National Roundup

Pennsylvania
Bullet strikes man in his belt buckle at store
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Investigators say a man was saved by his belt buckle when he was hit by a stray bullet during a shootout outside a Philadelphia grocery store.
WPVI-TV reports it happened in the city’s Grays Ferry section around 4 p.m. Wednesday. Police say a man was shot in the stomach on the street and a bullet also hit an employee inside 8 Brother’s Supermarket.
The 38-year-old employee, Bienvenido Reynoso, says he was about to take a hand truck outside when shots started flying. He hit ground and surveillance video shows a snack cake being shot off the shelf above his head.
He says he didn’t realize he’d been hit until someone pointed out he had a hole in his shirt. That’s when he found the bullet in his belt buckle.

Hawaii
Coast Guardsman faces desertion charge in hearing
HONOLULU (AP) — A veteran rescue swimmer has been charged with desertion after he went missing for three months and triggered a massive search, the Coast Guard said Wednesday.
Petty Officer 1st Class Russell Matthews faces three other charges including being absent without leave, wrongful use and possession of a controlled substance, and causing the Coast Guard to conduct a search when there was no need, said Chief Warrant Officer Gene Maestas, a Coast Guard spokesman.
An Article 32 hearing — the military equivalent of a grand jury hearing — will be held to determine if there’s enough evidence for Matthews to be tried in a court-martial.
Matthews was in the process of being discharged from the Coast Guard for illegal use of marijuana when he disappeared in October. The 36-year-old showed up at his home in mid-January.
Police said Matthews was incoherent when he was found, and he taken to a hospital for observation. The Coast Guard later took him into custody and had him confined at a Navy brig while they investigated why he left without authorization.

Wyoming
3 arrested after police follow snowy footprints
RIVERTON, Wyo. (AP) — Three men have been accused of stealing items that include a samurai sword — but according to central Wyoming police the suspects weren’t exactly ninjas.
Authorities in Riverton say they tracked the men down by simply following a series of footprints in the snow leading away from a home where the robbery was reported.
Police Capt. Eric Murphy tells The Riverton Ranger that the tracks led investigators from the victim’s house straight to another house where authorities found three men in their 20s “digging through” stolen property that included several other types of swords.
Police say they also found marijuana and drug paraphernalia in the home late Monday night. They say the suspects were arrested and face various robbery and drug charges.

Florida
Inmate executed for 1980 killing of young girl
STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A man who killed a 10-year-old girl he snatched off her bike on her way to school has been executed in Florida.
Authorities said 59-year-old Larry Eugene Mann was pronounced dead at 7:19 p.m. Wednesday following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke.
Mann kidnapped Elisa Vera Nelson on Nov. 4, 1980, as she headed to school in a Tampa suburb following a dental appointment.
Mann took the girl to an orange grove, cut her throat and beat her head with a pole. Mann then went home and tried to kill himself by slashing his wrist, telling the responding police officers he had “done something stupid.”
Days later, Mann’s wife found a bloodied note that Elisa’s mother had written to explain why she was late for school.

Washington, D.C.
Man sentenced for 2010 killing of DC teenager
WASHINGTON (AP) — A District of Columbia man who was tried three times for the slaying of a high school student has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for the murder.
Raymond Roseboro was sentenced in D.C. Superior Court on Wednesday for the November 2010 killing of 16-year-old Prince Okorie. Two previous trials had ended with hung juries.
A judge called the killing “senseless” in imposing the sentence.
The 23-year-old Roseboro, who has maintained in his innocence, testified in his own defense at trial by saying he was home with his girlfriend at the time of the killing. But his then-girlfriend contradicted that alibi when she took the stand.
Prosecutors argued that Roseboro’s hairstyle matched a description provided by a witness to the shooting.

Louisiana
Teenager to be resentenced in parents’ slayings
SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — The Louisiana 2nd Circuit Court of Appeal ruled that Dalton Fletcher, the teenager convicted in December 2011 of killing his parents at their western Ouachita Parish home, will be resentenced.
The News-Star reports (http://tnsne.ws/10YFIH1 ) Fletcher, who was 15 when he committed the crime, was sentenced in February 2012 to two life sentences without the possibility of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.
According to the appellate court’s ruling, Fletcher’s sentence will be thrown out in light of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling issued last year that bans states from imposing mandatory life sentences without possibility of parole on juveniles convicted of murder.
The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeal states that the trial judge who sentenced Fletcher used the Louisiana statute mandating life imprisonment without benefit of parole for juveniles convicted of murder, which now violates the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Miller v. Alabama.
The matter will be sent back to the trial court in Benton for resentencing after the court conducts a more thorough review of the case using appropriate factors expressed in the Miller ruling.
In its ruling, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeal states that rehabilitation in Fletcher’s case is “questionable,” but the case must be reviewed using the factors outlined in the Miller ruling.
Although Fletcher could end up receiving the same sentence, his attorney Charles Kincade said at least this will give him a chance at parole.
Fletcher was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder by a Bossier Parish jury in December 2011 for the shooting deaths of his parents, John and Tammy Fletcher, in September 2010.
He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.