Indiana
Indiana Supreme Court deciding fewer cases
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Fewer cases are continuing to be heard by the Indiana Supreme Court.
The court’s new annual report shows it issued 78 rulings on the 868 cases that were appealed to the five justices during the one-year period ending June 30.
That’s down from the 90 opinions issued the previous year and 122 it made a decade ago. The court also is picking from among fewer cases being appealed.
Chief Justice Brent Dickson tells The Times of Munster he doesn’t have a specific explanation for why the number of appeals reaching the court has gone down.
At least three of the five justices must agree to hear an appeal for the Supreme Court to take up the case.
Texas
Inmate set to die today for slaying and abduction
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A Harris County jury rejected arguments convicted killer Jamie McCoskey was too insane to get the death penalty.
Now the 49-year-old Texas death row inmate is set for execution Tuesday evening in Huntsville for abducting a Houston couple 22 years ago this week, raping the woman and killing her boyfriend.
McCoskey’s attorneys say they likely won’t be making any last-minute appeals to try to spare him. The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year refused to review his case.
He’d be the 15th prisoner executed this year in Texas, which carries out capital punishment more than any other state.
McCoskey is notorious for grabbing a heavy wood chair and throwing it at prosecutors during his trial for fatally stabbing 21-year-old Michael Dwyer.
Vermont
Couple sues state agency over use of bad pesticide
RUTLAND, Vt. (AP) — A Rutland couple has filed a lawsuit accusing a Vermont state agency of hiring a bedbug exterminator who used a banned pesticide in their home.
Neil and Patricia Whitney sued the Vermont Agency of Human Services in federal court last week. They claim that their home became infested after they took in a foster child, and that the exterminator hired by the state used a pesticide that has been banned for indoor use since 2001. Exterminator Cary Buck has denied using the pesticide, but high levels of the chemical have been found in homes he treated.
The attorney general’s office told Vermont Public Radio that the state is working with the Whitneys, and clean-up efforts for the hardest hit homes are expected to start this week.
Texas
Lawsuit is filed against urban streetcars plan
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Critics of a planned $280 million streetcar system for San Antonio have gone to court challenging the funding and seeking to block construction.
The VIA (VEE’-uh) Metropolitan Transit Authority board meets Tuesday and members could be briefed on the lawsuit. The board in September voted to proceed with the nearly 6-mile streetcar line.
The lawsuit was filed Friday in Austin by George Rodriguez and George Alejos.
Voters in 2004 approved the Advanced Transportation District. Alejos says VIA promised that district money would not be used for light rail systems or toll roads. The lawsuit alleges ATD funds are being used via plans for improving two current transit centers that will also serve streetcar passengers.
VIA official Charlie Gonzalez denies that ATD funds are being used for the streetcar project.
New Mexico
Court affirms conviction in Las Vegas murder
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico’s highest court has upheld the murder conviction of a Las Vegas man for the 2009 shooting death of another San Miguel County man.
Louis Benavidez was sentenced to life in prison for killing Kevin Duran outside of the home where the victim lived with his girlfriend and her six children, including a teenage son who fought with Benavidez two days before the shooting.
The state Supreme Court ruled last week there was sufficient evidence to support Benavidez’s first-degree murder conviction but the justices reversed a conviction for evidence tampering, which added three years to his sentence.
Police never found the gun used to shoot Duran and the court said there wasn’t evidence to show the jury he hid the gun to avoid prosecution.
New York
Trial nears in firefighter fatal ambush case
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — Jury selection begins this week for the trial of an upstate New York woman accused of buying the guns a convicted felon used to shoot and kill firefighters during a Christmas Eve ambush.
Dawn Nguyen (WEHN) will be in state Supreme Court in Rochester Tuesday.
She is charged with falsifying a business record for allegedly lying on a gun purchase form in 2010. Prosecutors say she claimed a rifle and shotgun she bought were for her when they were really for ex-convict William Spengler Jr.
Spengler used the guns to kill two firefighters and wound three other first responders in Webster last December, before killing himself.
Nguyen has denied the charges.
She faces similar charges in federal court.
New York
Man shoots 3 ex-bandmates, himself in NYC
NEW YORK (AP) — A man kicked out of his indie rock band shot three of his bandmates to death in their Brooklyn apartment early Monday and wounded a fourth before killing himself on the roof, police said.
The band members were all from Iran but had come the United States in the past few years seeking more musical freedom. It wasn’t immediately clear why the ex-member snapped, police said.
The shooting happened shortly after midnight in a row house in East Williamsburg, an industrial neighborhood home to mostly warehouses where artists can rent cheaper space than in trendier parts of the city.
Police found a 27-year-old man with a gunshot wound to the chest on the second floor. Two others were found shot in the head on the floor above, a 35-year-old and another whose age wasn’t immediately known. Another member, 22, was wounded in the arm and was stable at a hospital.
The gunman was found on the roof with a self-inflicted shot to the head, police said. A rifle was found next to the body.
The victims’ names were not immediately released.
The group played recent gigs in the New York indie rock scene at venues like the Knitting Factory and Brooklyn Bowl.
