Florida
Man pleads guilty in woman’s long-unsolved 1991 slaying
DELAND, Fla. (AP) — A man already imprisoned in Florida for another killing pleaded guilty Tuesday to the long-unsolved 1991 slaying of a woman he met at a bar.
Michael Townson, 53, was sentenced by a judge to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years, state prosecutors said in a news release.
Townson admitted striking and fatally choking Linda Lois Little after meeting her at a Daytona Beach nightspot in October 1991. Little’s body was never found.
Prosecutors said Townson told them he drove north on Interstate 95 and left Little’s body near a dumpster in rural Camden County, Georgia. Checks of unidentified bodies in that county turned up no match for Little.
Townson was already serving a life prison sentence for beating Sherri Carmanto to death with a steel pipe in 2007 at her home in Titusville, Florida.
“This defendant is a confessed serial killer. It is gratifying to solve a cold case such as this,” State Attorney R.J. Larizza said in the news release.
South Carolina
Official says Alex Murdaugh will not face death penalty
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — State prosecutors will not seek the death penalty for Alex Murdaugh when the disbarred attorney appears in court next month for a double murder trial that has drawn international attention.
“After carefully reviewing this case and all the surrounding facts, we have decided to seek life without parole for Alex Murdaugh,” South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said in a statement Tuesday.
Murdaugh faces murder charges in the June 2021 shooting deaths of his wife and son. The scion of a prominent legal family has pleaded not guilty and repeatedly denied any involvement in the slayings.
Murdaugh’s legal team welcomed the move, noting in a statement that the decision removes the impediments to beginning the trial on the scheduled start date of Jan. 23 that a death penalty case would have likely brought.
A grand jury recently indicted Murdaugh on nine counts of tax evasion, adding to the dozens of charges handed down since his family’s deaths.
Prosecutors earlier this month revealed Murdaugh’s alleged motive in a bid to get evidence of Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes admitted into the trial. Prosecutors said Murdaugh killed his wife and son last year to gain sympathy and distract others from years of alleged financial misdeeds. The impending revelation of those crimes — which allegedly lined Murdaugh’s pockets with nearly $9 million stolen from poor clients to maintain his painkiller addiction — were about to sink his reputation, according to the prosecutors.
The defense has asked the judge not to allow evidence related to the alleged motive. They argue such evidence only serves to convince the jury that Murdaugh was a bad person who would commit a crime as awful as killing family members.
Massachusetts
Doctor faces charges over health care fraud, money laundering
A Massachusetts doctor has been indicted by a federal grand jury for his alleged involvement in two separate health care fraud schemes, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
Dr. Pankaj Merchia, 49, of Brookline and Boca Raton, Florida, was indicted on money laundering and health care fraud charges, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston.
Merchia, who specializes in sleep and internal medicine according to the state Board of Registration in Medicine, was scheduled to make an initial appearance in federal court in Boston on Tuesday.
An email seeking comment was sent to his attorney.
In one scheme, he allegedly billed former patients’ insurance companies for monthly rentals of CPAP and BiPap machines years after the former patients had stopped using the machines.
He used the money he made to buy a home in Brookline, authorities said.
In another, he allegedly billed a family member’s insurer more than $400,000 for the monthly rental of a CPAP machine, despite knowing that the insurance carrier would not pay for treatment rendered by a family member, prosecutors said.
He then used the proceeds to fund a wire transfer of $250,000 and to buy at least $140,000 in securities, prosecutors said.
Indiana
Police officer cleared of shooting knife-wielding man
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — Authorities have ruled that a western Indiana police officer was justified in fatally shooting a man who was threatening him with a knife earlier this month.
The Vigo County prosecutor announced Tuesday that a Terre Haute police officer acted appropriately after responding to a domestic violence call on Dec. 1 and heard a woman screaming inside the house. Officer Adam Noel kicked in the door and saw 42-year-old James Ready coming toward him with a knife.
A state police investigation determined the officer ordered Ready to drop the knife seven times, with Ready replying “shoot me” and “kill me” while still coming toward Noel, Prosecutor Terry Modesitt said.
“Unfortunately, Mr. Ready’s refusal to drop the knife and his approach of Officer Noel put both the officer and another person in immediate risk of death or serious bodily injury,” Modesitt said in a statement.
The officer fired three shots, with two of them hitting Ready, the prosecutor said.
The woman attacked by Ready suffered eight stab wounds and was treated for non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
Alaska
Inmate dies in custody of corrections department
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A man serving a sentence for a sexual assault conviction died earlier this month at Goose Creek Correctional Center, the Alaska Department of Corrections said Tuesday.
The department said no foul play is suspected in the Dec. 11 death of Morris Teeluk. The department said the 64-year-old is the 18th person to die in Corrections’ custody this year.
The department said it cannot release medical information, citing privacy provisions. It said Teeluk had been in department custody since 2014.
The department said next of kin have been notified.
California
Officer justified in shooting armed man, DA says
LA HABRA, Calif. (AP) — Prosecutors have cleared a Southern California police officer of any criminal wrongdoing in last year’s fatal shooting of a suspect who had shot and wounded another officer outside a police station.
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office said Monday that La Habra police Officer Abigail Fox acted properly when she shot Matthew-Tuan Anh Tran on Aug. 6, 2021.
The shooting happened outside the La Habra Police Department headquarters after a woman pulled her car into the parking lot to report that Tran, whom she didn’t know, had been tailgating her.
Tran, 22, exited his Toyota Camry and was confronted by Fox and Officer Mark Milward. When Milward asked him if he was following the woman, Tran denied it, Senior Deputy District Attorney Dan Feldman wrote in a letter to police Chief Adam Foster.
When Milward turned his back to him, Tran pulled out a gun and aimed it at the officer, Feldman wrote in the letter obtained by the Orange County Register.
Fox shouted and Tran fired two rounds at Milward, the letter said.
“One round pierced Officer Milward’s bulletproof vest, striking him in the right upper chest causing him to fall to the ground. Officer Milward would recover from the gunshot,” Feldman wrote.
Fox fired five shots at Tran, striking him at least once in the head, investigators said.
“Officer Fox did not have time to de-escalate the situation or use less-lethal force because Tran was already firing at Officer Milward,” Feldman wrote. Fox fired in defense of Milward while also fearing for her life and the safety of the public, prosecutors determined.
An autopsy found Tran, of Anaheim, had amphetamine, marijuana and methamphetamine in his system, the Register reported.
La Habra is in Orange County, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles.
Rhode Island
Textile maker to pay U.S. about $500,000 over foreign blankets
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A Rhode Island defense contractor that sold woolen blankets to the Army has agreed to pay nearly $500,000 to settle allegations that it violated a law requiring companies that supply the military to manufacture their products in the U.S. using American labor, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
The agreement resolves a civil False Claims Act investigation into Woonsocket-based textile manufacturer Hyman Brickle & Son, Inc., also known as The Brickle Group, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office in Providence.
The company in 2016 sold the blankets to the U.S. Department of Defense, despite knowing that the blankets were produced using labor in India, rather than in the U.S. using American labor, prosecutors said.
Under the Berry Amendment, equipment sold to the Department of Defense must be produced wholly in the U.S.
The $492,236 settlement represents full restitution for the cost of products paid for by the U.S. government and double damages, prosecutors said.
The settlement is not an admission of liability. A voicemail was left with the president of Brickle.
Louisiana
Court upholds ban on contractor vaccine mandate in 3 states
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal appeals court panel has upheld a decision blocking President Joe Biden’s administration from requiring COVID-19 vaccinations as part of federal contracts with three states.
The ruling, dated Monday, is the latest in a series of setbacks for Biden’s attempt to boost COVID-19 vaccination rates by requiring contractors doing work for the federal government to ensure their employees are vaccinated.
The 2-1 decision by a panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans applies only to contracts involving Indiana, Louisiana and Mississippi. But the mandate has been blocked or partially blocked in half the states as a result of multiple lawsuits.
Biden’s administration is not enforcing the contractor vaccination requirement in any states, as the legal battles continue to play out.
The 5th Circuit appeals panel heard arguments in October. Its written ruling said Biden’s executive order was unlawful, because Congress had not given him clear authority in federal procurement laws to require COVID-19 vaccinations.
The decision was written by Circuit Judge Kurt Engelhardt and agreed with by Judge Don Willett, both nominated to the court by President Donald Trump. In dissent was Judge James Graves, a nominee of President Barack Obama.
