Kansas: Iowan sentenced in $3 million mortgage fraud case
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Federal prosecutors say four people have been sentenced for taking part in a $3 million mortgage fraud scheme.
U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom of Kansas said in a news release Tuesday that the defendants each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, money laundering and wire fraud.
They admitted to conspiring with others to defraud mortgage lenders by submitting false loan applications, inflating contract prices and receiving money by submitting false invoices to title companies.
Prosecutors say 28-year-old Bora Ly, of Raytown, Mo., was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison; 51-year-old Debora Saulmon of Olathe, Kan., was sentenced to 15 months; 30-year-old Kong Bun Ly, Kansas City, was sentenced to one year; and 26-year-old Rebecca Gelwix, Des Moines, Iowa, was sentenced to eight months.
Oklahoma: Hearings set for man charged with killing 3
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — Two court hearings are scheduled for a Blanchard man charged with killing a Dibble woman and her two children and setting their home on fire.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Twenty-eight-year-old Shaun Michael Bosse is charged in McClain County with three counts of first-degree murder for the July deaths of 24-year-old Katrina Griffin, 8-year-old Christian Griffin and 6-year-old Chasity Hammer. Autopsies found the Griffins were stabbed to death and the girl died of smoke inhalation.
The Norman Transcript reports a hearing set for Jan. 11 will be to consider motions to lift a gag order in the case. A court conference is scheduled for March 22 for Bosse.
He remains in custody without bail.
Kansas: Man charged in 4 slayings wants prelim waived
LYNDON, Kan. (AP) — A Missouri man charged with killing four family members in Kansas says he wants to waive a preliminary hearing so his son doesn’t have to testify.
The Kansas Attorney General’s office is opposing the motion from James Kraig Kahler to bypass a preliminary hearing scheduled to start Dec. 21 in Osage County District Court in Lyndon.
Kahler, a former Columbia, Mo., city official, is charged with four counts of capital murder in the November 2009 deaths of his wife, their two teenage daughters and the wife’s grandmother in Burlingame, Kan.
The couple’s son was in the home when the slayings occurred. The Topeka Capital-Journal reported Wednesday that Kahler says in a court motion that he doesn’t want his son exposed to the stress and trauma of testifying.
North Carolina: Judge says angry sign on house protected speech
CARY, N.C. (AP) — A federal judge says a local sign ordinance can’t limit the sign that a North Carolina man painted on his home out of anger at town leaders.
Multiple media organizations reported Wednesday that David Bowden can keep the crude message painted on the front of his Cary home in large, orange letters.
Federal Judge Louise Flanagan ruled that enforcing Cary’s sign ordinance would violate Bowden’s free-speech rights.
Bowden had the sign painted on the front of his home last year after it was damaged by runoff that he blames on town road construction.
The town’s attorney argued that the sign expressing Bowden’s view of being “Screwed by the town of Cary” violated parts of the ordinance concerning aesthetics and traffic safety.
Louisiana: Ala. man held in 30-year-old slaying of woman
HOUMA, La. (AP) — An Alabama man has been arrested in connection with the death of a woman whose nude body was found tied to a cinder block in a Louisiana waterway more than 30 years ago.
The Terrebonne Parish sheriff says 54-year-old Ricky D. Brown, of Vinemont, Ala., was arrested last week and booked with murder in the drowning death of 22-year-old Edith McElroy West, also of Alabama. West’s body was found in the canal on Sept. 27, 1980.
Sheriff Vernon Bourgeois told The Courier that investigators are not releasing much information now. However, retired sheriff’s detective Godfrey Buquet said that the suspect and victim were among a group of visiting motorcyclists.
Brown is jailed in Cullman County, Ala., pending court proceedings to return him to Louisiana.
North Carolina: Woman admits running fake heiress scheme
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A North Carolina woman admits she posed as an heiress to swindle more than 100 people out of a total of $1.7 million.
Sixty-seven-year-old Bari Lynn Berger admitted in Philadelphia federal court Tuesday that she posed as the illegitimate daughter of a fictitious billionaire.
Authorities say the Durham woman told victims her fabricated father’s will required her to become financially stable and receive medical treatment to receive a payout.
Investigators say Berger promised amounts ranging from $100 to $1,000 for every dollar her victims contributed.
Court documents say Berger used the money to buy items including jewelry, an RV and motorcycles.
Sentencing for Berger and a co-defendant is scheduled for April.
Florida: Woman found guilty of killing lover’s wife
OCALA, Fla. (AP) — A central Florida woman caught in a deadly love triangle has been convicted of kidnapping and brutally killing the man’s wife.
A jury convicted Emilia Carr of first-degree murder and kidnapping on Tuesday. Marion County Sheriff’s deputies say Carr and Joshua Damien Fulgham kidnapped his wife, bound her to a chair and suffocated her with a plastic bag inside a storage trailer in 2009.
Jurors also heard the transcript of a conversation between Carr and Fulgham’s sister in which Carr said Fulgham held down the victim while Carr taped her hands and feet.
Fulgham is awaiting trial on the same charges. He and his wife have two children and were in a custody battle.
Deputies found the body of Heather Strong buried in the yard.
