National Roundup

Minnesota
6 Prince siblings want ruling that they're his heirs

CHASKA, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota judge says he'll take a request that Prince's six siblings be declared his lawful heirs under advisement.

Carver County District Judge Kevin Eide said in January he wouldn't declare the heirs of the late rock superstar until appeals run their course for others whose claims of heirship have been rejected.

But lawyers for Prince's sister and five half-siblings don't want to wait, saying any further delays will increase costs to the estate and impede its efficient administration. Eide said Wednesday he'll take their request under advisement.

Prince left no known will when he died of an accidental painkiller overdose in April 2016.

Attorneys for those who have been rejected as heirs say their interests would be harmed if the district court doesn't wait out the appeals process.

Florida
Elderly man kills self; said he killed wife with Alzheimer's

DELTONA, Fla. (AP) — A 75-year-old man fatally shot himself while deputies were visiting his house to conduct a welfare check on his wife, and he left behind a hand-written suicide note saying he had buried her in the backyard, authorities in Florida said Wednesday.

Laurence Caulfield admitted that he killed his wife in the note, and officials were searching the yard for her body, the Volusia County Sheriff's department said in a news release.

Deputies visited the home in Deltona, northeast of Orlando, Tuesday night after an out-of-state relative reported receiving a letter from Caulfield that said he was having a difficult time coping physically and emotionally as his wife suffered from Alzheimer's disease, the release said. The relative told detectives that she hadn't spoken to the couple in months.

Caulfield included with the letter the couple's will, life insurance policy and other financial documents, the sheriff's department said.

"He also has guns in the house, and I'm concerned," the caller told dispatchers, according to the sheriff's office. "The way it's been written is a concern, a strong concern."

Deputies went to the house and spoke briefly with Caulfield, who told them his wife suffered from Alzheimer's and he had moved her to Kansas City to stay with friends of the family.

When deputies asked how they could get in touch with her, he told them to call his daughter in New Jersey, who had the information, the sheriff's office said in a news release.

Caulfield went back inside the house while deputies called the daughter, who said she knew nothing about her mother moving to Kansas City. Deputies grew concerned and began knocking on the front door but no one answered, the sheriff's office said.

Deputies then heard a shot from the back of the house and found a wounded Caulfield with a shotgun by his side. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Iowa
Man accused in deadly jail break returned to Iowa

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — A man accused of shooting two sheriff's deputies, one fatally, in an Iowa jail escape has been returned to that state to face charges.

Officials say 24-year-old Wesley Correa-Carmenaty was picked up from an Omaha, Nebraska, jail Wednesday and taken to the Pottawattamie County Courthouse in Council Bluffs for his initial hearing. He was denied bail as he awaits prosecution on murder, attempted murder and other counts. He'll be held at a jail in Sioux City. His attorney hasn't returned a call.

Authorities say Correa-Carmenaty had just been sentenced to 45 years in an unrelated case May 1 when he grabbed a deputy's gun, shot him and another deputy, and escaped in a jail transport van.

Authorities say Correa-Carmenaty was recaptured after he carjacked a woman's car and drove to Omaha.

Louisiana
Judge rejects effort to block Confederate statue's removal

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A last-ditch effort to block the removal of a monument to a Confederate general in New Orleans was rejected Wednesday by a Louisiana judge who turned away arguments that the city doesn't own the statue or the land on which it sits.

"This has gone on an inordinate amount of time," Judge Kern Reese said as he outlined reasons for his refusal to grant an injunction protecting the statue of Gen. P.G.T Beauregard. It was a reference to state and federal court battles that delayed removal of the Beauregard monument and three others for more than a year.

The huge bronze image of Beauregard on horseback sits in the center of a traffic circle at the entrance to New Orleans City Park. Those who don't want it removed argued that it belongs to a park board, and therefore the city has no authority to remove it.

Reese's rejection of an injunction means the city can remove the statue pending further proceedings in his court. Richard Marksbury, a New Orleans resident and monument supporter, said he may go to an appeal court to block removal.

The Beauregard statue, a statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee, and one of Confederate President Jefferson Davis are slated for removal. A fourth structure, the Liberty Place monument, was removed late last month. It honored whites who battled a biracial Reconstruction-era government in New Orleans.

The Liberty Place monument was taken down without advance notice in the dead of night by workers in masks and body armor. City officials have been secretive about removal plans due to threats of violence against those tasked with taking down the structures.

In Reese's court, Franklin Jones, an attorney for Marksbury, cited documents asserting that the independent, state-supervised board that oversees City Park owns the Beauregard statue and the tract of land on which it sits. Adam Swensek, an assistant city attorney, noted court precedents holding otherwise and said delays in removing the monuments only prolong a controversy that has resulted in tense confrontations between pro- and anti-monument groups at monument sites.

"The longer it takes to go ahead and rip off the Band-Aid, the longer this wound will fester," he told Reese.

In refusing an injunction, Reese noted documents indicating the monument was donated to the city in 1907. And, aside from any ownership questions, he said the city was granted perpetual use of the land in question.

The council voted to remove the four monuments in 2015 at the urging of Mayor Mitch Landrieu — part of a national response after nine black parishioners were shot to death by an avowed racist at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, earlier that year.

The shooter, Dylann Roof, brandished Confederate flags in several photographs that came to light soon after his arrest. Roof had said he intended to start a race war with the killings.