National Roundup

Florida
Prosecutors suspect homicide in girl’s death 
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — Two senior prosecutors who specialize in homicide have been assigned to the case of the 12-year-old Florida girl whose body was found in a creek days after she went missing.

But little else has been made public about what happened to Naomi Jones between May 31 when she was last seen and Monday, when two fishermen found her body.

The Pensacola News Journal  reports police have questioned two people on interest in the case. No one has been charged in her death.

On Tuesday investigators searched Eight Mile Creek for evidence. An autopsy was performed Tuesday, but results weren’t released.

Naomi graduated from elementary school and was set to start middle school in the fall.

Florida
Court orders doctor to stop performing plastic surgery
DORAL, Fla. (AP) — A Florida court has ordered that a doctor stop performing plastic surgery after an Illinois woman’s death.

The Miami Herald reports Florida’s First District Court of Appeal ordered Monday that 44-year-old Osakatukei “Osak” Omulepu must also have a board-certified physician present for any other medical procedures until it rules on the state’s effort to stop him from practicing.

Miami-Dade County authorities say his patient, 30-year-old Lattia Baumeister, died June 1 of fat clots in her lung from liposuction and fat transfer surgery.

Omulepu’s attorney, Monica Rodriguez, says he offered to work under a board-certified plastic surgeon’s supervision in response to the court restricting his license.

Florida officials have tried three times since February 2016 to stop Omulepu from performing a self-declared specialty liposuction and fat transfer procedure.


Arkansas
4-year-old boy fatally shoots mom’s boyfriend
HELENA-WEST HELENA, Ark. (AP) — Police say a 4-year-old boy accidentally fatally shot his mother’s boyfriend in eastern Arkansas.

Police Chief James Smith said the boy found a loaded semi-automatic handgun outside his mother’s home in Helena-West Helena and shot Courtney Craig in the back on Friday. The 29-year-old man was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Police questioned the child’s mother, but she was not arrested. The boy is in the custody of a family member.

Police say three men, including the boy’s uncle, hid the firearm, fearing the boy could be charged or removed from the home by the state. Police recovered the weapon. The three men have been charged with tampering with evidence and two of them face additional weapons charges.

Nevada
Couple admits stealing $913K from company
LYNBROOK, N.Y. (AP) — A Las Vegas couple has admitted to embezzling more than $900,000 from a Long Island construction company.

The Nassau County District Attorney’s Office said Tuesday that 53-year-old Linda Minervini and 37-year-old Thomas Cacaci Jr. pleaded guilty in county court to second-degree grand larceny after prosecutors found they used stolen money to pay for a timeshare, cars and other personal items in Las Vegas.

The couple previously lived in Queens. Prosecutors say Minervini and Cacaci stole $913,000 from 2009 to 2015, when Minervini worked as a paralegal for the Lynbrook company.

Newsday reports Minervini’s attorney says she will serve whatever sentence is given, while Cacaci’s lawyer declined to comment.

The district attorney is calling for a sentence of 3 to 9 years in prison and restitution of the embezzled funds.

California
Terminally ill man arrested after plotting to kill 3 doctors
PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) — A terminally ill cancer patient has been arrested and charged with attempted murder after he traveled to the San Francisco Bay Area to kill three doctors who had treated him, authorities said Tuesday.

Yue Chen, who also planned to kill himself, was angry the doctors had treated him like a “laboratory monkey,” according to a suicide note found by police, the Mercury News reported.

The 58-year-old’s family reported him missing on May 31 and responding officers found evidence of the plot at his Visalia home. They then alerted the doctors and Bay Area officials.

Chen failed to find any of the doctors, got lost and may have been on his way back home when he was arrested in San Jose later that day by the California Highway Patrol, the Palo Alto Police Department said.

The names of the hospitals were redacted in the police report, but prosecutors said one of the doctors worked at UCSF Medical Center. Another UCSF physician and at least one Stanford Health Care doctor also were targeted, the report said.

Officials found two loaded handguns in his car as well as maps with directions to the doctors’ homes.

After his arrest, Chen told detectives he believes he was being used for research purposes.

“They only hurt me,” Chen reportedly told detectives. “They hurt me both hospitals. They really screw my life, or the doctors lie to me. Hospitals, they all cover for each other.”

Chen was charged in Santa Clara County with three felony counts of premeditated attempted murder.


New York
If he only had a driver: Tin Man charged with DWI
SULLIVAN, N.Y. (AP) — A man hired to portray the Tin Man in “Wizard of Oz” author L. Frank Baum’s upstate New York hometown was still in his character’s makeup when his mug shot was taken after a drunken driving arrest.

State police say troopers responded Sunday to a report of an intoxicated man on private property in the Madison County town of Sullivan, just east of Syracuse. The homeowner says a man had driven to the home with another person and was asked to leave.

Police say the 31-year-old driver Nicholas Sherman told troopers he had just left a business in the nearby village of Chittenango, where he was hired to portray the Tin Man character from
“The Wizard of Oz” during last weekend’s Oz-Stravaganza event.

Troopers say the man’s blood-alcohol content was 0.19 percent, more than twice the legal limit for driving while intoxicated. Court officials didn’t know if he has a lawyer.