National Roundup

Delaware
Man whose case led to death penalty overturn pleads guilty
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — A Temple University law school graduate has pleaded guilty in a case that prompted Delaware’s Supreme Court to overturn the state’s death penalty law.

The News Journal reports 29-year-old Benjamin Rauf pleaded guilty to manslaughter and a weapons charge in the drug-related 2015 killing of classmate Shazim Uppal.

Prosecutors had planned to seek the death penalty against Rauf, but the judge sought the state Supreme Court’s opinion after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Florida’s similar law, which allowed for capital punishment even when juries are less-than-unanimous in recommending death.

Rauf’s case also presented a second test for Delaware law, when public defenders asked a judge to toss evidence they argued was gathered from an unconstitutional search of cellphone location records. Attorneys were awaiting a decision when Rauf pleaded Monday.

Arizona
State high court to weigh appeal based on ­impulsivity issue
PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Supreme Court will consider if judges can allow evidence on whether defendants have brain damage making it more than likely a crime was committed impulsively rather than with premeditation.

The court agreed Tuesday to consider the appeal of Stephen Jay Malone Jr., a Tucson man convicted of first-degree murder and other crimes in the 2013 killing of his wife, 25-year-old Augustina Soto. Her sister was wounded in the same shooting.

A state Court of Appeals July 2018 decision on Malone’s appeal upheld his convictions and said past Supreme Court decisions on admission of impulsivity are “nuanced.”

According to the decision, courts can’t consider evidence that a defendant’s mental disorder short of insanity negates criminal intent but can consider evidence that a character trait for impulsivity didn’t indicate premeditation.

Louisiana
Prosecutors want judge to order ex-DA to go to prison
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Prosecutors want a judge to reconsider a decision allowing a former New Orleans area prosecutor to remain free until he has exhausted his appeals, now that a federal appeals court refused to rehear the matter.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jordan Ginsberg asked U.S. District Court Judge Eldon Fallon in a Monday filing to set a date for Walter Reed to start serving his four-year sentence on corruption charges, news outlets reported. A hearing on the matter is set for Feb. 26.

The former district attorney for St. Tammany and Washington parishes for 30 years was convicted in 2016 of several offenses, including 18 counts of mail fraud and wire fraud. He was sentenced to four years in prison but allowed to remain free on bond until he exhausted his appeals. Reed’s son was found guilty of conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering. He was sentenced to five years of probation.

Much of the case against Reed focused on his use of campaign funds. Prosecutors accused him of illegally spending more than $100,000 in campaign funds on personal items and failing to report that money as income on his tax returns. Reed gave his son money disguised as legitimate campaign expenses, and kept money from St. Tammany Parish Hospital for legal advice when that money should have gone to the district attorney’s office, the government said.

A motion to reconsider said a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Reed’s appeal on Nov. 5. The court later denied his request for a rehearing before the entire appeals court.

Reed’s attorney, Richard Simmons Jr., said he intends to petition the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case and that he will file an opposition to the motion.

Simmons said Monday that when Judge Fallon granted the appeal bond in 2017 he said the issues that were raised needed to be decided by the 5th Circuit or U.S. Supreme Court. “We’ll be fighting that issue on the 26th,” Simmons said.

However, Ginsberg said in his filing that the move is unlikely to be successful and could take at least another year regardless of the outcome.

“In thorough and clear fashion, the Fifth Circuit made its determination: There is nothing novel, untoward, or constitutionally offensive in the defendants’ prosecution or conviction, and that their prosecution under federal fraud statutes was legitimate,” the government’s court filing said.

Florida
Man guilty in $100 million wire fraud against Puerto Rico bank
MIAMI (AP) — A South Florida man has been convicted in a $100 million scheme to defraud a Puerto Rico bank.

Court records show that 55-year-old Jack Kachkar was convicted in Miami federal court Monday of eight counts of wire fraud affecting a financial institution. His sentencing is scheduled for April 30.

Prosecutors say Kachkar served as chairman and CEO of pharmaceutical company Inyx Inc. from 2005 to 2007. Officials say Kachkar caused Westernbank to grant a series of loans in exchange for a security interest in Inyx’s assets in 2005. Evidence showed Westernbank agreed to advance money based on fake customer invoices, which allowed Kachkar to divert tens of millions of dollars.

Westernbank declared the loan in default in 2007 and lost more than $100 million, leading to the bank’s insolvency and collapse.

Missouri
No charges against officers who fatally shot 2 men
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Three Kansas City police officers won’t face charges in the fatal shootings of two men who were struggling over a handgun last summer in a downtown square.

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said in a letter to the police chief that two of the officers were compelled to fatally shoot 33-year-old Timothy Mosley in June because he ignored officers’ repeated demands to drop his weapon and attempted to fire it.

She said 34-year-old Robert White was killed because he was too close to Mosely. The third officer at the scene didn’t fire his weapon.

Mosley and White were killed less than an hour after city officers fatally shot a woman seen brandishing a sword.

Baker’s letter was dated Jan. 9 and posted to the prosecutor’s office website Tuesday night.