Washington
Man sentenced to 16 years in beating death
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A federal judge on Monday ordered a King County man to serve 16 years in prison after he was convicted of beating and bludgeoning to death a Northern California woman who traveled to the Seattle area and was engaged in an intimate relationship with the married suspect.
Alejandro J. Aguilera Rojas, 25, of Renton, was sentenced to 200 months in prison after he was convicted of second-degree murder in the 2020 slaying of the 21-year-old woman, KOMO-TV reported.
Her body was found on Valentine’s Day in the Olympic National Forest. He pleaded guilty to the murder charge last December, prosecutors said. Aguilera Rojas was having a sexual relationship with the victim but was hiding it from his wife and family.
Aguilera Rojas picked up the woman at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Feb. 10, 2020. Her identity has not been publicly disclosed. The two traveled to Sequim, prosecutors said.
At some point, he attacked the woman, killing her by beating and stabbing her. A broken and bloody tequila bottle, box cutter, and knife were located near the victim’s body. There was no identification on the body.
Her body was found on Feb. 14 in the Olympic National Forest off of an arterial road in the Buckhorn Wilderness.
Texas
Death penalty sought for man who admitted killing 5 people
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Prosecutors in Texas said Monday that they will seek the death penalty for a man who authorities have said confessed to killing five people, including three whose dismembered bodies were found in a burning dumpster last year.
The Tarrant County district attorney’s office said they’ve filed the paperwork to seek the death penalty for Jason Thornburg, 41. He was arrested in September on a charge of capital murder in the deaths of David Lueras, 42, Lauren Phillips, 34, and Maricruz Mathis, 33. Their bodies were found in a burning dumpster in Fort Worth.
During an interview with police, Thornburg confessed to killing those three as well as his roommate and girlfriend, according to his arrest warrant.
Thornburg also faces a charge of murder in the death of his roommate, 61-year-old Mark Jewell. He was found dead in a house fire last May.
Tanya Begay, a Navajo woman from Gallup, New Mexico, went missing after taking a trip to Arizona with Thornburg in 2017.
In March, Thornburg was indicted by a grand jury on charges of first-degree murder, assault with intent to commit murder and assault resulting in serious bodily injury in the March 2017 slaying in the Navajo Nation of person listed as T.T.B., according to an indictment filed in U.S. district court for the district of Arizona.
Thornburg remained jailed in Fort Worth on over $1 million bond. His attorneys did not immediately return a message seeking comment on Monday.
Mississippi
Man pleads guilty to misusing pandemic relief business loan
STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi man pleaded guilty Monday to a federal wire fraud charge for misusing more than $6 million in business loans through a pandemic relief program, prosecutors said.
Rather than use the money for his businesses, Christopher Paul Lick admitted using it for personal investments in the stock market and buying a home valued at more than $1 million, according to a news release from Clay Joyner, the U.S. attorney for northern Mississippi.
Lick, 47, of Starkville, filed fraudulent loan applications to banks that were providing loans as part of the Paycheck Protection Program, according to court records.
The records show Lick owned and managed four companies, including Aspen River Candle Co., based in Columbus, Mississippi. Joyner said Lick admitted overstating the number of employees and payroll expenses to receive money.
Paycheck Protection Program loans were guaranteed by the Small Business Administration under the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.
“The CARES Act loan programs were intended to help small businesses and families struggling to survive during a difficult pandemic,” Joyner said. “Unfortunately, far too many individuals like the defendant abused these programs for their own personal benefit.”
Lick entered the guilty plea on the day he had once been scheduled to go on trial. He faces up to 30 years in prison, with sentencing set for Aug. 12 before Senior U.S. District Judge Glen Davidson.
Massachusetts
Father, son, convicted of drug charges, sent to prison
BOSTON (AP) — A father and his son have both been sent to prison for more than 12 years for their roles in a large-scale drug trafficking organization that distributed cocaine and opioids in New England, federal prosecutors in Massachusets said Monday.
Isaac Cardona, 34, and Rafael Cardona Sr., 61, both of Springfield, were indicted in November 2017 as part of a 14-month wiretap investigation, prosecutors said.
The Cardonas conspired with David Cruz to traffic cocaine and heroin from Mexico, through California, to the Springfield area, prosecutors said.
Isaac Cardona owed Cruz money for a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of cocaine, and, in order to pay that debt, the Cardonas and others conspired to import at least a kilogram of heroin — which turned out to be pure fentanyl — from Mexico, authorities said.
Isaac Cardona traveled to San Diego in August 2016 with cash to pay for the heroin. Cruz later traveled to San Diego, retrieved the car and the cash, and used the cash to purchase what he believed to be heroin. Police in California seized the vehicle and recovered the drugs.
Cruz previously pleaded guilty and awaits sentencing.
The Cardonas were convicted by a jury in October.
Missouri
Prosecutor seeks to vacate man’s conviction in mom’s death
POTOSI, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri prosecutor is seeking to vacate the conviction of a man who spent nearly two decades behind bars for the 1998 death of his mother — a crime he and others insist he did not commit.
Washington County Prosecuting Attorney Joshua Hedgecorth has asked a judge to set aside 38-year-old Michael Politte’s second-degree murder conviction, the Kansas City Star reported. Politte was released from prison last month, two months after he was granted parole.
Politte was just 14 when Rita Politte died in a fire at the family home in the eastern Missouri town of Hopewell. Michael and a friend were also in the home but managed to escape the blaze. Politte’s lawyers said the boys were awakened by smoke and scrambled to escape, before Politte found the burning body of his mother.
Investigators said the fire was started with gasoline and determined that Rita Politte had also suffered blunt force head trauma. The investigation focused on her teenage son as the main suspect, and four years later he was convicted as an adult and sentenced to life in prison.
The only physical evidence investigators had to link Michael Politte to the crime was what they said was the presence of gasoline on the teen’s shoes. But that finding was based on now-discredited fire investigation techniques, and the state has conceded there was no gasoline on his shoes.
His attorneys have said investigators ignored other potential suspects, including Politte’s father, who was going through a difficult divorce with Rita Politte when she was killed.
The Midwest Innocence Project and the MacArthur Justice Center, which both work to overturn wrongful convictions, have sought to exonerate Politte.
Florida
Former U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown to plead guilty in fraud case
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Former U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, whose initial conviction in a charity and tax fraud case was tossed out by an appeals court, will plead guilty before a second trial, according to court documents filed Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Corrigan scheduled a change of plea hearing Wednesday morning for Brown, a once-powerful Florida Democrat who had previously pleaded not guilty to 18 charges including mail and wire fraud, conspiracy and filing false tax returns.
Brown’s lawyers did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment. It was not clear which specific charges Brown would plead guilty to.
The second trial had been set to begin Sept. 12. Brown’s original 2017 conviction was thrown out by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals because Corrigan improperly removed a juror during deliberations who had said the “Holy Spirit” told him she was innocent.
Brown, 75, served about two years of a five-year sentence before her release in April 2020 because of fears her age made her more susceptible to the coronavirus pandemic in prison.
Before the fraud case, Brown represented the Jacksonville area in Congress for about 25 years. In 1992, after a state legislative career, she became one of the first three Black people elected to Congress from Florida since Reconstruction.
Prosecutors said she siphoned money from the One Door for Education Foundation for personal use. They said the pattern of fraud by Brown and her top aide included using hundreds of thousands of dollars from the foundation to pay for lavish parties, trips and shopping excursions.
Federal prosecutors said Brown, her chief of staff and One Door’s executive director used the charity to bring in more than $800,000 between 2012 and 2016, through donations and events including a high-profile golf tournament at TPC Sawgrass.
The Virginia-based One Door gave out only one scholarship, for $1,200, to an unidentified person in Florida, according to court documents.
Massachusetts
Boston man pleads guilty to 2013 stabbing death of wife
DEDHAM, Mass. (AP) — A Boston man has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the 2013 stabbing death of his ex-wife in her own home, prosecutors said.
Willie Foster, 56, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years on Monday in Norfolk Superior Court in the killing of Anita Clark, 46, in Stoughton.
It took more than nine years to resolve the case because Foster kept changing lawyers, according to a statement from Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey. He was represented by his fifth attorney at sentencing.
“The family expressed that the repeated postponements in this case were manifestly unfair to them, and I cannot disagree,” Morrissey said. Judges over the years allowed Foster to fire his attorneys after trial dates had already been set, then allowed new attorneys the time necessary to prepare for the case.
Police went to Clark’s home on May 4, 2013, for a wellbeing check when she did not show up for work, and found her body inside a bedroom closet, prosecutors said. There were signs of a struggle in the bedroom. Investigators determined that Foster was a suspect and he was arrested two days later.
