National Roundup

Louisiana
Police seek help in renewed case of missing toddler

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A little girl wandered from the scene of a fire in 1984 only to disappear.

Local media reports New Orleans police have revived efforts to find Remona Brown, with the public’s help. Police on Wednesday released composite images of Brown, who would now be 37, seeking tips.

Brown disappeared from her home in the Algiers neighborhood of Louisiana 34 years ago. Police said in a news release Wednesday that two young boys died in the blaze, but seven other children survived.
The release says Brown’s older sister told investigators that the then-3-year-old wandered away while the siblings were huddled outside.

She said a man and woman in a bronze or brown-colored vehicle stopped at the scene and asked if the children needed help, before speeding off with Brown.

She hasn’t been heard from since.

WWL-TV reports investigators at the time searched through the charred house multiple times looking for the girls’ remains and searched the surrounding areas but found nothing.

Deputy Louisiana State Fire Marshal Brant Thompson told the television station it’s likely there would have been something left of the young girl for investigators to find.

“It’s really inconceivable to think that in a house fire, all that existed of a human being, even a child between the ages of 3 and 4, would be completely consumed by that fire,” Thompson said.

Connecticut
Court upholds $41.5M verdict in student disease lawsuit

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld a $41.5 million verdict against a private Connecticut boarding school that was sued by a former student who became ill and suffered brain damage on a school trip to China.

A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an appeal by the Hotchkiss School on Tuesday.

Cara Munn was a student at the school in Salisbury when she contracted tick-borne encephalitis during the 2007 trip when she was 15. Lawyers for the New York City resident say she lost the abilities to speak and move the muscles in her face.

Munn’s lawsuit said the school failed to take precautions against small pest-borne diseases during the trip.

Hotchkiss lawyers argued schools should not be required to warn students about remote risks.

Virginia
Ex-teacher pleads guilty to sending naked photo to student

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A former Virginia high school teacher accused of sending a naked photo of himself to one of his students has been convicted of taking indecent liberties with a minor.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Benjamin Brittain, a former economics teacher at Deep Run High School in Glen Allen pleaded guilty Wednesday. His lawyer says he’s a “good guy” who made a bad decision and is very remorseful.

A prosecutor said Brittain, now 29, sent inappropriate messages to a 16-year-old student in early 2016. He left the high school after that year and was attending law school at Elon University in Greensboro, North Carolina when he was arrested.

Brittain faces up to five years in prison at his sentencing on May 23.

Ohio
State Supreme Court upholds triple-killer’s death sentence

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Ohio Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of a man convicted of killing a woman and her two young children.

The court’s 6-1 ruling Thursday comes in the case of Curtis Clinton, sentenced to die for killing 23-year-old Heather Jackson and her 3-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son in Sandusky in northern Ohio in 2012.

Court records say the victims were strangled. Clinton was also convicted during his jury trial of raping the 3-year-old girl. The 46-year-old Clinton denied the charges.

The court rejected arguments from Clinton’s attorneys that allegations he choked and raped a 17-year-old girl a week earlier shouldn’t have been used as evidence to bolster the case against him in the family’s killing.

Clinton’s attorney declined to comment.

Florida
Former cook gets 7 years for putting lye in Yum Yum Sauce

LAKELAND, Fla. (AP) — A disgruntled Florida restaurant worker has been sentenced to seven years in prison for putting deadly plumber’s lye into the Yum Yum sauce.

The owner of the Hibachi Express franchise checked surveillance video after tasting the sauce during a routine inspection and immediately feeling his mouth burn.

Lakeland police say the video showed 54-year-old Margarito Padilla accessing a container of poisonous drain cleaner and then going to where the Yum Yum sauce was kept.

The Ledger reported Wednesday that Padilla was arrested last June and eventually acknowledged tainting the sauce because he was unhappy about working conditions.

He pleaded no contest to introducing a chemical into a food or drink, as part of a deal with prosecutors.

Maryland
Court eyes whether juvenile lifers  have real parole chance

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland’s highest court is mulling whether juvenile offenders serving life sentences are unconstitutionally being denied meaningful opportunities for parole.

The Court of Appeals heard arguments Tuesday regarding four men who were given life sentences for crimes committed as juveniles.

Defense attorneys argue that the sentences, which carry the possibility of parole, are nevertheless illegal because the offenders have no meaningful opportunity for release under the current parole system.

Attorneys for the state argue that Maryland’s parole commission has standards that it follows, including considering an offender’s maturity and rehabilitation while in prison. They say any perceived problems with the parole system — in which the governor has the final say — should be addressed by the legislature, not the courts.