Georgia
Ex-Army sergeant sentenced to life in barracks fatal stabbing
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A former Army sergeant has been sentenced to life in federal prison for fatally slashing and stabbing a fellow soldier dozens of times in his barracks at a Georgia base.
A U.S. District Court judge in Savannah sentenced Byron Booker, 29, on Thursday. Booker pleaded guilty last fall to a federal charge of premeditated murder of a member of the U.S. military in the killing of 21-year-old Army Spc. Austin Hawk at Fort Stewart, Georgia.
Booker previously admitted in court to plotting the slaying with another soldier whom Hawk had reported to superiors for smoking marijuana.
The June 2020 killing happened barely a month after Booker was honorably discharged from the Army when he completed his time on active duty, according to court records. Prosecutors said Jordan Brown, a soldier from Booker’s former unit, came to Booker complaining that Hawk had ruined his life by reporting him for drug use. Brown said he was being kicked out of the Army.
According to documents, Hawk was alone in his barracks room when Booker got him to open the door after midnight on June 17, 2020. Booker repeatedly slashed and stabbed Hawk with an unspecified sharp weapon. The medical examiner counted 40 wounds, including a fatal gash across Hawk’s throat.
Brown pleaded guilty in December to charges of assaulting a military service member and intimidating a witness. He is still awaiting sentencing.
Michigan
Man sentenced in 1997 assault, slaying of woman, 88
FLINT, Mich. (AP) — A man who pleaded guilty in the 1997 killing of an 88-year-old Michigan woman was sentenced Friday to at least 10 years in prison in the long unsolved case.
A Genesee County judge sentenced Michael Adam Bur, 43, to a minimum of 120-240 months for second-degree murder and 120-240 months for first-degree criminal sexual conduct in Mary Prieur’s slaying. Both sentences will run concurrently.
Bur was also ordered to face mandatory lifetime electronic monitoring and register as a sex offender for life, The Flint News reported.
Bur had pleaded guilty to the charges in December following his 2021 arrest in Prieur’s death. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors agreed to dismiss a kidnapping charge he had faced.
Prieur’s body was found in February 1997 in a wooded area near her residence in the Genesee County village of Lennon. Prieur, who had been beaten, strangled and sexually assaulted, had emigrated from Czechoslovakia as a child and later operated a candy business in Flint.
Bur, then 17, lived near Prieur’s house at the time of her killing.
A DNA sample taken from Bur in the months after the crime remained in storage until 2021, when a Michigan State Police Crime Lab used more advanced techniques than what existed in 1997 to link him to samples taken from the murder scene.
Michigan
Judge orders trial of ex-cop charged with murder
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan judge on Friday refused to dismiss a second-degree murder charge against a former Grand Rapids police officer who was fired after shooting a Black motorist in the back of the head during a struggle over a Taser.
Christopher Schurr is scheduled for trial March 13 in the shooting death of Patrick Lyoya last April. Circuit Judge Christina Elmore rejected defense attorneys’ motion to throw out the case.
Schurr’s lawyers argued he acted in self-defense and that Michigan law allows police officers to use deadly force to stop someone from fleeing and to make an arrest. Video recordings showed Schurr was straddling Lyoya’s body as the Congolese refugee lay face down beneath him.
Prosecutors said the district court did not abuse its discretion in finding probable cause to proceed to trial. A judge at a preliminary hearing found sufficient evidence that a jury could conclude Schurr did not reasonably believe his life was immediately at risk.
Schurr was fired last June after spending months on paid leave. He spent one night in jail, then posted bond.
Attorneys for Lyoya’s family have filed a separate civil lawsuit against Schurr and the city of Grand Rapids.
California
Former U.S. Navy captain sentenced in massive bribery scandal
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A former U.S. Navy captain who was caught up in a massive contracting scandal was sentenced Thursday to 2 1/2 years in federal prison for taking nearly $91,000 in bribes.
Retired Capt. David Haas also was ordered to make restitution and to pay a $30,000 fine.
Prosecutors said Haas, 54, of Kailua, Hawaii, was among dozens of Navy officials who were bribed to help obtain defense contracts for a man known as “Fat Leonard” Francis.
Francis owned Singapore-based Glenn Defense Marine Asia Ltd., or GDMA, which supplied food, water and fuel to vessels for decades. He has acknowledged overbilling the Navy by $35 million with the help of officers whom he plied with prostitutes, Kobe beef, cigars and other bribes so they would direct their ships to Pacific ports Francis controlled in Southeast Asia.
More than 30 people have been convicted or pleaded guilty in the sweeping corruption case. Francis, who also pleaded guilty to criminal charges in 2015, was awaiting sentencing when he fled home confinement in San Diego last year and is now in custody in Venezuela, where he has requested asylum.
From 2011 to 2013, Haas, who was captain of the 7th Fleet command ship Blue Ridge, accepted tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of entertainment, including hotel rooms, prostitutes, alcohol and dinners, during multi-day parties arranged by Francis overseas, prosecutors said.
Haas pleaded guilty in 2020 to conspiracy to commit bribery, a charge that could have carried up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
In federal court in San Diego on Thursday, he told the judge he had brought shame on his family and the Navy and tarnished his two-decade career, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
“I should never have had a relationship with that guy,” Haas said. “I should never have allowed Leonard Francis into anywhere.”
Texas
Woman accused of killing friend, taking baby sentenced
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas woman accused of killing a close friend in 2019 who had just given birth and abducting the baby as part of an elaborate scheme to pass the infant off as her own pleaded guilty to murder charges Thursday, prosecutors said.
Magen Fieramusca, 37, was sentenced to 55 years in prison for the death of Heidi Broussard, 33, Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza announced in a statement. Fieramusca waved her right to appeal.
The conviction follows a crime in Austin, Texas, that began with the disappearance of a 3-week-old baby girl and was followed with widening interest as the investigation unfolded and police zeroed in on Fieramusca. Police say the child was later found alive at a home in the Houston area along with Broussard’s body in the trunk of Fieramusca’s car.
According to an arrest affidavit at the time, Fieramusca abducted Broussard on Dec. 12, 2019, and packed her into a black duffel. Broussard had last been seen dropping off an older child at an elementary school in Austin. Her death was ruled homicide by strangulation.
The baby, Margot Carey, was returned to her father.
“We are hopeful that this outcome will bring some closure to the Broussard and Carey families and help them continue their healing process,” Garza said.
Fieramusca and Broussard were friends who met about a decade ago at church camp, according to court records. At one point, Fieramusca had a key to Broussard’s apartment and the women discussed being pregnant together, even considering that they might give birth on the same day, the court record states.
Broussard’s fiance told investigators that she told him on Dec. 8 or 9 that Fieramusca had given birth to a baby girl, but he never saw any photos of the child. Fieramusca told a Texas Ranger that she went to the beach with a cousin on the day Broussard was abducted. But she later told the same officer that she gave birth on that day, although she was unable to provide specifics of her delivery, according to the affidavit.
Montana
Man charged with attempted murder of two teenagers
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A Montana man was charged with attempted murder and attempted rape Thursday following a violent assault on two teenagers in a rural area bordering the Crow Indian Reservation.
Carl Chester Alden, 32, pleaded not guilty during an arraignment in Billings before state District Court Judge Rod Souza, who set bond at $1.5 million.
Alden is accused of shooting the teens, ages 14 and 18, in the head and trying to rape the younger victim.
He faces additional felony charges of assault with a weapon and aggravated assault, plus a misdemeanor charge for contempt of court, court records show.
Alden allegedly had been using meth as he drove around with the victims and two others south of Billings on Monday, The Billings Gazette reported.
When the 14-year-old started arguing with Alden, he shot her and the older teenager as he crashed the vehicle into a ditch, according to charging documents. He later charged at deputies who responded to the scene, and they used stun guns to subdue him, the documents say.
In 2014, Alden was sentenced to five years of probation after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter in a crash that killed a 23-year-old man on the Crow Reservation.
Prosecutors had sought a prison sentence of more than four years in that case. Alden admitted he had been drinking alcohol and said he did not remember the crash or driving.
Illinois
Health club controller gets 4 years in fed prison for fraud
CHICAGO (AP) — A judge sentenced a former health club controller to four years in federal prison for embezzling more than $4 million from the facility.
U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman sentenced 58-year-old Peter Craig Savely on Thursday, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Savely pleaded guilty in October to one count of bank fraud. He acknowledged in a plea agreement that he stole $4.1 million from the East Bank Club over a seven-year period beginning in 2013. He would write payroll checks for four employees, forge the workers’ signatures to endorse the checks and deposit the money into bank accounts that he controlled, according to the plea agreement.
Prosecutors told the judge that Savely engaged in the fraud despite earning a six-figure salary. Guzman said Savely’s actions were a “blatant betrayal” of his employer’s trust.
“I can only conclude that the motive was greed,” the judge said.
Savely’s attorney, Andrew Porter, asked that his client get 2.5 years because he’s unemployed and deep in debt. Savely apologized to relatives and friends in court before the sentence was handed down and he put his hands to his heart.
“I am not that person,” he said to the judge. “I don’t want to be that person.”
Guzman told him that if he doesn’t want to be “that person” he can start by behaving in prison.
