National Roundup

Missouri: Woman pleads guilty in incest case, faces jail
HARRISONVILLE, Mo. (AP) — A western Missouri woman whose husband fathered four babies with one of the couple’s daughters faces sentencing after pleading guilty to charges of child endangerment and hindering prosecution of a felony.

Online court records show the woman was scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday. She pleaded guilty Friday in Cass County Circuit Court.

Her husband was sentenced last June to life in prison after he was convicted of second-degree murder and abandonment of a corpse.

Three of the four children the man had with his daughter died, including one whose body was found in a shallow grave near Dustin in eastern Oklahoma where the family apparently lived for a short time.

The Associated Press is not identifying the mother or father to protect the identity of the victims.

Connecticut: Funeral home director faces prison for theft
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut funeral home director faces sentencing after pleading guilty to stealing money and other valuables from dead people’s homes.

Kevin Riley is expected to receive a two-year prison term at the hearing Tuesday in Hartford Superior Court.

He and co-conspirator Yolanda Faulkner pleaded guilty in August to several larceny charges.

Authorities say Riley and Faulkner stole money, jewelry and paintings from the homes of dead people who had no relatives, after Riley had himself appointed administrator of their estates. Prosecutors say the two sold some of the goods at an auction house where Faulkner was the bookkeeper.

Montana: Woman charged with attempted homicide
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A 26-year-old Harlowton woman is charged with attempted homicide after a Twodot woman was stabbed over the weekend.

The Billings Gazette reports Gina Marie Berg appeared in Yellowstone County Justice Court Monday, where Judge Pro Tem Lance Lundvall ordered her held without bond. He set Berg’s next court appearance for Feb. 7 in Harlowton.

Wheatland County officials say Berg went to the home of Becky Dana in Twodot Saturday afternoon and made threats toward Dana about her husband. Dana was stabbed several times in the abdomen and arm with a chef’s knife. Officials say she was treated at a hospital in Harlowton and released.

Prosecutors say Berg led law enforcement officers on a 90-mile chase and was arrested north of Billings after she allegedly rammed a Wheatland County patrol car.

Wisconsin: Man pleads not guilty to killing his mother, 79
FRIENDSHIP, Wis. (AP) — A central Wisconsin man has pleaded not guilty to killing his mother, hiding her body and using her credit cards and checks.

Fifty-nine-year-old Larry Clark entered the pleas in Adams County Circuit Court Monday. Prosecutors say Clark shot and killed 79-year-old Marcella Clark, whose badly decomposed body was found Nov. 16 near the home they shared in Big Flats.

Clark is accused of using his mother’s credit cards and writing checks on her bank accounts. He’s charged with first-degree intentional homicide, hiding a corpse, forging checks, identity theft and giving false information on a missing person.

The Stevens Point Journal says District Attorney Mark Thibodeau (THIH’-bih-doh) may amend the complaint to include additional charges as the investigation continues.

New York: Standoff suspect is incompetent to stand trial
MALONE, N.Y. (AP) — A northern New York man shot by state troopers during a six-hour standoff last year has been found incompetent to stand trial.

The Press-Republican of Plattsburgh reports that two psychologists who testified during a hearing Monday in Franklin County Court said 37-year-old Michael Nelson of Massena can’t effectively assist in his own defense because of paranoid delusions.

Nelson was charged with 13 counts, including attempted murder and attempted aggravated assault of a police officer, after authorities say he pointed a rifle at two troopers during a standoff Sept. 16 at a camp in the town of Brandon, on the Adirondack Park’s northern border.

Authorities say he had broken into the camp and fired shots at relatives of the camp owners who came by that day. A six-hour standoff with police followed.

Illinois: Family reaches settlement in student death
PEORIA, Ill. (AP) — Family members of a Bradley University student who died after a college prank have settled their wrongful death lawsuit.

Nineteen-year-old Sheridan Dahlquist died in 2007 after his roommates lit two roman candles under his bedroom door as an apparent prank after a night of drinking.

The (Peoria) Journal Star reports that court papers indicate the family will get a total settlement of $700,000 in the settlement with three of Dahlquist’s roommates and the owners of the house where the men lived.

The Dahlquists’ attorney, Gerald Brady, declined to comment on the settlement. He says the lawsuit was a “very sensitive matter to the Dahlquists.”

The lawsuit was filed in August 2009.

Idaho: Law student sues university over keeping firearms
MOSCOW, Idaho (AP) — A law student at the University of Idaho is suing the school and claims rules that prohibit him from storing firearms in his on-campus apartment are unconstitutional.

Court records show 36-year-old Aaron Tribble filed his lawsuit last week in Idaho’s 2nd District Court.

The university bans firearms on campus, but students are allowed to store and check out their guns at a police substation on the Moscow campus in northern Idaho.

Tribble, who lives in campus housing designated for students who are married or have children, says the school is violating his constitutional right to bear arms by not letting him store his guns in his apartment.

University spokeswoman Joni Kirk confirmed Monday that the university had received a copy of the lawsuit and was reviewing the complaint.