National Roundup

ILLINOIS
Ex-bank exec gets prison for false statements
CHICAGO (AP) — An 82-year-old former bank executive has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison for failing to disclose personal interest in loans that resulted in more than $680,000 in losses to the bank.
U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman sentenced James Regas of Oak Brook on Tuesday and ordered him to report to prison in 90 days.
Regas is former chairman of Western Springs National Bank & Trust, which was closed by federal regulators in April 2011.
He pleaded guilty last July to making false statements. Prosecutors say he admitted referring business associates to the bank for loans without telling the bank that he had financial interests and would benefit personally. He also submitted false conflict-of-interest statements.
Regas has paid more than $680,000 in restitution and was fined $60,000.

CALIFORNIA
Body of tourist found in hotel water reservoir
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police say the body of a woman found wedged in a water tank on the roof of a downtown hotel is that of a missing Canadian guest.
Investigators used body markings to identify 21-year-old Elisa Lam, police spokeswoman Officer Diana Figueroa said late Tuesday. A maintenance worker at the Cecil Hotel found the body earlier in the day after guests complained of low water pressure.
Lam, of Vancouver, British Columbia, traveled to California alone on Jan. 27 and was last seen by workers at the Cecil on Jan. 31.
Investigators were trying to determine whether there was foul play in the woman’s death or “a very, very strange accident” occurred, police spokeswoman Officer Sara Faden said.
“The location of the water tanks is very small and configured in a very tight way so it’s a little more difficult to get the body out,” Faden said. The body was discovered at about 10 a.m., but officials spent much of the day struggling to remove it from the water tank.
The hotel is located in downtown Los Angeles, which has long struggled against the creeping destitution of nearby Skid Row, where drug addiction and homelessness is rampant. At the time of Lam’s disappearance, police said it appeared suspicious.
Lam was traveling to Santa Cruz, about 350 miles north of Los Angeles, and officials said she tended to use public transportation. She had been in touch with her family daily until she disappeared.
A call to the hotel seeking comment was not immediately returned.

NEW YORK
Man charged with taking Dali work from gallery
NEW YORK (AP) — A Greek man proved inept at the art of thievery by swiping a Salvador Dali painting from a New York City gallery as security cameras rolled and, in a panic, later trying to send it back anonymously, authorities said Tuesday.
Phivos Istavrioglou also left fingerprints that helped detectives track him down — another misstep in a botched fine art caper that even he found foolish, according to an account of a confession contained in court papers.
The second Istavrioglou walked out of the Manhattan gallery last summer with the Dali watercolor and onto Fifth Avenue, he “was scared and couldn’t believe what a stupid thing he did,” the papers say.
Istavrioglou, 29, of Athens, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to grand larceny during a brief court appearance in Manhattan at which a judge set bail at $100,000. His attorney had no immediate comment.
Prosecutors accused Istavrioglou of stealing “Cartel de Don Juan Tenorio” in broad daylight while visiting New York in June. After pulling it off the wall at the Upper East Side gallery, he stashed it in a shopping bag and flew with it back to Athens, authorities said.
Shortly after learning authorities had distributed security photos of him that were seen around the world, Istavrioglou took the $150,000 work out of its frame. He then rolled it up in a cardboard tube and mailed it back to New York without a return address, prosecutor Jordan Arnold said.
New York Police Department detectives lifted fingerprints from the shipment that matched one from a juice bottle that they say Istavrioglou shoplifted last year from a Whole Foods market, giving them a name, police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. An investigator posing as an art gallery owner later tricked Istavrioglou into returning to New York by offering him a possible position as a consultant.
Federal agents intercepted Istavrioglou at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Saturday. While speaking to detectives that afternoon, court papers say, he “indicated he knew the theft would catch up to him and wants to make (the) situation right.”

KANSAS
Ex-husband of murder victim settles lawsuit
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The ex-husband of a Kansas murder victim has settled a wrongful death lawsuit filed against him by his children.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Atchison County District Court records filed Tuesday say the terms of the settlement between Eugene Kimmi Sr. and his children are confidential.
Kimmi was the ex-husband of 58-year-old Patricia Kimmi of rural Horton, who was killed in November 2009.
Patricia Kimmi’s children sued their father, Roger Hollister, and Hollister’s wife, Rebecca Hollister. They alleged the three conspired to kill Patricia Kimmi. Roger Hollister was convicted of the murder. Rebecca Hollister was later dropped from the lawsuit.
Eugene Kimmi hasn’t been charged in his ex-wife’s death.

OHIO
Court rejects request to set execution date
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Ohio Supreme Court has rejected a prosecutor’s request to set an execution date for an inmate sentenced to die for slitting a man’s throat during a 1985 burglary.
Ross County Prosecutor Matthew Schmidt argued that Lawrence Landrum had exhausted all state and federal appeals in the killing near Chillicothe.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with attorneys for Landrum who said the inmate should be allowed to pursue an additional federal appeal based on poor legal assistance during his trial.
The 51-year-old Landrum argues he couldn’t have raised the issue early on because his trial attorneys also worked on his initial appeals.
Part of Landrum’s claim addresses a decision by his lawyers not to call a witness who would have testified that Landrum’s co-defendant killed 84-year-old Harold White.