Court Digest

Pennsylvania
2 men sentenced to life without parole in drive-by shooting that killed toddler
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Two men convicted of murder in a drive-by shooting that left a toddler dead in his car seat in Pittsburgh were sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Markez Anger, 25, and Londell Falconer, 27, were both convicted in June of first-degree murder in the death of 18-month-old De’Avry Thomas, who was fatally shot last year in downtown Pittsburgh.

Prosecutors said Falconer was driving a vehicle and his passenger, Anger, fired more than a dozen shots at another vehicle near a prominent downtown building complex, PPG Place, in May 2022. At least one bullet struck Thomas, who was in the back seat of a car driven by his mother. He was pronounced dead at the scene. His mother was uninjured.

Security cameras recorded Anger leaning out the passenger-side window and shooting at the vehicle De’Avry was in as bystanders nearby began running away, authorities said. They said 13 bullet holes were later found in the vehicle. Security footage from the city’s North Side, where the vehicle was abandoned, showed Falconer getting out of the driver’s seat, and fingerprints from the defendants were found on a discarded can and the vehicle’s roof, authorities said.

The boy’s mother, Dea’Shea Green, told the judge that she struggles to sleep because every time she closes her eyes the events of that day play over and over in her mind. “It hurts me even more to know, when I found my baby, there was nothing I can do but hold him and wait for help,” she said.

Both defendants maintained their innocence, criticized their attorneys and vowed to seek new trials. Anger told relatives of the victim that he was sorry for what they have been going through. Falconer said he had known the boy all his life and knew from the moment he was born “how amazing he was going to be.”

Judge Bruce Beemer imposed the mandatory life-without-parole terms Wednesday, calling the shooting a “brazen, reckless and intentional act” that ended the life of a child. He also sentenced Anger to another 22½ to 45 years on conspiracy, attempted homicide, and firearms counts and Falconer to another 15 to 30 years for conspiracy and attempted homicide.

California
Appeals court opens way to block law on gun marketing to kids
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal appeals court on Wednesday opened the way to block a California law that bans gun ads aimed at children, saying it went too far in restricting lawful speech.

Sporting and gun rights groups and the publisher of a youth shooting magazine had sought an injunction to temporarily stop the law from taking effect, arguing that it blocked the marketing of legal gun events and recruitment for safe and responsible youth sport-shooting and hunting programs.

A lower court denied that request. But on Wednesday a three-member panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision.

That sends the issue back to the lower court for reconsideration.

The measure was signed into law last year. It bars marketing of firearm-related products “in a manner that is designed, intended, or reasonably appears to be attractive to minors.”

In its ruling, the appellate court said the law was likely to violate the First Amendment right to free speech and “does not directly and materially advance California’s substantial interests in reducing gun violence and the unlawful use of firearms by minors.”

“There was no evidence in the record that a minor in California has ever unlawfully bought a gun, let alone because of an ad,” the opinion’s summary said.

Gov. Gavin Newsom condemned the ruling, citing advertising by a gun-maker that sells a version an AR-15 style rifle that is smaller and lighter and advertised as being “geared toward smaller enthusiasts.”

“The court is fighting to protect marketing weapons of war to children,” Newsom said in a statement. “It is pure insanity.”

Newsom said he and Attorney General Rob Bonta are looking at options for challenging the ruling.

The law was one of several gun control measures passed by the Democratic-controlled state Legislature last year after the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense — a major expansion of gun rights.

It was one of four that Newsom asked lawmakers to fast-track in response to mass shootings, including one that killed 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Texas in May 2022.

California
School district to pay $27M in death of teen assaulted by ­fellow students
MORENO VALLEY, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California school district has agreed to pay $27 million to settle a lawsuit by the family of an eighth grade boy who died after being assaulted by two other students at a middle school four years ago.

The settlement with the Moreno Valley Unified School District was announced Wednesday by lawyers for relatives of 13-year-old Diego Stolz, who was sucker-punched at Landmark Middle School in September 2019.

One of the teens struck the teenager in the head from behind and he fell, hitting his head against a pillar. The teens then continued punching Stolz, who died nine days later from a brain injury. The attack was recorded on video.

Dave Ring, an attorney for the Stolz family, said the boy’s death would have been preventable if there was an anti-bullying policy in place at the school about 65 miles (105 kilometers) east of Los Angeles.

“Schools need to realize that bullying can never be tolerated and that any complaints of bullying and assault must be taken seriously,” Ring said in a news release.

School officials will not be commenting on the settlement, district spokesperson Anahi Velasco said in an email Wednesday. The district said previously that it changed its bullying reporting system and its training for employees. Also the school’s principal and vice principal were replaced.

The family’s wrongful-death lawsuit claimed that Stolz complained to the assistant principal that he was being bullied before the assault that killed him.

The assailants, who were 14 at the time of the attack, entered the equivalent of guilty pleas in juvenile court to involuntary man­slaughter and assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury.

The teens spent 47 days in juvenile custody. A judge declined to sentence them to more jail time, but ordered that they undergo anger management therapy.

Delaware
Mother who killed her 3-year-old daughter receives 30-year sentence
DOVER, Del. (AP) — A Delaware woman who pleaded guilty to killing her 3-year-old daughter and dumping her burned remains on a softball field was sentenced Thursday to 30 years in prison.

Kristie Haas, 31, pleaded guilty earlier this year to murder by abuse or neglect and abuse of a corpse in the death of Emma Grace Cole, who prosecutors say endured a life of starvation and torture before she was killed.

“I’m sorry for all the hurt that I inflicted and the pain that I caused,” said Haas, who also pleaded guilty to three counts of endangering the welfare of a child for her mistreatment of Emma’s half-siblings.

Haas faced a minimum mandatory prison term of 15 years, and a possible life sentence, but Superior Court Judge Noel Primos imposed the 30-year sentence that was recommended by prosecutors and defense attorneys.

“I cannot presume to comprehend the grief and the anguish that Emma’s family members here today have been put through because of Ms. Haas’ actions,” Primos said. The judge agreed with prosecutors that Haas deserved more than the minimum sentence because of the “excessive cruelty” of her crime.

“I knew everything was wrong, and I was so messed up because of everything I did,” Haas told the judge, recalling the day she left her daughter’s corpse on a softball field in Smyrna. “I thought I could get away with it, to be honest.”

“I wasn’t OK then,” Haas added, recalling her drug abuse, mental health issues and relationship with Emma’s stepfather, Brandon Haas. “… I’m trying my best to be better than I was.”

Brandon Haas, 41, was to be sentenced later Thursday after pleading guilty to one felony count and three misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

Emma’s body was found in September 2019 by a person walking a dog through a softball park near Smyrna Middle School in central Delaware. At the time, Emma lived with her parents and siblings less than a mile from the ball field. Authorities believe Emma had been dead for several weeks before her body was found.

Kristie and Brandon Haas were arrested in Pennsylvania in October 2020. Authorities say the couple withheld food and medical care from Emma and subjected her to “torture or maltreatment,” while also subjecting her and her siblings to excessive forced exercise and inappropriate physical discipline.

Prosecutor Kevin Smith said that after finding Emma unresponsive. Kristie Hass tried to revive her with a cold shower and stopped Brandon Haas from calling 911. Haas later threw away her daughter’s clothing, stating, “That’s it for Emma. Emma’s not coming back,” Smith said.

Haas also lied to family members about Emma’s absence after the killing, telling them the toddler, who Haas said “had the devil in her eyes” was in a facility for children with mental illness.

Before sentencing Haas, Primos heard from Emma’s father, Joshua Douthitt, her great-aunt and former guardian, Tanya Conley, and Haas’ mother, Belinda Johnson.

“I will never comprehend why Emma Grace had to lose her life,” Douthitt said tearfully. “I don’t know what this beautiful little baby could have done to deserve this.”

Smith read a letter submitted by Conley, who described Emma as a happy, healthy child who loved Paw Patrol, swimming, playing with cats, and being sung to at bedtime.

Now, Conley wrote, she sings “You Are My Sunshine” at Emma’s gravesite, rather than her bedside.

“I hate Kristie, and I hope whatever time she gets is miserable for her,” Conley also wrote “I hope she burns in hell where she belongs.”

In her testimony, Johnson never referred to Haas as her daughter, but only as the surviving children’s mother. She urged Primos to reject a prosecution request that Haas not be allowed any contact with the children during her time in prison.

Primos agreed that the prosecution’s request was inappropriate, noting that all three surviving children will be adults in less than 10 years. He did order that Haas not have any contact with them while they are still minors unless authorized by an Indiana court with jurisdiction over their custody.

Defense attorney Patrick Collins said that while it is easy to paint Haas as a “monster,” her own life has been “a nonstop disaster since childhood.” Collins said Haas was abused and abandoned as a child, subjected to extreme poverty, abused by intimate partners, and suffered from mental illness. The “true monster” he suggested, was drug addiction, adding that she and Brandon Haas were addicted to methamphetamine.

“Kristie wanted to be a mother, but she wasn’t honest with herself that she was very ill equipped to be a mother,” Collins said.