Court Roundup

North Carolina
Life sentence upheld of man who killed NC state trooper

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina appeals court ruled that a convicted killer captured on video ambushing a state trooper during a traffic stop received a fair trial, upholding his life prison sentence.

A state Court of Appeals panel rejected Edwardo Wong Jr.’s arguments that the emotional testimony deprived him of a fair trial in 2010.

“After a careful review of the record as a whole, and the overwhelming evidence of defendant’s guilt, we conclude that, even if error occurred, defendant was not deprived of his due process right to a fair trial,” the court ruled unanimously Tuesday.

Wong shot Highway Patrol Trooper Shawn Blanton three times on the side of Interstate 40 near Canton in Haywood County despite the 24-year-old law officer pleading for his life to be spared. Wong collected Blanton’s handgun, threw his keys over the guardrail and fled, The Citizen-Times of Asheville reported.

Wong, of Ormond Beach, Fla., still had the gun when he was stopped and arrested several miles away.

The court cited the 19-minute audio and video recordings of the slaying that were captured by Blanton’s dashboard camera, along with the testimony of witnesses who were driving along the interstate and saw the gun’s muzzle flashes, and the officers who arrested Wong.

The patrol car’s video captures Wong demanding Blanton give up his weapon and Wong walking calmly back to his vehicle after the shooting and driving away.

Wong was sentenced to life in prison without parole after a jury deadlocked on whether he should receive the death penalty.

Investigators found Blanton’s state-issued Sig Saur handgun in Wong’s truck along with two other guns, 11 ounces of marijuana and 57 tablets of Ecstasy. He had $5,000 in cash when he was arrested. The threat of being arrested with the drugs and guns, which he was forbidden to possess as a convicted felon, were possible reasons Wong shot Blanton, prosecutors said.

Along with life imprisonment, Wong was sentenced to up to 42 years for a series of other charges, including robbery with a dangerous weapon and attempted first-degree murder.


Missouri
Ex-chemist admits sending threatening email to lawyer

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A former St. Louis city chemist faces November sentencing now that he’s admitted in court that he tried to intimidate a lawyer with emailed pictures of rifle cross hairs superimposed over pictures of the man’s son and daughter-in-law.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that 36-year-old Alireza Bakhtiari pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to a charge of corruptly attempting to obstruct or impede an official proceeding.

Bakhtiari obtained the pictures from the Florida wedding photographer’s website.

The January email included three pictures of the lawyer’s house, mentioned his wife’s name and included a picture of someone he thought was the lawyer’s daughter.

Bakhtiari admitted his actions were meant to frighten or intimidate the lawyer and obstruct his ability to oppose Bakhtiari in a defamation lawsuit.


Pennsylvania
Man jailed on threat to cut baby from womb

UNIONTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A western Pennsylvania man has been jailed on charges that he beat his pregnant girlfriend then threatened to cut the unborn child from her womb because she’ jealous that the child may not be his.

Online court records don’t list an attorney for 21-year-old Darryl Clark, of Pittsburgh, who’s been in the Fayette County Jail since Sunday. He faces a preliminary hearing on aggravated assault, terroristic threat and other charges.

Police say Clark dragged the 19-year-old woman out of her Uniontown home and banged her head off a mailbox before holding a knife to her stomach and threatening to cut out the child she is carrying. Police say Clark also cut the woman’s stepfather when he intervened to defend her.

The woman says she’s about three months pregnant and is now OK.