and said it was unclear how the baby died. Warnke said the child had no visible trauma.
Warnke called for Salgado to face the death penalty. But District Attorney Kimberly Lewis on Monday said she would defer that decision to next year.
Salgado is also charged with arson and the possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. He was previously convicted of first-degree robbery with the use of a firearm in Merced County, attempted false imprisonment and an attempt to prevent or dissuade a victim or witness after he held a family he had worked for at gunpoint and forced them to follow his orders nearly 20 years ago.
In 2007, he was sentenced to 11 years in state prison in that case. He was released in 2015 and discharged from parole three years later, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He also has a conviction for possession of a controlled substance, the department said.
Salgado’s younger brother Alberto Salgado, 41, was arrested late Thursday and accused of criminal conspiracy, accessory, and destroying evidence.
Washington
State pays $2.75 million to woman in highway crash
MALTBY, Wash. (AP) — Washington state has agreed to pay $2.75 million to a woman who was seriously hurt in a rollover crash involving a state Department of Transportation vehicle on Highway 522.
On March 5, 2018, Kara Janneh of Monroe was driving her Jeep Cherokee east on the highway near Maltby with her toddler son in the back. Her lawsuit said she didn’t have time to stop when a Washington State Department of Transportation truck made an illegal U-turn. Her vehicle flew into the air and rolled over twice.
Her son escaped serious injury but the lawsuit said Janneh suffered serious harm including a traumatic brain injury.
In 2019, she sued the state Department of Transportation.
In September, the state conceded the crash was its fault in court filings. Shortly after, the lawsuit was settled for $2.75 million, The Daily Herald reported.
In an email, a WSDOT spokesperson confirmed the settlement, but declined to comment further.
The stretch of two-lane highway between Paradise Lake Road near Maltby and the Snohomish River Bridge is known for serious crashes.
In 2014, a couple in one car and a baby in another died in a head-on crash, prompting a lawsuit that called the highway “inherently dangerous.” The state settled that case for $3 million without admitting liability.
In August, prosecutors charged a woman with vehicular homicide in a 2020 crash that killed one and seriously injured another on the highway.
A major transportation package passed at the state Legislature this year includes millions to widen Highway 522 in that area.
Colorado
Man accused of driving into crowd at bar was on parole
DENVER (AP) — A man accused of driving into a crowd outside a Colorado bar after a fight, killing one person and seriously injuring four others, was on parole from prison at the time, according to court documents released Monday and authorities.
Ruben Marquez, 29, was released from prison in May after serving nearly three years for “aggravated motor vehicle theft, attempted escape, and a weapons and drug charge,” said a state Department of Corrections spokesperson, Annie Skinner. He was required to serve a mandatory two-year parole sentence, she said.
Marquez appeared by video from jail during a brief court hearing Monday to be advised of the possible charges he faces for ramming a white Silverado pickup truck into patrons and employees of the Rock Rest Lodge early Sunday in Golden, west of Denver. He was not asked to speak. Judge Jennifer Melton said he would have to remain behind bars because he’d been arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder.
Marquez was represented by a lawyer from the public defender’s office, which does not comment publicly on cases.
Seven people were injured when they were hit by the truck, with four taken to the hospital, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said. Three remained in the hospital Monday but all were expected to survive, sheriff’s spokesperson Jenny Fulton said.
The man who was killed was identified by the sheriff’s office as 27-year-old Adrian Ponce. His brother was one of the four people taken to the hospital, along with two bar employees and a bar customer, according to the arrest affidavit for Marquez.
According to the affidavit, some witnesses said they thought the fight may have started over something to do with gangs and one described some “light-hearted banter” about gangs inside the bar earlier, as Marquez and two cousins celebrated a birthday. However, investigators have not confirmed the episode was related to gangs, Fulton said.
One of Marquez’s cousins, who owns the truck Marquez is accused of driving into the crowd, told investigators some men approached him as he was leaving the bar and asked him what his gang affiliation was, causing him to get his cousins and leave, only to be confronted by the same people and others outside, the document said. He is accused of being an accessory to first-degree murder.
Prosecutors have until Friday to file charges against both men.
Indiana
Fort Wayne mayor pleads guilty to drunken-driving offense
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — The mayor of Indiana’s second-largest city pleaded guilty to a drunken-driving charge Monday, after a weekend crash that followed too much wine at a event.
Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry’s blood-alcohol level was 0.152 after he was arrested Saturday night, according to records. Indiana’s legal limit to drive is 0.08.
Police said Henry was driving and his wife and mother-in-law were passengers when his vehicle moved left of the center line and struck another car. The other driver was not injured.
The 70-year-old Democrat pleaded guilty to operating a vehicle while intoxicated endangering a person. He will return to court on Nov. 7.
Henry declined to comment as he left the courthouse.
He had told police he drank “too many glasses of wine at a fundraiser” at a Fort Wayne theater, records show. The mayor was swaying, argumentative and had slurred speech, according to an arrest report.
After his release from jail Sunday, Henry read a statement to reporters apologizing “for the poor decision I made to get behind the wheel” after drinking at the event.
“Like every other resident of the city of Fort Wayne, I will be held accountable for those actions in future legal proceedings,” he said. “I respect the legal process. I will adhere to the legal process. And I will accept the consequences.”
Henry, first elected in 2007, has said he plans to run again in 2023. Fort Wayne, population 265,000, is 120 miles (190 kilometers) northeast of Indianapolis.
Texas
Court rejects Black death row inmate’s race bias claim
WASHINGTON (AP) — A divided Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal from a Black Texas death row inmate who argued he didn’t get a fair trial because jurors who convicted him objected to interracial marriage.
The court’s three liberal justices dissented from the court’s order turning away the appeal from inmate Andre Thomas. He was sentenced to death for killing his estranged wife, who was white, and two children in 2004.
“No jury deciding whether to recommend a death sentence should be tainted by potential racial biases that could infect its deliberations or decision, particularly where the case involved an interracial crime,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote. Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined Sotomayor’s opinion.
On the all-white jury were three people who expressed their disapproval of interracial marriage, including one who wrote on a questionnaire “I think we should stay with our Blood Line.”
Thomas’ trial lawyer did not seek to prevent the three people from serving on the jury, and didn’t even question two of the three about their views, Sotomayor wrote. One juror said he could be fair in spite of his views.
Sotomayor wrote that Thomas’ conviction and death sentence should be overturned.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had earlier rejected Thomas’ claim that his lawyer failed to provide competent representation.
Courts had earlier rejected appeals from Thomas’ lawyers that Thomas should not be executed because he is mentally ill.
He confessed to killing his estranged wife, Laura Christine Boren, 20, their son, Andre Lee, 4, and her 13-month-old daughter, Leyha Marie Hughes, in 2004. Thomas said God had told him to commit the killings. The victims were stabbed and had their hearts ripped out.
Five days later in jail he plucked out one of his eyes. While on death row in 2009, he removed his remaining eye and told prison officials he ate it.
Thomas does not have an execution date.
Wisconsin
Judge dismisses GOP lawsuit over Milwaukee records
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — An open records lawsuit filed against Milwaukee officials by the Republican Party of Wisconsin has been dismissed after the party said it received what it had requested.
Republicans were seeking records from the Milwaukee Election Commission and mayor’s office related to a get-out-the-vote campaign that conservatives labeled an illegal attempt at bolstering turnout in favor of Democrats.
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson’s office has clarified that Milwaukee Votes 2022 is a privately funded and nonpartisan initiative designed to encourage voting and register voters. Republicans filed an open records request on Sept. 13 seeking communications between GPS Impact, a liberal communications firm advising on the initiative, and the mayor’s office and Milwaukee Election Commission.
The party, joined by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, filed a lawsuit less than two weeks later on Sept. 26, alleging that officials weren’t responding to their request as swiftly as the law requires. Wisconsin’s open records law requires a response to requests “as soon as practicable and without delay,” but it often takes weeks or months for records to be provided.
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Kristy Yang dismissed the lawsuit on Monday. Another open records lawsuit filed by the party, seeking records from Gov. Tony Evers’ administration related to the Union Grove veterans home, remains pending.
