National Roundup

 Casper

Mother of boy wi­th brain cancer char­ged in fraud 
CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — A Casper woman who received about $7,000 in donations after claiming her son was dying of brain cancer has been charged with felony fraud.
Krishelle Layton was arrested Tuesday and formally charged during a court appearance Wednesday.
The state Division of Criminal Investigation said in March that it was investigating the family after getting a tip from Casper police.
Layton’s son Dorian, who is nicknamed “Ninja”, gained local attention when he distributed gifts to sick children at Wyoming Medical Center on Christmas Eve. Casper police also named him chief for a day in January.
Court documents show that Dorian does have cancer but a doctor who treated him in Texas says his condition has significantly improved since 2009 and he’s not near death.
 
North Carolina
Missing soldier mom: suspect led police to grave 
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The mother of a Fort Bragg soldier who disappeared more than two years ago says police were led to her daughter’s grave by the suspect now charged with her killing.
Johnna Henson of St. Cloud, Florida, said Thursday that Fayetteville police called her Wednesday to say they were led to the remains of 23-year-old Pfc. Kelli Bordeaux.
Twenty-seven-year-old Nicholas Holbert is charged with killing Bordeaux. Police say he went to a Fayetteville bar with Bordeaux where she was last seen in April 2012. Holbert is scheduled for a first court appearance Thursday on charges of first-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping.
Henson says Holbert led investigators to Bordeaux’s grave in a densely wooded area about four miles from the bar where her daughter and Holbert went for drinks and karaoke.
 
Wisconsin
‘Lemon Law King’ files auto lawsuit against Wis. DOT 
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — An attorney who had been contacted to help the state Department of Transportation draft forms required under changes to Wisconsin’s lemon law has filed a lawsuit against the state alleging the documents posted online are wrong.
Vince Megna, the self-proclaimed “Lemon Law King,” filed the lawsuit against the state DOT on Thursday in Dane County Circuit Court.
The new law requires anyone bringing a lawsuit under the lemon law for a vehicle purchased after March 1 to use new forms created by the DOT.
Megna claims in his lawsuit that the form posted on the DOT site is “replete with errors” making it impossible for a consumer to bring a valid lawsuit.
A spokeswoman for DOT did not immediately return email and phone messages seeking comment.
 
Alabama
Delay sought for man accused in several deaths 
MOULTON, Ala. (AP) — New defense attorneys in north Alabama are seeking to delay the first murder trial of a man accused of multiple killings.
Attorneys for Jose Manuel Martinez filed court papers Wednesday in Moulton saying they need more time to prepare and asked Circuit Judge Mark Craig to delay the trial set for June 16.
The judge appointed Thomas Turner and Paula Bassham to represent Martinez in March after he sought a change in his court-appointed attorneys.
Martinez, 51, of Richgrove, California, has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge in the March 2013 shooting death of Jose Arturo Ruiz in Lawrence County. Investigators said Ruiz was shot after making a derogatory remark about Martinez’s daughter. Once Martinez finishes his case in Alabama, he faces trials in California on nine murder charges involving killings between 1980 and 2011.
Martinez was arrested in June 2013 while crossing the border from Mexico into Arizona and was transferred to Alabama to await trial. Investigators say that once Martinez was in jail, he told them that he was an enforcer for drug cartels and was involved in up to 40 slayings over more than 30 years. That led to the California charges being filed in April.
 
Nevada
August hearing slated for 1976 murder convict 
RENO, Nev. (AP) — A 64-year-old Nevada woman who is trying to overturn her murder conviction after spending more than 30 years in prison will have to remain behind bars for at least three more months.
Washoe District Court Judge Patrick Flanagan granted a request by prosecutors on Wednesday to postpone Cathy Woods’ status hearing for 90 days so they have more time to examine new evidence.
Woods has been convicted twice of killing Michelle Mitchell, a 19-year-old nursing student at the University of Nevada, Reno.
But authorities say DNA evidence recently examined links someone other than Woods to the murder scene in a residential garage on the edge of the UNR campus where Mitchell was tied up and her throat slashed in 1976.
The Reno Gazette-Journal reported (http://tinyurl.com/ mz27dlf ) that the new hearing is set for Aug. 21.
Mitchell’s car broke down in February 1976 across from the University of Nevada-Reno School of Agriculture just north of the downtown casino district. She called her mother for a ride, but she could not be found when her mom arrived 10 minutes later. Her body was discovered in a garage just half a block away by a couple returning home from a night out.
Woods was convicted of the murder in 1980. She won an appeal but was convicted again in 1985. She initially confessed to killing Mitchell while she was under psychiatric care at Louisiana State University Medical Center.
Since then, new technology has emerged that confirms DNA evidence gathered at the crime scene does not match Woods.
The FBI announced in March that the DNA matches that of semen gathered from a separate crime scene in San Mateo, California. FBI spokesman Peter Hill said federal agents were launching a task force to re-examine possible ties between Woods’ case and a series of unsolved murders of five young women in 1976 in what became known as the “Gypsy Hill Murders.”
Deputy Reno Police Chief Mac Venzon confirmed in March that the new DNA evidence does not connect Woods to Mitchell’s murder. But he said “it doesn’t necessarily exclude her either” because authorities believe she may have had an accomplice.
Judge Flanagan said earlier this year that he doesn’t want to rush the proceedings because of the seriousness of the case.
“This court has an obligation to all parties to have a fair opportunity to present their case,” he said.