National Roundup

Connecticut Boy, 5, brings heroin for show and tell BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) -- Police say a 5-year-old Connecticut boy brought 50 packets of heroin to school for show and tell, and his stepfather has been arrested. Bridgeport police tell the Connecticut Post that 35-year-old Santos Roman went to the Barnum School on Monday to retrieve the drugs and found police waiting for him. He was detained on $100,000 bail on risk of injury to a minor and drug charges. Police say the boy wore Roman's jacket to school Monday. When it came time for his show-and-tell presentation, the kindergartner displayed bags of heroin. The teacher confiscated the drugs and told the principal, who called police. It's not clear if Roman has a lawyer. The boy was put in state custody until other relatives could be located. New York Ex-NY woman charged with faking cancer for wedding GOSHEN, N.Y. (AP) -- Authorities say a former New York woman pretended to have terminal cancer so she could have a lavish wedding reception and honeymoon. The Times Herald-Record reportsan Orange County Grand jury has indicted 25-year-old Jessica Vega, a former Montgomery resident, with grand larceny and scheme to defraud. According to the indictment, Vega accepted thousands of dollars in donated services and goods after claiming in 2010 that she was dying of leukemia. The newspaper ran a story on Vega's wedding wish. She married Michael O'Connell in May 2010 and the couple spent their honeymoon in Aruba. Four months later, O'Connell told the newspaper that Vega was faking the illness. The couple divorced over the incident, and O'Connell moved to Virginia. Vega later joined him. They have two children. Vega was arraigned last Friday and pleaded not guilty. She's being held in county jail on $10,000 bail. Louisiana Man gets 70-year sentence in double slaying GONZALES, La. (AP) -- A 34-year-old Donaldsonville man has been sentenced to 70 years in prison for a 2004 double slaying. The Advocate reports an Ascension Parish jury found Patrick Calvin Parker guilty of two counts of manslaughter in January in the deaths of 23-year-old Katrice Bell and 33-year-old Albert Landry Jr., both of Donaldsonville. After reviewing a presentencing report, which included impact statements from seven family members of the victims, Judge Ralph Tureau sentenced Parker Monday to 35 years for each count, to be served consecutively. The maximum sentence allowable was 40 years for each count. Parker's defense attorney, Susan Jones, objected to the fact that no one interviewed Parker as part of the presentencing report, and told the court she intends to file a motion to reconsider the sentence on Parker's behalf. As it stands, the 70-year sentence could potentially more than double in June, when Assistant Attorney General David Weilbaecher Jr., who prosecuted the case, will argue a motion to apply the state's habitual offender statute. According to the presentencing report, Parker was convicted of simple possession of cocaine in 1997, and the manslaughter conviction is his second felony. If applied, the statute requires Parker to serve 100 percent of his current 70-year sentence, but the court also would have the option to double the maximum allowable sentence on each count from 40 years to 80 years on each count -- a total of up to 160 years, if served consecutively. Prosecutors also accused Parker of shooting himself in the abdomen and placing the gun in Landry's hand to shift blame for the shootings to Landry. According to sheriff's office reports, Parker and Bell had a stormy on-and-off relationship that led to various arrests for each and a protective order against Parker in the years that led up to the slayings. Parker had believed that he and Bell were the parents of a child, but subsequent paternity tests showed he was not the father of Bell's baby, though prosecutors did not introduce that evidence during trial. Connecticut Man questioned in Boston art heist faces charges NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -- A reputed Connecticut mobster suspected of having information about the largest art theft in history from a Boston museum is facing new weapons charges. Federal prosecutors said Monday a grand jury returned an indictment charging Robert Gentile of Manchester with illegal possession of firearms, ammunition and silencers. Authorities say the weapons were seized from his home in February. Gentile has been detained since his arrest in February on a charge of selling illegally obtained prescription painkillers. A prosecutor revealed in court last month that the FBI believes the 75-year-old Gentile "had some involvement in connection with stolen property" related to the unsolved 1990 heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in which masterworks worth a half billion dollars were stolen. Gentile's attorney called the notion preposterous. Arkansas Appeals court to consider $66M Tony Alamo judgment TEXARKANA, Ark. (AP) -- A federal appeals court has agreed to consider a $66 million civil judgment that a jury awarded to two men who say they were abused as children growing up in evangelist Tony Alamo's ministry. The Texarkana Gazette reports that the oral arguments will likely be heard this summer by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at St. Louis. Alamo is appealing the $66 million in damages that a jury awarded to Spencer Ondrisek and Seth Calagna. The two were raised in the Alamo's ministry and a jury agreed that they'd suffered physical abuse and were deprived of an education. Alamo is currently serving a 175-year federal prison sentence. He was convicted in July 2009 of bringing young girls across state lines for sex. Indiana State denies fault in rape by released inmate SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) -- An attorney for the state denies that the Indiana prison system failed in its legal duties by mistakenly releasing an inmate who raped a woman just days later. The rape victim argues in a lawsuit that prison staffers failed to find that Robert Kemp Jr. had an outstanding arrest warrant when they released him on parole in December 2010 after he completed his sentence for another crime. Kemp was convicted last year of raping the woman at a South Bend pharmacy where she worked. He is serving a 130-year sentence. The South Bend Tribune reports Deputy Attorney General Betsy Isenberg argued during a Monday court hearing that prison staffers should've checked for arrest warrants, but that doesn't make the state responsible for Kemp's actions after his release. Published: Wed, Apr 11, 2012